Goals

1. Plank-A-Day. This is the next challenge in my monthly challenge series.  My goal is to increase my time by 2-5 seconds per day.  I started these the first and boy was I surprised at how hard to was for me, just goes to show how little I have been strength training the past few months.

2. Strength Train 2-3x/week.  I haven’t been doing any strength training at all. nada. none. zilch.  I am in major need of some strength training because I know it will help me to lose this baby weight and it will improve my running.

3. Floss Everyday. I’m that person that goes to the dentist and am ALWAYS told that I need to floss more. Hell I need to floss in general.  I am horrible at flossing but this month I will do it everyday.

4. Read Before Bed 4x/week.  I would like to say everyday but to best honest it won’t happen so I am trying to set myself up to succeed. I am hoping to read 20-60 minutes before bed four nights per week.

5. Read a New Book. I am currently reading The Cool Impossible and it is amazing.  That being said it is my goal to finish the book this month and if everything works out as planned I should also be starting another new book TBD (suggestions please).

What are your goals for this month? How do you set yourself up for success?

 

 

I really feel like this past month I dropped the ball on accomplishing the majority of my goals.  Honestly, I look back now and I wonder what DID I do all month? I mean I know I made dinners at home for us the majority of nights, went running, spent quality time with my family and spent my days trying to convince Edith that her Sophie was more fun to chew on than empty toilet paper rolls and receipts (she’s still not convinced).

However, I made a list of goals that well lets just review them and you’ll see.

April Goals:

1. Read one new book. ACCOMPLISHED! Yes I did indeed read a new book this month.  I was actually hoping to read it in time for my moms group book club meet up but I started it a week before the meet up which was like 3 weeks ago and I finished the book April 30th, needless to say I didn’t make the meet up.  I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed and honestly it is one of the best books I have ever read. It is about one young women’s journey on the Pacific Crest Trail.  It is absolutely amazing and now I want to go back packing- has anyone gone with a baby?

2. Run/Walk/Bike 100 Miles. So I didn’t accomplish this.  Honestly, I was a bit naive to think that I would. Did you know 100 miles is a lot? Well it is. Especially when you don’t have a bike. I ended up completing 81.03 miles of running and walking.  It could have been more but I skipped a few runs, didn’t get out of long enough walks and ended up being sick the last few days of the challenge.  You know what though? I am proud of myself for completing that many miles because let me tell you it was a challenge.

3. Write 5 freelance articles. I only wrote one. Not impressed.

4. Use one of my cookbooks each week. I ended up only using two recipe books.  I guess that is better than none?

5. Finish unpacking. I don’t want to talk about it. #FAIL.

6. Return calls and e-mails to friends. I did return a number of emails although I’m behind again now. I also called some friends which was great because I ended up learning that my BFF had decided to run off to India for 3 months with her beau.

7. Write 8 new recipes this month. Zip. Zero. Nada. Yeah I didn’t write any recipes this month.  I did a lot of home cooked throw together meals this month or followed recipes in the books I did actually use. (Side note after 14 months my freelance recipe writing job has been put on hold.)

8. Spend more time at home. We have only been practicing this the past two weeks but I am already starting to see improvements around the house, as well as we are skipping less weekend workouts which is important.  I am hoping that we can keep this up.

Coming up May Goals.

First off this is not an April Fools post, I really am setting goals for April.

I used to set monthly goals for myself and lately I haven’t been doing it and I am noticing I’m not accomplishing as much as I’d like each month. I am going to set monthly goals from here on out and do a recap of my goals at the end of the month.

On top of setting goals I am going to give myself an incentive to actually accomplish my goals. You may remember Neil & my incentive program back in 2011, well it’s going to be similar to this. Right now we have a budget for groceries, entertainment, gas and household items and at the end of the month whatever we have leftover we put 50% in savings and we each get 25% for our allowance (allowance = lunches out, coffee out, fun/non-essential purchases).  Well my incentive to accomplish my goals will be that I get to keep my 25% and if I don’t accomplish my goals then I have to put it into Edith’s college fund (we already put money aside each month for this as well).

April Goals:

1. Read one new book. I have a book that I have been reading since December (embarrassing, I know).  Well I am planning to (finally) finish this book and my goal is to read one other book as well.  I think I am going to make this a monthly goal so please leave your suggestions in the comments.

2. Run/Walk/Bike 100 Miles. My goal for this month is complete 100 miles total by doing any or a combo of the following: run, walk, or bike.  I am also challenging you to do the same (sign up here); oh and there is an incentive for you as well.

3. Write 5 freelance articles. I love freelance writing but I haven’t done nearly enough since Edith was born so I am hoping this will help me get back into the swing of things.

4. Use one of my cookbooks each week. I have a huge cookbook collection but I honestly rarely use them.  I actually probably have a number that I’ve never even used, so this month that is all going to change. My goal is to use a different cookbook each week to prepare at least two recipes for the week.

