2015. Thrive!

Its the same story every year. Christmas season begins and I never have a moment to sit. Then it ends with a loooong list of "resolutions"... basically I call out all of my shortcomings and weaknesses and promise myself that I am going to do and be better on every one of them... its a long list. And despite the fact that I know that we are supposed to only focus on one goal at a time (to cut down the overwhelming feeling you get when your list is too long... and to up your chances for success...) I still write a list about a mile long.

Now its the end of January. How am I doing you ask? Well, lets just say that its a good thing no one knows just how long my list actually is... so according to the public, I am doing great! But between you and me, January is a difficult month for me. Always. Every year. Its the longest month of the year.

This particular January is less miserable because of the un-winter we are having here in Utah. No snow, except for the stuff that came on Christmas (thanks Santa!). Its not even that blisteringly cold! So I am already for spring to arrive. But that is a total side story... usually January is the worst month of the year. 

My list always includes: 

• Be a better (read: more fun, more attentive, happier, cooler.... insert other desirable adjectives here) mother/ wife/ friend. etc. 
• Be better in my financial life
• Lose weight
• Clean the house
• Be healthy
• etc, etc, etc... blah, blah, blah...

New year resolutions. What a funny thing. Yet I participate in this particular tradition every year. I secretly love the new year because of the "clean slate" sort of feeling that I talk myself into every January the 1st. I'm a planner, a goal setter, and a dreamer. I'm quite comfortable in the planning stages of any project. I'm also a perfectionist, so I tend to find myself stuck in this phase because I don't want to screw it up and not get the outcome that I tend to dream about... (this is a problem I'm working on)

This year is different. Not that my list is any shorter than it has been in past years (I promise, its not)... No, this year I have an umbrella goal. Its a goal that covers all the others. I hope that this theory will mean I end up with a small feeling of accomplishment, rather than total failure... 

My mantra for 2015 is: I don't want to just Survive... Now is the time to THRIVE. 

What does that mean? It means I finally tackle the projects that I have set aside for "later." It means I attack the clutter strewn around the house and release it into the world by any means necessary (yes, there is a yard sale in our future). It means a quick kick in the behind for our financial planning sessions, a budget that we stick to, and the use of my new favorite word. "NO" wow. what a freeing word. Its seems silly, but those two letters mean I can finally have time to achieve things on my personal bucket list.

So here's to 2015! The year I get to thrive! Who's with me?!

Ready, Set, Goals!

But with the beginning of a new year we all set goals for ourselves and depending on the goals set, more often than not fail to comply within the first month... am I right? (unless your goal is to continually breath air... I would hope that gets accomplished!) As for my list... I tried to keep a realistic outlook when I wrote it up. I have learned that I do better with small steps working toward a bigger goal. For example: I want to learn how to cook. Solution- my goal is to try two new recipes a month this year... So far... I still have a couple of recipes to try this month... :)

As a couple we made a goal to have a 3 month food storage supply. We definitely don't have the room to store 1 year, and honestly two of us couldn't keep up with it to keep things from going bad... well, with the most recent case lot sale (thank you Macey's) we have just about reached 3 months. We might even have the rice to feed Asia for a year... but don't quote me on that...

Usually I write up my goals on January 1 and then by January 3 I have lost all hope. This year I have tried something a little bit different. In my Nutrition 100 class we are talking about nutrients called vitamins and minerals... and how food contains them. Crazy, I know... But the other day we talked about how every country around the world has their own version of the "food pyramid." We compared them and noted that the new USDA pyramid is the only one in the world that emphasizes how important exercise is to your health, as well as your diet. It also implies that you need all food groups (that includes oils and fats) in order to reach your fullest health.



When I got home I decided that I would get onto the website to see where I am with my own diet... what I found has literally changed my life... or at least my outlook toward food and my diet. When you go to the MyPyramid site, you can look up a food and it can give you information on you. If you take note of what you eat for a week, input the information, it can tell you what you are lacking in your diet... but even cooler is a new program I found. MyPyramid has a menu planner with a 7 day tracker. For fun I put in what I had to eat and it calculated how I was doing according to the dietary guidelines and the 2000 cal. recommendation for my activity level... I was surprised as how well I was doing... and how far I still need to do.

When you sign yourself up (a name, age, and activity level) it will give you your personal guidelines and oh fun you can have! I admit I got a little carried away... but its fun to hear the little 'ding' as it calculates your food intake... But more importantly under the "reports" tab you can choose to look at your daily menu, a weekly menu, a family menu (I added Bryce to my account), food details, and (my favorite) the "my next step" program.

It will show you what you need to work on and then lets you choose one to work on. It will then take you to a list of simple ideas for how to improve a particular part of your diet/activity. For example: I was low in my whole wheat grains. I chose the idea to have oat meal for breakfast. So I did and my feeling of accomplishment is fairly high... all I had to do was eat oatmeal instead of fruity pebbles... wow...

There is also a program on the website that takes you to "MyPyramid Tracker" which lets you input your specific activities, and your food intake, then will show you your energy balance for the day according to calorie intake and output. Pretty exciting...

I admit, every time I have wanted to become healthier, I have been overwhelmed with the immensity of the goal and have not even begun. But with the new outlook I have now... that all it takes is a little decision here and there... I really believe that I can do it!

I was so excited about it, I talked with my old roommate who told me she wanted to improve her health habits and we have set up an exercise schedule to work out together and we have our own "family" so that we can track each other and thus have a little accountability for our eating habits. Bryce is interested and so is Ica and together we want to improve our health! Yay for inspiration!

I greatly encourage any who are interested to check it out. Let me know what you think! Are you going to re-arrange any goals? :)