resolving to finish (what i already started)

Photo Credit: China Daily / Reuters

REGULAR READERS OF THIS BLOG MAY HAVE NOTICED A FLAW IN my healthy habits via my entries in the almost full year I’ve been posting. I’m great at setting goals for myself, for being ambitious.  I’m not so great at completing them.

Even as an adolescent, I’d start three different art projects, only to finish none.  I have a whole crate full of half-finished cross stitch samplers, water color paintings, friendship bracelets, you name it — My Basket of Art Shame.  When I picked up knitting a few years ago, the only thing that allowed me to present a whole scarf rather than part scarf/ part ball of yarn was the promise I made to K that he’d have a warm, handmade wool scarf to wear by Christmas.

As I looked back on my first year of blogging, I was embarrassed to find a number of things I declared I would be doing for X amount of time until I reached Y results, only for all traces of that goal to have seemingly vanished just a couple posts later.  Here I list the brunt of them, explain why I failed in keeping my oath to completing the tasks, and I modify the goal for my fresh start in 2010 in an attempt to start my New Year’s resolution of finishing what I begin.  I present to you, my Admitting Weakness List of 2009:

1. Quitting Diet Coke – Ah, my first failed promise in cyberspace.  At one point I even had a counter featured on the right column proudly displaying the length in time I had gone without a sip of this sweet nectar of the gods chemical concoction with known noxious results to the body.  I failed at this because as much as I know how bad diet sodas are for me, they’re something with a flavor I enjoy, they’re cheap and readily available, and it being calorie-free and all, it’s hard for me to say no.  My modified goal: I will let myself have one once in a while, when I feel no other beverage – water, tea, sparkling water – will satisfy me.  But, when I want a diet coke, I will try as many other alternatives as available instead of jumping straight for it first.
2. Making a Work Out Schedule – This summer, inspired by Caitlin’s oh-so-organized Excel spreadsheet with planned monthly workouts featured on her blog, I resolved to do the same.  And to be fair to myself, the spreadsheet was created!! I just never followed it.  Don’t get me wrong; I still was active every day, and I’m proud to say this past summer was one my smartest summers to date, with balanced eating and even a random sprint triathlon thrown in there.  But I did it all without a plan.  To be honest, I just never gave the Excel spreadsheet a full chance, writing it off a few days later as too much of a hassle.  I realize how important it is to have even a flexible schedule to make sure I’m varying my work outs enough, and in the end I know it will be fun for me to track my progress.  I think planning a month in advance was too ambitious for me though – I don’t think that far ahead.  My modified goal: I will try planning workouts for a week or two weeks in advance, still via Excel in Caitlin fashion, and try that for a month. If I then find it to be a hassle, I’ll nix it and find another way.
3. 100 Push Ups Challenge - And the sit ups…and the squats.  Ugh. I was doing well. Great intentions yet again. No excuses. Just pure laziness. My modified goal: Incorporate strength training into my work outs.  Also, don’t take on three challenges at once, Alice. You know you’re terrible at following a set training schedule. (See Admitting Weakness Point #2 above.)
4. 21 Days of Yoga – This was also going well.  And then K and I took a half cross country road trip from the Cape to central Texas.  And most of our floors are carpeted at home in TX so I couldn’t find a good place to do at-home yoga, and in-studio yoga was intimidating simply because I was unfamiliar with Austin studios.  My modified goal: I’d like to try this one again but I need to plan it at a time when it will be convenient to do this, not when I’m packing up and moving in the middle of the commitment.  I’ll look ahead at my schedule and let you know when Try 2 of 21 Days will be.

This list isn’t fully comprehensive but I did highlight the most significant of the broken promises.  I’m not doing this to be a Debbie either (that is, a Debbie Downer), but more so I can learn from my past, evaluate my strengths and weaknesses, and tweak things so some of my weaknesses become catalysts for more strengths.

