Healthy changes in 2016

The new year is a very exciting time. 2015 was amazing and I am hoping that 2016 will be even better. There are a lot of things going on this year and several changes that are very promising.

This year I want to try to be healthier. I normally cook low fat, low salt, but even then I still feel we could be doing more to be healthy individuals. We need in increase our intake of veggies and reduce intake of carbs. We also need to start some sort of workout or physical activity to stop being so sedentary. Of course Med School under NO circumstances aids in making this better. especially with planning the time to do everything. So for this new year I want to try and start this journey with hopes of making myself feel better inside and out.

1. Working out

I struggle with working out regularly especially if it is by myself. About 3 years ago I had a gym membership for a month bought out of groupon, and it included the classes they gave. After going to zumba and aerobic I was hesitant to try another class. Well I went for it and went to pilates a Wednesday at 6pm. I was incredible and I loved it even though my core hurt for over a week and coughing was torture. Well I went to about 2 more classes and then my membership expired.

I have since wanted to try pilates and was always uncertain about buying a video to do at home. Well for this christmas hubby got me pilates gear (shown below) among other cool things. I am actually looking forward to it and may do more of an effort to do it 2-3 times a week. Also my neighbor wants to work out and if we motivate each other we might actually achieve results. YAY

(I promise to do a review on these once I break them out next week!)

2. Organization

The other struggle comes with time constraints. My school is a bit different than other medical schools. The second semester of second year is compressed into 3.5 months and it is basically a living hell of exams, stress, and tears. So I have to work on designing a schedule in order to have enough time for everything I need to do, which MUST include working out and house chores.

I always try or start to organize myself and then I slack when the semester gears up. This can’t happen again especially when the time comes to study for the big scary USMLE Step 1. Studying for the Step is an intensive 8 week study mode following a strict schedule and I need to train for that. So hopefully I find the motivation and missing qualities I need to get it DONE.

3. Food

Well as I mentioned we want to and need to eat even better than we do. We really should eat more fish/seafood and more veggies. So we have talked about maybe doing one or two vegetarian recipes a month to start out and I really want to get this going. I also got Hubby this amazing book called The Food Lab and it has a ton or recipes and cooking tips to make perfect dishes. He is really excited (and so am I) to put it to the test and see how we can expand our cooking journey.

Since we moved into our new place in August I have been baking like a HUGE crazy housewife. I am serious, like cupcakes, cakes and cookies, the works. I love it and it is so relaxing. I think it relaxes me because it forces my mind to be 100% focused on the recipe instead of on school work, house work, or anything that is on my to do lists. So I also want to keep that going and keep experimenting and increasing my experience with baking. I might do some posts on the recipes I have already done (like 6 of them) with the pictures and everything.

Well that is pretty much what my goals for the new year are with regards to becoming healthy-er and making myself feel good about myself inside.

XOXO

-Jani