2012 in review

Around spring of last year, I started making a list.  If you ask my daughter, she would tell you that I LOVE making lists--To Do lists are my favorite, with grocery lists coming in second.  Anyhoo, I decided to make a list of the events I partook in, including "firsts", books I read, and movies (and notable television) I saw.

I'm really glad I did it. I saw I did a lot of "firsts" as well as saw a number of movies. It kind of made me realize that I did more things than I would have thought I did if I hadn't recorded them.

Some major "firsts":
- lowered my cholesterol by over 40 points from last fall and under 200 (from 231 to 186)
- became vegan and continue to eat "plant strong"
- did my first Mud Run--the South Carolina Mud Run & my first "world famous" Camp Pendleton Mud Run
- ran my longest nonstop distance (6.5 miles) and did my first unassisted pull-up
- ate at an Iron Chef restaurant
- visited new places like Charleston, Petco Park, and the top of San Jacinto
- led a fundraising walk for NAMI
- saw Liza Minelli LIVE

I also:
- saw and held new babies, including my new niece
- saw over 40 movies for the first time, some in the theater and most on DVD.  Some were really memorable like Silver Linings Playbook, Blue Valentine, Moonrise Kingdom, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Departures, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and Forks Over Knives.
- read nine books (ugh, embarrassingly low number), including The Hunger Games series (the only fiction I completed) though I continually look through Edible Selby
- got sucked into Downton Abbey
- broke 150

Other highlights:

Receiving this Polaroid Z2300.  The photo quality isn't top notch but it's been really fun to print out pix right at the moment.  Plus the pictures have sticker backs!  I made impromptu cards at gatherings, like a birthday celebration, and I've loved giving a memento at the end of the night.  I made these little photo cards for all of Velina's friends when they were here for New Year's and they signed notes on it to each other.

I know we lost a lot of greats in 2012, but for some reason, this was the only eulogy I saved, Chuck D's eulogy of Adam Yauch:

My favorite food discoveries were green smoothies and No Knead bread making.  I still make and enjoy them regularly.

Though I didn't track all the new music I listened to, the songs that were memorable to me last year that I listened to a lot were: Frank Ocean's "Thinking About You", Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen's "Good Time", Calvin Harris' "Feel So Close", Benjamin Francis Leftwich's "Atlas Hand", and fun's "We are Young".

My favorite rediscovery was our library.  I loved going as a kid but libraries have modernized incredibly and the county library here ROCKS.  The DVD, music, and book collections are impressively current and diverse, and it has saved me so much money on rentals and purchases.  Though I have definitely made purchases if I have liked a book, CD, or DVD enough--sometimes as a gift, sometimes for me to keep so I can refer to it whenever I want.   On top of that, our library has Freegal service which offers 3 free (and yes, legal) song downloads a week from their Sony catalog.  I've totally built up my Glee and Calvin Harris collection from it.  They also pull requests--I can do a search online and request it and they'll e-mail me when it's ready for pick up at my local branch--so easy when I'm feeling lazy and it saves me gas from going to another branch.  And they also have e-books to borrow and e-magazines.  I don't know if it's been a while since you went to your library, but if you haven't, I highly recommend it--it's been great rediscovering my library experience.

In terms of my resolutions for 2012, the only one I accomplished was breaking 150.  But in terms of "one little word" for 2012, "open", I feel great, especially in terms of all my firsts.  I'm wrestling with continuing these same resolutions for 2013 (because of course, I'm above 150 again) but I'd like to at least update it a bit.  I know I missed making my resolutions on January 1 (thanks, Franken-flu) but I'll take the late opportunity of kicking it off with the lunar new year!

Any suggestions?

Broke 150

Finally.

It happened this morning, I got on the scale and looked down to see 149.5.  I really think it's been years since I was below 150. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't break it during my prep for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run (I constantly hovered between 152-157), when I was running regularly once a week as well as doing boot camp and kettlebell classes.  Ironically I haven't run at all since I came back to SoCar and I've definitely lightened up on the boot camp and kettlebell classes as well without an event to prepare for.  So it's vaguely concerning me that I've simply lost muscle in the last month since I've been back.  But for now, I'll bask in the fact that at over 10 pounds lighter than on New Year's Day, I can finally check off one of my resolutions.

