feb goals + v-week kickoff

a week late
yeah, i know — february is nearly 25% over already! however, since i’m headed back to work today after a 9-day hiatus, today feels like the right time for a clean + fresh start. plus, i did some soul-searching on vacation about a few things and i want to turn my thoughts into action.

✰ start tracking our spending. given that we just dropped some pretty significant change on our vacation, now seems like a good time to begin looking at our spending habits a little more closely. i’m armed with my excel template (see this post for details), but i have plenty of other options to consider (thanks to your suggestions!) if this method of tracking starts to seem cumbersome.

✰ work on embracing now, especially with regard to the TTC journey. when trying to conceive starts to involve things like medicines and ultrasounds and injections, it’s sort of hard NOT to obsess. yesterday, an invitation came in the mail for a wedding in september. i have to admit that whenever i receive such things, my first thought isn’t “yay! what will i get for the happy couple?” but “ooh . . . what i am going to wear?!”.

the fabulous study of shapes dress, $148
because i am ridiculous, my thoughts immediately turned to the dress above, despite the fact that it’s much more of a summer frock and not really wedding-y at all. but my immediate second thought was, “well, i hope i CAN’T wear anything like that — i had BETTER be pregnant by then!”.

but then i started thinking: well, what if i’m not? even with everything working perfectly, there is only a 20-25% chance each month of success (and then, of course, there are risks of miscarriage or complications to take into account). while we have been ‘trying’ for nearly 2 years, i’ve only been ovulating for a few months, so in a way, we’ve only just begun.

it struck me. . . if this does end up taking a long time, do i want to have spent that time just counting down the days or do i want to enjoy it? 7 months is a significant portion of my life! and i’ve mentioned this before, but of course there are positive things about being a (fairly) young and childless couple, and i need focus on these benefits more and CHILL OUT a little bit about the outcome of each cycle. no more countdowns; no more compulsive early testing (this is hard, trust me); no more obsessive “if/then” scenarios.

and in the end, maybe this shift in attitude will be of benefit. plus, i really don’t think anyone pregnant should be wearing these shoes:

heh heh, i could be 5’5 1/2 in these babies!
✰ shake up my workouts a little. don’t worry — i’m not going to up my mileage (at least not significantly). however, i’m feeling a little stagnant in the strength training department, and i think it might be fun to give some of the workouts from the new rules of lifting a try.

if it seems too intense, i’ll back off, but the earlier workouts don’t look TOO daunting, and of course i can control the weights i choose to lift and number of reps to do. i’ll let you know how it goes!

✰ work on finding focus + flow at work. i am determined to do better at this, starting today! i will elaborate more on how this is going in a later post.

vegan for a week
begins today! i’m actually really excited to be taking part in this weeklong event. again, while i have no plans to add any permanent limitations/restrictions to my diet, i do hope that the week inspires me to focus on a more plant-based diet overall.

of course, i began yesterday with my traditional meal-planning ritual! normally, i only plan dinners (lunch is sort of auto-pilot), but this time around i wrote out plans for lunches as well. other than that (and leaving out meat/dairy/eggs), i just wrote out my plan + shopping list as usual! you can see a full list of the meals i have planned for the week on the sidebar.

menu-planning tool extraordinaire
shopping list . . . business as usual
of note, this list does contain some non-vegan items which were used in last night’s dinner. i found so many great recipes in ED & BV and supernatural cooking (both of which i already had), plus additional tips and recipes on one of my favorite blogs, peas & thank you. mama pea’s recent meal plans provided some great ideas for breakfasts and snacks.

what about you?
several of you wrote to me that you are excited about this challenge, and some of you are already fully vegan or vegetarian! i’d love for those of you that are to represent in the comments — tell me what made you make the switch, and how it has changed your eating patterns.

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2.6.11

workout: 5 miles, somewhere between 9:30 – 9:45/mi. i did a slightly longer run but compensated by going really, really, slowly. it was still enjoyable. someday i’ll run fast again!

non-vegan: cincinnati chili for josh as a reward for not complaining TOO about the upcoming week of vegan fare, i agreed to make josh cincinnati chili for dinner in honor of the superbowl (although in retrospect, pitts-burgers or just a bowl of packers-inspired cheese would have been more apropos).

this cooking light recipe came together quickly
i really enjoyed the rich undertones from the semisweet chocolate added! and josh can enjoy living off of the leftovers as his only source of meat for the rest of the week. heh heh.