(For example, I realize one of the reasons why I love races so much is because I not only have to financially commit to something, but I also have a built-in deadline as to when I will have to be ready, lest I injure myself or plainly feel bad during or after the race.  Even if my motivation putters during training, I have to get back on track because race day comes whether I’m ready or not!)

I acknowledge I’m human and that a lot of positive things were accomplished in the last year too.  To list a few, I started this blog, I did my first two sprint tris, I graduated Magna Cum Laude from my undergrad with a double degree, I moved to NYC, I started my year of service running an after-school program in one of the poorest Congressional districts in the USA, I ran in Central Park for the first time, and I signed up for what will be my first half marathon.

Speaking of the half, I finally edited the content on my fundraising website.  In brief, I’m running the 13.1 New York half marathon as part of Team World Vision to help the efforts of building clean water wells to change lives in Africa.  Please take a looksie and if the cause speaks to you, the organization and I would greatly appreciate any donations!

Do you have any reoccurring bad habits that you’re going to resolve to fix this year?

Thanks for reading. And Happy New Year!!! More great things are to come for all of us this year, I have a sneaking suspicion.

runner’s high

BEING HOME IN TX HAS ITS PERKS FOR SURE; umma’s excellent cooking, a TV for some good mind-numbing relaxation (we don’t have one in nyc), books for relaxation of the mind-acceleration variety, giggles and secret handshakes with the little sisters, but most of all…

www.weather.com

Mm, mm, mmm.

Let’s compare that to back east, where my neighbors are enjoying their relatively warm day of:

www.weather.com

Pfft. Exactly.

I’ve been enjoying running sans-hat, sans-gloves, sans-fear of wind chill, wind burn, hypothermia, frostbite, etc. etc. Basically everything a CA/TX transplant in the northeast worries about when braving the great outdoors for longer than a few minutes.

And I’ve been seizing this time in warmer weather to really kick start my training for my half marathon in April. I’ve logged about 7 miles in the last two days and will hit the roads again tonight for at least 40 minutes.  I’m looking to schedule my ‘long run’ in a few days too. (Stay tuned for a link to my Team World Vision website where you can donate money to build clean water wells for needy communities in Africa!)

The runner’s high can also be attributed to new running gear I received as Christmas gifts, everything from Lululemon’s Run Sprint Tights to an Adidas gym bag.  Nothing like new swag to boost your motivation!

Anyway, the point of this post was to wish you a merry closing out of this year. I hope wherever you are spending your holiday vacations, you have a blessed, healthy, smart, love-filled time surrounded by your favorite people doing your favorite things, be it shopping, eating, reading, yoga-ing or running around.

Cheers,

Alice

gwapes

Image Credit: Webdesign.org

WASN’T ABLE TO GO ON MY RUN, or to the gym, as planned.  Went to work out my mind instead by going to the library to pick up my two newest reads: Kay Redfield Jamison’s An Unquiet Mind and Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The former is for my sister Alina who was very recently diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, and the second is just one I’ve always wanted to read.

I’m not sure how I’ll get to the gym tomorrow either as I have to be at the downtown office at 6:45 pm for some things. Traveling to the South Bronx to Chelsea back to Harlem…I know I won’t want to make a pit stop at the gym. Looks like my run will have to wait until Wednesday.

Today on my bus ride home from work I finished The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls.  What an extraordinary piece of writing.  Highly recommended for anyone looking for a good memoir to read about dysfunctional families and the kind of love that keeps family members talking throughout highs and lows.

Speaking of family, a student brought his little brother to after-school homework help today.  The brother is only five and after working with middle schoolers bigger than me all day, he was certainly a sight for sore eyes.  I feel like he could have thrown an epic hissy fit and I would have forgiven him all faults; he was tiny and adorable and he could do no wrong.  Even though our program has a specific age requirement for participants, I was in no position to even think about turning him away.  He sat quietly next to his brother and did his “one homework” that he had, a worksheet practicing the letter K.  Then during snack time I asked him what he’d like and he politely asked for gwapes.  I teased him and asked him if he wanted “grapes” or “gwapes” and he replied that he was sticking to the gwapes.  After I gave him his ziploc quota of purple gwapes from the fridge, he looked up smiling and shining and said, “I weally wike this pwace.”

