Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | October 2019

October is here, and it’s time to check in on how I did with my goals in September. I’ll give myself 2.5 out of 5 completion, which isn’t my best, but hey, it happens! I’m happy with the goals I did complete and will hopefully have a 5 out of 5 month in October! Here’s how I did:

1) Reach my 100th workout for the year. Complete! It took me until the last day of the month but I crossed off that 100th workout in September and I’m feeling good about getting the next 50 workouts done over the next three months since I have a gym to go to now!

2) Finish one full tumbler of water every day. Ugh, not complete. I’m so bad at drinking water regularly! This one is going back on the list for October. I’m going to figure this out.

3) Put up a gallery wall. Complete! I’m really happy with it, although there are a few adjustments I need to make and some white space I need to fill in. I’m just glad I finally got all those frames off my kitchen island.

4) Do my skincare routine every night. I didn’t do it every night, but most nights! I also realized that I was doing my whole nighttime routine wrong. My nighttime routine consists of tidying my apartment, washing any dishes that are in the sink, scooping the litter, brushing my teeth, and washing my face. In that order. But by the time I had done all of the stuff before washing my face, it was getting late and I was just ready to be in bed with my book. (Also, I should definitely start my nighttime routine before 9 p.m., but that’s a goal for another month.) So I would often skip that part of my routine because I just got lazy and tired. Halfway through September, when I was still struggling to do my skincare routine, I had a light bulb moment. I should wash my face first and save scooping the litter for last. Because I’ll never go to bed without giving the girls clean litter boxes and it ensures I do every other part of my routine – the stuff I can get lazy about doing – first. So now I wash my face, brush my teeth, wash the dishes, tidy the apartment, and scoop the litter. It’s working out great right now. It’s those simple changes, I swear!

5) Visit one new-to-me park. Nope. I kinda figured this goal wasn’t going to happen since September was such a busy month for me.

Okay, let’s dive into what I hope to accomplish in October:

1) Wear my Fitbit and aim to get at least 8,000 steps every day. I have a love/hate relationship with my Fitbit. I love how it motivates me to get moving (especially to get up from my desk during the day) but I also hate being a slave to an arbitrary number. Alas, I’m brushing off the dust from my FitBit, strapping it on my wrist, and going to try to get at least 8,000 steps every day.

2) Drink one full tumbler of water every day. Back on the list it goes!

3) Build my new bookshelf. I bought a small, three-shelf bookcase almost a month ago now and have yet to put it together. Sometimes, the best way for me to get something done is to put it on my goals list. (Total Obliger here!)

4) Buy only necessities for the rest of the month. I went on a bit of a shopping spree towards the end of September. There was a Thriftbooks purchase ($16), a bookish tee ($30 with shipping), a new phone case ($30 with shipping), and Target ($200 – but to be fair, $30 of that was for my nephew’s birthday present, $15 was for candy and toys for a charity event my work is doing, and $50 was regular toiletries). But I need to slow my roll when it comes to spending money because I have two trips and Christmas coming up and I don’t want to use my credit card for any of that!

5) Watch a Halloween movie. Halloween is one of my least favorite holidays, mostly because I don’t like scary things or dressing up. I try to be a good sport about it and dress up since my work allows that, but this year I’m going to be working from home so I’m glad I don’t have to think about something to wear. However, in the spirit of the season, I’d love to watch one Halloween movie I’ve never seen. I have a long list to choose from (well, it gets short real quick since I don’t like scary movies) since I’ve only seen one: The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’m not sure what movie yet (maybe Hocus Pocus? Everyone seems to love that one.) so any and all suggestions are welcome! Nothing scary, please and thank you.

What’s something you’d like to accomplish in October?

Categories: Goals

Operation Write My Novel | August Recap

Happy Friday, friends! It’s time for another writing update! August was a semi-good month for writing and I’m happy with my progress. November (and NaNoWriMo) is getting closer and closer, and I’m so ready to spend the whole month immersed in my novel. For now, these tiny pockets of time to write 1,000-2,000 words a week are all I can handle.

August 5-11

  • Word count: 1,810

This was a very good writing week for me! I wrote a little under 1,000 words during my writing date and then wrote another 800 or so on my own to make my word count goal for the week. I really enjoyed writing this week, too. I know my novel is going to need sooooo much work during the editing process and that can be overwhelming to think about, but I’m trying to only focus on writing this shitty first draft so it can be DONE. That’s my only goal right now.

August 12-18

  • Word count: 1,512
  • Things researched: small bookstores, bookstore interiors

Another great writing week for me and I wrote all 1,500 words during my writing date! (I’ve been struggling to get to 1,000 words during my writing dates so it was exciting to realize I can buckle down and get it done!) It was another solid week of writing, too, where I felt good about what I was writing and it all seemed to come rather easily for me. It’s odd to get two weeks in a row like this, so that feels really good.

