Skiing (and freezing) at Stowe!

We were gone all weekend skiing at Stowe. I had an orthopaedic work conference there. Yes, I realize the irony of a bunch of orthopaedic doctors and PA's discussing cases in which people fell down the mountain skiing and broke various bones or blew out ACL's. Yet, being the weirdo's we all are, we still headed out every day to ski! With specials on lift tickets and a beautiful stay at the Stowe Mountain Lodge, how could you not? One of the best weekends I've had in a while. Gorgeous place, ridiculously fun people, and built-in workouts! Ah yes, and some shots on ice luges and giant margarita ice sculptures full of margarita! Is it me, or is it getting crazy up in here?  But really, here is some photog evidence of pretty, winter Vermont and the resort:

Workout 1/25, 1/26, 1/27:
~ Skiing - 3-4 hours/day

I think that constitutes about 4 million calories burned. And did I mention it was barely above zero degrees? I think I get double points for all of the calories burned that my body spent trying to keep me warm on the lift.  Good news: I did not die. I only fell once. I was quite excited about this. I'm working very hard on improving my skiing, and since this is my first time out this year, I have nowhere to go but up!

You don't realize how much you use your hips/quads/ankle/arms/and essentially whole body skiing. I'm still sore, but in a good-I-worked-out-I-am-strong kind of way. Looking forward to next weekend when we head up to Maine with our friends for another weekend of skiing! Guess I'd better look up some ski-focused workouts for strength in addition to the running.  If anyone knows of any good ones, please let me know!

I would also like to take the time to introduce you to my little friend...the NuGo bar!  My little travel pack of crack. Nom nom nom! Delicious, protein-filled, and gluten-free. I eat them before workouts, for breakfast, pretty much whenever.  My favorite is the Dark Chocolate Pretzel with Sea Salt. A close second is the Dark Chocolate Mint.  No one paid me for this endorsement (although I wish they did with boxes of NuGo's!).

Off Day, Good Day!

Happy Inauguration Day/MLK Day!  I know our DC friends are enjoying the festivities. What a historical moment to get to see in person.  I've been watching on TV...almost as good...but not really.

Since I technically have the day off today (although I'm 2nd call), I got to sleep in, which in Becky world equates to 9am. I decided to try this French Toast Breakfast Scramble I had seen on the blog Carrots 'n' Cakes.  I wasn't sure about mashed bananas in my eggs, but what the heck. Plus, I always seem to have about 4 of them overripe in my fridge or freezer, so I thought I would put them to good use. After this recipe, I think I have found my new breakfast crack. Seriously. It was so good, healthy (only 330 calories per MyFitnessPal calculations) and full of protein. And it took less than 10 minutes to make, which is perfect for my crazy morning rush to get to work.

French Toast Breakfast Scramble

adapted from Carrots 'N' Cakes

1 banana mashed

1 egg + 2 egg whites

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp organic honey

organic coconut oil

Mash the banana. Add to eggs, spices, and flavoring. Heat coconut oil in pan. Scramble mixture. Top with a smidge less than 1 tbsp SunButter. Have foodgasm. (Yes, I told you it's that good. Sorry the picture doesn't make it look super appetizing. Not the most photogenic food ever).

She also has some with variations with pumpkin, squash, and others. Great way to use up the leftovers from the night before.

Workout:
- Racquetball - 75 minutes
 I cannot express how great it felt to be working out today. My mood was sooooo much better. And 75 minutes of nonstop racquetball with sprinting, swinging, and crashing into walls was just what I needed! Great cardio workout and my butt and arms will be feeling it tomorrow.

