New Year's Resolutions

I've come up with a couple of goals to work on during the coming year. I may add to this list once I think of some more. For now, here they are:

• Continue working out 5-6 days a week. I started working out more consistently a few weeks or so ago and I've been pretty good about getting in the workouts most days. I've been very blessed to have the use of Terry and Emma's eliptical machine and wall-mounted swivel flat-screen HDTV with satalite in the basement for my use. I look forward every day to watching What Not To Wear recordings off the DVR while I work out. Now that I have the consistency pretty well in place, I'm working on doing harder, longer workouts so I can start to see some results. I've really been digging the Trainer Momma blog lately (see the link to her blog in the right-hand side-bar) and it's giving me inspiration to make working out and being fit a higher priority in my life for the long-term.

• Make the switch to more whole grains, especially rice and pasta. My plan for the rice is to just not buy white rice. Once Paul gets a job and we move to wherever we're going, I'll have to stock up on all the staples, and I'll just buy brown instead of white rice. One of my friends in Pittsburgh did that, so she brought brown rice every time we had something involving rice at our weekly Institute luncheons, and most of the time I hardly noticed the difference once the rice was covered up with whatever we were eating it with. I've used whole grain pastas here and there for a while now. I discovered a couple of years ago that if I use whole wheat pasta in something really flavorful, like lasagna, it's hard to tell the difference. I then started using more whole grain pasta once Andrew started eating real solid foods because I wanted to make his macaroni and cheese (practically a food group to the boy) as healthy as possible. Then on Friday night I made one of my favorites, Penne Pasta with Tuna and Mozzarella (I'll post the recipe next) with whole wheat pasta, and even though that dish doesn't have a heavy sauce to hide the whole wheat-ness of the pasta, it was a great success! I'm looking forward to trying to use whole grain pastas more.

So, there they are. I know that working out and eating better are such cliche new year's resolutions, but at least I have sort-of specific goals and plans on how to achieve them. Anyone want to post a comment saying what their goals for the coming year are?