The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

Today I finished the right hand figure entirely. The glove was kind of bugging me yesterday so I tweaked that a little bit and I did the backpack. Tomorrow I won’t have time to paint, but I will pick this back up and work on the central figure on Tuesday and Wednesday and finish it on Saturday and Sunday.

I didn’t exercise today. It seems okay to take one day off a week so long as I am doing it the other 6 days. That’s still a lot of exercise. We’ll see how my anxiety levels are today, if they are high, I’ll try for 7 days a week next week.

I started knitting 13 years ago but it was when I was living in New Zealand and I didn’t have any friends who were crafting things with me, so I sort of lost interest in it. It seemed fun when I was visiting home for a few months and my Portland friends were doing crochet at the same time, but when I returned to New Zealand it just seemed kind of lonely doing it all on my own. I don’t have any inclination to pick it back up again as all my supplies were thrown out when we moved from New Zealand back to the USA. I’d have to buy everything all over again.

Here’s what I wanted to achieve this week with an update on what I did do:

1. Cook at home 6 nights (we are having game night on Saturday so we’ll order pizza that night) – I cooked at home 4 nights, I’ll work on doing better at this next week
2. Paint 4 times next week and make progress on my new painting. Finish the right hand figure. – Achieved, I painted three times during the week and also on Saturday and Sunday.
3. Get to to chapter 22 of Dust (around 2 chapters a day) – I only made it 4 chapters this week, I’m going to do better on this intention next week 
4. Do aerobic exercise four times this week for at least 20 minutes a day (running or elliptical). Try to get a 4 mile run in if the weather permitts. – Achieved. I ran 4 days this week and got a 4 mile run in.
5. Strength train twice this week for 30 minutes each session (adding 5 minutes to my training because I now feel good at 23 minutes and need to push myself further) – Achieved and I added 10 minutes, not 5 because Apple didn’t have 15 minute options for workout videos, and I had to go up to 20 minutes from the 10 I was doing last week. I also do 13 minutes of crunches and leg lifts after I do the workout video so it comes to 33 minutes of working out including stretching.
6. Take the dog on a walk on days weather permitts – Achieved. I walked the dog 5 times this week.
7. Meditate every day for 9 minutes (63 minutes total) – Achieved. I meditated 5 of the days, but for 18 minutes a day not 9 so I got the 63 minutes in.
8. Eat an average of 1800 calories a day throughout the week. Avoid sweets and avoid UPF whenever possible. Practice intermittent fasting every day. – I ate 2081 calories a day on average this week. I’ll work on doing better at that one next week. I did not have any sweets this week, I had minimal UPF most days, and I intermittent fasted 6 of the days.
9. Go on Instagram every day (2x days of commenting on other’s art, 4x days of favoriting other people’s art, 1x day of posting my own art, add 7 new people) – Achieved, I went on every day this week, found some new artists to follow, posted my work, and commented on other artist’s work.
10. Apply for work on Monday and Wednesday – Achieved, I looked both days but there wasn’t anything new to apply to this week

What I want to achieve next week:

1. Cook at home 5 nights (we are going out for Valentine’s Day and going out on Sunday with my Uncle and Aunt).
2. Paint at least 4 times next week and make progress on my new painting. Finish the boy between the two figures.
3. Get to to chapter 26 of Dust (around 2 chapters a day). I really want to work hard on achieving this goal because I did poorly on it last week.
4. Do aerobic exercise four times this week for at least 20 minutes a day (running or elliptical). Try to get a 4 mile run in if the weather permitts.
5. Strength train twice this week for 66 minutes total.
6. Take the dog on a walk on days weather permitts
7. Meditate every day for 9 minutes (63 minutes total)
8. Eat an average of 1800 calories a day throughout the week. Avoid sweets as much as possible (I will have a dessert on Valentine’s Day) and avoid ultra-processed food whenever possible. Practice intermittent fasting every day. I really want to work hard on the calorie goal because I wasn’t the best at that last week.
9. Go on Instagram every day (2x days of commenting on other’s art, 4x days of favoriting other people’s art, 1x day of posting my own art, follow 7 new artists)
10. Apply for work on Monday and Wednesday