This is a guest post from Miss T at Prairie Eco Thrifter.  

The old saying of “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” holds especially true in the modern world. Life moves at such a fast pace these days and there always seems to be so much to do. It is vital to create good work/life balance if you want to live a long, healthy and productive life. Here are 5 tips to help you do it:

Work out what’s important to you.

Take the time to sort out your priorities. Determine what is really important to you. Make a list of the top ten things that are important to you, those things that are your absolute top priorities.

These may include family, maintaining friendships, getting healthy and fit, your career, sporting or cultural pursuits, church and religion, travel and holidays, giving back to the community, education, interests and passions. The list of possibilities is almost endless but as you compile your list, it is important to ask yourself, ‘ is this really important to me?’

Arrange these top ten priorities in order of importance. If you have listed more than ten, put them underneath, in order of importance. Check over your list and make sure it is correct. You might find that you revise your list over the next few days.

Keep a journal

For two weeks to a month, keep a journal of all the activities that take up your time. Make a note of how you felt while completing this activity; were you happy, relaxed, angry, upset, stressed or any other emotions.

Compare your journal entries with your priority list. Mark in red any activity that does not appear on your priority list. Mark in green the ones that are on your list and are therefore important to you. Calculate your work/life balance by comparing the time you spend at work with the time you spend on one of your top ten priorities.

Analyze how you spend your time

Take some time for this step, because it is important. Look over your journal and note the percentage of activities marked with red, meaning that they are not a priority for you. Note the following:

• Was it necessary, even if not a priority?
• Was it important that you do it? More important than doing something on your top ten list?
• Why were you really doing it?
• Will you need to continue to do this activity?
• Is there a way you can reduce the time that activity could take in the future?
• Can you delegate it?

Check your schedule

Look for ways that you can create more time for activities that contribute to your top ten. How can you reduce the time you spend at work and increase your time doing things that are important to you? Look for ways you can be more productive with your time by practising time management skills. Find tasks that you can delegate to someone else. Can you do some work at home to reduce travel time?

What is the ideal work/life balance for you?

You need to know what you are aiming for in work/life balance before you can make any adjustments to how you are spending your time. This will be different for everyone. You might need to consult the people who are close to you, especially those who are in your top ten priority list. Ask your friends and family how much of your time they want or need. Consider how much time you want to spend at the gym, or playing sport or attending new classes etc.

One of the best ways to adjust your work/life balance is to ask yourself the following question when faced with any activity – “is this adding to the time I want to spend on my top ten priorities?” This simple question will help you get your life in balance so that you can lead a happier, healthier life.

I’m just over a month away from my marathon, and things have been going pretty smooth.  Finishing a marathon is one of my goals for 2012, so naturally I crafted a plan at the beginning of the year and it has all been execution since then.  There were a few missed runs when I went to new mexico, but things quickly got back on track and I kept going as the weekend miles (that’s the time when you do a really long run) crept higher.

Things honestly have been pretty easy so far.  As long as I make time to do the runs, I can go out there and just run, and it takes nothing but time.  Also, i’m getting a bit faster, so it doesnt take as much time as it used to.  I have been keeping to my 3 runs during the week and the long run on the weekend, but have slipped a bit with my gym routine.  This is starting to bug me, but I’ve had a lot going on lately so something was going to have to give, but i’m hoping to get back into the gym habit soon.

One thing that I would like to point out is that running a marathon is time consuming to train for, but I honestly feel like anyone can do it if they actually train for it.  To date, the longest race I’ve run is a 5k, and I’ve only done 3 of those in my life, and my first one was feb 2011.  I hated running before that because I thought it was boring and pointless, plus I was slow so that made it less fun.  Of course, I was slow because I never ran.  One takeaway that I do have from this is that when you set a goal, map out a plan to achieve it – I did this with my marathon goal, but not any of my debt goals – and as you know, I have not made nearly as much progress on those as I would have liked.  Having a schedule where I can look at something and say “Oh it’s tuesday, I need to run 4 miles today” really makes it easier – There’s no debating how long I should run for or where to go, just that I need to get out and go.

Unfortunately, all of this recently has been roses, but I feel like it’s going to get far more difficult.  We closed on our house on friday, and have a long list of things that we’d like to change, as well as moving all of our stuff.  This essentially took all  of the time both H and I had this weekend.  We were moving, demo-ing and unpacking, and still are quite a ways away from where we’d like to be.  I missed a run this weekend while entertaining my folks (and H’s) who had come up to help us with the move and poke around our new house, and spent most of the day going to the hardware store (7 times) and gutting the bathroom.  I could have carved out some time to run, but unfortunately I didnt.

