2025

2025
Fireworks shot off on New Year's eve

First off, happy new year! It's been a slow start for the HilliTech blog, but I'm happy with this little experiment so far and will continue to contribute to it as time allows. I like having a little home on the internet for just me and my thoughts, and because of a lack of monetization or user metrics, there is no pressure.

It's the new year and with that comes another kind of pressure put on us by society and marketing: the concept of renewal. If advertising and media are anything to go by, we're meant to reinvent ourselves every 365 days or so with unrealistic goals.

New Year's resolutions are a garbage concept in my opinion. They set you up for failure and usually result in reinforcing old bad habits rather than introducing new ones.

If this sounds familiar, it's because my sentiments echo the Cortex podcast and their theme system. Biggest congrats to Myke on baby Hurley, of course.

I wanted to write this post today to explain a bit of what I want out of 2025 and what I've been doing to ramp up for my theme of choice. Sure, we're already halfway through January at this point, but life events have kept me unusually busy.

For now, let's not worry too much about the frequency of posts. I plan to continue posting here as time allows, and I expect a pattern will eventually form.

A Maine coon kitten viewed from just under her nose, she looks ahead playfully
Marble keeps to her usual schedule of eating, sleeping, and biting

The year of health

I don't subscribe to the idea that we need to set a handful of goals at the beginning of the year. These resolutions almost always result in failure and end up with the person angry at themselves.

Instead, I went into the new year with new habits already forming. I planned in early December exactly what I wanted to do. It centers around having a new daily schedule where specific tasks need to be completed daily, but it is much bigger than that.

I looked to my experience in the Navy for some inspiration. While my time in the military was a lot of highs and lows, one thing that always stuck out was the feeling of having a good schedule. We worked out regularly, ate at specific times, and cleaned different areas daily. Incorporating some kind of schedule around cleaning, exercising, and sleeping at the same time every day would help improve my mood and my overall health.

Of course, it isn't enough to just create a routine, I had to incorporate different elements like new gear, technology, and other processes. To go with the cleaning routine, I stumbled into the idea of replacing cleaning supplies with more sustainable, non-toxic stuff. I also decided to upgrade parts of my home to make the routine easier and overall contribute to the new supplies.

A side-by-side image showing the cleaning supplies in the basement and hallway closet
Basement shelf with a start of restock goods (left) and hallway cleaning supplies (right)

My fiancé Natalie and I had been planning for some time to rethink our basement storage. We finally built a small shelf and made it into an overstock area. That way, if a supply runs out upstairs, we have a restock option in the basement, which then triggers a purchase to restock the basement. It's not a new concept, but one we wanted to implement.

The other side of my year of health is fitness. I've never been concerned with my weight, so after the military, I took on a more sedentary lifestyle. I'll admit I was lucky that I didn't blow up like a balloon, but certain health metrics started showing things I wasn't happy with. So, long story short, everything I wanted to correct could be fixed by working out regularly.

So, here's what I've done.

A daily routine

There are a lot of small technologies that help me through my daily routine, and most are first-party apps and tools from Apple.

I work an evening shift, so I go into work between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. depending on the day, and I'm off by 11 p.m. So, I set up my sleep schedule on Apple Watch and the Sleep tracker in Apple Health to have a bedtime of 1:00 a.m. and a wake up at 9 a.m.

Screenshots set side-by-side of sleep settings in the Apple Health app
A repeating sleep routine helps your mental and physical health

Next, I have a Custom Plan in Apple Fitness+ to do three kinds of workouts per day. This might sound like a lot, but it's been fairly easy to maintain, and there is a lot of configurability. I've never used Fitness+ before, so it's been really nice seeing exactly how useful it is.

I have the Custom Plan set so there's a 10-minute yoga and 5-minute mindful cooldown every day. Then a third workout for 20 minutes is set for either HIIT, core, or strength. On days I need to take it easy, I can swap the 20-minute workout for a 10-minute one.

So far, it's been quite nice to maintain. The way a Custom Plan works is there isn't any set time for the three workouts, they just need to be done at any point on that day. I do the yoga right when I get out of bed, then the 20-minute workout mid-day before lunch, and the mindful cooldown before bed.

Some days when I let myself sleep in, I might do all three in a row just to knock them out. They work great together too, since yoga usually limbers you up, and the cooldown lets you stretch. Either way, I can knock out all three each day without much issue and have kept this up for three weeks of the plan so far.

A screenshot showing Wesley's Plan in Apple Fitness+. 3 of 8 weeks are complete.
Set a custom plan for a few weeks in Apple Fitness+

After yoga, I have breakfast and coffee, then leave myself about an hour to clean a designated space each day. In the military this is called "Happy Hour," and because so many people have to clean each space every day, you end up doing almost nothing and wasting a bunch of time. At home, where it's just me, I've found this kind of daily cleaning to be quite useful.

