Stephany Writes

Categories: Goals

September

[via]

I am so ready to wave good-bye to August and prepare my mind for a new month. I feel like September is more like a new beginning for me than January. In January, we are so filled with hope for a year unlike any other. We have big plans, big ideas, big dreams. By September, we simmer down a little and while maybe all of our big plans, big ideas, and big dreams seem to fall to the wayside as real life sets in, we still realize we have 4 months left of the year to change our life.

August wasn’t a good month. It was rife with hurting, accidents, hospital visits, and setbacks. I’ve had to grow up in just a few short weeks and realize that my mom isn’t going to be around forever. My grandma isn’t going to be around forever. That I need to get down on my knees every night and pray for those cousins of mine, who are on a collision course of destruction. That it’s times like these that I need to cling that much closer to the cross to give me strength, guidance, and hope.
I’m embracing September. I think we’re going to get along just fine. A few small goals to get me through these next 27 days:
Heal. This has been a month of injuries, from my mom to me. I want to focus on healing this September. My mom is still dealing with a broken elbow, a sprained thumb, and thoughts of regret and anxiety. We have more orthopedic appointments and x-rays to see how her elbow is healing and hopefully getting the OK to do some exercise. I want to leave August in the past where it belongs and focus on new beginnings in the following months. We both need some happiness after both of our hospital visits.
Overhaul my diet. Over this past month, I haven’t been counting points or calories. I’ve been trying to eat smarter, although I haven’t been totally successful with this. I feel happier, though, and a little more free. I’ve been thinking of a different way to view my eating habits, less about what keeps me at 1200 calories a day or 21 points a day and more on what fuels me throughout the whole day. I’m starting small and I have a whole blog post formulating in my mind about this new way of thinking. I want to first think about breakfast and eating smarter during breakfast, which will help me eat less throughout the entire day and feel energized.
 
Shift back into exercise. Once my mom got hurt, I had to take on a lot of responsibilities which meant exercise shifted to the back burner. And then school started and exercise was just thrown totally off the stove completely. I do want to wait until my thumb heals to really get too serious but I really want to amp up my running again. I’m planning on running a 10K in November and I want to be totally ready for that.
 
Writing. I only have two stories to write this month for my classes, which doesn’t seem too bad and I know exactly what I’m going to write about for one of them. The second article scares me since it involves my Sports Journalism class, which I think is going to test me the most.
 
Bake bread from scratch. For my Feature Writing class, I’m writing an article about baking bread. And this means completely from scratch, something I’ve never done. It’s going to be quite an interesting experience and I haven’t even begun to get started! Have any of you baked bread from scratch? Leave me your tips/recipes in the comments, please! (Or you can e-mail me at stephanywrites[at]gmail[dot]com.)
Categories: Goals

August

LOOKING BACK…

Orlando. Orlando was fun. It wasn’t everything I expected, but it was still fun to get away and be a tourist for a few days! I love everything about Orlando, although I don’t know if I could live there. It’s such a touristy town and has some crazy drivers! But who knows where I’ll end up after college?

Health. Health-wise, this was a bad month for me. I don’t know if I felt like I was on vacation for the whole month due to my vacation, but I just had no motivation to track, exercise, or eat right. I gave in to a lot of cravings and barely exercised at all this month. August is a new month!

Half-marathon. I just want to say how much I am surprising myself with this half training. I’ve managed to hit most my targets and feel amazing while doing it. While I usually beat myself up during the first half-mile, wondering how I’ll ever be able to run 13, I usually catch a second wind once I hit the 1-mile, which makes me feel as if I could run forever. It’s such an amazing feeling. (I’m still not sure how my injury will affect my half-marathon, but if I don’t make the one in November, I’ll find one later. But I am doing one!)

IN AUGUST, I WILL…

Start a new semester of school. I won’t say I’m excited to begin a new semester of school, but I am excited that I don’t feel as pressured to get everything done in one semester. Plus, I’m taking some fun classes like Social Media and Sports Journalism which I’m excited about!

