Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

What a year 2011 was, with lots of challenges, changes, and personal growth!  As stressful as this year has been, I feel like I've grown more this year than I have in a long time. I am exiting the year in a much better place than I was when it started.  I turned 40 in April, and as cliche as it sounds, it really has felt like "life begins at 40."  I don't know if that number really has an impact, though it's completely possible that on some subtle level it has, but I do know that I changed my path for the better in a lot of ways.  It definitely feels like it's the beginning of a new phase of my life.  I want to keep the momentum going into 2012, and so I've set some new goals for this year.  You can call them resolutions if you'd like, but I don't want to treat them the same way that most people treat their resolutions.  I want these to mean something.  I want them to continue to evolve and develop throughout the year.  They are not static goals that I drop in two weeks.  They are a road map for where I want to go in 2012.


A few highlights and lowlights in 2011:
- Jessica's injury + 3 surgeries, which were stressful and difficult but brought us closer together and gave us more perspective.
- Job changes and moving to 100% working from home.
- Becoming completely dissatisfied with my physical fitness and health and making a total change in how I eat (from junk-food vegan to healthy "nutritarian" vegan) and beginning a vigorous exercise regimen.
- Resolving some long-standing financial issues.
- Getting a new Kindle Fire!
- Changing my mindset to healthier one in many ways.
- Taking some initial steps with my partner Jessica to start Austin's first all-vegan grocery.  (Note: The store will be open this year!)
- A healthier year for all of our animals.
- Helping some with the upcoming Texas VegFest.


I'm not going to list all of my goals/resolutions here, but I will share one of my physical fitness goals for the year.  I've decided that I want to average 5 miles a day of running/walking/hiking/elliptical.  I'm allowing myself to carry over from one day to the next to average five miles per day, but I am only averaging over two days and have to do at least two miles every day.  Some examples:


Day 1 @ 8 miles + Day 2 @ 2 miles is acceptable.
Day 1 @ 3 miles + Day 2 @ 3 miles + Day 3 @ 9 miles is not acceptable, as this leaves me under the average for two days combined.
Day 1 @ 10 miles + Day 2 @ 0 miles is unacceptable, because I am supposed to do at least 2 miles every day.


Giving myself the flexibility to run or walk/hike or even use the elliptical machine for the mileage will allow me to avoid both excuses and injuries.  RunKeeper is my friend, as it has been since I started to use it in November.  If you'd like to add me to your RunKeeper Street Team and see my activity maps to see where I go when I run or walk, please feel free to do so:
http://runkeeper.com/user/vegandude/profile


Exercise Log (from memory + RunKeeper):
12/15:  TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Days 2 & 3)
12/16:  Walking (4.21 miles)
12/17:  TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Days 4 & 5)
12/18:  TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Day 6)
12/19:  Walking (3.17 miles) - sick
12/20:  0 - sick
12/21:  0 - sick
12/22:  Walking (3.08 miles)
12/23:  0
12/24:  0
12/25:  0
12/26:  Running group (1.95 miles) + drills @ TSD; TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Day 1)
12/27:  Running (3.0 miles)
12/28:  Running group (2.60 miles) + hill training drills @ 7th St; TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Days 2 & 3)
12/29: TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Day 4)
12/30: Hiking (3.17 miles); TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Day 5)
12/31: Hiking (6.07 miles)
01/01: Running (5.55 miles); TotalGym John Carleo 6-day training (Day 6)