Extended Hiatus: Over

So the last month to two months haven't been the greatest in terms of healthy living accomplishments.  But there have been a host of other accomplishments that I've achieved.

• The Big One: I GRADUATED!!  School is officially and perhaps forever over!  No more worrying about papers, no more worrying about blackboard, no more crappy professors.  IT. IS. OVER!
• The other, not quite so big, one is that I made it through Christmas.  It was touch and go there for awhile.  My family loves to pile on the stress, guilt and what-not to make something that is supposed to be wonderful absolutely awful.  But I made it through Christmas and, even if the weeks leading up to Christmas were pretty much horrifying, Christmas Eve and Christmas day were actually rather relaxing and drama free.  

New Year's also went very well though it wasn't exactly what I was planning/hoping/expecting.  But, que sera sera.  I was extremely happy to see the New Year though because it inevitably means that December 2011 is over.  January means more free time, more time to accomplish the other goals that I have, those that are more healthy living oriented.  January means less stress, less drama and in general a quieter life.  I had been craving January for a several weeks.  So far, it's lived up to it's expectations.  I am started to get my equilibrium back.  I'm starting to NOT feel exhausted all the time because I simply don't have time to sleep.  I've been walking my dog more and I've been cooking more.  It has been wonderful.

This brings me to the purpose of this post.  It's a little late for New Year's resolutions, but it's never too late for goals.  That said, I am starting out simple.  I would like to increase my cardio workouts.  I think that this will help me in the future for dealing with the aforementioned familial stress.  Maybe next Christmas won't make me so crazy.  To start, I am going to try to make it to the gym 1-2 times per week to use the elliptical, take my dog on at least one half hour walk every day and give one of the classes at the gym a try.  Probably Zumba, because I've been extremely curious about that.

I'm also going to go back to my meal planning on the calendar.  I would like to plan to prepare about three nutritious dinners every week.  I say "about" because the leftover situation may call for more or fewer nights cooking.  I'm also going to try new things for lunch because I'm really tired of the sandwiches that I've been bringing.  This week I made a pasta salad that is delicious.  I substituted whole wheat penne pasta for the egg noodles and didn't use all of the dressing to reduce the calories.

Last night I made a delicious batch of minestrone soup, courtesy of Clearly Delicious.  That, combined with the good lunch of the pasta salad means that I am currently feeling a lot better then I have been.  I just have to keep this up!

Anyway, toodles for now.

Graduation: It's kind of a big deal

Graduation is coming up and hopefully soon after I will finish all of my coursework.  With that, I will have a Masters in Library and Information Science, which is pretty cool.  After I finish my coursework and graduate, I will be able to come home from work and do whatever I want.  I won't have to worry about the paper that is due in a week or the discussion board stuff that I have to do that night or anything like that.  Because of this, there are several things that I am looking forward to:

1. Reading:  I have a list of books longer then I care to admit that I would like to read.  Now that I'll be able to read for something other than school, I'd like to read some of those books.
2. Social activities: I have many friends that I've lost touch with or just don't see as often as I'd like.  Since I'll have more free time, I'll be able to spend more time with these wonderful people who have put up with my absence during my Master's program.
3. Exercise: I really want to give this healthy living thing a shot.  The lack of schoolwork will eliminate excuses to not exercise, which I really need to do more consistently.  I would like to try geocaching and I would also like to explore the border to border trail that I have found here in Washtenaw county.  I'm also thinking about giving biking to work a try next year, especially since the company that I work for will reimburse me for some expenses related to biking depending on how much I actually bike to work.
4. Food: In addition to not exercising as consistently as I should, I also haven't been cooking as consistently as I should.  I can definitely tell the difference when I eat good, real food instead of food filled with additives and such.  There are a lot of recipes that I'd love to try my hand at and I'd really like to explore cooking in my crock pot more as well.
5. Hobbies: I really like knitting and I'm looking forward to finishing some of those projects that I started two or more years ago and starting new projects as well.  I also hope to learn new techniques along the way.

Yummy Bean Soup

Yesterday I made a pot of yummy bean soup for dinner.  Here's the part that was amazing.  It was INCREDIBLY easy and tasty.  Additionally, I had less then a ladle last night for dinner along with a little bit of bread, and I was comfortably full after that.  I also have a huge pot still, which means I probably don't have to cook again this week except for Thanksgiving stuff to take to my sister's.  If I think of it, pictures may be forthcoming.

Before cooking the soup, my kitchen was in dire need of being cleaned.  When I was almost finished cleaning, my garbage disposal decided it didn't like me a broke down.  :(

Otherwise, I think that I've mostly regained my emotional equilibrium which is good.

Also, the Turkey Trot is on Thanksgiving!  I'm pretty excited about walking the 5k with my good friend Amy, who I haven't really been able to chat with in several months.

Cooking and Food

I really enjoy cooking and am always looking for new recipes.  I've also noticed in the past that I have more energy and in general feel better when I have cooked and prepared good meals for myself.  With that in mind, I did a couple google searches today and found a couple websites that specifically have healthy websites.

The first one is FoodFit and the second one is SparkRecipes.  My goal for tonight after work is to create a menu for the next week using some of the recipes from this website.  I'm a big fan of lists and tend to work well with them so I'm going to utilize them for my goals of creating a healthier me.

And, a little motivation stolen from a friend on facebook...