Continue training for my half-marathon. Hopefully. I am taking a week off of my training, just to rest my ankle and prevent it from being injured even more. What this injury has given me is a new appreciation for being able to run and be fit. Being scared to run for fear of running on a broken ankle is a scary feeling.

Vlog every day. I joined a bunch of other crazy bloggers/vloggers in the VEDA challenge. Basically, I’m (attempting) to vlog every day during the month of August. I am not very experienced with the vlogging or video editing or even making an interesting vlog. But I do like a challenge and vlogs make me happy.

Begin the switch to my own domain name. My blogiversary is coming up on August 22nd and I really want to move over to my own domain name and switch to WordPress for this. I began the process last month, but then got a little overwhelmed by WordPress’ instructions. If there are any bloggers who are familiar with this process and can help a poor girl out, you will be my best friend forever. Seriously.

Get a new phone! I was trying to wait until my beloved Sprint EVO was available online, but my phone is not cooperating for that. My phone was absolutely horrid over my vacation, freezing up when I needed it – you know, when I was using the GPS and had no idea where I was going. So I ordered a new phone over the weekend. It’s the HTC HERO, which still gives me an Android phone, and is a touch screen. So I’m happy. Anything is better than what I have now. (Plus! It has a camera! You guys, I’m entering the 21st century!)

Categories: Goals

Finances, Faith, and Health

A little more than 6 months ago, I sat down at my computer and came up with a list of resolutions for the New Year. I’ve never been big on setting resolutions since I know they’re scoffed at and never accomplished. By the third week of January, you fall back onto your old habits and forget what you even said you wanted to do.

The first year I ever really sat down, thought it through, and came up with a list of resolutions for the new year, was in 2009. I came up with the cute idea of “9 Resolutions for 2009”. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve any of the resolutions I came up with. Last year was a pretty mediocre year for me and I really tried to focus on areas of my life that I felt the most out of control with, and what I needed to do to fix them.

Area #1: Finances
I have three credit card bills. Credit limits on them are: $300, $500, and $2,500. The credit card with the largest limit, we’ll call it PIMA, I haven’t paid for in a good 6 months. My minimum payment is through the roof, I owe more than $2,500, and it’s sitting in a collection agency. This is never a scenario I thought I would be in. Ever. My parents dealt with the same money problems and I always swore I would never be like them. For now, though, PIMA is a credit card I pretend I don’t have.

The other two are much more manageable. I’m working on paying off the lowest one first but I should probably tell you that this credit card is from Target. Meaning I can go into Target and be all, “I HAVE FREE MONEY! WOOHOO!” I mean, you all know how tough it is not to spend over $50 at Target when you don’t have a credit card…imagine having a credit card to be used solely at Target. Earlier this year, I had my balance about $100 away from being paid off. And then I used it. I have a little less than $200 until it’s paid off, but it probably won’t get paid off until September at the earliest. Once I do get this paid off, I’m cutting it up and getting rid of it for good. It’s really a useless credit card and charges an insane finance charge. As you aim for financial freedom and cut unnecessary expenses, you could convert hourly to annual salary to help you better manage your income and budget effectively.

My middle credit card was the one I received from my bank when I opened at checking account in May 2006. Up until this past year, I’ve been good about using it and then paying off the balance the next month. And then things got a little crazy with me being out of work for 6 months in 2008 and I’m still hovering just about the maxed-out zone. I want to get this one back up to it’s $500 balance and this is the only credit card, once I pay off PIMA, that I want to keep. The balance is one where I can’t go crazy and rack up thousands of dollars, plus it has a lot more incentive to keep than do Target/PIMA. I’m hoping to have this one taken care of by the end of the year. Those who are dealing with a significant amount of debts may partner with a financial advisor who understands liquidity constraints.

Area #2: Faith
I’ve had long and detailed blog posts, discussing this portion of my life. Suffice it to say, I’m a lazy Christian. I have faith, I know what I believe in, but I don’t put forth the effort in the relationship. I just meander along, attending church and reading my Bible once a month but that’s about it. I don’t pray (unless I have to), I don’t have a consistent Bible study life, and I don’t do anything to grow my faith.

