Checking in on My 2012 Goals and New Goals for 2013!

Here we are at the very last day 2012, about to enter 2013, so I thought I would go back and take a look at my goals from last year at this time and see how things went for me.  This year had some unexpected twists and turns (deployments and trainings) that threw a wrench into some of these goals, but as a military spouse, I expect that.  You just can't plan for it! 

1. Physical Activity at least 4 days a week- I would say that I reached this goal at about 75% for the year.  I was on the road traveling for 10 weeks total of the year and did not make it to a gym during that time.  Instead, I stayed active by walking a lot during my travels.  Most days I was walking a few miles, maybe even 5+ in some locations.  In Australia I even went hiking one day to maintain an active lifestyle.  While Ryan was deployed I was in the gym at least 4 days a week, but since he came home I have only been going 2-3 times.  I also nearly doubled my work schedule at WIC (temporarily) so that make it hard to get everything done for my other jobs and school, with limited time for sleep.  After Ryan came home I decided that a bigger priority was spending time with him (can you blame me, he spent a few months in Afghanistan!).  However, things are getting back to normal around here and I plan to get back into this for 2013.  I will be going back to my normal 20 hours a week at WIC and then will have more time to fit in my workouts (more than just walking the dog).

2. Cook dinner at least 2 nights a week- This went really well for the first part of the year.  Then the travel started.  Without a kitchen for around 10 weeks of the year, this was not possible!  When Ryan was deployed I cooked, but not "real" cooking.  I may have made some pasta and heated up some frozen veggies to add to it, but rarely did I cook anything from a recipe during that time.  Some nights I would cook and share with my neighbor, but for the most part, I just tossed together some things and called it dinner.

3. Make more From Scratch Weekends creations- Nope, not even close!  We talked about it, but apparently that was all talk.  I think in 2013 we need to bring back our From Scratch Weekends.

4. Tweet more nutrition tips- Initially I was into this, but as time became limited and I was working more hours, something had to take a back seat.  Twitter was it.  But, I am still out there on Twitter and hope to connect more with you there.  If you aren't following me, make sure to start now! I'm @RDontheMove.

5. Get started on a writing a book- This was definitely a success.  Not only did I start writing a book, I finished it.  And it is for sale already!!!  If you haven't seen it, it is called Train Your Brain to Get Thin.  It is available in stores and online.  After the new year, I will be giving away another copy on my blog.

6. Read more books for fun- Yes and no on this one.  I actually read more books this year than the previous, but it was still not what I was hoping for.  Maybe because I started a doctoral program and had to devote a lot of time to academic reading.  Good thing I find that material very interesting!

7. Continue with my travels around the world- Major success for this.  I spent about 10 weeks total away from home.  It started in February when we went to Sapporo for the Snow Festival.  Then in May/June I spent 5 weeks traveling in Israel (I actually went twice during these 5 weeks), Spain (I even attended a friends wedding in Spain), France (twice! and even took a cooking class while there), Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary.  When I came back, Ryan and I spent 1 week in Tokyo.  A few weeks later I was off to Australia for 3 weeks!  I would say that I did a fine job traveling the world in 2012.

8. Grow my private practice- There was an unexpected bump here, but this turned out to be a good thing.  Once I started at WIC I was pretty much unable to see private clients because of the potential for conflict of interest.  Instead I sell my book through this company and donate nutrition services when auctions come up.  I am available for consult, but I am not actively advertising this.  Plus, I post tips on FB on my company page.  Don't forget to "like" me on Facebook. 

9. Learn Japanese- I took all of the free classes offered on base and wanted to start with the classes at a local community center, however my travel schedule prohibited me from started.  Maybe in 2013, but I can't make any promises.  I think instead I will work on self learning using my books at home.

 

10. Update my blog- I had intentions of updating my blog, but my go-to person had a baby (technically that would be his wife) and that made him a little tied and I just never came back to the idea.  But, looking over things again, I think this is something I am interested in for 2013.  I think it will get me back on track with my own blogging.  That got away from me when I was lacking material without my husband around.  I was working on a book and spending a lot of time doing "boring" things.  I just didn't have anything to post and limited time for writing outside of my "jobs".  Now with my work schedule changing and having my husband back in Japan, I think I will have a lot more to blog about!

