It’s hard to believe that the last quarter of 2021 starts on Friday. Where did this year go? However, I’m not complaining because we’re entering my favorite time of the year and I can’t wait for all of the fun holiday festivities to kick into high gear. Bring on the pumpkins and Thanksgiving and the Christmas decorations. I’m ready for all of it!

Here are a few of the goals I’ll be working on this month:

1) Get my third tattoo. Next Friday (the 8th) will mark 6 years since my grandma passed away, and I would like to honor that day by getting my third tattoo since it’s one I’m getting in her memory. It feels funny to say that because it’s not like my grandma would be all too thrilled for me to get a tattoo, but it’s something I’ve wanted for a while and I just need to book the dang appointment finally!

2) Keep ice water at my desk all day long. One of my yearly goals is to become a regular water drinker and I have not accomplished that goal yet. There are still three months left in 2021, though, so I can try to get closer to the goal than I am right now. The original goal I set for myself back in January to help me form a more regular water-drinking habit was to always keep water nearby while I’m working. I think that’s really how to form a habit like this: finding natural opportunities to add water to my life. So let’s see if I can make this oh-so-simple goal happen. I’m not even asking myself to, like, drink an entire bottle of water during my workday; I just want to have it nearby to sip on when I get thirsty.

3) Log my food every day on My Fitness Pal. I’ve been having a lot of complicated feelings these days about my body, mostly in the stuff I’m realizing it can’t do. It’s something I want to talk about in a blog post, but every time I try to get my thoughts out, it turns into gibberish. It’s hard when I love the body I have and I have made so much progress with my self-esteem to get to this place and I’m all about fat positivity… but I also know that to do the sorts of things I want to do, I need to lose weight because my body physically cannot do it at the size it’s at. Anyway, hopefully, I’ll get my thoughts in order to write about it. But one of the things I want to start doing is being more mindful of what I’m eating and that starts with logging my food, even though it’s tedious and annoying.

4) Clean my goddamn oven. Will this goal ever get done? Sure it will! I’m going to do it in October. I WILL. I PROMISE.

5) Dress up for Halloween. I haven’t dressed up for Halloween in quite some time, and since I’m going to be handing out candy to kiddos at my mom’s house like I did last year, I want to dress up in something fun. Usually, I opt for something “punny” but that’s usually because I’m trying to find a costume at the last minute and those are easy to throw together. We’ll see what I come up with!

Do you have any goals for October? Are you dressing up for Halloween? 

Ah, goal-setting. My favorite thing to think about at the beginning of each month! I just love the process of setting monthly goals and having something to strive for each month, even if it’s something small. I’ve decided to change up my goal-setting starting in July: setting five simple goals and then having three recurring goals. This process felt a lot easier to me and I think I’ll be able to focus on my goals much more easily now. That’s the hope, at least.

In June, I only completed four out of the 10 goals I set, so it’s not my best showing but not my worst. Ya win some, ya lose some!

1) Log 10 Peloton workouts. Complete! I could have logged an 11th workout on Tuesday, but I opted to go for a long walk outside instead. I haven’t hit this goal for the past two months so it feels really good to be back on the Peloton train.

2) Walk 4,000 steps per day (5,000 on workout days). Not complete. I managed this 20 out of 30 days.

3) Drink water every day. Complete! This was an easy goal to complete, mostly because I didn’t force myself into a specific measurement like drinking X amount of ounces per day. Still, I’m proud of myself for drinking water every day, even if it was just a little bit, because there are days (weeks?) I don’t drink any at all. I KNOW.

4) Go on a date. Complete! Wahoo! I went on a wonderful first date this week and we have a second one planned for tonight. <3

5) Eat at least 75% of my meals at home. Complete! I actually ate 83% of my meals at home! What what!

6) Clean my oven. Ugh, no. I just do not have any motivation to get this done, but it really needs to happen.

7) Go to bed at 9pm. Nope, this most definitely did not happen this month. I need to do a better job at turning off the TV/shutting down the laptop at a reasonable hour so I can start my evening routine and be in bed by 9. I didn’t make it a priority this month.

8) Stretch my back every morning. Not complete, ugh. I need to be better about doing my sciatica stretches but I get lazy.

9) Complete one unit of Google Analytics. Lol, no. This isn’t getting done until my workload dramatically decreases.

10) Take my car in for a checkup. After thinking about this goal, I ultimately decided there isn’t a point in seeing if my car needs any repairs. For one, it’s running fine and for another, I’m definitely not putting any money into a 16-year-old car so why do I need to find out if it needs any repairs? So, not complete.

