Linking up with Amanda at Running with Spoons for Thinking Out Loud.

It’s the first week of January, so it seems like everybody is making changes:  to their diet, their exercise routine, to their life. It’s a little overwhelming, frankly. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge supporter of positive change, and, as a habitual Type-A overachiever, the fact that a new year started on a Monday almost makes me giddy.

But there’s a lot I need to change in my life, y’all. Like, a lot. So I have my work cut out for me this year.

Let’s get the first and most obvious thing out of the way first:

I need to change my workout routine. <cough> To be honest, actually having a workout routine would be a good place to start. Because I’ve been pretty lazy/unmotivated for many months now. I mean, I did the Route 66 Half-Marathon right before Thanksgiving, but I didn’t train for it, and walked the entire thing.

So, yeah. An actual exercise routine would be a good change. That Cowtown Half Marathon at the end of February is just around the corner…

On a related note, I need to change my diet. “Diet” as in “the foods I’m eating,” not as in “I’m on the so-and-so diet to lose weight.” Let’s be honest, from Thanksgiving to Christmas was a crapshoot as far as eating went. Our patients brought us goodies. Chocolate. Then there’s all the get-togethers. My food choices were kind of like this:

…except with more chocolate and sugar.

My aim is to eat more whole foods and less processed foods and carbs. Sounds easy, right? Yeah. Right. Work in progress…

I need to be more productive on my days off—instead of wasting time on the internet. I don’t want to spend 10 hours on the computer without much of anything accomplished. Especially with less than two weeks before classes start again.

I need to get rid of stuff/simplify my life. Again.

This is the side table in my dining area/workout area:

First of all, let me say that the only bottles I’ve acquired in the last 12 months were the two tiny ones—Christmas gifts—and most of those have never been opened. I don’t actually drink that often. Except two Fridays ago, when I cam straight in the door and had a couple of swallows of tequila straight from the bottle. #sometimesmyjobishard

So, yeah. I need to get rid of some stuff. Some clutter. Absolutely. I think I’d feel so much better without all of this stuff hanging around that I never use. So why am I keeping it? Habit, probably.

I think these four areas need to be my focus. Change is hard. Four areas is enough.