Better late than never: April 2013 Review.

Better late than never!

These past few weeks have been quite busy I must say, which is why this post is much later than usual, as well as the reason I haven't been posting much. Having exams and a move to a different city at the same time was crazy, to say the least. Most of everything else kind of stayed on the sidelines, including my April goals.

Let's start with food as usual, I stayed raw for the grand majority of the month, but with so many things changing, I did fall off the 100% raw wagon. I think that I made the right decision for me at the time, beign under a ton of stress, I needed to not have to worry about precise planning for food. That being said I did still stay very high raw, and I kept all my cooked food simple, with a few exceptions, mainly potatoes and rice with steamed vegetables. I am still having some cooked food at the moment, still getting a feel for the the city and getting my rotation and planning organized. I have plans to go back to 100% ASAP though, for that is where I feel at my best! 108 days ain't too shabby considering I had set myself up for 90 and my previous "record" had been 34. I am quite proud of myself, I must say.

Now for the less than great accomplishments, exercise-wise, it was mostly a flop. I did stay generally active, but otherwise didn't keep up with the training that I need to be doing. That is being remedied as we speak, more on that in my (late) May goals.

I have been getting much better with sleep! My days we're spent reading, packing, studying, writing exams and papers, so at the end of the day I was exhausted. Which helped with me keeping up a decent sleeping schedule through exams, so that I could perform at my best. It seems to have stuck too, right now I'm going to bed around 12 and waking up around 8.

Meditation I also kept up with pretty decently, I made sure to always be meditating when commuting and as study breaks. Towards the end of the month I was doing it much less, since deadlines and going away parties kept me constantly distracted.

The biggest fail this month was definitely my YouTube channel. I was silly to think that it would have feasible at that point, but it being something that I really want to accomplish, I thought I might be able to squeeze it in somewhere. Once we are all settled in here, I will have a better setup and no excuses not to.

Looks like I will be writing quite a bit this week though, with May goals ad having just setup up the beginnings of a balcony garden, I have tons to share!

As much as April wasn't my best month so far when looking at these posts, I think that I learned a lot though failing, which will help me out next time life gets hectic.

Keep it fruity!

April 2013 Goals.

Ahhh the start of a new month...

This monthly goals series is fast becoming one of my favorite ever blog ideas. It's keeping me consistent in not only setting goals, but also achieving them. So moving forwards and upwards is just that much easier!

This month, I want to set some higher and more intense goals, but not so much that I struggle a lot to achieve them. I need to find much more balance in my everyday life, while still making positive changes. This means that setting goals is a bit more difficult because it's requiring a bit more thought into the specifics of it all.

Starting with food as usual, I want to maintain what I've already achieved  while still keeping my attitude about cooked food that I've had in the past month, I have no expectations as to staying raw or not. I'm going to go with the flow and explore it a little. I also have some financial restrictions, since I'm moving at the end of the month to another city, I need to make sure that I can keep on budget this month. I still haven't 100% decided on a green juice feast, which I would want to do for 14 days. I think I might do a short one (3-4 days) this week to re-balance my digestion and then do a 14 day one when spring is truly here and the prices for produce has gone down around here.

This being said, with keeping in mind pushing myself to new levels, I am curious to see how long I can keep up with raw. The way I feel now is that it's become my new normal, even though I live in a cooked vegan household where I see and smell all the healthy cooked vegan foods I used to eat on a regular basis. While I've been tempted a few times, it hasn't been overwhelming to any degree.

Exercise time! Keeping in line with the goals I posted here, I've already started an 8 week 10k training plan, which has me running 3 times a week. Rock climbing has taken a backseat until after the move, so I'm going to be doing more body weight routines to round out my running schedule, concentrating on upper body strength  I also want to start the 100 squats a day challenge again, it was seriously awesome when I was doing it and now is the time to get back into it. This means working out at least 5 times a week and keeping up with it. I can't keep being wonky about this if I really want to get to a half-marathon and Tough Mudder in the fall. Water intake has been consistent enough that I'm happy with saying that I've accomplished it for now.

Sleep. That pesky thing. I'll definitely be striving to achieve the goal I set last month of a minimum of 8 hours a night. Earlier mornings would also be a good goal, since it always translates to me being more organized when I have more time to organize my day.

Spiritually, meditation is my biggest goal right now. I want to be meditating twice a day for at least 15 mins each time. I have had awesome experiences when I do this, even pushing it to 60 minute meditations on weekends. Having a clear mind is essential to moving forward towards your dreams. Yoga is also something that I've been struggling with, so I'm going to set a goal of 20 mins every other day at the minimum. I used to do that everyday on top of a much more strenuous workout routine, so this really should not be a problem. Bonus is that it will help with running!

I also think I need to seriously start working on starting a YouTube channel, I have it all set up, but I haven't uploaded any videos as of yet. This is something I've been wanting to do for far too long and just keep putting it off for too many reasons that just aren't valid. Fear is a powerful thing, and putting myself out there in that way is going to be my new goal towards getting over insecurities. This is a big step for me and I'll probably try a few test runs to see the way I want to set this up. I think just setting the goal of one video before the end of the month is a low end and trying for 2 or 3 is goal accomplished.

Blog wise, I want to talk about doing raw on the cheap, juice feasting, fitness regiment and meditation practice. I also want to finish up my anxiety post and get it published on here in the next few days.

Here comes April!! Have a fruitastic month everyone!