July Goals

1) Drink one soda per day. Soda is forever and always my #1 vice. One soda per day is very reasonable and it helps me sleep better at night, too, so that’s a win/win.

2) Clean my oven. Rollover goal. Will I ever get this done? Time will tell.

3) Eat at least 90% of my meals at home. I did so well with my restaurant goal last month that I decided to up the ante. I want to get my food budget under $500 (to accommodate the rise in rent starting in September) and that means developing a habit of eating more meals at home.

4) Renew my passport. My passport has been expired since March, but I haven’t been too worried about renewing it with COVID and all of that. But I need to get this taken care of anyway and it’s an easy thing to accomplish!

5) Sketch out my tattoo design and make a plan for getting it done. I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a very specific idea for my tattoo that I need to get on paper. It’s too hard to describe! I’m hoping to give a rough idea to my tattoo artist and they can take that terrible drawing and make it what I want it to be. I also want to set the tattoo appointment because, otherwise, I’m just going to let this idea lag on and on, and I’m so ready to get it done.

Recurring monthly goals:

1) Log 10 Peloton workouts/work out 3 times per week.

2) Walk 4,000-5,000 steps daily.

3) Go to bed at 9pm Sunday-Thursday.

What’s a nagging task that you need to take care of? (Mine is definitely that damn oven.) Let’s encourage each other to get it done this month!

Well, May was a historically bad month for goals for me. I completed 1 out of the 10 goals I set! Hoo boy. It was an odd month, as I was out of my normal routine for a full week while I was dog-sitting Chip and that just seemed to really derail me. It happens! It taught me that I need to account for the times when I’m going to be out of my normal routine when making my monthly goals. Anyway, let’s review:

1) Log 10 Peloton workouts. Not complete. I logged 6 this month. I didn’t work out for two weeks in the middle of the month, which contributed to not being able to get in my 10 workouts.

2) Walk 4,000 steps every day (5,000 on workout days). Not complete. I managed this 10 out of 31 days. For the two weeks I didn’t work out, I also didn’t wear my Fitbit. But I got back on the Fitbit horse at the end of the month at least!

3) Clean my oven. Not complete. I just kept putting this off until surprise! It was June. Oops.

4) Go on a date. Not complete. It’s hard to go on a date when I only opened Bumble three times this month. Oops. I am just not very motivated to date, lol.

5) Never leave home without a bottle of water. Not complete. OMG, I am so bad at remembering to bring water with me when I leave home! Like, every single time I left home, I would remember that I had forgotten my water bottle when I was halfway to my destination. Maybe I need to put a sticky note on my door? Ha. It’s just not a habit for me to do this and it needs to be. !

6) Go to bed at 9 pm. I didn’t follow my new nighttime routine as well as I wanted to (it was much more difficult when I was dog-sitting Chip and during the last week of May when I was working late almost every day), but when I was able to follow it, I was really happy to be in bed by 9 p.m.

7) Get all caught up on The Count of Monte Cristo. Complete! I didn’t get all caught up until the last day of the month, but considering that, at one point, I was 10 issues behind, I’m proud of myself for getting there.

8) Stretch my back every morning. Not complete. I was doing well but then got sidetracked when I had to dog-sit Chip and never got back on track.

9) Finish one unit of Google Analytics. Not complete. Oops. Work was just ridiculously busy this month and I didn’t have time to even open up the course.

10) Complete a one-week spending freeze. Not complete. I actually forgot I made this goal until I was inputting this list into this post. Whoops.

June Goals

1) Log 10 Peloton workouts. Hoping I can make this happen in June!

2) Walk 4,000 steps every day (5,000 on workout days). I think this is my sweet spot for steps so this will a recurring monthly goal.

3) Drink water every day. I’m going to try to make this super, super easy for me. I just want to drink water every day. It can be a full bottle of water or it can be a small glass I have right before bed.

4) Go on a date. Rollover goal.

5) Eat at least 75% of my meals at home. I haven’t met my food budget goal for the last two months and that’s mostly due to the amount of takeout I eat. Hopefully, by challenging myself to eat takeout only 25% of the time (which will be vaaaastly lower than what I’m doing now, eeks), that can help me rein in my spending.

6) Clean my oven. Rollover goal.

7) Go to bed at 9 p.m. This may become another recurring monthly goal for me because I want to strive to have a better evening routine and not fall back into a pattern of being up past 11.

8) Stretch my back every morning. Rollover goal.

9) Complete one unit of Google Analytics. Rollover goal.

10) Take my car in for a checkup. It’s finally time! My car has finally hit the mileage needed for an oil change, so I’m going to schedule an inspection sometime this month.

