The Year of Health

Oh February.

The month in which my birthday, my boyfriend’s birthday, and Valentine’s Day, three traditionally sugar-laden holidays, all fall within 4 days of each other.

Also, the day of the Groundhog. And my mom’s birthday. On the same day.

Needless to say, February was a little rough.

I got a bit derailed nutritionally mid-month when the B-Day/V-Day Trifecta of Doom hit. Of course, I justified eating treats for six days straight while we celebrated with our families and friends, which would have been fine if it hadn’t taken me another week after that to get back on track. By the last week of February, I felt like I had a handle on things, but my body took a toll. My puffy, sleeping poorly, tummy-aching body.

Anyway, despite that, I did make some progress on my movement, which was the focus of the month anyway! So let’s turn this gravy train around and head towards positive town. Nevermind, I just Googled “gravy train” and it turns out that its use in that sentence isn’t really applicable. It just felt so right.

Goals:
1. Walk 10,000 steps per day. As I mentioned mid-month, this goal was harder than I ever imagined to achieve. Despite my best efforts, I ended up averaging around 7,000 steps a day. And then, tragically, my pedometer broke. It may or may not have been because it flew off of my pants and into the toilet. I considered buying a new pedometer, but instead decided to start saving up for a Jawbone UP. An awesome reader commented about this thing – it tracks so many variables, it’s basically a dream come true for me. My general goal to move throughout the day will continue on, so when I can buy the UP, it will just help the continuation of that goal. Overall, I did not walk 10,000 steps a day. But, I did manage to almost double the steps I was taking during the coldest and most snowy month of the year here in the snowy state of Colorado. The awareness that was brought to me about how much I wasn’t moving before was a real win from this goal.

2. Set performance based goals. I did this! 100% – obviously this was the easy one because I just had to sit down and organize my thoughts into goals, write them on an index card, and tape them to my mirror. But honestly, having that visual and daily reminder set a different tone for the last couple weeks of the month. If I was whining to myself about going to the gym that day, I would look at my goals and say “you’re never going to meet those if you don’t get your ass there. So go.” And I went. I’ll be sure to update as I meet those goals throughout the year.

3. Strength train three times per week, and Crossfit two times per week. Yikes, did this goal morph throughout the month. I wrote a whole post about it, so no need to regale it here. All in all, I am so much happier now that I have a set routine that doesn’t involve me crying from loneliness in the corner of my local gym. Crossfit on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with Saturday being a bonus if I’m not too beat up from the week. Alongside this, I’m making a conscious to go into every work out as hard as I can and not be a little Nancy about the weights I use (which is my tendency).

4. Convert my desk to a standing desk, and learn to stand at work. Still a work in progress! The desk is built, but is now being adjusted for proper height. My crafty boyfriend built me a standing desk for my birthday, but apparently he thinks he’s dating a giant because it was about 6 inches too tall. Goal not totally met, but significant progress made and I should be standing soon!

5. Fine-tune my gym movements and further perfect my Olympic lifting technique. This month I started, and will continue, to have some special sessions with my trainer to fine-tune my skills. This month I was able to gain a lot of insight into my squat technique and my tight ankles, my clean technique, which I was making so much harder than it needed to be, and even rowing. Did you know that on a rowing machine, your butt isn’t supposed to come all the way to your heels? I didn’t. This month, we’re going to work on the almighty snatch, since I have about 3% confidence in my ability with this lift. Having these sessions does a lot for my confidence going into Crossfit, so they are well worth it for me and supporting goal #3.

Overall, February was a good month. I learned a lot about myself, and I gave myself permission to just do what I really wanted to do (Crossfit instead of lifting alone). I’m realizing that for some things, it really takes me about a month to test out my goals, tweak them, and get in the habits. I anticipate the real benefits of my February goals to start paying off in the coming months.

So… March. Holy crap it is March. 2013 is officially the fastest going year ever. Maybe because I’m so busy and stressed, which is a great segue into my theme for March… rest. 

Stay tuned.

Photo credit: spartansgym.com