2014: Goals for the Year, January-March

While I am nowhere near an expert at making goals, I have learned from teaching students how to set academic goals that they have to be reasonable, they have to be measurable, and they have to be ACCOMPLISH-ABLE. If you set a goal beyond the time frame available, then you're setting yourself up to fail. (For example, there's no way I could lose 50 lbs in 3 months, at least not without doing it in a very unhealthy manner.)

I also think setting goals for an entire year is a bit too much; stuff happens, and we can't always control what happens to us, just how we react to it. So it makes more sense to set a goal for a few months, and then re-assess at that point. If it's going well, keep going; if it's not working, try to figure out what the problem is and figure out a fix. So my 2014 goals will be for the overall year, with measurable steps along the way.

So what do I want out of 2014?

To be happy,

and

To be healthy.

So how do you measure happiness in a way to achieve a goal? By taking steps to fix the things that make me unhappy.

So as to not overwhelm myself, I have two mini-goals to help me achieve the two overarching goals of 2014, one for each.

Happiness: Break my internet habit. (Don't think I don't see the irony in blogging about this.) Seriously, though, when I come home, I zone out with my computer and iPhone. Some people use the TV, I use the internet. So much time is wasted where I could be doing something much more fulfilling, like crafting, or reading, or stuff around the house that needs to get done. I mean, we're hoping to move in the next 2 months, so I'll need to use at least a couple of evenings for packing, for example. Not to mention I just feel like I'm wasting my life away on the internet when I could be doing something more interesting or personally fulfilling.

So how will I stay off my favorite time-killer? 

• Make plans on the weekends. Can't be on the computer if I'm out of the house. Luckily, I usually have plans on the weekend, so this won't be that much of a stretch. I'll just need to find ways to get out of the house during the day, esp. if The Hubs isn't interested in joining me. 
• I want to stay off the internet at least 3 nights a week for now. Mondays and Fridays will be long days at work due to tutoring after school, so I think it's only fair to decompress with my internet crutch on those days, but I'll aim to stay off the internet Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'll give myself an hour on a timer after dinner, and once that timer goes off, the computer is shut down. 
• Of course, as we are house-hunting (renting, not buying) at the moment, I might have to go on if The Hubs needs me to check something out related to that. 
• No using the internet on the phone if I've shut the computer down for the night. Leave my wifi off. NOTHING is so important that it can't wait until tomorrow. 
• Playing games on my phone doesn't count as "more fulfilling activities". I can play on the phone a little before bed as long as it's not internet and it doesn't keep me up later than I need to be. (If it does, then it'll get limited. To be fair, though, I do read books on my iPhone.)

Health: Only eat out 4 times a week (including weekends). We have gotten into a NASTY take-out addiction. Part of it is my fault; my main household chore is cooking, and I haven't been doing it. Part of the problem was that I injured my calf, which has required me to be off of my feet for most of November, but it was a problem before that (which we blamed my coaching schedule for). The point is that I was working myself overtime, and using it as an excuse to not cook at home. Which means bad food, more money than we need to spend, and actually more time and effort than if I'd just cooked at home half the time. Seriously. We also tend to not cook on the weekends, which meant we were eating out a LOT. We're both tired of it, we're both frustrated that it wastes money, and honestly most convenient fast food doesn't taste that great. And since I'm the main cook, guess whose responsibility it is to fix this problem? That's right, THIS GAL.

So how will I ensure this happens?

• When I'm cooking the current dinner, take out the meat from the freezer for the next meal and put it in the fridge. I tend to use this as an excuse for not cooking, because if I forgot (or "forgot") to defrost the meat, and I'm tired when I get home, then I don't want to wait for the meat to defrost in order to eat, right? GUESS I SHOULD ORDER OUT. So no more, darn it! Take out the food for tomorrow while cooking this evening's meal. Simple!
• Get back to meal planning. It's not even that hard, and I have about a GAZILLION recipes saved to Pinterest - I even have an Excel spreadsheet AND a Google calendar set up for meal planning! So not only do I need to meal plan, but when I'm picking out the food from the freezer to defrost, I'll choose which meal to cook from the plan. 
• Buy a frozen meal or two for "emergencies" (like something comes up that keeps me late, or I just am TOO DANG TIRED). Even buying a pre-made frozen meal is still cheaper than buying a fast-food meal. 

