Goals for my 40th year: Jo navel-gazes.

Not one of my goals.

Yeah, so. I'm turning forty. In about three weeks. This is not a huge deal, anxiety-wise; I had more worries about turning 25. The way I see it, if my forties are half as good as the last half of my thirties were, they'll kick some serious good-times butt.

Still, good times don't just happen. You gotta make 'em happen, and one of the ways to make 'em happen is to make sure that all your ducks are in a row as far as what you want goes. So I've made a list of five things I intend to accomplish this year, most (but not all!) of them health-and-fitness based, and I'm going to share them with you.

Check it out...

Goal the first: Lose this other twenty poundses.

I've lost about twenty pounds (give or take) since April, but I have twenty more to go. If it takes me all year, fine. If it happens faster, fantastic. I'm still doing the DASH diet combined with Weight Watchers, so I figure it'll happen, slowly--but it's still a goal to keep in the front of the ol' brainbox.

Goal the second: Drop my blood pressure by another 20 points.

Thanks to DASH, two things have happened: my systolic BP is down 20 points, to 130, and I can no longer tolerate processed food of any sort. The BP, like the weight, still has to come down some more, though. It's ironic that it skyrocketed *after* I reduced my weight, but I guess I'm in that minority of folks who are sodium-reactive.

*sigh* No more pizza for me, I guess.

Goal the third (not health and fitness related): Buy some real damn cosmetics.

I have to wear makeup to work. It's not a requirement of the manglement, or anything, but I find that it makes people both take me more seriously and not ask me if I'm feeling poorly.

I also work twelve-hour (more like thirteen-hour) shifts. Hot, nasty, messy, sweaty, dirty, blood-soaked, sputum-ridden shifts. At the end of one of those shifts--oh, gosh, let me be real: at the two-hour mark--my makeup has melted down my face or disappeared into the creases of my eyelids, regardless of the primer I've used or the skill with which I've applied it.

If I'm gonna have to wear (redacted) (expurgated) (deleted) paint on my face, I'm goin' straight for M.A.C.

Goal the fourth: Go back to doing yoga.

My flexibility is cruddy right now, and it shows. It's time to get back to yoga so I don't stiffen up and become like Colossus.

Goal the fifth: Have a life outside of work.

For the last year or so, all I've done is work. The past three months were spent training for this CCU job I've got; the nine months before that, my previous work situation was so miserable that all I did on my off-days was curl up in a ball and whine. It's time to have a life, defined as going outside during the daylight hours, going to bookstores, talking to real meat people, and occasionally going with friends to, say, get coffee. Having a life outside of working, blogging, and working out is a prerequisite for mental health. My mental health, once as cruddy as my flexibility and my makeup, has taken a definite uptick. It's time to reap the benefits.

So whoop, there 'tis. I'm thinking numbers three and four will be more-or-less immediately attainable, while numbers one, two, and five will require work (and, in the case of the last one, getting off the night shift). I'll keep you all updated as to progress this year. I'm also taking longer-term suggestions of Things Not To Put Off Until I'm Fifty.