This is something that I need to be aware of and watch in the future, and I’ll let you know how I’m doing.  Do you have any suggestions for how to keep to a schedule?

For about the 5th year in a row, I’ve set some goals for myself.  (If you’re curious, you can find them here)  One of these goals this year was to run a marathon, and once I picked one out, I set a training schedule.

Well, the marathon is in june and the training program is about 4 months long, it meant that I’d be starting my training in the dead of winter, and continuing through what we like to call “still winter” in Wyoming.  Of course, when I was lining this all out in january, knowing about my upcoming wedding and honeymoon crowding out most of july and a portion of august, this was essentially the only choice I had.  Needless to say, I was mentally preparing to do some things that I really, really dont like.

One of those things is running inside on a treadmill, and I can honestly say that there is not much that I hate more.  You do all this work, get nowhere, and at my gym, you have to stare out the window to do it.  In addition to all of that, I feel like I run slower on the treadmill (which has been independently verified) and and it is much harder on my knees.  All of that really brings me to the question: Do I want to achieve my goal of running a marathon more than I hate treadmills?

For a while there, the answer was pretty up in the air – whenever I would be forced into running on a treadmill because of weather, I would end up hating the treadmill, the running and my marathon goal in general.  Overall though, this really is probably untested more than anything – I think I’ve had to run on a treadmill 3 times since I started running, which I attribute to this extremely dry winter.  It would be nice to know for sure though – because I know I want to finish the marathon, but I really hate the treadmill.  I think that at this point, with just less than 2 months to go, I’d gut it out on the treadmill if I have to, but I’m not so sure how I would have reacted at the beginning – there’s a very real possibility I would have said hell with this shit and stopped.

All of that got me thinking though – it’s the same for all goals: what it really comes down to is how bad you want it.  For me and my debt, I started out really really wanting nothing more than being debt free.  Obviously, my attitude has changed a bit, and while I still want to be debt free, I also dont want to miss out on any exciting opportunities that I’ve been presented with (like going to alaska) over the last 18 months.  While I wanted to be debt free, I wanted to go to alaska more (a lot more), so diverting funds from my debt repayment to fund that trip (with cash!) was something I was willing to do.  Of course, this is much easier for the “huge” goals – I cant go to alaska every 6 months or every 2 months (boo) than it is for your day to day sacrifices, such as eating out and buying 1 too many of whatever it is you collect from the store.

My guess is, that for those smaller purchases you dont ask yourself if you’d rather have that serving of popcorn at the movies or if you’d rather pay off your debt, but you do ask yourself if you’d rather go to see the giant turtles or be closer to being debt free.  This probably holds true for you when exercising as well: You’re not focused on the small day to day actions, but then when something large comes up you focus heavily on it.

Readers: Do you find that this is true for you as well?  Do you tend to let the day to day stuff slide because it’s not that big of a deal, only to find out that it hamstrings you on your way to your goals in the future?  How do you remind yourself that your future goal is more important than that trip to dairy queen?

Well, march is just about over (as of this writing) and it’s time to look at how I fared on my goal progress for the first quarter of 2012.  If you’re curious about what my goals were, you can see them here (as well as past years).  I’ll write them below and provide a brief update on the status, and how I can move forward for the rest of the year.

