Bring it on, 2013! I am ready for YOU!
For some reason, I feel like odd years are good years for me. Maybe it's because I was born in an odd year? I'm not sure. But I'm just gonna go right ahead and go with it. Why not? Maybe just thinking that it's going to be an awesome year will make it so!
I'm not very good about making resolutions for myself, but on my walk at lunch today, I thought of a few that might be nice to try this year:
1. Drink more water. Then, drink 1 more glass.
I am TERRIBLE about drinking water, even though I don't drink much else. It's not that I am drinking sodas or juice all day long, I just don't drink very much liquid. I haven't decided how to implement this yet. I already make sure and have water or tea with me at all times, but that doesn't seem to do much. I may need to set some sort of alarm or appointment reminder in Outlook to tell myself to finish a glass of water every 2 hours or something.
2. Reduce the amount of dairy in my diet.
I have been quite successful in removing meat from my diet, but this is going to be a bit harder. I've read that people are actually addicted to cheese, so it's hard to remove from a diet. I can attest to that; it's by far my favorite part of a meal! Especially if there's pasta involved. So, maybe I should reduce the amount of pasta in my diet, thus reducing the cheese by proxy. I've already almost completely switched to dairy free milk, but since Ryan hasn't, I haven't removed it from my cooking yet. I don't think he would actually mind if I did, it's been more out of convenience than anything else, really. I generally am using soy/almond milk in my oatmeal or coffee, so I tend to keep Unsweetened Vanilla varieties around and not the plain stuff. And if I only need a cup or two of milk, it's hard for me to open a new carton and then have it sit in the fridge until I need it again. I suppose I can switch to plain and add my own vanilla, something to consider.
3. Walk 10,000+ steps per day most days.
I got a fancy pedometer/calorie counter watch for the holidays from my boyfriend. Since I've only just been back to work yesterday after having 11 days off, I got to really see how sedentary I really am during the week. It's a lot of sitting that I do here at this desk. I was in a pretty good habit of walking every day before eating my lunch for about 20 minutes... until I had hives for 7 weeks. The hives would show up on the bottom of my feet, making it super difficult to walk or exercise. So I just stopped. Even when there wasn't a hive, I pretty much cut everything but pilates and zumba out of the equation. Now I feel like I'm back to square one, but I've come to terms with that. Yesterday, by the time I reached the gym after work, I had barely clocked in 3,000 steps. Luckily, after walking on the treadmill for 15 minutes, 10 minutes of strength training, and an hour long Zumba class, I made it to 10,000 steps. Barely. What a reality check! So, to be more accountable, I'm going to add back in my lunchtime walk and also make sure I hit the gym or go for another walk-something, anything-to reach my goal. I've also returned to my calorie counting and daily weigh ins on the scale, but that's more for my accountability than as a resolution.
I think I like my resolutions, they basically scream, "Get Healthier!" which is all I can ask for. Do I want to lose 20 lbs? Sure. Am I going to? Who knows. I feel better about myself at my current weight than I did when I was this weight before... because I know I am stronger and eating cleaner and healthier than ever (only true if you don't count the last month of holiday binging).
Happy New Year!