I also think I’m suffering from the Perfect Christian Syndrome, where I want every area of my faith walk to be perfect. I want to be totally involved in the World, totally involved in church, and totally head-over-heels for God. I need to slow down, remind myself that I am human, and focus on the little things.

Area #3: Health
Here’s the part where I roll my eyes, bang my head against the desk, and whine that “fat is in.” While I have great weeks where the pounds seem to be flying off, my clothes feel amazing on my body, and I have no temptation whatever…lately it seems to be one temptation after the other. I’ve gained about 4 pounds in the past 2 weeks. I’m giving myself headaches because I’m thinking so hard about not giving into the temptations to where I just say “Screw it” and eat the junk.

I’ve come to realize how dependent I am upon Weight Watchers. The weeks where there’s no meeting scheduled due to holidays, I fall apart. I try to be good, but then I realize there’s no weigh-in so it’s a free-for-all. (And by the way, be good? Why do I call it being good? Shouldn’t being good be normal for me?!) I was thinking of stopping WW and trying to do it on my own and be motivated by my own accomplishments, not because Phil’s going to weigh me in on Sunday morning and I do not want to hear, “You’re up a little this week,” one more time. But after a pretty bad day of eating junk, I know I need WW. If it keeps me healthy, then it’s worth it.

I realize my blog seems to be turning into some sort of goal journal where I just write down what I want to accomplish in the next 30 days or whatever time frame I give it. I was hesitant to write this post because it seems to be repetitive of the last few weeks. But I did it because I’m done with setting goals I have no intention of achieving. I need to focus on these three areas first, making small changes that lead to bigger ones, before I can figure out other parts of my life.

So here we go: I’m going to write down 3 goals, each relating to the 3 areas, with no time frame giving for completing them. I’m just going to keep these goals in mind and I won’t set a new one until I have either achieved the goal or feel as if I did.

Area #1: Finance
I want to pay off my Target credit card. When this is paid off, I will focus on setting a new goal in this area. For now, my only focus is Target.

Area #2: Faith
I want to have a consistent Bible study time. Even though I know there are other areas I need to work on, for now I want to just focus on getting in 15-20 minutes a day with God. Once I feel that this is a natural part of my day, I can focus on other goals.

Area #3: Health
I want to be a consistent exercise-r. Those weeks where I just completely fall off the wagon, I seem to find it easy to fall off the exercise wagon as well. I want to exercise 5 days a week for at least an hour, even on those weeks where I know I’m going to gain weight on the scale. This is a health journey, not a weight loss journey. I need to remember that.

Who knows when I’ll update again?! I promise to wait awhile before I talk about my goals again. I want to have at least accomplished one of these before I set new ones. The first goal will be easy to know when I accomplished it, but the other two will take a lot of self-awareness on my end to know when I feel I’ve formed these habits.

The bottom line is, these are the goals I’m setting for myself with no timeline in place. I think it will do wonders for my happiness and well-being if I can achieve them and form habits from them.

What are your thoughts on goals? Do you set them and tell the world (like I obviously do)? Do you keep them to yourself? Do you think goals are overrated?
Categories: Goals

July.

LOOKING BACK

Tracking – I think I did a lot better with tracking than usual. I was super serious and super strict for about 3 weeks, tracking down my meals, exercising 4-5 times a week, and not going above my extra points. But now I feel so burned out from it all. I think I’m getting to the point where I just want to give up. This has happened to me so many times before that I’m trying to just ride this out, but it’s hard.

A Mess of Emotions – This month has been an eventful one emotionally. My emotions have been all over the place, making me feel like a crazy person. One moment I’m happy and giddy, the next I just want to punch out a wall. I don’t know what’s up with that, but I’m hoping that making more time to achieve all the goals I set for myself and less time to be lazy, it helps.

Running – I’ve fallen back in love with running this month. (But shh! Don’t tell my mom!) As I mentioned before, I’m running around 6am on Saturday mornings and 5:30am on Sunday mornings. And I. Love. It. It feels so good to run that early in the morning and the heat isn’t nearly as suffocating. While I’m not running a mile yet, I enjoying the (extremely) short distances I can run right now.

