Maintaining Motivation (and Cookies!)

I refuse to believe that Sunday is already almost over! Terry and I always try to make the most of our weekends, but this one proved to be fairly mellow.

Perhaps the most exciting event this weekend was an early viewing of "Lincoln" yesterday, which was really great. I'm rooting for Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor! Oh, and of course, a rousing game of Scrabble.

And I consider any baking to be exciting, so I'll include that too. I made two batches of cookies: Snickerdoodles and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut (recipe below!), just because I was in the mood to bake and wanted some homemade desserts on hand for the week

I took a rest day yesterday, and, instead of our planned long run today, managed about forty minutes on the treadmill (incline walking) and elliptical--it felt great! Much better than struggling through four miles when I really wasn't feeling it.

I tried two new breakfast recipes: whole wheat pancakes (need to test again before sharing) and banana bread French toast.

• Step 1: Make banana bread (I used Lisa's recipe).
• Step 2: Slice the banana bread.
• Step 3: Use slices to make French toast. 
• Step 4: Come back here and tell me how awesome it was.

Plans for this week:

• Tonight: Dinner at friends' house
• Monday: Crock pot chicken, hearty oat loaf, steamed artichokes
• Tuesday: Homemade pizza a la Smitten Kitchen (new recipe from the cookbook Terry got me!)
• Wednesday: Out for a UCLA meeting
• Thursday: Out (I'm attending a concert in which some of my students are performing)
• Friday: Homemade tomato soup

Lunches will include avocado-cream cheese-spinach-bell pepper wraps, leftover (shredded) chicken in spinach salads, and leftover pizza.

Workouts (very similar to last week!): 

• Monday: Rest day (stretch)
• Tuesday: Upper body + HIIT
• Wednesday: Lower body + low-intensity cardio
• Thursday: Moderate intensity cardio + core
• Friday: Full body circuit, perhaps the same as last week because I LOVED it!

I'm still feeling super motivated about my morning workouts and 2013 goals. So far, I've made some good progress on cooking new recipes (even more than one per week from a cookbook and two per month on my own!), starting to develop my own workouts, not biting my nails, and a few others. 

But I've also been thinking about how to keep myself motivated. I love having specific deadlines and benchmarks to work toward, and I love rewarding myself for a job well done. So I've decided that if I can stick with the no-nail biting and the morning workouts, I can get a mani/pedi next weekend (I'm not normally into them, but I suppose that's because I never really had nails to speak of) and I can get some new workout gear at the end of January. If that doesn't motivate me to find a new nervous tick and get my butt out of bed at 4:50 am, I don't know what will. 

And as promised:

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
2-3 dozen cookies

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup chopped macadamia nuts
• 1 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugars with an electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla; mix until combined. Slowly add flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir in nuts and white chocolate.

Drop by heading tablespoons onto a greased (or parchment-lined) cookie sheet, two inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges. 

These cookies are delicious! You know I'm much more of a chocolate girl, but there's something special about the white chocolate-macadamia nut combination that just delights my taste buds. I used my chocolate chip cookie recipe as a base, but I lightened the sugar because white chocolate is already so sweet, and they turned out perfectly! I'll be surrendering some to Terry's coworkers, but the rest go in the freezer for our nightly dessert! 

How are your 2013 goals going so far? Any major obstacles or victories? How are you rewarding yourself as you reach your benchmarks?

Have a spectacular start to the week!