An Update on Goals

May 7, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals Tagged With: , ,

In January, I decided to join a group of bloggers in a project called 12 Changes. My first month was awesome- I went vegetarian (and stayed more or less that way for nearly 6 weeks), became a MUCH healthier eater, started to think more consciously about my fitness, and overall had a more positive outlook on the parts of my life that I wanted to improve.

Slowly in my second and third months, I stopped thinking about my project. I was feeling motivated at the beginning of each month to take on a new goal, but within the first week I would entirely stop caring about accomplishing it. Maybe I took too much on at the same time; with work, school, regularly blogging & other various things, it became really difficult to think about this extra project that required quite a bit of time and conscious thought.

I persisted, though. In March and April I set myself up with yet another goal, and both times I didn’t even care to try and achieve it after writing down my objectives. It was in the middle of April, when I realized how much I was failing at another goal in my 12 Changes project, that I realized I just wasn’t dedicating any kind of thought to this project anymore. On paper, it sounded awesome- but in reality? I wasn’t following through with ANY of my challenges.

The truth is, even though I’m a huge procrastinator, I’m also extremely ambitious. I constantly convince myself that I can take on yet another thing, and another, and then another, until finally I realize I probably shouldn’t have agreed to all these projects. I mean, I currently have a semi-full time paying job and I’m now doing two part-time NON paying jobs. I try and blog  5 days a week. I have a 23 Before 23 list of goals with a looming deadline, a 101 in 1,001 list of goals with a deadline a little further away, and a ton of other commitments that take up my time.

I’ve got all these plans, but having too many is starting to get to me. It’s never easy to admit that you’re giving up on something, but I know that by finally deciding this project isn’t for me I’ll be able to focus my time into the things that I’m actually feeling good about.

So today, I’m shutting down my 12 Changes. It was fun while it lasted, but truthfully it was one thing too much for me.

That being said, I’m excited to play catch-up with all the other things I’ve got going on. Like I mentioned last week I really want to take advantage of this summer, and I just don’t want to stress myself out with yet another deadline.

I plan on writing an update on the other things I’ve got going on later this week, just to get myself back on track. The whole accumulation of TOO MUCH these last few weeks has meant that the things I actually managed to work on this year haven’t been going very well. I’m excited to re-focus my attention on the projects that I still feel passionate about, and see where that takes me for the next few months! 

Have you ever given up on a project, or felt like you took on too much? 

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Resolutions [A Quarterly Review]

April 13, 2012 Filed Under: 101 in 1,001, 12 Changes, 23 Before 23, Goals, Project 365 Tagged With: , ,

At the beginning of January, I set myself up with a bunch of goals for 2012 and I thought it was high time I reviewed to see how I was doing! I have a sneaking suspicion that 1/4 into the year and I’m doing pretty badly, but I haven’t looked at my list in a while so hopefully I’ll feel re-inspired to complete my goals by the end of the December!

1. Complete my 12 Changes project

I was definitely hoping to stay more motivated throughout this project, but so far 4 months in I kind of feel like I’m losing my steam with it. Not because I don’t like my goals or because they’re too difficult (they really aren’t) I just haven’t felt motivated to keep up. But I WANT to be. I am just kind of lazy. Let’s see if I can fix this!

2. Finish my 23 Before 23 goals by July 10th 2012 (the last day of the challenge, of course!)

I’ve done surprisingly well on this list considering I thought I had WAY more left to do. I mean, I still have quite a bit left to do but I’ve accepted that some of these goals may not be crossed off. The majority will! I’m in the middle of like half of them and planning for a few more, so hopefully once school is over I’ll be able to spend more time on them.

3. Finish, as best I can, my 101 Goals in 1,001 Days, which ends on September 28th 2012

In my mind, this goal is already practically completed. I just reviewed them before writing this post and did some crossing off of goals that I no longer WANT to complete and tried to remind myself of what I have left.

