1.5 Miler in New Terrain

Short post today:

I decided to run from my Dr's appointment to rehearsal tonight. I prepped by putting all my essentials in my iPhone armband, and then I just DID it (well, I ran my 1.5, stretched, and walked the rest of the way). It felt good to run in the city - will be doing it more often :-)

Whole30

So I'm not ready for this today, but possibly in a few weeks:

The Whole30 website is REALLY resonating with my personal diet and health goals.  It also seems like a quick, supportive way to integrate paleo eating into my life.  However, I know that I'm going to be in far too many situations in the next week that I'm not prepared for paleo-ly (i.e., the housewarming party Saturday where I'm sure I'll be eating carbs and drinking alcohol).  Giving up alcohol is also a huge step, even for 30 days, but I'm ready to give it a shot.  Also, it's all so EXPENSIVE! Free-range meats, so much produce... I don't think I can afford to get 100% behind it until I get paid again!

So, here's the plan: I get paid Thursday the 15th; I will go shopping on Friday the 16th and spend the whole weekend preparing food for my first week Whole30ing.  Rich is down on the Cape the 18th through the 22nd, so it'll be good for me to test things out by myself.  It also means I can buy groceries with just myself in mind.  I'll also have to plan ahead for the following weekend when I'll be up in Maine with Rich.  But that's half the fun :-D

Meg and CTP's Wedding!

Rich and I went to our friends' wedding reception on the Cape yesterday! So much fun, but I got preeeetty drunk. Sick all night, hung over today :-P But such a good time, seriously. I'm just excited to spend this year trimming down and getting fit so I can stop looking at pictures like this and hating how chubby my face looks:

Nutritionist!!

On Thurs this week I saw a nutritionist who works in the same health clinic as my primary care. I figured it'd be good to get some professional grounding i my eating habits, since I tend to pendulum between austerity and gluttony. 

I wasn't sure what to expect, but the dualistic part of me kinda wanted her to hand me a detailed, regimented meal plan that I should follow to the letter. Something that took my specific body composition and lifestyle into account.

However, what I got was arguably much more valuable. The nutritionist listened to my story about my struggle with food and body image stuff, and started typing. She printed out an article called "Intuitive Eating," and asked me to read it. 

http://www.intuitiveeating.org/content/10-principles-intuitive-eating

The article hit on SO MANY things that really resonated with me. In short, the nutritionist encouraged me to deal with some bigger meta-issues about food rather than following a specific "diet." She also gave me permission to take my time, not expect immediate breakthroughs, and to work on suspending judging myself when I make questionable food decisions. 

Super. Helpful. We'll see how it goes!!

Another mile

Already behind this week, but I started my training program a few weeks early to make sure I gave myself room for weeks like this. I did, however, have a pretty successful *morning* run, which is new for me :-)

The Budgets Part

I feel relatively good about where I've been heading financially the past year, but it's time to kick it to the next level. For a while, right at the end of 2012, I paid my credit card off completely. It felt AWESOME. Unfortunately, I got into the trap of using it again with all of the new house expenses, and now I need to pay it off again (only $800, nothing crazy).

To help me be successful, I've downloaded Dollarbird, a REALLY cool and intuitive finance app that I've been a fan of so far. 

I have a goal of paying down my credit card by the end of the year again, and then starting to save aggressively again to put away $4K next year (it's not much, but I can only spare about $400/month these days for savings).

Wi$h me luck!

Back after a long hiatus...

Wow - that was a long break from the blog!  Guess it's going to take a few attempts to really build this into a habit.

The big fitness-related news this year is that I've signed up again for the B.A.A. Half Marathon!  When I attempted the race in 2011 I didn't train correctly, and subsequently I hobbled through the course.  I really messed up my IT band and couldn't walk without intense pain for about a month.

This time I'm taking training seriously.  Today was my first day; only one mile, but it's a start!

I'm also signed up for a Nerd Fitness 6-Week Challenge, and I've given myself a point-based system to track my progress.  That post is located here.

Other new updates since the last time I posted...

• Rich and I bought a house in Jamaica Plain!
• I got a promotion at work to a Director position!
• I've gained a ton of stress weight :-P

To curb my out-of-control eating, I have signed up for Weight Watchers.  I'm still trying to get good about posting all of the food I eat every day, but I'm getting there.  The next step is to start planning my food ahead, as opposed to just tracking whatever food I put in my mouth and shrugging when I reach my points limit.

Wish me luck on this reboot of my fitness journey!