A wanna be health-nut.

Getting Healthy in 2012. This is the name of a group I helped organize at work. We meet together for lunch once a week to talk about what we’re doing to eat better, exercise more, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. We’re also challenging each other to complete four 5ks this year. I need this accountability.

Often I plan to cook a healthy dinner. I plan to exercise after Elijah goes to bed. I plan to walk at lunchtime. Then, we pick up Chick-fil-A, put on an episode of Modern Family, and I work through lunch the next day.

No more! Well… not much more. Let’s be realistic.

My tools for getting started:

• MyFitnessPal app via Android (or http://www.myfitnesspal.com/) I log everything I eat (including the 3-musketeers minis I picked up absent-mindedly, thinking: “I’m okay on my count. I can eat one. Or five. They are mini, after all.”)
• Cheetah Chariot Jogging Stroller/Bike Attachment. With all of this 5k talk, Michael and I decided it was time to break down and buy a quality jogging stroller so I couldn’t use “I don’t want to miss that time with Elijah” as an excuse any more. Then we saw the prices. Wow. Pay more for a decent stroller than we spend on 2+ months of groceries? No thank you. To Craig’s List we went. Even the used strollers made us cringe a little. Anything resembling a normal price was sold within hours of its posting. By sheer luck, Michael logged on right after “M” from southwest Houston posted a Chariot for a steal. 5 e-mails, 2 phone calls, and a 9pm trip to the South Post Randalls later, we have our stroller!
• Crock Pot. I’ve had a crock pot for almost 3 years now and have probably used it a total of 12 times. It scares me. “You mean, I leave it on all day and my house won’t burn down? That sounds wrong…” Before last week, I never actually left the house while using it which kind of defeats the purpose. I half expected to pull up to fire trucks when I arrived home around 6:00pm. Instead, I came home to the smell of pot roast. It was magical. The best part – I didn’t have an excuse to not cook dinner. It was already done! My goal is to make at least one crock pot meal a week.

Since writing this post a few weeks ago, we have actually completed our first 5k (in the rain, no less), I’ve made a few crock pot meals, and try to use myfitnesspal to keep track. I have not been as diligent as I wanted to be but we’re still going!