New Years Resolutions!

It's that time of year again... NEW YEARS RESOLUTION TIME!!!

I don't normally have new year resolutions because I can't ever seem to stick to them... but I am determined this time! So I'm going to make a list and stick to it! I have five BIG RESOLUTIONS OR GOALS and then just other goals I have for the year.

(1) Eat healthy foods

I know everyone says this, but I mean it! I am going to more (if not ALL) fresh foods. No more processed foods, frozen foods, junk foods, and so on. Cleanse my body or harmful chemical and give me more energy. My goal is to eat MORE or ONLY...

(a) Fresh fruits and Veggies - no explanation needed

(b) Lean Proteins/Meats - such as turkey, chicken, fish, and LEAN beef. No more pork.

(c) Whole Grains - wheat bread, brown rice, etc...

(d) 5 Liters of Water Daily - keep my kidneys in good shape and my body hydrated

(2) Cook dinner 3 to 4 nights a week

(a) I would like to start cooking more - I have all these cookbooks and a recipe box FULL of recipes and I continuously find interesting and good look recipes... it's time to make them! So my goal is to make/cook dinner at least 3 days a week, but I'm going to aim for 4 days a week. That leaves 3 or 4 days for leftovers.

(b) Cook or try a new recipe each week - Once we find a recipe we like, we tend to stick with that recipe. My goal for this year is to try new recipes of things we haven't eaten before along with trying different forms/recipes or the same recipes we already like.

(c) To blog about my new recipe adventures - tell about the recipes we tried and how they turned out. Who knows... maybe someone will want to try the recipe we tried.

(3) Lose Weight

(a) Join Weight Watchers - Once John is born I am going to join Weight Watchers; I'm planning on going to meetings each week and keep track of everything online.

(b) Healthy Weight - I want to be a healthy weight for my height, according the research I have done.. for my height of 5'4 1/2'' (yes, the half inch matters..to me); the suggest weight is 117 - 146. That is a BIG weight range, so my goal is to be in the middle of that range. I think a solid 130 pounds would be the best. So that's my weight goal: 130 lbs.

(c) Exercise Daily - A BIG aspect that will help in my weight loss is EXERCISE! My goal is to have some from of exercise, NOT JUST activity for at least 1 hour to 2 hours a day. This will help me lose weight and tone up my body and muscles. 

(4) Blog more

My goal will be to blog about twice to three times a week.

(a) One post a week about the new recipes we tried; with pictures

(b) One post or more a week about the pregnancy and our son; with pictures of course.

(c) One post a week about how my weight loss and weight watchers adventure is going.

(5) Train for a 5K, 10K, Half-Marathon, and Full-Marathon

I want to take this entire year to train for a Full-Marathon to complete sometime in 2012. I have done a lot of research on marathons and I have found that one should train for at least a year before even attempting a Full-Marathon, so that's what I'm going to do. 

(a) 5K - I will first start with training for a 5K, which is 3.1 miles. My goal is complete at least three 5K by the end of this year. At www.georgiarunner.com has a list of all the year's 5K, 10K, half and full marathons throughout the year. I am hoping to complete my first 5K by April 2011. It takes a couple of months to train for a 5K; especially since I haven't been running since April of last year. So it will probably take me a couple months to get back into the swing of things. 

(b) 10K - which is 6.2 miles. Training for 5Ks and completing 5Ks will help me train for 10Ks. I plan to complete at least two 10ks by the end of this year. At least complete my first 10K by August 2011.

(c) Half Marathon - Training and completing 5ks and 10Ks will help me train for a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles. I hope to complete my first half marathon by the end of the year. My goal is to run the Athens Half Marathon in October.. we'll see how training goes.

(d) Full Marathon - Training for a full marathon, which is 26.2 miles, will take me a year to a year and a half. I am hoping to complete my first full marathon by the summer of 2012. 

Those are my top 5 BIG GOALS for the year, the following are still goals - just not as big.

1. Stick to a written monthly budget

2. Save for retirement

3. Become debt free, minus our mortgage

4. Get "dressed" everyday or at least look presentable. - (I normally just wear lounge wear, no makeup and have my hair up... we'll see how well this goal works once the baby comes, haha!)

5. Have or attempt to have a date night with my husband at least once, if not twice a month.

6. Stay on top of my housework and keeping the house clean.

7. Create a cleaning spreadsheet of things to do daily, weekly, monthly, and bi-annually. 

8. Grow my hair back out... and NOT CUT IT SHORT AGAIN!

9. Learn how to scrapbook - (Even though I'm not very creative or artistic... but I can at least try.)

10. Take more pictures and videos - (Especially since John will be born in a month. I would like memories to look back on when I'm old and wrinkly...haha!)

11. Cut back on the amount of TV I watch. - (I watch a lot of time, but normally I DVR most everything and watch it all at once. I have a lot of shows I like to watch. So we'll see how this one goes. But I know that once John gets here and I work on all these other goals I won't have time for TV.)

12. Give Lily and Fred a bath MONTHLY!

If I can think of anymore things, then I will continue to add to the list. Hopefully I can accomplish everything by December 31, 2011... so wish me luck and here it goes!