Fairly simple and attainable, and I've still left myself some squidge room to help me transition to these better behaviors. I feel confident going into these because they're not totally overwhelming, they feel manageable, and they're measurable. Even if I end up buying 5 meals out one week, but we've been doing better before then, I'll still feel successful.

I can't guarantee that I'll update regularly with my success, but I'll try. Baby steps into blogging regularly. ;D

What's Happening Lately

Anotha update about me! I know, BORING, but it's my blog and I'll blather if I want to.

• For those of you who were concerned after Daisy's gastrointestinal fireworks on the 4th of July, she's been fine ever since. I'm starting to suspect she does it on purpose so she can get a few days of the "bland diet" that we put her on to help her tummy calm down. (It's boiled ground turkey and white rice, but she eats it like it's filet mignon - you can't even see her face, it's buried so deep in her food bowl!) 
• I'm in the midst of a healthy-eating shift... nothing insane, just recognizing that certain foods make me feel like crud and not wanting to feel like crud anymore. I mean, duh, right? It feels like a drug addiction sometimes, though - slightly hyperbolic to say, I'll admit, but bad-for-you foods activate the same pleasure centers that drugs do. How am I eating healthy? So far I've managed to cut out refined flours, refined sugars, artificial sweeteners, alcohol... you know, everything FUN. ;) I'm at, I'd say, an 85-90% success rate. For example, I had a burger yesterday for lunch, and they didn't have a whole-wheat option, so I forgoed the chips that came with and got a side salad instead. Today's lunch was a sandwich that also comes with a free cookie; I had one half of the sandwich, and the damn cookie because I can't resist a chocolate chip cookie, which is why I avoid them! ;D I'm also easing myself off the artificial sweeteners and diet soda - I had two diet sodas yesterday, which is probably the most I've had all week. I'm much better about drinking water now, and it makes me feel better too! I still drink one diet soda a day, but it's Zevia All Natural Soda. My endocrinologist said stevia is totally ok, so I use it in my iced coffee, and I'm allowing myself a Zevia a day. It helps ease the withdrawal symptoms. Overall, though, while I do miss my breads and baked goods, I feel a LOT better and have more energy. It's like the two are related or something...
  
  
  All right, all right, I'll stop. :p
• Ok, one more thing: Apparently if you eat protein before you eat fruit, the fructose in the fruit takes longer to digest and your blood sugars don't spike so fast. So I cut myself a small slice of a fancier cheese (this week is havarti with dill), grab a handful of pistachios, and piece of fruit. It feels like I'm having a wine tasting-style snack, just minus the wine! I loooove it, yum!
• I spent my week catching up on some of my favorite comic authors. I like superhero comics, but it's such a lot of history to catch up on and I'm only REALLY into a few of them - I'm mostly a Marvel girl. ;D (I had a friend that was a huge comics geek, and he helped me keep up, but then we grew apart and I had to find my own way.) I tend to prefer the non-superhero comics more; my favorite is Fables, which is basically the story of what if all of the fairy-tale characters were real and living in our world. If you haven't read it, or don't consider yourself to be a comics person normally, then I HIGHLY recommend you give Fables a try. (If you don't want to spend the money, check your local library! That's how I caught up this week!) I also checked out Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan, who also wrote Y: The Last Man(which is amazing and another one to check out if you aren't a "comic nerd"); I liked it and I'm willing to check out the next one. COMICS! HUGE NERD! My secret's out. 
• The plan this week is to get off my big butt. I say that every week, but this time it's a mission and not merely wishful thinking. ;) I have some fun ideas to try out and a birthday to prepare for, plus a very exciting (I hope) appointment this week (not job-related, it's a different kind of excitement ;D), so I'm actually feeling good about getting out and having fun this week! Whoooo! 

Working Towards the Tipping Point

I really feel I'm nearing a tipping point when it comes to my health practices, inasmuch that I feel the start towards making some changes where it comes to my health.

