Tag: goals

My Goodreads Challenge 2023 Recap

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On StorytellingLeave a comment

Around this time of year, I usually do a bunch of recaps on my goals, my website stats, or my book publishing strategy for the upcoming year. I’m not doing any of that this year, because I like my monthly goal recaps, my website stats are underwhelming and not a key focus for me, and I’m still figuring out my next steps for publishing, as opposed to just writing.

One thing I am pretty stoked about from 2023, however, is my Goodreads reading challenge, in which I achieved my goal of 26 books read for 2023.

The Highlights

I’m not going to list each and every book; you can check out the detail above or on my Goodreads profile if you like. But it’s fund to look at my reading trend/mood for the last year.

I read…

22 fiction books, including…

  • 6 novels from The Last Kingdom series, which I finished in 2023
  • 4 collections of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories
  • 1 finale to The Wheel of Time
  • 5 other fantasy stories
  • 4 thrillers
  • 2 character dramas

4 nonfiction books, including…

  • 2 history books, usually a staple of my reading list
  • 1 parenting book
  • 1 book about writing

I didn’t really read any sci fi this year, but I did read a lot of historical fiction, as opposed to fantasy or just straight history. I’d like to continue reading historical fiction this year; the challenge is finding the books with the right balance of historical basis, fictionalization, and overall storytelling.

Anyway, I like that spread, but will probably try to read a bit more nonfiction and sci-fi this year, just to diversify a bit more. I’m also not sure whether or which type of super-epic fiction series I might get into this year. I haven’t yet identified a series that might dominate my reading list across the year, but we’ll see, of course.

Steve D

January Write Day: Continue Down the Path

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

December was crazy, as should have been expected. We had a great holiday season, even if it was busier than we intended. I’m also coming into January busier than intended – new hire at work, new class starting this week, new projects to work on at home…

It already feels like a lot, so I’m just trying to stay focused on what’s in front of me each day.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise at least every other day and go to the gym more than once per week.
  3. Finish current round of revisions for New Earth.
  4. Create character sheets with physical descriptions/clothes for main characters.
  5. Outline New Earth for chapter structure.

Ahhhh, the optimism of a new month. Let’s get this over with.

Read three books?

I finished one book and made some headway on two others. We had busy weekends leading up to the holidays, and I generally don’t bore my family with my audiobook choices in the car, unless they’re all asleep.

I’ve taken an unintended hiatus from Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I’m enjoying the story, and it feels like it’s really moving now after several chapters of… prelude? It’s just an incredibly heavy book, in tone, style, content, and detail. This is not the type of book I can zone out for, so I’m only inclined to listen to it when I can really focus.

I still managed to achieve my GoodReads challenge of reading 26 books, and I feel like I can do more. I’m aiming for 30 in 2024. I’ll also do a recap of my GoodReads list for 2023 this month.

Exercise and go to the gym?

Not really. A little bit. I only went to the gym once, and I did just enough yoga at home to not feel like total crap. The holiday season has always been tough for me maintaining an exercise routine, because of travel, and because of my desire to be lazy and cozy at home.

Finish current revisions?

Not quite. I had a little bit more to complete in New Earth than I had anticipated, and I was also lazy in December. I’m nearly done, though, and I’m still really enjoying the way this story has turned out. More revision phases will be needed, but it’s coming together.

Create character sheets?

In a way. Rather than creating individual documents or sections for each character, I used an existing reference. I had laid out a basic family tree for the clan at the center of my story in a spreadsheet. Each character’s role in the clan is absolutely a part of their characters, so it made sense to use that format as the basis for character sheets. Each character has their own cell in the spreadsheet, so I just added a note to each cell. The information is readily accessible, but it doesn’t take a lot of time for me to sift through.

I created the character sheet template for each character and filled out the details I knew offhand. What I now need to do is find references to other character details in my stories, record them in the character notes, and then do another round of revisions for those (and other) details across both stories.

Outline New Earth for chapter structure?

Nope. I’ll aim to do this after I finish this round of revisions.

Goals for January

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise at least every other day and get back to the gym.
  3. Finish current round of revisions for New Earth.
  4. Outline New Earth for chapter structure.
  5. Begin revisions based on character notes.

