Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | July 2022

Well, my June goals did not go as planned. Not even a little bit. I guess I didn’t really factor in the fact that I would be away from everyday life for a full week, which means I felt very behind when I came back from my vacation in mid-June. And then I got Covid and decided: the goals can wait. Even so, let’s see how I did this month (spoiler alert: it ain’t pretty.)

June Goals

1) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. Not complete. I think I probably did good at the beginning of the month and fell off drastically in the second half of the month when I got Covid.

2) Review 2020 and 2021 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Not complete. I am still categorizing the second half of 2021.

3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Not complete. I mean, duh.

4) Update all of my blog pages. Not complete. I was able to finally update my About Me page, but I still need to update my travel page, sidebar photo, and sidebar verbiage.

5) Build a website for our podcast + work on social media posts. Not complete. I think I am going to wait until the podcast has launched to build a website (I was spending way too much time trying to build one on Squarespace, and I think there’s an easier option out there). But I do need to get cracking on the social media posts!

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 10:45pm every night. Not complete. I mean, probably wasn’t the best idea to have this goal when I was planning on being off work for two weeks. Ha.

7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2013-2016. Complete! Look at that, I did something this month. I have started the process of migrating, deleting, and organizing all of the many, many photos I have taken on my phone over the past decade. It is going to be a process for sure. I’m using Google Photos for my photo organization. I like that my photos automatically upload to their app and that I can delete photos from my phone but they will stay in the app. It would be awesome to someday have, like, 100 photos in my iPhone photos app because scrolling through thousands and thousands of photos to get to the one I want is something that annoys me so much.

8) Research digital recipe book options. Nope, nope, nope.

9) Go for three 5K walks. Nope, nope, nope.

10) Eat one serving of fruit every day. Umm, maybe a handful of times in June.

July Goals

1) 31 Peloton workouts in 31 days. I’m really excited about this goal. It doesn’t mean I have to work out every day (because, let’s face it, some days I just want to be lazy). It just means I need to record 31 Peloton workouts of 20 minutes or more in the month of July.

2) Finish categorizing 2021 blog posts + figure out the 10 categories I want to use when recategorizing my blog posts. A smaller goal for this month.

3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Back on the list it goes.

4) Finish updating all of my blog pages. Third time’s the charm, right?

5) Work on our podcast cover art + social media posts. I really need to make this a priority in July since we’re hopefully launching our podcast in early August. Eeps!

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 10:45pm every night. Let’s see if I can get back to a better bedtime routine in July. Here’s hoping, at least!

7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2017-2019. This is such an easy goal for me because I can do it while listening to a podcast so it’s kinda soothing.

8) Clear out my junk bin. I have this basket in my closet that is my “I’ll deal with it later” bin. It includes papers that need to be filed, odds and ends that I either need to get rid of or figure out where to store, etc. If it’s something I don’t have the energy to deal with at the time, it goes into my junk bin. Whenever the bin starts to overflow, that’s when it’s time to sit down with it and clear it out. It’s that time.

9) Go for at least two 5K walks. Man, it’s getting harder and harder to get these 5K walks done because it’s just so damn hot. (And I feel silly saying that when Jenny is out there, running double-digit miles in the heat. I don’t know how she does it!) I just need to commit to waking up early and getting the walk done before the heat is too intense.

10) Buy some new bras. Does anyone else hate buying new bras? I usually buy bras from ThirdLove and since they’re so expensive, I wait until they have literally fallen apart to replace them. Well, the underwire in one of my bras snapped in two this week, so it’s probably time to replace my bras. (Also, while I am happy with ThirdLove bras, I’m also interested to know if you have a bra you love that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg!)

Do you have any goals for July?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | June 2022

It’s a new month, and a month I’ve been very much looking forward to because I’m taking two weeks off work in June. Woohoo! I am looking forward to spending one week on vacation with my mom and one week on staycation with my kitties. A good month indeed.

Let’s dive into my progress report on my May goals and set some new intentions for June, shall we?

May Goals

1) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. (19/31) I’m still not moving my body every day (and I moved my body a little less in May than I did in April), but averaging four workouts a week is better than zero workouts a week, right?

