April Goals!

This month, things are a little bit different.  I have decided that instead of having a whole bunch of goals, that I want to focus on just being healthy.  Since Matt has decided to try to get healthy with me, I'm hoping things will be a little easier!  So here are the goals!

1. Track food on myfitnesspal.com EVERY day, except cheat day(s).  Weekends are the ONLY cheat days.

2. Try to limit cheat days to one day if possible. (We go to see family a lot on Sundays, so sometimes I have a little trouble with that).

3. Exercise at least 3 days a week, for at least 20.  Whether it's walking with Matt or dancing around the house, anything will do. 

4. Try to cook at home at least 4 times a week, even when I work.  I need to get used to doing this anyway, since I'll be back working full time in about a month (HOPEFULLY!)

That's it for this month.  I have high hopes that I will be able to actually meet these goals!

March Goals - Recap

Well time to see how my March goals turned out!

FOR MY HEALTH

1. Keep up my food diary on myfitnesspal.com Um, I did this about 1/2 way.  We took a little trip and I didn't track it that week.  And then I fell off the wagon one other day.  But it's some progress.

2. Do some kind of exercise at least 3 times a day (I'm going to try to just dance around the house like a crazy person, because I enjoy it and I don't care if I look stupid!) Again, not a complete success.  Matt and I did a lot of walking in Pigeon Forge, and we went to the Knoxville Zoo, which was tons of walking.  We did some walks during the week as well.  Other than walking to and from class, this was not a success.

3. Keep my doctors appointment (I've rescheduled a LOT because of school/work) and talk to my doctor about upping my levothyroxin dose. YAY!  Did this, and they did up my dosage.  They did some blood work and I also have to take some extra vitamin D in addition to my multivitamin.

FOR MY MARRIAGE

1. Take a little mini-vacation to Gatlinburg with part of our tax return (which was, HUGE...who knew going back to school made that much difference?!)  Done!  We had a BLAST!

2. Try to have one meal a week without the TV on (we are horrible about this; never eat at the table, and always have the TV on...I'm ok with eating in the living room, but we need some quality time too!)  We did this a couple of times, mostly by going out to eat, so it still needs a little work.

FOR GOD

1. Gotta get on the church thing!!

2. Select a friend or family member to say a special prayer for every day for a week.

Pretty much a fail for both of these.  I did say some special prayers because of some circumstances in our families.  God is good and he took care of everyone!

FOR ME

1. Celebrate Joan's birthday! It's tomorrow! Happy Birthday Joan!  Didn't really celebrate, but Joan never really decided on anything to do!  Silly girl!

2. Use my free Gigi's cupcakes on a cheat day in March :)  Did this, it was yummy!

FOR SCHOOL

1. Get started on all tests and quizzes, and finish them EARLY!  Did this on all the ones due in March.  April is crunch time though!

2. Go to the bookstore on the 22nd and pay for my cap and gown!!!  Um, oops.  Not 100% sure I actually want to walk still.

FOR THE HOME

1. I'm gonna be honest, there's a lot going on in March and there is a good chance this is going to get neglected, but here goes anyway: Keep end tables neat. Yeah this didn't happen lol.

Well I feel decent about this month, but I really want to do better!  So, my hopes are high for April!

March Goals

Me, in 2007 at The Grand Old Opry

So, one of my biggest goals going right now (that is a long term goal), is to get back to looking like that and NOT how I look now.  I've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, which is to blame for at least part of my weight gain, and has absolutely been a factor in me not being able to get it off.  I'm still working with my doctor to get my medication right, but I'm trying to stay dedicated to eating healthy and exercsing as a lifestyle.  It's not just about losing weight, it's because it's good for me and I feel better when I do it.  SO, all that being said, here are my March 2012 goals!

FOR MY HEALTH

1. Keep up my food diary on myfitnesspal.com

2. Do some kind of exercise at least 3 times a day (I'm going to try to just dance around the house like a crazy person, because I enjoy it and I don't care if I look stupid!)

3. Keep my doctors appointment (I've rescheduled a LOT because of school/work) and talk to my doctor about upping my levothyroxin dose.

FOR MY MARRIAGE

1. Take a little mini-vacation to Gatlinburg with part of our tax return (which was, HUGE...who knew going back to school made that much difference?!)

2. Try to have one meal a week without the TV on (we are horrible about this; never eat at the table, and always have the TV on...I'm ok with eating in the living room, but we need some quality time too!)

