_edited-1.jpg)
.JPG)
Posts
February 23rd - Class #8
Wohoo, only two more "required" classes before I'm done with this one. Today, I was the only one in class, so I had my own personal yoga instructor. It was a little odd, but at least I had one-on-one instruction and it helped me a bit. I'm still am not very flexible, I have no balance or core strength, and I feel like a fish out of water.
I've been keeping up with my 101 Things, I just have been a little lazy about posting about them. So here goes, a nice mass update.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#7 - One day of each week, no Internet, except as necessary for job search/work
I've decided I hate this goal as it is currently written! When I wrote this, my intentions were to cut back on how much I am on the Internet. Well, my "Internet free one day a week" was becoming more of a hassle. I would ask DH to check the weather for me. Or I would ask him to pull up a great recipe sitting in my Inbox. I was checking email on my phone. Basically, I was being sneaky and trying to get my fix any way I could.
Even with my one day a week away from the Internet, I was still on my laptop all the time. I probably spend anywhere from 3 - 4 hours a day surfing away. I also find that I often will "just check" a few things out while the kiddo is running around. So I think I am going to change this task. Still mulling it over, but here are a few options:
Limit Internet time to two hours per day, except as necessary for job search/work.
OR
Limit Internet time to only early morning, nap time, or late evening.
Any thoughts on how I should work on my addiction?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#32 - Date Night with Hubby at Least Once a Month
February 2009
DH and I went out on Friday, February 13th with another couple to a great wine bar. There we ordered in sushi and I had two (2!) glasses of a fantastic Riesling. Afterwards, we met up with another couple and attended The Big Damn Band concert. The later event was not planned at all, and it turned out to be a pretty fun time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#40 - Try one new recipe each month
I've come to realize this task has been the easiest one so far, and I should probably tweak it to make it more challenging. Since we have started meal planning each week, we have been going through our cookbooks every weekend and picking out new things to try. We usually pick from our Weight Watcher or Lickety Split Meals cookbooks, as these have the healthiest recipes. And we probably try at least 2 - 3 new recipes each week right now! My favorites so far have been the White Bean Salad on Feta Pita Crisps. DH also made a Curry Chicken Stew that surprised both of us with how yummy it was. I imagine that once we make it through the cookbooks, we will start circling around and repeating some of our favorite recipes. But for now, this former eat-out-all-the-time family is having fun with new recipes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#41 - Try one new restaurant each month
This month we tried Zoes Kitchen for lunch one day. And then I made DH take me back the very next day because I enjoyed it so much! They are a small chain, but I had never heard of them before. Their philosophy is "Eat Smart. Eat Fresh." I love this concept! The food was awesome and it worked well with my healthier eating plan. Just thinking about it makes me hungry right now....maybe I should start with breakfast though.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#70 - Taken Ten Yoga Classes
February 9th (my birthday) - Class #6
February 16th - Class #7
You think I would have learned with Class #6 that it's not a super smart idea to run 4 miles on the treadmill and head into class dripping with sweat. But no, I did the same thing again for Class #7. Although I did plan to get to the gym even earlier to I could cool down a bit before class, but it's hard to be at the gym at 5:00 a.m. I was proud enough I made it there at 5:15 a.m. (yoga starts at 6:00 a.m.). I wanted to run before class so that I could get home, shower, eat, and relax before kiddo wakes up. Still not enjoying yoga as much as I had hoped I would.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#78 - Offer to babysit for my friends at least 5 times
DH and I did not have plans to go out on Valentine's Day. Since we'd be staying home, I offered to babysit for about six (yes 6!) different moms (from my Margarita Mamas group). Only one mom took me up on the offer! Amelia is 17 months old, and was the best kid I ever, ever watched (and I did tons of babysitting in high school). Poor TemTem had a major case of jealousy. She did not want Amelia to sit in my lap or play with her toys. She kept whining "Moooommmmmmaaaa!" Amelia's parents just went to the movies, so it was a quick night. And I get to mark this goal as in progress.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#90 - Go without a bag at the store or purchase an additional reusable bag if I forget to bring mine
I should have marked this as In Progress last month. I've been really good about this. I've only had to purchase 1 new reusable bag so far. On occasion, I've found that I am stuck and still need to get a plastic bag. But I always recycle the plastic bag. And I've been known to often just tell the clerk at a store that I don't need a bag at all if I've forgotten my reusable one. We even have extra reusable bags in DH's car. The good news here is that we always use our reusable bags at the grocery store. And we even get a five cents per bag credit for using our own.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Enough updates for today! I will be back soon with hopefully a few more. My own personal goal is to mark at least one goal "Completed" this month!
February 2nd
5th yoga class completed, and I'm half way through this goal (yipee).
We had a substitute instructor for the class on Monday. She was very calm and relaxing. The She brought these wonderful, fresh, warm towels sprayed with a lemon verbena aromatherapy. So relaxing, especially after running on the treadmill prior to the 6:00 a.m. yoga class this week.
1st new fruit sampled: Passion Fruit
Verdict: Two thumbs way up!
I've had passion fruit teas and maybe even sorbet in the past. But I've never actually bought a passion fruit, cut it, and tried eating it. Oh my, let me tell you! My taste buds did a little jig. Next trip to the grocery store will result in me picking up a few more of these oh-so-tasty treats.
