2021 was better than 2020. People who say otherwise don't remember the mass panic that came with the first wave of COVID. This year we knew how it spread, we knew how to test for it, and vaccines were made much easier to access (although global distribution is still a huge problem). The aliens and murder hornets were more chill this year, although they're still around. Derek Chauvin, the guy who murdered George Floyd and acted as a catalyst for widespread social upheaval, was sentenced guilty for murder. Trump's out of office and things seem to be a bit quieter South of the border. We didn't get another mass shooting in Canada. Things have been alright, for the most part.
Granted, we did get a few more COVID waves and it's mutated into apparently 12 additional strains. I think there were... three variants by the end of 2020? Back then they were called the UK, Brazil, and South Africa variants, and they were later labeled as Alpha, Beta, and Gamma to avoid stigmatizing countries. This year we got Delta, which proved far more transmissible than the previous three, and recently Omicron, which is way more transmissible than Delta.
The overthrowing of the Capitol Building in the US happened early 2021.
Canada had its share of social unrest with the discovery of the unreported remains of thousands of Indigenous children under former residential schools.
Israel bombed Palestine, including a major news outlet. The US pulled out of Afghanistan after a 20-year war following 9/11, culminating in Afghanistan's acting government being overthrown, unable to defend itself without US support.
Ok, so 2021 wasn't better for everyone.
In my personal life I appreciated a good degree of success. I got engaged (just recently and it's the first time I'm mentioning it on here, so don't feel bad for not remembering), I went permanent full-time in my career, I was accepted back into University and completed my first course since returning, and we got another cat, Finnegan.
Now let's check in on my New Year's Resolutions for 2021 and see if I lived up to them.
For 2021 I resolved to update my blog 50 times, which was up from 2020's resolution to update 40 times. In 2020 I made 45 updates to this blog, 5 on Gryphood, and 3 on Gryphon's Gallery, totaling 53. In 2021 I posted on this blog 34 times, which is the all time low, beneath the previous record low of 37 in 2019. But I updated Gryphood 14 times, Gryphon's Gallery 3 times, and Gryphon's Reviews 3 times. So the total post count is 54, one up from 2020.
Gryphood posts were: blueberry tarts, frybread, banana bread, scalloped potatoes, hummus, taco dip, curry, broccoli cheddar soup, loaded baked potato soup, empanadas, cheesecake, hamburger soup, mac & cheese, and fried rice
Gallery posts:
For my review blog, I did two book reviews: The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchet, and Glittering Images by Susan Howatch, and I did a review of the Canadian-Korean sitcom Kim's Convenience. Partway through the year I wanted to commit to doing a review for everything I read. I didn't manage that, but I also didn't resolve it, so I didn't fail. I'll resolve it this year though.
I'll resolve to make a total blog update count of 55 in 2022, so that I'll have gone up by one each year over three years. I'm off to a good start, since I updated Gryphood twice yesterday (spinach artichoke dip and yellow coconut curry)
Gryphon's Gallery (gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com)
Gryphon's Reviews (gryphonsreviews.blogspot.com)
So last year I resolved to walk an average of at least 25 km weekly. I didn't keep track of it throughout January but started documenting in February. Since I've been recording it, my weekly average has been... 33.3. That's a fun number. I think I'll increase last year's goal by 5 and resolve to walk an average of 30 km or more weekly next year. Part of me wants to be more aspirational and increase it to 35 since I was so close to that, but nah. Moving the baseline goal is good enough for next year, I think.
During the colder times of the year, which were also when my work was generally being done remotely, you can see me barely squeaking out 25 km a bunch. But when I was going into work in person, walking to and from the office, the average is significantly higher. For a little while I was running a park group, during which I had my highest numbers.
We don't know what COVID will look like in 2022, whether or not there will be stay-at-home orders, whether or not I'll be working remotely, if I'll be running a park group again, so 30 km weekly is good enough.
Last year I resolved to start a body weight workout routine in June... and throughout the entire year I never did a single pushup. I completely flubbed this one.
In my defense, I did have a net positive in terms of physical health. I lost about 30 pounds. I don't know what my weight was like at its worst, because there was a time when I was afraid to step on the scale, but I lost 30 pounds from my highest recorded weight. So I probably lost more than 30, but I gained a bit back this winter, so let's just call it 30.
I'm down two shirt sizes and I'm wearing pants that are 6 inches smaller at the waist. Granted, I think I was buying pants that were overly large in anticipation of weight gain, so I don't think I was ever as large as my largest pair of pants. But it's nice to be anticipating weight loss instead of gain.
I don't really know how I lost the weight. I don't think I walked it all off, I still haven't met my pre-pandemic walking average, and I was heavier then. My family has a weird pattern of struggling with obesity and then recovering from it without really knowing why. My biggest lifestyle change was moving in with Lee-Anne. I think my ADHD factored into my weight gain. I'd get distracted thinking about other things and forget to eat until evening, at which point I could ONLY think about eating, and then I'd binge, usually on convenience food that I didn't enjoy but which was easy to access.
Having Lee-Anne around, saying things like "Have you had breakfast?" and "What are we having for dinner?" has just been a consistent reminder to do the basic things that keep a human body functioning. I think the idea of obesity being for gluttonous food enthusiasts stopped me from figuring out the issue sooner. I kept trying to suppress an appetite that wasn't there, because my problem wasn't a love of food, it was an ambivalence to it. Ironically, doing my food blog, exploring new recipes to encourage a love of food has kept the weight off.
Plus, the term "big guy" used for tall, broad-shouldered individuals such as myself slowly phasing from a compliment to an insult, being used for both tough and fat people alike, has played an interesting role in my psychology surrounding weight, which I could probably do an entire post on.
I won't dodge around the fact that I failed the exercise goal though. Maybe I put the start date too far in the future. This time, I'll resolve to develop a twice-weekly workout routine in January and implement it in February. Lee-Anne says she'll make a joint resolution on this, so maybe that will help.
Last year I resolved to have one meat-free day per week by the end of the year. Didn't manage this one. We did it a handful of times but it didn't turn into a routine.
Of all my goals, I sort of have the least confidence in my ability to accomplish this one. I frequently commit to eating less meat, and I regularly fail. This one, along with the exercise routine, seems easy when resolving it, but tends to be more difficult than anticipated. Oh well, I'll resolve to do it anyway.
Last year I resolved to read six non-work related books. I missed this by a HAIR. I was on my last book and I was primed to squeak out a success, but on December 27, I learned of the unexpected and untimely death of someone I used to serve, which happened under tragic circumstance, and which I was... kind of connected to. I know that's a cryptic way of putting it, but I don't think it would be right to further elaborate here. Anyway, the book I was reading was about death, and this news just totally took away my motivation to read about it.
I'll resolve to read another six books in 2022. That seemed about right. And I'll review each one.
My final resolution for 2021 was to update my dream journal more. I got kind of halfway with this. I do have a collection of dreams, and have been keeping a journal next to my bed, but I updated pretty irregularly and I don't think it increased the frequency of me remembering my dreams. I think it's because on weekdays I usually hit the snooze button twice before getting up. When I first wake up, I remember my dream, but after snoozing, I forget it and usually don't get a second. The right resolution here would be to stop hitting the snooze button, but that sounds painful.
I want to add a resolution. Right now I've got seven blank canvasses. I want to put a painting on each one before the end of 2022.
So my final list of resolutions are:
- Make 55 total blog posts (between this one and my satellite blogs)
- Walk 30 km average, weekly
- Start twice-weekly body weight workout routine
- Have one meat-free day per week
- Read six non-work related books and post reviews to my blog for each
- Update my dream journal and be less reliant on the snooze button
- Do seven paintings (use up my canvasses)
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