I spend a lot of time in my head, wondering if I should even continue with this dream. Am I just fooling myself? Can I really write a full novel? One that is well-developed and makes sense? These thoughts come sporadically, but not only during the tough weeks when writing feels like such a struggle. They can also come when things are flowing well and the writing comes easily. The constant doubts are just part of the process.

August 19-25

  • Word count: 0

No writing date this weekend! And no writing outside of the writing date happened. It was a very busy week and was the weekend I spent in Orlando for the BSB concert, so any free time I had, I devoted to reading or napping. 🙂 Plus, I had hit a spot in my novel where I needed to come up with the next few scenes of the plot and I just wasn’t in the right headspace to think about what came next and how to move the story forward.

August 26 – September 1

  • Word count: 0

Another goose egg in the word count, but it’s all because I spent my writing date working on the next few scenes of the plot. (This is my new technique: only writing a few scenes of plot at a time rather than the whole thing at once. I’ve tried writing the whole plot at once and it always blows up in my face. It’s been much better to do it this way, to write the scenes as I’m getting to know the characters and their motivations.) I was struggling with what to do with my male hero, as I needed his internal conflict to start showing itself and moving the plot forward. And I needed to figure out exactly how my two characters were finally going to have their “moment.” I emerged from my writing date with a really great plan for both things and feeling super confident about my novel going forward. That’s always a really good thing!

September 2-8

  • Word count: 1,029
  • Things researched: different Windows operating systems, small cabin in Georgia, porch railing

Back at it! I am happy that I was able to write 1,000 words during my writing date. I had planned to write another 500 words while watching football on Sunday afternoon, but I opted to be lazy instead. Still, I’m happy that I was able to bang this out after two weeks off. The writing came fairly easily for me (a theme for August!) and I’m excited about where the story is going. I’m finally past the more introductory scenes and getting into the “meat” of the story, so more action is happening and it’s thrilling! I can’t wait to see how this story evolves the more I write!

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | September 2019

September is here and with it comes my favorite four months of the year. Of course, in Florida, the weather won’t cool down until December at least, so we’ve got many more months of 90-degree heat to battle, sigh. But I’m still going to be lighting my fall candles, drinking PSLs, and enjoying all this season has to offer.

August went very well for my goals – 4 out of 5 completed! I’m very happy with that and hope I can have the same success with my September goals. Let’s review:

1) No fast food. Complete! This wasn’t as difficult as I imagined and I really want to continue this streak of not eating fast food. There’s no reason for me to eat it and it definitely shouldn’t be a regular thing in my diet.

2) Have a no-spend weekend. Complete! I did this pretty early in August when I didn’t have a ton of plans and it was actually harder than I imagined! I had to stop myself from making a trip to Target and force myself to eat food I had at home, not order a pizza or something. But it was good for me to do this, and I’d like to try to do a no-spend weekend every month.

3) Get my glasses cleaned. I waited until the last day of the month to do this, but it finally got done! The inside of my frames were gross and I can’t believe I waited this long to get them cleaned. I’m going to try to set a reminder to get this done every six months, at least!

4) Get blood work done. Complete! I’m happy to report that I’m out of the danger zone for pre-diabetes, woohoo! It was such a relief to get my results back and see that.

5) Work out 25 times. Nope. I only managed 9 workouts in August, oops. However, August was a rough month for me physically as I experienced back pain and severe indigestion that had me out of commission for about two weeks. Oh, well. I only need to work out 17 times a month from September-December to make my goal of 150 workouts, which feels completely doable to me!

I actually struggled to come up with five goals for September. I’m not sure why! Maybe it has something to do with how busy September is going to be (nearly every weekend is full) and not wanting to put more on my plate when I know busy seasons take a lot out of me. But I still came up with some goals that I’m hoping to accomplish over the next 26 days:

1) Reach my 100th workout for the year. One of my yearly goals is to work out 150 times and currently, I’m at 85 workouts. Honestly, I thought working out 150 times this year (which amounts to three times a week) would be an easy goal to complete because I thought my new gym would open in January. Y’all, it’s September and I’m still waiting for this gym to open. It’s so frustrating and I have contemplated re-joining my old gym, but I’m going to stick it out for now. Anyway, I need to work out 17 times per month to hit my goal and if I do that this month, I’ll reach 100 workouts for the year! That’s an exciting accomplishment.

2) Finish one full tumbler of water every day. Another one of my yearly goals is to get into a daily water-drinking habit, and I have made no progress toward this. Last month, I bought a Yeti and I love it so much. I need my water to be ice cold in order for it to be drinkable for me and my Yeti tumbler keeps my water cold for a full day. (No lie!) My tumbler is 32 ounces and I’d like to at least drink one of those a day. It’s ridiculous how little water I drink.