Quiet Time – I’ve actually managed to have a few days of quiet, Bible study time this month. Not as much as I need to, and not as consistent as I’d like to be, but it’s better than usual. Now that I’ve set out a specific bedtime pattern, it’s much easier to fit this in.

THIS JULY, I WILL…

Take a mini-vacation – If all goes according to plan, my mom and I will be taking a little mini-vacation to Orlando at the end of the month. We have season passes to Sea World and are hoping to check out my mom’s race path while we’re there, as well as spending a day at Disney World. I haven’t been to Disney World in forever! And I know I have a special blog friend who lives in Orlando! Meet-up?!

Get to bed at 9:30 most nights – I’m shooting for 5 nights a week, mainly on the days I have to wake up at 4:30-5am. I really love going to bed at a decent hour and getting a good, solid 7 hours of sleep. I’m still ridiculously tired during the day and I don’t know if it’s just not getting enough sleep at night, or an iron deficiency. I’m just hoping that getting more sleep at night will help me feel more energetic during the day. We shall see.

Be creative – As I mentioned yesterday, I’m taking on Ashley’s Creativity Challenge where I’m going to challenge myself to get serious about my novel. I can’t even call it a work in progress because all it’s been doing is sitting in a file folder for over a year. I haven’t put any effort into working on it so I’m excited to get started and start outlining my book.

Make a budget – My mom and I have talked so many times about creating a budget. And we have. We’ve created a few budgets but we never stick to them. And while I would love to go through Financial Peace University, it’s just not in the budget right now. (Oh, yeah. Pun totally intended.) I want to take some of his tips and tricks that I heard through other people who have been through FPU to get ourselves on track. (Anybody have any tips for me? Anybody been through FPU and want to help a girl out?!)

Learn Spanish – I have some books and audio tapes to pick up from the library to help me learn this language. I did take 3 years of it in middle school and high school so I’m hoping it’ll start coming back to me more and more as I start hearing it and dedicating myself to learning it again.

Categories: Goals

Creativity Challenge

On Monday, Ashley posted a challenge where she invited bloggers to join her as she spends the month of July challenging herself creatively. She didn’t give any strict parameters or put any restrictions for the month. The challenge is broad and vague but holds one key theme: creativity. You can challenge yourself through any means: photography, scrapbooking, writing, videos, blogging, design…whatever you want!

I’m taking on this challenge with her and other bloggers. I’ve been struggling for the longest time to get started on my novel, to stop wasting time and just write it. I’ve been so busy bouncing around other potential story ideas that would take months and months of research to even begin to get started that I’ve let this story lay stagnant for over a year. Maybe because the story is not as exciting as my other ideas, maybe because it means digging deep into Christianity and myself, maybe because it’s the only idea I’ve had that holds real weight and means this could become The Story one day. The Story that gets me published. The Story that turns me into an author.

For superstitious purposes, I don’t want to go into detail about what my story is about. For now, let me be vague: it centers around a girl, age 18, as she heads off to college, leaving the comforts of home for the very first time. The End. (Yep. That’s all I’m going to tell you about! Chew on that.)

My challenge is to begin the outlining process. While I read many writing blogs that give the pros and cons of outlining, I do believe I’m the type of writer who needs a strict outline. Whether or not my characters stick to the outline remains to be seen, but I do want to create an outline so I know what themes I want my story to be about, what struggles the character will face, and a basic overview of the plot.

Right now, all that’s sitting in my “College Girl” file on my desktop is a two-paragraph synopsis, a list of background information I need to write about, and some questions about the main character’s parents. (Are they high school sweethearts? Did they meet on a mission trip? Should I make her mother a different nationality than her father?) I really want to finish writing up all the background information and start outlining my novel. I don’t want to be too strict on myself and tell myself I have to have the entire process done, but I do want to at least have it started.

So there you have it. My Creativity Challenge for the month of July. Check out Ashley’s blog for more about the challenge and to join in. I’ll probably give weekly updates on my status and how the process is going. I hope you’ll join me!