I can’t believe January is already over. The first month of 2010 and I don’t feel any different now than I did in 2009. Where is the New Stephany? While I did manage to take a few risks and leaps of faith, I didn’t take as much advantage of this month as I should have. Oh, well. January is always a weird month, anyway.

Let’s recap my goals for January:
1. Complete or start at least 3 items on my 101 in 1,001 list. Completed. I managed to mark 2 items off my list (get 20 comments on a blog post; buy a designer purse) and I’m currently working on 3 goals (floss every day for a month, consistently use facial cleanser/moisturizer for a month, and do a media internship). It’s really fun to have this list of things I want to complete.
2. Make one new meal a week. Semi-completed. Mom and I only managed to do this twice this month. The past two weeks have been hectic and crazy and we didn’t even grocery shop properly. But the two meals we did make were so yummy, they’ll definitely be added to our shockingly small list of go-to meals.
3. Start running, using the Couch-to-5K plan. Completed! I was using this program pretty consistently but have ditched it to just run myself. I’m trying to run as far as I can and then push myself just a little farther. I have a 5K coming up on March 21st. I don’t know if I’ll be in 5K shape by then but I’m still going to attempt it, even if I’m not. And I am determined to love running. I loathe it right now.
4. Start paying at least $50 to Credit Card #1 and Credit Card #2, as well as paying something to Credit Card #3. Semi-completed. I did pay $50 to the first two credit cards but haven’t paid anything to Credit Card #3. I’m hoping to give a large chunk of my tax return to this credit card and hopefully get my minimum payment down to a manageable number, pay it off, and get rid of it! You don’t know how good it will feel to have that monkey off my back. I’ll probably have a bonfire for that card.
5. Establish a time of the day to have quiet time with God. I didn’t complete this one at all. Twice this month, I tried. I set aside a time, got out my Bible, Beth Moore study, notebook, and pen. And while I started my Beth Moore study, everything would come to a complete standstill when I tried to pray to God. I mean, I’ve sent Him a few “God, please heal my grandma,” but I’ve never really sat down and prayed in a long, long time. Prayer has always been something I’ve struggled with but it’s been so hard lately. I don’t know what’s going on but I think a lot of it stems from my father issues and thinking I’ve disappointed God.

I’m really hoping February will be a brand-new month for me to really achieve my goals. I need to type them out to keep them with me during the month, since my list of goals just seems to get tucked away in this blog and sometimes, I don’t even remember what my goals were!

My goals for February:
1. Eliminate fast food from my diet. Ever since my mom started Weight Watchers, we haven’t eaten too much fast food. I haven’t had Wendy’s or Burger King in probably a year. I do eat a lot of Chick-Fil-A. (Those waffle fries and chicken nuggets are a weakness for me!) But I really want to completely eliminate fast food from my life because it’s just crap. I am making two exceptions to this rule: Subway (c’mon, it’s not fast food! Plus, it’s hugely endorsed by Bob & Jillian!) and the Chargrilled Chicken Garden Salad from Chick-Fil-A (with light Italian dressing, it’s about 200 calories total!).

2. Accomplish 3 more goals on my list. I want to completely knock off three more items on my list. I’m working on 2 goals so I can hopefully mark those ones off and I’ll be working on a couple more this month.

3. Do lots of trainings for work. I’m way behind on my trainings. I work at a preschool and we have to have 40 hours of training a year, or else we lose our job. And I’m currently sitting at 7 hours. So, I really need to get to work on them. Luckily, I can do most of them online so I have no excuse not to just get down to work and finish them. By the end of February, I want to have done 20 more hours.

4. Get involved in 20SB daily. I’ve been so out of the loop of everything 20SB this month. I’ve been on, maybe, two or three times all of January. I participated in one discussion. I feel bad because I would really love to be more involved in this community but I just haven’t had the time lately. I want to start making time because I do feel like it’s important. And it’s the place I met so many of my lovely blog friends!

5. Set aside time to have quiet time with God. I really, really, really want to accomplish this goal this month. If it’s the only goal I accomplish, it’s this one. I am desperate to get back into my relationship with God. I want to stop playing around and study the Bible, pray to God, and draw closer to Him.

How about you? Do you have any goals for February?

In December, I decided to start making small, month-long goals. Aside from New Years resolutions, I’ve never really sat down and written out goals that I could see myself achieve in the short term. I usually make goals such as losing weight, drawing closer to God, and graduating from college. And long-term goals are important. But so are short term goals. Short term goals map out how you get to achieve those long-term goals. So while losing weight isn’t a bad goal to have, my monthly goals help me achieve it.

