New year new goals- one bite at a time

 
I am a little late in posting a new years post but I was trying to decide what I wanted to say. Last year was a big year for me and my family. I graduated from college finally. My youngest daughter graduated from high school. My oldest daughter got engaged. My husband also reached a milestone with his company.

With all this I still had some goals that I was not able to reach. I wanted to run a half marathon and ended up being unable to complete this goal. I am not very happy with this. Also because of an injury and other issues I did not run any races this last year. I am not really happy with this either.

When I thought about what I wanted to accomplish, I needed to look back on what I did and didn't do last year. I also needed to look at the goals I didn't reach and see if they still make sense for me.

This year I want to concentrait on my health with my running and weight being front and center. This means that running a half marathon still makes sense. With my daughter getting married I would like to get off between 30 or 40 pounds before her wedding.

I think sometimes I let the enormity of my goals get to me. I need to make sure I don't get freaked out. To do this I will take on the big goal in little pieces. One of my friends Debra Higginbothom reminded new that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

So how do I best do little pieces. First with my running. Becoming more consistent, set a schedule in ink, sweat and blood. My long runs of the week need to stretch each time, even if it is just a half a mile. I need to comitt the time for the long run. Celebrate each race, each new longer run. My first race is in February and it would be nice to PR it. It is a blessing to run and I need to celebrate that fact.

With the weight I need to do the same. I recently went to my endocrinologist Donna. My blood work was great. My A1C was great down from 7.2 to 7.1. My weight was unchanged for the last 6 months. This is both good and bad. Good because I am not up and went through the holidays without weight gain. Bad because in six months no loss. 

To turn that around I will need to committ. This means something different to each person but to me accountability. I started using a food / exercise tracker but I need to be more consistent. I have a week ness when it comes to sweets and know I will never be able to cut them completely. So for me cutting portions of this and saying no a lot less then yes will be big. I am going to try to cut some carbs where I can, this may be having more salads, using pita or lower carb options and skipping the potatoes or rice. I will weigh each week and celebrate every 5 miles with something like a massage or peticure or new clothes just something non food. 

Like my friend Debra said, I am going to eat my elephant (tackle my goals) one bite at a time.