4. Decide what to do next once all my lists of goals are completed. Another 101? Another birthday list?

Definitely not another birthday list, I think my 23 Before 23 has been my least favorite to accomplish because of the tight time frame. Right now I don’t even know if I want to create another list of any sort because the idea of having NO LIST after 3 years of constantly having them at the back of my mind just sounds freeing. Then again, I loved my 101 in 1,001 so maybe I could do that? We’ll see. I still have time for this one.

5. Read 60 books

I’ve been doing pretty bad with my reading goal, to be honest. In 3 and a half months I’ve read like 9 books. I don’t even know why, I just haven’t put enough of my time aside for it! I currently put my goal down to 50 books and Goodreads still tells me I’m VERY BEHIND. We’ll see what I can do this summer to catch up!

6. Make an effort to blog more about books and music that I love, rather than just using them to fill up days that I don’t know what else to write

This has been an important goal for me because it’s meant trying to steer my blog into a particular direction instead of just random posts every day. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of doing this so far this year- I’ve reviewed most books that I’ve read and often talk about music around here. I’ve also been focusing a lot more on my honest posts and my personal writing. I’ve felt really good about my space lately!

7. Travel 

I have some potential plans for this summer, which was the idea behind this goal. I am determined to go SOMEWHERE in my 4 months off. There is no way I will stay home all that time. I want to get back on a plane and SOON. Florida was a great way to kick off my travel plans in February, but I need more out of 2012.

8. Complete my 365 picture challenge

Still going strong! I’m past day 150 now, you can follow along with me on my Facebook.

9. Take part in the 2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge (thanks again for the link, Miranda!) 

So far 8 out of the 9 books I’ve read this year are YA, which means I am almost 1/4 through this challenge. I guess that means I’m almost on schedule? Except I’d like to read more than 40 books this year and I have a TON of adult fiction to catch up on, so I need to pick up my reading pace that I seem to have left behind in 2011!

10. Make 2012 all about happiness, adventure, taking risks, and accomplishments

I had completely forgotten about this goal, but I think subconsciously I knew this is what I wanted out of 2012. My ‘Little Moments’ of every day life help remind me to stay happy, but as for the rest I think I am naturally just headed in that direction. Again, I feel like these are ideas that often come up in my blog posts which means I must be headed in the direction of risk taking and accomplishment-making. I don’t think I’m anywhere near completing this goal as it’s more of a life goal than just 2012, but I still want to make this year one to remember!

All in all, I’m not doing AS BAD as I had thought, but I do need to stop being lazy so often. I hate that I feel so tired after work all the time & rarely have energy to do other things. I want to change that feeling before my next review!

Have a fantastic weekend!

How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? 

 

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12 Changes: April

April 3, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals Tagged With: , , ,

At the end of last week, I wrote about how I needed time off from goals in March, so I basically ignored everything I had planned and did whatever I darn well pleased for almost the whole month. It was lovely.

Last year, when I wasn’t part of 12 Changes, I still did monthly goals. I would write a few things that I really wanted to aim for each month (books to read, goals from my 101 in 1,001 that I wanted to start on), and I realized this weekend that I really miss having goals like that, too. I mean, it’s great to want to improve your well being but thinking about ways to constantly do better is exhausting. It really is.

When I originally started to plan my 12 Changes project, I chose to tackle Procrastination for April. I still really want to work on this, because I’m AWFUL at procrastinating, and I’m in my final exam period for the month. It’s the perfect time to learn how to study in advance & set up my time so that I’m not cramming for 12 hours a day the week before finals.

April will be about making school a priority. 

I have exams on April 18th and on April 22nd. I have a LOT of concerts and interviews planned as well, and I don’t want to miss out on any fun because I’m procrastinating. I want to fit in time for myself, time to work, and time to go out with friends in between study sessions. I want to have enough time to feel BEYOND comfortable with my school material. I want to end this semester feeling good, productive & ready to enjoy the summer months ahead.

I have a few other intentions for this month though. Because as much as I needed some time to just BE, I also remind myself that the best things in life come with hard work. 

By NOT procrastinating, that will mean a few things: 

1. Getting off the computer a little more. I want to completely shut off everything but music for a few hours while I study. I want my study time to be productive and I will not be able to properly focus with Facebook/Twitter etc.

