I've been thinking about it a lot because I got an email a couple of days ago from the website I used to book the hostel I stayed at in Vienna last year stating that it had been one year since I booked that trip. I cannot believe it's been that long. I think I was imagining things would be a lot different now than they were when I booked that trip, but I can't say I'm dissatisfied with where things are now and I still have a full month and then some before I have to analyze the past year. I'll stop this rambling introduction now and get to the point. :)
I have made so many little changes since starting this blog that I can't believe I would ever do (and a few big ones too). I gave up soda which is absolutely huge - and it was very, very difficult at first. I stuck to it though and can proudly say that I have not had a single carbonated beverage in almost a year. I was looking at a recipe last night that required root beer (it was a quick and easy pulled pork crockpot recipe) and I skipped over it because I don't want to have any soda in the house. It may seem crazy to some, but for me this is all or nothing. I won't eat (drink?) root beer floats (as much as I would love one!), nor will I drink any alcoholic beverage that has soda in it (thank goodness tequila sunrises are soda free!!). I think that it's something a lot of people have tried doing or would like to do but just don't think they can - it is very, very, very difficult at first. You have to remember that for the first 4 months after I gave up soda, I was working in a mall with coworkers who would go get soda multiple times a day. It was so tempting to say, "You know what? I didn't get enough sleep last night and is it really going to hurt to drink one cup of soda?" But I never did. I stuck to it and I refused every time and every time it got a little easier to say, "No thanks. I'll just have water." The added advantage to this is a concept many people aren't familiar with: caffeine does exactly what it's supposed to do for me when I do drink it (usually in tea, or every once in awhile from a Rooster Booster). I had a 16-oz thing of tea one night at 8:00 and I was awake until 4 in the morning. I learned very quickly that I need to cut off all caffeine intake at about 2 in the afternoon if I don't want to be up all night. The other advantage is that every calorie that I take in comes from food (the only exception being the glass or 2 of milk that I drink each day). Soda has so many calories - it's amazing how much weight you DON'T gain when you don't drink it. Even calorie-free diet soda is absolutely terrible for you because of the crap that it puts in your body. Aspartame? No thanks.
A couple of weeks after I started my new(ish) job a few months ago, I decided I would never take the elevator. There are several people I work with that take the elevator to the second floor. I usually race them to see who gets upstairs first and I am proud to say I have never lost. This wouldn't be a big deal if I only ever walked up to the second floor from the first, but I don't. There was one day when all of the fax machines were out of commission except for the one in the legal department on the fourth floor. I didn't know this so I walked up to the third floor to try theirs then to the first floor when that didn't work only to find out there wasn't one in reception then all the way up to the fourth floor and back down to my office on the second. I felt like I went to Duchesne again! That's not a typical scenario, but refusing to take the elevator is a mini victory that I'm proud of. We are moving to a new office next week and my goal is to always take the stairs even though we will be on the fourth floor. My thought though, is that I did it every day in high school (basement to third floor for advisory) and I would like to be in better shape than I was then. Hopefully I stick to this, too!
My final little (or big!) step that I've taken is that I have started running. I stopped for awhile but I've gone back to it and I love it. I don't think I love running so much as I love knowing that any limit I thought I had has gone out the window. I don't think there's anything I've ever done that I've pushed myself as hard to keep going as when I'm running. Even when I feel like I've got nothing else, I've continued to run for another 5 or 8 minutes (not continuously, but I'm getting there). I was really freaked out because I'm doing the Couch to 5K thing and week four, the plan is: 5 minute warm-up walk, 3 minute run, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute run, 2.5 minute walk, 3 minute run, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute run, 2.5 minute walk, 5 minute cool-down walk. I know it seems a little sad, but I was freaked out to run 5 minutes. I did not think I could do it at all and was pretty sure I would collapse halfway through this workout. Every time I thought I wouldn't make it, however, I just thought about this picture (stolen from one of my Facebook friends who was using it as a profile picture):
For some reason, this picture is ridiculously motivating. Every time I think about it, I feel like I could run a mile and still feel great. That might speak to the terrible shape that I'm in that I just want to be able to run a mile without feeling god-awful, but I have come so far (when I started, alternating running a minute and walking a minute for twenty minutes made me feel like I was going to die) that I don't even mind.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on where I am now. I'll hopefully have another post up soon regarding German, but I will at the very least post something for my one-year blogiversary.
Tschüss!
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