Finished: Camp Pendleton Mud Run

Cross this off the bucket list!  Full post here.

Adding hills

to my runs as I get set for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run!

SC Mud Run!

Yesterday I did the Mud Run here in South Carolina with a super awesome team:

Sheena, Carol, Sharon, and me after finishing the SC Mud Run

Except for our captain, Carol, who had done the Mud Run last October, it was the first Mud Run for the rest of us.  It was challenging and so, so dirty, but it was also rewardingly fun:

Thanks so much to my great team:  Sheena, Carol, and Sharon. 

For more details and pix on my first Mud Run experience, go here.

Am I ready for the Mud Run?

Tomorrow is the day: my first Mud Run. It's here in South Carolina and I'm getting somewhat nervous--though I'm managing to still carbo-load. Man, I hope that's not a myth. Even though I did a big run a couple of weeks ago, I'm still anxious that there's not much I can really do at this point to prepare better for the Mud Run.

I also happened to spend the last week eating vegan.  Hope that doesn't backfire on me.

Crossing fingers for tomorrow!

Running in NJ

To prepare for the Mud Run, I've realized that running a straight distance is something I can "comfortably" do (I'm using that term generously) about once a week. I've been pretty impressed with myself that I've been doing 2 miles straight about once a week. Well yesterday, an e-mail went out to all those doing the Mud Run at work back in SoCal that there were going to be organized runs after work.

I sent a reply wishing I could be there prepping with them together and hey, how many miles were they doing so I could keep up? The answer was that the runs were going to vary depending on experience, oh, anywhere between 2 - 5 miles. I stared blankly at the response. Holy crap. For all my pride in doing 2 miles once a week, that still put me on the low end of their after-work runs--which is supposed to be including beginners.

A friend (who we had long ago planned on putting a Mud Run team together) told me that he's running 4 miles, twice a week. Holy crap! Panic set in and I pretty much ran outside immediately to try to catch up. I made myself run 4 miles no matter how long it took.

I made it. But man, it was hard. My shins kind of ached at first and at the end of the run I felt achy in my lower back and some tension where my neck and shoulders meet--possibly from clutching my iPhone (which I need, need, NEED for music). It looks like I'm going to have to boost my weekly run to 4 miles (yeesh, maybe more realistically 3 miles) if I hope to keep up with my teammates in SoCal. I hope my body is up for it.

4 miles!

To prep for the mud run, I was pointed to some online running training programs. And the one I'm kind of using is running 2 miles a couple of times a week, with a 40 minute run once a week. And the idea is then eventually move up the mileage by week. I've been averaging a pace barely under 11 minutes per mile when I did my 2 mile runs earlier this week. With my sister and Augie keeping my mom company, I was motivated to do my 40 minute run today. I was so pleasantly surprised when my RunKeeper app announced I was at .5 miles at 5 minutes, that I decided to see if I could keep that 10 minute per mile pace for the next 5 minutes. And when I did, I pushed myself for the next 5 minutes, and before I knew it:

Between the farthest distance and the best average pace since I don't know when, I was really psyched that I did this run. It definitely got harder to keep that pace in the last half of the run and I was breathing so hard in the last 5 minutes I worried people in their houses could hear me gasping for breath. I'm sure if my hands were clutched around my heart instead of my iPhone, people would have assumed I was having a heart attack.

I probably should go up in mileage or something but I think I'm going to hang at these distance/time goals for a couple more weeks--at least until it's not nearly as painful. I get achy in my lower back and starting to feel a little shin-splinty--anybody got any tips on running form?

Running and freezing

While at my mom's house, I partied hard with my sister last night. And by "partied hard", I mean pretty much finishing a tub of cookies and fruit jellies while watching Augie's Patriots win the playoffs. So I had caloric guilt as motivation for run #3 this year. It's freezing here in Jersey so I waited until the afternoon to hopefully let it warm up. As you can see, it was worth the balmy wait:

28 degrees.  That's like freezing, right?

What made it tough was my nose runs more in the cold. And my legs feel extra stiff and less reluctant to move--I'm pretty sure they just want to hug each other instead. Also, my lungs felt like shriveled beef jerky.

