My New Year's Resolutions

Alright here we go again with starting of a new year I feel strangely obligated to turn things around in my life. It seems that because the date has changed over from one year to another we as humanity want to make things better. This is actually one of the best parts of being a part of the human race is the boundless amounts of optimism that we can have. On the whole people always tend to look to the future with heaps of positive energy.

With all the talk of New Year’s Resolutions I turned to the almighty google to find out what the top ten most common ones are. Before even reading this list I could easily determine for myself what some of these resolutions would be, as I am sure you can too. Even if some of these are very predictable it is still a noble effort to try and better One’s self. So do not get discouraged and not try it just because it appears on a list that says everyone else is doing it.

1: Eat Healthy and Exercise Regularly

            This is the most infamous rite of passage of all the New Year’s resolutions, at some point in our lives we have all made this one, if you haven’t yet your time will come. Fear not if this resolution speaks to you for you are not alone on this one, even I am trying to rekindle the flames of my exercise regimen. There is nothing wrong with this resolve if anything just by saying that you want to do it is admitting that you need to do it, and we could all be a little healthier.

2: Drink Less

            I can understand how for many this is something that they want to change about themselves. This resolve also makes sense because it is probably made on New Year’s Day while nursing the mother of all hangovers due to letting loose the night before. This is one of the resolutions that I myself have made and stuck to, I have not had a lick of the sauce since June of 2012.

3: Learn Something New

            This resolution may sound like a very vague idea because we all learn something new every single day. This is very open ended because so many of us want to learn something substantially new like a new language or a musical instrument. These kinds of goals require a person to make some sacrifices an put in a significant amount of effort. I have made some of these resolves in the past and the are the hardest to achieve in my opinion.

4: Quit Smoking

            In a world where smoking is becoming less and less glorified it is understandable that many people want to give up this habit. With many places beginning the steps to outlawing the addiction, by means of making it pricy and limiting the places you can do it, now seems like a smart time to quite. This resolution kind of also goes hand in hand with the first two on this list of common place New Year’s Resolutions. This is one of the harder ones on the list because for so many who started it is very hard to stop, I have been there and all I can say is if you are doing this hang in there it gets better.

5: Better Work Life Balance

            We all want our live to turn out the way we imagine them in our heads and for many of us we burn out with our noses to the grindstone. The problem with the world is so many of us take jobs that are unfulfilling and consume a significant amount of our time. This results in feeling as if our jobs are consuming our lives and the man wants nothing more than to crush our individuality. What is the solution to this? Make both your life and work and equal priority and realize that you work to live not live to work.

6: Volunteer

            During the month of December most of us want to feel charitable and give back to the community. So when we are making our New Year’s Resolutions we tend to have this mentality on our minds an want to continue that spirit into the new year. This may sound jaded but after the season of giving is done and over we lose our drive to carry this one out. This is actually one of my personal New Year’s Resolutions, I want to get a group together to go down to the mustard seed and lend a hand.

7: Save Money

            The dream that we all have is of buying that big house and retiring early enough that we don’t run out of steam. After the Christmas holidays are done most of us look at our empty bank accounts and run up credit cards and vow that next year it will not be the same. We promise ourselves that over the next year we will take all of the extra money we make and put it away for a rainy day. We all go down that path at one point or another and if you utilize automatic withdrawals you might be able to succeed at this one.

8: Get Better Organized

            In the ruin that is the holiday season we look around our disaster riddled homes and think to ourselves that we are on the verge of being on that show hoarders. So to rectify this sensation when we sit down to make out New Year’s Resolutions we decide to change our lives and organize our lives. This is one of those challenges that is not unobtainable but requires some time and money, it is a bit more of a gradual process than something that happens right away.

9: Read More

            Our society tends to rate intellect on how well read a person is and after most of us leave school the need to read diminishes. So on the eve before everything turns over to a new year people tend to resolve to put down the television remote and pick up a book. This is one of the New Year’s resolutions that I endorse and I strongly believe that we could all benefit from reading more.

