Resolution Check-In - February 1

Well, I thought I would let you know each month how my New Year's Resolutions are going. After all, I did make some lofty goals so I thought it was only right of me to keep you updated as to how things are going.

Here are the goals (in black) and my updates (in red).

• No sweets. That's right - no chocolate, no Kit Kat bars, no cheesecake, no Pepsi, no Saucy Hot Fudge Pudding, no homemade Hot Fudge Sauce to smother my icecream, no slurpies, no homemade iced tea - get the point??!!

So far, so good. Actually, I have a confession. 2 of them. I did eat chocolate. Totally unintentionally. Honest! I made pancakes for the kids and put chocolate chips in them. I had them on the serving plate and the chocolate chips were on the underside. I started munching away on it when I realized I was eating chocolate. About 6 chocolate chips. I know, I know. I felt terrible. It has nothing to do with my will-power failing, just my brain going dumb for a moment. After all, I was the one who put the chocolate chips in them! I should have remembered. Confession #2. We went over to some dear people's house the other day for lunch (rarely happens that we get invited to someone's house for a meal). I took a sip of the juice without realizing there was 7-Up in it. I promptly gave the rest to my daughters and drank water for the rest of the day. My will-power is holding up just fine. It is tempting sometimes to eat the wonderful sweets I still make but I just grab some water and start cleaning instead. So, all is good!

• Run 500 miles. That sounds a little extreme, however, if you break it down, it is only 1.36986301369 miles per day or 9.61538461538 miles per week. Totally doable! Check out the running woman on the side to watch my progress.

If you have been checking out my little running woman, you will see that I am at 41.75 miles! I need to be running 1.369 miles per day to reach my goal so I should be at 43.835 miles by now. I am only 2.08 miles off my goal. That is fantastic. I started the month running 1.5 - 2 miles per day about 5 days per week at a speed of 4 mph. I know, I know, I can walk at that speed. However, I am now running 2 - 2.5 miles per day at 5 - 5.5 mph. That is what I love about a treadmill. It is so much easier to measure your progress. Ultimately, my goal is to run at 6 mph 3 miles per day.

• Lose weight! #1 and #2 should help with this. So will Jillian Michaels and Billy Blanks. One of the reasons I love being pregnant is because I don't worry about my weight. If I have a big tummy, it is for a reason. Now I have no excuse (and I don't consider 5 kids an excuse!!). So, by the time 2011 rolls around, I'd like you to see about 15 pounds less of me!

I have lost weight! About 3-5 pounds, depending when I weigh myself. I also bought a body fat/hydration scale but I am still figuring out how to get consistent results. Who knew that hydration levels could affect body fat levels so drastically??!! I still don't get the relationship. All I know is, I need to drink even more water than I already do, which is a tonne. See, this scale says that I am on the low level of hydration, and I drink a lot of water, and my husband is on the high end of hydration and he hardly ever drinks anything. I don't get it! Anyhow, yes, with all the running and no sweets, I have lost weight. I am seeing definition in my calves and by my hip bones. And I bought a pair of size 7 pants that actually fit me! I am soooo excited! All this work is paying off!

• Read through the entire Bible. I see this one as being the most difficult. I tend to get bogged down in Leviticus and Numbers. Something about all those lists. Okay, so if I get through most of the Bible, I will consider this done! After all, just watching the state of your physical being and ignoring the state of your spiritual being is pretty useless. Hell couldn't care less if you are thin.

Thanks to a Bible reading plan sent to me by a friend, I am keeping up with reading my Bible everyday. Some things I still don't get, like the entire book of Romans (something about the Romans class I took at college really gave me a dislike for this book. It just makes no sense to me. Having to dissect EVERY. SINGLE. VERSE. really killed it. I digress). Other than that, this is going well, too!

So, there you have it. I made it through January without any hot chocolate, the thing I miss most! Ice-cold fruit smoothies, though delicious, just don't give you that same cozy feeling on a bitterly cold winter evening! Only 11 more months and 458.25 miles to go!