1. No New Debt From Jan 1, 2012 until the wedding in Mid July.  Well, this is a  fail – H and I bought a house.  Of course, it’s not consumer debt or “bad” debt, but it’s debt nonetheless.
2. Pay off 1/2 of the truck loan.  Working on this, and have started to get some traction over the last 3o days.  Paid down about 2k worth of balance so far in 2012.
3. Finally, I’d like to create joint financial goals with H after we get back from the honeymoon, but before the end of the year.  It’s not just me anymore out there, and I’m happy to have her support. Obviously, this wont happen until later this year, but we have had a few discussions about it so far, but nothing concrete.
4. Run a Marathon – This has been going well so far.  Though I’ve missed a handful of training days over the last 2 months (it’s less than 5, but I’m not sure of the exact number) the results of this wont officially be in until June, after I run the race.  I wish it was as easy as just turning up and running, but unfortunately it’s not, and everything I’ve done so far will help me complete this goal.
5. Eat Vegetarian Dinners Three times per week - This also has been going well.  It was a little rocky at the beginning because H and were trading off the shopping duties – one week she would menu plan and shop, and the next week I would do it.  It didnt work so well – H doesnt really like going to the grocery store, so after a few tries, I just started getting her input when I make the menu, and do all of the shopping and cooking on my own.  I’ve been doing fine on this goal so far this year.
6. Be in Good shape for my honeymoon - Though this was a rather terrible goal because it had no reportable metric, and I still havent figured out how to measure it, but I think it’s going well.  I’ve been able to put on something like 10 lbs since I started regularly going to the gym again – and I’ve noticed a difference.  That’s about all I can ask for at this point, so this is also going well.
7. Plant a Garden – This has been in quite a state of flux, and at this point I dont really know where it’s going to end up.  Before we decided to move, I had a plan for the garden and all I was waiting for was to get some time to build the border and then fill it with compost from the city.  Now that we are moving, I have found a spot that I’d like to turn into the garden (but it’s full of rocks right now) – I’d have to clear the rocks, get the soil in and all of that relatively quickly.  I’m not giving up on this quite yet, but it’s looking dicey at best at this point – this is surely not a fail yet, though.
8. Make papercrete- There hasnt really been too much movement on this yet, but unlike the previous goal it was probably helped by moving.  I’ll get my own outbuilding in the new house, and I can make papercrete in there and I’ve even got a 55 gal drum to make it in.  In addition to that, I’ve been saving all my throwaway paper from my office for the past year to make papercrete with, so i’ve got the stock and all I need is a mold to pour the stuff in.  So, this is going along swimmingly, and I’ve still got 9 months to go.
9. Continue using human power for travel - this has also been going swimmingly, and with the purchase of our new house, it will continue.

Just like everyone, I have trouble remembering all of the things that I can do in my day-to-day life that will help me become a more sustainable person (and help me save money or get healthier).  To help me out, I developed this post – sustainability from A to Z.  Here you’ll find tips beginning with each letter of the alphabet that can help you out in your day to day life.

A is for Air Dry.  Lots of dishwashers have a heated dry cycle that uses a lot of energy.  When you have dishes in the dishwasher, typically you’re not in dire need of something that’s in there, so you won’t need the heated dry to speed things up.  You can just turn off the dry cycle all together and let your dishes air dry in the dish washer.  If it turns out that you do end up needing something, just open the dish washer and pull it out and dry it with a towel.  Air Drying dishes can help you save money by using less heat when operating your washing machine, and  can help you save the earth by using less energy.

B is for Buy Used.  Buying used is a rather simple process:figure out what you need (or want)  and find a store that sells it used.  You can check local antique or consignment shops in your area, your local craigslist, or even ebay.  Don’t worry if you think that what you’re looking for is too off of the wall or crazy, sites like ebay have everything.  Buying used can get you what you need for cheaper (and possibly better quality) than buying new, and you’ll keep something out of a land fill as well.

C is for Clothesline.  This is probably one of my favorite sustainability tips as everyone who wants to can do this (even you’re apartment people!)  Many of those in homes can easily string up a clothesline or may already have one that just needs repair. H and I had to make our own by buying some clothesline string and stringing up a few lines over the corner of our fence.  If you live in apartment, you can always use one of those clothes drying racks.  Clothes dried out on the line smell so good and feel so fresh when they are done too!  You can save money by using less electricity, saving wear and tear on your dryer, and you can save the environment by reducing emissions from   your local energy generation station.

D is for Driving.  There are plenty of things that will burn gas at a higher rate than normal, such as constant jackrabbit starts (gunning it off the light) constant stopping and starting, and speeding.  It’s pretty simple to avoid these habits (once you graduate high school) by paying attention to how fast you’re going and watching the lights to make sure you don’t have to come to a complete stop before your light turns green.  Of course, this will help you save gas, which will save you money and will help out the environment by using less petroleum based resources.

E is for efficiency.  Specifically, I’m talking about fuel efficiency.  You know that your commute is going to be X number of miles to work and back home, right?  If that’s the case, then why wouldn’t you want to maximize the amount of miles that your vehicle can operate per gallon of gas?  Well of course you would, because you want to be more sustainable, and you know that getting a more fuel efficient car will help you save money by using less gas than you would with a less efficient vehicle, and will help save the environment by lowering emissions and using less petroleum based resources.

F is for Full.  Many things operate better and use less energy when they are full.  Freezers use way less energy when they are full because the things that are already frozen will help freeze the newly put in things.  Many other home appliances work in a similar way.  Why run the dishwasher or washing machine when it’s half full, simply wait a day or two until you’ve got a full load and you’re on the road to sustainability.  This can help you save money by using less energy (on freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and other home appliances) and saving on wear and tear, and will help you use less energy or water depending on the appliance.