2. Studying 4-5 times a week. I want to spread out my studying throughout the week. I know I won’t be able to do it EVERY SINGLE DAY, but I’d like to get a few hours in at least four times a week. As I get closer to my exams I’ll have to dedicate more and more time to doing well, but I want to get ahead start before then.

3. Make more time for me. Away from the computer, away from the stress of exams. I want to read more, especially. I used to be able to read 4-5 books a month and now? I’m lucky to finish even TWO.

4. Being more mindful of the minutes and the hours in a day. I often find myself perusing the internet for hours without seeing the time go by. But I want to be more mindful of where all my time is going. I hate that I seem to have so little time to accomplish things that some people seem to have SO MUCH TIME FOR. I’m just really bad at time management, and it all comes back to procrastination.

I love procrastinating, I’m a freaking champion at it. I come up with all the excuses in the world to NOT do homework right NOW when in reality it should be a priority. And that’s the thing, I tend to lose sight of my priorities because I see so many people around me having fun and doing things that are NOT homework.

April is about finding the balance in life again, enjoying the good things but finding time for the important things too!

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12 Changes: March

March 6, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals Tagged With: , , ,

I’ve been feeling really unmotivated since February to continue on with my 12 Changes project. I was SO excited to do it at the end of 2011 when I had been planning it and I did so well in January that it really surprises me how my motivation went out the door in the last 3 weeks. But it has.

I’ve been trying to figure out WHAT it is I’m doing differently since January that has made my motivation to change bad habits waver, but it all kind of feels like excuses when I try to write it out. The truth is, if I don’t hold myself accountable for every thing I do in relation to that particular “change”… Then I just don’t do it. I need to SEE my change in front of my face every morning, I need to feel like it’s something I want to do each day. San wrote a great post about her 12 Changes that really resonated with me, too, where she explained the difference between “should” goals and “want” goals. There are the goals that you SHOULD accomplish (for me it was clearly getting fit, but I’m working on it) and the ones you WANT to accomplish (eating healthier was way up there on my “want” list). Maybe the reason I’ve been lacking motivation to continue is because I was so UN-motivated by my “should” goal in February.

I want to change all this for March and get back on track. I’m currently not really feeling up to it, but I want to push myself to feel excited about this project again.

The last two months, I wrote my goals down with pen & paper, hoping that would remind me of what I’d like to accomplish more clearly. This month, I want to try something different. I’m going to type up my project and print it out. So instead of sharing PHOTOS of what I want my March goals to look like, I’m actually going to get back to blogger basics and actually write about them.

I want March to be about BUDGETING.

I did this purposely. I knew in 2011 that I would be coming home from Florida at the end of February, so March was a natural choice for me to get back into the swing of budgeting. I tried doing this a few times in the past and did REALLY well, but then I kind of let it all fall apart.

I’d like to NOT do that this month. 

My Budgeting Goals

1. Track every single purchase for the month
- Look into using my Mint account more regularly again
- Carry around a notebook to carry receipts/write numbers down

2. Create a real budget. Stick to it. 
- Dig through archives and refine the one I made last year (it was working!)

3. Read at least one book on budgeting (suggestions?)
- I was thinking something by Gail Vaz-Oxlade, heard she is good… Must do research! I need a writer to motivate me

4. #88 on the 101
Spend 5 months not buying any food except groceries. Have a weekly treat!
- Set a grocery budget, make lunches/breakfasts
- Stop spending change in vending machines!

What I want by the end of the month

I want to feel more secure with the way I spend my money. I am an impulsive buyer, and I want to learn to stop. I’m already pretty good at talking myself out of a LOT of purchases, but I still manage to spend way beyond my means. I want to learn to NOT spend money that I don’t have. I want to be on my way to paying off debt & saving up for school and future vacations. (as per yesterday’s post!) I know that I still live at home & have it pretty easy in terms of paying bills- although I do have a few- but it’s time that I learn what it means to SAVE money instead of SPEND it. I want to be more CONSCIOUS of the money I make. 

