New Years “resolutions”

I admit – I started writing this post before new years and somehow never finished.

I realize the last time I blogged about “New Years” was the start of 2010! Reading it, I am really happy I wrote that post. It was a great summary of a year as well as my goals for the coming year. Looking back at my post nearest to New Years this year, I realize I was really depressed and remember not wanting to blog because everything I started to write came out negative and whiny. But I think either way it is important to regroup, recap and reinvest myself in life and thinking about what I want.

A look back at 2012

Work Stuff:

• Started working at Newton Wellesley as a Clinical Inpatient Dietitian
• Did Maternity leave at Massachusetts General Hospital as a Research Dietitian.
• Got offered and accepted a permanent job at MGH as a Research dietitian.
• Got my very own NIH research protocols! (Up to 9 now!)

Personal Stuff:

• I was a Bridesmaid in my good friend Melissa’s wedding (the first wedding I have been in since I was a flower girl around age 5!) 

• Melissa got pregnant- making her my first friend close friend MY age to becoming a mom! (I have lots of friends with kids, but they all seem older and it still seemed out of the realm of possibility even though I guess I am getting to be a real live adult now.)

• Got married myself to one of my best friends.

• Got a new name!
• Maintained my optimism for the most part.
• Made it through most major holidays without my typical self destructive melt downs.
• Despite being a lot further away from most of my friends – I think I managed to maintain a lot of good friendships- though there is always room for improvement and love seeing everyone!

Physical:

• Tried hot yoga (and hated it!)
• Tried crossfit (and loved it!)
• Ran my first 5K (Zombie Run for Our Lives) 
• Did the 10,000 push up challenge (100 push ups every day for 100 days before the wedding.)
• Did lots of other yoga
• Started working out with my hubby :) 

Looking back on my 2010 “resolutions”

· Learn how to accept a compliment – I have definitely gotten better at this.

· Work on being healthy, mentally and physically. – Still working on it. While I may have more adipose tissue, and I am not sure about my cholesterol etc, I would say I definitely feel better, and I am treating myself a lot better than I used to.

· Live in the moment, but make decisions that I will be comfortable with and proud of looking back.  – So far so good. If anything I may have found I do better when I plan a bit more!

· Continue to work on financial stability, while paying off undergrad loans.  -  I still feel like I have no money- but I did successfully graduate grad school with no debt, and I only have <$1000 left on my undergrad loans. I do now have a car payment, however, but little by little, chipping away!

· Prioritize. And make sure I am living accordingly. – An ongoing battle!

Goals for 2013:

·         Be happy

·         Be healthy (physically and mentally)

·         Be financially responsible

o       Finish paying off my school loans  

o       Pay off at least 1/3 of my car loan

o       Continue saving for the future/ an emergency

·         Keep learning

o       Listen to NPR or the news at least every work day.

·         Try new things (maybe do 1 new thing a month?? Hmm I will have to think more about this!)

I have taken so many counseling classes that I know my goals should be specific and manageable, but for now, I am going to leave it at that!

What are your thoughts on resolutions and the New Year? 

Map My Run

I have again been a horrible blogging slacker!

But without further ado-

Several things have occured: I turned 22, I moved to Cambridge, ... and that might be it?

Tonight is Friday Night, as of course as your standard 22 year old, I had a wild night planned! O wait- thats right- I work at 7 am.
So instead of wild parties- I decided to go for a nice little run.

I ran from central square, down Main Street in Cambridge, over by MGH, over the esplanade to Cambridge Street, and down prospect street.

I went about 5 miles, which for me is quite good. I'm not much of a runner. I have a lot of friends that are crazy runners, one of my old roommates was a marathoner so I became a bit disillusioned to what was actually a good distance to run, since she would be like, "O it was my light day, I only ran 10 miles..." and I would be so proud of myself for finally running 3 miles in a row haha. But We all have our own things. I am generally more of a gym person and like more variety - I love group exercise classes! but alas, my gym membership with BU expired, and now that I've moved its not in the most convenient location for me. I'll probably try out a gym around here eventually but for now I guess i can stick to running.

I like to use the website mapmyrun.com to plot out routes and see how far I go (also because I have absolutely no sense of direction and would inevitably get horribly lost without any sort of mapping tool.

Its also convenient just for mapping various distances, such as I've mapped how far my general walks are such as when I lived in Allston it was about 0.4 miles from my apartment to the T stop, and it was 0.6 miles from MGH to government center, so I knew on days I worked I generally got in at least 2 miles of walking from my commute, so I didn't feel quite as bad about sitting at my desk in front of a computer for 10 hours straight.

It also lets you save your routes, check out other routes people in the area have saved, look at races in the area, and calculate rough estimates on calories burned etc. Its a pretty nifty site, I suggest ya'll check it out if you have not already.

Do any of you guys use other mapping/ calculating of exercise tools?