Generally, I don’t make New Years resolutions. I like to set goals for myself throughout the year, and I’d like to think this blog keeps me pretty accountable for those goals.
The cool thing about having a blog is that even if I don’t make a resolution, I have historically wrote some kind of symbolic entry around the New Year. Take this post from 2011, for instance, which I wrote just weeks before I landed an internship in a state senator’s office. And there’s last year’s sappy post about how I love my boyfriend and stuff, ha.
This year, I’m in the midst of participating in Elf for Health, which has set daily challenges for the holiday season. I admit I haven’t been participating 100%, but today’s challenge is to Set a New Fitness Goal.
Well Elf for Health, I’m going to one-up you. I have a couple of fitness goals, but something I’ve also wanted to do for a long time is make a Cooking Bucket List. Inspired by Emily’s Food Bucket List, I made a list of things I’ve always wanted to cook from scratch. She and I even have a few in common 🙂
Fitness Goals
- Run a 5K race
- Start weight training again (and eat more protein!)
- Be able to do a 2 minute plank and 2 minute leg lifts
- Run 25 miles in a month (several times if possible)
The biggest goal is to run the 5K race. I have run 3+ miles a good handful of times, and I have all but signed up for 5K races several times before…but I never actually registered. I have already ran 25 miles in a month before, but not since I broke my hand in June.
Cooking Bucket List
- Chicken Tikka Masala
- French Onion Soup
- Cheese (Ricotta and Mozzarella)
- Homemade pasta and/or ravioli
- Crackers
- Breakfast Quinoa
- Roasted Chickpeas
- Macaroni & Cheese
- Use cauliflower as an alternative for potatoes (like here, here or here)
- Bagels (preferably with some kind of cheese broiled on top!)
- Donuts
- Arroz con Pollo
- Traditional Lasagna (I’ve only made a vegetable one, with zucchini/eggplant “noodles”)
- My Great Grandma Rose’s famous New York Coffee Cake
- Beer
I’ve already got a head start on that last one! I bought T-Man a beer brewing kit for his birthday and we decided New Years Day was as good a time as any to get started.
(Drinking beer while we make beer…typical)
It was a pretty long process (it took us about 3-4 hours including set up/sterilization) but hopefully it turns out! It’s bubbling away in a box in T-Man’s closet as we speak. Hopefully in about a month we’ll have a delicious IPA. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it 🙂
Tomorrow’s Elf for Health challenge is to eat 3 food groups at every meal. I’m having (very minor) surgery early in the morning to get a mole removed from my scalp, so I’m not sure how I’ll get in 3 food groups while that is all going down…but lunch and dinner should be no sweat! On Friday the challenge is to run a mile the fastest you can…I’m aiming for 8 minutes (my all time best is something like 7:50) but we’ll see how it goes!
Hope everyone had a happy new year!