** As for January and February’s goals that have yet to be accomplished? Those are still on my “to-do” list! I just need to figure out how to start at square one and work my way back to a good, healthy place. It’s always a challenge but I’m determined to do this because I feel great when I’m working towards a healthier lifestyle!

If you’re doing 12 Changes, what do your goals for March look like? Have you been successful so far this year? If yes, what are your tips to staying motivated? And if not, what are you doing to get back into the swing of things?

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February Wrap-Up

February 29, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes Tagged With: , , , , , ,

To be honest, I really didn’t feel like writing this post. My 12 Changes project really didn’t follow me very well in February in ANY way. I had lots of excuses lined up to write about, here are some:

1. I was planning a vacation so I didn’t really have time to do anything fitness related

2. I was really busy with school for the first half of the month which means I couldn’t really go to the gym

3. I hate Jillian Michaels and don’t want to do her workouts anymore

4. I hate keeping a food diary so I decided not to anymore

5. I had so many other things to do, going to the gym was the least of my worries. Also, I was still eating healthy so that counts for something, right?

I mean, sure, to some extent all of these reasons/excuses/whatever you want to call them have some validity, but mostly they really don’t. I hate setting myself up with goals and not being able to accomplish them, but I can honestly say that I just WASN’T up for it this month. 

On the bright side I’ve still been doing relatively well with my eating habits, although I’ve decided not to be a full vegetarian any longer. That doesn’t mean I’m back to the kind of eating habits I had in 2011 AT ALL- I’ve cut so much out of my diet- but I like having options if I want them, and the main purpose of my healthy eating was to be more conscious of what goes into my body and I’ve been doing JUST that.

I do cheat though, and I’m sad to admit that this past week was probably my worst of 2012, but I get this *feeling* after being unsuccessful for long enough that it just doesn’t matter anymore. I’m a VERY organized person (in most areas of my life) and I require symmetry in everything that I do (this often shows in my work) so I hate *starting* something with just a few days left to the month.

That’s really another excuse, but it’s also true. I’ve decided to give myself a break for one more day, the last day of February, before kicking back up in high gear and getting back into my goals for the year. I was SO motivated just 2 months ago, I think life has been getting in the way of the things I hoped to accomplish! It’s time to start printing out my goals and facing them every single day. In February, I did a really good job of pretending they don’t exist, and admitting that to myself really sucks. But I just had to be honest here.

It’s always tough to start a new good habit when you’re in the midst of doing a million other way more exciting things (planning my trip and going on it was FAR more exciting than planning gym excursions)… I just want to learn to stop making excuses for myself. I’ve done it for SO long and I just don’t want to. I want to make time for the things that are truly important in life, and health is IMPORTANT. 

February wasn’t great and I wasn’t really expecting it to be, but next month I’m going to be taking some time to re-organize my priorities and the goals I haven’t succeeded at yet are at the top of the list.

How did your February goals go? Any tips/tricks to get into a good fitness routine and not cringe it? 

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February: 2 weeks in

February 15, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals, Health Tagged With: , , , , ,

I wasn’t going to make these mid-way through the month posts a regular thing, but it helped me so much in January, I figure it can’t hurt to try again.

Because so far my February 12 Changes are going VERY badly. The idea for February was to continue my healthy living from January and get back into a fitness routine to compliment the healthy eating habits I developed last month. I started off February really strong by hitting the gym a few times a week… And then I got kind of sick and it all went down the drain.

I’m admitting full on failure because I promised myself that I would hold myself accountable for everything I was doing in my 12 Changes program- good or bad- so that’s what I’m trying to do, even though this is not a fun post to write at all.

After getting sick, midterms started to creep up on me, along with a million other tiny things that I had to do before this weekend when I leave for my trip. My problem when I mix school with everything else is that I become very one-track-minded, and I forget to make time for myself in a productive way. When I purposely choose to sit down for an hour I don’t WANT to work out, I want to catch up on some TV or reading.

