Today I began my journey. When I got home today Eric and I headed to the gym. It was so easy I couldn’t believe it. As Eric drove us there I couldn’t help thinking, “This is so easy… why haven’t I been doing it for months?” I can tell you LAZINESS. For some reason I need to hold my hand to the fire when it comes to this whole exercising and eating better thing. Knowing that it’s on other  people’s radar helps me make sure I’m towing the line. It was really nice that Eric and I went together too. I’m so lucky to have such a supportive husband that gently kicks my but in gear when I need it.

Today I  ran 1.72 miles in about 22 minutes. It wasn’t wonderful. It wasn’t earth shattering.. but I did it. I have to say I’m really proud of myself and feel happy today because I started. I suppose to some they might think, “gosh, you didn’t go far”. To me this is a beginning, a baseline, a place to start. I would have loved to bust out and jog/run 5 miles but for me that’s not possible yet so I’ll take this little success and build on it. I think I’m going to try to get my endurance up so that I can run 5 miles by the time I head to Austin, TX in February to visit my friend Stephanie. I don’t want to embarrass myself if she asks to go running while I’m there. I’ve been thinking too that I’m going to try to run a 5K each month. I know there are a lot of them here in Portland. I found a TON at http://www.dailymile.com/events/search?q=Portland,+OR I just need to pick one each month and do it. Having that motivation and those mini-goals will help me stick to this.  I can’t wait to see what’s possible when I overcome my hangups and JUST DO IT!

It’s a new year and so of course that means making resolutions for the year that for me, usually mean I’ll break. Actually, I like to think of them as goals more than resolutions. This year I have a lot of them and I’m hoping that I can reach most of them. I’ve broken the list into a few categories.

Warning: This is a long post.

Health & Wellness

1. Eat more vegetables and fish… less meat and chicken.
   I have eaten way WAY too much junk over the holidays and have never been good about eating enough veggies each day. I’m hoping this year I’ll turn over a new leaf and eat more veggies and fish. I even ordered some new recipe books from Amazon to inspire me. Eric is up to the challenge as well. He loved using the Epicurious iPhone app to find new recipes to try. I’m hoping that at least once a week I can get a recipe posted that we’ve tried.
2. Exercise for 30-45 minutes at least three times a week.
   Ahh… the elusive exercise. This spring and summer I did really well exercising and lost some weight. Of course with winter comes the rain and who wants to run in the rain? Not me and NOT my dogs. So exercise has been a bit elusive for me lately because of the weather and well, I’ve just been crazy busy at work. So this year I’m hoping to break that and get to getting. My mother-in-law, Julie bought me the Biggest Looser game for the  Wii. It was on my Amazon wish list. In any case I now have the Wii set up in my studio and have committed to exercising and playing that game. I’ve just started and let me tell you, it kick my bootie. Here’s to removed those unwanted pounds for good.
3. Walk the dogs three times a week.
   I’m a bad owner. I’m so terrible about taking my dogs for a walk and getting them outside it’s not even funny. Baylee is a little round and well, Kona will never be fat because she’s got the Jack (Crack) Russell in her. So I’m going to get them out and walk them three times a week. Maybe once a month or so I’ll take them to the winery to run. They love it there. I try to take them to the dog park but they get overwhelmed by the super big dogs and just won’t do much so, walking it is. I’m hoping I can get my lazy self up tomorrow and take them. Maybe Eric will join me?

Personal improvements

1. No more than 2 hours or TV or electrical entertainment a day.
   I think I’m a certified couch potato. Most of the time Eric and I do the same thing every day when we each get home. Plop in front of the TV and watch whatever is on or what we’ve got on the DVR until it’s time to go to bed. Go to bed and in some cases watch TV until midnight for no other reason than because it’s there. I have a stack of books, both professional and fun, that I’d like to read but haven’t had the time because I’m parked in front of the TV.  This year that changes. This year I’m only allowing myself two hours of TV or electronic entertainment a day. With any luck I’ll reduce even that. Tonight Eric is watching some football game so I’m upstairs reading and writing. I thought I’d be bored to tears but I have to say, I REALLY enjoy the quiet time. I like being able to collect my thoughts and write them down. I just like not having the blare of the TV. Tonight I only watched 30 minutes of TV and I have to say, that was enough for me. I’m feeling good about this one and hoping to continue it all year-long.
2. Read at least 2 books a month
   Again, I haven’t had, or made, a lot of time to read. I enjoy reading but I’m not a fast reader so it takes me a while to read anything. This year I’m hoping to read 24 books over the year, that’s about 2 books a month. I’m really looking forward to this one as I have several books to read. My “To Read” pile is HUGE, like 40+ books and that doesn’t include the ones on my Kindle. I need to get reading!
3. Try to blog once a week
   This one is here because I’m a bad blogger. I don’t feel the need to HAVE to blog but I want to blog. I often use my blogs to capture events that I later scrapbook. Some of my friends and family read my blog to keep up on things Eric and I are doing or have done. Note: I’m terrible about emailing people about what I’m up to. So I’m hoping to post a blog every week. They might be about thing I’ve read, things I’m doing, scrapbooky stuff, cooking, who knows.. but I’m going to try. If nothing else it will be a great way of me to improve my writing.

