The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

So the past two days I did a drawing and a poem. Been working on my creative practice every morning at 6:15am sharp. The poem goes with the drawing. I’ve decided to pair my medical drawings with my poems. Eventually it will culminate in a second book, but that is far down the line. Still have to edit and publish my first book which I plan to work towards once a week because editing is a slog and I can only bring myself to do it in little chunks of time. I’m about halfway done.

I would call my husband immediately or text him if I couldn’t get ahold of him. He’s the first point of contact when something good happens and visa versa.

Here’s an update on my New Year’s resolutions:

So this weekend I fell away a little bit from my one meal a day goal, but it’s been easy to get back to it today since it’s pretty much a habit now, so though I miss days occasionally, it isn’t hard to get back to it. There was just a lot of food in the house this weekend and it tempted me away from my fasting. I did not go overboard though, and only had small portions. Overall my calorie count wasn’t above normal and my average for the week was 1500 a day which is exactly where I want to be.

I exercised every single day last week and continued that pattern this morning when I did strength training. Did that twice last week and ran for 2 miles the rest of the days. I’m getting used to strength training and it’s a nice change of pace from running and offers some variety throughout the week. I’m also trying to mix up my running routes so I don’t get bored doing the same one. So far exercise has been difficult to motivate myself to do still. It’s easier some days and harder others. Really hard others. But I’m pushing myself to do it every single day because it has such a huge impact on my general anxiety and energy levels. I feel better physically and mentally if I get a 20 minute strenuous workout in. I also walk the dog for 15 minutes, but that is more for mindfulness and the dog, and I go at a very slow pace with lots of stopping to let the dog smell things. Not exactly high impact, so I don’t really count it as part of my exercise routine.

So far my new goal of doing social media every day has stuck. I’ve been using Instagram and adding lots of artists each day and sharing my work. It’s not easy to do, I resist doing it strongly, but I’m on day 4 so far of doing it every day.

I’ve been doing my creative practice for 6 days without a break. It’s been really good to distract me from the maddeningly slow process of losing weight. Gives my life more meaning beyond food and working out, which is all I focussed on in January. I feel really inspired to be doing creative work again. I think I just needed a break after the intensive three months I had of doing all the illustrations for my first book. October and December were especially demanding. So it was good to take January off, but I’m back into it and feeling good about what I’m doing so far.

So that’s about where I’m at with my New Year’s resolutions. Slowly working on forming habits. I have number counters marking the passing days on my bulletin board and I’m trying to make it 99 days with each resolution because I figure by that point I will have formed a strong habit. I reward myself each day with a dollar or two for each resolution fulfilled. Been setting the money aside for when we go to Vegas. I’ll do something really fun with it there. Not gambling though, I don’t gamble. Whatever’s leftover after Vegas will go towards my Christmas present, probably some art supplies or maybe some new clothing when I have stopped losing weight (this isn’t a diet I am going to change, it’s permanent, so wherever I end up I’ll just have to be happy with). No point buying clothing until I reach a final weight that I maintain for an extended period of time. I’ll give it three months of being the same weight before I go buy any new clothing.