3) Put up my gallery wall. I have all of the prints and canvases I want for my gallery wall, and they’ve been sitting on my kitchen island for weeks as I procrastinate doing this project. I know I’ll feel great once it’s done!

4) Do my skincare routine every night. I’m really bad about not washing my face at night. I’ll use a makeup wipe to remove all my makeup, but it’s rare for me to do a full skincare routine at night with cleanser and moisturizer. And my face needs it. I’ve never had great skin and I need to do more to take care of it, especially now that I’m in my 30s.

5) Visit one new-to-me park. One of my yearly goals (sensing a theme here? ha) is to visit five new-to-me parks and I haven’t gone to any this year, oops! It will be difficult to fit in a park visit with my busy month but there’s one open Saturday that I’m going to try to keep plan-less so I can get in this visit.

What’s something you’d like to accomplish in September? Or, if you’re not into goals, tell me something you’re looking forward to this month!

Categories: Goals

2019 Goals | Q2 Recap

It wasn’t until last week that I realized I had never completed a Q2 recap of my yearly goals! Oops. I was supposed to provide an update in early July but it just totally slipped my mind, so you’re getting the update in mid-August. (Side note: how are we only a few weeks away from September?!) Anyway, let’s recap these goals and see how I’m doing!

1) Read 100 books. As of today, I have read 82 so I am confident in my ability to reach 100 books (for the third year in a row!). Last year, I read 134 books so I have a secondary goal to beat that number if I can.

2) Complete the A-Z Instagram reading challenge. I only need three more letters to mark this complete but they’ll be tough ones: V, Y, and Z. My plan is to read You by Caroline Kepnes for Y and Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler for Z, but not quite sure about V yet. Maybe Vox by Christina Dalcher?

3) Reread the Anne of Green Gables series. I’ve read three of the nine books in this series, so I won’t read them all this year but hopefully the first five or six.

4) Dye my hair purple. Complete! It was such a fun change, but quite the investment so it’s not something I’ll be keeping around. Womp, womp.

5) Save $1,000 in an emergency fund. I have almost $700 saved so far! Putting it in a separate savings account was exactly what I needed to FINALLY complete this goal. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s always so thrilling to sign into my account when it’s time to deposit money and see how my money is growing!

6) Get something on the walls of my living room. Not yet. I’m planning on doing a gallery wall for one wall and have gathered everything I want for that. I just have to do the hard work of organizing how I want the wall to look and getting everything up there. I need something for my other wall, though. Still looking!

7) Take control over my dermotophagia. Eh, not really. I’m still picking at my skin more than I should be. It’s so hard to stop!

8) Redo my bathroom. Completed this in March.

9) Visit Ireland. I went in May with my mom and we had the best time!

10) Visit Washington DC. This is likely not happening this year.

11) Build a necklace collection. Working on this one. I have a number of necklaces now (maybe 10?) but I’d like to buy a few more to round it out.

12) Pay an extra $500 toward my student loans. No progress on this one. It’s not likely that I’ll be able to do this since I have a bit of credit card debt to deal with currently. Ugh.

13) Go to a movie alone. Ah! I forgot I have this goal on my list.

14) Work out 150 times. I’m behind on this goal (crossed off my 83rd workout this morning) but I’m going to try to kick things into high gear to get on track by the end of September.

15) Lose 40 lbs. Lol, no.

16) Give Eloise a sibling. Complete! Today is Lila’s six-month “gotcha”-versary. 🙂

17) Start saving for a new apartment. Technically, I can consider this complete as I have started a savings account for move-out costs. Ha. I have $50 saved as of today and my goal is to have at least $1,000 by next August.

18) Do a spending freeze once a quarter. This isn’t going to be completed. Maybe doing a monthly “spend-free weekend” is a more realistic goal for me.

19) Develop a daily water-drinking habit. I’m still struggling with this but I just bought a Yeti tumbler to help me with this goal. I love my water to be ice cold (anything less than that is disgusting), and the Yeti surely accomplishes that. My ice cubes even stay frozen for hours! My goal is to just bring my Yeti with me everywhere and try to remember to reach for that when I’m thirsty.

20) Buy two bigger bookshelves. I bought one! I’m not sure if I’ll need the second one this year but I really, really love my Hemnes bookshelf from IKEA. I may wait until I move to buy the second one. I’m sure my brother would be grateful to only move one bookshelf and not two! Ha.

21) Complete Project 365. In progress! Haven’t missed a day, although there’s at least one day every week where I have no idea what I’m going to post about. (Thank god for my cats!)

22) Develop a skincare routine. Still on the struggle bus with this one! I just can’t get consistent with my skincare routine. Argh.