A recap of my December goals:
1. Start running again. Not only did I not achieve this, I didn’t run at all in the month of December! Epic fail.
2. Stick to the program and lose weight. Another failure since I decided to stop attending Weight Watchers in December after falling so off-track during Thanksgiving. I hope to go back to WW but I’m waiting to see if I still have a job after mid-January. It’s all depending on a certain class. If I get into the class, I lose my job. If I don’t, I keep my job but there’s a good chance this (required) class may not be offered until next spring. Yikes! (And I need the job to pay for WW.)
3. Start writing again. Man, I promised myself once classes were over that I needed to get back to writing. I have all the time in the world yet I still haven’t opened that document in months.
4. Finish my 101 in 1,001 Days. Yay, complete! This was a monster to finish but I did get it done, just in time for New Years.
5. Start a strength-training program. Yikes! Another epic failure. Actually, I had planned to get together all my tear-out pages of Shape magazine of exercises I wanted to try. And then I spilled a Stouffer’s dinner on them and it was so yucky, I had to throw them all away.

That’s pretty bad. One goal out of five completed. Oh, well! New month, new year, new decade! I’m ready for some change!

Complete or start at least three items on my 101 in 1,001 list. I made the list, posted it, and now it’s time to get to work! I’m starting small with just three in the hopes I can actually achieve this. There are two goals I’m already working on but I would like to have at least one, if not two, of those goals marked off by the end of January.

Make one new meal a week. My mom and I have been in a cooking rut this past month. It’s been a crazy month so we haven’t felt like cooking too many times. We’re hoping to get back into the groove of things, start eating healthier, and cooking at home more. She was given a Crock-Pot for Christmas so we’ll definitely be utilizing it! We have a bunch of go-to dinner choices that we use frequently (spaghetti, Shake-N-Bake chicken, tacos, etc.) but we both get a little nervous to step out of our comfort zone and cook a new and different meal. But I think we need to.

Start running, using the Couch-to-5K running plan. I haven’t ran since Thanksgiving and I really want 2010 to be the Year I Lost Weight And Became A Runner. My goal is to run in the 5K Bay to Bay race on March 21st. This gives me a little less than 11 weeks to be in 5K shape. But it also gives me a goal and something to work towards.

Start paying at least $50 to Credit Card #1 and Credit Card #2, as well as paying something to Credit Card #3. For the past year, I’ve just been paying the minimum balance on two of my credit cards which is always less than $20. And then there’s the third credit card of which I have a rather large limit on and have gotten very behind on payments. So my minimum balance is quite high. But I want to start paying them something, just to show I’m trying. I really want to get rid of two of the credit cards and stick to the one my bank gave me. Credit card debt is never something I thought I would ever find myself in, especially seeing how my parents struggled with it. But I have and I’m ready to pay them off, get rid of the cards and build my credit back up.

Establish a time of the day to have quiet time with God. I desperately need to get back to having quiet time with God. It will probably have to be at night, since I have to be at work very early in the morning. But I need to map out the time, what I want to accomplish during that time, and start doing it. I need to get back to reading my Bible, praying, and seeking God more. I don’t do it enough.

I’ve been seeing a lot of goals and monthly recap posts floating around the blogosphere. Goals are good to have, good to set, and good to accomplish. I thought, why not? Let me make some goals for December!

This December, I will…

Start running again. After running/walking the 10K, it reaffirmed the fact that I don’t really hate to run. I actually enjoy it once I hit my second wind. And it was really fun being around other runners, even seeing people bigger than me running! It really doesn’t matter what size you are, everyone can run! (Provided the doctor OK’s it, you know…) My mom and I are going to try to do a 10K every other month so I’ll be searching for a 10K to do in January/February. And it’s an easy way to lose weight!

Stick to the program and lose more weight. In December 2007, I was doing Weight Watchers and made a goal of losing 5 pounds before Christmas hit. And I did manage to lose that amount. But then things hit a downward spiral and the rest is history. I have weigh-in tomorrow, which I’m very nervous about as I totally went off the program for Thanksgiving (and the week after…). But I enjoyed it and was willing to pay for a gain on the scale. My goal is still to lose 5 pounds in the month of December. It’s a lot to ask but I think if I buckle down and get serious, I can do it. I did it before.

Start writing again! As everyone knows, I failed NaNoWriMo miserably. But I think I forgot how crazy November is for a college student. This is my last week of classes before finals start. Life has been so crazy with papers and tests and presentations. Basically, I have an entire month off from school. And I want to use my free time to really get to work on writing. The story I was thinking about writing for NaNoWriMo needs a lot of character development and I realized I’m a girl who needs firm outlines to write. I can’t just sit down and write what comes to mind…I need to plot it out on paper first. My goal is to get the character development and a semblance of an outline written before December’s end. It would be awesome if I could actually get a story going, as well!

Finish my 101 in 1001 days. I’m only up to #50 on this list and I’m having a hard time figuring out 50 (50!) more things I want to accomplish. I’ve even been scrounging around other people’s lists to steal some of their ideas. But I definitely want to finish it to start in 2010.

Start a strength-training program. Lately, I haven’t been exercising much. When I do exercise, it’s always cardio. I have been doing my Biggest Loser DVD on Sunday mornings which gives me the best workout of the week. It’s so intense! But I’d really like to establish my own routine. I have an exercise ball and I have weights. And Shape magazine gives tons and tons and tons of strength-training exercises. Some of them use equipment that I don’t have but for the most part, I can do the exercises with no problem. Because I want Kelly Ripa arms, fo’ sho.

What goals do you have for December?