Dinner tonight involved another new recipe: Thai Turkey Burgers. Thanks again to How Sweet It Is for another homerun of a meal (she had the Brussel Sprout Grilled Cheese we made a while back)! The burgers incorporated green onions, carrots, and some amazing Thai sauce. I was licking the bowl. Peanuty and sweet. I made a few variations to the sauce: more soy sauce, less sugar, SunButter for peanut butter (purely because we ran out). I also added some cayenne for some kick, before I realized I had Siracha in the fridge. Will have to try next time. The burgers were topped with a slaw of cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and peanuts, and again, THE SAUCE. It was so good we ate all of the slaw and I made a second batch for tomorrow. Thank God it's all veggies, or I would really feel ridiculous.

Yes, I still suck at iPhone food pics. Even with Instagram. Sue me. It still taste phenom. Happy Monday!
 

Fresh Start

Sorry for my lack of posting. This week has been difficult, to put it mildly. It's been very trying and I've stayed away to keep most of the negativity off of this blog. Unfortunately, I've strayed from my workouts too, which probably has compounded the problem. But, in an effort to get myself back on track, here I am. Ready to forget last week and move forward.

Today, the NFL division championships are being played. The 49er's are moving on to the Super Bowl. I'm currently watching the Pats and Ravens. Kind of having mixed emotions about who to root for. Gotta root for the hometown team the Pats and Tom Brady, but would love for Ray Lewis of the Ravens to finish out his career with a Super Bowl win. Decisions, decisions.

One thing I did decide was to make some delicious Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites. I came across the recipe while on Pinterest the other day. I love spicy buffalo wings, but definitely do not love all of the calories. I'd like to save my calories for my beverages (i.e. beer) thank you!  The recipe was from the blog skinnytaste. Gina has healthy versions of tons of popular foods. I've made a few things off of her site, so I was excited to try these. They were awesome and simple to make with few ingredients. GW loved them so much, he declined dinner.  I 2/3rd the recipe, since 6 cups of cauliflower seemed a bit much.  In retrospect, I probably would use slightly less flour in the coating too, since we use whole wheat flour and it was a little more dense coating than I would have liked.

Who says bar food can't be healthy?

In between trips to the hospital for work this weekend, I also completed a nice little Pinterest project: Date Night Jar. We usually find fun things to do for our date nights, but we always feel like we are forgetting things we wanted to do or places we wanted to go. So, with some Pinterest inspiration, we created this Date Night Jar:

It was easy: Mason Jar, popsicle sticks, some ribbon and sticky letters. The fun part has been coming up with ideas to put in. I took half the sticks and GW took the other half. That way we both came up with things and it will be a surprise (1/2 the time!) about what we'll be doing.

Hoping to get in a good workout to help my body and mind tomorrow! Happy for a new week and a new start.  Hope those of you who have off tomorrow enjoy! And those of you who don't, I'm very sorry :( 

Hump Day Blues

Workout:
- Rest

Today was one of those days...as in, make it end already. The day started off with everyone forgetting how to drive in the snow. And we only got 3-4 inches. It's not new people, this is Boston! Snow happens! And then there was work...I don't even know where to begin, so I won't. Let's just say it was insanity at its finest and I'm now having a nice, big glass of red wine to forget it.

Since I have nothing nice to say about today, let's recall a delicious meal from the other night.  Balsamic Brussels Sprouts Grilled Cheese. Yes, sounds strange, but is insanely good!  My friend Lianne tried it a few weeks ago from the blog "How Sweet It Is" and was raving, so I decided we had to try it.  It was as good as promised, probably even better.

Doesn't it look amazing?!  My iPhone photography does not do this justice. If only you could taste it! There should be an app for that.  But seriously, this was awesome. We bought the brussels sprouts in a pre-shredded bag at Trader Joe's. So much easier than hand shredding or dirtying up your food processor!  We got a loaf of delicious, local (Concord, MA represent!) whole grain bread at Whole Foods. Sauteing the brussel sprouts first makes them softer, but still leaves enough crunch. We used regular Havarti cheese, but I think a dill havarti would be interesting to try too.  We used the Trader Joe's balsamic glaze to drizzle inside.  This is definitely going into the recipe vault!

