The Year So Far

Although many people haven't returned to work/school or whatever constitutes their "normal" routines, I feel as though I am already back in the swing of things.  Perhaps this is because I had to work on New Year's Eve and immediately again on the 2nd.

Everyone's good intentions (i.e., resolutions) have been rubbing off on me, and although I did not really commit to anything specific, I do feel like I'm on my "best behavior."  And I think some of it even started before the end of 2012.

For one thing, I have been using my new Thermos for warm drinks instead of going out for something.  I live around a lot of drink establishments (side note: I don't count Starbucks in this category... I gave them up for good in October), so I did have that bad habit toward the end of last year.  I've never had a Thermos anything before, and they work really well!  Thanks goes out to my sister and the little birdie named Amazon for the tip!  I have some loose-leaf teas on the way so I can reap the benefits even more.  Sometimes, it just takes a spark to get me to improve on things.

Meanwhile, I have been cooking again.  I may start posting about what I've been making once I remember to snap photos again.  "The Ukrainian" thinks he is "healthiest" when I cook consistently, so I guess I better keep at it.  As for me, cooking keeps me from going out as much because I generally make what I'd want to eat -- plus, I get to apply everything I learn when I'm a couch potato watching the 58-3 Create channel at home (and Food Network when I'm at the work gym/other people's houses).  Of course, since I wasn't cooking a lot toward the end of the year, I ate a lot of stuff that eventually made me feel pretty run down all the time.  I didn't resolve to cook more because this is something I should be doing... and HAD been doing, anyway.

I exercised consistently during the holidays, so at least I don't have to catch up on that.  I DID back off on the running a little bit, since I was a wimp about running in the rain and without having my workplace treadmill as a backup for those days.  Christmas was one of the few unplanned rest days I took, so I walked Bruno for about a mile and a half or so.

I've been trying to run at least a couple of times a week.  Before the last two weeks of the year, I was running a touch under 20 mi/week, which is definitely an improvement from before.  As I am working back up to that level (amazing how easy it is to fall out of a running routine), I have been doing bits of Insanity, Jillian, etc.... and the Physique 57 (Vol 1) workouts that my sister recently got for me!  I'm a fan of barre-type workouts because they really do seem to tone without impact, and when I was consistent with these, I ran some of my best race times without quite as much training.  This DVD set is significantly more challenging than others I've tried, so this should keep me on my toes (haha!) for a while.  Review coming later.

Finally, I've been trying to sprinkle in some more "fun" things to keep myself busy.  Besides trying to read, I have been utilizing our Netflix and Pandora more rather than watching mindless TV, lighting candles/burning essential oils, and short-term semi-mindless stuff like putting this puzzle together with my little sister:

So the box was missing a piece... see lower left corner.  So sad!!

Overall, I'm trying to teach myself that just a few extra seconds or minutes of cleaning, planning, and organizing can make a really big difference in what I can accomplish in a day.  I am often needlessly rushing, missing details, and overestimating how long/how much effort things take.  This has been an issue for a while, no thanks to grad school and my tendency toward anxiety more often than not.  In my last post, I did mention committing in 2013 to vague things relating to my personal growth, and I think that this is a significant part of that.

I hope to be blogging more now that things are settling down, so you might notice more journal-type entries like this one, along with the normal reviews.  I certainly need to catch up with those reviews......