G is for Garden.  Most food that you eat has traveled 1500 miles (on average) to get from the production area to the shelf of your local store.  Clearly that’s a lot of miles and a garden is a great way to cut down on food miles.  Even those of you with apartments can plant a pot full of your favorite herbs like basil and mint and avoid buying some things.  Starting a garden will help you save money at the store by lowering what you’ll need to buy, save the earth by cutting down your food miles, and could help you become a bit healthier by removing additives and pesticides from your food.

H is for Homemade.  For just about everything you buy, you can do it yourself.  People just think that it’s cheaper to buy what someone else has made (while it does happen sometimes, it’s far less often than you think).  I haven’t been into the homemade movement for long, but since I started digging in, I’ve found tons of things you can make at home that I’d typically buy, like dryer sheets, drain cleaner, food, cheese and so much more.  When you make things yourself you can control what goes into the product and how it tastes at the end – and you also get that great feeling of having done something productive that day.  You can save money and the environment by going the homemade route.  This tip provided by staff writer Beatrice.

I is for Information.  The more information you have about something (be it a service or product) the more you can decide if it’s as sustainable as you would like it to be.  Don’t like how many miles your food travels?  Get some information and figure out how you can start producing some of your own food.  There’s plenty of ways to become more sustainable, you just have to look around for them. Honestly, I didn’t know you could make your own laundry detergent, dish soap, etc until I started this site.  This can save you some money by cutting down costs of things you’d normally buy but start making instead, and can help save the earth (and your heath) by using less toxic ingredients.

J is for Join. If you look at the definition of join in the dictionary here is what you will read, “ the shape or manner in which things come together and a connection is made;  make contact or come together.” Use this to your advantage in living sustainable. See if there are community programs you can join that work on green projects, like community gardens for example. Or, join a Community Supported Agriculture Progam (CSA) and use it to source your fruit and veggie groceries. Or, bring your friends together who think like you and ‘come together’ to form an environmental advocacy group. The sky is your limit when it comes to connecting with the planet.  Tip provided by Miss T from Prairie Eco Thrifter.

K is for Knowledge.  There are a ton of things that you can learn about from a sustainability perspective.  You can learn about life cycles of products, how things are made and how the inputs used are harvested, mined, or otherwise created.  There is sustainability in each one of those steps, and the more you know about the most sustainable methods, the better you can make decisions on the day to day.  For instance, when I bought laundry soap I would always buy the powdered kind in the box because all of the fancy designed bottles are wasting a ton of space in the truck.  Less space wasted = more room for product = less trips.  So, there’s sustainability everywhere, you just have to know about it and make decisions based upon what you know.

L is for Low Flow.  Low flow showerheads and toilets are awesome.  Simply purchase a low-flow showerhead and install and it will regulate the water flowing out of the head.  Low flow toilets work a bit different – some use less water per flush and some will have two buttons – one a half flush for number one, and the other a full flush for number two.  You can cheaply lower the water in your toilet by filling a few jugs with water and placing them in your toilet tank, lessening the amount of area the water has to fill every flush.  Low flow treatments can help you save money and the environment by using less water.

M is for Mindful Spending.  A lot of sustainability can be boiled down to resource use.  If you buy things that you don’t need just to buy them, you’re wasting resources.  When you think about what you spend, you’re giving thought to what’s actually going to happen to the item when you take it home.  Is it something like a tiddy bear (full disclosure: I didn’t know about this before I started writing this post) that seems totally useless and will only be used a few times before it stored away, or will you use it a couple of times every week?  Think about your purchases, if you do this, you’ll end up saving yourself some money and stopping resources from being used for no reason.

N is for New Life.  Anything that you feel like you’ve outgrown or no longer have a use for, consider donating to a local chairity.  Even though you may not have a use for it anymore, there very well could be someone who has a need for it and would be more than happy to have it.  This could be anything from movies to books to old clothing.  You’re keeping things out of the landfill helping you become more sustainable and saving the person purchasing it some money because they are getting it secondhand.

O is for Overboard.  Don’t go overboard with your sustainability measures needlessly, as it could cost you money that you’ll never recover.  When I was in college we got assigned a task to try and figure out where we would save the most money if we could only replace one incandescent with a compact flouresent bulb.  Obviously, this meant replacing the light that was on the most for whatever reason.  Think about it – should you put the light in a high traffic area like the living room where the light is on 2 hours a day, or the closet in the basement that gets turned on once a week.  You can save some money by not buying needless bulbs and still be exponentially more sustainable.

