January and February goals

Awhile ago I wrote about “positive” goals and you guys all responded very wisely (you are all much more wise than I am, but we knew that already), but I never mentioned any specific goals that I’d set, so I thought I’d discuss a few of them here.

For January, I wanted to work out every day of the month. This was the only goal I set (I figured it was a pretty lofty one) and I am happy to report that I (almost) succeeded. Hell, I worked out 26 days out of 31, and three days I had a stomach virus, so I’m calling this a WIN.

My goal with this…goal…was to try to shake up my workouts a bit. I am very much a run-three-miles-and-call-it-good kind of person but that gets mundane after awhile. In January, I didn’t run more than three miles at a time, but I did go on a lot of shorter runs, where I was looking to come in at a certain pace (sub-10-minute miles.) I also went on more just straight-up walks with LG (to the dreaded park, ew, no thanks) and in the end, had completed 41 miles. More on that later.

I wish I could have gone to yoga more than once (once a week would be nice; twice a week ideal), but I did download the Nike Training Club app and did a handful of workouts from that. I would recommend the NTC app if you want to get in a quick workout that is actually pretty hard (I’m not talking Crossfit here, but you know.) I’d recommend watching a video of each workout move prior to doing the workout, though, so you can see what you’re supposed to be doing. There were a couple times when I was like, “Okay wait, what’s a frogger?!” and I had to run over to my phone, look at the picture or video of the pretend Nike trainer showing the frogger, and then run back. The app doesn’t have the best pause/resume function after watching a video, so by the time all was said and done, I’d wasted half my time looking up how to do frogger and then the other half actually doing frogger. Minor glitches aside, I liked this app and would do it again. (And the glitchy stuff gets less glitchy each time you do a workout; once you know what frogger, etc. is, you can move through a workout pretty seamlessly.)

For February, my goal was (is) to beat my mileage from January. A couple weeks ago, I was at nine miles, so I didn’t think I’d be able to make it, but now I’m at 28, so what do you know? I think, barring any stomach viruses, I should be able to make it to 45 or so.

Another February fitness goal is do more yoga. I think I’ve been twice. So, it’s not ideal, but whatever. If money and time were no object, I’d go to yoga every day, but as it is, money and time are both objects, so I go when I can. Now that my favorite teacher is back, I definitely want to make it every Sunday, at least.

I also decided a couple days ago to try to go vegetarian for a meal (or two) a day. The goal here is many-fold. I’d like to eat more vegetables as that’s always a good thing. I’d also like to save some money (less meat at meals equals less meat I have to buy.) And finally, I’d like to get a little more creative in the kitchen and not just cook old (meaty) standbys.

As I said, it’s only been a few days, but it’s been going pretty well (minus the leftover chicken pot pie I had for breakfast today.) The real struggle, though, is finding something filling enough. Earlier in the week, I made vegetarian enchiladas (this Martha Stewart recipe) and while they were really good (although a tiny bit bland) and very filing at the time, I was starving an hour later.

Last night we had faux-lafels (I used this recipe, but used garbanzo beans and made eight smaller, falafel-sized “patties”) and they were filling, so that’s good. (Or maybe that was just the Reese’s heart I ate after dinner.) (And LG’s animal crackers.) (Who knows.)

“My girlfriend’s a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian.”

So, any recommendations for filling vegetarian meals? I’d like to stay away from tofu/soy and really focus on just vegetables, but am not opposed to cheese or eggs.