July was great!  I accomplished all my resolutions, which is saying something given it is more than halfway through the year and it is hard to keep motivated.  I haven't been this toned since college, which is saying a lot since I took a weight training class and rode my bike everywhere in college.  So...what does August bring you ask?  It is a good question.  Here is what I have decided.  Lindsay 2012 is getting better and better!

- Make one Christmas present a week.  I know, it is only August, but I start early and that affords me a lot of options.
- Drink one smoothie a week that has kale in it.  This sounds easy...unless you have eaten kale.  It takes me about an hour to drink one with kale in it, so this is a big deal.
- Continue my weight routine.  The only exception will be when I am in Germany, as I do not know the access I will have to weights.
- Take one night a week to spend with Josh.  We do so many different things at night, but we need more time together.  Making it a resolution will help me focus on him more?
I hope you are all doing well and keep the suggestions coming!

July is here and June is over.  It's hot here, which makes me cranky.  It also makes me not want to do anything, which is reflected in the clear LACK of running I did.  Try as I might, I just couldn't force myself to run in the triple-digit heat so that resolution tanked.  That being said, all the others were a success and I did start a new weight-lifting program and have completed two solid weeks of it so at least there was physical exertion going on...even if it wasn't running. 

In contemplation, I really am glad I am doing monthly resolutions.  So far I have tackled mental, physical, and spiritual aspects that I never would have accomplished with an annual resolution.  Also, I'm just not wired for long-term sustainability on things I'm not already doing.  I often find the status-quo quite satisfying so the monthly resolutions give me a good opportunity to try new things (without the burden of having to continue them longer than necessary if they are horrible). 

That being said, let's talk about July!  First of all, this week we'll celebrate the birth of America so that will be a nice respite from the work week.  It also happens to fall on my day off of my weight lifting so that is an added bonus.  Ok, I know you logged in to see what I'm going to do this month (or what I won't be doing, or what I'll be doing TO myself, etc.) so without further ado, here are my resolutions:

- Continue my weight program through the full month.  Though this seems like a cop-out because I'm already doing it, the real challenge here is getting myself to the gym during lunch four days a week.  I only go at lunch, so it can be very difficult to accommodate that in my schedule.  Something about my clients wanting to talk to me at all times of the day...

- Week two of July = no meat.  For those of you who know me well, this is maybe the most challenging thing I'll have ever done, and it's only one week.  I think the cow is the best invention of all time (you can eat it, drink it, wear it, and even ride it if you need to) and I try to eat a lot of it.  We're going to see if I can go total vegetarian for a week...or at least pescatarian.

- Week three of July = no dairy.  Similar to the meat, I drink a lot of milk, I eat a lot of cheese, and I have yogurt or cottage cheese every day.  This is no small feat.

- Read the news every weekday.  I've done this one before, but I think it's a good one to re-surface given the hype we're soon to have on the elections.

What I'm hoping will NOT happen is that I feel better when not eating meat and dairy for a two-week period of time.  If I do see some sort of change, then we might have to do further research...

In addition to my resolutions here are some fun facts about my life at age 33 (i.e., since 2012):
- I learned how to play soccer (albeit indoor) and the endurance it takes to play
- I celebrated one year of learning how to play tennis (and still playing)
- I have run in four races so far this year with another scheduled for July.  Hopefully I'll run in ten total races this year.

As always, if you have any suggestions for resolutions please send them my way.  I'm always looking for something new to make Lindsay 2012 the best yet!

Woohoo!  Another update and the month isn't yet finished.  I consider this a large accomplishment, despite no one really reading the updates.  But, that's ok.  Someday, when I'm famous, we can all look back on these and enjoy them.

Clearly I'm doing better about tracking my progress in the blog.  CHECK!  Running is a fail.  I have run, but not three times a week.  I did just start a grueling workout program this week though, so that should count for something.  Especially since I'm so sore I can't even lower myself to the toilet without causing my quadriceps some grief.  I think this is my body's way of saying, "look, here is a preview of how it will be to be old and feeble."  I'm thinking lifting more weights will be a good way to beat my future old person into submission.