So pretty similar to last month, but I still feel alright with where I’m at. Work in progress, as always.

Steve D

December Write Day: Finishing Slightly Stronger

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On PublishingLeave a comment

November was a long month, and only partially in a good way. Obviously, the start of the holidays and the chance to see some family was great. It was also very busy for me at work, which took a lot of the mental capacity I might have otherwise had to do things I’d like to do at home. Also, our entire family has been sick to some degree over the last three or four weeks.

So, as you may have been able to tell by the extra haiku I posted in November, rather than writing full posts, some of my goals went less than well.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise every day and go to the gym twice per week.
  3. Write long-form at least 10 days.

Read three books?

Nope. I’ve finished one book and made progress on two others. I started listening to Black leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James on Audible, and it’s taking me longer to get into than I anticipated. I’m on chapter five, and I feel like I’m just beginning to understand what this story is actually like. I’m definitely going to continue reading it. It’s just taking me a bit longer to sink my teeth into.

I’ll probably end up picking away at other books during December in between chapters, just to stay on top of my reading goal. I need to finish one more book in December to meet my Goodreads goal of reading 26 books this year. I’m going to go out on a limb and say I will not finish Black leopard, Red Wolf this month, so I’ll finish something else to hit that mark.

Set my exercise/gym routine?

Also no. Again, busy month, and then getting sick did little to help my gym efforts. I feel like I’ve mostly been drained on energy the last few weeks, and I’m just now starting to feel normal again. I’m back on a more regular exercise routine now, but it’s been mostly yoga. I’m hoping to get back to the gym this week.

Write long-form at least 10 days?

No, and honestly, this goal was partially hurt by me not having the time/energy to write long-form blogs for a couple weeks. I definitely didn’t spend enough time revising New Earth, but I also just didn’t spend enough time writing or reading period in November.

I’m now nearly finished with this round of revisions for New Earth, and I’d like to have more specific goals for my revisions going forward. I’ll expand on that next.

Goals for December

  1. Read three books. Probably in the form of shorter novels.
  2. Exercise at least every other day and go to the gym more than once per week. I’m backing off last month’s goal a bit just to give myself some space during the holidays. Note that I’m saying go to the gym more than once per week. This basically means I want to average more than one gym trip per week. If it ends up only being six total, that’s still a win.
  3. Finish current round of revisions for New Earth. This should be doable, since I only have 15 pages or so to go.
  4. Create character sheets with physical descriptions/clothes for main characters. This applies to both Uprooted and New Earth, which effectively have the same primary characters. I’ve tried to incorporate this tuff organically in my revisions, but I don’t want it to feel forced, and I don’t want it to be inconsistent. So I’m going to create character sheets based on what I have so far, expand on them, and then use those to inform how I describe these characters throughout both stories.
  5. Outline New Earth for chapter structure. This is something I did with Uprooted that helped me understand the overall plot flow better, and restructure chapters in ways that made sense for the story. I’ll do the same with New Earth.

Note that I’m not focused on writing a certain number of days this month. I have specific tasks I want to achieve, and everything else is bonus. It may be that this is still too much for me to achieve in one month, but it’s just a different tack. We’ll see how it goes.

Steve D

November Write Day: Autumn Swing

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

After a warm spell in Maryland, autumn returned just in time for Halloween, and we were able to really celebrate for the first time with our kids. Our new street put on an impressive display of Halloween decorations, and we joined in the fun. I also got to take the boys trick-or-treating for real for the first time. Our previous neighborhood never had many trick-or-treaters, and both boys were likely too young to really get into it. At five and two, they were excited to get candy, and we saw plenty of other families out and about.

October was a very strange month, but we had some fun at the Renaissance Festival, saw some family, and bought some much-needed furniture for our house.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise every day.
  3. Write long-form at least 10 days.

Read three books?

Nope, and right after I said this was automatic for me. I finished one book in October, and I’ve made good progress on another. I decided to read another nonfiction book, and these always go more slowly for me. So, I definitely need to make more progress on my two current nonfiction reads:

I’m enjoying both books, I just tend to read/listen to them in smaller snatches, and it takes a bit more of my focus to follow along.

I’ll likely pick up at least one fiction story in November, although I haven’t decided whether I’m going to start another ambitious series yet.