P is for Programmable Thermostat.  Programmable thermostats operate pretty simply – you tell them what time and what temperature to turn the heat to on any given day and they do the rest.  They take probably an hour to install and cost about 50 bucks, but can easily make that back during the winter, and then some.  Once you’ve got this done, you can sit back while it saves you money and helps out the earth by using less energy than  you would if you heated/cooled your house when you were not going to be there.

Q is for Quality.  One of the most important things I have discovered on my eco-living journey is the importance of quality over quantity.  I have discovered, in terms of food, I prefer an approach that is less about how cheap and easy to make the food is, and whether or not the food is of good quality. Quality over quantity, in this sense, means going slightly against your natural spending habits, at least on the surface, and embracing an added short term expense to minimize a long term one. Investing in your health and the planet now by modifying your diet to include organic and humanely-raised animal products will benefit you in the future with lower health care costs. It also benefits the planet through sustainable farming practices. Already eat sustainable? Then here is another example.  Think of the consumer marketplace. How many people buy a cheap, plastic item and eventually have to take it to a landfill because it no longer works, or the plastic cracks, sometime not long after they bought the item? The numbers are staggering. Don’t believe me? Go and pay a visit to your local garbage dump. In my experience, not many consumers in general question the quality of the items they buy. They just buy them and forget about the origins of the product, or the sweatshop conditions of those who laboured to make them. It often doesn’t enter into the consciousness of everyday people. Do the planet and yourself a favour and start paying attention to quality over quantity.  Tip provided by Miss T from Prairie Eco Thrifter.

R is for Reuse.  I used to want to buy a lot of stuff – something for every purpose and something crazy for some far fetched idea I had at one fleeting moment.  Thankfully, I didnt do 98% of these ideas, but a lot of people do buy a lot of stuff for one reason or another.  Eventually they’ll tire of the item and will be willing to sell you something perfectly good for cheap, or even better, FREE!  Of course, this doesn’t have to include a friend – you can find something in your house that you no longer use and re-use it for something different.  It doesn’t have to serve its original purpose, it just has to serve a purpose to be reused.  You can turn old shirts into dishrags, hand down clothing to younger children or just about anything else you can think of!  This will help save you money by preventing you from buying things you don’t need to buy and will keep stuff out of landfills by extending the lifetime of the product.

S is for Shower with a Friend.  We increasingly hear about water and electricity becoming increasingly scarce while subsequently increasing in value.  Rolling brown outs in the northeast a few summers ago and a quick look at the water resources in Arizona are no longer isolated resource deficiency stories – the problems are getting larger and more wide spread.  Solution? Shower with a Partner!  The dial on your water meter (if you don’t have one now, you will …) will slow and you will save electricity heating (and keeping warm) a large tank of water in your basement.  That and the quality time with your partner – can’t put a price on that!  Tip provided by Simon at Sustainable Personal Finance. 

T is for Trees.  Who doesn’t like trees, right?  They are there when you need them to sit under in the shade on a hot summer day and they are there to fall on top of your car when the snow comes too early .  In all seriousness though, trees are great for saving energy in the summer – they can protect your house from excessive heat by providing shade if they are planted nearby.  This will help you save some money on electricity costs and help the earth by planting trees to fix nutrients into the soil and remove CO2 from the air (you can also solidify your sustainability cred by taking a photo of yourself hugging said tree).

U is for Utility Usage Data.  Some utilities providers don’t offer this yet, but some do.  You get a website to go to that will tell you how much energy you’re using and at what time of day.  I think some of them can even tell you what appliance is using the energy!  Knowing all this information can allow you to tell the utility companies to cut power to your house on days where they have high demand (usually in the summer when lots of air conditioning is turned on).  This can save you some money because you’ll be using less electricity (and some companies give rebates for joining a program like this), you can also help the environment by delaying (or preventing outright) the construction of a new power plant, and reducing all the not-so-great things that comes along with new power plants.

V is for Vampire Draw.  I’ve talked about vampire draw a bit before, but for those that missed it: it’s when something is plugged into the wall but not connected to something charging on the other end.  One of the common culprits is cell phones – you leave your charger plugged in to the wall, but carry the phone with you.  The charger will still draw energy.  Obviously, this won’t cost you a lot of money but waste not, want not, right?  This will help you become more sustainable and save you money by saving you energy and lowering your electric bill.