2) Review 2018 and 2019 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete! One more month of categorizing and then it’s time to get to revising posts, eeks.

3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. (9/31) Last month, I only did this 6 days out of the month and this month, I did it 9 days so look at that improvement!

4) Update all of my blog pages. Not complete. I decided to work on this during my time off in June.

5) Try to trim the girls’ claws. Not complete. I just didn’t feel like traumatizing the girls, and so many of you told me you don’t trim your cats’ claws so it made me feel better about not doing so.

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 11pm every night. Complete! I am proud of myself for making this goal a priority in May. I’m still not getting as much sleep as I need, but it’s progress toward the bigger goal.

7) Find three tattoo artists to call. Complete! While I didn’t select the three tattoo artists, I did find exactly where I want to get my next tattoo and that’s good enough for me.

8) Research digital recipe book options. Not complete. A project for June!

9) Go for three 5K walks. I only went for one 5K walk in June, womp womp.

10) Eat one serving of fruit every day. I did not do this every day. I did this maybe 1-2 times a week. But hey, that’s better than I did in previous months. Progress is progress!

June Goals

1) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. I really love striving for this goal! Hoping to hit that 30-day milestone in June.

2) Review 2020 and 2021 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Last month of categorizing!

3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. One day, I’m going to laugh at myself for needing to make this a goal. Right???

4) Update all of my blog pages. This will be a wonderful goal to work on in June when I have a week off to myself.

5) Build a website for our podcast + work on social media posts. Our goal is to release our trailer episode the last week of June and to officially launch our podcast the first week of July. Eeks! It’s all happening!

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 10:45pm every night. Like I mentioned in my post yesterday, my goal is to slowly push forward my bedtime by small, 15-minute increments until I’m going to bed by 10:00 every night. So the goal for June is to strive for a 10:45 p.m. bedtime!

7) Organize my iPhone photos from 2013-2016. I really want to declutter the photos on my phone. I hate having thousands of photos on there and it can be so hard to find the photos I’m looking for, even though I love the search feature on iPhone Photos. I spend time every week deleting photos (I try to delete 100 photos a week; I take a ton of photos of the cats or Chip/Lucy in the same position because you have to take MANY photos to get that one perfect one). I’d like to remove all of the photos from my Photos app and just have them live in Google Photos, as long as I can easily grab the photos if I want them. I’m going to spend some time playing around and hopefully, I can archive all of my iPhone photos from 2013-2016 and put them in albums that I can easily search when I need them.

8) Research digital recipe book options. I didn’t do this in May, so it’s on the list for June!

9) Go for three 5K walks. I need to go on three 5K walks in June to make up for the two 5Ks I missed in March and April. Good thing I have lots of time off this month! (Although, I seem to keep adding things to do during my time off: updating my blog, putting together a website for the podcast, organizing my photos. Oof!)

10) Eat one serving of fruit every day. Back on the list for June. Here’s hoping I do better at this goal this month!

Do you have any goals for June?

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | May 2022

It’s my favorite time of the month! It’s time to assess how I did on my April goals and set some new intentions for May. Let’s do this!

April Goals

1) Have a no-spend month. Somewhat complete. I didn’t spend money on any purchases, but I did use Ubereats a few times, womp. However, I used it much less often (in Q1, I averaged $142 a month in Ubereats orders and in April, I spent just under $80!) so that’s a win for me.

2) Reorganize my Google Drive. Complete! It is so nice to have all of my documents organized into their folders and to not have dozens and dozens of untitled documents and spreadsheets floating around.

3) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. (25/30) Well, I didn’t move my body every day but I did move it more days than I didn’t, and I’m considering that a win. This month, I did 11 long walks, 10 spin classes, and 4 strength workouts.

4) Review 2016 and 2017 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete!

5) Take the dogs to Salty Paws in Dunedin. Complete! The dogs couldn’t eat their ice cream fast enough. We’ll be back!

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. I did this 6 days out of 30. Maybe in May, I can get to 10 days?

