Friend of Julie: Keep Moving

It's that time of year when people start to fall off their diets. New food habits start to slip and exercise goes, well, where does it go? I've been following Julie's way of eating for 3 years now, as of a few days ago, and my food habits are not slipping at all. However, the single digit temperatures in January was just the excuse I was looking for to avoid exercising. Sigh. Any excuse not to exercise is a BAD EXCUSE. Exercise keeps us healthy and energized. So, what's a girl to do to get motivated to start moving? Sign up for the Tortoise and the Hare 10K of course!

Tortoise and the Hare 10K run on April 19.

Why would I do this? Because I can. I ran the Hot Chocolate 5k in Dec. 2013 and in 2011 I finished in the exact same time. I didn't train for the 2013 race and later I wondered how much better my timing would have been if I had trained.

To motivate myself to get back on the track, or the treadmill until it's a little warmer outside, I decided to kick things up by committing to run a 10k in April. I talked with my running buddy Aime and she too is up for the challenge. In fact, she found this race after we talked. I know I can walk the distance, so I'm not worried about finishing the race. Signing up to run a 10k encourages me to get my running shoes on and start training so I can do my best time for this race. It gives me motivation to get moving. Any excuse to get moving is a GOOD EXCUSE.

What about you? Do you have a plan for exercise this week? What can you do to get moving and keep moving? Make a plan and follow Nike's advise: just do it! I'd love to hear what you're doing to keep up with your exercise - what motivates you to keep moving?

BTW, if you haven't made the Caramelized Onion & Sausage Stuffing recipe yet - try it this week! I made it this morning and I just had it for lunch a few minutes ago - yummy! This is a nice warm and flavorful dish to make in the dead of winter. Having plenty of leftovers for lunch this week is great too. While the dish was cooling, I updated the recipe with more photos.