Staying Healthy and Happy!

Living on my own and trying to stay on top of studying and other needs have made eating healthy and exercising less of a priority lately. But as I learn and see some of the congenital and acquired health problems that many people have, I realize how much I've taken my body for granted and have begun to appreciate my body much more. Seeing problems like hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol makes me worried about the future diseases that lurk around the corner waiting for me. And in some ways, I would say that a small amount of healthy fear may help me achieve some goals I've mentally made in the past but have not yet achieved. As the start to the new year, I would like to work on exercising and eating better! I know the biggest obstacle in the past has been to find time to go jogging or eating a complete breakfast, but I am going to work on scheduling in time and learn to become more productive with the time I have. I'd like to use this blog as a way to motivate myself to follow through with my goals and to encourage others to do the same.

Here's my starting point (January 15, 2009):
Exercising: 1-2/week, 45 minutes
Jogging: 5.4 mph, 2-3 miles (but sometimes I stop to catch my breath for 2 minutes)
Breakfast: cereal, usually honey bunches of oats
Lunch: granola bar, an apple or orange, cookies, carrots, whatever's they happen to be giving away at the lunch seminars
Dinner: spaghetti, eggrolls, green beans, brocolli, rice, fish, chicken, eggs
Snacks: cookies (can't live without them!), fruit snacks

Here are some goals I'd like to reach by July 1, 2009:
Exercising: at least 3/week, consistently (except finals week?)
Jogging: 6 mph, 5 miles
Breakfast: waking up 30 minutes earlier to give myself enough time to eat and pack lunch; I'm pretty happy with eating cereal.
Lunch: something with more protein and fiber
Dinner: cooking on weekends and freezing it away for the weekdays, eating less at night but snacking more throughout the day to keep my energy up.
Snacks: fruit chewies, carrots, apples, oranges, pears, etc.

For this coming week, here are my plans:
Exercising: F (1/16)-8pm, Sat-1pm, Mon-8:30 am, Wed-8pm, Sat (1/24)
Eating: gotta go buy more jelly, fruit and veggies, pomegranate!, salmon, yogurt, granola, try cous cous