Hi, friends! Welcome to a brand-new year. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this year and what I hope to accomplish. I have a feeling it’s going to be a big year of growth for me, as I transition to a new role at work and all that will entail. This year, I also want to get serious about saving to buy a house and work towards eating less sugar to stave off any potential type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
This year, I’ve broken my yearly goals list into two sections: my three big goals for the year and 20 “fun” goals to check off in 2022. Let’s dive in!
Three Big Goals
1) Reduce my sugar intake. This is probably the most important goal on this list, as the last time I got blood work done, some of my numbers placed me on the cusp of pre-diabetes. That was two years ago and I haven’t had follow-up bloodwork or put any effort into reducing my sugar intake to improve my numbers. Here’s what I want to do to meet this goal:
- Get bloodwork done at the beginning of the year to give myself a starting point.
- Stop drinking soda (I drink regular soda) at home. If I want to have a soda at a restaurant, that’s ok.
- Drink more water (I’d like to be regularly drinking around 50 ounces a day by the end of the year).
- Eat dessert in moderation (once per day, at most).
- Slowly cut down on the amount of creamer I put in my coffee.
2) Save $4,000 for a down payment. I’ve been perusing apartment listings lately, in the hopes that maybe I could afford a two-bedroom apartment sometime soon. I really want an extra bedroom to use as an office! But rent prices are insane right now. I pay a little less than $1,200 for my one-bedroom apartment, and that’s an absurdly cheap price for an apartment in St. Petersburg. If I were to move, I’d be paying $500 more for a one-bedroom easily. A two-bedroom? I’m looking at $2,000/month. So, I’ve decided it’s time to seriously consider buying a townhome/condo. It’s something I’ve wanted to do, but never thought I’d have the financial means to even put into effect. I don’t plan on buying anytime soon (maybe in another 2-3 years), but I need to get serious about saving for my down payment. I have an aggressive goal of saving $4,000 this year, equating to $333 a month. It will be challenging, but doable.
3) Reorganize my blogging categories/tags. I’ve long been annoyed by my category/tag system with my blog, as I don’t think they’re set up in a functional way to be useful. This is going to be quite the undertaking as I’m closing in on 1,800 blog posts, eeeeeks. Here’s my plan:
- Q1 (January-March): Go through all blog posts from 2009-2015 and list them out in a spreadsheet, assigning each a category and tags.
- Q2 (April-June): Go through all blog posts from 2016-2022 and list them out in a spreadsheet, assigning each a category and tags.
- Q3 (July-September): Assess the categories and narrow the list to 10 categories. Also assess the tags to find any patterns. Begin recategorizing/retagging my posts, starting with 2009-2012.
- Q4 (October-December): Finish recategorizing/retagging posts.
20 Fun Goals
1) Buy a new mattress. My current mattress is 10+ years old so it’s definitely time for an upgrade. A new mattress is such an expense, but considering how much time I spend in my bed, it is definitely worth shelling out the money for a quality mattress.
2) Complete the 2022 Unread Shelf Project. I wasn’t sure if Whitney was going to run the 2022 Unread Shelf Project because, before last week, she hadn’t posted to her blog or Instagram since May. I was so excited when she posted the 2022 project (and relieved that all was well with her and her family!) I am definitely attempting this reading challenge for the third year in a row. Yay!
3) Read all of the books added to my Goodreads TBR in 2017. Since I wasn’t sure if Whitney was going to run her reading challenge this year, I came up with my own. Then, after I found out that there was going to be a 2022 Unread Shelf Project, I had a conundrum on my hands: Which reading challenge to tackle? In the end, I decided to do both! Why not?! I have 21 books on my Goodreads TBR that have been languishing there since 2017 and I’m determined to read them all this year. The list includes:
- Columbine by Dave Cullen
- I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
- All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
- Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
- Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity Is Killing Young Women by Jessica Valenti
- Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
- Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
- The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
- A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
- Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
- How to Be a Person in the World: Ask Polly’s Guide Through the Paradoxes of Modern Life by Heather Havrilesky
- Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America by Jeff Chu
- Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon
- Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley
- The Nix by Nathan Hill
- The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord
4) Do 100 Peloton workouts. Spin classes, strength training, yoga… it all counts! This amounts to about 8 classes a month, which will allow me to add in a few long walks to my workout routine. A very doable goal!