They say to run "comfortably" you should be able to have a conversation while running. Unless gasping and breathing hard punctuated by foul language is considered conversation, I've still got a long way to go. On the plus side, I went for over 26 minutes. Unfortunately the GPS on my Runkeeper was off so I don't have the distance. I'll aim to run again and the same route to see if I can get a correct reading. But come on, 26 minutes, 28 degrees--I'm giving myself some credit for this one. Or cookies.

In a Year

I hope to say I finished two Mud Runs.  I found some great encouragement from this post from Karen Russell (I took a great photography and scrapbooking class with her) when she did her first Triathlon.  Besides a wonderfully honest post, I loved this quote from it:

Time is inevitably going to pass and one year from today, you can find yourself in the exact same spot you're in now, you can find yourself further away from your goal or you can find yourself closer to your goal - so where do you want to be a year from now?

Obviously this resonates not just with running but really anything that you want to grow in. And I love that it's not necessarily about accomplishing your goal--but that there is something to be said about working toward your goal. And of course, it is always pretty awesome when you do reach your goal. But it's a reminder that sometimes taking those initial steps is worth something too.

For the mud run

After saying I would run Monday, then flaking, then saying Tuesday, then flaking, I put my foot down this morning and said I'm going to run today, come heck or high water.  And of course it was raining.  And to make it worse, so to speak, I was determined to add some distance and run 1.5 miles.

But I did it. 

And I even bettered my average pace up to 10.16 min/mile.  Am I dazzling you?

No, me neither, despite a congratulatory e-mail from RunKeeper saying I went my farthest distance today.

But I'm pressing on.  The mud runs consist of a 10K or approximately 6.2 miles.  I believe the conventional wisdom is to be able run half the distance comfortably (as in, on a regular basis), with a few occasions of running distances closer to the mud run distance.  So that puts me at 3 miles comfortably.  And goodness knows, I'm not comfortable now doing half that distance.  I've got quite a ways to go in my mind, but at least I've got a few months to get there.  Definitely open to the thought that I can get there.

Peanuts

On this third day after rebooting--enjoying some natural peanut butter on a rice cake with a decaf coffee latte made with almond milk:

Yes it was delicious.  I'm doing okay with the decaf.  I think what I really missed about coffee in the morning was the sweet, warm ritual of it and for some reason, bitter green tea wasn't cutting it.  I know that even decaf has some caffeine in it, but hopefully not so much that it would debilitating again to be without it.

Rebooted

I survived the reboot. The first two days were the hardest with just two shakes per day, plus water and green and herbal teas. And when I ate my first "food" of a rice cake with almond butter on the third day, I almost broke out in a sweat, like I do when I overeat. Sidenote: Paul goes, uh, you sweat when you eat sometimes? And I said, yeah, I guess when I overeat. What, you don't sweat? And he says, uhhhh...no. Yeesh I guess I should listen to my body more when it's kind of telling me it's had enough of eating.

The foods for the next 5 days are foods that discourage toxins and aid in the detox aspect. So it was mostly organic fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, and grains. Foods that I was to avoid were foods that were determined to not aid detoxing (e.g., some contained common allergens), so no coffee/black tea, oranges, corn, soy, gluten, peanuts, dairy, eggs, and fish. So I had a lot of hummus and veggies, black bean soup and rice, lentil soup, etc. Another benefit after the first two days, was it kind of allowed me to reset my sense of portion control. I couldn't eat a huge meal, so it was great way for to get on track eating smaller meals.

Overall, I'm glad I did it. I will say that I felt a general drop in energy during this week, though I'm not sure if it was lack of coffee, drop in calories, or both  (which kind of got me thinking about how dependent I am on caffeine--leaning to switching to decaf).  And spending a week of not eating processed foods decreased my desire to eat them--eating whole foods felt much cleaner. And though it's not the aim of this detox to lose weight, I got on the scale this morning and it said I lost six pounds this week--down to 154.5. I do understand that it had a lot to do with the drop in calories consumed this week and that I started exercising again--including that arduous run yesterday. So I'll see how the weight levels out after I add non-detoxing foods this week.

As I start eating some of the foods that were avoided during the detox, I was advised to add them one at time to see if certain foods affect me in a negative way. And I'm aiming to stay with whole foods (i.e., not packaged, prepared, or fast foods) for as long as I can. The first food I decided to incorporate was soy, I think my body is craving some protein.

