Happy Birthday, dear friend

In an effort to make better use of my dSLR, I brought it out with me the other night for a friend's birthday. I'm always a little nervous to bring it with me to a bar, but I'm trying to let go of that. What's the point of having a camera if you're too afraid to bring it out?

These pictures aren't great. I was mostly playing. The bar was dimly lit & people were having too much fun to sit still for me. None-the-less, it was fun to play a little bit & the night itself was a lot of fun.

Happy Birthday, Kelli.

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New Year

I've been kind of putting this post off. Last year, I had it out in December. I was all prepared for 2013. I had my shit together last year, guys. This year, though. This year kind of snuck up on me. One minute, my wonderful boyfriend was down on one knee, asking me to marry him, & the next I swear it was New Years Eve. I swear that's exactly how it happened.

I've said before that I believe in setting goals when you realize they need to be set instead of waiting for something like the New Year to take action. & I still believe that if I need to change something, that change should happen as soon as I realize it. That's definitely something I try to live by, but like I said last year, it's nice to look back on last year & decide what to do better this one.

Last year, I attempted to:

I can't say I was entirely successful with any of these except maybe number three. We really don't eat grains very often anymore. I'd say we're usually 80% grain-free, 20% eat whatever we want. It's a good balance, if you ask me, & something I'd like to continue. I'm still often very hard on myself when we do slip up, but I want to put it in writing: we did well, friends.

I wasn't entirely unsuccessful with the other goals. There were months where I really did follow our budget better. & overall I think I've cut my shopping spending a lot. There were also times when we opted to have friends over instead of going out. I think we made an overall improvement there too. & there were times when I chose to be more appreciative & tolerant. That one is probably the biggest one I need to work on though. I promise to try, N. I promise.

With that in mind, here are my 2014 New Years Resolutions. (drum roll, please).



I think these are four challenging, but very achievable goals for me this year.

I generally try to be more specific with goals, but I made an exception with the first one. I think we've got a pretty good handle on our health (of course, as I write this I'm a bit sniffly). We weren't sick often this year & when I was I could usually pinpoint why. Fitness Friday is still going strong & I've been making workouts, in & out of the gym, a priority. I'm not going to a CrossFit box like I would like to be, but I'm still making strides when it comes to my Fitness goals & that's a good place to be. (I will master a handstand this year. It's coming!)

This second goal probably seems odd to those who know me or follow my instagram. I do take a lot of photos. But I want to be more conscious of the photos I'm taking & make a better effort to use my DSLR. I'm trying to shoot primarily with my 35 mm lens. I like it so much better than my kit lens. I want to try to take more photos with it & not fall back on my zoom lens just because it's easier. It's time to challenge myself a bit with photography.

I've blogged way more this year than any other year & I couldn't be happier about that, but I haven't been actually, physically writing. Whenever I've lived abroad or travelled, I've kept a journal & writing in it - the physical act of writing things down - has always been very therapeutic for me. I'd like to get back to that. (& I'm starting today - my journal is currently in my purse!). Instead of mindlessly checking Facebook or Twitter in my downtime, I'd like to get back to writing.

This last one is a big one for me, & I think it's a good one for this year. Too often I get pessimistic & over dramatic & let things bother me. I forget that this is a choice I make & that I can choose happiness instead. I've let myself forget to choose to be happy too often. I've let myself get carried away by the negative what-ifs & that's not the person I want to be. As much as I'd like to be able to control every little aspect of my life, I can't. There is so much that I cannot control. But, I can control how I react to things. & I can choose to be happy. This is largely inspired by the fact that we're planning a wedding & wedding planning is notoriously stressful. This essay was another huge inspiration (thank you for that, Natalie. I don't even know you for real, but thank you). I'm going to make this one happen.

So let's go, 2014. Bring it on. I'm so ready for all the wonderful things you have in store for me.

Photo by 3haus Photographics

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Run Run Run

 

One of my goals this year is to get faster at shorter distances, namely 5 km and 10 km. I've only run 5 km for training so I've never really pushed myself. Speed work is so important though, so I'm making an effort to be faster.

I went for a 5 km run at lunch today. I wasn't expecting it to be very fast, but it felt good. I didn't really pay attention to my watch until I hit 2 km in 10:05. I never run 2 km in less than eleven minutes. And it felt good, really good. I did a bit of a double take, I was so surprised. So I decided to consciously try and keep it up for the rest of my run. At 3 km, I was right at fifteen minutes. Holding that 5:00/km, I kept an eye on my watch and by 4 km, I was breathing hard. I came in under twenty minutes. All I had to do was hold on for one more kilometre and I'd reach a goal I hadn't expected to attain until much later this year. I mean, it's January 7. I only set these goals a week ago! I just tried to keep my feet moving quickly and stopped my watch at 5 km: 24:46. My first time running 5 km in under 25 minutes. Walking back to the office, I was pretty much grinning from ear to ear.

And doing a little happy dance. Follow @whoalansi

New Year

Resolutions. I haven't been big on the whole making-a-list-of-things-I-want-to-do-better-this-year thing recently. I think if I need to change something or do better, it should start as soon as I realize a change needs to happen.

I really do like goals. That's probably an understatement. I love goals and I set them often.

A perfect example: Nathan and I decided to do a month long paleo challenge November 15. It wasn't the best time of year to decide to do this and we definitely cheated a lot, but my reasoning was that there was never going to be an ideal time to do it. There's always something going on and it's never going to be easy. So we just did it the best that we could. It worked out well for us (especially me) and I've been feeling great and getting lots of compliments that I look great so I'm glad we did it.

That said, sometimes it's nice to look back on the year and decide what you want to do better next year. So here's my list:

1. Follow our budget better.
We moved out in July and we haven't saved much money since. We had lots of stuff to buy and neither of us makes a ton of money so it put a damper on saving for a place of our own. I'd like to get back on track with this. We do a lot of things right: bring a lunch of work every day, drink terrible office coffee instead of stopping at Starbucks, and avoid paying for parking ever. We also have a big weakness for delicious food, nights out with friends, and shopping and that needs to slow down significantly. Which brings me to my second resolution:
2. Have friends over more often.
We like entertaining and we like having drinks and playing games. I love our place and definitely want to make more of an effort to have people over instead of going out. 2 birds, 1 stone.
3. Eat grains on rare occasions.
Our month of paleo taught me a lot about how food makes me feel, and especially about how grains and gluten make me feel. I still LOVE bread and will never say I'm giving something up forever, but it needs to be a treat for me. I feel so great when I'm eating good food and fueling my body properly. Don't worry, I'm not going to go too nuts about this whole gluten thing though.
4. Be more tolerant and appreciative
I have it pretty good when it comes to boyfriends. N mostly puts up with my neuroses and my need for our house to be clean and organized. He helps me out a lot with grocery shopping and vacuuming and taking out the garbage. He listens when I'm acting like a crazy person and always tries to be helpful and supportive. I need to be more appreciative of this and I definitely need to be more tolerant of the imperfections in our lives.

So there we go. Some goals for the year! I obviously have some other more short terms goals (get back to be being able to do 25 pushups ina row and run 5 km under 27:00...ok actually try to run a 5 km for time not training), but these are my four solid yearlong goals.

I should also probably add blog more to the list. I had good intentions of blogging about Croatia, Vegas, and Christmas. I'll get to a couple of these in the New Year.

Come on 2013! Follow @whoalansi