Bring on 2012!

It’s the second day of 2012 and I’m staring at a half lit Christmas tree.  I lack the motivation to take it down at the moment, thanks in part to a post vacation cough that I acquired.  Actually most of my family was sick and I thought I had avoided it.  But I suppose when an adorable 16 month old is
doling out kisses to everyone the spread of germs in inevitable.  

Somehow despite being mostly miserable all day I found enough energy to get my Zumba on this evening… right here in my living room.  I needed to burn some calories and I needed the surge of endorphins in my system.  

With the holidays I was quite a blogging and journaling slacker.  I haven’t journaled since November 20^th, and I have about three half written blogs in the hopper.  That being said… journaling daily and blogging regularly are at the top of my goal list for 2012.  

I will have plenty of food for my blog as I embark on more crafting adventures.  I already have several I need to post about, and a list accumulating of things I want to make this year.  The sewing machine I got for Christmas has widened the possibilities of things I can do, and I’m super excited.  

I had goals for 2011, but my main goal was to survive the first year without my Mom.  And at that I succeeded.  Now, I am not disillusioned enough to think I won’t still have bad days and still miss her, but I made it through the first year.  One of my top crafting projects this year will be to finally make a quilt out of some of her clothes that I kept.

2011 was also a year of exploring my cooking skills.  I set out with a goal to make one new recipe a week.  For various reasons I didn’t quite make my goal of one new recipe a week, but I did manage to try a lot of new things this year and in the process keep a few of my close friends happy and well fed.  We’ve come to call our meals together “family dinners” and those definitely helped me through this last year.

I’ve decided this is my slogan for this year, “2011 was a year of making yummy food.  2012 will be a year of making me yummy!”  This year I’m getting serious.  I’ve increased my exercise over the last few years (though I’ve been slacking the last six months), but I never really got serious about changing my eating habits.  However, now I am.  I’ve always thought I wasn’t built right to be skinny, but about a month ago a switch flipped in my head and I realized… I can be skinny!  I can eat stuff that is good for me and avoid the temptation of the junk.  I can, once I’ve overcome the cravings, have something tasty without going overboard.  I can work out on a daily basis whether I walk or do Zumba in my living room or anything else.

I’ll still be cooking, and having people over, but what I cook will be changing.  I’ll be focusing on more healthy recipes, but they will still be yummy!  Again… more food (pun intended) for my blog.  I also plan to post my daily food journal as a level of accountability, and any special recipes I use.  

Our church has called a fast for the first three weeks of the year.  We’ve been taking communion for the last three months and this will be the three final weeks of communion.  I have chosen to go on a Daniel Fast, which to me means I am fasting all meats and sweets, including breads.  I’m allowing myself coffee (with Vanilla Almond Milk instead of creamer), whole wheat pasta and brown rice.  Otherwise it will be LOTS of fruits, veggies, beans, and nuts for this girl!  

Now I know it’s not customary to tell people you are fasting, but considering I’m making myself vulnerable and putting my daily food journal out there I figured I should explain why it will lack meat and breads for the first three weeks.  After that I plan to stay low carb, low sugar, and high protein.

Alright, so all that said… today I had some vegetable fried rice at PF Changs for lunch.  I realize it was made with white rice, but… sometimes you just do what you can.  For dinner I had carrots and celery with hummus and peanut butter and some fruit and nut trail mix.  I know I should have eaten more, but this cold makes food less than exciting.  

Good bye and good riddance to 2011!  Here’s to 2012! *clink*