Tomorrow I will be more positive. Or at the very least, I will be so tired from my run and the OR, I will be too tired to be cranky :) Happy Hump Day!

Wardrobe malfunction

Workout:

That's my workout, right there on my wrist! I finally got to use the Garmin ForeRunner watch GW got me for Christmas. Love it so far! Super light and easy to use. It was a good run tonight but my time is definitely not accurate in the amount of time I actually spent running. I spent about 6 minutes dealing with wardrobe malfunctions. Don't worry, no Janet Jackson boob-showing moment, but perhaps it could have been? My UnderArmour cold gear decided to ride up. As in, it turned into a nice little belly shirt/long-sleeve sports bra. Thank God I had a tech tee over top or I would have been showing all of Beacon Street my not-so-well defined abs. Once I got that under control, it wasn't too shabby. The route tonight has some pretty steady, steep inclines, which was a good change from the flat runs around the res and on the treadmill. I also learned tonight that I definitely need to invest in a headlamp. A few of my runner friends suggested this before, but I figured if I'm running on the city sidewalks, I wouldn't need one. Alas, another novice runner mistake (aside from thinking I can run faster than I can)! My route tonight, although on some main roads and through residential areas was poorly lit and covered in leaves. And don't forget those invisible branches that hit me in the face. It was a full out obstacle course!

I tried a new smoothie today: Blueberry Banana Grapefruit Smoothie from "quinoa, kale & exhale." Sounded good and different from most smoothie recipes I see with the addition of the fresh grapefruit juice. I think in theory this would be a wonderful smoothie and Lisa's pictures sure looked pretty. I  really liked the flavors with the grapefruit and blueberry together. 1 cup of kale adds a nice serving of veggies snuck in at the beginning of the day, which I love. However, I made a fatal error; I didn't blend the smoothie long enough and ended up drinking a kale salad on the way to work. Bleck. Lots of bitter from the kale and then a nice sweet finish at the end. Will be trying that again with more blend-age next time!

Lots of great recipes this week; I'll have to catch up over the coming days. I'm dead and the gym is calling at 6am! As is the rumor of an inch or two of snow overnight. Guess the 50 degree weather couldn't last forever.

A lil salsa in my step

Workout:
- 4 mile run (~40 minutes)

My illness is over! Thank goodness!  I am not a fun sick person and quite frankly, too busy to be sick. I had a nice 4 mile twilight run tonight. Perfect weather too: a light breeze, 45 degrees. Yes, 45 degrees, in January, in Boston. AWESOME!  Now that I'm coming back to running on a regular basis, I'm beginning to notice things I had forgotten about or perhaps hadn't noticed at all. I don't know if other runners are like this, but I find the first 2 miles of my run, no matter how far, are the hardest. Once I'm past it, I feel like I could go forever (well, at least 3-5 more at this point), but I usually spend the first 2 miles questioning my mental status. It helps when I have people to watch to take my mind off of it. Tonight I spent part of my run going the 1.8 miles around the reservoir by our house and there are always people around. Unfortunately no one super interesting to pay attention to this evening and even the geese are gone, so I have nothing to run away from. I did get to dodge some of the BC students dragging their luggage down the sidewalk from the T and bus stops as they make their way back to campus for spring semester.  This means the screaming drunks are back, joy. Regardless, it was a great run and felt good to be out there!

With the warm weather, my menu plan was altered a bit. When it's this warm out, I don't want soup or heavy wintry meals. We had a few mangoes in our fridge that needed to be eaten and salmon in the freezer, so I decided to make mango salsa and top the salmon with it. Turned out better than I expected! As in, we ate about 3/4 of all of the salsa. Oops. At least it's fresh and all fruits/veggies???

Mango Salsa

by Me!

 

2 mangoes, diced

1 medium green pepper, diced

1 medium red bell pepper, diced

2-3 Roma tomatoes diced

2-3 Jalapeno peppers, diced

1/4 cup diced red onion

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

A few pinches of crushed sea salt

 

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Eat with chips, top salmon, or eat by the spoonful - we did all 3!