Ah – simplicity.  The little ones, man.  You can win em over with gwapes.  The middle schoolers are more demanding.  Plus they want the junk, the sugar and the soda, no matter how early in the morning.  Ick.

Anyway, I’m going to hang on to that moment with the guest homework help attendee all week when the middle schoolers are rude and disrespectful and I question my work at the school. Weally.

back with a BANG.

IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG, I know, but exciting news to share:

I’m officially signed up for my FIRST HALF MARATHON!!!!

A bunch of my fellow Corps Members are doing it with me so it will be fun to train for (training officially begins tomorrow) and fun to run! I’m also doing it as part of Team World Vision, raising money for great humanitarian work done in Africa.

D-Day is April 3, 2010.

I’ll be updating the blog along the way to let you know the ups and the downs.

Meanwhile, my running club at my middle school is going great. Some kids are loving it more than others, but we talked about goals the other day and a bunch of them made some promising ones – wanting to run for 20 minutes without stopping, wanting to beat my co-worker in a race, even wanting to compete in a 5k!

Also, K joined my gym so we got to go together a couple times last week. He is a lot more knowledgeable about strength training so he is assuming the role of my male-version of Jillian Michaels…except kinder and less loud.

Hope the week treats everyone kindly. Christmas is coming…

I leave you with a Thanksgiving photo with K and his siblings.

under re-construction…

Image Credit: Sojones.com

MY BLOG IS HAVING AN IDENTITY CRISIS, and I’m trying to work with it to figure out the next steps.

We’ll be back shortly!

Love,

Alice

A good day

I RAN IN CENTRAL PARK for the first time today!!

Thanks to the encouragement of my beloved K, we took the train to the top of Central Park west and ran down along the left side of it. Our finish line was the road that led to our train back uptown at Columbus Circle.

It was beautiful, and I finally witnessed AUTUMN with the trees all red and orange. Treadmills and gyms pale in comparison to the great outdoors, but with my crazy hours during the week I can only safely run inside as it’s dark when I leave my apt and dark when I get back. K and I have decided to make runs outdoors a weekend tradition. Now when it starts snowing, you might have to ask us again.

Breakfast today was notable in that we made organic pancakes with blueberries. I ate mine smothered with PB&Co’s White Chocolate Wonderful PB.

Lunch was my first smoothie in a long while. Chocolate Amazing meal + skim milk + frozen banana + frozen blueberries! It filled me up surprisingly well.

We just had chicken soft tacos and now I’m waiting for some space in the tummy to grab a few chocolate chips for dessert.

A runner friend told me that the first standalone Asics store was having its grand opening this weekend in Times Square.  K & I both wear Asics so we took a mini field trip to check it out only to be sorely disappointed. It was tiny, there weren’t great sales, and all their stuff I’ve seen at Sports Authority and the like. Oh well.

A different friend is running the NYC Marathon this upcoming weekend and she’s invited me to go to the EXPO with her! I’m making my lunch every day this week to save money in case I want a little souvenir from the expo.   So excited for that!! I’ve seen pics of  a typical expo for marathons on different blogs, and it’s the perfect thing to get me hustling through this busy week. Pics to come!

For Ms Health Nutty

Channeling my inner Urkel.

I recently had a request from friend and fellow health nut to post a pic of my awesome uniform. Here you are, Kate! Unfortunately, you can’t see my awesome Timbs that complete the outfit. I also didn’t wear my bomber which is really City Year’s signature piece, but I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities for me to post such pictures.

The pants don’t go any lower, I assure you. They are Mants in true form, that is Mom + Pants.  They actually keep me from eating past full since the belt cinches right around my waist…a non-surgical form of stomach binding, if you will.  (In all honesty, I actually have read somewhere that women wearing tight pants tend to be more aware of what they’re eating than women who wear sweats or other loose fitting pants. It makes sense.)