W is for Walking.  All throughout high school, I thought that you had to drive everywhere.  When I got to college and my dad said I couldn’t take my car, I quickly learned I didn’t have to drive everywhere.  Once I started walking everywhere I had to go, I realized how much I enjoyed it and wanted to do it after I left school.  Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way for me right away, but after switching jobs, I’ve been able to walk to work for 9 months.  I’d prefer never to drive again.  This helps me save money on gas as well as wear and tear on your vehicle, stay healthy by getting you to walk more, and be more sustainable by driving less.

X is for Xeriscaping.  Xeriscaping is mostly done outside, and involves planting plants and native grasses that would naturally grow in your area anyway, to reduce water use.  Native grasses and plants are used to the conditions and won’t need any special treatment, making them fairly hard to kill if you’ve got a black thumb like me.  You can save some money and help the environment by using less water – gotta love 2 birds with 1 stone!

Y is for Yearn. When we yearn, we have affection for; feel tenderness for something. Yearn for our home, our planet. Be eager to experience mother nature’s beauty; to connect with her on a deeper level. Look around you and see what she has to offer- how beautiful she is. One of the ways I do this is by camping. I pack my tent, hike into the forest and escape into the wild. I listen to the sounds of the breeze touching the trees. I see the birds and squirrels playing. I awake to the brightness of the sun. I soothe myself to sleep with the glow of the moon. I take in the peace of the fresh air and heal myself with the silence. I yearn for my home.  Tip provided by Miss T from Prairie Eco Thrifter.

Z is for Zero Waste.  While this may be out of reach personally (but maybe not!) lots of events are beginning to head this direction.  I have been to multiple events that have forks, cups and spoons made from corn products, plates made out of recycled paper, and composting for food and paper waste.  While I personally don’t think they can get to absolute 0 waste, I’m glad they are trying.  Even though you may not be able to get to total zero waste in your household, even trying will help you become a far more sustainable person.  You can help the earth by looking at the whole lifecycle of your purchases, and figuring out what you’re going to do at every step.

Well there you have it – 26 sustainability tips.  Do you have any that I left off?  If I get enough tips in the comments I’ll put them together for another post.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year in my health goals at the beginning of the year, one of my goals for 2012 is to run a marathon.  I think that I was inspired partially by how much I didnt mind running last year while training for my triathlon.  I used to really, really hate running because when I was wrestling in high school, the only person my 101 pound self could run faster than was our 270 lb heavyweight wrestler named Aaron.  It was kind of demoralizing to be one of the smallest kids on the team and being barely faster than the heaviest kid on the team.  Aside from that, I have never really done much running.  So, that being said, here’s an update.

The first thing that I had to do was select a marathon to run in.  This wasnt that complicated, though my summer is filling up quite quickly with my bachelor party in june and wedding in july and a honeymoon in August.   There is no marathon to be ran in the town where I live, so I looked nearby and considered dates.  In an effort to look the best for my wedding I tried to pick a date as close to the wedding as possible so that I would be in the best shape possible, but without sacrificing my ability to get things done on the time that I will probably be running around needing to do for the wedding.  I settled on June 3 for the marathon, and H will be running the race as well (but a half marathon) so we will be heading down there the day before and staying the night, and may stay the night of race day as well to recover, but that has yet to be decided.

Once the race was picked it was time to start training.  I consulted some friends who ran a marathon last year as well as the internet.  I found a whole boatload of running advice and quite a few detailed training plans, so I found one that I thought suited my needs, modified it a slight bit and added it to my calendar so I would know how much I would need to run each week.  I had my plan in hand about a month before I needed to start training, which was nice.  As I mentioned the plan is straight forward so I feel like if I follow it I should do just fine.

One thing that I was worried about was the weather.  This is wyoming, and I knew that I would need to start my training in early february – not exactly the best time to be tooling around outside and running.  It has been a mild winter so far, and I haven’t really felt the effects of the winter on my training program save for a few days here and there.  All of that being said, I’ve also figured out that I hate running on a treadmill inside.  I dont know what it is, but I run slower than I do outside, and I’m miserable while doing it.  Even if it is freezing outsides, i’d rather be outside.  I just feel like I’m running and I dont go anywhere on a treadmill and then I get mad – I dont understand how people can run on those things for hours on end (though I did do it, once).

I have been running 3 nights per week, usually tuesday, wednesday and thursday after I get off work, then doing a longer run on saturday and cross training on sunday, in addition to my morning weightlifting routine.  I’ve felt pretty good during all the runs, but I did notice a few weeks ago while doing my easy workout (legs) that I was in a great deal of pain while doing squats.  I decided to stop doing them for about 2 weeks, and the soreness went away.  I’m back on them at this point, and I forgot that I shouldnt lift legs on days that I run.