23) Start a vitamin regimen. Yep! I’m taking a multivitamin, vitamin D supplement, and iron supplement every day. Good news: my vitamin D numbers improved from 16 ng/mL to 28 ng/mL from January to August. Woop!

24) Replace all of my underwear. So, I threw out all of my old underwear. Any underwear that was so old that I couldn’t remember what year I bought it in… out. I bought five new pairs last month to begin replenishing my underwear drawer. I’d like to buy 10-15 more pairs. I don’t even know how long you’re supposed to keep underwear but I think my goal is to throw away anything that’s more than two years old. (We’re not even going to talk about how old the underwear I just threw out was. Nope.)

25) Write my novel. Making progress! I’m hoping that participating in NaNoWriMo in November will push me close to the finish line.

26) Try 10 new foods. I have not been keeping track of this at all. In Q1, I tried plantains and asparagus. In Q2, I think I could add avocado to the list. Maybe? I’ve had guacamole and I know I love that, but I never had plain avocado until last month. Does it count? You tell me. I need to figure out what new foods to try this year!

27) Track my money on Mint. I set everything up on Mint but I realized I much prefer the old-school style of using a spreadsheet to track my money.

28) Get all of my skin tags removed. Took care of this in Q1… and now I have a slew of new skin tags to deal with. Argh!

29) Sign up for a paid dating service and fully commit to the dating process for six months. This is a goal that won’t be getting completed. I’m using the free ones right now (I cycle through OK Cupid, Tinder, and Bumble based on how I’m feeling) and fine with it for now.

30) Visit five new-to-me parks around the area. I forgot I added this goal! I’m gonna need to get going on this if I want to mark it complete.

Categories: Goals

Monthly Goals | August 2019

July seemed to fly by but I’m also like, “Fourth of July was this month?!” It was a long but quick month for me and full of fun, family time, birthday celebrations, and lots of rainy days. I set five goals for myself and I’m happy with my progress, even though I didn’t accomplish everything on my list.

1) Follow my budget. I’m marking this as complete, even though I could have tried harder with my budget this month. But I am finally operating on a monthly budget system rather than a biweekly one (which I used since I get paid biweekly, but always led to me feeling like I was living paycheck to paycheck). It is working out SO much better and makes me feel so much less stressed about money. I’m going to spend the next few months just keeping track of my budget and where money is going for things like eating out, entertainment, shopping, etc., so I can figure out a realistic budget for those extras.

2) Participate in #24in48 (and read for at least 18 hours). Not complete, sadly. The weekend of the readathon wound up being super busy, even though I thought it would be plan-free. I barely had a moment to myself, much less 18 hours set aside for reading. Hopefully, I can participate the next time around!

3) Eat a healthy breakfast. Complete! I am so proud of myself for this goal. Breakfast has long been a struggle of mine, but in order to keep hypoglycemia episodes at bay, I need to consume a lot of calories and protein during this meal. I started making avocado toast with a fried egg, and it’s been perfect. It’s so satisfying and keeps me full for at least 3-4 hours.

4) Do a ClassPass trial. Not complete. July was a very busy month for me and I just couldn’t find a good week in the month to do the trial where I could make the most of it. I did find some great PopSugar workout videos on YouTube that I’m enjoying, though, to vary my workouts a bit.

5) Take my vitamins. Complete! I’m back in my routine of taking my vitamins and it feels good. Sometimes, you just need to make something a goal to get back on track.

Three out of five is good enough for me! Here are the goals I’m setting for August:

1) No fast food. I’m trying to add one healthy habit to my life every month, rather than forcing myself to follow arbitrary calorie or points goals. Counting calories/points has never been something that really motivates me, but simple goals like these do! For the month of August, my goal is to cut out fast food. I rely on it way too much when I just need something quick and it never makes me feel good.

2) Have a no-spend weekend. I’ve been trying to plan for no-spend months and it’s just been too hard to coordinate with my life right now. Instead, I’m going to try a no-spend weekend. The weekends are when I spend most of my money anyway, so it’ll be very good for my bank account!

3) Get my glasses cleaned. I have been needing to go to Visionworks to have them thoroughly clean my glasses (as in, pop out the lenses to clean out the frames) because they’re kinda disgusting. Lots of dirt and makeup buildup! Making it a goal is an easy way to make sure I get this done.

4) Get blood work done. It’s time for blood work again! I had blood work done at the beginning of this year and had some concerning results related to potentially being pre-diabetic. I haven’t done all I can to eat healthier or work out as much as I should over these last six months, so I’m nervous about getting my blood work done again, but I need to just do it and see what happens.

5) Work out 25 times. I’m totally behind on my goal of working out 150 times this year. As of today, I’m at 75 workouts and I should be at 88 workouts. By the end of August, I need to be at 100. This means I need to commit to at least 25 workouts this month to get back on track. Let’s do this!

What’s something you want to accomplish in August?