Exercise every day?

More or less. My yoga flow made it fairly easy to exercise most days. I also finally signed up for a membership with the gym five minutes up the road. In two-plus weeks, I’ve gone three times, which isn’t bad. I’m currently aiming to go to the gym twice per week until I figure out my routine a bit more. What I know is that I want yoga to remain a part of my routine week in and week out, especially as a way to spell weight-lifting or more intense workouts.

Write long-form at least 10 days?

Nine days! I was so close, but we’ve had some busy weekends. I feel like I’ve made some good progress on my current work-in-progress, and I feel less stressed about what comes next. After deciding not too worry too much about Publishing and Marketing (capitals intended) my fantasy duology, I’m able to just focus on the revisions.

The good news is that, halfway through revising the second of these two novellas, I really like both stories. They need some work, but I’m enjoying re-reading them.

Goals for November

  1. Read three books. I should be able to do this once I’ve figured out my next reads.
  2. Exercise every day and go to the gym twice per week. I’m forming a loose routine at the gym, knowing that I’ll eventually need to go three or four times per week to make it impactful. For now, I just want to get back in the habit of going after a four-year hiatus.
  3. Write long-form at least 10 days. Again, this includes long-form blogs and my revisions, or anything else I end up writing that is not a haiku. I feel good about making this goal this month, and I’m not concerned with trying to increase it, what with Thanksgiving around the corner.

Steve D

October Write Day: Steps

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

September was interesting. We spent a weekend at the beach, and both of our boys got their feet wet in the ocean for the first time. Work has been nuts for a variety of reasons, topped off by my best team member and good friend leaving for a new position. And we sold our old house!

It took me way too long to remember everything we did last month.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise every day.
  3. Write long-form at least every other day.

Read three books?

Yes! I read three books in September by powering through the remaining three installments of The Last Kingdom series. I should have posted my review of the final book last week, but totally missed my regular post. I did not finish my current nonfiction read, but I’m picking away at it.

I’m on the lookout for my next big series, but I’m content to pick away at my current to-be-read list for the time being.

Exercise every day?

No, but I think I’ve still improved my routine. I haven’t yet gotten a new gym membership, so to ensure that I can do something each day, I’ve just started building my own yoga routine. It’s basically a full-body flow that takes me about 10 minutes, for now. I’m slowly building on it, adding moves as I see fit.

Because it’s my own routine, it’s really easy for me to just step away from desk for a few minutes and work through the flow a couple times. Once I get a gym membership, my plan is to use this yoga flow on my off days, just to stay loose.

Write long-form every other day?

No. I only worked on long-form writing on seven days. Missing my blog post last week didn’t help.

Overall, I feel motivated to continue picking away at my writing–the issue is finding and dedicating time to do so week in and week out.

What I’m really questioning is whether I have–or should have–any medium-term goals aside from just getting my current stories to final draft status. I had always assumed I would publish them when I had them ready, but then I look ahead to my next project, and I don’t see that being publishable for a few years at least. I’m at the point where I just have stories I want to write, and I know I can’t publish new stories every other year. Is it enough to publish once every six years? Or, should I put more energy into just writing.

I may be exploring this a bit more in a blog this month.

Goals for October

  1. Read three books. This is about as close to automatic as any goal can be for me.
  2. Exercise every day. I’m going to continue with my current yoga routine, since it’s been working out for me. I’m not sure when I’ll add something else to my routine at this point, but I’d like it to be soon.
  3. Write long-form at least 10 days. Yes, I’m scaling back my writing goal. I always try to be realistic about my goals, and I haven’t made a writing goal in I don’t know how long.

Steve D

September Write Day: Busy-ness

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

It’s hard to believe it’s September already. August really passed me by in a hurry. We managed to do a lot of family activities outside: theme parks, hiking, swimming. That helped the month fly by, and it also kept us very busy.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Read three books.
  2. Exercise every day.
  3. Write at least every other day.
  4. Move to the next stage for my duology.

Read three books?

Yes! Aaaaand… I finally finished A Memory of Light. You can read my thoughts on that here. I actually read four books in August, which felt great, including a couple that had been sitting in my Audible library for ages.

