Courons à la Cassoulet!

I know I should be posting my New Year’s resolutions today, but I am still just so undecided! One thing that I learned about last year were that the resolutions I didn’t keep were those that weren’t that important to me. Remember:

(Thanks to Jocelyn for providing a great picture that displays one of my favorite quotes)

When I looked back on my goals from last year, the ones I didn’t accomplish had a common theme – they were goals that became less important to me as the year went on. To set myself up for success this year, I’m still thinking about my goals for 2012 to make sure that they’re ones that will stick… so give me a few days to settle, k? However, I’ll give you a sneak preview of one thing I know for sure I have on tap for 2012.

Back when I started this blog (wow, more than four years ago now!), I called it Absolut(ly) Fit. I chose that title because I believed that fitness shouldn’t be about giving up everything bad for you – but about balancing a healthy lifestyle with having fun. I do eat tons of fruits/veggies and other healthy foods (I actually love things like brussel sprouts and spinach smoothies), but when it comes to things like craft beer and ice cream, I’m not going to say no! I just try to balance my consumption of those yummy things with some good workouts that make me earn the right to eat not-so-healthy things.

However, I’ve started realizing that hanging out with my friends has come to mean primarily eating/drinking unhealthy things… and then I have to burn it off on my own. While I love a solo run along the river or some quality time with a book and a stationary bike, some group fitness events I’ve done have given me the idea that maybe it doesn’t have to be like that all the time. A lot of my friends are concerned about their health/fitness too, so why are we keeping it all so separate? I want to give us all another option: a group of friends who get together to combine the fitness with the fun.

I have a lot of ideas for how to make this happen, so I’m still working out the logistics. But for now, I thought I’d just throw an event up on here on the blog, and invite any and all NYC dwellers to come along for the ride. Ready? Okay.

The Fitness: 5.5 mile run
The Fun: 4th Annual Cassoulet Cookoff
The Venue: Jimmy’s Number 43, an awesome craft beer bar in the East Village
When: Sunday, January 8; run at 12pm, feast at 1pm
Where: Start at the 72nd Street Transverse in Central Park

Email me at laura at 50by25 dot com if you’re interested in coming, and I’ll send more details.