These past couple of months after becoming a daily reader of TheFitnessista I have made some changes to my eating and work outs. I definitely am going to continue this for the new year so they are not really New Year resolutions (because I started these things over the summer), but more like personal goals that I am going to try to take it up a notch.
1. Eat less carbs, more protein – I realized that I was eating a lot of carbs, from my (whole grain) muffin in the morning, to a piece of bread at lunch, to my granola bar snack to rice or pasta and bread for dinner. I do think it is important to eat a complex carb at every meal so by no means am I giving up bread. So now in my attempt to eat more protein I made the following changes:
Breakfast: I still have a muffin. I didn’t make any changes to that because they are whole grain muffins, low in added sugar.
Lunch: I have a slice of ezekial bread with my lunch (flourless bread made from sprouts, considered a complete protein).
Snack: I have half of a cliff bar, or 2/3 of a Larabar or a Luna bar for a snack. I used to eat Fiber One granola bars, but they have 2 or 3 grams of protein while the others have way more.
Dinner: I will have quinoa (the only grain considered a complete protein) or brown rice. If I have quinoa, I’ll have a small piece of whole wheat bread.
In my attempt to eat more protein, I will also add hummus or beans to my lunch and/or dinner. I also started adding some type of fish (sometimes) to my lunch.
2. Eat little to no processed foods (eat clean). I stopped eating the FiberOne bars because they are so overly processed, have a lot of sugar and have little protein. I also decided I would try not to eat anything that had an ingredients list a mile long and had things I couldn’t read. That didn’t require much change because the only thing I was eating that was like that was the FiberOne granola bars. I like Larabars the best because they only have 3 to 4 ingredients. (I found a way to make my own Larabars too!) I also stopped using all artificial sweeteners. Most of the time I will just use a little sugar or Suncrystals (stevia and sugar mixed).
3. Try new things. I used to make one new recipe a week and I would like to get back to doing that. I also want to try new foods. Since the summer I have tried goji berries, cacao nibs, almond butter, Larabars and carob chips. I have also bought things like agave sweetener. I still want to try maca and chia seeds.
4. Switch things up in my workouts. I love running 3 times a week and I love taking spin once a week, but for the other 2 days I would like to switch things up a little bit. Maybe try out walking at a high incline or the other kinds of elliptical machines. I get stuck in what I know is a good workout and just continue doing that. I want to try yoga or pilates too (Exercise TV has great free workouts). I think I am going to try to the workouts at HowSweetEats.com. (I’ve done a couple and they are great, thanks Jessica!) This workout looks good too at SELF.com.
So now I have this written down for all the world to see I have to actually work on my goals for 2010. Do you have any goals that you are working on, big or small??
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good advice on the Exercise TV workouts. Love their On Demand channel, but their website is also great. They have a pretty cool promotion right now running called New Year New You at http://www.exercisetv/newyou
Keep up the good work in the New Year. You have a great set of goals in mind.
very nice set of goals – I know you will do just fine….
Great resolutions! I want to take up a martial arts class (to motivate me to work out more and also…so I can kick some ass when need be haha)!