Meeting Your New Years Fitness, Nutrition, and Organization Goals

Tweet this! After yesterday's post on 3 reasons you should re-frame your new years resolutions, I had a few of you write in to ask me what mine were, and how I am planning to accomplish them.

I've made a few resolutions, but I have found that this early January societal tendency to make goals is really just a (good) excuse for me to make some serious strides toward things I already wanted to do.

So without further delay, here are my goals. Some of these are goals that I know I can easily hit but just want to be accountable for, while others I find more difficult. I've marked them with difficulty levels (based on my own habits).

• Organization: Organize a calendar/planner and keep it up to date with daily tasks, appointments, social activities, and workout schedules. (Moderate- I'm good at starting these, but tend to go through spells where I neglect the calendar entirely)
• Fitness: Work out at least 5 days a week, aiming for six. Make at least 3 of those days include a class at the gym, and include one day of yoga at least every other week. (Easy - This is already a habit, but I want to be more accountable for it)
• Nutrition: Do the math to figure out how many calories I should be healthily consuming, then make a plan to intake those calories through balanced meals, and stick to it. (Moderate - I'm sometimes great at this, sometimes not so great.)

I'm sure there are many of you who have the same (or similar) goals as I do. To make it easier for myself to achieve these goals and to help those of you who have similar goals plan your method of attack, I've defined my methods for making each of those goals happen.

Organization Methods:
I bought a wonderful planner/calendar from Target. It's small enough to easily carry around in my purse. When you pick a planner, take a serious minute to look through it and make sure it has what you need.

Mine has a large view, which lets me make multiple notes per day (see below, top right). It also has a monthly view calendar before each month, so that you can see your "month at a glance" (see below, bottom left). I use this to keep track of my big items, such as trips, so that I can see what's coming up. Also, before each month, there are two pages for notes (see below, bottom right). This is a space for me to do a few things. on the left, I write my goals for the month. If there are a few big items I'm planning to tackle within that 30 day period, that's where I put them down. Then, on the right, there are enough lines for me to keep track of my nutrition, so that I can keep an eye on how I'm eating.

I also color-coded these (see the other image below). For now, I have Blue = Appointments, Pink = Workouts, Green = Blog/Consulting Tasks, and Yellow = Social.

Fitness Methods:
Part of my methodology for this goal goes hand in hand with my organizational goals. I'm making a plan, a few weeks in advance, about which days I plan to work out and which days I plan to take classes. I am aiming for 6 days of workouts per week, with the understanding that it is possible that one of those days will end up being a bust because of life's grand surprises.

As of right now, my general schedule is:
Monday: 30 Minute Full Body Blast (low weights class), and Body By Science (heavy weights routine)
Tuesday: 45 Minute Cardio, on my own
Wednesday: 45 Minute Cardio, on my own, OR Yoga (class)
Thursday: Bodypump (low to medium weights class)
Friday: 20 Minute Cardio, on my own, and CXWORKS (abs class)
Saturday: Spinning (class), OR skip
Sunday: Bodypump (low to medium weights class), OR skip

I'm keeping track of this by putting my plan for each week on my calendar and color-coding it, so that it's easy to keep track of at a glance. My color for workouts is PINK!

P.S. Looking for fitness advice and routines? Check out my fitness page.

Nutrition Methods:
Using an online calculator, I calculated the amount of calories I should be eating each day to maintain my fitness level with the amount of activity I currently have. Then, I planned out meals to equal the adequate level of calories, including lots of fiber and ruffage, proteins, healthy fats, and somewhat limited carbs (but not cutting carbs or strictly limiting them, because that's not how I roll; plus, then if I ever add them back, we could have a problem!).

As of now, my general meal schedule is:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, using half egg whites and half eggs with yolk. Include spinach, turkeyroni, feta cheese, and other veggies. Cup of coffee with Coconut Milk
Morning Snack: FiberOne 90 Calorie Bar, or other lean protein bar
Lunch: Large salad with spinach/arugula, onions, cheese, avocado, and assorted veggies. Optional Quinoa side, every other day.
Afternoon Snack: Fruit, such as banana or apple. Optional string cheese.
Dinner: Lean meat (such as chicken or fish) with steamed or raw vegetables. Optional glass of red wine (only one glass!).

I'm keeping track of this, primarily, by prepping meals ahead of time. If you're looking to do something similar, check out this post on preparing your lunches and dinner for the week all within one hour. Or, find a multitude of healthy recipes here.

P.S. Want to read more about my nutrition and diet philosophy? Check out this page!

Making Over The Tiniest Kitchen In The World

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Perhaps you recall when we gave Justin's Wicker Park apartment an overhaul... At the time, we did nothing to the kitchen. We were stumped, to say the least. There was no storage. Hardly any shelving. No place for spices or pots and pans. 

Before:

The cabinets you DO see are filled with cups and plates... and the cabinets underneath the sink have no shelving or layering. Just one big space under there. So that means your food would be next to your under-the-sink garbage bin and cleaning supplies. Yuck? I think so!

Progress:

To deal with the shelving and storage problem, we decided to add some storage of our own. We added a bright red spice rack, which helped alleviate some of the kitchen stress... and, for a bit of fun, we smacked up a piece of art that mimics the bright red.  

  

We also added a few shelves above the sink, which we picked up at an antique store in Holland, Michigan. The industrial-looking silver shelves can hold a few odds and ends, like coffee grounds, paper towels, and an awesome non-aerosol olive oil spritzer.

Adding a super cheap (thanks, online shopping!) under-the-counter mug rack also freed up some space in the cabinets (while also helping play off of that mustard yellow color). I grabbed it online for 11 bucks and it arrived within two days. Semi-instant gratification? Thanks, internet (I mean Al Gore).

So, using a thrifted spice rack, antique silver shelves, and a cheapo under-cabinet organizer, we had freed up lots of space and organized as much as we thought we could. Yet, there was still a big problem. The new most obnoxious thing (because as soon as you eliminate one nuisance, another one pops up to take its place) was the clambering noise of pots and pans.

Every single time I wanted to cook, I had to wrestle (yes, wrestle) the appropriate pot or pan from an under-the-sink cabinet. Not only did I have to "get low" (sure, I'm only 23, but getting down on your hands and knees to cook is just obnoxious), but, inevitably, that the pan I wanted would always be stuck in between all of the others. Right in the middle. The most inaccessible place. It's Murphy's law... or perhaps his first cousin. Anyway, piles were spilled. Pots knocked other things over. Nothing was organized. And my brain was screaming.

And then I had a dream. Wouldn't it be splendid if, instead of being stacked 10 pots high, the pots and pans were hanging? It came just like a dream to me. To have pots and pans hanging from above, easily plucked like grabbing an apple from a tree?! It must be the kitchen version of the Garden of Eden! Can it exist?

Oh, that's right. Such a thing does exist! It's called a pot rack! For $39.42!

Come back tomorrow to see how it looks :)

Would Your Desktop Pass Inspection?

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Oh my goodness. Between work, blogging, photo editing, graphic designing, cooking, recording music, etc etc etc... my desktop has become a mess. It's overwhelming sometimes how cluttered my computer is...

So, on my way to work this morning, I created this desktop wallpaper to help us all organize our computers lives. Check it out? Download it? Pin it? Leave a comment with suggestions? :)

  (Click on image to open a larger version and download)

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Wondering how it works? Drag and drop your folders and documents into the correct folders. Here's an example (my current desk top)...