Home & Finance

1. Focus on one room a month to “super” clean and organize.
   Ahh… the elusive organization. OK, I’m an organized person. My house is pretty organized too but there are pockets of “junk” and clutter that need to go. In the past I’ve tried spring cleaning but that has ended up in the “junk” moving from one location to another. So this year, with the help of a book bought, One Year to an Organized Life, I’m going to tackle one room a month and clean it from top to bottom and organize everything in it. I’ll Craig’s List what I can and then donate the rest. By the end of this year I want the house it tip-top shape. We’ve just got too much stuff that we don’t use or need around here. I’ve even wrangled Eric into this goal. If we meet the goal for the month, we get to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out. I’ve actually already started. This month is my studio/office. Over New Years I took up the carpet and padding, painted the floor with porch paint and as I started putting things back in the room I purged my stuff. Now there’s a big pile of stuff on the ping-pong table in the garage waiting for Craig’s List. I have to say it feels great to have that room almost done.
2. Stick to our budget
   Eric and I are not good at budgeting. I mean we can plan a budget but it’s the sticking to it that we’re not good at. This year we’re going to really try to stick to it. Our goal is to be debt free, except the mortgage, student loan, and car payment, by the end of this year. That means some belt-tightening and sticking to a budget. We can do it I’m sure we’ve just been lazy.
3. Pay bills on time and together
   This has been an interesting one for us. Paying bills I mean. When we were first married I paid all the bills and kept the finances going. Early last year I couldn’t take it any more and just dumped it all in Eric’s lap to deal with. He has a different style that I do, like keeping the balance in his head rather than using something like Quicken or something to do that. he also doesn’t reconcile the account each month. Those things started driving me crazy so we sat down and wrote up our budget and then I made an Excel sheet with a column for each pay check we’ll get for the year. I then identified what we will pay with which paycheck. Now when Eric gets paid he knows what bills he has to pay and when I get paid I know what bills I need to pay. We also moved from Quicken to iFinance because it’s a Mac application and has an iPhone app that allows you to sync with your Mac so we can always know how we’re doing.
4. Increase 401K
   I’m getting older, hit 40 in 2009… that means retirement is closer. When I retire I want to be able to live the way I do now, maybe better so it’ time to throw more money in the 401K. I’m thinking whatever raise I get this year will go right into the 401K.
5. No credit card charges
   To meet our debt free goal by the end of this year that means no more charges on the credit cards. When we have them paid off I’ll be so happy. This month we’ve gotten two paid off already. Now we just have a little more left to go. I’m going to SO do the happy dance when we get there.

So here’s to a new year, new goals, and a great future ahead. I hope your year is starting out well too.

I thought I should add to my post for today because, well, I’m pretty darn proud of myself. I’m really trying to eat better, work out and just get some of this weight off. I know today is only one day but I ate great!!!! No Carb w/o a protein and I even went to the gym. I didn’t really want to go. I’m good at planning for it and then chickening out at the last minute. Well, today I went and ran on the treadmill for 3 miles. I was so proud of myself. I think I’m going to set the goal for this month to run 3 miles 3-4 times a week, in addition to working out with my trainer. Next month I’ll make a new goal. I’m sort of thinking too of devising some simple, yet effective, incentive plan for myself. Something like 1 point for each hour I work out at the gym, 1 point for eating right for the day and then x points for some reward. I just need ti figure out the reward part.

Hummmm…….. camera lens?……Wacom writer?……. books?…… special treat?….

I just don’t know… Ideas?

Eric and I started our “Improved Health” program just this week. Monday we both saw a physical trainer and went through about a 30-45 minute session. Well, it’s two days later and we’re still sore. Eric, poor guy was so sore last night/this morning that he could fall asleep because he couldn’t get comfortable. SO early this morning he went down to the couch and sleep because he could get comfortable. Poor guy. Me, I’m having a wonderful time (detect sarcasm here) going up and down the stairs and this morning I noticed that I do have upper abs. This was noticed when I raised my arms above my head. I felt that wonderful pain of working muscles I didn’t know I had. Today I got to my trainer again. We’ll see what happens… Eric sees his tomorrow or Friday.