Oh would you look at the year.

It's 2013, how the heck did that happen?!

I'm personally quite thrilled to see the back of 2012 - it ended particularly badly and I'd rather not dwell on that.

In fact, I'm not even going to review the goals I set for 2012, since I know that the year was full of twists and turns and I'm just happy that it's over and I can move on.

I start 2013 in a position that I haven't found myself in for a while... being completely and utterly focused on myself, rather than having a responsibility to someone else.  I need that to trickle over into my goals too.

I know the biggest, most important thing that I need to focus on for at least the first part of 2013 is lifting weights and strength training.  I'm thinking of trying the LiveFit Trainer program by Jamie Eason just to get myself into the habit of going to the gym and training with weights, and then once that's done, talking to a personal trainer about some more specific goals (and I already know the personal trainer who is going to help me, and I'm so excited to be able to work with him).

The part that actually scares me is no cardio for the first few weeks.  I tend to do 16+ hours of cardio per week because I love it (not because I'm like OMG I MUST DO CARDIO TO BURN TEH CALORIES), so naturally, cutting out something I love is something I'm very nervous about.

In the past I've done running goals, and it's taken me a long time to admit... hey, I'm actually not the hugest fan of running.  I'd much rather do something else - go for a swim, get into an RPM class or a BODYCOMBAT class, so enough of torturing myself and forcing myself to love something that I only think is 'okay'.  I loved the euphoria of participating in a race, but it pales in comparison to the euphoria I feel from doing a class, and even moreso, teaching a class.

Now one problem that I had in 2012 that has particularly gotten worse in the last couple of months is eating. Not too much, not even poorly, I've been forgetting to eat.  So I will really need to make an effort to remember to eat.  Sometimes I will actually have to take a moment and think about the last proper meal I ate, and it will have been a day or more.  I'm generally better at work than I am at home, though this is something I really do need to sort out.  I can't be going days without eating.

And! Even if I'm tasting cake creations, THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS EATING. (I'm yelling at myself, FYI, not you guys.  I love you guys, I would never yell at you.  Unless you were annoying me.)

Finally, more sleep.  I need to organise myself better and not be running off 1 hour of sleep because I've been up making cupcakes after teaching a class.

Three major goals for 2013:

1. Lift Weight
2. Remember to Eat
3. Get Some Sleep

I'll keep you posted if I do move forward with the LiveFit trainer - I think the main thing I need to do is convince the people whose classes I'm going to for training that I won't be in them for a while because I'm following the program - and that's a hard ask; I know if one of the members in one of my classes said that they weren't going to come to my classes for a while because of something that 'some trainer' had told them, I'd be annoyed at said trainer as our livelihood depends on people coming to our classes and continuously coming to our classes.

I've also been thinking of a few minor goals - to help me save money and get better nutrition.  In a way, some of the minor goals are resolving the crux which prevents a major goal from being achieved.

The first one is regarding buying coffee.  Initially, I just bought it as a treat once a week after a Wednesday morning RPM class.  Now, I'm buying it way more than that.  I honed that in by saying 'the mornings I teach are the mornings I can buy coffee'.  That was fine when I was teaching twice a week, but there were some weeks where I was teaching four times a week.  Now, I'm not teaching any mornings but I'm still buying the coffee!  Argh.  Not only do I need to buy less coffee, but I need to change what I order.

So my first minor goal is Latte is the new Mocha - instead of ordering a Mochaccinos with the chocolate syrup or powder in it, I should switch it for a Latte.

I'm going to try and integrate this with the major goal of lifting weight.  Before I was allowing myself to get a coffee on the days I taught.  Now I'll allow myself a coffee on the days I weight train - kind of like a Pump Iron, Get Coffee type system. I don't really want this to be viewed as 'rewarding myself with food', but rather, just a way of controlling my spending.  If I end up doing a large number of weights sessions, then again I'll need to revise this system.

And the final one. NO MORE NOODLES.  When I'm at work, I generally eat better (and remember to eat!), but at home, when the majority of the day has gone by, I will tend to think "Crap I need to eat something... umm... I'll just make some noodles."  Not a good habit.  Gotta sort that out.

Three minor goals for 2013:

1. Latte is the new Mocha
2. Pump Iron, Get Coffee
3. No More Noodles

We'll see how I go.