Once again, it’s time for a check-in on the goals I set for myself in April and set 10 new ones for May (or mostly new ones). I didn’t do very well this month; it was a really busy month with work and a lot of goals were pushed to the wayside because of it. Let’s hope I can do better in May.

April Goals

1) Schedule a car checkup. Not complete. I’m still 500 miles away from needing an oil change, so maybe I’ll save this goal for June.

2) Walk 4,000 steps every day. Mostly complete (22/30). There were a few rainy days where I couldn’t get outside for a walk and a few lazy days where I just didn’t feel like wearing my Fitbit, but in general, I got ‘er done. I’m proud of myself for that!

3) Become Google Analytics certified. Not complete. I didn’t even do one lesson this month, oops.

4) Drink water with dinner every night. Not complete. I didn’t keep track of this goal, but I maybe did it half of the time? I have gotten better about keeping water near me while I’m working and I usually drink 20-30 ounces during the day. Not nearly enough as I should be getting, but better than the 0 ounces I sometimes have.

5) I’ve been considering broadening my expertise, and one idea that’s caught my attention is working to earn a sports nutrition certification. As I continue to use My Fitness Pal to track my dietary intake, I see an opportunity to expand my knowledge and skill set in this area. It’s a positive step forward that aligns with my interests and goals, including my newfound passion for pickleball. Additionally, I’m excited to delve into the intricacies of the game by exploring a comprehensive guide to pickleball.

6) Get my COVID vaccine. Complete! Done and done.

7) Log 10 Peloton workouts. Not complete. I logged 8 workouts this month. It was a busy month with work and I also just didn’t make time for working out like I should have.

8) Create a daily schedule to use Monday-Thursday. Not complete. I did this some days and it worked out really well for me, but then stopped using it when work got really busy and I was just trying to keep my head above water.

9) Rearrange my desk. Complete! I did this very early in April and I am so glad I did. I didn’t realize how much it would open up my living room or how much I would enjoy looking out the window during the day. Plus, the girls love sitting near the window and looking outside.

10) Do a Goodwill drop. Complete! It was so good to get this done.

May Goals

1) Log 10 Peloton workouts. This will be a regular goal. I like having something like this to strive for. It feels challenging, but not out of reach. Hopefully one day I can bump this goal to 12 or 15 workouts per month!

2) Walk 4,000 steps every day (5,000 steps on workout days). Getting 4,000 steps every day still feels like a challenging goal, especially on the days I don’t work out. So I don’t want to set myself up for failure by bumping up my step goal by another 1,000 steps. Instead, I’d like to shoot for that 5,000 number on workout days, which should be fairly achievable.

3) Clean my oven. A task I hate, but it needs to be done.

4) Go on a date. I’ll be fully vaccinated this month (May 13th is two weeks post-second shot) and I think it’s time to re-enter the dating world seriously this time. I just hope Bumble has added a “vaccinated people only” filter to their app. 😉

5) Never leave home without a bottle of water. I bought a special insulated, spill-proof water bottle that I can just stick in my bag so that I always have water when I’m out and about. I have a friend who ALWAYS brings water with her wherever she goes and I want to ingrain this habit in me as well. Especially right now, since it’s so hot and humid already in Florida and I need to stay hydrated when I’m outside!

6) Go to bed at 9 p.m. I mentioned this in my Currently post last week, but I’ve been trying hard to start my nighttime routine earlier in the evening so that I can be in bed by 9 p.m. I’m not asleep by 9—I just want to be in bed reading and/or watching ASMR videos on YouTube to wind down. I want to make this a focus of May so that it can become a habit!

7) Get all caught up on The Count of Monte Cristo. I haven’t been very consistent with reading my daily issue of TCMC and, right now, I’m about 10 issues behind. I’d like to get all caught up on the back issues and then make time every day to read my daily issue. It never takes longer than 10 minutes, but it’s easy to get out of the habit.

8) Stretch my lower back every morning. Oh, that sciatica of mine. While my monthly massages help, I should really be doing daily sciatica stretches as well as heat/cold therapy at least a few times a week. I’d like to challenge myself this month to spend about 10-15 minutes per day stretching out my lower back to hopefully mitigate some of the sciatica issues I’ve been experiencing. And I definitely want to start icing my back or using a heating pad when the pain is particularly noticeable.

9) Finish one unit of Google Analytics. Okay, so I know that challenging myself to finish the next three units to become Google Analytics certified is not an achievable goal for me. One unit (which equates to six lessons) this month is the goal!

10) Complete a one-week spending freeze. I’ll probably do this at the end of this month. It will be a good exercise for me. (And yes, this will include not eating out, eeks!)

Do you have any goals for May?