FOR GOD

1. Gotta get on the church thing!! 

2. Select a friend or family member to say a special prayer for every day for a week.

FOR ME

1. Celebrate Joan's birthday!  It's tomorrow!  Happy Birthday Joan!

2. Use my free Gigi's cupcakes on a cheat day in March :)

FOR SCHOOL

1. Get started on all tests and quizzes, and finish them EARLY!

2. Go to the bookstore on the 22nd and pay for my cap and gown!!!

FOR THE HOME

1. I'm gonna be honest, there's a lot going on in March and there is a good chance this is going to get neglected, but here goes anyway: Keep end tables neat.

Well, there they are!  I'm gonna work on a quiz that's due Monday!



February Goals - Review

Well, February (with an extra day even!), has come and gone!  So time to look at how I did with my goals!

GENERAL

1. Write goals down and find a better place to keep them so I see them daily (maybe even have a couple of copies) Did this! 

FOR THE HOME

1. Clean off the end tables and keep them clean.  Um, oops (for the second month in a row...eek!)  I did at least clean them off, but somehow junk found it's way back!

2. Clean off the love seat (there is a picture I want hung and a box of Matt's stuff).  Nope, but since this is really Matt's thing, I guess I'm not too upset.

3. Get an estimate for rebuilding the built in entertainment structure (thanks Mom and Dad!)  Yeah again, whoops.  Since it's a friend of Matt's that is going to give us the estimate, it's not THAT big of a deal, but I still want to get it done.

AS A WIFE
1. Try to have a "date" night with Matt at least twice this month. Money is tight, so we might have to be a little creative, but our relationship is something very important to me. Well, we didn't do anything too special, but we had lunch together a couple of times, so it counts a little.

2. Keep up with our Daily Guideposts. I truly believe we both feel a lot closer to each other and God when we do this. We are actually WAY behind on this, primarily because we haven't been going to bed at the same times consistently lately.  Since he's not working, Matt has become quite the night owl!

FOR MY HEALTH
1. Take a walk with Matt at least once a week. We NEVER do this, so I think this may be a tough one, but it's important. I have walked at school, but I haven't been able to convince Matt to go with me yet!  I get bored walking so I'm gonna have to work harder to convince him!
2. Continue to have a healthy lunch everyday.  EVERY day except one day on the weekends.  I'm REALLY proud of this!
3. This might be another tough one for me, but I really want to try keeping a food journal.  I'm also really proud of this one.  I have done a great job at eating healthy for the majority of February.  I've been using myfitnesspal.com and it's WONDEFUL!

FOR GOD
1. Try out a few churches until we find one we like.  We only went to our churches this time, and not even every Sunday, so not so great on this one!

Well, I think this was better than last month, and secondly, I was most concerned with the eating healthy and exercising and I feel like I did pretty good there!

I'm so excited to see what March holds for us!

February Goals!

February 2010, Our Honeymoon :)

Well, I'm a bit late on these goals since we're over a week into February, but then I was late on my January goals too (so maybe I should set a goal to set my goals earlier haha!).  So anyway here goes!

GENERAL

1. Write goals down and find a better place to keep them so I see them daily (maybe even have a couple of copies).

FOR THE HOME

1. Clean off the end tables and keep them clean.



2. Clean off the love seat (there is a picture I want hung and a box of Matt's stuff).
3. Get an estimate for rebuilding the built in entertainment structure (thanks Mom and Dad!)

AS A WIFE
1. Try to have a "date" night with Matt at least twice this month.  Money is tight, so we might have to be a little creative, but our relationship is something very important to me.
2. Keep up with our Daily Guideposts.  I truly believe we both feel a lot closer to each other and God when we do this.

FOR MY HEALTH
1. Take a walk with Matt at least once a week.  We NEVER do this, so I think this may be a tough one, but it's important.
2. Continue to have a healthy lunch everyday.
3. This might be another tough one for me, but I really want to try keeping a food journal. 

FOR GOD
1. Try out a few churches until we find one we like.

Well there they are!  Now I'm gonna go write them down :)

January Goals Review

I can't believe it's already February, but it is, so it's time to see how I did on my goals for January!

1. FOR ME: Write down goals and put them somewhere that I will look at them daily (bathroom mirror, bedroom mirror?) I at least wrote them down, but I have to find somewhere better than our coffee table to keep them, because now I can't find them...oops!

