Balancing of the Beverages–Monthly Mission March 2014

While I’m a little tardy on getting this Monthly Mission out to the world, rest assured, I have been following it since the 1st.

The month, my mission is less than scientific, very subjective, and relatively unmeasurable. In short, it’s a terrible goal. But I’m still going to give it an honest attempt and see how it goes.

There have been a few times in the past where I challenged myself to drink a certain amount of water on a daily basis. While I was sufficiently hydrated during those months, shortly after the month ended I was back to drinking minimal amounts of water.

Image by Gunnar Grimnes via Flickr

So this month, I’m trying a different track to create a permanent increase in the amount of water that I drink on a regular basis. What I’m doing is simple, I’m aiming to drink an equal amount of water and coffee per day. The goal for this month is actually a subtle 2-for-1–drinking a little less coffee and a little more water.

While I’m not getting out a measuring cup to make sure I’m on point, I’m being conscious about the amount of coffee I’m drinking and purposefully adding more water to the equation.

And even if I don’t quite balance the scales perfectly after this month is complete, I’m hoping that this mission will provide longer lasting results than some of the previous attempts at drinking more water.

What Are You Doing for Your March Monthly Mission? I’d Love to Hear What You’re Trying!

Monthly Mission Lookback–February 2014

In February, I set a Monthly Mission that  I thought would be slightly difficult yet still very attainable.

And I failed miserably.

Image by Nima Badiey via Flickr

The goal of running for every day of the month started off great, but two weeks in I missed a day. I had a busy work day, and was working on getting my next podcast ready, planning the next days workouts, and doing other odds and ends, and I completely forgot to run. When my wife asked if I was planning on running the next morning, at about 8:30 that night, I realized I missed my run for the day and that I still had too much work left to finish to squeeze one in.

Strike one.

Then, on the 23rd, we went to church in the morning. After church, I had to ref a couple of  men’s league hockey games, and I pretty much had to leave as soon as I got home from church. By the time I got back from the ice rink, I had about 30 minutes before we were meeting with our Sunday School Class for dinner. Since I already missed a day in the month, I decided to call in lazy.

Strike two.

Then, at the end of the month, I got sick. Not sure exactly what I had, but I think it was a gnarly combination of head cold, allergies, and sore throat, and running simply did not sound like a good idea. So the last three days of February resulted in 0 miles on 0 runs.

Strike three.

How did you guys do on your monthly missions this month? I hope you were more successful that I was! I’d love to hear what you did and how it went in the comments below.

The Problem with Cereal–Monthly Mission January 2014

With the new year, I am looking forward to a fresh start for my Monthly Missions.

After the disaster that was my November mission, I never quite got around to making one for December. I had a few ideas floating around in my mind, but I never nailed one down.

I’m back in the saddle again. (Cue Aerosmith music/Steven Tyler screaming BBBBBAAAAACCCCKKK! in your head)

This month, I’ll be cutting cereal out of my diet.

Image by Jennifer Kumar via Flickr

Let’s cut to the chase. I love cereal. I could probably eat little else then cereal for a few weeks, and be completely fine with it. Back when I went wheat-free for a month, I knew the two hardest things for me to be without would be bread and cereal.

While I still don’t eat bread often, other than the occasional gluten-free piece here and there, I’ve gotten back into cereal pretty heavy. Between gluten-free varieties of Chex and the other rice or corn based cereals, I’ve been able to eat lots of cereal while still skipping the wheat.

Herein lies the problem. Cereal in itself really isn’t that bad. When I’m eating my cereal, however, it’s not just the cereal I’m shoveling down my gullet. It’s the sugar too. Copious amounts of sugar. Like, I-may-be-eating-Rice-Chex-but-it-has-the-sugar-equivalent-of-Fruity-Pebbles amounts of sugar.

I need a reset.

So this month, no cereal for me.

And there’s no telling how many pounds of sugar I’ll avoid during the next few weeks.

What are You Doing for Your Monthly Mission to Start 2014?