Fitness 1.12

One of my goals for 2014 is to be healthy and fit, which I’m pretty sure is on everyone’s list in some way.
So I’m going to share a few of the things I’m doing to accomplish this goal. I have a really bad habit of eating right. I mean, it’s not all junk food all the time. I love fruits and veggies. But I also love sugary, gummy candies. Cake and cookies also top the list of foods I don’t really want to give up. So while I know flat tummies are “made in the kitchen” and eating right is the first step to feeling and looking good, it’s hard for me to motivate myself to limit my intake of “goodies.”

I feel like it’s easier for me to start with the activity portion of fitness and let the desire to eat right come from that. It’s worked for me before. I previously used Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred challenge video to lose weight and it resulted in me messing up my left knee pretty badly when I pulled my LCL (lateral collateral ligament.) However, I did purchase the same DVD again, because while I know I messed up my knee pretty badly before, it was a great workout that left me with tons of energy. I just have to focus on being careful.
Ultimately, I’ll finish out “the shred” and switch to yoga/pilates (or as my friend Becca likes to call it, yogilates) for long term maintenance activity.

Blender Bottle

As for my eating habits, I’ve done a menu plan for the next few weeks that I’m hoping helps. The long and short of my poor eating habits has to do with never knowing what to eat. I’m a good cook and I’ve made pretty great meals before, but switching to full time work has me beat by the end of most days and I need to be able to plan for it.

I’m also working on just not buying easy junk foods. This one should, in theory, be easy. But my self-control is clearly something that needs to be worked on just as much as everything else.

Anyway, if anyone has any fitness tips, links, etc. Let me know. You can also follow my Health & Wellness Pinterest Board.

2014 Reading Goals - January

Last year, sometime in early January I set my Goodreads.com profile to have a 2013 reading goal of roughly 50 books. It was ridiculously steep given the amount of hardcore terribleness that happened during the year. I think I maybe finished 3-4 books. This year, I’m going to set another, probably more manageable goal. And with a little determination and hard work I should have a less distracting year. Also, I should note that while my goal this year will seem like not enough given my extreme love for books and writing, note what you hopefully already know about my really busy life.

Currently, I’m starting off my year by reading a couple books that have been sitting on my shelf just waiting to be cracked open. During my travel to North Carolina over the first week, I took advantage of long layovers and flights to read Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon I purchased this book at Books-A-Million in Ames, IA as part of a buy 2 get 1 deal back in July or August of 2013. It’s supposed to be some type of thriller about a little girl who goes missing and the events that happen exactly fifteen years later to her brother and his girlfriend. I’ll post up a review as soon as I can.

I brought a second book with me but because I didn't get the first one finished until after we got home it’s waiting to be read. Called “Dear Girls Above Me” this book is based on a blog of supposedly true events, it’s written by a guy (Charles McDowell) who is terribly annoyed by the girls that live in the apartment above him. I’m looking forward to checking this one out, I think I actually got it before I got Don't Breathe a Word.

In total, my goal for the year is 15 books. This gives me the time to relax and pace myself to just over one book a month in 2014, but also enough of a challenge to hopefully motivate me. Ideally I’d love to read two a week like I did in high school when I had boatloads of time and no toddlers to tickle. Now days it’s clearly a bit more complicated to fit everything in but reading is far too close to my heart to let it go like I have.
I’ll update with a February reading list closer to the end of the month. So far I’ve got another 3-4 unopened books on my shelf that need to be loved before I can buy/check-out anything else. Feel free to comment with any recommendations.

*This post isn't sponsored in any way and all books were purchased by me. The links to amazon are affiliate links and I'd love if you'd use them to look up the books mentioned. Thanks!

2014 is just another 365 Days

So what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't write up a goals list to share with all of you!? Not one. Which seems pretty consistent with my writing trends lately. But hey, read on and you'll see that should change with my goals.

2014 Goals
{Write More Consistently} This includes writing on here a least three times a week, writing at least 500 words a day for my current novels in progress, and writing at least one short story/article for freelance pitching per month. I'm not sure how many of you know that I've always wanted to write more. In 2009 and 2010 I wrote a fairly fun and consistent blog that related to being a military spouse and a first time mom. I quit writing consistently after about 14 months and then when my ex and I separated I shut it down completely. I started this one over a year later and have just been really slow with it. I want to change that. I also want to finish the two novels I'm fairly far into writing. Not to mention, my entire goal is to be able to just write books for a living, but having time for that is difficult while working a full-time "real" job so I'd like to be able to write freelance and make enough money to write my novels.

{Love More} I'm a loving, caring, sensitive person. That being said, I don't always show love to the people I love the very most, my kids. I'm so caught up on making sure they eat dinner, take baths, go to bed on time and learn new things that I sometimes forget to just love them. My daughter is naturally cuddly, so she's easy to show my love to. But my son isn't as much of a touchy, feely kiddo - so it's hard to remind him how much I love him. This year I want a complete habit change so that he will always have complete understanding of how important he is to me. Even if it means hugs for the smallest things and understanding of every situation.

{Have More Fun} I don't mean I'm going to go get vomiting drunk once a week. I mean I'm going to just absorb the joy around me. For the majority of 2013 I spent a lot of time with probably the most fun guy in the world. He laughs, he jokes, he dances for no reason, he plans activities, etc. But this extreme show of optimism and positiveness is something I haven't experienced such an abundance of in my entire life. I vow this year to just absorb all the fun and feel the positive energy that surrounds me. I'm excited for this already.

{Eat Healthier} This is probably a standard goal for everyone, but I really know it's something I have to do. I want to be fit and energetic and whatever I've been doing hasn't been working. It's possible I have some type of food sensitivity that causes it, but I get drowsy easily. So I'm making a promise to myself to eat better.

{Save More} This year I'm going to be moving again. I'm not sure when and I'm also not entirely sure of where, but it will happen. Moving cost so much money, the last time I had to move it was a really quick move and I couldn't afford to rent a storage space and ended up using the garage of a friend of a friend. Our entire household worth of belongings were then stolen and never have been recovered. Let me tell you, starting from scratch and realizing every day a new thing that you'll never see again, it's disheartening and devastating. So that's not going to happen again. I'm going to make every effort to save money so that I don't ever have to worry about financing an emergency.

I'm sure there'll be other things, but as of now, this is a guide for me to keep myself positive and progressive.