Setting Summer Intentions

A week ago, I would be getting ready for graduation.  We planned to leave at 11:30, which we did, and it was a good thing, because there wasn't much parking left at the Cathedral when we pulled into the parking garage.

This morning, as I was thinking about that, I was also thinking about the upcoming summer, about how one week has already slipped away.  I want to set up some good practices so that I end the summer not having frittered it all away.  I am thinking about using a sketchbook as a journal to record calorie counts, exercise, writing, and to make a daily sketch or a daily observation.  I recently came across one that I kept in the past, one that I had forgotten that I kept.  It was interesting to thumb through it again, the vague memories becoming sharper.

I want to see if keeping a daily journal might help me be more accountable.  Will I write more?  Will I make healthier food and drink choices?  Can I get back to a habit of quick sketches?

Of course, the disadvantage is that I end up with another notebook to store.  The advantage to journaling electronically is that I don't have boxes and boxes of journals.  But I am sure that I don't write as often, because I need to have the laptop up.  It's easier to have a sketchbook on my lap than the laptop if my spouse and I are watching TV.

I also have new New Year's intentions on the brain, which are still my intentions, which I can still do, if I get back to consistency:

--20 days of strength training each month, which I am interpreting loosely:  squats would be strength training, as would weight lifting, as would leg lifts

--having 52 publishable poems at the end of the year, not just an assortment of rough drafts

--getting better at sketching the human form, particularly faces, hands, and feet.

I am going to add one more intention, at least for the summer:

--keeping track of calories consumed, with a goal of 1200 to 1500 calories a day; I'm not going to count fruit, vegetable, and bean calories, in the hopes that I will eat more of them if they don't count towards the total.  I'd like to drop some of the weight I gained since 2020.  I plan to drink less.  Tracking it all will keep me accountable.