Resolving...Again!

Whew! Finally made it through the holidays!  Loved every minute with my family and friends, but with all the traveling, graduations, present buying (and second guessing) and apocalypse, its nice to move into the new year.

Which brings me to the latest topic of every conversation, resolutions.  Last years resolution was really more about stepping outside my comfort zone.  I'd always wanted to learn how to ballroom dance, but lets be honest I'm not a dancer.  Remember Elaine from Seinfeld dancing?  Yeah that's me.  Still it was something that has been in my head for years, so I decided to "suck it up" and signed up 3 months of lessons at the local Arthur Murray dance studio....You know what?  I actually liked it!  While I will never be a professional, I'm not exactly Elaine.  I still tend to lead more than I should, I'll probably never be completely relaxed, but I can dance AND carry on a conversation, so how's that for progress?

For the most part I'm very happy with my life.  Its busy at times but I think I do pretty well balancing my on-the-life with some good sit-on-my-butt time.  My closets are decluttered (2010 Resolution), my doctor is happy with my weight (I'm not) and exercise habits (2009 Resolution).

I've decided that instead of making a NEW New Years Resolution, I am going to revisit some old ones for a little....fine tuning.

Exercise - I run several times a week year round.   Running makes me happy.  It is a great way to clear my head, keeps my jean size in the single digits, and is just a great way to exercise.  The problem (if you can call it that) is all I really do is run.  I will sometimes cycle in the summertime, but I don't lift weights or go to the gym or do anything else except run.  So this year I'm going to shake things up.

I signed up my first sprint triathlon in August 2013.  Swim, Bike, Run!  They say that swimming is the best exercise you can do, its full body, great cardio, toning, and blah blah blah, but what it means to me is breaking out of my running mode.  I'm obviously going to need to not only swim, but swim for .6 miles. GULP!

Yoga, more specifically Bikram Yoga.  I first did Bikram Yoga in 2011 when I was in physical therapy for a running injury (hmmm surprise??).  The PT recommended I start doing yoga, so I found a Groupon for Bikram Yoga.  OMG! I loved it.  I felt great, my knee felt great, and I was back running after a few months....then I stopped.  So I'm going to start Bikram Yoga again.

Eat Better - I don't do TOO bad of a job of eating healthy (2009 Resolution), but I can always do better.  I'm not sure how I'm going to get over my weakness for burgers and fries and my roommate (Miss Size 6 and can eat anything) might go missing if she orders my favorite pizza this month but for the rest of January my eating goals will be:

• 1 fresh vegetable juice a day 
• Eliminate sugar, alcohol, and caffeine
• Nothing fried

Family/Friends - With my travel schedule it can be hard to make time to see family or visit extended family, especially when you sometimes have less than 36 hours a week at home.  Well last year even though I took a great vacation, I still carried over quite a few vacation hours to this year.  So this year I'm going to make a bigger effort to visit family, see friends I haven't seen in a while, host a couple of dinners for my local friends, and run more with my runner friends.

Beauty - Take my makeup off every night (2011 Resolution).  If I want to age gracefully I need to take better care of my skin.

Work - I already work too much, but I love it, so I'm not going to resolve to work less.  What I am going to resolve to do is clear out my Inbox (2011 Resolution) at the end of every week.  I'm good about responding, but when I'm bad about is filing.   So I've been spending some time creating mail folders that are actually meaningful instead of keeping thing in "Misc".  I kept my 2011 Resolution for about a week before abandoning it altogether so lets see how I do this year.

What about you? What are some of your resolutions?  

Eating Like A Warrior

 Some (hard) lessons learned from eating on the road:

1. I have learned that sugar is the devil! So, to keep my energy up without a sugar crash, I try to balance each meal with protein, complex carbs, and a little bit of "good" fat.

2. For breakfast, I try to stay at hotels that offer the free breakfast that comes with scrambled eggs or boiled eggs, oatmeal, and a fruit, like an apple, banana, or an orange. That's my breakfast.

3. While I'm on the road, it's hard to find sitdown time for a meal, so I'm often stopping at 7-11s, gas stations, or fast food joints. I try to stay away from the fast food at all costs! Starbucks is another popular stop for me. I look for foods like beef jerky (high protein, low carbs & sugar), muscle milk drinks (high protein, low carbs & sugar), almonds, trail mix, fruits at the cash register (if you dare!), string cheese (more protein & good fats), cliff bars or other fitness health bars with complex carbs (where the majority of carbs are NOT sugar-you'll see the number of grams of sugar on the packet), and fat-free milk. It's no gourmet meal, but it prevents me from eating high fat, sugary foods, which are not healthy for anyone.

4. Dinner is typically the time I have to eat a decent meal on the road. I can order a healthy salad with spinach and chicken or shrimp from local restaurants and do take-out. A side of whole grain rice is great when I can get it too. I suggest having a 1/2 cup measuring cup with you at all times! This will help with portion control, which is a HUGE factor when it comes to weight control.

 

5. If I must have a dessert, I look for frozen yogurt joints or I also order Nutrisystem desserts, which are pretty darn good and only about 150 calories with a mix of protein, complex carbs, and some fat. The coconut chocolate bar and chocolate peppermint cookie are my favorites!

- Suzan