I’ve been writing down monthly goals for the past few months now, though I did forget to do them for March. I usually make about five big goals that I want to attain that month and usually end up completing 2-3 of them. So I want to focus on making smaller goals and also bring in my New Years resolutions to them. If you remember, I made three resolutions and all pretty big ones. But I figured that if I can get these three areas of my life squared away, it will have been a successful 2010.

Resolution: Become a healthier person.
While I’m well on my way to this resolution, I do employ a lot of unhealthy habits in my daily life. My goal for my first month of Weight Watchers was to simply eat within my Points range, track, exercise regularly, and drink more water. And I did that. So now it’s time to focus on what I’m eating – and drinking. And what I’m drinking is a whole lot of soda. I’ve talked before about my soda addiction. It’s gotten a whole lot better since I started Weight Watchers but I really want to kick this addiction!

Even though we’re not Catholic, my mom gave up cookies, brownies, and cake for Lent. And she succeeded! She did awesome, even when faced with tons and tons of temptation – and tons of bad days where baking cookies would “make her feel better.” (But would it?) She wanted to do another challenge so she’s going to give up Diet Coke for 30 days, from April 8th-May 8th. I decided to join her.

So I will be giving up Coke for 30 days. While I’m hoping this will help me lose a little extra poundage, I really want to see if I can do this. It’s going to be so tough but with both of us doing it, I think we’ll succeed. I’m going to have to find other drinks to have. I don’t like tea and there are very few fruit juices I can handle. Honestly, the only one is orange juice. I don’t want something too sugary. Do you guys have any suggestions for what to drink? (Obviously, I’ll be drinking a whole lot of water but I need other options as that can get old fast!)

Resolution: Become a godlier woman.
I have to be honest: I haven’t done much prayer-wise, Bible reading-wise, or worship-wise. The only time I open my Bible is for church. I only pray when I need something from God. I talk a big game, but don’t do much about it. I want to change that. I want God to be a more active part of my life and I know the reason I feel like my life is so out-of-control 95% of the time is because God is not the center of it. I’m not laying all my stress and troubles at God’s feet.

I don’t have time to do quiet time for a long time every day. My days are so go-go-go and are going to become even more so during this last month of school that it’s just not physically possible. My goal for this month is that I start conversating with God more. I start making Him a bigger part of my life that’s more than just a “God help me” when life gets too stressful. I want to pray to God and feel His presence in my life. I don’t right now. Once school is over with, I’ll have more time to devote to establishing a quiet time and better prayer life. Right now, I just want to have an active prayer life.

Resolution: Get in control of my finances.
While my finances are still in quite a mess, I have managed to pay over my minimum amount for two of my credit cards and aside from two times where I had to use them (At Subway, when my debit card wasn’t going through for some reason.) I haven’t used them at all. I’m about $200 away from paying off Target completely, and then I’m getting rid of it. I’m hoping to get this one done with by late June. My second card, which is my bank credit card, is the one I want to keep. It has a $500 limit, which is the perfect amount for me.

The one I’ve been conveniently forgetting about it my Old Navy credit card, which is now with a collection agency. It makes me cringe to even think about that! But I need to call this company and set something up. Because I need to get serious about paying this off.

But that’s not my resolution. My resolution this month is one of my “101” goals which is to start tracking my spending. I really don’t drop a lot of cash in one place. It’s just a whole lot of little things adding up to a lot. I want to start to see where my money is going. I also need to figure out how much money I do have a month to devote to paying off my credit cards. Aside from little things here and there, I don’t have any bills to pay for. Since we downsized, my mom has been able to pay all our bills – and still have money left over! (What a concept!)

So, those are my goals. Just three small things that will hopefully add up to achieving my resolutions at the end of the year. It’ll be interesting to see how I do, especially with the crazy month that’s ahead of me. The good news is, I’m in the home stretch! This insane semester is almost over with – now we just have to see if I pass all my classes. 😉

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.