Can you believe that January is over?! I’m pretty excited though, because February is my favorite month because… it is MY B-DAY MONTH! I love celebrations, and am thinking of reviving my Suza-Palooza party again this year… since that seems like something that would fit into my “year of health” objectives.
So, January. The month of getting back on the wagon and getting rid of the storm of crap that was December. Let’s review each of my goals:
1. Eat a crap ton of green veggies. Did pretty well with this. Definitely lost a bit of momentum when things got really busy towards the end of the month. But I did experiment with lots of new veggies, and I have made a habit out of eating at least a couple different leafy greens a day. Overall, an improvement and I’m eating more greens than ever before.
2. Drink water. Lots of it. Meh. Did ok. Drank enough to not be thirsty, not sure if it was ALL that great.
3. Supplement for detoxification. Did great! Kept up with the supplements I take to ensure my digestion was good, including a probiotic, Hcl, and fiber. Like a boss.
4. Replace coffee with green tea. YES! Totally did this. I had coffee only 2 times in the past month, on special occasions. I have completely changed my daily habit to start with green tea. And I feel so.much.better. I don’t feel like I need caffeine first thing, and coffee everyday was just making me feel… weird. I will definitely keep it up with the green tea.
5. Do an estrogen detox. This is still a work in progress, and will certainly carry over into the new month. I’ll keep ya “posted” (get it, like blog post? Baha, double entendre!)
6. Limit the toxic load of my environment. I enjoyed experimenting with some new beauty products, particularly new makeup. This is a continuing experiment that will carry forward as well.
In the words of Borat, I would call January a “great success”. Overall, this past month did what I wanted it to do: got me back into the swing of eating clean and getting my body good nutrients. I feel 1,000x better than I did at the end of December. I will be eating more leafy greens that ever before because of this month, I’m really happy with my new best friend, green tea, and I’m excited to continue ridding my body of the excess estrogen that makes me a sugar-monger once a month.
I made some strides towards a health goal, rather than a body-image goal. While I’m not 100% there yet, I did have some good wake up calls in January that helped me let go a tiny bit more of my iron grip on body image.
Most excitingly, I started writing about all of this here on the blog. Writing has proven to be therapeutic and create a sense of accountability. Through some wonderful comments, I have been inspired by people around the world I wouldn’t otherwise have gotten to know.
Now that I’m back in the swing of things, I’m ready to take on a new challenge for February. This month’s theme… MOVEMENT!
I’ve been getting to the gym occasionally in January, but I didn’t stress about it too much because I was focusing on the aforementioned goals. But now that I’m feeling back to my normal self, it’s time to get these buns a-movin’. Here’s what I’m thinking for February goals:
1. Walk 10,000 steps per day
2. Set performance based goals (physical acts I’d like to achieve)
3. Strength train three times per week, and Crossfit two times per week
4. Convert my desk to a standing desk, and learn to stand at work
5. Fine-tune my gym movements and further perfect my Olympic lifting technique
I’m excited for February, and to get into a solid gym routine. I’m also looking forward to walking more in general, which may be a challenge because it’s February in Colorado. Excuses excuses. But for the month, focusing on moving more and moving better will be the sole goal. Can’t wait!
Excellent goals!
I’m lucky enough to have a desk that can go up and down at work… so I’ve been trying to increase the amount of time I spend standing… and when I get tired I can sit back down.
Regarding the water thing.. whenever I try to make myself drink more water.. I fail. It’s hard to drink water when I’m not thirsty… so I’ve settled back into letting my body tell me how much to drink.
I just read somewhere that the whole 8 glasses a day thing came from an arbitrary government recommended number in the 50′s.
Something that I’ll never forget from talking to a nephrologist was when he said “your kidneys are smarter than you are and will do a pretty good job of letting you know how much you need to drink.”
So jealous of your convertible desk. Lucky duck. And you’re right, my kidneys seem to manage just fine, so I’m working on listening to them instead of an arbitrary goal.
Another question I had, and I may have missed is, are you planning to continue your January goals as well on top of the Feb ones?
Yeah! I’ve definitely carried over my leafy green habit, and am still eating those much more than ever before. I am continuing the estrogen detox protocol into February, as it is taking longer than a month. And my green tea habit has also stuck, and I’m only drinking coffee for a treat on the weekend. The idea is that I’ll take a month to build habits, then after a month they’ll be engrained enough to keep going while I focus on new goals.