I think that’s always been my biggest problem: I make myself feel guilty for doing things for myself when I’m in the midst of homework and work and family gatherings. I reason that if I don’t have enough time to finish studying, why should I give myself an hour to work out? I realize this is not very logical, but it’s the way I think- I just can’t help it.

No matter how much I want to be the kind of person who goes with the flow, I will always be a worrier when it comes to getting important things done. I let myself go in these more stressful times because I don’t want to have to think of all the extra little things I *wish* I was doing while I’m working on something that isn’t very interesting to me (like studying).

As of this evening, my midterms will be finished and I will have absolutely NO reason to not get ahead on my goals and put myself in a good place for whatever comes my way in March. I don’t want to give up so easily; I want this mid-month check in to be a reminder for myself. I may not be able to change who I am, but I want to change my unhealthy habits, and that has to start somewhere. 

One of the big things I’m doing differently compared to last month is that I don’t have my list of goals up on a wall to look at every day. I’m not looking at my daily reminders, and I *want* to be. I thought I would be able to hold myself accountable without seeing my  plans every morning, but I think it helped a lot more than I realized. So I’m going to find a way to do that again as of tomorrow.

Luckily I’ve still been eating really well (except a few cheats, what can I say, I’m stressed! A girl needs some M&M’s to relax once in a while!) but the exercise thing is getting the best of me for now. I’m *really* hoping that my vacation next week with two of my most health-fanatic friends will boost my motivation levels way back up. With a gym in our hotel and no more worries after today except packing, I want to get back to the gym, back to the Jillian Michaels work-out (even though I hate her while I’m doing it) and back to feeling good about myself every day. 

How are your February goals going so far? 

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12 Changes: February

February 2, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals Tagged With: , , , ,

Since January I’ve started to eat a lot healthier & I thought fitness would be the perfect way to keep up the momentum. I’ve never been very big on exercise, to be honest. I’d rather stay home and read, watch TV, drink coffee and write.

Last summer I had my first REAL fitness experience when I joined a fitness studio. One of my 101 goals in 1,001 days was to join a gym, but I had come to terms with the fact that I would never be a “join a gym” kind of girl. Until one of my best friends found an amazing deal through Living Social and convinced me to join her for a month of fitness before we left for Greece.

And so my experience with fitness began in July, and thank God I have friends like her because she always knows when to push me to do things that are good for me. I ended up learning to really enjoy fitness classes and, yes, even exercise with Jillian Michaels on the side. When I went to Greece I felt AMAZING, but while I was there I didn’t exercise anymore… so I lost this new found habit of mine. 

Ever since, I’ve wanted to get back into a fitness routine. I let school take over last semester and I made no time for ME to do things for my body. But with the New Year it’s time to MAKE TIME for me and for the things that are good for my well being. 

Writing down my goals on real paper last month really helped me out. It’s like it was really there for me to see, like I had really decided it was going to happen. I looked at my goals up on my wall regularly, and I thought about my “don’t forget” tips all the time. So I decided to stick with it for February and I wrote myself a little pep talk! Hopefully it works for me again. I know that exercise isn’t something that comes easily to me, but luckily I’m surrounded by people who motivate me on a regular basis & I know they’re going to keep me in line after seeing this. 

I started getting back to fitness classes LAST week, but haven’t done any really serious exercise yet. By this weekend I’d like to be back into the 30 Day Shred every single day, or almost. I know I hate that woman when she’s telling me that “300 pound people do jumping jacks, you can too! Keep going!” (Maybe I can’t Jillian! STOP BULLYING ME) but I also know that when the work out is done and the feeling of throwing up/passing out is over, I’m ready to go at it again. I miss the burn of a good work out in my muscles.

I also know that by focusing more on fitness and on a routine, I’ll be more likely to eat even BETTER and not want to cheat (who wants to see their hard work go down the drain?) Ideally, I want to feel really fantastic when I go to Orlando in 3 weeks. I know that’s really pushing it, but if I keep at it, I’ll have a nice post right before I leave about how awesome my work outs have been.

January was really good to me, and I want to keep at it. I think I can do it! 