So it looks like I was partially successful in 2012.  The good news is that while some planned goals did not pan out, I had many unexpected good things pop up and this meant I had an amazing 2012.  For me, I think I was very successful overall.  I started a doctoral degree, started guest blogging on 2 RD websites, wrote a book, submitted my first paper to a journal (still waiting to hear, so fingers crossed!), continued with my volunteer activities in dietetics and as a military spouse, and I got a job on base with WIC (on base, good paying jobs in your field are hard to come by on overseas bases).  I would say I had a pretty amazing 2012 and I look forward to seeing what 2013 holds for me.

Here are my goals for 2013:

1. Physical Activity at least 4 days a week

2. Cook Dinner at least 2 days a week

3. Make more From Scratch Weekends Creations

4. Create more of an @RDontheMove presence on Twitter

5. Continue with my world travels

6. Continue learning Japanese

7. Promote myself as a Nutrition Expert (through guest blogging, my own blog and my FB page)

8. Update my blog

9. Get published in a professional journal 

10. Continue working on my doctoral degree

Well, there you have it (and now you can keep me to it!), my recap of 2012 and my goals for 2013.  Some may seem boring or seem like things I should be doing and don't need to really set as my goal (like continuing with school), but some of these are difficult to maintain so I like to keep them as goals written down on paper.  This will help me stay on track and remember what was important to me at the beginning of the year.  I prefer goals to resolutions.  I have never liked that word.  I feel like goals better meet my needs.  They are fluid, they are dynamic, they are lead to smaller milestones I can set and reach easily throughout the year.  They are not these lofty resolutions that loom over my head and I beat myself up over when I don't stick with them after the first few weeks of the new year.  Some aren't meant to be achieved in January.  I have all year to work on these goals.  Rather than resolving to do something, I am determined to better myself by achieving these goals...the goals that are what I want, not what society things should be my resolutions for the year.  So that is where I am with looking back on last year and forward to the next.  How about you?

QUESTIONS:  What are your goals for 2013?  Did you meet your goals for 2012?  How will you spend NYE?

Getting Back to Home Cooked Meals

One or my goals for the year was to keep up with cooking dinner twice a week.  Needless to say with 5 weeks of travel and Ryan gone for 6 weeks before that, this goal has taken a back seat.  Now that I am back home and Ryan is here, I felt ready to recommit to this goal.  Ok, I'll admit, or rather confess, I know this goal will not be met for all weeks left in the year because I still have 4 more weeks of travel planned in 2012.  However, I can say that for the weeks when we are both home, I will be working very hard at cooking dinner for us twice weekly.

When I first made this a goal it was because I wanted to make sure I had the skills down prepare nutritious home cooked meals even with my very busy schedule.  This is important to me because when we do start a family I want to be able to provide meals for my whole family that doesn't rely on convenience or fast foods (we don't really do a lot of fast food, but we do eat out often, especially living overseas).  Being realistic, I set my goal at 2 nights each week.  This doesn't mean we don't cook at home more often, just that 2 nights during the week I take care of the meal planning, prep and cooking myself.  Other times Ryan and I cook together, or he may cook the meal himself.

To kick this "back to home cooked meals" adventure off, I looked to my new Pampered Chef goodies, which were delivered when I returned home from Europe.

There are tons of great recipes in this cookbook, so I was more than happy to pick one and give it a try. My choice? Chickpea and vegetable curry!

I made sure to select something that I knew would require me to use my new chopper.  I'll admit to trying the Slap Chop, but not surprisingly, it didn't work that well.  This one from Pampered Chef is absolutely amazing.

Within seconds I had finely chopped onions.

Olive oil?  No problem!  I brought 2 bottles of good quality olive oil home with me and I was ready to use it.  This one was actually free from the conference expo.

The recipe called for 3 cans of chickpeas, but I knew this was way more than we needed for 2 people, so I used 2 cans and figured we could have leftovers.

The recipe called for lite coconut milk.  Well the commissary didn't have that, so I improvised and used 1 can instead of the 2 the recipe called for, and then I added a little water.

Yum!  Curry powder...check! To this I added cauliflower and peas.  The recipe also called for a sweet potato but somehow this was not written on my list and so I didn't get one at the store.  It's ok because this turned out perfectly without it.

I made basmati rice in the rice cooker to serve with my curry.

Perfect!  This was so good that we immediately placed this on the list of things that we need to make again.  Plus, it made amazing lunches for the rest of the week.

The very next day I decided to experiment with a recipe I had been thinking about for a few months.  I wanted to make sure we were both home when I made this.  I wanted to try the basic black bottom recipe, but swap out the chocolate chips and replace with cherry pie filling.  I was glad to find that the commissary carries a reduced calorie pie filling product.

