Tink

...how 43T’s latest new feature works, the only way to prevent indiscriminate sharing of my goals (and presumably the related entries, comments, and photos) is to make sure every goal contains either a vulgarity (e.g., goddamn – because apparently “damn” alone isn’t strong enough – or ass) or the number 43.

I can’t claim to understand the Robots’ reasoning in adding this feature, but it’s their site, so it’s their right.

I’m certainly grateful that there’s a way to opt out. (Sadly, I understand that until the new feature was tweaked thusly, a number of active 43Ters chose to delete their accounts rather than risk having sensitive goals and entries exposed inappropriately.) But the workaround sure seems kludge-y, to say nothing of how counterproductive it is in creating community: whereas my original goals (e.g., “Get rid of all my clutter”) were also listed by other people, and we could easily see and comment on each other’s entries, each of the reworded goals is mine alone.

Sigh.

...or, then again, maybe not. We’ll see.

After a sedentary autumn (due to illness), I want to focus my January energy on beginning to build my activity levels back up to where I was last summer – and eventually beyond.

For winter cardio, I have my walking video and the great little 10-minute exercise videos on sparkpeople.com. I can also just dance around my living room whenever the spirit moves me. (And if Santa’s good to me, I may even have a Dancing with the Stars exercise video featuring the delicious Maksim. Mmmmmotivation City!)

For strength training, I can do the little routine I cobbled together on SP (which doesn’t hurt my knees). And I recently bought an exercise ball and a proper resistance-band kit, so I can vary those exercises to prevent boredom.

Being the Queen of the Mini-Goals, I plan to start very _{very very} slowly so that I can give myself some small victories right away (as well as avoiding injury/exhaustion from overdoing things).

• Log at least one (and no more than two) cardio session(s): minimum 10 minutes, maximum 10 minutes for high-intensity activities and 15 minutes for cardio-level walking
• Log at least one (and no more than two, with at least one day off in between) strength session, using last summer’s routine and trying for 10 reps of each exercise (which takes about 20 minutes, if I recall correctly)
• Blow up and admire exercise ball
• Look up 10 strength exercises I can do with my new equipment
• Create a 10-song exercise playlist

• Log at least two (and no more than three) cardio sessions (maximum 30 minutes at a time of walking or 10-15 minutes of higher-intensity activity – e.g., kickboxing)
• Try at least 5 of the 10 new strength exercises I learned last week, during at least two (and no more than three, with at least one day off after each) strength sessions

• Log cardio minutes on at least 10 days (aim: at least 60 minutes per week)
• Log 6 more strength-training sessions (maximum every 2 days, 20 to 30 minutes each), during which I try the other 5 new strength exercises

• Go to at least one of the three local contra dances scheduled for January 9, 23, and 30, and dance at least 3 dances (each of which lasts 10 or more minutes, at a pace roughly that of a fast walk), sitting out at least one dance after each

...went to the mightier-than-grief, magnificently kind-hearted Wren, for her entry Becca is in love under her goal Welcome a new dog into our home.

(Could that photo be any cuter?)