2. FOR ME: One of my overall goals was to eat healthier this year and lose some of my "marriage weight". This month, I want to focus on eating a healthy lunch. My plan is to slowly change all of my eating habits, but I know I'm gonna have to take baby steps. So far, I've done really well with this (except on the weekends...gotta do better there!) Long story short...eat a healthy lunch EVERY weekday and try to do better on the weekends. Did pretty well on this, but it's a habit I REALLY want to keep up.  $5 footlongs at Subway should help!  There's one right on the way to work!  Plus I should go back to not working every day so that I can eat lunch at home sometimes.

3. FOR THE HOME: Our living room is so full of junk. We have gotten some things taken care of, so it looks better. Still not up to par. I would really like to get it to the point where we could straighten for 5 or 10 minutes and be able to have company over. We are extremely limited on funds, so this one might be a bit hard for us right now. So my January goal is going to be pretty simple, clean off the end tables, and keep them neat. Complete failure.  Guess this one's going on February's goals!  School books makes this a lot harder for me.

4. FOR THE BUDGET: This one is less of a goal and more of a necessity if we want to come out on the other side of unemployment with ANY savings left (which we do!). So my goal here is to COOK at least 4 nights a week and make sure we have MYO (make your own) items or leftovers for the other 2-3 nights. Well this one wasn't a total failure, but not totally complete either.  Matt has been cooking a little but I've been picking up something cheap on the way home a little too.  I had to extend my hours at work, so I wasn't getting home til about 7:30 which makes it hard to cook AND study AND get some time with the hubby in!  It's been a challenge for Matt and I both to find things he can cook/heat up, but it's also been kinda fun!

5. FOR MY MARRIAGE: My grandmother got us a Daily Guideposts book for Christmas again (thanks, Nana!) and I really want this to be a part of our lives. I very much feel like making God a bigger part of our marriage is essential. We are both Christians, but in my opinion, you can't have too much God in your marriage! So, Guideposts every night! Wellllll, it might be a stretch to say every night but we've tried to keep up.  Actually, I might need to go catch up on this week's now :)

6. FOR GOD: I want to make sure we figure out a way to be in church at least every other Sunday. I feel like I can be a good Christian without being in church, but I also feel so close to God when I'm there. This may mean finding a new church (my church and Matt's church are not one and the same, and they are both quite a drive, which means a lot of gas money when you're unemployed). So, church at least every other Sunday. This didn't happen.  We went to church once this month, which is better than none, but it needs to be more.  I think we're going to have to visit churches closer to home until we're back on our feet.  Suggestions are welcome!

So long story short, about half the goals I set, I met.  Hopefully I can increase that for February!

January 2012 Goals

I've found that I am slightly more likely to stick to my goals if I write them down.  Problem is...I don't always write them down, and I don't always put them where I can see them!  So....

1. FOR ME: Write down goals and put them somewhere that I will look at them daily (bathroom mirror, bedroom mirror?)

2. FOR ME: One of my overall goals was to eat healthier this year and lose some of my "marriage weight".  This month, I want to focus on eating a healthy lunch.  My plan is to slowly change all of my eating habits, but I know I'm gonna have to take baby steps.  So far, I've done really well with this (except on the weekends...gotta do better there!)  Long story short...eat a healthy lunch EVERY weekday and try to do better on the weekends.

3. FOR THE HOME:  Our living room is so full of junk.  We have gotten some things taken care of, so it looks better.  Still not up to par.  I would really like to get it to the point where we could straighten for 5 or 10 minutes and be able to have company over.  We are extremely limited on funds, so this one might be a bit hard for us right now.  So my January goal is going to be pretty simple, clean off the end tables, and keep them neat.

4. FOR THE BUDGET:  This one is less of a goal and more of a necessity if we want to come out on the other side of unemployment with ANY savings left (which we do!).  So my goal here is to COOK at least 4 nights a week and make sure we have MYO (make your own) items or leftovers for the other 2-3 nights (it's pretty unlikely we will NEVER eat out, and I think we can swing one night a week with my little paycheck). 

5. FOR MY MARRIAGE:  My grandmother got us a Daily Guideposts book for Christmas again (thanks, Nana!) and I really want this to be a part of our lives.  I very much feel like making God a bigger part of our marriage is essential.  We are both Christians, but in my opinion, you can't have too much God in your marriage!  So, Guideposts every night!

6. FOR GOD:  I want to make sure we figure out a way to be in church at least every other Sunday.  I feel like I can be a good Christian without being in church, but I also feel so close to God when I'm there.  This may mean finding a new church (my church and Matt's church are not one and the same, and they are both quite a drive, which means a lot of gas money when you're unemployed).  So, church at least every other Sunday.

So there we have it for now!  If any of you have goals for 2012 and for January, I wish you good luck!