10: Finish those around the House “TO-DO” lists

            We all have lists of things we want to accomplish around our home and this one seems to tie in with number 8. Our weekends and days off our filled with the tasks that we want to complete in order to make our homes feel more well homey. This is a hard one to achieve because for every list you complete there will be two more to take its place, put if it will make you happy than I say go for it.

I found this master list online and I am not sure if it is the most accurate but it sure sounds about right. You can find it located on the world wide web here http://www.policymic.com/articles/21328/new-years-2013-the-10-most-common-new-year-s-resolutions

If I was to use this exact list on myself it would look as follows

1-Attempt number 2

2-ACHIEVED

3-Aiming for a new language

4-ACHIEVED

5-Always working on this

6-Mustard seed here I come

7-Same answer as number 5

8-It is a process but I am soooo close

9-ACHIEVED (I read a lot)

10- there will always be more lists

Myself I have a couple of other New Year’s resolutions that do not appear in this list

MY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

1: Recommit myself to this Blog

2: Reconnect with old friends and stay in touch more

3: Get fit

4: Have more fun

The reason that we make a New Year’s Resolution is to try and find a way that you want to better ourselves. So I highly recommend that we all make them and do our best to try and stick to it this year.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

YYC Adventures: Run For the Cure

Over the last weekend of September I took my first step in a series of successive physical challenges, on Sunday I took part in my first run. The event was a 5K run called “Run for the Cure” and the goal was to raise support for breast cancer research. In total it took me just over fifty minutes to complete the full run and I ran for a majority of the way, only having to walk for seven minutes or about a Kilometer. 

This was the first time that I had ever been at or even participated in any kind of event like this and boy was it exhilarating. The energy that flowed through the crowd was intoxicating with cheers and good nature all around. The runners and walkers alone made up eight thousand strong and that does not include all of the volunteers.

The day began with face painting and performances from a folk band and a acapella foursome with an outstanding baritone, I have never heard someone’s voice go that low. Then right before the race began we did a Zumba warm up, it always impresses me just how much energy those instructors have. To hype up the runners as they all awaited the start of the run the acapella group got everybody singing the song “walking on sunshine”.

And we were OFF

All along the route there were people cheering us on and it was a feeling like no other I have ever experienced. So many strangers all being supportive of each other with smiles on their faces and cheering till their voices grow rasp. There were bands playing on the sides of roads and houses adorned from foundation to roof in pink. Strings of all different shades of pink bras stretched from street light to street light and we runners ran under them.

The morning after when I woke up and tried to walk I discovered that my thighs and calves felt like they were filled with rocks. Ultimately however I am proud of myself for completing this commitment and taking the first step forward in my fitness challenges.

This Run is the kind of challenge that will help me to improve myself and I am including this towards my RPG IRL sheet. Completion of the run is the first challenge that I am putting on the character card and the first step forwards on that challenge. The “Run for the Cure” 5K counts as a 5% increase towards my dexterity ability and also and increase of 5% towards my next level.

The next run in my fitness challenge is an 8k in November just after my 23^rd birthday and I plan on running then partying. I am currently trying to convince my mother to do this run with me next year and instead of just paying a flat fee I am going to actually fundraise for it. Also I am contemplating running it next year while wearing a 40lb back pack but I will see how well the other challenges go before I commit to that.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

Wow from around the Net: Assassins Creed

Every couple of years there seems to be some sort of new method or fad that comes out of the wood work to help people get fit. Right now Hot Yoga seems to be on its way out and the new one on the way in is a dance craze called Zumba. There is one fitness fad that almost took of but was too intense for just anyone to pick up it has been dubbed the French martial art of running away and it is called Parkour.

My aim is not to be insulting to Parkour by calling it the French martial art of running away, in fact I am a little in awe of it.  I have watched Youtube videos of these urban ninjas and am very jealous of all the crazy skills that they posses. I have one friend, my favorite ginger to be specific, who has actually trained himself to perform these amazing body tricks.

Right now I am kind of pudgy and not in any kind of physical shape to achieve this martial art myself…yet. It is one of my long term fitness goals that one day I will be able to clamber up a vertical wall the way that the Parkour masters do. I am working on building my body to be able to do this and I have set out a series of things that I will accomplish first, this is why I started running to be honest because I believe you must walk before running and run before running up a wall.

