I have a love/hate relationship with birthdays. I hate the fact that I am getting older, but I do like birthdays as for me they mark a new chapter in life. Throughout the year I do spend time jotting down goals and my birthday is one of those times when I take some time to think about what my hopes are for the next year by category:

Health

One of my main goals this year is to truly improve my knowledge of what types of food I put into my body. As I have gotten older I have started to think more about the types of food I eat and where the food is coming from. For the most part I eat healthy, but I know I could do better. Not saying there won’t be the odd junk food binges, but I feel it is time for me to become a more responsible eater. Over the last few months I have been making more of an effort to eat local and incorporate a lot of yummy greens into my diet & this weekend I signed up for a summer produce CSA from Culinarium. Starting in June, I will receive a share of fruits & veggies each week along with some suggested recipes. I’m so excited about this and thank you Mom & Dad for this bday gift!

One of the other health-related goals I have is to stop stressing out so much. I have this very nasty habit of worrying about a lot of things/people. This needs to stop.

Fitness

For me the fitness goals I have are really a continuation of what I have already been doing. I have been sticking to Pilates & some yoga along with my running…what I would really like to do is be able to maintain this level of activity and to also really have a strong Marine Corps Marathon this year. I had a good race last year, but I want this year’s race to be better. I also want to try out some new things like this and this.

Personal

The main personal goal I have for this year is to really focus on nurturing the relationships with the people in my life that I want to see more of. Personal time is so precious and I want to start being a little bit more selective of how it gets spent. Is that selfish of me?

Christmas 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa

After a 13 hour hour flight on this I have officially arrived at my destination. Definitely looking forward to a bit of sun and relaxation. I’ll still be trying to fit in some workouts while I’m here (swimming outside being one of them), but am also going to use the week to think about the coming year and what my fitness goals will be. I have a few new goals in mind and once I’m back in Toronto I’m going to get started on making them come true.