I am doing really well on calling my out-of-town friends too. I have a couple more I need to reach out to (or at least not speak to their voicemail) but I think this has been a nice push to talk to people more often.  Life is just so busy, and for some reason I don't make time for that even though a lot of time I'm just in my car jamming out to some awesome tunes and should be checking in with the most important people in my life (aside from Josh and Mack of course). 

I hope all is going well on your monthly/yearly resolutions.  July is just around the corner and I have had NO suggestions yet.  I think I might do one week of no meat and one week of no dairy (no, not the same week or I would kill people...and then maybe eat them since there seems to be a lot of that going on these days).  I have to have my book club book read by July 11th so I maybe a forced resolution to have it all read?  Too easy?  Yes.  Find me something better!

Look at me!  I'm updating my blog!  This month is going well with the exception of running.  I have not run yet...at least not for long distances.  I'm guessing you wouldn't allow me to count "chasing around a kid" so I will have to say this one isn't working out well.  The others are going swimmingly though!  I've spoken to multiple out of town friends, I'm working on my quilt top, and look at this...I'm updating my progress!  So far I am calling this a success.  Let's see if this keeps up!

So May was a total success!  I managed to do three different physical activites in a week (and also managed to pull a quadricep muscle which was awful), spent more time with Josh, sent a card a week (more than one the week preceding Mother's Day) and spent a good month in general learning weird facts.  I also fell in love with the blog where Isaac Lamb proposes to his girlfriend.  It's rumored I watched it more than ten times this month, but you shouldn't listen to all rumors!

Ok, so what will I do in June you ask?  It's a good question.  I feel like I'm recycling old material so I'm definitely taking suggestions for July.  PLEASE comment any good suggestions.  I need some creativity!

Without further ado, here are my June resolutions.  I really need to get better about blogging my experiences during the month, so you MIGHT see that one show up.  :)

- Call one out-of-town friend a week to check-in.  This only gets to count as a success if I actually TALK to that person; voicemails do NOT count.
- Make one new quilt.  My husband and I get so hot during the summer and can't use our down comforter.  We don't have a quilt big enough for a queen bed so we end up using two different ones.  We've decided, being married and all, that we should share covers so I'm tasked with making yet another quilt for us.
- Update people more on my resolutions as well as our family blog.  I think I'm going to define "more" as once a week.  That seems manageable right?
- Run three days a week.  I did a really good job of running a lot at the beginning of the year, but the heat is making me whiny about it.  If I make it a resolution I'm much more likely to do it.

Please do send me your comments on July.  I want something fun (and let's not get too in the weeds...I don't want to have to memorize legislation or Shakespeare for some random reason).

Thanks for your support everyone!

May I have a resolution please?

Well, April was almost a complete failure thanks to my incredibly busy work and travel schedule. I only managed a few Shred workouts total (though I did supplement with some gym visits), I did not avoid all bread products like I wanted, and I only made it halfway through my second book. Pretty much the only one I achieved was deleting a show from my DVR. I ended up deleting three others, so that feels good at least. We are going to try some new things for May. Once again, I want to do things that better me in some way, but it is hard coming up with new things every month. Perhaps that is supposed to be part of the journey as well...who knows. The good thing about monthly resolutions is that if you have a bad month, you haven't missed the whole year! - do three different physical activities every week. These could include (but are not limited to): tennis, running, lifting weights, soccer, bike riding, or roller blading. - send one card to a friend every week. It needs to be a different friend too. I know' you are saying, "but Mother's day is next week Lindsay...that is cheating". That only counts as one week even though I will be sending more than one! - spend more time with Josh. I tend to overcommit myself to a lot of different things, so I am going to try to dedicate one night a week to Josh so we can have some "us" time. - learn one interesting fact a week. This first week I learned that a Lambourghini (not sure how to spell it and am too lazy to look it up) is almost as wide as a London bus! Alright...hopefully these will get me back on track. I hope you are all doing well on your resolutions for the year! I will try to login each week to let you know who received a card and what fun fact I learned!

April Showers...improvement!

I have been so busy I haven't yet had time to post my resolutions for April, but rest assured they are underway! It's been a busy month (albeit only two full days), but it's been good in that I have been working on the new and improved Lindsay!

As you know, I try to improve in multiple areas each month, and April is no exception. Below are April's resolutions. Fingers crossed I am as successful as March!

