Happy New Year! I hope that you finished off 2010 as strong as I did! It is the 28th of January and that means there's been 28 days to start a new habit.
We're coming down from the holidays and the wicked winter weather has packed the gym! I picked up a new weekly planner to keep track of my progress. We're going on an active vacation this year, involving backpacking, hiking up and down rough terrain and camping in a National Forest. I've never done any of these things consecutively and to keep myself motivated, I want to train properly. Like my marathoner friends, I plan to log my training efforts and highlight any major accomplishments in fitness schedule.
In my journal, for each day I do something active I write down the activity with some notes (ex. Hike - 5.5 miles various terrain; Cardio 35min/Circuit 25 minutes; Power Yoga 90 min) and that helps me see if I've been active enough for that week. I also started using each day's space to journal my food so I can be aware of what I'm eating... and that's much harder than working out!
As for a big change in our household, we got rid of our microwave to make way for a rice cooker/steamer. We're hoping that elimnating our microwave will keep many prepared foods out of our kitchen. I've taken to baking things like cookies and empanadas and then freezing them so they're not so easily accessible but still around for company or if you just need one sweet bite. And to keep an eye on our budget, we're trying to up our veggie and fruit intake - even in the winter, eating produce seems to be easier on the budget than anything else.
So my three big things that I imagine lots of other people are trying to do in 2011:
1) Exercise even more - and have a goal in mind
2) Keep track and be aware of what I'm eating
3) Eat more colorful foods!
Last thought of the day... I found this article on CNN and thought it best to include it here... I love strength training and you should too (it yields much faster results than just standing on the elliptical)
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/28/exercise.reboot/index.html?hpt=P1&iref=NS1