With one epic fantasy series out of the way, I’m on the lookout for my next one. At the moment, however, I’m trying to work through some nonfiction books — actual print books — that have been sitting unread on my actual shelves for years. So, I’m in no rush to find my next fantasy series, but I am in the market if you have suggestions.

Exercise every day?

No, but I was generally more active, I think than in previous months. We’ve started using Sunday afternoons to spend time outside with our boys, and that has helped my own activity levels and keeps the boys interested in being outside. I like this little tradition, and I intend to continue it in all weather, as much as we can.

Otherwise, I leaned pretty heavily on a very basic yoga stretch routine to keep myself loose. I have not yet gotten gym membership at our local spot. Frankly, I’m having difficulty seeing where I can fit the gym into my weekly routine at the moment.

That’s definitely one theme from this month: we were so busy that a lot of routine things fell through the cracks. September isn’t looking any more open, and then, oops it’s the holidays. We’ll see how this goes, but I might be relying on Sunday afternoon activities with the kids for exercise for a while.

Write at least every other day?

No, but I fared much better than in July. I wrote nine days in August, including longer-form blog posts, and I made some strides in my duology.

Move to the next stage for my duology?

Yes! I finished reading through Uprooted and began a read-through of New Earth, the part two. I had completed this draft of New Earth sometime last year, and I hadn’t looked at it since, so it has been really exciting to dive back in. I’m about twenty pages into my read-through, and I’ll be aiming to finish it this month.

Goals for September

This seems to be the place where I’ve developed a solid routine, which is a good start.

  1. Read three books. I already have one down. The trick will be finishing my current nonfiction read-in-progress.
  2. Exercise every day. I’m playing loose with this for now. The goal is to do something every day, even if it’s just a basic yoga stretching routine. I have many things on my to-do list this month, and finding a way to incorporate more exercise into my day is one of them.
  3. Write long-form at least every other day. Focusing on long-form, again. I think this is a good way to focus my energy on the writing that takes the most time and effort. I just need to do it at least fifteen days in a month.

Steve D

August Write Day: Routine Reset

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

July was a crazy month for us. We closed on our new house, moved all of our crap, spent another two weeks unpacking, and finally are starting to settle in. It’s been entirely disruptive in the best possible way, but I am ready to find my routines again.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Write something every other day.
  2. Move to the next stage for my stories.
  3. Read three books.
  4. Exercise every day.

Write something every other day?

No, for obvious reasons. We must have spent what felt like a full month packing every night, and then unpacking every time, so that meant less writing time. I kept up with posting on this site, which is something. Otherwise, I only spent one day on any revisions for Uprooted.

The good news is that I only have a few more notes to work through for that draft, so August will also include whatever my next step is. And, critically, deciding what my next step is.

Move to the next stage for my stories?

Oh, hey, I had a specific item for this, which I definitely did not forget about. Well, that cements it, then. I’m going to carry this goal into August and make meaningful progress on these stories. I think I will focus on revising New Earth next.

Read three books?

Yes! I managed to finish three audiobooks in July. I have also been on a bit of a tear the last week with A Memory of Light. I’m into the final final act, and I can’t really put it down at this point. I’m going to finish this book in August, probably within the next week.

Exercise every day?

No, but I fared much better here than in my writing goals. I had twenty-two days of physical activity in July. In that count I’m including basically a full week of moving boxes, a full day of moving furniture, a day of significant playtime with my boys at a picnic, and another day of playtime at a local pool.

My home workout routine definitely took a hit, but I was physically exhausted for two straight weeks with moving.

I did not change-up my routine as quickly as I had hoped, but I likely will in August. In our new home, I’m a 5-10-minute walk from a big franchise type gym. I have no excuse not to become a member there and try to workout at least a couple times a week.

Goals for August

  1. Read three books. Getting this out of the way early.
  2. Exercise every day. How my routine evolves is an open question, but I’m not going to jump headlong back into serious weight-lifting after a four-year hiatus. I want to keep up with yoga and resistance training, so any weight-training will be mixed in.
  3. Write at least every other day. Continuing the trend of not counting my haiku as part of this, meaning I have to put more focus into my stories.
  4. Move to the next stage for my duology. I think this will be a read-through of New Earth, looking for narrative, thematic, and tonal consistency with Uprooted, and overall plot.