- Do 30-day Shred three times a week. This is a Jillian Michael's video, so it pretty much means I'm signing up to be yelled at three times a week. I've done this video before, and it's a good workout when you don't have a lot of time so I really like it. So far I'm one workout in for the week, which is good since it's only Tuesday. :)
- Read two books. This one will be good because it's a book club month which means I typically only read one book. I have one on loan from a friend so that one will need to be read as well.
- Delete one recorded series from my DVR. This will improve me on many levels. One, my completer personality won't feel the need to finish out the shows all the time and two, it'll give me more time with friends and family. I did this on Sunday and "Modern Family" got the axe. Don't get me wrong, I love that crazy family. But, it's not an improvement if I don't suffer a bit. (The caveat to this is that I also cannot ADD a new series).
- No bread or tortillas. I think it's clear which resolution will be the most difficult. At least I'm keeping pasta around.

Good luck to me, and happy resolutions to all!

March Madness over; welcome to April!

Well, March was extremely successful! I did my 60 push-ups a day, which equated to 1860 push-ups! That combined with continued running equated to a very good month of physical exertion.

To my chagrin, I did read the front page of the WSJ or BBC News webpage every weekday. While I do feel more knowledgeable, I find that I easily parse the information I don't care to know about into a small area of my brain that is only accessible with three keys and a brick of C4. That is, unless, there is some trivia involved and then apparently it opens up like I'm about to feed food to a koi...you know those fish in ponds are never satisfied.

Last but not least, I did my top ten lists for four candidates. It's kind of a cheat because I didn't actually find ten reasons because I didn't want to get into the extreme details of each piece of legislation they have supported or fought against. So, without further ado...

- Mitt Romney:
1. He has five kids. This does not represent me, nor the norm in our country (despite reality shows to the contrary). Honestly...five kids. Sheesh.
2. He has three houses. Once again, this does not represent me. I guess he does need a place to store all the kids though.
3. His wealth is ridiculous. He could probably pay off our debt independently (or at least needing help from only one or two contributors). In all honesty though, he does appear to be able to manage money, which would be a good thing for us.
4. He's Mormon. It has to be said. The country just isn't ready for that. No matter how much everyone touts separation between church and state, people just aren't ready for that jump.
5. He supports women giving up their children if they aren't married. That's just crazy.
6. He went from being Pro-Choice to Pro-Life. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't change your view on that for one reason or another. I think it's important to know where you stand on that and if your views change you should make that known. But, to this country it will lead to an automatic label of "flip-flopping" without regard for the topic, so that is a slight against him.
7. He's opposed to same-sex marriage and civil unions. He changed his opinions on these too, but it's still going to hurt him given the traction that has been made of late.

- Rick Santorum:
1. This guy was a legit lawyer...as in practicing. That makes him questionable from the outset because he'll be very adept at working the system. I know and love lawyers, but he doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable in general so his ability to find loopholes more easily than a non-lawyer scares me.
2. He is also opposed to same-sex marriages and civil unions.
3. He's opposed to birth control. There have been lots of things about this in the media lately (or so I'm told...remember, I only started reading the news last month), but it just seems ridiculous to put that much responsibility on the women of the country. Telling them to just keep their legs closed really does put the responsibility of who can and cannot have sex onto the women.
4. He has changed his opinions on the theory of origin (evolutionary theory). Though I understand changing your views on abortion, this one seems to be a bit off for me.
5. He's too interested in our foreign occupation. I'm tired of it...let's focus on us for a change.
6. He really doesn't seem to understand all that he reads or supports. That is extremely worrisome.
7. He has a mixed record on fiscal matters. With a debt as big as we have, I would really prefer someone that can balance their check book regularly and consistently.
8. He has seven kids. That's two more than Mitt! Come on people...

- Newt Gingrich:
1. He's been married three times. And, oh yeah, cheated on the first two. That does not send a good message to the country, nor to the rest of the world. Cheating on a wife, though a personal matter, is still cheating. It involves lying, hiding, and emotional pain...those all translate to things in politics so he should definitely be worried about this.
2. He's had three religions! I guess that equates to about one per marriage, though they didn't directly correspond. Talk about flip-flopping. If he can go from Lutheran to Southern Baptist and then to Catholicism, what issues will you change your mind about related to politics?
3. He's only been moderately successful thus far. He's always been ALMOST there. That's probably not going to be good enough when you put him in a position he's not QUITE qualified for.
4. He needed his wife's help to balance their check book. I'm sorry, that is similar to Rick's issues. There are some qualifications I can ignore (military experience being the most obvious since no one really has that anymore) but I want someone solid in the monetary department.

