Day 12: My pescetarien lifestyle is going very well and I’m not missing meat at all. Had a little hiccup on Friday, when I accidentally had a small piece of sausage at work. Had just made sausage pasta for the children and before I knew I had gotten myself a plate. Suddenly I remembered that I don’t eat meat, so I was quick to leave it alone. Quite funny, actually, and a lesson in how big of a role habit plays in our life. 

Other habits I’m trying to brake now are the snacking in the evenings. When I finally throw myself on the sofa after a long day, planning to watch a TV show or two before bed, I just seem to have to have something to snack on. Even when I’m not hungry. Habits are the road to failure; I think I remember reading somewhere. One trick I’m using is always drinking a large glass of water when I feel I want to eat something. It works, kind of.

My kilometres keep ticking in, getting closer to 2014km every day almost. The plan is to run three times a week and walk 1-2 times a week. Depending on the time I have to spend on this. The runs are the most important, and I will keep those days no matter what. Yesterday I went for a 5K run around my neighbourhood, and it was lovely. It was -5 degrees but no wind and very nice to run. 

The weather for the next weeks seems to be cold like that, and even colder. But I like to run in the cold. I have very good wool underwear and socks so I’m not cold at all. The air is so fresh and lovely in the frost and I just love it. As long as it is not too slippery it will be great to keep up the runs in this cold. I have two weeks to go before I start a 10K training plan I got from Runners World. I will use that plan for the run in Oslo on 26.april. I would really like to be able to go under 60 minutes on that run, but the plan is just to keep to the training program and work on endurance and strength. And hopefully some weight loss as well. So for the next two weeks, there are walks and slow/short runs 3-5 times a week. And I can’t wait :)

Day 3.

This fantastic year has started on a low for me. I’m down with the flu. Old school influenza. Fever, aches, sweat, headaches, sore throat and everything that comes with it. Not very cool. But my project is in full speed. By the end of this year, I will be a vegan. Even if only for a short time. This is a 12 month project, step by step project. So now I’ve started step one. From now on I am a Pescetarian. According to Buzzle.com, a Pescetarian is one who consumes anything that they wish to, but abstains from meat of all kinds except fish and in some cases, shellfish. They do consume dairy products, eggs and other food ingredients but they stay clear from animal meat. Some may not call this a vegetarian diet since fish is in fact considered a form of 'white meat', but definitions vary and thus the ideas behind each diet.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-vegetarians.html.

This first step will last for 3 months. I’m very excited about this project and feel more than ready to challenge myself. I’m not doing this as a diet, although I want to lose weight and have the goal of losing 14 kg this year. Hopefully that will be a by-product of my healthy living and conscious eating habits.

I and my running buddies have decided to run a half marathon in the Reykjavik marathon in August. So I’ve been working on running plans and exercise regimes for the next several months. Haven’t been able to start yet, the flu remember, but hopefully I will be back in full health after this coming weekend. I’ve registered myself for two interesting challenges, a 30 day strength training challenge and a 2014km in 2014 on Endomondo. So far I have 6 different runs I will be joining this year. The Sentrumsløbet here in Oslo in April (10km), iForm løbet (10km) also here in Oslo in May/June, Kvennahlaupið here in Oslo also in May/June (5-10km), Reykjavik marathon (21,1 km) in August, KK mila (10km) in Oslo in beginning of September and Oslo marathon (21,1 km) in late September. So I will be busy running, apparantely! Love it J

Plenty to do and not enough time to do it, I’m afraid. But I’m not stressing, I have adopted the 80/20 rule! There is no need to be perfect (then you don’t have anything to work towards!) so even if I only accomplish 80% of my goals and dreams, that is still fantastic. It is also fine to miss 20% of my exercises, or to eat 20% badly, but that is still a great improvement from doing nothing. Not that I’ve been doing nothing. But now I’m prioritising, and will use my time doing things I must do in order to get to where I want to go. It means I have to give up a couple of things I also love to do, but one cannot do everything so ...