A third of the way through Month One

If beginning my health-and-fitness plan the day after Christmas puts me ahead of everyone who started this week, then SO BE IT. Heh.

Making December 26 my Day One of Month One might have been the smartest thing I did last year. I'm feeling very in the groove as I begin the 10th day of the umpteenth diet-and-exercise makeover. Today is a walk-and-yoga day, and I did indeed find a beginner routine for the sun salutation. I haven't tried it yet, so can't personally recommend it. This is one of many on YouTube; if it's not what I need, I'll certainly keep looking.

I haven't mentioned knitting around these parts lately. I'm still working on the endless blue-and-white garter stitch scarf. Pretty soon it'll be spring and I won't need a scarf.

My husband found a piece of paper with an outline of the five-year-old granddaughter's foot, which I thought I'd lost. She and I made the outline so I could make her a pair of slippers that actually fit. So next in the queue is a pair of child-sized Duffers.

(Mine, which I've been wearing since November 21, are already beginning to show some wear. There's a tiny hole developing in the toe of the right one. I'll probably do a quick mend until I have time to make another pair. Or until I make a pair of felted clogs, which last a very long time.)

What else, what else … I backed up my hard drive yesterday, something I hadn't done since July, according to Time Machine. Tsk, tsk. This was in preparation for purging some space-hogging tunes from said hard drive. What's stopping me from ditching all the music (since it's backed up on the external drive) is this: How would I go about loading the iPod again? I'm not done buying music or audiobooks. My laptop (a MacBook Air) only has one USB port, so I'd have to download music from the external back to the computer and then hook the iPod up to load anything new onto it.

I don't dare mention this dilemma to my husband. He would simply tell me to listen to the radio. My solution, as I mentioned a few days ago, is to delete those free-songs-I'll-never-listen-to. That should free up plenty of space. But if any of you have other ideas …

Finally, check out the new widget over in the right sidebar. DailyMile keeps a running mileage total for you, as long as you remember to log your activity. DM doesn't have an Android app, but there's an app called Daily Distance that simply and easily uploads your stats to the website. I use an Android app called Skimble to track my time-and-distance when I walk. (Skimble can track just about any fitness activity you can think of, actually, I just now looked and I can also record elliptical sessions. Yay!)

I just wish downloading and using apps burned calories like walking and yoga do.  (I'm a geek and I know it.) Maybe someone is working on that.

If it is to be, it's up to me

While many people are beginning to implement their New Year's resolutions today, I started a week ago, and I'm really glad I did. Those extra days of clean eating and daily activity (I logged a mile yesterday, which was my rest day) are going a long way toward improving not just my sense of physical well-being, but my mental attitude, as well.

While I want 2013 to be about getting fit and healthy, I want it to be about more than that. I want to lighten my life. I want 2013 to be about shedding the unnecessary STUFF that clutters my mind, my home and my hard drive. Heh.

I began this morning by unsubscribing from some of the Facebook Groups I've become disenchanted with. I'm a liberal, yes indeed, but I want to be a nice liberal. I don't want to begin this year with, as one moderator put it, an "evil grin" because the Senate passed a fiscal cliff bill with overwhelming bipartisan support. Why should the grin be evil? I'm baffled by people who think that way. If anything we liberals should be sending thank-you notes to the Republican Senators who got on board and did the right thing.

And we should be writing to the Speaker of the House, suggesting that he round up the necessary votes  in Congress, and begin working for We The People. (I did.)

I went through a period earlier this year where I was downloading every free song iTunes and amazon.com offered. I didn't listen to them first, I just added them to my collection. There are a couple of keepers among them, but seriously, not that many and nothing I can't live without. (Except the Killers' Mr. Brightside. Can you believe that was a freebie?) Deleting music I don't listen to will go a long, long way toward freeing up some space computer space.

I have no plans for the extra space. Photos are posted to Instagram, no need to keep them on my phone or computer. I've been saving recipes and knitting patterns as .pdf files, but they don't take up a lot of space. And I'm not saving lots, only items I really think I'll knit or food I really think I'll eat.

Much of my house is in good shape, but my closet and dresser are stuffed, jammed, overflowing. It's way past time to deal with clothes. My favorite sweatshirt is literally falling apart, while half a dozen others are folded, unworn, in a drawer. Why is this one my favorite? Because it doesn't have ribbing at the lower edge. It falls straight, like a tunic, and has vents at each side seam. I want to deconstruct it and make six more because I haven't found any like it to buy.

HAVE I DONE THAT? Well, no, because I'm always wearing it! It's time, though, to finally make a pattern from it, to get rid of the other shirts I don't wear and to wear what I like. Not just what fits. Not just what I already own. And not just shirts.

Going along with that, it's time to toss or give away what doesn't fit and what I don't like. We all make wardrobe mistakes. No sense crying over spilt milk or spent money. Someone will benefit from these clothes; they're not doing anyone – especially me – any good where they are.

So. Clean eating. Clean hard drive. Clean closet. Sounds like a plan.

Happy New Year.