Never heard of a black bottom?  It's a chocolate cupcake bottom with a chocolate chip cheesecake on top.  So my variation was to make a chocolate cherry cheesecake cupcake.

First up I made the cream cheese filling.

Then I worked on my chocolate cupcake base.

The chocolate goes in first, and then I added the cream cheese.

Then I dropped in a little pie filling and baked according to the recipe for black bottoms.

Oh wow!  Ok, a little messy.  I may have overfilled them just a little.

Looks good to me.

For the next batch I tried another method to avoid a big mess.  I placed the pie filling inside and then the cream cheese on top.  

This batch I sent to work with Ryan.  I also feel good about feeding our troops!  Anytime I have too much food, I know I can send it to work with Ryan and the guys (and girls) will eat it all.  Nothing goes to waste this way.

Later that week I made something from this wonderful cookbook.  Look closely if you haven't seen this before on my blog.

I am a fan of the built in portion control with using the muffin tins to create each of these recipes.  I picked the salmon cups with a yogurt dill sauce.  To up the fiber, I subbed in brown rice.

The first step was to cook the rice with zucchini.

Then I added in the salmon coated in greek yogurt with dill.

They continued to bake according to the directions, and before I knew it these salmon cups were ready to be enjoyed.  Yum!

By the time the next week rolled around I realized I had some left over zucchinis, but no real plan for them and they were going to go bad.  Solution: Chocolate zucchini bread.

I had all the ingredients necessary, so I got started.

Looks like a nice batter.

After this was mixed up it was time to get the zucchini ready and add it to the batter.

Needless to say this recipe made 2 loaves, so I knew this was going to be too much for just me and Ryan to enjoy.  

Solution:  I sent one to work with Ryan.  They loved it!  I was so glad to know that both the cupcakes and the zucchini bread were hits with Ryan's coworkers.  Not to mention this was also a huge hit in our own home.  This was the first time Ryan had tried chocolate zucchini bread, and he said it was great.  I guess I'll be making this again too.

Afterwards it was time for me to get started on cooking another meal.  I have a stack of Cooking Light magazines piling up, so I knew I needed to start making some of these recipes too.  This picture on the cover did the trick and I knew that tacos were in order.

I went with the Cumin Tilapia Tacos.  I had bought the whole cumin seeds that this recipe called for, but then changed my mind because I wasn't able to grind them in a coffee grinder.  So plan B was to use powdered cumin.  Only problem was that when I went to pull it out of the cabinet it was no where to be found.  Plan C? I toasted the whole seeds as the recipe called for, and then went old school and ground the seeds myself using a mortar and pestle.  Let me tell you this was not the easiest thing to do, but in time, I ground up the toasted seeds.

The spice blend was mixed with garlic and then rubbed on the fish.

In the meantime I worked to prep a mango salsa to top the tacos.

I am not a fan of cilantro, so I passed on this.  I know Ryan would have liked it, but I have some allergies to herbs and therefore I am just not a fan.  But the mango and red onion with lime juice worked well anyway.

Before I knew it the fish was ready.  It smelled so wonderful.  I am a huge fan of cumin.

The final touch was slicing some avocado.

All I can say is WOW!  Ryan and I both really enjoyed these.  Yes, this is added to the "make again" pile.  They were so good.  I actually was surprised by how well these turned out.

QUESTIONS:  How often do you plan and cook dinner each week?  Where do you get your meal ideas?  Do you send food to work with your significant other to share with coworkers?

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?

My Goals for 2011

Some of these may be repeats from last year that I want to continue and others are new.  As I have said before I prefer to set goals, and then re-evaluate throughout the year and makes changes in those goals if needed.  Overall, this will be a pretty exciting year because we know that in the summer our 2 years in the Azores will be up and a new adventure will await us then somewhere else.

Here are my goals, in no particular order:

1) Physical activity at least 4 days a week:  This was a goal last year, I believe set at 30 minutes a day, 4 days a week.  I managed for most weeks to get in 5 days a week at 1-1 1/2 hours at the gym.  With trips and travel, this physical activity was something outdoors rather than at a gym.  I made sure to word my goal this way so I would feel like I did not accomplish it when I had no access to a gym.  So, for the upcoming year I plan to modify this a little bit.  I plan to do some form of exercise/physical activity, at least 4 days a week, with 2 of those days at least 30 minutes and 2 of those days at least 45 minutes.  Plus out of those 4 days, at least 3 will involve some form of cardio and 3 will involve some form of strength training.  I know that I already do more than this, but I like having some wiggle room to account for lack of gym and travel, or appointments during the work day that make it tough to get to the gym.  I'd rather exceed my goal than not make it at all.

