why i don’t set goals + a recipe
Day 29 of the 30 day challenge is to talk about my goals for the next 30 days. Honestly, I don’t make short-term goals like that. I don’t work well with short-term goals. I have learned that short-term goals make me obsessive. They make me too rigid and too inflexible. I actually work better looking at the bigger picture. I have goals…we all goals…but my goals are broader and more about things I want to accomplish in the future, or things I want to do. By focusing on the bigger picture it is easier for me to not get stressed out if I am imperfect one day. I focus on Progress NOT Perfection. The goals I do make are usually personal and err on the side of personal growth. Goals I am not 100% comfortable sharing. My goals are very personal to me and I usually only share them with Keith and a handful of other friends whom I trust because they offer opinions, advice and support all free of judgement.
But if you are looking for some thing fun head over to my Project 52 page and look at some things I am doing this year. Project 52 came from my friend Allena and it is a list of 52 things to do this year. For every thing you fail to complete then you must donate $5 for each uncompleted task to your favorite charity at the end of the year. I thought this was such a fun idea because it is a win/win. You win for trying new things and if you for some reason don’t complete everything then your favorite charity wins too!
Are you a goal setter?
And because I haven’t posted a recipe in a while I want to go ahead and share one with you. This is my all time favorite salad recipe. I make this a lot over the summer because it is so fresh and light.
Southwest Confetti Salad from Cooking Light
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup fresh corn kernels
1 cup coarsely chopped zucchini
1 cup grated carrot
½ cup diced plum tomato
1/3 cup diced red bell pepper
¼ cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons diced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chili powder
¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, stirring well to combine. Cover and chill at least 1 hour before serving.
Yields: 6 (1 cup) servings
what i miss
First, I want to say thanks to everyone who commented yesterday, emailed me or sent me a FB message. It was all very encouraging and left with me a lot of hope. You guys rock!
Day 28 of the 30 day challenge is to talk about something I miss. This is a tough one because what I miss isn’t a thing. It is a time. It isn’t really any secret that I had a hard time turning 30. I won’t call it a mid-life crisis because I hope to live longer than the age of 60…but it wasn’t exactly my favorite birthday to date. It took me a while to figure out why 30 scared me so much. It represented things that I didn’t think I was ready for and it meant an end of an era. An era of childhood. An era that I miss.
I miss the fact that I will never be in high school again and go to prom, run in a track meet, scream at a pep rally, or sneak stolen kisses in-between class periods with my boyfriend. I miss the fact that I will never be in college again living in the dorm, discovering myself and tasting independence for the first time. I miss the fact that I will never be in my twenties again and experience my first adult job, my first date with Keith, our wedding and our honeymoon. I miss the times that have gone and gone too quickly.
I spent most of high school wanting to be in college and most of college ready to be in the real world. I always was wishing for the next stage. And now I find myself wishing to go back. What I wouldn’t give to go back and tell my younger self. I would tell her to stop and appreciate the here and now. Appreciate your youth, cherish your experiences, live in the moment and enjoy the financial freedom of relying on your parents. ha! I would tell myself that the future is always there but the past is always gone. So enjoy the moments. Stop thinking of when you’ll be happy and instead BE HAPPY right now with the moment.
i want to be a mom
Day 27 of the 30 day challenge is to talk about a problem that I have had. Well I guess I might as well talk about the current problem at hand. Keith and I are trying to get pregnant. That shouldn’t be a problem but for us it is. We are having a hard time. The trying part has been fun (ha) but knowing that something isn’t working correctly is hard. After some general blood work it was discovered that my thyroid is under active, my testosterone is low, progesterone is low and my estrogen is sky-high. All of these things are leading me to having sporadic periods and to my knowledge I am not ovulating. I have been referred to an endocrinologist who specializes in fertility. I have faith that she will be able to sort me out and get my body working like it should. I won’t allow myself to believe otherwise. I won’t. I can’t.
I have a lot of guilt associated with this. A lot. When Keith and I got married 5 years ago I wanted kids. I have always been so good with kids and I have always thought I would be a good mom. I always assumed that it would be. Keith and I got married and I started running local 5K’s around Austin. 5k’s turned to 10k’s and 10k’s turned to half marathons and then I started training for my marathon. You can read my running story here and how I became so obsessed. That obsession didn’t leave any time for a baby in my mind. Besides, I justified, we didn’t have to have kids right away. Eventually I gave up on the kids idea completely and decided I didn’t even want them. Keith was in shock! But he rolled with the punches and I think he secretly thought I would change my mind. And I did. I always wanted a baby and at some point I realized that I wanted that even more than running. I believe that all that running, obsessiveness and undereating lead my body down some paths it didn’t need to go. And now that I have a much healthier relationship with exercise and food my body seems to have been left with some scars. Therefore guilt. There is absolutely no way to know if I did this to my body or not. I was never regular with my cycles and went on the birth control pill when I was 19 years old. So this could have been a problem always lurking in the background that just went undiagnosed (the pill can hide a lot of things…hindsight is always 20/20) or it could have been damage I caused. Possibly a little bit of both. But whatever the issue is I feel guilty. Really guilty. Plus age is an issue. Not for me. I am only 30 but Keith is 41 and he feels like his time is cookin. I mean he doesn’t want to be an old Dad. (not that the man looks a day over 35 and is in amazing shape…for reals) But still. Guilt.
So where do we go from here? I meet with the endocrinologist, run more tests, do what she says, keep trying, and think positive thoughts. That’s all I can do and I won’t allow myself to think of the alternative.
attraction
Day 26 of the 30 day challenge is to talk about the kind of person that attracts me. This is a fun question! I think as I have gotten older I have realized that I care a lot less about physical attraction and more about a mental attraction. Now don’t get me wrong there HAS to be a physical connection for anything to spark but I guess I am just a lot less superficial than I used to be. I happen to think my husband is HOT but I think his most attractive qualities are they way he treats other people, how sweet he is, how selfless he is and how forgiving he can be. All of those things are not things you can see but rather things I have learned and experienced.
What attracts you?
What Kelly Said 