Goals

In my previous post, I mentioned why I want to get in shape. Now I want to share my goals to hold myself accountable for the next six weeks.

1. Run a 5k - I'm registered for the Rockin' River 5k on May 6. I'm looking forward to it. I might not be able to run the whole way, but the important thing is that I'm doing it. I'm planning another 5k in July, followed by two 10ks, one in July and one in August. I'm using Google Calendar to plan out my runs for the next six weeks, using a 5k plan that I found in Women's Running magazine.

2. Attend all Kaia classes - Starting on Monday, Kaia meets 5 days a week at 6 a.m. Getting out of bed will be difficult, but I have support. Sean's aware of my goals and will wake me up if he needs to (at least, if he's awake). I also have a couple phone numbers of girls in the Kaia class, so we can text in the morning to make sure we all get out of bed. I also am using a three-pronged approach: I have my alarm clock, my cell phone alarm, and the alarm on my watch all set to go off at 5 a.m. That will give me time to get something to eat before class.

3. Attend 2 yoga classes a week - I will be going to yoga on Wednesday or Thursday evenings depending on my schedule (it varies from week to week depending on my volunteer activities), and on Sunday mornings (if I can't make the Sunday morning class, I'll go on Saturday instead). Yoga is an excellent tool for getting in shape, and even if I just did this, I'm pretty sure that I'd have a body to be proud of after six weeks.

4. Eat healthy whenever possible. I will allow myself one "splurge" meal on weekends; otherwise I will do my best to eat whole, unprocessed foods. I have a book of smoothie recipes, and usually the smoothies have a good balance of carbs and protein to make a complete meal by themselves. That's a fairly easy and tasty meal. I also have the cookbook from Kaia that has suggestions for meals.

I know that this all sounds very ambitious, and there may be times when I screw up or when it's difficult to follow these plans. It's okay to make a mistake, as long as I can get back on track. Just yesterday, Sean wanted to go out to dinner. I thought it would be nice, but we couldn't agree on where to go - there aren't many options for healthy food when eating out. Does anyone have any suggestions for restaurants that offer healthy food? I know the Olive Garden has some decent entrees, but their desserts and breadsticks are hard to pass up! Any suggestions would be appreciated - thanks!