It’s almost New Year’s Resolution time!! The key is to be specific. Don’t just say “I want to workout more.” Instead, say “I’m going to go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday every week.” Here are some general jumping off points for making some healthy, thoughtful resolutions to get 2013 started off right. All you need to do is add the details and make it your own! 

You should try trail running. Seriously. With fall approaching we’ll soon see the oppressive heat of the summer give way to the cool days of September and October. There’s no better way to enjoy this reprieve from the heat, appreciate the amazing colors of the season, and work off the last of the poolside margaritas than by trail running. Plus, it’s a better workout than the treadmill or the street…take a look at this article from Shape Magazine about what you need to do to transition from hard surfaces, to the calorie burning twists and turns of uneven terrain:

There’s nothing like a run on the Brooklyn Bridge. It doesn’t even have to be on a gorgeous day like you always see pictured with the bright blue sky. I’ve run it in the snow, ice, rain, sun, and every single time is awesome in it’s own way.

Have you trained for a race before? If you have, especially for a long one, and you use generally the same route for your long training runs, you know what kind of relationship you form with that route. And I use relationship in the full sense of the word - once those runs get up over 6 miles you’re looking at an hour plus out on the road.

Hopefully most of those runs are great. You’re light on your feet, the weather is beautiful, and you feel like you could go forever. But inevitably the bad run happens: you ate/drank too much the night before; your new shirt starts chaffing you; it rains/sleets/snows while you’re 10 miles from home; you have to use the bathroom RIGHT NOW; or you just plain feel like crap and never hit your stride. Even those runs, maybe especially those runs, tie you to your route even more so than the good days, because you’ve survived something.

All your friends are in bed sleeping late on a Saturday morning, but you got up, got dressed, and hit the streets. It may not have been pretty, but you ran 20 miles around Manhattan before they even open their eyes. Maybe it’s a little elitist, but that fact alone gives me a smug satisfaction as I limp throughout the rest of my day.

Obviously there are other benefits too. I mean, I haven’t done a training run over the Brooklyn Bridge in 13 months, but seeing this picture today brought a smile to my face and a flood of warm feelings. To give just one example, one particular snowy memory came back that I hadn’t thought of in a long time. There had been a massive snow storm the night before, so I put on my best bank robbing outfit, which also doubled as my warmest cold weather gear, and when I made it to the riverfront, only one narrow path had been shoveled. It was still thick with ice under a slick layer of snow and I had to train my pace to land firm enough to be stable and not land me on my ass…although it took a few spills to learn that. It. Was. Gorgeous. I was completely alone, which is crazy in NYC, you’re NEVER alone in that city, even the homeless people had found shelter for that day. The snow was fresh enough it was still white and hadn’t been muddied up yet, the river was a steel gray, and the sky was this deep winter blue. Sure, eventually the cold broke through my Under Armour and I started to freeze from the toes up and a biting sleet started to fall and sting my eyes. But despite all that and the slow going I felt strong and had one of those runs where you can tell your training is paying off. And yeah, I’ll admit it, I had the smugness too. Later, when everyone recounted what they’d done while snowed in that day - movie marathons, drinking marathons, sleeping marathons - it felt pretty good to say, “oh, I just ran 18 miles into Brooklyn and back.”

Thanks to my friend Jo for the term “June-uary,” it describes the weather perfectly: 65 degrees and sunny in January! The perfect combination for a trail run :) There’s no threat of seasonal affective disorder this year with plenty of opportunities to get a natural dose of sunshine almost every day. It has been replaced by that summertime inability to concentrate on any sort of work indoors while the sun is beckoning you from outside the window. I’ll take the trade off any day.

veganexperience:

My motto!

In each of my counseling sessions I aim to get my clients to name one thing they’re really proud of from the week before, one thing that challenged them and how they can overcome it better next time, and then one goal for the next week. The clients who verbally state a specific goal are overwhelmingly more likely to meet that goal than the clients who defer or speak in general terms.

For example, I have two clients having difficulty making time for exercise. The first one would only commit to saying “I’m going to exercise more this week.” The second one said, “I’m going to open the exercise DVD I bought and has been sitting on top of my television for 3 months and put it in the DVD player.” She didn’t have to even exercise, I just wanted her to actually get the thing unwrapped and in the player so all she’d have to do next week is push play. Baby steps.

Next week rolls around and low and behold, client one didn’t do any exercise and was thus disappointed in herself. Client 2 not only met her goal, but, because it was already in the DVD player and automatically played, worked out for 10 minutes! She was so happy and realized how easily she could fit 10 minutes of activity into her day and was shooting for two days this next week. Notice the difference in the original goals and the outcomes? This is a great practice for your weekly goals, but consider doing it on a larger scale as you begin to consider your New Year’s Resolutions next week:

1. Be specific, write it down, and talk about it. The accountability will help you stick to it.

2. Be realistic. You don’t have to manage your whole budget starting Jan. 1, but try just collecting receipts that first week, or purchasing Quicken, baby steps.

3. But be daring. Mark Twain is right, you’ll be much more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, so throw in a resolution that you would normally dismiss as too outside of your comfort zone.

Consider this as you start to think about your New Year’s Resolutions and make 2012 anything but disappointing!

Thanks to:

bellenomdeplume: for the quote!

A few posts back I mentioned an all day bike ride through Zion National Park. It was incredible. I left my hotel about 8 am and biked through Springdale into the park, all the way to the far end up a long, winding hill. It was tough and cold, but gorgeous, so well worth it.

Once at the top I locked my bike to a tree, stripped off my bike shorts (don’t worry, I had running pants on underneath), and took off for a riverside trail run. And then just kept repeating the process for the next 8 hours! Ride bike. Lock Bike. Run. Ride bike. Lock bike. Run. It was awesome.

I snacked on nuts and fruit throughout the day, but by the time I got back to the hotel my stomach was trying to eat itself, so I decided to feed it what it wanted: PIZZA. Behold, the “Good For You” pizza from Zion Pizza and Noodle Company:

light sauce, grilled squash & zucchini, sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, with feta & asiago cheeses.

It was every bit as good as it looks. And I ate Every. Last. Bite. No joke! I ate this entire pizza :D And then fell asleep for almost 12 hours. It was incredible. I’m not sure which accomplishment I’m more proud of: the marathon bike/hike/run session? Or the prize-winning eating? I think the combination of the two is just the right balance.

Top life experience that I used to have at least once, if not twice a week in my past life: running across the Brooklyn Bridge at sunrise or sunset (not on a weekend, though, if you actually want to have room to move without bumping into tourists every two steps of the way!).