The week I finally exercised.

7. Watch all movies on AFI's top 100 (23/100) - in progress

I watched Shawshank Redemption last Sunday, which I had started and not finished a few months ago... and by started I mean I think I only watched the opening credits or something. Not entirely sure what happened there. But I am really glad I chose to watch it this past week because it was incredible. I was drawn into the movie and shocked by the shocking parts and rooting for the main character and terrified for him when I thought he had killed himself. It was just a really well done movie and a well-told narrative. Morgan Freeman was great too. I think it's kind of cool that a movie I had no interest in seeing has easily become one of my favorites.

8. Read 50 books (27/50) - in progress

I just finished "The Help" this morning, which was an incredibly quick read. I'd only started it last night, and around 7:30 at that. I like books like that, ones that pull you along so you keep telling yourself you'll quit for the night on the next chapter and then forty pages later you realize you're still reading. I'd recommend this to anyone.

25. Learn to cook 52 new recipes and organize them in one place (21/52) - in progress

I made tacos on Thursday night, which I didn't use a recipe for but is nice to have in my repertoire. I thought I was being very clever too, by buying a block of cheese so I could cut it for cheese & crackers if I didn't use it all for taco toppings. I was too busy praising my intelligence to notice how close my hand was to the cheese grater (which I recently, and quite proudly, acquired). Cheese graters are fun until you accidentally grate half your knuckle off instead of the cheddar and bleed through two Band-Aids.

On Friday I made apricot chicken in the slow cooker. It was the first time I had used the slow cooker, but the cookbook I have keeps telling me the meat will be more tender if you put it on low rather than high, so I cooked the chicken for seven hours. Like the cookbook promised, it was incredible, and I liked the fact I kind of dumped everything in and then cooking the rice & broccoli at dinnertime only took ten minutes.

45. Keep a swear jar for two weeks at $0.25 per swear - in progress

I'm going to start this today, which means I'll end on Sunday, January 31st. Any swear I say out loud counts as a quarter, but I'm going to cut myself a break and not count swears that I think. Because let's be honest, telling yourself not to think something is a surefire way to start thinking about it all the time.

56. Exercise 2-3 times a week (21/143) - in progress

I was good this week -- treadmill on Monday, walked home & did yoga on Tuesday, walked home & lifted weights & did the elliptical on Wednesday, and walked home & did yoga on Thursday. I've noticed that I eat a lot better on the days that I exercise. I'll walk back over to the apartment from the gym & cut up an apple with peanut butter, or eat a banana & a handful of almonds. I also tend to drink a lot more water. But I'm still struggling with that balancing act of having no time to exercise, or so much time that I start being lazy and don't snap out of it. Still a work in progress.

93. Buy the basic spices for my kitchen - in progress

I thought this might have been done, but then I needed onion flakes & ginger for the apricot chicken, and I didn't have either. So I'm still missing a few, I guess.

-- Till next time.