5) Restart my novel. I have had a dream to write my own novel since I was a little girl, and I was working toward that goal on and off for many years. But then I just got burned out and annoyed with myself for not having a clear idea of the novel I wanted to write, even though I’d been working on it for so long. It’s been over a year since I set down my manuscript and now… I’m feeling the urge to get back to it. I’m feeling the spark of a new idea, the excitement of diving back into the world I created. I’m going to keep my 2022 writing goal easy for myself: all I have to do is restart my novel. Maybe that’s spending one hour a month on it, maybe that’s using my weekly writing dates to get back to it, whatever feels good to me.
6) Go back to therapy. I’ve been wanting to go back to therapy for a while now, but the cost was holding me back. I’m on a high-deductible insurance plan, so each session was going to be around $150 and that just wasn’t doable for me. When my company announced that one of the perks they added to our health insurance plan was 36 FREE therapy sessions, I was astounded and relieved and excited. Back to therapy I go!
7) Watch 12 movies. I watched a grand total of three movies in 2021. I’m just not someone who naturally gravitates to movies, but there are so many I want to see that I haven’t gotten around to. I’m giving myself an easy goal of watch 12 movies (one per month!) this year. What’s a movie you loved recently?
8) Watch 6 TV series. Another thing I’m really bad at is watching new TV. Last year, the only new shows I watched were The Crown, Bridgerton, and Superstore (still not finished with that one). So I’m challenging myself to finish six new-to-me shows this year. I’m thinking I’ll cross off Younger, Jane the Virgin, Ted Lasso, How I Met Your Mother, Only Murders in the Building, and The Queen’s Gambit. Tell me your recommendations!
9) Visit NYC at Christmastime. I’ve always wanted to visit NYC and I’ve especially wanted to visit it during the holiday season, even though I know it will be coooold for this Florida girl. I think I’m going to make it happen this year! (Depending on Covid, of course.)
10) Get my third tattoo. I really want to make this happen in 2022! I have a special idea for a tattoo to commemorate my grandma.
11) Walk one 5k a month, in a different place each time. There are so many great parks and walking trails around me, and I rarely take advantage of them. This goal will be a fun way to get outside and do some exploring.
12) Redo my bathroom. I love doing a simple redesign of my bathroom. This mainly entails getting a new shower curtain and replacing the rugs and towels to match the curtain. I may try to get something up on the walls, too, and perhaps add a shelf. We’ll see!
13) Get microdermabrasion or laser treatment—whatever is the better option for dealing with my acne scars. I’ve been doing a multi-step skincare routine for over a year now and getting quarterly facials and my skin has greatly improved. But I still have these light (probably noticeable only to me) acne scars around my chin and cheeks and I’d like to look into microdermabrasian or laser treatment to take care of them, whichever my dermatologist believes is the best option.
14) Read Moby-Dick. Every year, I pick a classic to read using the Serial Reader app (which sends you a short, 10-15 minute “issue” of the novel every day). In 2020, I read Anna Karenina and last year, I read The Count of Monte Cristo. This year, I’m going to tackle Moby-Dick! Anna Karenina was 159 issues and Monte Cristo was 208, so Moby-Dick’s 79 issues will feel so easy in comparison, ha.
15) Go on one date a month. Just a fun goal to make sure I’m putting myself out there and going on dates!
16) Put an extra $1,000 toward my car loan. I’d love to pay my car loan off way earlier than expected, and that entails putting a few extra payments toward the loan this year.
17) Make 12 new recipes. One recipe a month! Seems doable enough.
18) Make a recipe book. I have a bad habit of making a recipe, loving it, and then forgetting about it completely. I also have a bad habit of falling into food ruts, eating the same food every week. A recipe book (probably something digital) would be super helpful for me, giving me an easy place to draw inspiration from when I’m coming up with my meal plan every week!
19) Cut gluten out of my diet for one month. I’m very curious about my gluten sensitivity and how my body would react to me fully cutting out gluten for one month. I would miss bread (so much!) but it’s a food experiment I need to do.
20) Buy a coffee table and a floor lamp. Two more things my apartment needs! I have my eye on this coffee table from Wayfair and this floor lamp from Target.
Do you have any goals for 2022?
I love these goals! I also am aiming for one new recipe a month. So far, I’ve done it! I mean, I made one new recipe. Ha! I have all these cookbooks and I rarely use them, instead I just freestyle. So, I’m trying new things! I think all these goals are so sensible and I think you can do them!
I wanted to say that my husband had to cut down on sugar – I think it was probably almost 13 years ago – due to high triglyceride numbers. It was tricky at first but now it’s just second nature. He still eats sugary things occasionally, but a lot less, and it’s really helped his bloodwork.
This seems so ambitious! Good luck with all of it!! I’ve repeatedly tried the “new recipe a month” goal and have failed for two years running, so I think I’m just going to have to admit that I’m not going to do it. Ha!