I'm noticing more and more that bad-for-me foods are becoming less and less appealing. Partly in taste, and partly in their residual effect on my body (i.e., I feel like crap after eating it).

I'm noticing how good real food tastes; fresh fruit is a revelation, and a cold fresh salad is highly enjoyable most days.

I'm noticing more that when I exercise in some moderation (as in, I actually break a sweat), I feel GREAT afterwards; I enjoy the muscle soreness because it feels like I actually DID something. Yet I never seem to remember this feeling enough to motivate me to work out for the sake of working out.

I'm somewhat unhappy with the fact that I've gained back some of the weight I'd lost when I took my health issues seriously; now I don't take care of myself and BAM, weight is back. I also know that I need to lose this weight to increase my chances of being given permission to "pull the goalie", and I also know that if we hit one into the goal, I will need to be VERY vigilant about what I eat and my exercise due to these health factors in order to keep the pregnancy... I've just been ignoring these things.

There are so many areas of my life that the perfectionist in me feels needs major overhauling, but there is a fair amount about myself that really isn't as bad as I make it out to be. Am I Martha Stewart? No, but let's be honest: Martha Stewart can only be "Martha Stewart" with a lot of outside help. Am I a perfect housewife? No, but I have improved by leaps and bounds in a lot of respects, and that is something to be proud of rather than bemoan that my house isn't spotless 24/7 - it is a lot less cluttered and a lot more organized, something The Hubs and I have worked very hard on as we've matured into adults. Am I a whole-food eating jock? Nope. Do I want to be? Not exactly - so why do I immediately strike myself down because I don't think I could eat nothing but fruits and vegetables and run 10 miles a day? I'm not Chris Traegar, and that's ok. I can be my own definition of healthy. What I'd really like to do is exercise at least 3 times a week, and cut out the crap. If I could eat good-for-me food that avoids processing and chemicals as much as possible, and resist the temptation of refined wheat and sugar, I feel like I would feel a lot better about myself. And if I really look around at what I have available to me to eat, it's really not that difficult. I just need to make it happen.

It takes three weeks to build a habit. Maybe I can start building little habits one at a time; small changes add up, right?

But I've had these thoughts before, and it's only ever worked out temporarily. What makes me think it'll be different this time?

Maybe it feels different this time because I'm tired of being the same. Maybe it's changing intrinsically. Maybe, just maybe, I'm starting that slow climb up the hill to the tipping point.

Note to Self #8973938724973

No matter how tired you are, NOTHING tastes better and soothes the soul more than a home-cooked meal.

Even when half the ingredients came from a can. STILL SOOTHING.

The secret is in finding those shortcuts. Monday was all out of a package, I'll admit (smoked sausage, baked beans, and frozen broccoli for something green), but Tuesday was no processed foods (cheeseburger soup with frozen brocc and cauliflower, yum!). Wednesday was a frozen dinner because I was too tired and The Hubs wasn't going to be home anyway, but today was enchilada casserole made using leftover slow-cooker chicken taco meat.

I came home in a for-no-reason PMS rage mood, and started cooking immediately because if I didn't do it first thing it wouldn't happen. Ended up snapping at The Hubs because I warned him that I was in NO MOOD and then I had a rude response to a completely innocent comment he made, which he (understandably) called me on... which resulted in his head being bitten off by my praying mantis of bitchiness. (He has since gotten it back and we've made amends.) I slammed around making the meal, slammed it in the oven, and was calm enough to apologize. 30 minutes later, hot bubbly cheesy Americanized-Mexicany goodness was ready and WE FILLED OUR BELLEHS.

I am already feeling better, The Hubs is happy to be well-fed again this week, and our pocketbooks remain undented (which is good, because the IRS has been bending us over a LOT this year, ugh). Oh, AND I have lunch tomorrow! Everybody happy!

Honestly, I feel a little pride each time I do cook at home, knowing I was a mutha-f***in' adult and cooked like a grown-up instead of wasting money on fast food. Since I've been cooking at home more often, I've been feeling better about myself more often. It's a nice trade-off.