As always I have found a geek that has taken something that is not geeky at all and made turned it into something that is fantastically geeky. Ever since the mass Geekization, where the G-Virus spread and infected everyone, the internet has been full of the great geeks who have taken their Geekiness to the next level. I found a Cosplayer who has mastered the martial art of Parkour and dressed as Altair from the popular video game Assassin’s creed and performed both his arts in the streets.

Check it out:

One day I want to be as Ninja as this guy (his name is Ryan) is but everyone has got to get their start somewhere. With the running off of my fitness goal check list as of November my next step is to do the Plyometrics work out from the P90X series and learn how to do yoga. My ultimate goal is to pretty much be like a ninja, speaking of ninjas I found this hilarious Ninja Name Maker Give it a try if you can.

Take each letter from your first and last name to make your new ninja name

A.    Ka
B.    Zu
C.   Mi
D.   Te
E.    Ku
F.    Lu
G.   Ji
H.   Ri
I.      Ki
J.    Zu
K.    Me
L.    Ta
M.   Rin
N.   To
O.   Mo
P.    No
Q.   Ke
R.   Shi
S.    Ari
T.    Chi
U.   Do
V.    Ru
W.  Mei
X.    Na
Y.    Fu 
Z.    Zi
 

My New Ninja Name is Doshizukato Fukuchiki What is yours? Please share it with me in the comments below.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

Fitness and Me: I am RUNNING!!!

I think that I can now officially say that I have actively stuck to my new year’s resolution this year, which is a first for me. I had some specific goals that fell to the way side however due to time and financial restraints but in the broadest sense I have done it. I set out on a new year resolution last December and my goal was to successfully get into a better shape. So I am very aware that fitness is probably one of the most common goals ever but I actually did it.

Sure I am still a little round in the center but hell if I am not in a much better shape and still working towards being better. As always I am looking towards the future, even if I am taking a moment to look back and see how far I have come, and I am making plans. I am not going to lie and say it was easy and I am very fortunate to have people in my life who are willing to give me so much help.

This morning I took a step forward that got delayed in my master plan for fitness and self improvement. I had originally planned that next month a few friends and I were going to travel down to the state of Washington and take part in a 5k obstacle course known as the warrior dash ( read my post about it here: Warrior Dash). Due to forgetfulness and most of the people falling off the fitness wagon we didn’t end up going which makes me sad but there is always next year. I had planned to run a 5k and a 10k before that race and that never came to fruition ether.

Now I am pushing forward with my original plans and this morning I signed up for two races to complete in the next few months.

The first run I will be doing is a 5 kilometer charity run for breast cancer at the end of September called Run for a Cure. This is a run to raise funds for breast cancer research, even though I am paying the base fee and not looking for .Judging by how I am doing currently in my training I am confident that I will be able to complete it. I can say with conviction that I know I will not place first or even third but that is not the point I just want for one day to look back and say I did that.

Read more Here: Run For The Cure

The second run will be a little bit longer being an 8 Kilometer fun run for charity this time it is a different charity this run is called the Sight Night Fun Run. This run is for a different charity called the ASRAB, which stands for the Alberta Sports and Recreation for the Blind. This run will take place on Saturday the 17^th of November which is actually three days after my 23^rd birthday. This run will probably be fairly cold but being a snow boarder I should have no problem fighting off the bitter cold. There is actually a catch to this run the entire thing will take place after the sun has set behind the mountains and in the dark. This one promises to be a challenge for me and I plan to push through it with strength and determination.

Read More Here: Sight Night

I am very lucky that I am not doing this alone ether aside from my beautiful Wifey cheering me on I will have a partner at my side. My favorite ginger is helping me to achieve my goal by stepping me up and joining me on my fitness journey. It really helps me to know that I am not running my first or even second race on my own, it is moments like these that I realize how great my friends truly are.

I am super excited to take these steps forward in my life and I know that one day I will look back and say look at what I did. I may not be pledging but if you could make a donation to ether charity I know it will make you feel better to do your part.

Sincerely Urban Yeti

p.s. Don’t forget to vote for the food section name change there are only two days left to do so and it is located in the upper right part of the side bar