 

The salmon was just broiled in the oven with some olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder. I didn't want it to overpower the salsa. Paired with a few spoonfuls of black beans, and a very filling an protein-filled meal!

Sick Saturday

Workout:
- Getting off of the couch

Thank you to everyone at work, coworkers and patients alike, who all decided to come to the hospital last week sick. I think I got what you had. Fever, overall feel like crappiness. I have already had the flu AND got a flu shot, so I don't know if there's any way I could get the epidemic flu that's taken over Boston. I'm just hoping it's 24 hours and I can get myself out for a run tomorrow and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. Due to illness I am missing night skiing with the hubs. GIANT sad face :(  I sent him off without me. Guess I'll have to try out all my ski gear next weekend on the slopes (the white helmet's in the mail!):

This may be the most girly ensemble of my life, but I LOVE all the white going on here. Hopefully I don't blend into the snow when I fall down the mountain. Fingers crossed on that one.

We did another wintery, northern thing last night...college hockey game!  I grew up going to college hockey games (Michigan State, go green!) since I was 6 months old. Since GW grew up in Alabama, there wasn't hockey to be had down there, so he got into it when we started dating. GW's BC Eagles were taking on the University of New Hampshire, #3 vs #4 in the country. I call this a hockeygasm! If you are a college hockey fan, you realize what a ridiculous match up this is. And BC killed 'em 5-2. Go Eagles!

Today is lots of water, tea, Pinteresting (spice rack organization anyone?), meal/grocery planning for the week, and playoff NFL football. At this point, not a terrible way to spend a gross, gloomy day if I can't be skiing.

Take this job and...

I'm back! Sorry for the 3 day hiatus.  I was busy wasting my life here:

This place is work. Please don't get me wrong, I mostly love my job. This week has just been nuts! (Can you tell? That's my lunch on my desk. At 2pm. Not eaten yet. Yea, that kind of day). My "work less" goal is not working out so well. It did not help I was on call last night. Can I just say, taking too many drugs is bad and so is leaving AMA (against medical advice for all you non-healthcare peeps out there).  That is my public service announcement.  I think I'm still hearing my pager go off in my head. *Beep*Beep*Beep*.

Workout:
- Holding leg in OR for 3 hours for total hip replacement surgery
- Treadmill Run - 3.25miles, 6mph pace

Have no fear! I did make it to the gym tonight! I'm slowly becoming better friends with the treadmill. Well, ok, maybe more like acquaintances. But still. Even though I was super tired and super hungry, I clipped those miles off pretty easily and my hamstrings did not feel the need to scream at me. Double score!  I'm also counting 3 hours of surgery as a general strength workout. You don't realize how hard holding retractors AND some one's leg in awkward positions while in a giant space suit for 3 hours can be until you've done it. Trust me. I do it a lot.

Awesome salad discovery yesterday!  It's in my picture up there on my desk. S&S is a deli in Cambridge. (I'm all about eating local and trying to avoid chains, which is definitely not hard to do in Boston). Their corned beef sandwich is the stuff dreams are made of, especially if your dreams were drenched with sauerkraut and Russian dressing. However, because I am desperately trying to be healthy, I opted for the Wild Maine Salad. Mixed greens with grilled chicken, cherry tomatoes, candied pecans, a few fresh balls of mozzarella, blueberries, and blueberry vinaigrette on the side. Sweet and crunchy and savory and fresh and...AMAZING. And easily recreated at home. And a bit better if you don't let it sit on your desk for 3 hours :)

Spank!

Workout:
Rest - by accident

For some reason, I slept like crap last night. Serious crap. I even took a melatonin, since I've been having sleep issues for the past few nights. I just couldn't get comfortable. I have no idea what the problem was. Of course, I fell asleep just fine around 4am. Somehow that 6am wake up call didn't quite work out. Fail. I guess I'll have my hands full tomorrow at the gym and with pilates.  Not quite how I wanted to start Monday, that's for sure.

