A Year in Review

How are you spending your last day of 2011?  I took this past week off of work so that I could be home to focus on a few final projects before 2012 starts up.  Since I am going back to school in January, my goal was to have my apartment cleaned, my desk fully organized, and some other random nagging life tasks complete before the new year.  Let's just say that it has been quite the flurry of activity over here.

In addition to cleaning, I've also been working on some New Year's resolutions.  I am one of those people that love creating goals so I always make resolutions and keep them posted throughout my home to help me remember them.  My favorite of my 2011 resolutions was to "push my athletic boundaries."  Even though I faced some physical challenges this year (e.g. healing from a shoulder injury and dealing with some severe knee pain), I had some cool accomplishments:

• I began the year by running my first 5k.
• I trained for and rode in the Cycle The WAVE bike ride.
• In the fall I completed a 6-week 5K training program.
• I started yoga again for the first time since my shoulder injury.
• I joined a TRX Suspension Training program at my gym.

I am also pretty proud that for the last couple of months I've gotten back into my 5 am workouts and have increased my workouts to 6 days a week. Woot!

For 2012 I decided on a few simple resolutions:

• Live like I mean it.
• Respect my body. 
• Know that I am worth it.

I still plan to continue pushing my athletic boundaries, but I wanted to focus my 2012 goals on having more fun and reminding myself to live my life to the fullest.  Since I am going back to school and getting ready to start my own business I think this next year will be a really important time for me to "know that I am worth it" and believe in everything that I am doing. 

What are your resolutions for the New Year?

Of course no resolution list would be complete without my last 2012 resolution: Eat good food. Enough said. In order to properly ring in the New Year I though it would be fun to end 2011 with a list of my favorite foods from this year:  

1. Favorite Breakfast: Easy Overnight Oats

2. Favorite Vegetable Dish: Blistered Green Beans with Ginger and Garlic

3. Favorite Drink: Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

4. Favorite Appetizer: Spicy Roasted Golden Beets

5. Favorite Snack: Perfect Stove-Top Popcorn

6. Favorite Lunch: Raw Kale Salad with Sprouted Quinoa and Pumpkin Seeds

7. Favorite Soup: Tofu Pho (Vietnamese Noodle Soup)

8. Favorite Dinner: Quinoa Pasta with Golden Beets and Greens

9. Favorite Treat: Raw Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes with Avocado Frosting

What were your favorite foods from 2011?  

See you in the New Year!