First and foremost, I want to do a mini recap of my “Setting goals for October” post since we have now entered November – time for new goals, or rather time to achieve the previous goals that were left behind act.

In case you’re like me and have a bad memory, here is a brief overview of my “Setting Goals for October” post.

October Goals Revisited:

• 45min to one hour of exercise or activity most days of the week (It doesn’t matter what -just get moving!) - I did on average 5 days of cardio, not all were 45 min, some were more and some were less so it’s safe to say it balanced out
• Wake up 30 min early a few days to do some cardio before work (I’ve done this before and it really helps keep your energy up throughout the day – it’s just getting out of bed that sucks!) - Truth be told, this happened only once. 
• Grocery shop on Saturday or Sunday to prepare foods for the week (so I can limit eating out.) - Could have done this each week, probably happened twice this month. I definitely ate out more than I wanted, but less than I have in the past!
• Try new recipes! - I give myself an A+ for this one.
• Stick to three meals a day (been on a snacking frenzy this past week and that needs to stop!) - I give myself a D- for this one… snack attack at its finest this month.
• Work on my self-discipline!!!! (Halloween is around the corner and that = candy overdose) - The best I can say here is – WIP (work in progress)

Here’s my calendar full of stickers

I would love to say that I accomplished all of those listed goals, but for the sake of making this an honest blog – I won’t. I also forgot to add that signing up for a race was another goal of mine and I actually signed up for two (thank-you-very-much.) What I didn’t say was that I’d actually run the race… guess the joke was on you! Just kidding My first 5k is this Saturday and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been training for exactly a month now and I think I’m ready to go for this one… it’s the 10k on Thanksgiving that I’m worried about because with my luck we’ll have a crazy snow storm. Crossing fingers.

Let’s focus on November and how to beat those winter blues by setting some goals – and sticking to them There are 23 days or a little over 3 weeks until Thanksgiving. That’s a perfect amount of time to start a workout routine/better eating habits and keep them going throughout the holiday season.

 Here are a few of my personal goals for the upcoming 3 weeks:

1. No sugar – It takes about a week and then you no longer have cravings, but you must do this cold turkey. (Sugar = anything that ends in -ose, white starches (because those are ultimately sugar,) and all sweets.
2. Continue my 5x a week exercise regimen with 3x a week running.
3. Drink 8-10 cups of water a day.
4. Complete my first 5k and 10k

Trick or treat? There definitely were a lot of “treats” – to the point where I don’t think I can have anymore chocolate for the rest of the month. In fact, that might be my personal challenge for the month of November (up until Thanksgiving of course.) Sugar Detox. Who’s with me? It’s gonna be rough, but it will be worth it!

Anyway, I absolutely love love Halloween. Partly because you get to act like a kid and look ridiculous and partly because of all the candy – obvi.

Costume fun: (Playing Card, Alice, Marge and Queen of Hearts)

Marge and Homer Simpson:

My Knight in shining armor

On the workout front, I did complete an hour and a half of cardio on Friday (to make up for not making my Wednesday cardio day) and my four mile run on Sunday – yay –  which was completely canceled out by the amount of BBQ food and Halloween candy I consumed. What can a girl do?!

After dinner plans tonight (because I do plan to indulge at this restaurant) I think I’ll be able to start full force tomorrow with my no sugar detox. I have the working out down, but it’s time to get a handle on my food escapades! I’ll think of tonight as “The Last Supper.” It better be a good one!

Happy Halloweenie

I couldn’t be happier that today is Friday and rest day! With this awful weather – and it’s only mid October, I find that it’s super easy to fall into a rut. It’s something about the combination of cold weather, over-sized sweaters and leave-room-for-more-food- stretchy leggings that cause this reaction. I mean, who wants to leave their house to go workout when it’s incredibly freezing outside? Or who doesn’t crave a salted caramel mocha or two during the day? If you ask me, I’d rather sit on my couch snuggled up in my fuzzy baby blue fleece robe and watch infinite reruns of ‘Sex and the City’  or ‘The Rachel Zoe Project,’ all while sipping on my deliciously sweet cup o’ Joe – and munching on popcorn, obvi!

This behavior, my friends, will create a downward spiral that – six pounds later- you’ll be wishing you didn’t start.  Especially since the holidays are nearly around the corner- which btw, it’s kinda annoying that Halloween hasn’t passed yet and there are Christmas commercials already (even though I really am looking forward to Christmas music!) Why is it that we are constantly looking forward to tomorrow instead of enjoying today? That’s probably too heavy of a topic to be discussing on a Friday. Moving on!

