Saturday, January 31, 2009

January Accomplishments

I usually don't do New Years Resolutions. It seems like people usually declare them - and then never really look back. If I am going to declare a goal, I darn well better look back and see how I am doing. I need to mark my progress and learn from any set-backs I might have experienced. I set some goals and put them in writing; so I've decided to look back each month and see how I am progressing. Hopefully by doing this, on December 31, 2009, I'll be able to say - look, I did all these things I set out to do in 2009!

So far, I feel pretty good about my progress. I've got some work to do, but if I could accomplish those resolutions in a 31 day span, they weren't as lofty as they should have been!

Resolution one: Quitting Mt Dew.
Update: I think the habit has been kicked. I haven't had a sip of Mountain Dew this month. The first few weeks were the toughest - I craved it so much, I could almost 'taste' it. I don't crave it anymore. Sure there are moments when I want to cave in & have one. People have asked me if this is a temporary thing or if I will eventually try to go back to drinking it. I honestly don't think I will. For me, it's an all or nothing proposition. I know this sounds insane to someone who doesn't love the stuff, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I don't really 'benefit' from drinking it, so there's really no reason to incorporate back into my diet.

Resolution two: Cooking one meal/week.
Update: Yah, I haven't succeeded at this. I cooked twice in January. I feel I have a valid excuse, though - I was gone 4 weekends this month, then got the stomach flu, and then got a cold which I think has now morphed into a Sinus Infection. Yea for me. So this is definitely something I need to work on. I've decided it's time to apply my planning/organizational skills to my eating habits. So starting in February, every Sunday I am going to attempt to plan my meals for a week. We'll see how this goes. I do plan on cooking something tomorrow so hopefully that will kick February off to a more successful start!

Resolution three: Running more.
Update: See resolution two. Being gone so much and being sick twice did not positively impact my mileage. I have ran the last 2 days though and am most proud of the fact that I ran today even though I now am confident that I have a Sinus Infection and need to get on some meds. I don't feel well, but I certainly don't feel sick enough to skip out on a run. I am trying not to get too frustrated with myself on this resolution. My official training schedule doesn't start until Feb 9th, but I really am not as in shape as I should be at this point. So I will probably have to make some adjustments in the first few weeks. And I don't plan on trying to PR this 1/2. It will be my 3rd 1/2, so I am hoping my time will be somewhere between the other 2 I've ran. So we'll see what happens there.

Resolution four: Selling condo/buying home.
Update: This one is out of my hands. If I had to describe how 2009 has started for me, I'd have to say 'volatile'. I won't go into details but January has been a stressful month for me. Lots of changes on the horizon. 2009 should prove to be an interesting year. I'm no longer looking to purchase in 2009, but I might still try to sell my condo. My realtor is encouraging me to do this now so I have that 'monkey off my back'. I talked about it with my parents (aka my own little board of directors that help me make major decisions of this nature); they agreed that it's probably a good idea to list it and see what happens. I sort of feel like a leaf tossing in the wind when it comes to this resolution. I try not to think about it too much. I need to make a final decision in the next month or so about whether or not to list. We'll see what I end up doing.

So there we have it. 1 resolution off to a great start, 2 off to rough starts, and 1 completely out of my control. Not bad, in my opinion.

*note - I realize this is extremely boring for others to read. It's an exercise I feel I need to do on a monthly basis; I know it is probably only interesting to me. *

No comments: