The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

Today I worked on the mask and head of the figure in my PPE painting. The glove is still bugging me but hopefully I can think of what to do about it while I finish the rest of the painting. This isn’t my favorite piece I’ve ever done by any means, but it’s coming along at least. I’m painting and that’s what counts. My intention for next week is to work on this painting four of the days.

I lost two pounds over the past week. That’s pretty good. Two down, 25 to go. Intermittent fasting has been working out pretty well and I haven’t had a dessert since December 27th. This next week I’m going to re-introduce running. Three 2 mile runs and a 4 mile run on Saturday. Once I keep up with the fasting and running for two weeks, then I will introduce strength training. I’ll do that once a week for two weeks then twice a week after that. In February I’ll start doing longer runs and training for the half marathon in April (which I have signed up for and paid for so I’m locked into doing it now). I’m slowly working towards my New Year’s resolutions. I can’t do it all at once and be some kind of perfect being immediately, but I can’t introduce new habits slowly but surely.

I’ve been making ham, cheddar, and corn muffins on the weekends as a treat for my husband. He doesn’t much like sweets and prefers savoury foods. That’s good for me because I’m avoiding desserts and it’s not hard for him to not have sweets in the house. The ham muffins are a treat for both of us as a tasty, no sugar added, breakfast. Because they are home baked they don’t have any ultra-processed ingredients. I’m not low carb, gluten-free, keto or anything like that so I don’t mind flour and it doesn’t affect my mood at all.

I think about both equally. Sometimes I daydream about the past and what I could have done differently with my life, sometimes I think about the future and what I’m worried about and my plans for it. Mostly I’m stuck in the present with my anxiety and it generally has to do with what I’m putting off doing right now.