However, all of that was erased this evening during a fun night with some girlfriends. We went to the Wilbur Theater in Boston and saw "Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody." It's been 1.5 hours since the end of the show and my face is still hurting from laughing! It's a 3-person show with quick wit and an outright mock of the first book of the Fifty Shades trilogy. For those of us in the group who read the book, it was downright hilarious. There were a few ladies in our group who hadn't read the book, but still found the play to be quite funny. A little raunchy at times and a few moments of some Chippendale's action; perfect girl's night out!  They're touring all over the country through the summer, so check it out!

Since I ended up having wine and 4 edamame, 2 pieces of calamari, and 1 midget-size piece of "fancy" pizza for dinner, I will share with you my round 2 of home-cooking from yesterday. I came across the recipes in the January issue of Food&Wine magazine. It was actually the cover photo and looked so pretty on the cover, I decided I needed to make it.  I made the Spice-Rubbed Roast Chicken with 2 dipping sauces: Piri Piri Sauce and Wasakaka Sauce.  (The Piri Piri is on the right and the Wasakaka is on the left in the photo).

 All so fresh and so healthy!  Everything was very prep heavy, but easy to put together. Both of the sauces could be made ahead by a day and I would suggest doing so if you have the time.  The Piri Piri sauce was like a fresh salsa. We loved it, but next time I would decrease the amount of olive oil to 1/3 or even 1/4 of a cup and  substitute cilantro for the oregano. For both sauces we used red fresno chiles, which were comparable in heat to jalapenos. Both called for cayenne peppers, but there weren't any fresh at our local grocery store.  You could substitute in what you want, but I would stick with red peppers for the color component.  The Wasakaka sauce was perfect and I don't think I would change it, at least for now.

I paired the chicken with a recipe on my yoga teacher's website, Shredded Brussel Sprout and Kale Salad. We bought pre-shredded brussel sprouts from Trader Joe's, which saved a lot of prep time. We also modified the dressing a bit, using less of the mustard since GW isn't a huge fan, so it was more of a light vinaigrette.

The best thing about these dishes: awesome leftovers for work lunch the next day!!!  I just hope my patients didn't mind the post-lunch dragon breath from all of the garlic, oops.

I will end by saying this National Championship game was pathetic and I still hate Alabama. The countdown to Hawkeye and Gator football season 2013 is on.

Healthy Pizza!

Workout:
- Rest day

I am happy to report my abs and arms are both a bit sore today. The pilates and racquetball did their job. As crazy as it sounds, I'm looking forward to 6am gym time tomorrow at the Rec!

I try to plan meals one week in advance. That way I have somewhat of an idea of what I or GW will cook on a particular evening, thus, making the burrito place down the street or delivery pizza less enticing. This also helps with trips to the grocery store. While looking for recipe ideas for our meals for this week, I came across the blog, Eating Bird Food. This was the first time I had read this blog, but I'm looking forward to grabbing more recipes and ideas from it!  The recipe that did catch my eye off the bat was Brittany's recipe for Healthy Pizza with a Cauliflower Crust. I saw pizza, I saw healthy, I saw no bread - sold! Seriously genius! It sounded tasty, and appeared relatively easy to make, so I decided to make it for lunch today. It was even better than I had imagined!

 
Mozzarella cheese is what helps to bind the cauliflower together, so you don't even need to add much more cheese as the topping. We added a basic marinara sauce and went with a veggie/Mediterranean theme: spinach, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mushrooms, broccoli, and a sprinkling of feta. You can top with anything, but as Brittany pointed out, try not to load it down too much. It's a bit more delicate than regular crust.  I think next time I make it, I may try to see how I could firm it up a little more. Definitely will be keeping this recipe as a do-again!