2) Cook dinner at least 2 nights a week:  This was a more recent goal of mine and I have been successful.  I plan to continue cooking dinner 2 times a week.  This cooking means a homemade meal.  Notice I did not say prepare dinner twice a week.  To me, that would include heating up a frozen dinner or a can of soup, which is OK some of the time, but I am really looking to do more home cooking.  These past few months I have been successful in finding fun vegetarian recipes and then cooking for us. Since Ryan bought me all those great kitchen gadgets and cookbooks for Hanukkah, I am ready to go!  Again, with travel at some point during the during, plus knowing we will move in the summer, I know that there will be some weeks where this is just not possible.

3) Make more From Scratch Weekends creations:  Last year I aimed for 40 meals, which was just a tad to high.  There were things I could not account for, but I am wiser this year.  I think I will aim for 30 from scratch meals or snacks.  I am not willing to bet on making it higher than that because when we move our things will be packed up a month in advance and we will not get them again for maybe a month after we moved.  Or at least that is what I predict based on the move to the Azores almost 2 years ago.  This makes it extremely difficult to cook at home, especially when some of that time we are in hotels and don't even have much of a kitchen.  Despite all of this, I hope to make some really great dishes with Ryan this coming year.

4) Clean out my closet:  Can you believe that even with half my stuff in storage, I still have things here that I can get rid of?  That's right, when we PCS'd (that's Permanent Change of Station) to the Azores we had restricted weight and so some stuff had to be left behind.  After 2 years, when we PCS again this summer, those things will meet up with us again and I have a feeling I will have plenty to donate or sell at a yard sale.  Knowing that we will move, I want to clean out my closet before the packing begins.  At least with the military, they pack for you so it is a little easier.  I plan to get rid of things that no longer fit, either too big or too small, and things that are just out of style.  Donation here is a little tough, but I plan to sell some goods at a base yard sale.

5) Tweet more nutrition tips: This should be so easy for me to do that I am not sure why I have not been doing this so far.  If I were back in the States I would be spouting off nutrition information all day long at work.  Since moving overseas and being the only RD within miles, I have lost touch with the profession I love so much.  I still think about nutrition science all the time, I just have had no one to converse with, except a few great RDs with some awesome blogs.  I have been using Twitter for quite some time now because I had friends who started using it way back when, so my account was more for personal use.  I have found that so many RDs are on twitter now and I want to get in on that, so look for more nutrition related tweets.  Also, I will probably change my twitter name to something that signifies that I am an RD.  If you have any suggestions, let me know!

6) Graduate:  Obviously this is an easy goal because I have 1 class left in this degree program, but I still have to pass a statistics class and pass comps.  Once I finish the class in January and complete comps in February I will be all done and have a Master's in Human Relations from The University of Oklahoma.

7) Research PhD programs:  One of my long term goals is to earn a doctoral degree in nutrition or a related field so that I can fulfill my dream of being a professor at a research university.  With Ryan being in the military, and moving overseas, that was not an option after we left Vegas.  No worries to me because I know sooner or later I will get a PhD.  So, over the next year I hope to research programs, see where we will be living, find out what is available and decide where to go from there.

8) Get started on a book: I have always planned to write a book at some point, but I just haven't started yet.  This year will be the year I get started on this.  I do not know what I plan to write about specifically, but you can expect something nutrition related and possibly a joint venture with my sister.

9) Read more books for fun: I must say this every time I finish a degree.  I always think when I am done with school and I know longer have textbook after textbook to read that I will read more as a leisure activity.  Boy am I wrong every time!  So, before I start another degree, LOL, I plan to read 10 books during 2011.  Sorry, I plan to cheat just a little and will be counting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest which I started in December and I am already ~140 pages into this ~500 page novel.

10) Continue with my travels around the world: It should only be fitting for someone with a blog about food, nutrition and travel, I would have goals in each of those areas for 2011.  I hope to continue with my traveling and explore more countries and cultures.  I plan to visit the States sometime soon, but with this goal I am more focused on foreign travel.  I have no specifics for this goal other than to visit at least 1 new country this coming year.  I'll take your suggestions on this one too!  I guess I cheat here too since I have 2 trips in the planning stages now, but I am HUSH on those details.

Well, there you have my goals for 2011!

QUESTION:  What would you like to see more of on my blog in 2011?