December Goals

Hi friends!  Happy Wednesday to you 😀  How are y’all doing?  I started coming down with a cold earlier this week so I am currently loading up on tea, water and  lots of vitamin C!  I decided to take the week off of running in order to get better- it is flippin’ cold out and I don’t think that helps the cold much.  Originally I was going to take a break from hot yoga too but what can I say- I’m addicted to it and I’m feeling better 😉

Monday evening was blend-tastic 😀  I got together with some of my favorite local blends to enjoy some of the best pizza I’ve ever had at DeFazio’s in Troy.  If you are local, I highly recommend checking it out!  The staff was super friendly and the pizza was amazing!

Emily and Me.

Courtney and Jen.

 

I had a lot of fun girls!  I’m looking forward to another blend pizza date in the future 😀

Ah, onto my goals for December.  It’s a little late but I have been following them since the start of the month.

Goals:

Personal

1. Spend quality time with friends.  ‘Tis the season and what better way to spend it than catching up with friends?  I am heading to Long Island this weekend to spend time with Nicole, one of my oldest and closest friends (and unofficial race photog, woohoo!).  Heather is hosting a fun cookie swap and one of my other besties, Kristin, will be in town for two weeks for Christmas break.  Yes!  It is going to be a fun month.
2. Change my last name on my social security card and passport.  So simple yet I keep forgetting to do it.  Get ‘er done!
3. Frame photos for office.  I’ve had a few photos waiting to be put in a frame to be hung on the walls of my office.  For about a year.  No more slacking!
4. Organize my closet.  Ugh.  Melissa, you should come help.  😀

Fitness/Health-wise

1. No meat- track food intake daily to record how meatless diet impacts how I feel.   Why I stopped eating meat this month is a story for another post.  In the meantime, I’ve made a committment to not eat meat and to track everything I eat and drink and record how I feel- tired, well-rested, etc.  So far it is going pretty well!

2.  Maintain base mileage of 40 miles/month.  I’m not sure how this will pan out, seeing as how I am taking this week off.  It’s okay though 😀

3.  Attend three to four hot yoga classes per week, except when traveling.   I love how hot yoga makes me feel.  I am addicted for sure!

4.  Partake in Kacy’s 20 salads in December challenge.  Basically, I have to eat twenty salads this month.  I can totally do it and it is a fun way to incorporate more greens into my life.  So far I am on salad four, I think. 

My lunch today was a huge salad beast- spring mix, fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and cashews.  The star of the show in this salad was Annie’s Papaya Poppy Seed dressing!  So. Effing. Good!   If you see it, you should buy it! 

So, those are my goals.  Have you set any goals for this month?  Is it flippin’ freezing where you are too? 

Have a good one, peeps!

Boots, Blends, & Bailey

Hi friends!  Thank you for all of the kind words and congrats on my dad’s first 5k.  I know he loved all of the comments!  🙂 

How was your holiday weekend?  It is starting to look like Christmas in my house:

Isn’t this little tree gorgeous?  My stepmom found it at a craft fair.  I love it!  When do you usually start decorating for the holidays?  I am a strict wait until at least Thanksgiving passes kind of girl.

It was nice to have a four day weekend.  I got some shopping done and found these beauties:  

Forty percent off at Banana Republic.  Score!  I have been on the lookout for a pair of flat tan boots for who knows how long.  It figures that when I’m not looking for them they pop right up.  I love them so much that I’ve been wearing them everywhere, including around the house.  😉

I attended a few hot yoga sessions over the holiday weekend:

• Hot Rockin’ Vinyasa, 80s style (Wednesday evening)- I wore the most ridiculous eighties outfit.  It was fun!
• 26 plus (Friday morning)- Like tradition Bikram but even harder!
• Silent Bikram (Sunday afternoon)- my most favorite class ever.

All of that yoga has left me feeling awesome!  With the exception of one week, I think I hit my November goal of attending at least four yoga classes per week. 

Yesterday was a busy and fun day!  I ran 3.25 cold, invigorating miles.  I am on the fence as to what my perfect running weather is.   I don’t like it too cold but running in the summer is NOT my favorite.  Yesterday’s temps of almost 40 degrees was pretty awesome!

After the run, I met up with Jen to have lunch at Professor Java’s and give her some TJs goodies.  It is always fun to catch up with her!  She is the sweetest girl ever- look what she gave me:

Freshly baked banana walnut bread in a cute little Christmas dish!  Thanks Jen 😀   After hanging with Jen I hit up yoga then got to see another one of my fave blends, who gifted me with delicious cookies.  Heather, I already had three of them 🙂  Thank you!

This morning I had to drop of my fave little guy to get his teeth cleaned (and a few pulled) at the vet 😦 

He was shaking when I dropped him off.  I feel so bad!  I will be calling the vet soon to make sure he is okay.  Poor little!

Okay friends, I’m out- enjoy your cyber Monday!

Goals and Green-ness

Good morning!

Stop taking pictures so I can sleep in peace, devil woman!

Thank you for all of your comments on my first trail race!   There really is something about running in the woods.  I definitely recommend trail running!  You do have to be on higher alert when running in the woods- constantly looking ahead of you to make sure you don’t trip over a rock, branch, your own two feet, piles of leaves and the like.  Over the summer I ran a few times on a trail near my house.  I created two rules for myself when running on the trail: 1) Never wear headphones and 2) Carry mace pepper spray.  Admittedly, I didn’t follow my second rule all the time because I didn’t have pepper spray until I purchased it at the end of summer, but no matter.  When running on the trails, you are typically alone and surrounded by only nature.  I think it is important to be on alert in case any creepers are out there looking to cause harm to someone- hence the pepper spray and lack of headphones.  Do you have any safety rules that you follow while running?  If so, please share! 🙂

Ah, so October is gone and we have two months left in the year.  Hello, November!  😀  I am typically not one to wish life away but with this deployment I am counting down the days/months gleefully.  Since it is the beginning of a new month and racing season is over, I’ve established some new goals that I would like to accomplish:

Goals: Life/Personal

• Finish our wedding thank you cards.  I wanted to have this done by the six month mark.  I still have 25 to go.  I NEED to get this done before Christmas cards start going out.
• Change over last name on passport/social security card.  I avoided having to get the title to my car changed by purchasing a new car.  Kidding, kidding 😀 That was a convenient side effect though.  I need to have my passport changed (it is 110 dollars to change it, dang son!) and my social and then I’ll be Katie H on everything!
• Organize closet.  I’ve been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubing and in the first chapter she discusses how organizing her closet helped organize her mind.  I totally need to ruthlessly go through and edit my wardrobe. 
• Go Green.  I’ll discuss below.

Goals: Health/Fitness

• Conquer tofu.  I would like to learn how to cook tofu at home.  I am very intimidated by it.  Namely because a lot of draining is involved and I don’t know if I will do it right.  Since I am not eating as much meat and love tofu, I need to conquer cooking it!  Any tofu recipes to share?
• Attend hot yoga a minimum of four times a week.  Ideally I would like to go 5-6 times a week, but I am traveling a lot of the weekends this month.  If I’m not home, I can’t attend the classes.  I am very excited to focus on my yoga practice in these winter months.
• Maintain a base mileage of 10 miles/week.  Obviously I’m not running as much as I was during training, but I’d still like to maintain some sort of base.  This way, when I start training next year I will have something to work off of!

Do you have any goals for the month of November?

So, one of the goals I mentioned was going green.  My friend and fellow blogger Jen started a really neat challenge last month:

The Green challenge!  I wanted to join last month and then saw what the challenge was- only drinking local wine and beer.  Mmm, I definitely couldn’t adhere to that- I love wine too much.  New York state does have some good wines but they just don’t compare to my Italian chiantis or my Argentinian malbecs.  The thing about Jen’s challenge that I really respect and appreciate is that the challenges actually present a challenge– I am betting it is damn hard for her to only drink locally.  Anyway, this month’s challenge is right up my alley- limiting/reducing plastic use.  Check out her post for more information, but the basic tenets are this: eliminating waste when dining out (unless you can recycle it), no plastic water bottles,  only using to-go cups with coffee/tea (this will definitely be a challenge), no plastic grocery bags, etc.  The challenge lasts for a year.  I am really excited to be on board!  Do you have any tips or tricks on how to reduce plastic use?

Thanks for reading and have a good one, friends!