What does your February look like? If you’re doing 12 Changes, what’s your goal for the month? 

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12 Changes: January Wrap-Up

January 31, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals, Health Tagged With: , , , , , ,

I can’t believe that the first month of 12 Changes is already over! It feels like just last week everything was being organized to get started, and here I am getting ready to start adding new goals to the ones I’ve already accomplished!

Here’s what January looked like for me: 

This month was all about starting the New Year with better eating habits. I was tired of going to sleep every night feeling like I had eaten too much BAD stuff for me; I just wanted to feel good about myself again and I wanted to make healthy living a part of my LIFE, not just something I worked on for a short period of time.

That’s why I chose January for health. It was really important to me to start this year off the RIGHT way, and with a healthier lifestyle from Day One, I knew the rest of my changes would be natural additions to Big Number One.

My goals for January

1. Go one month without junk food

I did pretty good on this one. I’m definitely considering it *done* because I realized that I’m not the kind of person who can cut entire things out of my diet for so long. I mean, I know it’s just one month, but junk food (or refined sugars in general) are such a HUGE part of everything I eat, I think my body would have just gone into serious withdrawal if I cut it out entirely, so suddenly. I know some people are able to do this, but that’s just not me, and I’ve accepted that.

That being said, halfway through January I re-committed myself to trying much harder at cutting it out more significantly from my diet, and I succeeded. I had a few *cheat days* which I am 100% okay with, but junk food is becoming a thing of the past for me. Now, when I treat myself, I try to do it in little amounts because too much crappy food makes me feel REALLY gross. My body no longer processes it as well as it used to, and for me that is a great thing. It means there are big changes happening!

2. Start taking vitamins

Done! I took vitamins every other day because the ones my mom bought are extra strength and I didn’t want to over-do it. I also talked to my brother about multi-vitamins and he thinks they’re useless, but I’m still not sure. I usually take his advice on health things because he is such a healthy person (and often the one to help me when I’m trying to improve my own health) so I’d like to do more research about vitamins before I make this a permanent habit. I don’t know if I’m the kind of person who NEEDS them or not, but for this month I made sure to take them often to see if I noticed a difference in myself.

I can’t say that I see a HUGE difference because of vitamin-taking; I know that other aspects of my healthy-eating have contributed to me losing weight, having better complexion and overall a healthier glow to me, but I really don’t know if vitamins helped at all. Does anyone know anything about vitamin-taking? 

3. Try vegetarianism for one week 

Success! I just completed two weeks of almost complete vegetarianism. I did one full week with no meat, cold-cuts, or fish, and at the end of my first week I had chicken (which I didn’t enjoy at all because I didn’t want to eat it, but had to at a public dinner). Since then I’ve fully incorporated fish back into my diet, but I haven’t had any other major meats in a meal. I did help make a soup with my SIL with a real chicken broth base and bits of turkey/chicken in it, which I’ve now eaten twice. It’s a little bit of extra protein in my diet which I am fully okay with.

The point wasn’t to stay vegetarian after my first week, but I honestly had SO much fun with it. It forced me to cook different meals, print out recipes, and try out vegetables I don’t normally buy. I’ve made several dates with my awesome sister-in-law who’s a great cook, and she’s shown me how to make some great veggie recipes. Now that I’ve seen how much fun it can be to make meat just an occasional meal, I’m fully prepared to continue NOT eating it. I used to eat meat 4-6 times a week and I now realize how overwhelming that was for my body.

4. Keep a food diary

I did NOT do this one. I started for my first week/week and a half, but I had no good way of keep track of what I was eating… Not to mention I cheated a lot and didn’t want to write it down, ha! The point of this goal for me wasn’t to keep track of calories because I don’t want to do that, I just wanted to see what I was eating every day. I debated starting at the halfway point in January but decided against it… So I guess I purposely didn’t complete this goal.

I’m debating whether I want to try to do this in February. I think I might- I bought a really cool food diary to help me keep track of my food AND my exercise, and that is something I’m interested in doing.