In fitness news, as you can probably tell my Work Out Log has been all but abandoned, but I’m still a movin’. I recently got a $10 a month membership to Planet Fitness near my apartment, so I go after work with a couple Corp members that also got memberships. I know there are crazy committed bloggers who get up at 4:30 in the morning to get their sweat on before work (*cough* Bobbi *cough cough*), which is the time I would have to wake up to squeeze in a session before work too, but I’m not afraid to admit that I am simply not that strong. Getting up at 5:40 a.m. is plenty a struggle as it is for me, so I will stick to getting home later than leaving home earlier.  At least for now.

Food-wise, I could definitely be eating cleaner and I plan to pronto, especially because I feel like my skin is rebelling against not only the terrible New York air (I really crave trees lately) but perhaps also the too-occasional-lately-french-fry. I went from very clean eating this summer to lax eating and my energy levels and again my epidermis is none too happy about the change. I realize I also haven’t been drinking enough water in the past few weeks, ever since I reintroduced diet sodas into my life, so after the last few cans of my Diet Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda is gone from my fridge, no more for me. I have considered myself fairly lucky so far in life when it comes to breaking out, only getting the occasional pimple or two around that time of the month, but these last couple months have been nonstop! So more water and less grease…I’ll report back if/when things change.

I’ll leave you with some exciting news: my plans to start a running club (once our after school program launches in a week) has been approved and soon I’ll hopefully have the chance to run with 40 middle school kids!! The development of this will be very much organic, as  there is a huuuuugggge asthma problem with our students (our neighborhood has several major highways running through them) and we’ll have to evaluate all of our students’ medical histories before going forth with anything concrete, but my brain’s a-buzzing with potential ideas and I’m excited to incorporate something I love with my year of service.

I’m alive.

I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I am.

I’m also not doing well with running/yoga. I’m working roughly ten hour days, and with commute that turns into eleven to twelve hour days. The work is all in the name of idealism and making the South Bronx a better place, so it’s rewarding and I’m not complaining.  I actually love it. However, as I’m currently studying for the GREs and am getting up at 5:30 a.m. for work as it is, it’s unfathomable to me to wake up any earlier to go for a run, and quite frankly, some days after work I just want to sleep. Hence I haven’t yet settled into a good work out routine yet and it’s been a little over a month since I’ve moved here. But I’m not worried…yet. I am working on finding that work/life balance all the bloggers are so good at writing about.

The GREs are the first weekend of November. If I can just manage to make it to the gym a few times a week until then, after the exam I will be more proactive in my quest to run a half marathon.

Also, per Fitness NYC’s suggestion, I got a free ticket to see Dean Karnazes speak as part of the North Face’s “Never Stop Exploring” speaker series. What an inspiration. And as an added bonus, I got cool North Face stickers to stick on my laptop. Thanks for the tip, Melissa!

For now, I’m off to read Karnazes’ Ultramarathon Man before tuckering out to bed. Tomorrow I have free tickets to see the Mets play, my second pro baseball game ever! It’s really too bad they’re terrible, but a baseball game is a baseball game and free is free and I’m sure it’ll be fun.

Heel explosion!

I sincerely had all intentions of running at Central Park today. And then my right heel hemorrhaged on the subway while I was headed downtown to run some errands. (Wasn’t 100% sure on the spelling of hemorrhage until just now btw. Blogging is improving my spelling!)

In short, a few days ago on my way to work I wore some cute new Naturalizer flats, and as my feet and new shoes go, my heels were getting torn to shreds. I stopped into the nearest Duane Reade before they bled, but the damage had been done. My heels have been tender ever since, and they were well on their way to full recovery today (nature’s little Band Aids in the form of scabs on both heels) but me in an overcrowded morning rush train + flip flops + a woman in a hurry to exit + her kicking my right heel on her way out = a leaking heel. It was actually quite embarrassing as I walked up the stairs out of the station, knowing everyone behind me was probably staring at what that point was a dripping, red heel.  On the street a nice man approached me and tenderly said, “Um, your foot…” and I just nodded and said, “Yeah I know. I’m getting on that.”