- Barack Obama:
1. He used cocaine in high school. Seriously? Ok, I never used any illegal substance in college (up to now actually), but I do understand that a lot of high school and college students like to experiment with some drugs - pot being the most obvious. But cocaine? That's hard core. Now he says it was a great moral failure, but it's still something of note. Perhaps it will mean he'll be harder on drug use, but I'm skeptical.
2. Many media outlets say he's a great orator, but I disagree. If he knows the topic, or it's something he's passionate about, then yes he's good. But if it's a regular speech where someone else wrote it, you might as well have someone read from the prompter for him because they won't deliver it any less dynamically than he will.
3. Moderate success. For all the things he was elected for, he's only achieved a small amount of progress. We'll probably start seeing the prices at the pump go down soon just so we don't focus on that, but it'll only be a ploy to hide all the things he's yet to accomplish.

Progress for me, but not the Republicans

Well, this month is starting out well. I've done my pushups and I've been reading the WSJ or BBC news every week day. If not for that, I wouldn't have known today was Super Tuesday. Total disclosure: I would have known it's Super Tuesday because they interrupted "The Young and the Restless" today whilst I was running so Obama could make a speech that would bring attention to him instead of the Republicans. That being said, I actually knew it was Super Tuesday BEFORE that interruption, which is saying something...

March Madness - my resolutions, that is

It's the first day of March. It's supposed to be 81 today, which makes this the best day so far this year. What a beautiful day it will be! With that, we will have a new batch of resolutions to get us up and moving. I'm tired and cranky today though, so it's a good thing these are forced resolutions or I wouldn't do them for sure.

#1 - Read the front page of the Wall Street Journal or BBC America every weekday. I am horrible about current events (regardless of whether they are US or international), so I feel I should be better about this. It will no doubt depress and frustrate me, but knowledge can have the facade of power sometimes so maybe I can convince myself I'll be more powerful after March.
#2 - Create a top-ten list for four of the Presidential candidates that outlines why they should NOT be elected. This will be both humorous and educational, as I'll have to learn all about them to make my list meaningful (and funny).
#3 - Do 60 pushups a day. The goal is to do them in a row, but right now I can only do about 40 in a row so I've slacked a lot. AND before any of you question this resolution, please note I never learned how to do "girl" pushups, so these are normal, legitimate pushups.

No running goal this month, just so I don't burn myself out on it. Also, I want the knee to be ok so I need to take it easy. I will run today though. ;)

That's it folks! I hope your March is equally fun and educational!

Leap Year!

Well, today is the last day of February, and it's been a mixed bag for my resolutions this month. I accomplished the running piece, with the exception of last week because of my sprained knee. I figure that means I get credit for that one. I did learn about four religions (at least at a high-level with an understanding of their differences) - Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Seventh-Day Adventist. I didn't realize the Seventh-Day Adventists were actually a Protestant religion...very interesting.

As for the nail picking, that one was a fail. I did well the first two weeks but just gave up on my ski trip. It is clearly an area I still need to work on for my own improvement. The wine is going to be classified as a 93% achievement. I somehow managed to avoid helping my friends consume about 15 bottles on the ski trip, but invite me to a birthday party with no liquor and I decide it's not worth it. So, last Saturday I caved, and then last night I had two glasses of wine as well. I figured it was the last night of February and I'd already caved once, so what the heck. But, two days out of 29 isn't horrible, so I'm calling it 93%.

I have yet to decide what to do for March, so stay tuned; I still have all day today!

February sprained

Well, February was going strong until the ski part of the month. The first morning I sprained my knee on a blue run after hitting a big patch of powder I was not expecting. I still skied the remaining three days of the trip, but now I am hindered to complete the five days a week of running. I'm going to take a week off and see what I can do next week. This also hindered my tennis playing, which is a bummer for my league, but we'll see what a couple weeks of rest and rehab will do for me.