—–

Overall, I’m really happy with how this month turned out! I’m 100% ready to get started on Month Two and start tracking my progress with new goals. I accomplished some things in January that I really didn’t know I had in me, and I’m excited to continue making healthy eating a long-term lifestyle change.

How did your resolutions go in January? If you’re taking part in 12 Changes, how was Month One for you?

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Going Vegetarian

January 26, 2012 Filed Under: 101 in 1,001, 12 Changes, Goals, Health Tagged With: , , , , ,

At the beginning of the month, I decided that January would finally be the time that I try out vegetarianism for a week. I was pretty motivated to do it, though I honestly had NO idea how I would go about accomplishing it. I mean, I’m a pretty decent cook when I put some effort into it but I had never cut something out of my diet ENTIRELY. Especially not meat; something I have been relying on my whole life.

But people do it all the time and I was determined to be a little bit more independent in the kitchen, so I woke up on Sunday the 15th of January and decided that would be Day One of Going Vegetarian. I think Day 1 was the toughest because I had originally wanted to meal plan for my week and have things prepared by the time that Sunday came around, but I didn’t do any of that. I was SO determined to start on that day,  though, that I managed with the things we had in the house for that whole day plus the entire next day at work until I was able to go to the grocery store.

Since then? I’ve been completely vegetarian. I only cheated *once* but it was at the very end of my first week at a family dinner, and I barely ate meat at all. Despite never having eaten completely vegetarian (or really cooking for myself) I had a surprisingly easy time doing it. My mom was incredibly supportive of this new thing I was trying & she made me two huge pots of vegetable sauce. The sauce is AMAZING and goes on just about everything. I’ve been able to use it so far with pasta and quinoa, but I’m thinking I may use it to make eggplant parmesan very soon too.

Here’s the thing I HADN’T been bargaining on; I’m actually having a lot of FUN cooking for myself. I mean, I’ve never been a cook at all, but I’ve even become one of those people who goes online and prints recipes- AND MAKES THEM.

Here are some of the meals I’ve made since going vegetarian:

 

 

From top left: vegetable sauce- 3 cheese tortellini & raspberries in soya milk- fresh cooked quinoa toped with grilled carrots/green peppers/onions and topped with veggie sauce- sliced strawberries & banana in vanilla soya milk- hummus, v8, vine leaves and gluten free crackers (a little bit of everything lunch)- leak/broccoli homemade soup & a tomato/bocconcini cheese grilled sandwich.

After my first week was over, I decided to include fish back into my diet so that I could have some concrete source of protein. Although my mom is still eating meat and everyone around me is too, I haven’t given into temptation. I mean, there are those moments where I REALLY want what other people are eating, but then I remember just how happy I am right now with all these vegetables in my diet and I’m not ready to change that. I’m realizing that meat is an easy meal to make when I’m in a hurry, but cooking something yummy and vegetarian takes a little bit more thought. You need something that’s going to sustain you, and everyone is different when it comes to figuring out exactly what foods will do that for them.

As of right now, I’m sure that being a vegetarian isn’t going to be a permanent thing in my life. I would miss meat way too much and I don’t want to fully deprive myself of that just yet. I support vegans and vegetarians 100% though, it is a REALLY tough lifestyle to maintain. I’ve learned so much already in my time as a vegetarian/semi-vegetarian, and I’m just really excited to see where I go with this next.

I’m going to write up some important things I learned pretty soon, but I’ve been really excited to share my success story. I’d like to say that I believed in myself a whole lot, but the truth is that going into this I didn’t REALLY. I was motivated to complete the goal, but wasn’t sure I’d actually make it. Now that I’ve done it, I want to continue testing myself to see what other things I can diminish in my diet. Ideally, when I eat meat again (whenever that may be) I’d like it to be on a much less regular basis than before!

Most importantly, I know that I can eat meat now if I want to. When I say ‘no’ to it, it’s not because I’m depriving myself. I genuinely prefer my other potential options. I have SO many ideas for things to make next week, and I’m heading over to my brother/sister-in-law’s this afternoon so that they can show me how to make some of their favorite all-vegetarian recipes. Who AM I right now?!

