March was a bit challenging. There were some really great moments, and then some really low moments. All in all, though, it’s one I can look back on and be happy with. It was just one of those slow, busy, tiring, enjoyable months.
The highlights of my month were participating in Run or Dye, meeting Lisa, and Dutch having a clean bill of health.
The low point of my month was dealing with a lot of panic and anxiety due to a work issue. I struggle with Impostor Syndrome a lot and it reared its head big time when I received feedback on something I wrote. It was a bit of constructive criticism and I probably took the email out of proportion and analyzed it more than it needed to be, but the fact remains that it really brought me down for a while and I had to deal with those feelings. I took time away to process and be with my thoughts, and I’m ending the month feeling much better than I did even a week ago. Growing pains, and all that jazz.
The best thing I spent my money on this month was another year of blog hosting through Whiskey Cloud! This is my second Whiskey-versary and I have been super, super happy with their service. I recommend them to anyone!
In March, I wrote about how I’m curbing my spending this year, my process for soothing myself when life gets overwhelming, and 10 things I like about myself.
The progress I made toward my obsessive goal was very little. In March, I had hoped to lose 10 lbs to put me on track to lose 40 lbs this year, but I only lost 3 lbs. Womp, womp. Just have to keep trying and figuring out how to make this work for me!
A habit I would like to change in April is being lazy about exercising. I know, I know – you can’t outexercise a bad diet and I know there are some eating issues I need to rein in, but I also really want to establish a more regular exercise routine. Right now, I’m getting in about 3-4 workouts a week, around 30 minutes, which isn’t terrible, but I know I can do much better than that.
I am looking forward to April because of the DietBet I’m participating in! I think this will be a great motivator for me to get serious about weight loss and drop more than a few pounds before my cruise in early May. (Still time to sign up – go here!)
1. Get to a healthy BMI and lose at least 40 lbs.
I need to lose 3.3 lbs per month to achieve this goal, which means by the end of March, I needed to be down around 10 lbs. Unfortunately, after losing 5 lbs in January, then gaining those 5 lbs back in February, I ended March only down 3 lbs from my starting weight. So I’m off track and in April, I need to lose 10 lbs to get back on pace to make this goal.
2. Pay off my credit cards, start an emergency fund (have at least $1,500 saved), and pay off one school loan.
My plan has been to spend four months tackling one part of this three-part goal. My credit cards are paid off and now I’m working on that emergency fund. I haven’t been able to put as much toward my emergency fund as I would like due to other expenses that popped up in March (more on that in my budget post on Friday!), but I’ll get there. I’m still on track to meet this goal.
3. Read 75 books, including 10 off this list.
I read 8 books in March, putting me at 20 books read this year, so I’m a wee bit ahead of my goal, which is good.
4. Get a tattoo.
No progress made yet. Thinking about doing this as a reward for hitting a certain weight loss number (30 lbs, maybe?).
5. Travel to Miami to attend a Miami Dolphins game.
No progress made yet, waiting on tickets to go on sale sometime this summer.
What was the highlight of your March? Any fun plans on the horizon for you in April?
One of the highlights for my March was watching one of my best friends get married! Other than that, March was challenging financially. 😛
I don’t have ANYTHING planned for April, which I’m excited about. Hopefully this means I can save some money.
I really need to get better about strength training. I hate doing it! That’s my big focus for April. We can do it! Don’t beat yourself up over your obsessive goal. You saw a problem and turned it around! 3 lbs is 3 lbs. You should be proud of that. My reading has been bad lately. I’m just not inspired by any books I have right now. I have six in my cart on thriftbooks.com but I’m really trying to not spend money.
Hmm, the highlight of my March was my half marathon! It was such an incredible experience to PR and to raise money for a cause that is so important to me. I am looking forward to it finally (hopefully) feeling like SPRING in April, along with a fundraiser event, another half marathon and Easter.
You know what? I think losing three pounds is awesome. It’s not an “only,” to me because you worked hard and you lost!
The highlight of my month was at the beginning with the trip to FL to see my childhood BFF. April will be nice because I have a 3-day weekend. I can’t wait to have a day off 🙂
I’m so sorry to hear you had some anxiety struggles this month. I take any kind of criticism hard as well, so I can understand that. I’m glad you are feeling better about the situation now.
Three pounds down is still awesome! Plus you are kicking some serious butt with your reading goals! Way to go! I am behind on my yearly reading goals and need to pick up the pace!
March was a long, hard month for me. There were some good things like my trip to Florida, meeting you, and my trip to Savannah, but there was a whole lot of stress and anxiety. And I got some not so great feedback on my resume from someone who is pretty senior in an area of Wells Fargo which really bugged me because I can not reach back into time and change my work experience…. so yah. I have since learned that I need to let that go and realize that is one person’s opinion. Criticism is tough!
I don’t really have much fun planned in April because I want to be nimble and able to fly home with little notice for an interview if need be. And I don’t want to book trips as I am hoping to get a job offer in April and once that happens I’ll be furiously working on finding an apt in Minneapolis and coordinating a cross country move. But if I don’t get a job offer, then I am going to have a lot of free time on my hands in Charlotte… :/
My goal in April is simply to get back to running three times a week. No speed goals or distance goals or weight goals. I want to make running a habit again. The rest should hopefully fall back into place, I think.
My March was pretty good, actually. I had very little on my calendar actually go through (I had several out of town work trips fall through, hurray!) so I was able to fill it with things that made me happy. I took the kids to a carnival, visited the new Trader Joe’s, made fondue, took Spencer to the antiquarian book fair, watched way too much Frozen. I’m hoping April is more of the same – I have very little even planned so it should be easy! Right? 🙂
I don’t have a book goal this year, but with new books and rereads together, I’m at 40 for the year. I doubt I’ll be able to keep up that pace, but it puts me at a possible 164 for the year, which would be amazing. I’m rereading so many fantastic books, and trying to only read new books that really appeal to me.
I’m SO EXCITED for the DietBet. I have spent the last week away for work and omg I ate so badly. I am actually super excited to majorly clean up my eating for the next month! Thanks for promoting it — we are so close to $6,000! Insane.
I hope April is a better month for you then March. I always find January, February and March to be pretty gloomy but my mood usually picks up in April!
This is a great post and you can definitely be proud of yourself, because you seem very likable 🙂