5. Finish unpacking. We still have too many unpacked boxes so my goal is to get them all unpacked with one exception: anything we won’t need between now and November 1st can stay in a box.  Why November 1st? That is when we finally get to move out of this site-unseen apartment and into a new rental that we (hopefully) love in a better neighborhood.

6. Return calls and e-mails to friends. I have been awful at staying in touch with people and returning phone calls.  There is really no good reason but I blame the time difference, the fact I’m exhausted by the end of the day and having too much on my plate. However, those excuses suck and I need to make more time for important things like my friends.

7. Write 8 new recipes this month. I have been doing a lot of throw together meals lately and not enough recipes (as you might have noticed) so I want to write 8 total this month.  That meals 4 for my freelance gig and 4 for the blog. Again I’d like this to be a monthly goal so if you’re looking for recipes using a specific ingredient or a healthier version of one of your old favorites leave me ideas in the comments.

These are my seven official incentive goals but I also have a another other non-incentive goal:

• Spend more time at home. On the weekends we have been spending a lot of time getting to know the area which means we are spending very little time at home.  This also means that we are not getting our home improvement, household tasks or other at home things done on the weekends when we have more time.

What are your April goals?

Since I finally posted a postpartum update Wednesday I figured it was finally time to do another Becoming My Own Client goals update.  I haven’t really been focusing in on my goals the past month so this will be good for me to refresh and refocus on them.  So lets review the goals:

Goal #1: Lose Weight. I’d like to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by October 2013. As I said in Wednesdays post I haven’t weighed myself in a few months so I am not sure what my weight is and how far off it is from my pre-pregnancy weight but by the way I look and how clothes fit I feel like I am (slowly) losing the weight.

Goal #2: Increase my Energy. and Goal #3: Break my sugar craving. and Goal #5 eat less gluten. and Goal #7 eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and raw meals. I have done very well with all of these goals, but of course there is always room for improvement. I just completed a 10-day cleanse and I have to say it was just what I needed to break my sugar cravings and my energy has definitely started to increase.

Goal #4 Improve sleep. I haven’t been doing as great in this department.  Edith has taken to staying up later and is a busy body all day long so I am making up work time at night which means I’m not going to bed until 10/10:30 which I know for many of you is early but for me it is super late.  On the flip side Edith has been sleeping better at night so that means less wake ups for me.

Goal #6 is to increase the intensity of my workouts. While things have improved in the consistency of my workouts I am still working on increasing the intensity.  Any suggestions?

How are you doing with your goals?

It’s that time of year again!

Every year on January 1st people around the world declare their New Year’s Resolution(s).  Although declared with good intention most of people end up never accomplishing the goal that they set out to do and by February the resolution is forgotten about (or at least ignored). This year why not make your resolution a priority?

Tips for sticking to New Year’s Resolutions

• Make sure it is S.M.A.R.T. That’s right SMART! Specific, Meaningful, Attainable, Relevant (or Realistic) and Timely.  If you focus on making S.M.A.R.T. goals you will be sure to follow through and accomplish your goals.
• Find a buddy. Whether it is someone who has the same goal as your or just someone who you can check in with ever week find someone who can SUPPORT you and your goals. If you want to accomplish something fitness related it is great to have a friend to workout with and keep you accountable.
• Be Specific. This is one of the S.M.A.R.T. goals but I wanted to point it out again because the more specific with your goal that you can be the better chance that you will be able to accomplish said goal. In other words rather than saying I want to be more active in the new year a more specific goal would be “I want to run 3x per week” or “I want to go to cross fit 4x per week”.
• Create Action Steps. I would say this is one of the most important tips to accomplishing your goals.  If you can actually take the time to consider what steps you need to take to meet your goals and create a plan the more likely your goals will be met.  So if you want to lose 10lbs then your action steps may be to increase the whole foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc) in your diet, run 2x per week, practice yoga at home or in the studio once per week and spend more time reading than watching TV.

My New Year’s Resolutions/Goals:

This year I am really focusing on the goals that I set out for myself back in November. So far I have been doing really well with my resolutions and have really made time to focus on them and create action steps to accomplish them.  I have been turning this blog, social media and my husband for support and accountability.  It is amazing how much (self) pressure there is to follow through with things when you tweet a goal! One of my goals is to increase the intensity of my workouts in hopes that it will get me closer to being back in my pre-pregnancy shape.  To help accomplish this goal I have put the pressure on to run my first postpartum race in May and have created a training schedule to help me accomplish this goal.

In addition to the goals I have already set out to accomplish I would like to run three races, practice yoga once per week, read 12 books and re-learn Spanish.

What are you goals/resolutions for 2013? How are you planning to accomplish them?