Checking on Goals from 2011 and New Goals for 2012

Happy New Year everyone!

I must say it was really weird to have spent 14 hours in 2012 before most of my friends and family joined me.  We spent a pretty low key night in.  I cooked us some dinner and we watched a movie.  We are not major partiers and sometimes it is just safer to stay in and off the roads.  Plus, it was cold as heck out there!

I wanted to check in with my 2011 goals that I posted last year here on Nutrition, Food, Travel and More, as well as set out my goals for 2012.  Let's see how I did.

2011 Goals

1) Physical activity at least 4 days a week:  Really, this is always my goal.  I set it somewhere that is doable but also easy to meet and exceed.  I would rather be proud of myself for going over my goal than beating myself up because I couldn't make it one week.  For the most part I was successful with this goal, however I will say that it was tough during the move.  It is not an easy task to move your whole life from Portugal to Japan, including 2 pets (which require a lot of work to get into Japan which is rabies free).  Therefore, and I could have told you this before the move, I was not able to get to the gym during this time, and while I could have walked more outside, I really was on a time crunch and just way off from any normal schedule.  Not an excuse, more of a reality and something I expected, anticipated and just dealt this.  In the past few months I have gotten back into this and have been doing 5 days a week consisting of 30 min cardio and weight training m,w,f and then 45 min cardio on tues/thurs.  For now, this is a good goal for me and will continue on into 2012.

2) Cook dinner at least 2 nights a week:  Another goal that I met for the most part, minus the time we were moving.  Not having an actual kitchen for a long period of time really makes this hard to keep up with.  Even once we got our apartment in Japan I was not able to cook because we had no pots and pans.  Once our things came I was glad to be able to cook more, but I did not get back into the 2 nights a week.  I am hoping Ryan is back to a more normal work schedule and I can start this up again.  This means that my cooking goal will continue into 2012.

3) Make more From Scratch Weekends creations:  I think we failed miserably at this, and the reason would be the same as #2 above.  Without pots and pans, nor a kitchen, from scratch meals were just not that possible.  But, I was anticipating that anyway and comfortable with not making as many as we would have liked.  We only did 8 from scratch meals, but that did include mayo, which is a tough one!  Our last From Scratch Meal was back in April.  The good news is that we both want to keep up with this one, so I will say that this goal will continue on into 2012, but I will not set a number of meals, just to aim for more than the 8 we did last year.

4) Clean out my closet:  I will say that I did get my closet and other things cleaned out, but only because there were somethings I just refused to move from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean over to the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  I even cleaned out some sweaters from my closet over winter break, so I am pleased to report, this was successful!  I am cleaned and organized for now, thankfully settled in to our place in Japan, so I will not make this a goal for 2012.

5) Tweet more nutrition tips: While I did change my Twitter name to @RDontheMove and wanted to get away from the personal posts into more professional posts, I found that long periods of time without easy access to Twitter (during the move of course...sorry if it sounds like a broken record, I am not trying to make this an excuse, but I can't deny that this interfered with my ability to do somethings) made it hard to post as often as I wanted and instead I stuck with retweeting all of the great RD posts that are out there.  But, at the same time I did get a lot of my own posts out there too and it was definitely an improvement over the previous year.  I now have a FB page for my nutrition practice in Japan and I have been posting a lot of good nutrition tips there, so I am glad I was able to get some info out there like I had planned.  This is definitely a goal I will continue within in 2012.

6) Graduate:  Check, check, and check again!  I graduated in June with a Master of Human Relations degree from The University of Oklahoma.  So what's the new goal for 2012?  Start a doctoral degree!

7) Research PhD programs:  I was successful here.  However, I found that with us moving to Japan, a traditional PhD program was probably not the right path for me given my short and long term goals and the fact that I would be living in Japan.  Instead, I applied to the Doctorate in Clinical Nutrition Program from The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.  The DCN program is a one of a kind program that is offered almost entirely online, has a clinical practice component, and is a clinically based (versus research based) doctoral program.  My long term goal is to teach nutrition and dietetics students and I feel that although this is not a PhD, I will still be able to reach my goal of educating future dietitians.  I would also like to run an internship, and I think a clinical based degree is very appropriate for that.  Not to mention, the course work really interests me (probably more so than a lot of the research based courses, although I find them interesting too, I just find the clinical learning more interesting).

8) Get started on a book: Good news!  While I did not write my book (yet), I did take a proposal writing course, and it has paid off.  I am almost finished writing my first major project, which is an app (check out Eat Well Global for more info), but still a writing project and was a lot like writing a book.  Also, I worked on a cookbook (The Muffin Tin Cookbook) as a contributor doing recipe analysis, which will be available for purchase soon.  So, I am technically PUBLISHED!  I definitely plan to keep with the writing in 2012 and get started on a book.

9) Read more books for fun: I didn't read as many books as I would have liked, but I did read a few.  The highlights were The Help and The Hunger Games trilogy.  This is one thing I would like to continue with in 2012, but with starting school I know this may be tough.

10) Continue with my travels around the world: Success!  I would say I did pretty well with my travel in 2011.  We went to Lisbon and Italy...and of course, we moved to Japan, which is pretty darn cool if I do say so myself.  Also, once I moved to Japan I turned right around and went to the US to San Diego and San Francisco, so that counts as travel also.  Oh, and for Thanksgiving we travelled to Tokyo, which was really cool.  This is definitely another that I will continue with in 2012.  I already have plans for a nutrition conference in Israel, my friends wedding in Spain, and another nutrition conference in Australia.  I love to travel so don't expect me to slow down on that just yet.  Expect to see a lot of posts in 2012 about my travels and the food experiences I have while on the road.

Ok, so let's see how things are shaping up for 2012.  So far on my list of goals:

1. Physical activity at least 4 days a week

2. Cook dinner at least 2 nights a week

3. Make more From Scratch Weekends creations

4. Tweet more nutrition tips

5. Get started on a writing a book

6. Read more books for fun

7. Continue with my travels around the world

Great, those are 7 awesome goals for 2012.  Now to finish these off and reach a total of 10.

8. Grow my private practice: This is a household business at the base where we live.  I offer 3 services right now and the goal is of course to help the families here be more healthy, starting with their dietary habits.  Don't forget to "like" me on Facebook.  I named my company In a Nutshell.  I thought it was pretty clever.

9. Learn Japanese: Since we will be here for a few years I really think this is important.  Even if I don't learn enough to be fluent, I do want to be able to communicate enough to get by and have an idea what is going on.  I have taken the survival Japanese that they offer on the base and that was a great start.  I am looking forward to more classes.

10. Update my blog: Look for more to come with my blog.  I think it is in need of some updating.  I love my background, but it makes me miss the island.  Not sure what direction this will take, but I do know that I want to make some updates and get some organization in place with this blog.  I know in 2012 I will have a lot of travel writing and I want this to focus not only on the sights, but also the food, and I don't want nutrition to fall off either, so organization is key.  My focus has always been food, nutrition and travel, and I hope to keep this.  I also plan to get my Thursday Thoughts segment back on track.

Well, there you have it (and now you can keep me to it!), my recap of 2011 and my goals for 2012.

QUESTIONS:  What are your goals for 2012?  Did you meet your goals for 2011?  How did you spend NYE?