7) Make a doctor’s appointment. Not complete. I really hate being on an HMO insurance plan, bleh. I had to pay $225 out of pocket for my mole removal and another $150 for my emergency dental cleaning in April, and I know a regular doctor’s visit is at least $100 out of pocket (and who knows how much more things would be if I needed to see a PT for my leg pain). So I decided to put off the doctor’s visit for now. My HSA took a beating in April!

8) Eliminate red meat. Ugh, no. I eliminated it from my homemade nachos, switching to ground turkey. But giving up pepperoni pizza is going to be the hardest thing for me to do. 🙁

9) Decide on my tattoo design. Complete! While I haven’t sketched out the design (I have no artistic ability when it comes to drawing and there’s no way I could sketch out something like this, lol), I do have a few photos to show the tattoo artist when the time comes and I’m confident they’ll be able to turn my vision into reality.

10) Make an extra car payment. Complete! I am so proud of myself for making this happen. Financial goals are so, so hard for me.

May Goals

1) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. I really like this goal, even if there are some days when the last thing I want to do is work out or even go for a walk outside. I’m not someone naturally inclined toward exercise, so I need strict goals like these.

2) Review 2018 and 2019 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Another month, another blog categorization goal. I’m nearing the finish line of the first part of this massive goal!

3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Still not a habit, still on the list.

4) Update all of my blog pages. I recently noticed that a lot of my blog pages are out of date. I don’t even have my last cruise (from 2019!) on my Cruising page and the “about me” widget on my sidebar says I’m 32 still. Oops. Time for a refresh!

5) Try to trim the girls’ claws. Eloise will usually let me trim her claws but the last time I tried to corral Lila for a trim, it was a traumatic experience for the both of us so I haven’t attempted it again. They both use the numerous scratching pads around the apartment and their claws don’t grow long enough to irritate their footpad, but I would like to get into a monthly cadence of trimming their claws. So here we go, I’m going to attempt this sometime in May and see what happens.

6) Be in bed, lights out, at 11pm every night. My ideal bedtime is between 9:30-10:00, but since I am regularly going to bed at midnight on weeknights, I know I need to start with an incremental change. In May, I want to turn the lights out by 11pm. That means if I don’t get into bed until 11, I don’t get to read and play on my phone until midnight. It means I go directly to bed.

7) Find three tattoo artists to call. Breaking up a big goal like “get a new tattoo” is much easier when I break down each step into smaller goals. So my next goal is to find three tattoo artists I like. Bonus points if I call them for a consultation!

8) Research digital recipe book options. One of my goals this year is to put together a recipe book so that I can have an easy place to find the recipes I love. Right now, I don’t have any sort of system so I often make a recipe, love it, and promptly forget about it. I don’t think a physical recipe book would work for me so I’m hoping there are some digital options available.

9) Go for three 5K walks. I am wayyy behind on my goal of walking one 5K every month. I missed doing a 5K in both March and April, so now I need to triple up in May. Thankfully, my weekends won’t be too busy this month so I think I can get all of these walks in, as long as I prioritize them.

10) Eat one serving of fruit every day. A small, simple change. I think I can handle this!

Categories: Goals

2022 Goals | Q1 Recap

Happy Friday, friends! It has been a doozy of a week and I am excited for a relatively low-key weekend around here.

Since we’re settling into the second quarter of the year, I wanted to take some time to look back on my 2022 annual goals and report on my progress.

Three Big Goals

1) Reduce my sugar intake. Here are the things I wanted to do to reduce my sugar intake:

  • Get bloodwork done at the beginning of the year to give myself a starting point. Complete! I got bloodwork done in January. My glucose and A1C numbers are on the high end of normal and my cholesterol was on the low end of high.
  • Stop drinking soda at home. I have cut down to drinking smaller cans of soda (7.5 ounces) and I try my best to only have one of those a day. I’d like to get better about only drinking one can per day in Q2.
  • Drink more water. Ugh, no. This is still such a struggle for me.
  • Eat dessert in moderation. This is the area I’d really like to work on in Q2. I consume an incredible amount of sugar in my desserts. I like chocolate candies after lunch, a sweet treat to munch on in the afternoon, and, of course, that delicious after-dinner dessert. My goal is to have just 1-2 pieces of dark chocolate candy after lunch and my after-dinner dessert. That’s a starting point.
  • Cut down on the amount of creamer in my coffee. My coffee creamer doesn’t have a ton of added sugar (5g per tablespoon) but I could do a better job of having less of it.

