January in Review/February goals

[gazellesoncrack]

I hate January. It is, by far, the worst month of the year. It is dark & cold & spring seems so far away. And now, it's over.

January is a stupid month to begin the year in - I think March would be better - more hopeful. It would be easier for everyone to stick to their resolutions in March, I think.

So - first let's review January's goals.

1. Go the whole month without using my overdraft protection in my checking account. This didn't go so well - but I swear it wasn't my fault.
2. Use my Mondays in the manner for which they were made work-free I did do okay with this, but then of course, had to work last Monday (the horror!)
3. Run 50 miles I hit 51 miles, even with my less frequent working out schedule
4. Get a minimum of 3 servings of fruit/veggies each day I was definitely more conscious of this, and most days I did just fine (ever since I found out that a banana counts as TWO WHOLE SERVINGS!) but there is definitely room for improvement here
5. De-clutter house - get a Goodwill box together This was my most successful - I took a trunk full of stuff to Goodwill yesterday. It was fun getting rid of stuff we never use. We have a ways to go, but it was a good start.
6. I usually only do 5, but Im adding an honorary sixth today - Dont burn down the house & kill the pets I totally did not even come close to burning down the house after that first day. So good for me!

I didn't work out as much as I intended. I got 24 days in, which isn't bad (I averaged 51 minutes of exercise a day overall); but the work stress is really doing a number on my working out. I'm pretty proud of how well I did do, though - I ran 51 miles - which is my highest mileage month maybe ever. I did a 10-miler and didn't die.

Today I started February off right with a 6 mile run with Junk Miles. She came to my neck of the woods and we ran in my beautiful park. I think later on this spring/summer, we may have to have an informal running group meet-up there for a nice run followed by a picnic!

Our splits:

Mile 1: 9:30 (again with the speediness)

Mile 2: 11:21 (there is a big, ass-kicking hill at the beginning of mile 2 - I think that's the fastest I've done that mile in almost a year)

Mile 3: 11:06 (not bad considering we had to stop to cross the road)

Mile 4: 12:47 (we took a walk break here)

Mile 5: 15:50 (we took another break in here, but I had no idea it was that long/slow of a break!)

Mile 6: 11:07 (again, not bad considering all the road crossings & the fact that we were both about dead)

Overall: 11:57 - slower pace than last week, but way more hills than last week, too. All in all - a very good run.

Now - on to my February goals

1. Maintain intuitive eating, which has mostly been going well (food) - I only lost 1.4 lbs in January, which is, of course, better than a gain, but I'd like to see a larger loss for February. I'm down 6 lbs since I started recording everything again at Thanksgiving, and it's hard to complain about a 6 lb loss through the holidays & January, but I'm still 7 lbs away from goal #1, and 11 lbs away from my primary goal.
2. Workout at least 5 days each week between 2/1 & 2/21; work out every day between 2/22 & 2/28 (fitness)
3. Maintain a relatively clutter-free home (household)
4. Decrease food spending by another $50 (finance)
5. Get my next tattoo (personal)

My ongoing 2009 goal is to read 5 new books each month. Tune in tomorrow for a review of the January reads.

Happy February! This is when things start to get better! The sun is coming back!

Originally published at Gazelles On Crack.