2 weeks after Week 1 minus several months
152 lbs – still

For a person who is unable to resist a good idea, and a person who can be very reactive and plan her life based on the events of the moment, I have learned to think things through before I start a project. Or so I thought until I tried to give away that Pendleton shirt.

So it’s time to step back and define this project a little better for myself.

When I say living the good life – I don’t mean an epicurean la dolce vita. Nor do I not mean that. I simply mean be a good person and enjoy life.

I like projects. I like a start and finish to projects. Actually, I really like to start projects. So clearly I could never transform myself forever. Instead, here is the goal I set myself. Discover the fine art of living well. Do this by spending 52 weeks living the good life — being happy and making people happy. If not all the time – at least on a regular basis.

So after a  week of serious thought, here’s my narrowed down list of goals for living the good life:

– Do at least one significant act of goodness/kindness every week. Being good to yourself and/or your family also counts

– Go to one play, show or performance at least once a month

– Lose 20 pounds. Go from 152 to 132 lbs

– Make donations to random charities

– Start writing regularly again

-Cook at home more often

-Eat out at nice restaurants (This does not contradict the previous goal. I need to limit how often we eat out and choose the restaurants carefully)

– Eat less red meat*. (The jury is still out on this one)

– Eat fish-2 times a week

– Eat vegetarian once a week for good health and as an exercise in self-discipline

-Write my blog

– Exercise/walk/yoga regularly – and push myself harder

– Be proud of my achievements

– Save money

-Clean-up house

– Recycle

– Write down my recipes

– Turn around the pre-diabetic high blood sugar diagnosis that the doctor had just given me through careful exercise and eating habits. We usually eat very well (in the sense of healthy eating) but I could do better

– Write all those fun short stories that I have in my head

-Swim

– Use whole wheat flour as much as possible**

– Hang my clothes out to dry

– Use less water

-Give doggy bags from restaurants to a homeless person – works better in San Francisco

– Care for myself

-Have fun

-Write fiction

-Keep in touch with friends

-Hmmm. Maybe make some friends

– Add to this list regularly

-Delete from this list regularly

And my first addition to this list : Find out and focus on what people want, not just what I want to give them, like Pendleton shirts.

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Notes:
* I love meat. But more importantly, eating meat is what made us humans the superior creatures we are. It resulted in the enlargement of the human brain.
http://www.livescience.com/23671-eating-meat-made-us-human.html

** It is not so hard to mix whole wheat with regular in baking if you use the white finely ground whole wheat that we have traditionally used in India. As long as a high amount of gluten is not a requirement for the recipe, a combination of unbleached white and whole wheat flour is a healthy and fully viable option. Especially since nowadays the white unbleached whole wheat flour is also easily available in all grocery stores, not just Indian or specialty stores.