I had to ask the gentleman working in the fruit section at Whole Foods how I know when it's ripe. When it's super wrinkled and looks almost squished, it's ripe. And then I did a Google search this evening to see just exactly how one is to cut and eat this fruit. Great answer to my burning question here.
One month down and five more to go. This was hard to start again since I LOVE iced tea and Starbucks lattes. I only had a headache or two within the first two weeks. But now that I'm in the swing of it, hopefully the next few months will fly by. I may even start brewing some decaffeinated tea for myself. And yes, there are days where I would love to have a jolt of caffeine to get me moving, but I'm managing!
I will be the first to admit that I am the least photogenic person of anyone I know. (It kinda runs on my side of the family too). I would rather be behind the camera than in front of it. We have lots of pictures of DH and TemTem, but not so many of her and I, and even fewer of the three of us.
And nothing like waiting until the last minute on this one, but on the last day of the month in the evening before we headed out for dinner, I remembered we needed an "us" picture for the month. TemTem was overtired and cranky and did not want to play along. As her parents, we look like we have expressions that say "let's get this over with already". I'm hoping that our pictures will get better with each month!
.JPG)
This goal made me realize how often I would snack in the evenings after TemTem would go to bed. I would eat all the things I didn't really want her to see me eat. I would eat just to eat - pretzels, crackers, cookies, ice cream.
I know it's overall better not to eat so late in the evenings, and there were many times were my stomach would cry out that it was hungry! But I'm happy to say that I stuck it out and accomplished this goal in January.
I will try to stick with this one going forward simply as part of the "healthier living" lifestyle I'm trying to adopt. But if I feel like eating a bowl of popcorn or an apple with cheese after the kiddo is in bed, I won't feel too guilty about it.
I'm on a roll here! Since today is the first day of February, I got to mark off lots of things accomplished in January.
This one shocked the hell out of me! I'm a huge fan of chocolate. Huge. There was one time as a kid when they thought I might be allergic to chocolate, and I had to stop eating it for a few weeks and I thought I was going to go crazy. (Turned out I was allergic to the solvent used to clean a friend's carpet).
When January started, I about wanted to cry about missing out on chocolate. It actually went pretty well with my "eating healthier" mindset, so I was able to make it the entire month without chocolate! I still miss it, but I might even try to challenge myself and see how long I can go without out. I'm such an all or nothing type of person, and can rarely do anything in moderation!
Just happy to get this one checked off the list! Woo-hoo!
January
Blue Fish
I waited until the last minute on this one, and then said "Hey honey, want to go out to dinner tonight?" So we had a bunch of places in mind to go to, but many of the menus we checked out online were a little pricier than we wanted to spend. We ended up at a sushi restaurant that we hadn't looked at before heading out and still spent more than we wanted to spend! The food was good, but I ate way to much. It was also a bit to "commercial" of a sushi restaurant for our liking. Not so sure that we would go back here, as there are other sushi restaurants in the area that we liked better.
We have a few restaurants still in mind to check out next month.
All I really needed to do on this one was call up our financial planner and ask him to get paperwork in process to move my 401K money from my old employer into my Roth-IRA account. I tried to do this late last fall, but somehow he never received the information from me. I kept meaning to follow up with him, but always seemed to forget. So I followed up again with him this month, faxed him the paperwork on my end, he then mailed me a form to sign, and that was that. This was a good 6 months overdue, so I'm happy to call it complete!
I can't believe I did this, but for the entire month of January, I did not purchase any clothes for TemTem. Now, my sister may have purchased a few things. And I may have bought her a bouncy ball and a new sippy cup. But I get to mark this one complete.
Now, I do need to purchase a birthday outfit for her in February, but come March, I may just try to do this one again. It helped on our pocket book for me not to just pick something up because it was on sale and was "too good to pass up".
I know, I know. I should probably clean out my car more than once a month. But I like to clean my car out about as much as I like running on the treadmill. Before child, I never had the cleanest car. After child, it looks like a national disaster hit.
I also used to be one of those people before kids that said "I will never let my child it in his/her carseat" after seeing how gross those things can get from some of my friends' kids. Once I had a child, that got thrown out the window pretty fast. I would rather hand her a sippy cup of milk than listen to her cry "milk, milk, MIIIILLLLKKK" over and over the entire car ride. I've also been known to hand her grapes or dried apricots and the occasional snack. (Yes, in the back of my head I still have that awful "what-if-she-chokes-while-I'm driving" fear).
While cleaning out the car for January, I think I honestly found a full container worth of puffs under the seats. I also found other random food items, missing barrettes, a few rocks, chapstick, and lots of spare change. I even went so far as to pull the carseat into the house, vacuum it out, and scrub out all the milk-dried stains. I then took the car up to the car wash for a good detailing, after my attempt to vacuum it out and wipe it down wasn't producing great results.
Here's my proof!
Back-up pictures on external hard drive once a month - check for January.
I'm glad I recorded this as a 101 Thing on my list, otherwise I would not remember to do it on a regular basis. And it makes me so happy to have all those great family pictures backed up somewhere other than on my computer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)