Spring Cleaning

I've been inspired by yesterday's gorgeous spring day.  The weather today isn't so great - grey, cloudy and crazy rainy - but I've had a taste of spring and I'm all over it now!

So what do a lot of people do when it's this time of year?  Spring clean, right?  I'm going to put a bit of  twist on this though and do some spring cleaning....of myself.  To kick things off for the half marathon and the next marathon training cycle, I'm going to work on my eating and a few other things to start off on the right foot.  I admit...I haven't been really mindful of what I'm eating, and I'm starting to snack a LOT on processed carbs again (hello, yummy crackers)...mindless eating and snacking are my total and absolute downfall.  I've been getting really lackadaisical and dairy is starting to creep itself back into my life, and so are eggs.  I've been sporadic in taking my supplements and vitamins.  I'm sneaking in the occasional artificial sweetener too, which is something I'd cut out completely from my diet (that was really, really hard to do).  I'm definitely not eating enough veggies lately, especially over the last month....and I'm not watching my portion sizes.

How am I feeling?  I don't feel terrible, but I know I could feel so much better.  I've been having a lot of headaches lately and definitely more tired and puffier, especially in my face and hands.  I'm feeling loafy and my mind is fuzzy.  I've been feeling kinda irritable lately too, and normally I'm not really like that.  So they say it takes 21 days to form a new habit, right?  I'm giving myself 30 days to finish what I'm calling my Spring Clean Challenge.  As always, I'm posting this on the interwebz so I can keep myself accountable.  While I've been slacking in some regards, I haven't been all bad and there's a few things I'm totally rocking...I work out at least five days per week and am really happy with how my running is progressing.  I menu plan and make all our meals from scratch and only eat out once a week, on our off days.  I'm faithfully doing all my exercises that my physio has prescribed, and I've been running pain-free for weeks.  I drink at least 2L of water every day.  I've cut back a lot on my sugar intake, and haven't gone crazy on sweets since I did the Ten Pound Challenge.  So all is not lost!  I don't completely suck.

As you guys know, I'm a goal oriented kinda person and this is essentially a re-hash of one of my new year's resolutions that I've realized I needed to buck up on.  Eat mindfully was the resolution, but I wanted to define that better so have decided on the following mini-goals for the next 30 days:

1. No snacking after dinner - if I'm absolutely starving and have to eat something, it has to be things with whole ingredients that I can pronounce
2. Reduce dairy and egg intake - once per week, if at all
3. Must have some sort of vegetable at lunch and dinner
4. Watch portion sizes - palm of hand/fist rule for serving sizes
5. Take all my supplements and vitamins
6. Cut out artificial sweeteners

I wanted to keep the list small, so I don't drive myself crazy trying to keep track of a zillion things.  This isn't about being perfect, but about checking in and pulling up my socks when needed.  And I'm allowing myself one reasonable off day per week, as long as I still keep within those guidelines.  So here I go...I'm buckling down, putting pedal to the metal and cleaning up my act.  Woohoo!