That’s about everything in terms of the marathon.

Readers: How are you doing on your exercise goals this year? 

In 2012, I’ve decided to make myself a bit healthier through habits, as well as more sustainable through my practices.  As most of you know I set a goal to myself to eat a vegetarian dinner 3 times per week.  So far, this has been going well and honestly, I dont think I’ve had a dinner that I’ve cooked at home with meat in it (though I think I’ve had dinner out 1 or 2 times).  I’ve started doing most of the food shopping/menu planning, and it’s just easier if H and I both eat the same thing.

Knowing that goal though, you may be curious as to why I went hunting for elk all those days then.  One of the reasons is that I still enjoy the occasional meat related item, and that I really like knowing where my food comes from and all of that.  As I detailed in the Cost of Getting your Own food post, I was able to get elk for about 5 bucks a pound, and that included all types of cuts, from (what will be) ground, to stew and steaks as well.  I’ve got a lot of meat from the elk obviously, so I figured it would be a good time to set up a fun activity.  A no meat buying challenge.

Right now, most of the stuff in the freezer is from when H used to eat meat (mostly a few pork loins and some chicken sausage), things that I’ve gone out and gotten for myself (halibut, duck and elk), or things that are not meat (like kringle).

I got to thinking about it, and the more I did I realized a few things:

• That’s a lot of meat for 1 person
• That’s a lot of meat for someone who eats meat as infrequently as I do

There will be a couple hurdles to this plan though.  I’ll be bringing quite a bit of elk meat to the bachelor party in june, so that can have a huge affect on my current stock, as well as the amount of fish that H and I will eat throughout the year. Obviously I wont be able to get more halibut myself very easily, so I’ll need to make sure that I dont over do it any week or month.  Other than that though, hopefully it will be smooth sailing.  I’ve laid out a few rules that I think will help out, and here they are:

I have been a vegetarian of sorts for around a year. It has been a slow process to get to where I am at now. I don’t eat any meat except for seafood so I am actually a pescetarian. I usually just say vegetarian when asked, “What are you?” It is that or  human.

Becoming a Vegetarian

The journey has been slow because it started with a personal dare and has evolved through education. I think it has been at least 3 years since I last ate beef. I decided that I would not eat beef for a month just to see if I could do it – a test of will. The man in my life laughs when I describe it this way because I often eat a cup full of ice cream after dinner for a week without blinking an eye. Will power is ignored for ice cream. I decided to start with beef because I didn’t eat it that much to begin with. After a month of easily not eating beef I felt confident that I could be in control of other food items. I was a bit over weight at the time and it seemed nice to know I could be in control. I recently read that will power is like a muscle and you have to use it to make it stronger. I love that idea because it eliminates any excuses.

Feeling better with less meat

Anyway…I started to feel great and it gave me something to practice. My friend gave up all meat except for seafood a few years ago and the more we started to cook meals for one another the more I noticed that after a meal free of chicken and beef the calmer and more relaxed I felt. I have no medical studies to back this up, just personal feeling. It could be the fact that I don’t have guilt or sad feelings for the animals, the fact that cleaning up dishes is so much easier when I’m not cooking with meat, or that I get more vitamins and things my body needs (such as Omega-3 fatty acids) from vegetables and seafood.  I have slept better, had more energy, and felt more myself without meat.

Helping Others with Changes

My cousin wanted to talk about my change this Christmas. He had really struggled with the switch and had gone back to meat without finding much success. Changing to a diet with less meat or no meat is very personal. I found great success and would recommend that you try it if you are looking for a change. It has taught me control and allowed me to see food in a more positive way.

Readers: Do you feel like you have control over your diets?  Have you thought about becoming a vegetarian or helping someone else change their diet?  Do you consider a diet to be something temporary, or a permanent lifestyle change?

As I write this, it’s the 20th of January, and I’ve been to the gym (or working out) for 19 days straight (I knew I wasnt going to the gym on new years day).  This is surely the longest tracked streak, and probably up there in terms of length in all my bouts of going to the gym.  I’ve found that the best time for me to go the gym is in the morning before work.  Admittedly, it’s not always easy to go to the gym at this hour but I make it happen on about 5-6 days during the week.  I usually give myself one day off during the week in the morning, and I run that afternoon.

