I already shared my Goals for 2013 with you guys in a post a couple of weeks ago but now that the new year is literally around the corner (tomorrow!) I wanted to talk about a couple of them again.

Cleaning Up My Diet

The first goal that I am going to start thinking about is number 6 – but I’m going to be focusing on the “clean up my diet” aspect of it. Whole Foods is doing a 28-day challenge and Lynn and her husband have agree to do it with me.  I already eat really healthy but I think this will be a great way for me to clean up my diet a little more, and I always love a challenge! There are two programs that you can follow; the basic Health Starts Here program or the Engine 2 program.

The basic Health Starts Here program eliminates refined sugars, refined grains, added oils, dairy, and limits your meat consumption to 4 oz or less each day.

The Engine 2 program is the same as the above but completely eliminates all meat, dairy, and other animal products. There are two levels to this program – a gradual program that eases into it, or the jump-in-with-both-feet-all-at-once. All three of us are going to try to stick to the advanced Engine 2 plan.

This should be easier for me than for them since I already don’t eat meat or dairy, but it is still going to be hard for me to completely cut out refined sugars and all added oils. There is oil in everything! I don’t know that I want to stick with the no-oil diet forever but I definitely want to give it a go for a solid 28 days. I want to be disciplined about it and I know that my body with definitely benefit from a month of a cleaner diet!

If anyone is interested in more information about this 28-Day challenge that Whole Foods is doing, email Dan Marek at Dan.Marek@wholefoods.com with the subject line “Add me to the list” and you’ll receive free emails throughout the program with tips, advice, recipes, weekly meal plans, etc. I’m really excited about this and am so glad that I have people doing it with me! It’s so much easier to stick with something new when you have a friend by your side.

The challenge doesn’t start until January 3rd but I’ve already received the email with the complete meal plan and recipes for the first week. I’m probably not going to follow the meal plans they send because I love to cook and create in the kitchen, but I’ll definitely make some of the recipes and share them with you guys. If you’re interested in the email they’ve already sent out with tips/recipes, let me know and I’ll send it to you. I’m also going to share some tips and notes about my progress here on the blog.

Run a Marathon

I tried to run again on Friday and only made it a third of a mile. My leg started bothering me almost immediately and I knew that it would be a better idea to just stop running than to push through and run a certain distance, just to aggravate the injury and prolong my recovery. So this was another long weekend of me not running at all. My original training plan had me running 16 miles this weekend, plus all of my other training runs that I’ve missed over the last week.

I have not made a decision yet at this point (and won’t until I’m able to run completely pain free) but it’s looking like I will not be running in the Austin Marathon in February. As sad as this makes me (and it does make me very, very sad) I know it is not the end of the world. There’s the Dallas Marathon in March that I can try for, or I can push it back even farther. My {tentative} plan at this point is to continue to not run for a couple more days but get in the gym and try to keep up with my fitness with the spin bike. Honestly, this is something that I should have been doing all along but haven’t been out of sheer laziness. Shame on me.

Hopefully I will be running again soon and my race schedule will look like this:

January 27th: Rogue 30k (18.6 miles) Rogue 10k: (6.2 miles)

February 17th: Austin Marathon (26.2 miles) Austin Half-Marathon (13.1 miles)

March 24: Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon (26.2)

OR {if it takes longer for me to heal and I’m still not ready for a marathon at this point}

March 24th: Tall Texas Triathlon relay style with Ross and Lynn (13.1 miles)

June 2nd: Playtri Festival International Distance relay style triathlon with Ross and Lynn (6.2 miles)

Hopefully I’ll be able to pull off a better time at one of these half-marathons! But it’s not the end of the world if I don’t, I’ll just keep trying! I have the rest of my life to become a better runner and there’s no point in my stressing so much over it (which is easy for me to say right now when I’m not running and don’t know when my next race will be…).

Marry My Favorite Guy

This is coming up soon!

I will probably have another wedding post later this week or sometime next week with some updates and maybe pictures too. Ross and I spent this past weekend with his family in Dallas and so of course there was wedding talk! Then he and I had our own wedding talk for about an hour and a half of our drive back to Austin last night. I have a bridesmaids DIY session this weekend so we can try and get some stuff done for the wedding, and them my dress should be here and ready for my first fitting around February 1st! EEEEKK! I’m so excited : )

And just for fun, here’s a picture that was taken of me and Ross (and Jacob) on New Year’s Day 2010.

Ross isn’t allowed to shave his beard completely anymore because I think it makes him look too young. I like being with an older man : )