2) Save $4,000 for a down payment. Ugh, barely any progress made. And I really need to get serious about this goal because every time I look at rent prices around me, I want to cry. (A coworker just told me she’s moving to a new apartment and her rent for a one-bedroom will be $2,200—utilities not included. All of the curse words!!)

3) Reorganize my blogging categories/tags. I set myself a specific goal for each quarter to tackle this massive goal. In Q1, I wanted to work through my blog posts from 2009-2015 and start a spreadsheet to list out each blog post and label the post with a specific category and some tags. I got that done, although it has turned into a much bigger project than I was expecting. Whew.

20 Fun Goals

1) Buy a new mattress. Not yet complete. I will likely get this done in Q3.

2) Complete the 2022 Unread Shelf Project. In progress. So far, I’ve read:

  • January (the book you’ve been putting off reading): The English Wife by Lauren Willig ★★★☆☆
  • February (a title you couldn’t resist): Wordslut by Amanda Montell ★★★☆☆
  • March (a memoir or biography): Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling ★★★★☆

3) Read all of the books added to my Goodreads TBR in 2017. (6/21) I need to read 5-6 books on this list per quarter to meet this goal, so I’m doing good so far! Some DNFs, some outstanding reads. It’s been a worthwhile project so far.

  • Columbine by Dave Cullen ★★★★★
  • I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson DNF
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  • Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit DNF
  • 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. (17/100) I’m behind schedule with this goal by 8 workouts, thanks to a very lazy March. I’m hoping my goal of working out every day in April will help me catch up!

5) Restart my novel. No progress made.

6) Go back to therapy. Complete! I tried to start in January but that turned out to be a disaster. I had my first appointment with a new therapist on Monday, and it went really well. Fingers crossed she’s the one!

7) Watch 12 movies. (1/12) I may adjust this goal to include standup specials and documentaries, since I am just not someone who enjoys movies. I did watch Marry Me with a friend for Galentine’s Day and it was cute.

8) Watch 6 TV series. (1/6) So far, only one show and it was Only Murders in the Building. It only has one season so far, so it feels a bit like cheating to include it, but hey, it was a new show and I watched it and this is my goals list and I can do what I want. So there!

9) Visit NYC at Christmastime. Not complete.

10) Get my third tattoo. No progress made.

11) Walk one 5k a month, in a different place each time. (2/12) I missed doing a 5K in March, but I’m going to double-up in April to keep on track.

  • January 17, 2022 – Seminole Park – 2.82 miles with my mom and the dogs in 1 hour, 12 minutes
  • February 20, 2022 – Walsingham Park – 3.1 miles solo in 1 hour, 16 minutes

12) Redo my bathroom. No progress made.

13) Get microdermabrasion or laser treatment—whatever is the better option for dealing with my acne scars. No progress made.

14) Read Moby-Dick Emma. I switched this goal from Moby-Dick, which I could tell from the beginning wasn’t going to be for me, to Emma by Jane Austen. I’ve read 12% so far!

15) Go on one date a month. Zeroooo dates. Dating is stupid.

16) Put an extra $1,000 toward my car loan. No progress made.

17) Make 12 new recipes. (3/12) I’m doing well with this goal so far. It’s a pretty easy one!

18) Make a recipe book. No progress made. I need to find a good digital option for this!

19) Cut gluten out of my diet for one month. No progress made.

20) Buy a coffee table and a floor lamp. Complete! I bought a cute coffee table in January and a floor lamp in March.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | April 2022

I did okay with my March goals – 6/10, and the ones I didn’t complete won’t be a huge surprise (walking, water, sigh). But I got the important goals done (like renewing my passport!) and I’m happy with how many goals I’ve been completing this year. I’m doing good! And I’m choosing to be proud of myself for what I have accomplished, not what I haven’t.