Oh, yes, and lest we forget, it's the American premiere of Season 3 of "Downton Abbey." Yes, I have definitely had this date in my iPhone calendar for the past 3 months. Laugh all you want, but it's that good. Cheers!

French movie, French food

I have to start by saying how AMAZING "Les Miserables" was last night! The cast was phenomenal and I loved all of the songs. I broke my rule of seeing the actual play before the movie on this one, but it made me want to see the show even more. Pretty much obsessed. I see the soundtrack in my future. If you haven't seen it, you must!

Of course, I had a great date (thanks Megan!) and a wonderful pre-movie meal at Bistro du Midi, on Boylston Street across from the Boston Public Garden. In one of my first novice blogger mistakes, I totally did not have my phone to take pictures of all the delicious food and drink we had. Fail. Guess that means I'll have to go back again :)   I can at least tell you about what we ate and you'll just have to picture in your head how awesome it was:

• Appetizer:  Eggplant and olive dip and green olive tapenade on crostinis. Savory and the olives weren't too overpowering. Nice little bite-size snacks although I'm sure with a few more orders I could have made it my meal.
• Drinks: We had the Cucumber Sureale as our tasty beverage of choice. Anything with gin in it has my vote, but the crisp cucumber was refreshing, making these potentially dangerous to continue to consume.  
• Main Courses: Megan chose the garganelli pasta with duck and pork bolognese with apple and French feta. For a pasta dish, it was surprisingly light and savory.  It also was not bogged down with tons of sauce, as some restaurant dishes can be, and was the perfect portion size. I had the pan roasted hake over a bed of Trumpet Royal mushrooms, asparagus, and salsify. The waiter poured the lemon thyme bouillon over the plate upon its arrival to the table. Beautiful presentation and even better taste!  Had I not been in a nice restaurant, I may have tilted the back and drank the broth directly from the bowl. 
• Dessert: I usually try not to indulge in dessert when out, but when I saw the lavender beignets on the menu, I couldn't resist. I haven't had beignets since I was in New Orleans a few years ago. The Bistro's were a different take on the original: smaller, filled with custard, and accompanied by a chocolate dipping sauce. Perfect way to top off a delicious meal with a good friend. I highly recommend it!

Today's workout:
Pilates - 1 hour class
Racquetball vs GW - 1 hour

I'm sure my abs will feel the pilates tomorrow, since I have done little-to-no ab work in the last month or two, but I will say I was a little disappointed with class today. The regular teacher was out and while I still got a decent workout, it's not the usual high intensity I am used to or expecting. I would, however, like to thank the random girl in the MIDDLE of the HEATED room who wore sweats and did her  own workout during the entire class and drank water out of her gallon milk jug. I'm sure you were a rockstar in your own mind.  On the positive side, it makes me look forward even more to pilates on Tuesday with my favorite teacher!  Pilates was followed by an hour long racquetball game with the hubs. Definitely one of my fav cross-training activities! Such a great cardio workout and I love the sprints. Plus, we're both super competitive, which makes it more fun. Unfortunately, GW won 2-0 (22-20, 21-19). I will prevail next week!

Boo for treadmills

Workout today:- Run: 2 miles, treadmill
- Elliptical: 40 minutes

Source

I'll start by saying, I'm not a huge fan of treadmills. There's something like feeling like one of those hamsters on a wheel that just does not do it for me. At least when I'm outside I feel like I might actually get somewhere at some point in time. The treadmill is infinite loop and infinite bore. At my old gym, there were TV's attached so at least I had something to keep me occupied. Unfortunately, BC's gym doesn't have that. I tried reading magazines, but after wanting to vomit from the up-and-downness, I gave up. It's just a woman, her iPod, and her thoughts. That's good enough for about 3 miles for me.  I guess I don't have many more thoughts than can fill 3 miles. Much beyond 4 or 5 miles and I'm just about out of my mind. Thanks to the wonderful Boston winter, I guess I'll have to learn to embrace the treadmill somewhat, and maybe come up with more thoughts.

