January just flew by! It literally feels like I was just starting to freak out about the half marathon coming up on me, and now it’s over and feels like forever ago. Not only was I successful and finish within the amount of time given, I completed it in my own personal goal. I also gave myself permission to enjoy life a bit, got a new car, and had an interview – January was just plain full of stuff! I’m really hoping that February turns into another amazing month – it’s kind of nice having a year start off so awesome. Here is my New Year, New Resolutions – February 2016.

January was just so full, that I will keep it short. It started off with me, finally!, getting my own car. It took awhile just because I needed to figure out my finances and build up a down payment to get a good deal, and I did and it’s so nice to have that independence back – not so much the car payment and insurance, but oh well. The second weekend of the month was the half marathon. And let me just say I had totally psyched myself out to the point of serious anxiety and tears 30 minutes before the race. The race itself was great, all those people were just there to have fun so it made it seems less serious once I got started thankfully. I completed it under the given cut-off time (3:30 hours) which was my true goal. Just complete under that time, but of course I had my own internal goal – one I didn’t tell anyone else about because I didn’t want to be so disappointed if I didn’t do it and then have people ask me about it. My goal was to complete under 3 hours – and yes, I did it. By 2 minutes, but make that goal I did!  Another cool thing was I had an interview this month for a job that would be a promotion – don’t know yet about the outcome, but a promotion is always good. And the last thing that was big for the month … I allowed myself to deviate from dieting after the half marathon. I have been so restrictive for so long that it finally just got to be too much. I let myself eat what I wanted, sweets and junk, for three weeks. And now I am so ready to get back to cleaner eating because it just takes yuck after so long. No longer good or like a treat. Just blech. You can tell from the gain below that I ate well, but honestly I haven’t let that get to me. I’ve continued my workouts, adding more strength training and now I’m ready to work on getting it off.

So for February – you guessed it. Back to the elimination diet, with one guilty thing added in. Coffee creamer. It truly is something I refuse to live without. So it’s back to eating like my normal me, choosing snacks that will keep me from overeating, remembering to stop eating after dinner. So many things and ways that I worked back into my life that I am so ready to cut back out. It was nice while I did it but out it goes. I am also ready to get my blog motivation back. Living in a house that isn’t yours, having tons of roommates makes it difficult to create or make recipes. They truly don’t care what I do in the kitchen, but I just feel crowded and like everyone is looking over my shoulder and making faces – even when they’ve watched me make cashew cream cheese a few times and tried it and liked it, but they still come in and make faces like it’s the grossest thing I could make. Frustrating and defeating. So my motivation has waned a lot. It also didn’t help that my weekends had focused on logging long treadmill time, so now that I am past the half I can get back in the kitchen. Which brings me to another thing – I need a new goal. Something that will give me purpose in the gym. I love strength training and bootcamp classes, and I love cardio and I loved how my body performed while training for the half, but now I need another focus. Another race? Focus on strength? The only bad thing about races – they are dang expensive!! The race itself, the flights or travel to it, the hotel, the touristy things while there – it all adds up!

Now for the important stuff:

Weight & Inches
Total: +3.8lbs, +2.5in

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