Motivation Post Roundup + Looking Forward to 2014

Happy New Year!

I started off my day with a nice run with my family along the river (if you're familiar with the Boise, Idaho area, we ran along the Eagle section of the greenbelt, by Merrill Park). That section of the Boise river is so pretty, especially in the wintertime when everything is frosted over. Since I was running with other people, I went music-less, which I don't often do. I rarely go running without some kind of music playing in my ear. If I run without music in the neighborhoods, I tend to get bored, but boredom isn't really a problem when I'm running somewhere scenic and different than the usual. Going without music today turned out to be incredibly refreshing. For part of the run I actually ended up running separately from the rest of my family, and it felt amazing to just run through the chilly winter air, by myself amid the bare trees, and let my thoughts flow freely. I loved the time I ran with my family as well, but I really enjoyed the experience of running by myself too. It was a great way to start off the new year!

The beginning of the new year often gets a bad rap, and resolutions (particularly health and fitness ones) tend to be scoffed at. My personal take on it is that resolutions aren't bad, but unattainable ones are. If you set small, measurable goals for yourself, instead of setting out to completely change every aspect of your lifestyle at the same time, you're much more likely to be successful.

I've been off-and-on about making resolutions in the past, but this year I have come up with a couple health-related goals for myself. I made some other, non-health-related resolutions too, which you can check out here, but these are my health-related ones:

1. Run a half marathon. I am determined to finally do it! It's been something I've wanted to do for over a year, but injury and daylight savings has continually thwarted my efforts. I'm going to do my best to actually check this one off in 2014!

2. Eat at least 3 servings of vegetables per day. This one is going to be difficult, I'm not going to lie. I challenged myself to this for a three-month time period last year, and it was hard. I did find, though, that when I was working on that challenge, I ate a lot better overall, since fitting in those three servings left less room for the less-healthy food. Lately I've been eating a lot of processed food (things like protein bars and other granola bars) and I want to do better at eating more naturally. Protein bars are awesome, but I'd just like to eat things with smaller ingredient lists that haven't been processed quite as much. For me, setting a goal to eat at least three servings of veggies with help me avoid the unhealthy food and not eat as much of the healthier processed food. I'm going to do my best with this resolution, but I'm not going to freak out if I only eat one or two servings in a day occasionally.

I wish you all a very healthy and happy 2014! If your resolutions are health-related, here's a roundup of posts related to healthy lifestyle tips and motivation. Even if your goals aren't directly health-related, a lot of it still applies. If you are looking for some easy, healthy recipes to start off your year, check out the "Recipes" tab right below the blog header for a compiled list of my recipes. Enjoy!

Motivation Monday: Healthiness is a Journey
Choose to Live Actively
A Notebook and a Pen
Motivation Monday: You Sacrifice for What You Love
Motivation Monday: Just Because You're Not Sick, It Doesn't Mean You're Healthy
Eating Healthy On a Budget: 9 Tips
Motivation Monday: Getting Away From the Physical
Motivation Monday: Pinterest Motivation
Motivation Monday: Write a Mission Statement
Motivation Monday: General Tidbits About Embracing Life

What are your New Years resolutions?

A Couple of Everything Salads

Happy weekend, everyone!

The past few days have been nice and relaxing, but a little bittersweet at the same time. We went on a little getaway, which was lovely, but it's also the last weekend before school starts, so that's the bittersweet part.

On Thursday I drove with my family to Oregon for a little three-day camping trip. We camped at a spot near past Baker City, Oregon that my dad and his extended family used to camp at when he was growing up. Later that day his cousin and her family joined us, as well as another family we have known for a long time.

It was pretty much a normal camping trip with hiking, exploring, talking around the campfire, eating s'mores and other yummy food, and all that great outdoors-y stuff. On Friday I went for a little four-mile run along the dirt road next to our camp, which was great! I love switching up the scenery of my run once in a while. My neighborhood, the park by my house, and everything in the general vicinity of my house gets a little boring as far as running scenery goes.

After eating some pancakes and packing up our gear this morning, we headed back to Boise. Aaaand now summer is pretty much officially over. Sigh. It's been a good one! Even though I didn't really go very many places, it was nice to spend so much time with family and just chill.

For dinner this evening I opted for a couple "everything" salads. I'm not going to lie, delicious camping food got me once again, (although not as bad other times) so I was ready for some freshness. I pretty much just opened up my fridge, chopped up almost everything I saw, and threw it all together.

Veggie Everything Salad

Ingredients:
romaine lettuce
cucumber
cherry tomatoes
green bell pepper
carrots
mushroom

chickpeas
craisins
feta cheese
almond slivers
sunflower seeds
croutons
light Italian dressing

Fruit Everything Salad

Ingredients:
Pink Lady apple
orange
blueberries
strawberries
grapes
banana
vanilla yogurt

What are your favorite salad fixings?

What Happens When You Get Your Wisdom Teeth Pulled

So, this morning I got my four lovely wisdom teeth kindly pulled out of my mouth. Thank goodness for anesthetic!

Getting your wisdom teeth out happens about once in a lifetime, so I am YOLO-ing it up. My diet today consisted of mashed potatoes, tomato bacon soup, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, butterscotch pudding, blueberry frozen Greek yogurt, and maple and brown sugar instant oatmeal. What up.

Life happens, embrace the lapses into unhealthiness (as long as they don't occur too often), and don't freak out!

I'll be back with a normal, healthy post tomorrow!