As for my other resolutions, I did manage to avoid a very large consumption of wine on the ski trip, so while I sat there envying the wine, I did hold firm. Sticking to the non-nail picking was harder, though I did stop myself whenever I realized I was doing it.

Religious learnings needs to happen! I am hoping for some time over the next week and a half to dedicate myself to learning the four new religions. If not, we know what March will have involved! I'm beginning to think four resolutions is a bit much, but perhaps that's just the sprained knee talking.

February Starts off with a bang!

Today is the first day of the month, and the first run for the month has been completed. I had to prevent myself from fiddling with my nails at the red lights this morning, but otherwise we're off to a good start. Four runs in three days so far this week has me feeling good too. My coworker and I added some weights and abs the last couple of days so we come back to work a little more sore than normal.

I'm taking suggestions for religions to research. I'm thinking Buddhist, Islam, Hindu, and Seventh Day Adventist. What do you guys think? I know virtually nothing about those and have always wondered what the differences are. I'll share some of the more interesting points as I find them.

I took a picture of how red my face gets after running. I look like I'm running for my life, but really I'm not. It stays red for an hour or so after I get back to the office so everyone thinks I've had a heart attack or something. Pretty humorous...

As a reminder, here are February's resolutions:

- Running or skiing five days a week (why stop now?) - there is obviously a ski trip planned otherwise skiing wouldn't be an option.
- Stop picking at my nails. This is particularly hard at red lights when I get very bored and therefore pick at my fingers. It's a horrible habit but I never have good motivation to stop.
- No wine. This will be the hardest. ESPECIALLY on a ski trip with friends, but that's precisely why I need to do it. It will be a good cleanse.
- Learn about four religions. I know very little about non-Christian religions, so I think exploring these others to learn about their tenets and beliefs will do a lot to expand what I know.

January Finished!

Well, today marked the last of my January resolution, and it was a success! Five days of running a week (with two so far this week to start out the next month). That means I've run a total of 22 days, which totals 63 miles. Definitely more than I would have run without a resolution.

I noticed today that with a soap opera on one t.v. and Sports Center on the t.v. right next to it, you get a good comparison of the different types of commercials. For the soap opera, I saw ads for cat litter, tampons, and fast food. For Sports Center I saw ads for cars, beer, and fast food. I guess everyone needs to see ads for fast food even if they are shopping for cat litter and tampons.

Monthly Resolutions - January

Instead of a New Year's resolution, this year I opted for monthly resolutions. I figure I should set the stage a little bit more realistically because there is pretty much nothing I'm going to accomplish all year except eating and sleeping (and neither will be as much as I want). I decided to keep a blog of my progress as the months progress so I can have something to look back on and remember the pains of what I put myself through for self-improvement. 2012 = a new and improved Lindsay...just one month at a time.

For January, I set my sights on increasing my physical endurance and chose to run five days a week.

You will notice, I didn't stipulate how far I run each time, simply that five days out of the week I would run. For the most part, this ended up being about the distance of a 5k each time, so when all is said and done I'll have fun a little over 66 miles (since as of tomorrow I'll have run 22 times in the month).

At first it was really difficult to make time to run. I found myself mostly running at the gym during lunch, which is really convenient (and you get to watch some trashy daytime tv, so that is fun). After a while I found that I was eating better as well. As an added bonus, I even got my husband to run with me (he got to push the jogging stroller) so the whole family benefited. Additionally, I ran in the first 5k I've run in a few years. I am already signed up for another one in February!

Tuesday will mark the next month's set of resolutions and I am still trying to figure out what they will be. I have decided to try to better myself with each set (or one big resolution) so as of right now (T minus two days) I think February will be:

- Running or skiing five days a week (why stop now?) - there is obviously a ski trip planned otherwise skiing wouldn't be an option.
- Stop picking at my nails. This is particularly hard at red lights when I get very bored and therefore pick at my fingers. It's a horrible habit but I never have good motivation to stop.
- No wine. This will be the hardest. ESPECIALLY on a ski trip with friends, but that's precisely why I need to do it. It will be a good cleanse.
- Learn about four religions. I know very little about non-Christian religions, so I think exploring these others to learn about their tenets and beliefs will do a lot to expand what I know.

I will update this blog with my progress...if for no other reason than so you can laugh at my ultimate breakdown. :)