Tomorrow is coffee/tea--kind of really looking forward to that--even if it is decaf!

Running is kind of hard

I was so motivated by my decision on the Mud Runs that I decided to run this morning. A friend recommended the Runkeeper app for my iPhone so I can track my mileage, pace, time, and hopefully progress.

I ran a mile straight, no stopping or walking. Yeesh, it sucked. I kept checking the Runkeeper to see how much farther I had to go.  I felt like an asthmatic clomping horse with bricks for shoes. I'm pretty sure I could feel every step I ran in my brain.  So, it kind of made me think about running form.

I was e-chatting with a friend about running more on the fore-foot. The idea behind all those Vibram and other minimalist-type shoes, is to mimic barefoot running which is in theory how we're supposed to run. With all the cushioning in most running shoes, it's engineering us to run so that we land/slam on our heel, which creates an impact on our heel and through to the knees, hips, and spine, no matter how much cushioning there is. But according to the theory of barefoot running, we'd land more on the fore-foot and by instinct we'd control our landing on the fore-foot and therefore, it would be less of an impact on our bodies. So next time, I'll try to run more fore-foot. I'd like to feel less like a clomping horse.

Okay, I'm open to progress--here we go!

Mud Run!

As I took on the resolution to break 150 this year, I didn't exactly have a plan except to do everything (exercising, eating better) more or harder. But yesterday I was given some focus, somewhat a la The Sermon. A friend at the gym where I work out was encouraging me to do the Mud Run here in Columbia in April. We had talked about it last year but at the very least I didn't think I could handle the running, much less the obstacles. She ended up joining a team that was fairly mixed and skewed towards non-hardcore athletes and she loved the experience. Somehow she thinks I'm a woman of determination and some degree of fitness and she said I would really enjoy the challenging experience as well. I was really tempted as she suggested we could be on the same low-pressure team.

Then a friend at work e-mailed me a few hours later that a group there wanted to do the Mud Run at Camp Pendleton in June and was I interested? Coincidence? Or a sign? Actually, years ago, another friend in the office and I would talk about putting together a team together for the Mud Run but it would sell out before we would actually do anything. And to a degree, I was kind of talking out of my butt because I found all the running, climbing, obstacles, and wet, wet mud, fairly intimidating at that time, too.

To be honest, I still find the mud run, wherever it is, pretty daunting, because A, I'm not a runner, B, I'm not a runner, and C, I'm not a runner.  Also the obstacles sound a bit overwhelming and I'm not inclined to expect my friends try to shove 160 pounds of Franny over a wall.  And then to do all this soaking wet in mud. 

But barring Divine providence, here is what I'm making of this:  that I should be open to getting out of my comfort zone.  That a departure from my norm may open me up to other possibilities.  That sometimes opportunities to grow present themselves and should be taken.  And that I get to cross something off the Bucket List.

So yes, I'm signing up for both Mud Runs.  Here we go, 2012!

Note to self: Cancel Netflix

When I was a kid I loved the library--I remember my parents would take me there every week. Needless to say I was a reader and the library is a great value and resource, available for free, which was pretty awesome then and still is today. In these days where the internet can be such a quick resource and you can buy books on sale and get them practically delivered to your hands, I think the library has gotten less attention.

But as I'm determined to maintain clutter-free (and remembering how many books I ended up donating), I've really fallen back in love with the library. The current system here impressively keeps up with latest titles and I can request books/CDs/DVDs online and they'll be delivered to my closest branch where I just waltz in and pick them up. I've borrowed fiction books that I wanted to read but not necessarily keep on my shelf. I've borrowed various sewing books and retained information from only a certain chapter and glad I didn't buy the book to collect dust in my bookcase. And on the flip side, I've borrowed a book or two that I want to re-read or re-reference in the future and may just end up purchasing it. So library books are great test-drives that way too.

I've also been enjoying borrowing CDs and catching up on some of the latest tunes and some of the ones I've missed. I just got a notification that Adele "19" CD is waiting for me. Hooray, new tunes!