As such, one brave intention is now nixed off my list. I’ve replaced with another brave intention, however. (I’m thinking shoving said tender heel into a running shoe would not be the best idea I ever had.)  I am going to try the 4:30 Yoga to the People Hot Power Vinyasa class on 38th street. Much as I’ve been too shy to run in Central Park, I’ve been too shy to get my butt into one of the YTTP studios too.

I am going I am going I am going.

I think.

Just kidding, I am.

In mind matters, since I’ve been here I’ve been a reading fiend! I was able to finish Tracy Kidder’s Mountain Beyond Mountains in just over a week thanks to lots of time waiting for trains and being on trains.

image from coverbrowser.com

Great read! Highly recommended for anyone with even a hint of a philanthropic idealistic outlook.

Currently I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and it’s fabulous.

image from coverbrowser.com - apparently i'm on a green book reading kick!

Last night I read a portion where Kinsolver addresses the complaint of organic foods being pricey. She points out that it’s ironic how Americans look for a deal on foods and justify investing in meals with less nutritional values to pinch pennies when most of us would never think twice about paying a little more for a safer car or better health coverage. Kingsolver, having grown up on a farm herself, also reminds us that by buying local and organic foods, we are supporting farmers more directly – the very people who know and control the growth of healthy, chemical-free, delicious foods  – rather than big industry folks who are very far removed from the food cultivating process and only have the bottom line in mind, not our health. Today at Whole Foods I was extra careful to read labels and reach for the peaches grown in upstate New York rather than the ones grown in California. I’m definitely on a tight budget here but Kingsolver’s argument makes sense to me – my health is an investment like any other thing, and I am in full support of a food industry where the people who work the hardest (the farmers) get more of their fair share.

Tonight, picking up a blender I bought off of Craigslist so I can start re-consuming my green monsters! Don’t be like Garfield; try to love your Mondays everyone!

Yeah I know, easier said than done.

A wimpy start.

My mom, like every other mom, has a myriad of stories that when told to certain people (close friends, my boyfriend, who am I kidding…even strangers!) can and will render me speechless and pink from embarrassment.  On her shortlist of particular gems is one documenting my lack of nerves as a toddler.  The story goes that I had a Jack in the Box with which I had a love/hate relationship. I’d sit it in front of me, pull the crank, and giggle with glee as it played its own jarring rendition of “Pop! Goes the Weasel.” The problem came with the Pop! portion of this cruel and unusual game.  Mr. Jack’s unannounced escape from the box scared me to tears, literally.  You’d think after one baby heart attack I’d have quit Jack forever, but I continued to give him a chance to redeem himself, to let me pull the crank and listen to my jam without ruining the moment.  Call it a commitment to forgiveness, call it short term memory, call it stupidity. Either way, I kept playing and I kept crying. Dumb, right?

My Jack of late is running in Central Park.  I have this irrational fear of running in public in the world famous park where I continue to see jocks and jockettes cruising their various routes with their buff bodies glistening under the New York sun.  I’m intimidated by all the little turns you can make…which one leads to where? How long is each leg?  What if I get lost? Can one get lost? What if I have to pee??? I walked there with different friends a few times to check out potential routes and the only one I could see that was straightforward enough for me not to get lost was the running path around Jackie O Reservoir, problem being it’s only 1.5 miles long.

Tuesday I start work and I know I should run tomorrow so I can just get my first run there over with.  What’s the worst that could happen? I take a wrong turn and make a strange loop and run a little shorter/longer than I anticipated. Irrational fears, Alice.  You’ve climbed an active volcano in Guatemala in the dark and rain following a stranger guide with eight flashlights shared among twelve people!!! (True story…two summers ago…my claim to bad ass status.) This can’t be harder!

I’ll let you know if I go tomorrow. sldfkdjs.