My goals for this year are somewhat nebulous but in general, get back into better habits that I've ditched in the past few years and ditch some of the bad ones. I am 37, 6' tall and ~200 lbs as a starting point. Probably up ~10 lbs since 2021.
Diet/Lifestyle:
I stopped drinking for the most part in mid Dec. of 24. While I can't recall the last time I caught a buzz, back porch beers are a huge chunk of my bad diet. Way too easy to grab one while the kids are goofing off in the yard, one more while cooking dinner, one with the meal, and another to close out the night. I'm usually drinking high-test stuff so I'm probably ingesting an additional 800-1000 calories daily, probably 5 days a week! Going to enjoy saving the probably $50 bucks a week I was spending also!
Also cutting out eating the kids snacks because I am bored. Sayonara goldfish, graham crackers, nilla wafers, and other junk laying around the house. I usually end up eating a handful of whatever while they're snacking in the afternoon and then again before bed. I'm keeping the late night snack completely gone. One of my favorites was a heaping spoonful(or 2) of peanut butter chased with a glass of milk right before bed. Delicious but a ton of calories for no other reason than it basically became a habit.
I'm kind of intermittent fasting as well. Nothing super strict, just making sure I don't snack after dinner and hold off eating my first meal until noon or later. Sometimes if I am cooking something I know the kids won't eat, and that I want to enjoy without having to monitor the table manners of a 3 and 1.5yos, we might not eat dinner until close to 8. I figure waiting until noon on those days gives a roughly 16 hour fasting window.
The wife and I always do Whole30(plus beans) in January to get reset after the holidays. That coupled with a nasty bout of food poisoning has helped my drop a quick 10lbs lol. I'll weigh in again a few weeks after I can keep food in my body for more than a few hours to see what the progress is when I'm not sick as a dog and likely dehydrated!
Exercise:
I ran just shy of 1000 miles in 2019, and maintained over 700 per year through 2021. Kid 1 was born in august of 2021 and kid 2 in may of 2023. It's been all downhill from there. I ran 60 miles in 2024 lol. The biggest shock to the system was that my wife and I were both early morning workout folks. She'd hit a class at F45 or OTF while I'd go run. Apparently its frowned upon to leave your toddlers unattended for an hour so she kept going and I rarely got up early anymore. I gotta use the DBAP method to make sure I'm running when I get the chance. My schedule is flexible so I really don't have an excuse to not run later in the day. I'm planning to average a mile a day in Jan/Feb, 2 miles a day in Mar/Apr, then 3 miles a day for May/June to get back in a routine and set a baseline. Will likely jump back on a Hal Higdon plan at that point to get marathon ready for early 2026. I want to run a respectable (for me, sub 3:30) race in early '26. I ran 3:16 back in 2019 and can still keep my race pace for ~6 miles, just know I need to put up the miles again and rebuilt my endurance. I'd love to get qualified for Boston before I'm 40. The family joined Westside so I have gym access now so I will probably start 5X5 or some form of strength training also.
Here's to new habits in 2025!
