Resolutions, not just for New Years

From Halloween to New Years is my absolute favorite time of year.  Unfortunately, it's also the most difficult time to stay focused and refrain from overindulging.  Halloween, for the most part, is all about candy.  It's hard to escape the baskets full of treats at every turn.  Working in an office there seems to be an endless supply of temptation disguised as holiday spirit.  Once you've made it through the sugar coma, you realize that in a few weeks you'll be dancing with drumsticks and swimming through plates covered in gravy.  As a kid I loved Thanksgiving because it was like a second birthday.  Relatives that couldn't make it to my birthday always welcomed me to the dinner table with belated gifts.  Once you manage to button your pants back up and lift yourself off of the couch you say your goodbyes and exclaim how wonderful it will be to do this all again in a month.  This is what holidays have become.  Eating, sitting, sleeping and then repeating every day until the leftovers run out. 

On the left Oct '12, on the right Nov '13

Needless to say, it's a tough to make time to work out and really stay motivated.  Nothing tells you it's too cold to go for a run when you wake up to frost on your windows.  Everything about the holidays and winter say, be lazy, just eat, build up another layer of fat to keep your warm.  With all that being said, it would seem that we are amidst the best time to make a change.  Why wait until New Years?  Start your resolution today, right now, write down your list of goals.  It's important to visualize your results and keep yourself accountable.  You may think it's enough to just think about what you want to do, but trust me it helps to have a physical reminder of it.  Making a list will help to remind you why you started and more importantly where you want to go.

It was this time last year that I made my goals for the year.  With keeping that tradition, here's my list for next year:

-run a full marathon (hopefully Detroit or Chicago)
-complete an olympic distance triathlon
-finish a 5k in 30 minutes
-finish a 10k in under an hour
-finish a half marathon in 2:30
-lift heavy things, lots of them...it's time to build more muscle!
-help others reach their goals
-figure out what I really want to do with this blog...any suggestions?
-run in every state (and eventually every continent maybe?)


I intentionally left out any specific pound or size goals.  I'm not really sure what my ideal weight or size is, but I suppose I'll know when I get there.  For me, this is all about being healthy and happy, not skinny.  Weight loss is a part of my journey, but not the whole thing.  Those little numbers on the scale don't tell my whole story or define me so I don't let them control me.