2021 Resolutions Revisited

It’ that time of year again when I revisit the new years resolutions and see how I fared. Let’s dive in:

Health:

After the fiasco I had with the Dutch Health system, I finally managed to go to Turkey when the pandemic slowed down and allowed travel. The hand specialist I visited told me that a surgery wouldn’t help me and the best I can do is to learn to live with my hyper-lax joints and a slightly damaged right wrist. It was tough to digest but life goes on.

I managed to keep alcohol off on weekdays. I have to admit this wasn’t always the case but I was more cognizant of my alcohol consumption and mostly managed to enjoy it on the weekends. I want to go even stricter this coming year but that’s for the 2022 resolutions post.

Even though I made more exceptions to my diet this year, it is now safe to say that a paleo(ish) diet is now part of my life style and is here to stay. Fasts are also part of this life style. I intermittent fasted almost every day and had 2 to 5 day fasts every 2-3 months. Cold showers were also a success. No sauna unfortunately given the ongoing pandemic and restrictions.

Sleep:

I have to admit defeat on this one. Except for a couple tries that lasted for a few weeks, I couldn’t settle into a sleep pattern where I go to bed early and wake up early and spend the mornings for personal activities/hobbies. A small victory in this lost battle is that I don’t bring my phone to my bedroom at nights. I’ll take this small win and try to build on it next year.

Calisthenics:

This was a failure beyond me. It turned out my wrist condition was a manifestation of a bigger underlying problem - super lax joints. So long walks, leg exercises are all bad for my other joints. Swimming is the only exercise I can do and I did try to swim 2-3 times a week but couldn’t follow through. The Dutch weather is not the most inviting when it comes to swimming but no excuses.

Blog

Huge failure. I never write blog posts. I think i have to admit I wanted to write about things I thought I should be writing not what I want to write. And things almost always fail when your heart is not in them. Next year I will try to spend more time to see what I really enjoy sharing. If I don’t find it, I am happy with this blog turning into a space where I put down some guiding direction for my life and habbits once a year and keep myself accountable on those.

Readings

Fiction plans failed again. I did keep up with Causal Inference literature for the most part. Got myself a great job where I can apply my knowledge on causal inference which was really just amazing! So let’s end on this happy note!