New Year’s Resolutions Update – 5 ½ months and Counting!

I thought I would take this time to reflect on my New Year’s Resolutions that I made 5 ½ months ago and see how far I have come.

And to make sure I am keeping on track.

To remind everyone (and myself) below are my 7 resolutions:

1.   Try and eat at home 5 days a week

2.   Cardio at least 3 times a week for 30 minutes or more

3.   Eat some type of salad at least 3 days a week (can be a salad for lunch, dinner or side salad with dinner)

4.   Limit alcoholic beverages during the week.

5.   Read at least 26 books (1 every 2 weeks)

6.   Blog at least once a week

7.   Keep writing my stories.

#1 – Eating at Home.  Over the past 5 ½ months I would say I have done about an 85% on my resolutions. I know that I have not eaten at home 5 days a week every week and that is something that has haltered my weight loss considerably. However, when I do go out I don’t get my usual carbs. I try to go for chicken or fish, especially salmon when places have it at a good price (The Border in Leominster has great salmon and less than $15!)  For the entire month of May however, I have eaten at home 5 nights out of the week and it is so much better on my wallet too!

#2 – Cardio 3 times a week.  With respect to #2, doing cardio 3 times a week, when hockey was in full swing it was easy and since not having hockey for the past month and a half I have done at least 3 days of cardio. I try to do about 6 days with 1 day off but my average is probably 4 days a week. I need to get back to doing 6 days a week because hockey starts in 2 weeks and I need to be in shape.

#3 – Salads.  The salad resolution is the worst one. Whenever I go out I try to have a salad with my meal so that I don’t eat that much of the meal and I can bring it home for lunch the next day.  But of course that doesn’t always happen. And then every time I go to the grocery store I honestly forget about getting salad fixings. I should plaster that on my wall somewhere – whenever you go to grocery store, get fixings for salads. Or maybe I just need some fun ideas for salads instead of just lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and dressing. Need ideas people!

#4 – Limit alcohol to weekends only.  As the summer gets closer and closer this resolution might not stick but it has so far and I am hoping that I can keep it up. But sometimes, when it is nice and hot outside all I want is my Three Olives Raspberry Vodka and Pink Lemonade to help cool things down.  I will just have to make that a treat for doing something good like eating salads or working out 5 days a week before I can have that drink. Sounds like a plan to me!

#5 – Reading.  AS you can see on the blog, I added my Goodreads.com Book Challenge widget showing how many books I have read so far this year. And the total right now is 9 and I am reading my tenth, Lucky You (thanks Megan!) I am in pretty good shape with this one, just need to keep reading at a steady pace and I will hit that goal of 26 books in no time!

#6 – Blogging.  For a little while I was slacking on this one as I only had 1 blog in a month span for 2 months. But now I am getting back into the swing of things and I love it. I keep my writing current and it is fun to see how many people actually read this and get something out of it. I hope people like it and like what I have to say about movies, TV shows and books.

#7 – Writing. Again, same as blogging I had a little lapse but in the past week I have been going crazy writing every day and I am almost finished with my 4^th short story! I think I started this one back while I was in college so it has taken me over 4 years to get this far but I am here and that is a great feeling!

I picked these resolutions to make me a better person all around – not just in weight (which needs to go down) but in happiness too. Get back to the things that make me who I am and make me happy. Because in life that is what matters most – knowing what makes you happy and doing it.

I leave this post with a quote from Carrie Bradshaw who may not have it all figured out but this one she does:

“Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.”