Steve D

July Write Day: Some Changes

On By Steven D'AdamoIn FantasyLeave a comment

June went by pretty fast, but it’s been a good month. I mostly kept to my newly established routines, and we bought a new house. Or… are buying. We haven’t closed yet.

My wife and I came into this year knowing we wanted to do some serious house-shopping and find the home we wanted to stay in long-term, that gave us a little extra space, and in a neighborhood that gave us access to the things we value.

We found that house much more quickly than we expected, somehow avoided a bidding war, and are moving towards an early closing date with our financing in place. We’re moving in like ten days, which is crazy to think about.

So, July will be quite the month for us. Let’s see how June went.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Do something writing related at least every other day.
  2. Read three books.
  3. Exercise every day.

Do something writing related at least every other day?

Almost. Strictly speaking, I did something writing-related 14 out of 30 days in June. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, I think this method of tracking a loose writing schedule can largely work for me going forward, but I want to make some tweaks.

Out of 14 days-on-which-I-wrote-something, here’s what I worked on:

  • 5 haiku
  • 3 blogs
  • 1 DnD character background
  • 5 revision sessions for Uprooted

Those 5 days spent on haiku bug me, not because I don’t enjoy writing haiku — I do — but because it doesn’t take me very long to write those, and I think I can dedicate more time to other writing endeavors. I spent only 5 days on revisions for Uprooted. I largely achieved my goal with that story for the month, but I could have done more.

For July, I’m going to continue writing weekly haiku, obviously, but only in addition to bigger writing efforts. In writing this post, for instance, I will also be writing my haiku for this week. So instead of spending an extra day writing only one haiku, I’ll need to make sure I carve out time for other writing efforts.

We’ll see how it goes.

Read three books?

Nope. I did a good bit of reading in June, but I didn’t finish a single book. I was just focused on other things. I finally caught up on The Mandalorian season three, and I like to listen to the reaction/analysis podcasts on The Ringer-Verse. So, those episodes have taken up a lot of my listening time I might have otherwise spent on audiobooks.

I’m still working my way through the same three books I have been, including A Memory of Light. I’ve made progress, so July should be a bit better for reading goals.

Exercise every day?

Almost. I missed one day, and seven days I only managed to stretch a bit. June was a busy week for me at work, so I definitely didn’t have the energy or time to workout every day. I like this routine, and I’m hoping to expand on it a bit in July. For now, it’s working well for me.

Goals for July

  1. Write something every other day. The only real change here is to not count haiku as a single writing session. Hopefully, this will help me spend more time on my main work-in-progress, Uprooted and New Earth.
  2. Move to the next stage for my stories. I’d like to take the next step with these novellas. I think that will be to revise New Earth, even though I still have some clean-up to do in Uprooted. I would just like to make meaningful progress on these, because I feel like I haven’t for a couple months.
  3. Read three books. Same same.
  4. Exercise every day. Also same same, but I may have an opportunity to change this up a bit this month. More on that later on.

Steve D

Rethinking the Writing Routine

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Creativity Sessions, FantasyLeave a comment

One of my goals for this month is to write something at least every other day.

This is a bit of a new approach to writing for me, so I wanted to unpack it a bit and see how it’s going for me so far.

Writing Routines of Yore

I used to be able to sit down for a couple hours on a given evening and write several pages, or revise entire chapters. I have never been a write-every-day kind of writer, but I was definitely productive enough to publish a novel and several shorter stories after that.

Those days are long gone. At least, they are not very accessible to me at this point. I’ve struggled to maintain much of a writing routine since the height of the pandemic, when I was in the middle of drafting Uprooted. Those two-hour writing sessions only come a handful of times per month, if that, and that is not enough to write meaningfully.

Similar to my evolving exercise routine, I’ve slowly come to the realization that I need to do something different with my writing routine.

A Writing Routine for Normal Life

What I’ve always struggled to establish is a consistent writing routine in which I could pick away at projects bit by bit. Since I’m not an everyday-writer type, I need to find a different solution. That’s why my goal for this month is to write at least every other day.

I’ve elected to try tracking my writing every other day. I’m also tracking my writing differently.

