Fiction and Fitness goals

I have a number of goals and am a big fan of making goals public not only on a year basis but often monthly so that I have more than the characters in my head to hold me accountable.

I post my novel goals on this blog almost every month and once a year, or sometimes twice when I know I need to adjust my goals and it's helpful.

My "fiction writing" goals:
Edit TT and SG, send to test readers, prepare for submission
Finish first draft of AF, OiEM, LtW and/or AD, TK, GaD
Try not to start new novel at least until November if at all. - Failed already, lol. I started a novella.
Be close to submitting by my birthday (end of August)

The basic aspect of my goal for writing is just to write. I could say my goal is to be published but even if that doesn't happen, I'm going to keep writing. I want to get at least 10 percent of the stories in my head out. I say 10 percent because as I get some done more appear. If I can get at least a little of them down it will be a great accomplishment.

I am making slow progress and plan to continue that while finding time also to get out of the chair, not spending hours on end.


Fitness for the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Writer

Yep, I want my fitness to relate to my writing and I'm sure some of you are wondering how that is possible. The basics of it is this: I want to be able to do some of the things my characters can do. Sure I can't use magic to block attacks or control electricity, I'm not that crazy, I promise. But there are things that the character do in the stories that I'd like to have hands on experience with in order to write them better. I have used a bow and arrow, so that is easier for me to write, for example. So,  few things I'd like to be able to do involve weaponry.

I have a couple of recent posts about some of my fiction goals but since this is a post for both I will repost some of the goals from the fiction side before I get into the health/fitness ones.

My "fiction fitness" goals:
1. shoot a bow again (it has been years, I prefer recurve bows instead of compound)
2. learn how to handle a staff
3. learn to use a sword (not broadsword, I'm only 4'11.5 after all, so maybe a hobbit or elf sword as I think of elves as small, not large beings)
4. have light knowledge of hand to hand combat, sparring and such, and by knowledge I mean be able to do it myself and know what it feels like doing such.
5. ride a horse (I don't use that often in stories but it is fun and might come in handy and I have in the past but something I'd like to try when not as overweight)
6. walk a long distance and will come up with an exact "fantasy" amount in the near future (yeah... i do that cause I'm not sure what to do to transport characters at times)


My "other health" goals:
This is for the more typical health goals. I do have both long term and short term goals for this because both are important.

I do have weight goals. This is what many focus on and while it's a way to track, it's not the only way so it's only going to be a part of this, a not large part, I hope, but still important. But to understand those goals, I must first explain where I'm starting from on this part of the journey. At my largest that I can think of I have weighed 230, though most of the time I go between 205-217 when I'm not trying really to lose weight. I started 2013 once at got my scale at 216 and in beginning of 2012 I was 217. At the lowest that I kept track was on Weight Watchers, when I got down to 179 but between college, money and such, didn't keep to that. I'm down to 211 right now, working on my February goal of losing 4 lbs.

My first short term goal, then, is to get under 200 lbs again. It's a little less than 10% loss, which is the second mini milestone, to have lost 21 lbs from the initial 216, which would be 195.

My big scale number goal right now is 160. Technically for my height and as a female, most indexes and "diet" organizations, (bmi, ww, jenny craig, etc) recommend a weight of about 123. I just can't see that at this stage, and I have other plans that require a healthy weight gain (pregnancy) in the not extremely long distant future, so I am not going to set my goals to that. Sure, I'll be "overweight" at the 160, but it's a good major point and I can always re-evaluate when I get and stay there. Plus it would be nice to be "overweight" instead of "obese".

I also have a little scale that shows body fat percentage. While it might not be the most accurate, it would be nice to see that number go down. It's saying 54.9 percent right now, so my first goal is to get it under 50%. I'd like the final one to be closer to a healthy body fat percentage, but right now I'll do it with 50% then 45, then 40.

Finally, clothing. First goal is women's size 18. I'd like to one day fit in a size 12-14 (as sizes vary). Sure, I'll still have to hem all my pants but would be nice to not be in the plus sizes and be able to shop at more stores.


The How

That is for the next post because it's important to have a plan in order to reach goals. However, I don't want to make these too long and I can easily ramble on for a long time. Until then, I hope people enjoy the new blog focus.