If you’re finding yourself entering this rut, I urge you to pinpoint exactly what’s causing you to feel this way. Is it drama? Is it boredom? Or, is it simply the cold weather? Whatever the reasons may be, they’re ultimately excuses. Excuses are what will keep you from reaching your personal goals! I totally didn’t want to do my two mile run yesterday, but I switched off that part of my brain and found myself driving to the gym anyway. It wasn’t easy and it felt like it was the longest run of my life, but it had to be done. Mission accomplished!

There are approximately two weeks left in the month of October. Are you going to finish the month with a list of excuses or a calendar full of stickers. You are in charge of your life, so don’t keep waiting until “tomorrow” to start exercising, start eating healthy or to start reaching your goals  - “yesterday you said tomorrow!”

On a lighter note, I’m really excited for my cousin Patricia’s birthday celebration – which may or may not include a couple drinks Have a fabulous weekend, darlings!!

Words of Wisdom:

Pumpkin Season

Fall is – by far- my favorite season of all and it’s right around the corner!  I can’t help but think of warm pumpkin spice lattes – thank you, Starbucks. Just about anything pumpkin, really. Everything – from the weather, to the color of the leaves, to the food, to the fashion – and dare not forget, HALLOWEEN!!! Fall – is - just – fabulous!

This fall, I want to set some goals for myself- but before I go into those, I want to talk more about fall and how we can make it the most fabulous one yet! I don’t know about you, but this Summer felt like one big BBQ. I love-love bbq’s, but my scale… not so much! The time is now. The time to kick into high gear because before you know it, it’s Thanksgiving dinner and you’re wearing sweats at your aunt’s house because you have muffin top in every other pair of pants that you own! T-N-O.

One of the dietary theories I learned about in school, was Ayuverda. According to Ayuverda, there are three seasons: Fall-Winter, Spring and Summer. So, the basic principle is to eat what’s in season. Sounds obvious, right? Well, it’s so incredibly easy now-a-days to do just the opposite. When you go into a grocery store, you will find products from all over the world and that’s why you see some fruits and vegetables available all year round. Let’s think about this logically. Why do we eat watermelon in the summer and not in the winter? You’re thinking – easy… because watermelon is cooling and refreshing, so it wouldn’t make sense to eat it in the winter when you want to stay warm. Well, you’re exactly right. (You guys are so brilliant)! That my friends is, essentially, all there is to it. Eat in season. Simple. Mother earth has created a system and every single fruit and vegetable grows in a specific season for a reason! (rhyme was not on purpose- cute though).

One of my goals- and should be yours too- this fall, is to eat more seasonal foods. Unprocessed, of course. Here is a site that lists the top ten autumn comfort foods (thanks for sharing, Renata) along with a brief nutritional description. This list is just the “comfort foods,” but there are other in-season veggies too, like one of my personal fav’s: squash! (I make squash fries all the time – slice, spice, and bake. done). Here is a link to a printable grocery list.

Below are the comfort foods listed out:

1. Apples (Green have the lowest GI)

2. Cranberries

3. Pumpkin (mix it into your oatmeal- quick and easy!)

4. Garlic (pick the right time and place for this one, peeps)

5. Ginger

6. Parsnips (Link takes you to a great parsnip fries recipe – from a blog I love)

7. Kale (Basic Kale chips recipe- amaze)

8. Sweet Potato (Make sweet potato fries- notice the fries theme)

9. Cinnamon (Amazing spice. Helps speed up metabolism too! Use in everything.)

10. Pepper

My next goal this fall, is to register for my first 5k race! That’s the other great thing about fall – there are so many races coming up (or maybe I’m just more aware of them now.) Fortunately for me, my fabulous friends agreed to join me, which makes it that much more fun and exciting! Plus, you’re giving back - always wonderful Now, I’ve been pretty active this summer because I do sit behind a computer for 8 hours, and it’s super easy to pack on the lbs, but in order to get into this whole race thing, I plan to kick up my workout routine to 6 days a week and adding more runs.  I know, I know… working out isn’t that pleasant for most people- including myself, but when you want something you need to work for it. Period. So do what you gotta do… brainwash yourself and go into – what my friend Lea likes to call- ”robo-mode” (it works.) Another great trick is positive reinforcement (thank you, my psychologist friend, Nina.) I put a sticker on my calendar for every day that I workout and it really helps! Try it if you don’t believe me

My ultimate goal is to run 3 miles in 30 minutes, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves now. I’ll be updating you all on my workouts and seasonal foods that I incorporate into my health kick this fall. Doing that also keeps me accountable because I can be quite the cheater – but at least I’m not quite the liar  My final “goal”, is to come up with a fantastic halloween costume!

What are some of your favorite fall foods? What do you plan to do this fall to kick into high gear? And most importantly, what are you going to be for halloween?!  Let me know!

PS: I didn’t forget about fall fashion. Lets be serious- that gets it’s own post!

*Vicky