The one thing that I’ve been noticing is that it sucks getting up all the time.  I’m not talking about waking up, I’m talking about taking the action of getting out of bed.  We all know that getting out of bed is probably the worst thing ever  - and even more so when the weather is cold.  After my battles in december with myself on getting out of bed (which I mostly lost) I gave my workouts more thought around christmas time and I knew that I had to figure out some sort of gimmick  to get myself out of bed, because once I’m out of bed and ambulatory, I do just fine and make it to the gym.

I settled on the easy workout.  I do a series of 4 workouts, two muscle groups at a time except for one day where I just do one.  The workout where I just do 1 muscle group rotates, but the workout is always the same: legs.  This workout takes way less time and isn’t nearly as rigorous as the rest of my workouts.  So whenever I wake up and I’m having a lot of trouble making it out of bed, I just tell myself that I’m doing the legs workout that day, and after a minute or two I drag myself out of bed.  Even though I may not actually end up doing the easy work out, getting out of bed is all that matters (for me).  Once I’m out of bed, I’ll grab one of the scraps of paper I’ve got my workouts written on and head off to the gym, and it usually isnt the easy workout, I usually save that for the end of the week.  I dont want to “burn” it on a monday.

The thing is, once I can get out of bed, I know that I could get to the gym, so I’ve learned to leverage that.  I know that once I’m out of bed, I can get to the gym, so I’ve been trying to trick myself every day that I dont want to get out of bed (this is about 1 of every 3 days).  I tell myself that I’m doing the easy workout (wether I am not) and that helps me get out of bed and head to the gym.

Readers: Do you use special tricks to get yourself to workout, or do you just try and force yourself all the time?  Do you think something like that would work for you?  If so, what habit(s) could you leverage (like my not getting back in bed after I get up) to make this goal a success?

Since it’s the first week of 2012, I figured that I’d share my goals for 2012 with all of you.  I don’t list every goal in every category, but I do put the ones that I feel relate to the things we talk about on the blog.

Every year for the past 6 years, I’ve created goals for myself.  I wasnt too good with the tracking thing in  the early years, but I’ve gotten better recently.  (also, while editing my goals posts, I wrote I’d been having goals for different amounts of time in every post i’d written).  I decided to break up my goals into categories last year, and I’m doing the same this year.  The following are my goals for getting/staying healthy throughout the year.

This year of course comes with a little added incentive because I’m getting married.  While I dont mind looking like a tool at my wedding, I dont want to be overweight or unfit – in fact, just the oppisite.  I’d rather be in the best shape of my life, or close to it anyway.  Hopefully the goals I’ll set will help with that.

The first health goal for the year will be to run a marathon.  I don’t really think this will be that difficult.  Im a very function oriented person (if X, then Y) so my plan is to pick a marathon that I’d like to do before the wedding and then follow a simple training program.  I’ve already found a training program that i’d like to do, and have identified a few marathons that I’d like to do (both are in june, providing me 6 full weeks to get really fat before my wedding).  I think that H may run it with me, but she’s only interested in running a half marathon, so her training wont be quite as extensive as mine, but at least I’ll have a training buddy.  As far as I’m concerned though, I just have to follow the steps on my training program week in and week out, and I’ll be fine.  That may be simplistic thinking, but I dont need to get all worked up over it.  As of right now, I’m looking at 2 races, both in the beginning of june pretty hard, and one potentially in may, but it is a trail run so I’m not sure that I’m quite up for that yet.

The next health goal is slightly subjective (which makes for a poor goal) but I’m going for it anyway.  H and I will be spending plenty of time lounging around on the beach during our honeymoon, and obviously I dont want to look like a troll.  Unfortunately, there’s no way I’ll look as good as she will, but either way I’d like to be in good shape for my honeymoon.  How I’ll define this I havent figured out yet, but hopefully I’ll come up with something.

I’d also like to eat more veggies.  Next summer, H and I are going to be getting veggies in our CSA along with our friut, and I’d like to make sure that none of that ends up in the compost heap.  In order to do this, I’ll need to eat more veggies next year, both as snacks and sides, as well as main dishes.  So, one of my goals for next year will be to eat vegetarian at dinner 3 times per week.

I think that those goals should keep me occupied in the health sector for a while, and nothing looks like it will be too difficult (other than following the plan).  One thing I was told to watch out for is my marathon – It seems like there are quite a bit of injuries during training for a race, so I’ll need to watch out for that.

Readers:  What are your health goals for the coming year?  Do you have health goals, or are you simply trying to maintain what you’ve got?  Are you goals focused on weight-loss or something different?