100 Posts, Progress, Kryptonite

Good morning blogworld! This is my official 100th post – hurray! I’m so proud to have kept this little blog going this long. My Hubby says I have a habit of starting new projects or ideas and then deserting them after a little while. So I’m very happy that I’ve been able to blog on a fairly regular basis for about 4 months.

I thought that my 100th post would be the perfect opportunity to talk about my 2010 goals and how I’ve been progressing.

1. Stop Biting My Nails: Fail. I have possibly curtailed it a bit, but I haven’t been able to stop yet. The cold weather isn’t helping, as it makes my nails brittle and breakable.
2. Become a Real Winter Runner: I think I can say this one has been a success! I’ve run outside just about every weekend since early January and have actually gotten used to the cold temps.  Check out my recent post on the tell-tale signs that I have truly become a real winter runner.
3. Eat Cleaner: So-so on this one. I’ve definitely been incorporating more clean foods into my diet, but there are a few lingering “problem foods” I need to deal with. More on that (and my kryptonite) later in this post.  
4. Read More: I’ve done okay with this. I’ve read Ahab’s Wife, The Weight of Silence and The Historian so far in 2010. I’m currently reading Food Rules and Angela’s Ashes (just started). I guess I’m averaging about 1-2 books a month, which is good, but I used to read much faster. It also depends on the book. 
5. Be Grateful: Fail. I don’t think I’ve been too great so far this year about appreciating what I have. This is definitely something I will work on.
6. Shop Less, Save More: Fail. Need to focus on this.
7. Keep in Touch: Fail. I haven’t been calling people like I claimed I would. I’m just not a phone person. I will make my new goal to call one friend each weekend, as well as my mother, to catch up.
8. Expand My Horizons: Success. So far in 2010 I’ve tried Ethiopian food and Greek food, attended the ballet and a camera class.
9. QT with Hubby: Fail. We’ve been so busy going to weddings, parties and family events that we haven’t spent much QT together. 😦
10. Qualify for Boston! Working on it! I signed up for the Poconos Marathon in May 2010, with hopes of qualify for Boston in 2011. Wish me luck!

Okay – so not as much progress as I would have liked, but also not a total disaster. It’s only February right?!

How are you doing on your 2010 goals?

I’ll do a quick recap of my eats yesterday and explain just where kryptonite fits in. Breakfast was a honey wheat double fiber English muffin with peanut butter and banana. And oops a big hole in the middle of one half.

I had a busy agenda yesterday and knew I wouldn’t be able to eat much from about 1:30 p.m. on, so my mid-morning snack was my Chobani yogurt with Kashi Go Lean.

Lunch followed shortly after – Triscuits with Light Laughing Cow cheese and carrots.

I was at a meeting out of the office from 1:30 – 5:00 and then headed straight from there to church for Ash Wednesday.

By the time we got home I was starving. I made a grilled cheese sammy for dinner with some pickles.

And then I gave in to my kryptonite. In all honesty, I did it to myself. Hubby had to stop at Duane Read after church to pick up some cold medicine (he thinks he’s getting sick) and while I was there, I was drawn to these fellas:

Seriously – I can not resist them and I have a problem. I can eat this entire bag in one sitting. Last night I ate half the bag. Oh the guilt and the unbearably icky-feeling stomach! Why can’t I resist these things?

At my old job, my co-worker would buy a container of these and leave them on her desk and I would literally devour them in two days. When we saw Avatar a few weeks ago, I ate entire bag during the movie. I have a problem. The first step is admitting I have a problem.

Now here’s my solution: I am giving up all sweets for Lent. Yes, technically Lent began yesterday and I shouldn’t have eaten these, but at that point I hadn’t decided what I was going to give up yet. Well, after this overeating debacle, I think my choice is clear.  I am taking the rest of this bag, closing it up and putting away until Easter. It’s time to get a grip on my sweet eating.

Now, if you’ve read my blog much over the past 4 months, you must have seen that I love me some dessert. I typically have some form of dessert almost every night after dinner. So what am I going to do? My plan is to make fruit into my new dessert. I’ll be stocking up on strawberries, blueberries, grapes, etc. to take the place of my beloved chocolate and sugary treats.

What else will help me with this sacrifice? 1. Reading Micahel Pollan’s Food Rules, and hopefully his other books in the near future. 2. Remembering that the ingredients in my kryptonite are: Sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, citric acid, tartaric acid, artificial flavors, titanium dioxide, red 40, yellow 5, blue 1. Gag – did I really just enjoy eating tartaric acid and titanium dioxide? 3. Reliving the terrible burning sensation on my tongue after eating too many of these things – seriously, that should be a huge red flag for me right there. Real food shouldn’t strip, burn and desensitize your tongue.  

So that’s the plan man – I’m really hoping I will have the willpower to say no to the Sour Patch Watermelons, chocolate and other sweets that come my way. And maybe by the time Easter rolls around my sweet tooth will have diminished a bit and you won’t always see me capping off a meal with a piece of chocolate or candy. 🙂 Here’s to hoping!

So tell me – what is your kryptonite? Besides sweets in general and Sour Watermelons, mine seem to be nachos, cake and french fries.

P.S. – How awesome was Shaun White last night? He’s the reason I didn’t make it to the gym this morning and have to try to squeeze in 6 miles tonight. I just had to see that Double McTwist – so glad he did it!