Hello, strangers!

It's been ages since I've posted over here, but I am still alive...and trying to get back on track. Last quarter started out well in terms of exercise, but then the situation devolved in late-October around the time I got married. I did quit working out altogether--some weeks I did fairly well--but my eating habits never quite recovered.

So, like many of us, I'm working on getting back in gear as the new year starts to pick up speed. Today is the first day of our winter quarter, and I started it by getting up and going to the gym. My general exercise goal this quarter is to keep moving, no matter what. I want to make exercise a non-negotiable part of my daily life, even if it's not a huge amount of exercise. This is going to be a busy quarter--lots of research stuff going on and a conference coming up in addition to teaching responsibilities--so I'll be happy if I can look back on the quarter and see 10 weeks worth of steady exercise.

In terms of eating, I'm also making some changes. I read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma over break, and that's having an impact on what and how I eat. I'm already a vegetarian, so his description of mainstream factory farms only confirmed my choice to not eat meat. Interestingly, his book offered me both a rationale for eating meat again--organic, pasture-raised meat--if I were interested in that and a rationale for going vegan to avoid eggs and diary from factory farm raised chickens and cows. For now, though, I'm going to stick with lacto-ovo vegetarianism, but I am working on a) finding more ethical and sustainable eggs/dairy products and b) eliminating most processed foods from my diet.

What that means, basically, is that I'm buying more whole foods and cooking my own food from scratch. I'm hoping that I'll eat more healthy food in general as a result and that I'll save a little at the grocery store as well (although the premium I'll be paying for dairy and eggs will chip into what I'm saving by not buying as much processed food). To help make this goal more manageable as the quarter marches on, I'm looking for stuff that can freeze well; that way, I can make some fresh food on a regular basis, but then freeze some portions to have quick meals when I don't have time to cook.

Again, this is a busy quarter, so I have a relatively low bar for measuring success: I'll be happy if I don't end up, as I did at the end of last quarter, getting breakfast from the McD's drive-thru every day for a week because I was too busy/stressed to go grocery shopping. Or something equally horrifying.

So, that's my goal for the next ten weeks: don't let stress and busyness get in the way of regular exercise and healthy eating.