Happy February, my friends! January always seems to feel like a long month, but I didn’t mind it being that way honestly. It was nice to have nearly five whole weeks to ease into the year. I am really happy with January – it was a productive month and a happy one. Can’t get better than that!
Here’s how I did with my goals for January:
1) Get blood work done.
Complete! I took care of this on the first Saturday in January, and I’m actually meeting with my doctor this afternoon to discuss the results. I was able to look at my results already, and some of my numbers were a little concerning. She’s a proactive doctor but not an alarmist, so I’m interested in how she interprets my results.
2) Set Eloise up with a new vet and sign up for pet insurance.
Complete! I took Eloise to the vet in early January and she had some tests done to make sure she was fully healthy, and everything came back normal. She’s also at a healthy weight, which meant I was able to ditch the wet cat food and put her on a dry food only diet. Woo! I also set her up with Banfield’s wellness plan but after much discussion with other pet owners on Instagram, I think I’m going to end up canceling the plan and start a savings account for her pet expenses instead of forking over $40-$50 a month for pet insurance.
3) Get new tires and a wheel alignment.
Complete! This whole process wound up costing much less than I expected ($166 for two tires and an alignment!) I am so glad I found this mechanic. His prices are so reasonable and he can usually get me in for an appointment quickly. His shop is also within walking distance of my apartment, which meant I dropped my car off in the morning on a day I worked from home and picked her up in the afternoon – easy as that!
4) Try out a meal delivery system.
Complete! For three weeks, I subscribed to Catered Fit’s meal delivery service where they delivered two pre-made meals right to my door. All I had to do was heat them up and enjoy! However, I canceled the service this week because the expense was a little too much to justify. Back to cooking I go!
5) Schedule a dermatology appointment.
Complete! Fun fact: my appointment was already scheduled and I had it in my calendar. I completely forgot that I had booked this appointment last year! I honestly couldn’t remember if I had gone for my annual skin check in 2018 but apparently not only did I go to this appointment – I also scheduled a new appointment. Oy.
6) Sign up for Mint and organize my budget.
Complete! This one almost didn’t get done because I was having the hardest time connecting my bank with Mint. Originally, I wasn’t using the correct login info so I kept changing my bank password and Mint still wasn’t accepting it. I finally gave up after a few tries, nervous about my bank locking me out of my account. Finally, I went back to Mint this week and was able to get my bank connected and spent some time organizing my budget categories. I’m still not exactly sure how I want to use Mint but I think I just need to spend more time on the app to figure it out.
How’s that for productive? Six out of six goals complete! WOO! I can’t remember the last time I went 100% on my goals, so I’m really happy with that.
Here’s what I want to accomplish in February:
1) Organize all my files.
I keep a lot of files. I keep files I probably don’t even need to keep (like all of my pay stubs, which can be accessed online). And I have two filing systems: one for files for the current year and one for files for past years/important documents. At the beginning of every year, I like to spend a little time reorganizing my files. I take the files in my “current year” filing system and move them into my “past year” filing system. And then I also look at all of my other files and see if there is anything I can shred (especially anything that is more than seven years old). It’s a nerdy little exercise and I’m excited to tackle it in February!
2) Give up candy.
You guys. I feel like a child making this a goal for February but it needs to be done. I have fallen into a habit of picking up a bag of candy during my normal grocery shopping routine and eating a few pieces every day. And no, that’s not a problem in and of itself but I feel slightly out of control around candy, and those few pieces are usually combined with an ice cream bar or cookies after dinner or snacks from the work break room during that inevitable 3pm slump. So, I’m cutting candy out of my life for the next 28 days. It must be done.
3) Track my food.
This is one of those goals I seem to always come back to, even though I realllllly hate tracking my food. But I’m doing it as an experiment and I’m going to track it in a journal, not on My Fitness Pal, to get in the habit of writing down what I’m eating and how it makes me feel. I just want to spend the month analyzing what I’m eating, how hungry I get between meals, how I feel after I eat certain foods, and how I can build myself a diet that makes me feel good and also helps me to lose weight.
4) Spend 10 minutes stretching every morning.
I wake up every morning with lower back pain and I’m really just tired of it. I may end up going back to a chiropractor about it, but first I’m going to experiment with stretching. I want to spend the first 10 minutes of every morning doing a few lower back and morning stretches to loosen my muscles and see if it makes me feel better.
5) Start my nighttime routine by 8 p.m. on weeknights.
This is another goal I seem to consistently put on my goals list. I used to be so good about getting to bed by 9 p.m., but lately, I find myself either trying to finish up a blog post or scrolling through Instagram late in the evening so that I’m not getting to bed until 10 or 11 p.m. As mentioned during my posts about sleep, I require a lot of sleep (more than the average person) and I need to make sure I’m getting that. This goal is as much about self-care as my nightly bubble bath ritual, and I need to treat it as such.
6) Work out every day in February.
I only worked out seven times in January, which puts me behind in my goal of working out 150 times this year. I’m just not in the habit of working out regularly right now but I think that challenging myself to get in a workout every day in February (even if it’s just a walk!) will help me gain some traction on my workout goal and get me back in that workout routine.
What’s something you want to do or accomplish in February?