Now I've finally checked out the library's DVDs and checked out some ones I've totally been wanting to see:

What I like about borrowing these DVDs from the library is that it also focuses my attention on movies I want to spend time watching rather than just mindlessly flipping through Netflix when I have downtime. Which I've confessed before was often spent catching up on tv shows rather than thought-provoking indie films (still haven't finished "Man on a Wire" as opposed to the episodes of "South Park" and "Family Guy") as I had initially planned. So I've decided to cancel Netflix. Besides not spending that money, it'll be focusing my downtime better. Does that count towards managing time better? I hope so.

New Years Resolutions Addendum: One Little Word=Open

After some thought about how I barely achieved half of my New Year's resolutions last year, I wondered what drives me to continue with these every year. Is it because I'm a "list person"? Maybe except, that the joy of being a list person is being able to cross things off when they're done and well, I'd be missing some of the satisfaction there. I think maybe it helps me to have goals because it gives me some focus and there is a benefit to at least try. It seems opportunities are not just the ones bestowed on us but also the ones we make or plan for ourselves. And frankly, even when I'm trying and failing, at least I'm learning and growing.

So believe it or not, I'm also embracing One Little Word for this year. And my one little word is Open.

Because I realized to learn and grow I have to be open to change, surprises, and ugh, being wrong. I've witnessed a lot of stubbornness and I see that often it just doesn't pay off. And worse, there frequently is a burden one carries from that inflexibility. Yes, I recognize the productive version of this as perseverance or principled, so the hard part is recognizing when it's worth more to yield a bit. I think one mistake I've made more than once is thinking I'm done--like once I learn something then there isn't a need to learn another way to do it. Or if I reach a certain weight, will I think I'm done watching what I eat and do? I know some of the obstacles I have are due in part to stubbornly clinging to a certain way I do things or believe is the most efficient or right way to do something. I just hope I'm not too set in my ways to be open to different or new ideas and thoughts.

Okay, so here we go 2012!

Michigan State wins the Outback Bowl!

It was a busy day of Bowl games, including the Capital One Bowl where Paul was torn between rooting for South Carolina and Nebraska, though USC won out.  The Outback Bowl game was easier for me when Michigan State bested Georgia in the 3rd OT with a blocked field goal.  Michigan State was also the only Big 10 team (out of five) to win their Bowl game today so that felt pretty good too.

The hardest part of the day was being on day 2 of the reboot where I could only have 2 "shakes", which it seems there wasn't any effort to make it a nice smoothie flavor.  It sort of has this vague savory and woody flavor which really has me craving a nice fake strawberry flavor badly.  The first day (yesterday) wasn't so bad as I seriously think my body has so many excess calories stored that it didn't really register the few calories I consumed. This second day my body definitely recognized that all I was giving it was 2 more measly shakes. And it responded with a mild headache and general fatigue. And the worst bad breath. Definitely looking forward to tomorrow when I get to eat food. Rice cakes never looked so good.

Happy New Year!

So I've been pondering last year's New Year's resolutions and my goals for 2012 the last few weeks. First, I didn't get much further on my 2011 resolutions since November. Second, at 160.5, I am over two pounds heavier than the first day of 2011--where I was about two pounds heavier than the first day of 2010. Yeesh, this better not be a trend. On that note, I've decided to start my reboot today. It'll be kind of a bummer to watch the Bowl games tomorrow without my usual fave snack foods but I'm pretty sure my body is craving a reboot more. Finally, I decided to narrow my focus on this year's resolutions.

When I reviewed what I came up short on, I was most disappointed with my pace in photography (even more so than my weight gain). I'm disappointed that I'm still stymied by a post-production workflow. So that's a priority this year.

Also, watching my mom's various diagnoses roll in was a sort of wake-up call. I will credit myself that I'm more active than I think my mom was at my age but I know my eating habits can roll into the indulgent more often than they should. So I'll keep my goal of breaking 150 because I know that exercise alone isn't going to get me there, eating healthier will and that's something I want to focus on this year.

Overall, I think managing my time and productivity will be key to everything.  It's not just about working more, but also about working more efficiently.  I feel like I've read a good bit on this and it's really about putting it into action.  Then I hope to have more time for crafting, movies, and books.

In summary, my New Year's Resolutions for 2012 is:

- Manage time better
- Getting a good post-production workflow for photos
- Break 150

I know I need to break this down to a specific plan but this is the big picture for me in 2012.  Anybody else got plans for the new year?