clean up

Tomorrow is the last day of my vacation. Normally, I should have returned to work tomorrow, like most folks will do. Our office was closed on the 23rd though, and because I had already booked that day off as vacation, I had an extra day to use up. Rather than try to squeeze it in later in the month (which, I know would be almost impossible) I just bit the bullet and booked tomorrow off. I don't think that one extra day will make any difference. I know that I'll be swamped when I get back to work but that's okay.

For the first time in a very long time, I feel rested. Over my almost three weeks of vacation, I didn't need to take my little blue pill once. I feel good about that. Now, the exercise, proper exercise, didn't happen over the holidays. I had a few walks here and there, the early part of the holiday was full of shoveling fun but I didn't actually workout at all during the break.

Food, goodness, what is there to say about that? It wasn't good. Cookies were eaten, gooey squares too, let's not forget about the chocolate either, or the cheese. Cheese and chocolate, if these things had never been invented, what would my vices be? They are just such perfectly efficient and tasty ways to transport fat and I will miss them, sort of. I don't intend to cut them out of my life entirely, I just need to reintroduce the concept of balance into my diet. There hasn't been a lot of that just recently. The other day for example, I had bananas sitting on the counter which were slowly getting too ripe. Did I peel them, cut them into chunks and throw them into the freezer for use in future smoothies?? Oh goodness no!! Straight into a batch of banana cake they went. It was delicious but not the healthiest way to enjoy over-ripe bananas!

Last week, because both of us were feeling under the weather, we didn't get out to do as much visiting as we normally would so I had mounds of Christmas baking leftover. My first thought was to throw it out. Of course, I couldn't bring myself to do that, to just chuck away perfectly good, hand made treats. The second thought I had was to freeze it but you know, that wouldn't work. Frozen treats are almost as delicious as thawed ones!! Instead, I packed it all up this morning and took it over to the LOG at the nursing home. He was happy to get it, he'll share it with his buddies and goodness knows, they can use it a lot more than we can!

Fortunately, once the cookies were removed, the rest of what is left in the house wasn't so bad. I need to make a run to the grocery store tomorrow, to pick up more fruit and some salad stuff. Our freezer is full of frozen berries and we have lots of soy milk stocked up for smoothies. We have lots of cereal in the house too. I'll start brining my lunches to work again and we've decided to keep dining out to a minimum. This was something that we actually stuck to over the holiday so at least one good food related thing started over the break.

I want to continue to feel rested and good about myself. I have made a promise to myself this year, to take more time for myself, to be kinder to me.

In 2006 I promise:

to make smarter food choices

to journal my food in fitday, every day

to exercise, 3 to 5 times a week, every week

to take my vitamins and drink plenty of water, every day

to take one, 30 minute bubble bath, every week

to take time for myself and do my nails and give myself facials (in general, treat myself to more "girlie" things -- which I love!) every week

to write in this journal, every weekday

I figure that if I can stick to these things, I'll feel better about myself, I'll be less stressed, I'll get fit and I'll definitely lose some weight. Goodness knows that I need to do all of these things. While I'll be sure to report on numbers (inches on the measuring tape, pounds on the scale), I'm not getting myself all wrapped up in numbers this year. Instead, I will focus on a vision of a healthier, leaner me, sitting here one year from now.