I wanted this kind of cleaning routine because the busyness of the holiday meant some of our home chores were being neglected. It was to the point we couldn't easily say when a task was done or a certain area touched. So, by designating a space for me to focus on a few minutes each day, I ensure something is done to keep those spaces up. I save the living room for Sunday so I can do a total home clean if needed.

Once we got our new cleaning supplies, we cleaned the whole house top to bottom to set a baseline. Then, each day, there were only one or two tasks needed for a given space. It also allowed me to think more directly about a space and forced myself to find something to do, even if it only took 5 minutes that day. This has allowed me to check spaces, change filters, and clean under things I've otherwise forgotten about or neglected because "we'd get to it later."

Four columns in Apple's Reminders app that set a schedule for various chores
Reminders is an excellent tool for setting up routines

Now that the home has a baseline cleanliness, there's actually not much to do. And I've been enjoying this combination of cleanliness and ease for more than a month now.

I set it so I do my midday workout after cleaning because I knew I'd already be somewhat dirty. I then shower, have lunch, and have an hour or two before my shift begins.

My evening is quite simple. I get off work, get ready for bed, perform the cooldown if it hasn't been done already, then read so I can hit my reading goal in Apple Books. This is especially clever since my reading usually starts before midnight and ends after, letting me ensure my streak is maintained across two days at once.

New cleaning supplies and improved environmentally friendly choices

I've been thinking a lot about intentionality in recent years. It has manifested itself in different ways in my life, but one recurring theme is trying to think outside the norms set by society and expectations. Fitness was already on my mind for 2025, but in December I was reading a newsletter sent by Ugmonk that listed favorite small businesses the author shops at.

I'm always intensely interested in these kinds of lists, because it's usually how I discover new fun products or ways to accomplish tasks. The cleaning supply company Branch Basics stuck out to me. Their whole thing is non-toxic cleaning supplies and avoiding artificial ingredients and irritants.

Well, this idea struck a chord. Not only do I have asthma and allergies, our cat, Edgar, has been obsessively cleaning himself in recent months that he's getting bald spots. I figured this might be a good project to improve the air quality in our home and make it so I wasn't battling my sinuses and Edgar might benefit too.

I donated all of our old cleaning supplies to my Mom and ordered from Branch Basics. I also discovered Grow Fragrance for some nice anti-odor natural scent sprays.

A little off topic, but I also changed a few other parts of my home. I incorporated more of Simplehuman products in my home. We now use their custom liners for the kitchen trash can, their dish soap and hand soap, and an interesting gadget that hides a bottle of cleaning spray in the paper towel dispenser. I traded the soap dispensers in the kitchen too.

I didn't want to just trade out cleaning stuff, I wanted to feel like we made changes everywhere. The soap dispensers are more environmentally friendly than buying plastic bottles of Dawn soap. The paper towels Simplehuman sell are made with recycled materials and come with way more sheets per roll than Bounty. Shifting to Branch Basics also meant using less plastic since their concentrate was mixed with water in reusable bottles. Branch Basics also offers dishwasher pods that aren't made with plastic shells which we store in a reusable container.

We traded out the cat litter area with new clean supplies, a new can that seals off scents by sealing the bag when the lid is closed, and a new litter made from walnut shells.

It's a lot of tiny changes, and I'm glad Natalie didn't totally lose her mind as I changed significant portions of our home and how we do things. She was very supportive.

And I'm sure a lot of you are asking "how much did this cost?" I won't lie, it isn't nothing. After we got the initial set of supplies and some of what needed backups in the basement, the cost to replenish supplies every three months is quite comparable to what you'd spend on goods at Target.

The results so far

So, most of these changes were implemented in early December. Needless to say, our home feels cleaner than ever. The air is clear and smells great, the surfaces are clean and feel clean. It has been a total success from that front.

Edgar is growing his hair back and seems much happier. So the new litter and cleaning supplies have changed things enough that they've had a positive impact on his health.

A photo of Edgar, a gray and white cat sitting in front of a fake fireplace heater
Edgar is a clean freak and will over-clean himself if he feels dirty

I'm also breathing better. I'll have the occasional sinus thing, which is normal, but I'm not constantly battling congestion and sickness like I had been in recent months. This is a result of cleaning more regularly, using an air purifier in the living room, and maybe something can be said about the new cleaning stuff.

Health-wise I'm doing great. I've shed about 8 pounds already, which isn't my goal but a nice side effect. I feel stronger, more awake, and my joints don't hurt as much.

I've been closing my rings every day, and haven't missed a single workout in my Apple Fitness+ Custom Plan. It's all going well. I'm set to close all of my rings in January, which is something I've never done before.

I'm going to continue looking for new ways to improve our home and our health, but I think this has gotten off to a great start. One thing I'm going to try is adding live plants to some of our spaces.

I know this isn't the usual write-up and may even read closer to a journal entry, but I hope this information helps motivate others to make positive changes in their lives.

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