Goals for July

After my complete failure over my June goals I'm scaling back considerably.  How about a balance between self-goals, and some around-the-house goals?

Goal #1 - I happened upon the Fast Diet while perusing the PBS shop.  I decided to do some Googling to see what others had to say about it.  Interesting ... the idea is to fast 2-3 times a week, but never back-to-back.  For instance, you might fast Monday and Thursday (or in my case, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  On your fasting days you eat 500-600 per day.  The other days you eat normally - to figure out what "normal" is for you use the on-line calculator to figure out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).  I'm on a fasting day today.  Since I've decided to jump start my diet with three days of fasting each week I've allowed myself 600 calories a day on my fasting days.  On my non-fasting days I'll incorporate exercising to up the calorie expenditure.  Between fasting and exercising I'm hoping to lose 1-2 pounds per week.  My Fast Diet experiment will be a self-goal.

Goal #2 - To finish two books I've been reading for a few weeks.  Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw is a great read.  I'm thoroughly enjoying it.  I love reading his views on food and the food industry.  Joel Bakan's Childhood Under Siege is a real eye-opener.  This book exposes how Big Business is targeting our children - making addicts and over-consummators out of them before they even start school.  It's making me really understand TV, video, electronic games, and toys.  I'm thinking hard when I let Walter use/watch them and talking to him on an ongoing basis so he can understand what Big Business is trying to do to him.  I don't expect him to fully understand immediately - it'll be an on-going process - but I think it's an important life lesson.  So another self-goal.

Goal #3 - The cute curtains I sewed for Walter when we lived in the townhouse just aren't cutting it anymore.  First, they are a little too narrow for his current bedroom.  Second, being predominantly yellow, they are letting in too much light.  This might be OK in the winter when it gets dark early, but right now in the peak of summer the long days are creating havoc on bedtime routines (who wants to go to bed when it's still light out, right?!).  I told him I wanted to make new curtains for his bedroom.  He immediately said he wanted frog curtains.  I'm sure I can find something.  If I can't get thick enough fabric, I can back the material to create enough thickness to create a darker window covering.  I'll also do some research to understand the principles of black-out curtains.  This is an around-the-house goal.

Goal #4 (how did I manage to get 4 goals???) - It's the height of fresh fruit and vegetables.  I'm going to do some canning.  Right now we have some cherries that don't have much time left on them ... cherries are notorious for going bad quickly.  I have two ideas for this:  1. Cherry Jam, and 2. Cherries in Light Syrup.  I'd also like to try canning tomatoes - sauce, salsa, and crushed.  This is another around-the-house goal.

To Start - Since I have some cherries in the house I'm going to start with Cherry Jam to try to get one goal checked off right away.  Tomorrow I'll shop for material for the curtains.