Aside from the treadmill, the run wasn't too awful. Wasn't too wonderful either.  I can definitely say no land speed records were set today. I can tell my cardio fitness has taken a definite hit.  With that said, I'll focus on the positive and yes, I did it! I'll be following a 12 weeks Half Marathon training guide in prep for Nashville, but for now I'm focusing on short runs, cardio, and getting back into yoga/pilates and starting up the strength training again before the official training begins.

On a fun note, I'm heading to see "Les Miserables" and have dinner at Bistro du Midi downtown tonight with my friend Megan. I've heard great things about both the movie and restaurant. Very excited!

Happy New Year!

Cheers to 2013!!!

It's so hard to believe 2012 is over. I feel like it flew by! I think I'll remember 2012 as the year of travel.  We went all over the world in 2012:

• January - Best friends cruise! Miami - Key West - Grand Cayman - Jamaica
• February - skiing in Colorado with our friends Maria and Johnny
• March - DC for St. Patty's Day and a 1/2 Marathon with our DC favs
• May - Cancun for Theresa and Tom's wedding, also a mini UI reunion!
• June - Baltimore for my birthday and Gary was off to Turkey for 2 months
• July - Northern Cali to see my aunt, uncle, and cousins, with some wine-tasting in Sonoma :)
• October - oh, where do I begin? Gary was in NC at a conference, we went to Michigan for an Iowa football game and a short family visit, Florida for pre-wedding festivities for Johnny and Maria, Virginia for Evi and Sam's wedding, and Hilton Head for a work conference. Yes, this was as insane as it sounds!
• November - Thanksgiving in Michigan and Sarah's baby shower
• December - Christmas in Alabama

We spent New Year's Eve at home this year. Call kind of kicked my butt over the weekend, so after a nice long nap, Gary and I ordered sushi in and drank some bubbly to ring in the new year. Very relaxing and just what I needed!  New Year's Day was full of college football - truly the best time of the year! Can't wait for the Gators to play tomorrow!

A new year always seems like a fresh slate to me. With that in mind, I sat down and wrote out some goals for the year. I  hate to call them "New Year's Resolutions" because I almost feel like I'm doomed to fail with that term. "Goals" seem a bit more attainable.

1. Make gains on my weight loss - I'm hoping for 20 pounds this year, but I know little weekly/monthly goals are what will help me most
2. Run a sub-2:15 1/2 marathon
3. Finish the full marathon in October - I'm not even setting a goal time. I just want to cross the finish line. That's all. Time goals will be set for the 2nd (if there is a 2nd!).
4. Work less - Yes, that's what I said. I worked the ER last summer and fall A LOT. The experience and money were wonderful, but I feel like I missed out on some fun.
5. Commit myself to yoga and pilates regularly - I feel SO much better when I do them, both physically and mentally
6. Improve on calling friends/family regularly and calling back quickly - I'm so bad about letting life get in the way.
7. Keep up with this blog - since I'm using this as my journal/workout log, this is a must!
8. Live in the moment - my wonderful husband really showed me how to do this and I need to get back to it. I get a bit carried away with to-do lists and planning. Sometimes you just need to take a breath and look at what's around you.
9. Eat healthier - More veggies! Not total vegetarian, but definitely improve the intake. Decrease the processed stuff. Pick up more locally grown items. You get the picture.
10. Explore Boston even more this year - lots of mini goals included in this one
11. Smile!
12. Wear all of the cute running shorts I bought that I can't fit into right now - it will be like shopping, just in my closet!
13. Be excited to wear sleeveless shirts and dresses
14. Work on my 30 before 30 list - A whole lot of goals to get through that I didn't want to overlap too much on this list. You'll find my list under the "30 Before 30" tab. I have about a year and a half. Some are pretty large undertakings, some not so much, but it will be fun to work on them throughout the year!