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!

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?

Woohoo, time to review my June goals and set some new intentions for July. I had a fairly good month for my goals, achieving 3.5 out of 5. For the goals I didn’t achieve, one was half-completed and the other wasn’t done because I was trying to be more conscious of my budget, so I can’t be mad about that. Let’s review:

1) Stop using my phone at stoplights. I was fairly successful with this. There were a few times I slipped up, but generally, I kept my phone in its holder and didn’t use it. (I would keep my phone in my purse but I use it to listen to podcasts/audiobooks while driving, so it’s usually within reaching distance for me.)

2) Use up at least half of the Sephora samples + face masks I have. Okay, well, I did not use up half of all my samples and face masks, but I did use up a good number. Right now, I’m finishing up the last sample cleanser I got from one of my Sephora PLAY! boxes and the last sample moisturizer. I used three face masks in June, bringing me down to nine. But I did not even touch any of the makeup setting sprays or hair products, oops. I always forget about them when I’m getting ready in the morning. So… somewhat complete.

3) Wash and vacuum my car. Yes! I did this last weekend and my car greatly needed a good wash and vacuum. We had a very rainy June, so I kept putting off this task because it feels silly to wash my car when it would get “nature’s rinse,” but it definitely needed a good scrub. Feels so good to mark this one complete, although I wouldn’t recommend washing/vacuuming your car in 100-degree heat. Whew. That was a workout.

4) Buy and assemble a new bookshelf. I didn’t buy my bookshelf this month, mainly because I had some expenses pop up that I needed to take care of. Maybe next month!

5) Figure out my budget. Complete! For the past few years, my “budget” has consisted of figuring out what bills I have due for the current pay period, dropping some money on my credit card and into savings, and using the rest as spending money (and for groceries/gas). It’s not a great system (especially considering I have some bills linked to my credit card that I never accounted for in my budget). So, I found a monthly budget template that I’ll be using going forward. I’m also going to write out a weekly budget at the beginning of every week to make sure I’m looking at my bank account daily and keeping track of what I’m spending.

Here’s what I’m hoping to accomplish in July:

1) Follow my budget. Well, now that I have a new, shiny budget… it’s time to put it to use! Let’s do this.

2) Participate in #24in48 (and read for at least 18 hours). This is a readathon where you attempt to read 24 hours total over two days. During the last #24in48, which was in January, I managed to read 13 hours. This time around, I’m shooting for 18 hours. I’m keeping my schedule clear that weekend so that I can just sit back and relax with my cats and some good books. (The ideal way to spend a weekend!)

3) Eat a healthy breakfast. Breakfast tends to be my enemy when it comes to healthy eating. I do okay during the week at work, but it’s the weekends and the days I’m working from home where I’m eating sugary cereal or fatty breakfast sandwiches. My mission for this month is to cook myself a healthy breakfast every morning so I can get the day started on the right note.

4) Do a ClassPass trial. My gym is still not open (although, the last time I drove by it, I saw they had replaced the canvas banner with their logo with an actual, lit-up sign! Progress!) And I’m kinda getting sick of my only form of exercise is walking around my apartment complex. So I thought I’d take advantage of the free trial of ClassPass and try some different gyms and exercise classes near me. Going to new gyms/classes triggers my social anxiety like mad, but I’m hoping I can power through the fear and get out there. I’m craving a hard workout! (Famous last words, right?)

5) Take my vitamins. I’ve been really bad about taking my vitamins lately. As in, I haven’t been taking them regularly since mid-April. Oops! It’s time to get back to it, especially since I need to get blood work very soon and I need my vitamin D levels to be back in a normal range!