2016 Goal Update: January
At the beginning of the year, I posted some goals for 2016. I committed to writing an update each month on the progress of my goals. It’s a good exercise in making sure I don’t lose sight of the big picture in my day to day life. So here goes January:
-Run at least one race every month: CHECK! This month I did the Key West Half Marathon. Click here for the race recap. Coming up in February is the Austin Half Marathon.
-Save money, pay off debts, own less: Lots of times this month, I’ve asked myself “Do I truly want this? Is it adding value to my life? Is this going to make me happy next week or just right now?” I avoided lots of extra purchases because I thought extra hard about where my money went. I also started to rework my budget, which is a little depressing when I see how much money goes to student loans but I need to be thankful that I’ve landed a good job that allows me to make payments on them and I’m re-determined to get them paid off. I also made a list of each area of my house. My goal is to go through each area and act as if I am moving. Eventually, I will move so why wait to get rid of clutter? The question to ask myself is, if I were moving, would I bother to pack this or would I toss it? If the answers is toss it, donate it, sell it, give it away then why wait. As I lost weight, my closet has gotten a few major clean outs but it’s still on my list because it’s in need again so it is first in the list to get some major attention in February.
-Run a sub 2 hour half marathon: This month’s half marathon was nowhere near sub 2 hours but I still made progress here this month. Based on how my body felt after Key West, I was able to identify the need to ramp up my strength training. I can feel my legs getting stronger and stronger legs are faster!
- Start my days earlier and be more mindful of how I spend my time: Starting my days earlier has been a bit if a failure this month. I need to turn that around for February. I have been so much more mindful of how I spend my time however. Being mindful and intentional about my time use has meant I’ve watch far less TV than I previously did and I am finding I like that.
- Get back to more regular food logging: I’ve done fairly well here. There are meals here and there away from home that are just too difficult to log but for the most part, I’ve been faithful at logging which makes me do better at meal planning. I actually really enjoy knowing what I am going to eat in the days ahead. There are enough decisions to make throughout the day and it’s nice to have already decided what my meals will look like.
- Buy more local produce: I did not buy any local produce this month, whomp whomp.
- Write/Post More: I did post a race recap and a monthly recap like I wanted to this month. I still would like to write more. I used to write on Friday nights. I’m going to make that a goal for February.