I’ve always separated my writing from anything I did for this site. I used to have the bandwidth to manage this site separately from my actual writing routines. I’d write posts for this site, and then get some writing done. I just don’t have time to do that at the moment, and I need to stop making myself feel guilty for not writing, even when I need to spend some energy blogging.

So, any form of writing counts for my new routine: haiku, blogs, revisions, DnD character backgrounds. Any way in which I can exercise my creative writing muscles counts towards my goal of writing every other day in a given month.

Progress So Far

Here’s a quick rundown of how I’ve kept up with writing through the first 20 days of the month:

  • 3 haiku
  • 3 blogs
  • 3 revision sessions for Uprooted
  • 1 session working on a new Dungeons & Dragons character sheet

That’s 10 days out of 20, exactly every other day (ultimately, if not in practice. I’ve had to focus on writing sessions three days in a row once to keep up with my goal.)

I think this routine is working for me. It’s giving me the space to spend time on things I both need and want to spend time on, whether it’s keeping this site afloat, preparing for a new DnD campaign I’m really excited about, or working on my “big” work-in-progress novellas.

Overall, I need to hold myself accountable while being flexible with what I work on on a given day.

Steve D

Rebuilding the Exercise Routine, One Day at a Time

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Life2 Comments

I mentioned in my June Write Day post last week that I had achieved my goal of exercising every day throughout the month of May. I’m very pleased and proud with this achievement. I haven’t had a regular workout routine since sometime during the pandemic.

For the 15ish years between high school and my early thirties, I had a regular gym routine focused on strength training. During that span, I trained with weights, running, swimming, boxing, and rock climbing, and I was able to evolve my routine over time as I moved places and my lifestyle shifted. That all changed when I was laid off in 2019 and lost access to my former employer’s amazing gym. I tried to reestablish a routine at a gym near our house, and then everything fell apart in 2020.

Starting a New Routine

So I’d like to take a look at my routine in May and see how it’s developed. This is partially a way for me to glean an early routine again. Now, I had three main principles for my daily exercise routine for May:

  1. Do anything, regardless of how tired I was. Even if it was just a 10-minute stretch, I needed to prove to myself that I could proactively do something each and every day, regardless of how small.
  2. Focus on small goals. I didn’t go for intricate, 30- or 60-minute workouts from the jump. I knew I needed to build up to that — and I’m still building up to that.
  3. Be responsive to how my body feels. If I felt like I had the energy, I’d do something more intensive. If I felt worn down and just wanted to decompress, I’d focus on stretching and movement.

Building the New Routine

I’m not going to go day-by-day, but I’d like to trace my progress over the month of May to demonstrate how a decent routine can be built in tiny steps.

Week 1

  • 4 days of basic stretching
  • 2 days of resistance training
  • 1 day with a 20-minute yoga session

Week 2

  • 4 days with a 10-minute yoga session
  • 2 days of resistance training
  • 1 day with 4km of walking

Here’s an overview of my first two weeks. Week 1 was heavy on stretching, while week 2 I managed to do a lot of yoga. I also took advantage of a family trip to an amusement park to get in a ton of walking, which I think counts for something.

Week 3

  • 3 days of resistance training
  • 2 days with a 15-minute yoga session
  • 1 day with a 10-minute yoga session
  • Unexpected and unexpectedly difficult trampoline workout

Week 4+ (Last 10 days)

  • 1 day of basic stretching
  • 2 days with a 10-minute yoga session
  • 3 days with a 15- or 20-minute yoga session
  • 3 days of resistancec training
  • 1 day of kayaking, 1300m sprint

Notice in the final two weeks, I started doing longer yoga sessions. You can’t see it in the above, but I also tried to vary the types of workouts I did, as well. I took advantage of a family play date / dinner date at our friends’ house to play on their trampoline with our kids, which was so much more tiring than I expected. I also used one of our regular summer lake trips to kayak, something I love to do and really love the workout.

Continuing the Routine

The point is, once I committed to exercising every day, I was able to quickly ramp up to more intense workouts and dedicate more time to my routine each day. I don’t have a firm routine set yet, but I think it’s plain to see one had started to emerge in the second half of the month, effectively splitting time between resistance training and yoga.

Now I just need to find the time to kayak more.

Steve D