Have you ever gone vegan/vegetarian? How was your experience? Would you ever try it? What are some of your favorite vegetarian recipes?

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January: 2 weeks in

January 17, 2012 Filed Under: 12 Changes, Goals, Health Tagged With: , , , , ,

First off, I just want to say thank you to everyone who commented on my post last week about writing anxiety. It looks like there are a LOT more people out there than I realized who have the same worries and fears as I do, and that alone makes me feel better. So thank you for reaching out and letting me know I’m not totally crazy! :)

Second, have you entered my giveaway yet?! You can still do it here!

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Today I wanted to take some time to review January so far. Every year, as December comes to a close & a New Year is just days away, I find myself having big hopes and ideas for the weeks to come. I always feel extra ambitious and set up all these goals and plans. Ideally, it’s at this time that I would accomplish the most because I am the most excited to make me a Better Me. But logically, that’s not quite what happens.

And so January is halfway through and I’m struggling a little bit with my goals, although not losing my motivation in the least. Saying that you’re going to DO something for the BETTER is one thing. But actually setting forth the actions to accomplish those somethings is an entirely different story. 

I currently have my list of 12 Changes up on my wall in a place that I can just look at them every day. Right next to that list, I have the goals I set myself up with for ‘health’ in January alongside the reminders like “10 minute rule” and “boredom does not equal hunger“. Many days in the last 2 weeks, it’s those rules that have prevented me from indulging when I knew I shouldn’t. But then there are the days where I pretend those papers aren’t on the wall at all, and I indulge anyway.

I’m only human, and I know mistakes happen, but I still feel really crappy when they do. Especially when I am my most ambitious and motivated Self.

These past two weeks, I have indulged, yes. But I have indulged only half as much as I normally would have. I made sure people were holding me accountable for my goals, because they are out in the open for everyone to see. My friends see them when they come over and questions ALWAYS come up, and I gladly oblige and explain to them what I’m doing (nervously, because I am a nervous person when it comes to sharing these things). I’m often happily surprised at how “on-board” everyone is with my project. My family knows too, and when I’m about to cheat I hear my brother saying “good for you” and I’m reminded that YES, it is good for me.

The first two weeks of January were meant to be a big “crappy food” detox but instead it turned into a “somewhat crappy food detox” and I guess that’s fine with me. There’s no point in looking back, right? Only forward. On the days that I ate super healthy, I felt great. I felt like the Better Me that I WANT to be. In the last two weeks of January, I’m holding myself accountable that much MORE. I want to finish off this month and confidently cross off my four goals for the month knowing that I accomplished them as best I could (not as HALF best I could).

The last two weeks of January should be interesting for me: I have a week of vegetarianism coming up (I’m 2 days in it right now, actually! More on that another day) and basically I want to cut even more crap food out of my life in these last 12 days or so. I had a conversation with a friend the other day and she made a good point- it’s nearly impossible to just cut out everything you love (even for a month) and all at once. It makes a person cranky, and I really hate being cranky. So I’m doing my “one month no junk food” my own way, and if all goes to plan I’ll still cross the goal off because I can SEE myself trying really hard. The rest of January is going to be the “try even harder” time, and I’m more motivated than before to just finish off this health month the right way.

Some homemade vegetarian pasta sauce, this veggie thing is lots of fun so far! 

January may not be the most exciting, extraordinary month of goals. But it’s still SOMETHING and I’m still keeping myself motivated and excited for the goals that I want to add in February. I’m nervous, but if I want to get to a point where I can incorporate more goals, I really have to get my head MORE in the game.

So, if you’ve read this far and you’re thinking “yeah, I could be doing better with my resolutions too!” then I encourage you to do it with me right NOW. If you give yourself no other option than to succeed (instead of indulging as I have in the past few weeks) then success is the only possible outcome, right? Let’s end January the RIGHT way.

If you’re participating in 12 Changes, how is month 1 going for you? Any slip-ups or exciting breakthroughs? What are your tips for succeeding all month? 

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