Oh, I forgot! I think Derry Girls (available on Netflix) is a pretty charming coming-of-age comedy about a group of friends in Ireland at the time of the Troubles. There are two (short) seasons, so it would be a great way to help with the television goal. I also am forever recommending Taskmaster (most seasons available on YouTube), but there are 12 seasons – I think you should watch season 2 or 4 to start to see if you like it. 🙂
These are such fabulous goals!! I think the TV series you’ve picked are excellent ones.
I didn’t make it a real goal, but I am trying to drink more water… and it is SO HARD. I hope it gets easier and that I eventually have to pee less haha!
Yeah resolutions. I cannot believe housing prices in general. I think getting yourself a nice townhouse or condo is an excellent goal. A show I was recently called “Young and Hungry” on Netflix. My hubby and I have burned through four seasons and are looking (sadly) at the last season. Very cute – very lighthearted – very romcom.
These are great goals! I like how you keep things reasonable- like instead of vowing to exercise every single day, you’ll do 100 Peloton workouts. A lot of goals are too ambitious and then people abandon them. For your big goal of cutting down on sugar, i have a suggestion- make sure you have replacements for the times you would normally be eating something sugary. LIKE, non-sweetened fizzy water like La Croix to have at home instead of soda. I used to love soda, but now I love my La Croix and don’t miss soda at all. I think you’ll find that an easy switch to make, and it will cut down on your sugar drastically. Good luck with it!
I love how you broke up your goals in three big ones and 10 smaller ones – some will be a “one-and-done”-deal and some you’ll be chipping away at. I think that is a good mix – long term changes with some instant gratification goals thrown it.
Good luck with the sugar goal – I know that is a huge thing for so many people and I think Jenny’s suggestion is great to have “substitutes” at hand, when you usually would reach for a soda or candy. It’s really – like with the exercise – a matter of habit.
Jon and I have slowly but surely changed our eating habits quite a bit over the last year and he’s been saying how he doesn’t even crave certain things anymore. He was also at the cusp of being pre-diabetic and it really motivated him to cut certain things.
Also good luck with your saving goal for a down payment. Rent is getting ridiculous (not just in FL).
I was curious how many 2017 adds were on my TBR so I counted – 18! That is a cool goal and if you don’t ever feel drawn to read a book from that list, it means it needs to come off your TBR!
You know I am going to suggest you try The Great British Baking Show! I didn’t think I’d like it and I ended up loving! I”m also starting to watch Younger and it’s really delightful. I love that the episodes are short – like around 20 min.
If you have any questions when you try to cut out gluten, hit me up! Iowa Girl Eats is my fave GF blog. I think you may know about it already but if not, check it out!
I can’t believe the rental market! I am so out of touch with ours, but when I owned a condo up until 2018, I was charging like $950 for a 1 bedroom, and that included cable and all utilities like water, sewer, garbage, etc. And covered parking. But that was the market at that time, and it was in the suburbs. I’m sure the rent is higher now, though!
What a great list! I am really excited you are starting to save for home ownership down the road, and you feel like restarting your novel work 🙂
Hey! You don’t have to watch TV or Movies. Do what YOU want. But I do think you’d like King Richard. If you need movie ideas, hit me up. We watch A TON of them. And of course, you get recs from the Popcast.
NYC at Christmastime is so magical! We were able to go a few years because our friends lived there. You will love it. Bring a warm coat 🙂
My goal for 2022 is to get back to regular long (double digit, 10+ mile) runs, which starts with me eating better – not binge eating, and losing some weight so I can safely do those runs. I hope to be starting them up in the late spring or early summer and sticking with them through the rest of the year 🙂 My body needs it, and my mind needs that time too. And I love being in nature 🙂
Wonderful goals! I hear you on the apartment thing. I debate whether to move to a bigger apartment, or buy, but then I get skittish because as much as I love what I do and where I live now… who’s to say that will be true in 3 years? I have some Big Career Milestones coming up in the next few years, so my goal is to stay put (with my better-than-market rent, even with annual increases) until at least 2025. I will look forward to seeing how things turn out for you!
One more thought on the avoiding diabetes goal – I was diagnosed with an atypical form of type 2 diabetes years ago and initially had to manage with diet, exercise, and meds. (Turns out that I don’t actually have to do that, but it’s a long story…) One thing that helped me was identifying my habits/triggers. For example, when I hit a mental roadblock while working? I’d head to the pantry for literally a handful of Annie’s chocolate graham bunnies. Not good. So I had to replace that habit with something else. I suspect you’re already doing this but it really helped me! Take care… and I’ll be cheering you on! You got this.