A New Year: A Not so New Me

Happy New Year, my blogging friends! Thanks to all who have been stopping by to check in on me. Let me explain my title. I guess I am a new me from who I was last year. What I mean to say in my title is that I like who I am now and don't feel I have to become some new me this year. Isn't that great!? I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday season. I enjoyed mine for the most part. Here's a rundown on what has happened in my life over the last 2 weeks:

-My hubby and I celebrated 14 years of marriage. (Hooray for us!)
-On the same day, my Granny Auntie passed away. :(
-We celebrated my husband's birthday
-We enjoyed a quiet Christmas at home with our little family and the grandparents stopped by
-I spoke at my Granny's funeral :(
-I was rear ended on the way to an eye appt. An inconvenience, but no injury or major damage.
-We rang in the New Year at home, with a family game night.
-We have been dealing with sick kids.

So you can see, that the holidays were a mixed bag for me. The death of my Granny Auntie was unexpected and sad, but we'll get through it. I know she is happy to be reunited with her husbands that had passed on before her.

The last time I checked in, I had actually lost weight...IN DECEMBER. I wish I could say that held true for the whole month. It did not. I will officially weigh-in tomorrow. I had hoped to stay in the 160's, but that hasn't happened. Having said that, I don't think my monthly gain will be too bad. I'll just have to accept it for what it is and move on. Because today is a new day and a new year!

Tomorrow will mark the year anniversary of my blog! Wow! I am grateful to have made it this far, even though my blogging has been sporadic over the last couple of months. I think now is a good time to reflect on my 2010 goals and look to the future. Here were the goals I outlined in this post a year ago:

Long-term goals:

Lose 50 lbs in 2010-This did not happen. :( Yet, I'm still happy with my loss of about 35 lbs.
Run a 10k in 2011- Stay tuned.......
Develop a life-long pattern of regular exercise and healthy eating-I am definitely on track with this one. I am so pleased with the changes in life-style I have made over the past year. I've improved the most in the exercise dept.

Shorter-term goals:
Lose 25 lbs by summer-Accomplished this one!
Run (the whole thing) a 5k in 2010-I have yet to run a whole 5K, but have participated in a few organized 5K's and continue to do them on my own almost daily. I am pleased that my run/walk approach puts me at about 35:00 minutes. I will look to improve on this in 2011.
Work up to running 2 miles on treadmill this winter-Not sure I accomplished this last winter. In fact, it is hard for me to run 2 miles on a treadmill this winter! However, outside I could run 2 miles fairly regularly.

Again, I did not meet all my goals. Should I feel disappointed? I am somewhat disappointed not to have reached my weight and running goals, yet at the same time I am proud of what I have accomplished.

Now for the 2011 goals:

• Lose 15 lbs. by my birthday (August 16th)- This will put me to about my 50 lb. goal and means I will have to lose 2-2.5 pounds a month. That seems totally doable to me.
• Improve my 5K time to 32 minutes- I am beginning to doubt I will ever be able to run a WHOLE race, but know I can run a little bit more and improve my time.
• Participate in a 10K race-This may be my limit, but I am excited to do it!
• Lose 20 pounds by this day next year

Here's my exercise/eating schedule for now (it needs to be changed up every so often):

• Spend 50 minutes (usually 3.25+miles) on the treadmill 3x's a week.
• Spend 60 minutes (4+miles) on the treadmill one time a week.
• Spend 45 minutes on the stationary bike 4 times a week.
• Attend my strength training classes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
• Track my calories and consume about 1600 a day.
• One day a week of bonus exercise as often as I can.
• Rest on Sundays

So there you have it. I know my exercise schedule is only set for 4 days a week. But it just seems that is what is most realistic for my life right now and I do not want to get discouraged because I am not meeting my goals. That is why I added the bonus day at the end.

I do hope to move to 4 miles on the treadmill on 2 days a week in February and then bump it up to 5 miles in March. Even writing this I have a smile on my face. This time last year, 2.5 miles on the treadmill was a great accomplishment and most days I did 2 miles!

I hope all of you feel good about the progress you made in 2010 and are looking forward to what you can accomplish in 2011, I know I am! Have a good day and stay tuned for my first weigh-in of 2011 tomorrow.