Here’s my report for March:

1) Renew my passport. Complete! There are so many steps to renewing a passport. I really wish I could just schedule an appointment and get it all done in one place! It’s nervewracking to have to mail it in and cross my fingers I did everything right. Anyway, the renewal has been mailed so now I just wait on pins and needles for it to go through!

2) Do a full-scale cleaning of my fridge and freezer. Complete! It felt so good to get this done. I was able to throw out so many expired condiments and freezer meals I have no intention of ever eating. (I was also very grateful that I didn’t find any troubling science experiments! Has that ever happened to you? I’ve had to throw out entire Tupperware containers of moldy food before. Ugh.) My fridge and freezer got a great wipe-down and everything is reorganized. It looks so much better!

3) Walk one mile every day (5/31). Oof.

4) Review 2014 and 2015 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete! This is such a big goal, but I’m getting it done.

5) Track my time for a week. Complete! I enjoyed the experiment a lot. My thoughts here.

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Not complete. I am so bad at this.

7) Deal with my weird leg pain. Not complete. Most of you recommended that I see a PT about this leg pain. I meant to schedule a doctor’s appointment to get a referral, but just never got around to it.

8) Commit to a 10pm bedtime. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

9) Keep track of my phone usage throughout the month. Complete! It’s been very, very eye-opening to track my phone usage and see where I’ve been spending my time when I’m on my phone. A full report to come next week!

10) Start cutting down the girls’ treats. Complete! They are down to 22 calories/day in treatos, and I think that’s a good place for them to be. They haven’t been too annoyed with the reduced treats, so that’s a relief, ha.

April Goals

1) Have a no-spend month. I’ve decided that I want to challenge myself to a no-spend month once a quarter. I know some people don’t see the point in no-spend months because… when the challenge ends, won’t you just buy the things you put off buying? And maybe some people do, but that’s never something I’ve had to worry about for myself. A no-spend month for me is a lesson in discipline and not buying myself something I want just because I can. Plus, I am not a naturally frugal person and it’s good for me to give my bank account a break from the constant spending every now and then. My no-spend month means not spending money on frivolous purchases (toiletries and supplies are ok, nail polish and earrings are not) and I’m also going to challenge myself to abstain from takeout orders this month. Eeks!

2) Reorganize my Google Drive. I really wish there was a better way to organize my Google Drive. And maybe there is, but I just haven’t found it yet? (Please send me any links to beautifully organized Google Drives!) As it stands, I have a few color-coordinated folders that I forget to use. I have dozens and dozens and dozens of untitled documents and I have no idea what any of them are for. It’s time to dig in and figure out a better categorization system so that my Google Drive doesn’t feel like a digital wasteland anymore.

3) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. I am planning on alternating between Peloton workouts and long walks. I am committing to moving my body in some way every single day in April!

4) Review 2016 and 2017 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Another month, another blog categorization goal.

5) Take the dogs to Salty Paws in Dunedin. I’ve been wanting to take Chip and Lucy to this adorable ice cream shop for dogs for a long time now. Making it a goal means I’m much more apt to make it happen!

6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. It’s going on the list until it becomes a habit.

7) Make a doctor’s appointment. I have a few concerns to address with my doctor: the weird leg pain as noted above, this lump on the arch of my foot (pretty sure it’s a fibroma, but my mom wants me to see my doc about it—in my 30s and still doing what my mom tells me to do!), and my hypoglycemia.

8) Eliminate red meat. One of the best ways to lower cholesterol is to eat less red meat and I tend to eat more of it than I should. I want to eliminate it fully from my diet in April and see how I feel.

9) Decide on my tattoo design. I have wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate my grandma for a while now but the pandemic put those plans on hold. I have a vague idea for my tattoo but I need to sketch it out so I at least have something to show the tattoo artist when it’s time to make the appointment.

10) Make an extra car payment. This will be a stretch goal, but I think I can get it done this month especially since it’s a three-paycheck month and I’m doing my no-spending, no-takeout challenge.

Do you have any goals this month?