LOOKING BACK

Thirty-Day Shred: In May, I pledged to complete the 30-Day Shred challenge. And I did complete it, which is a miracle in itself. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t fun most days. But I’m so proud that I committed to this and completed this challenge. Every, single day was a tough, intense workout and while I didn’t lose as much weight as I hoped to, it was great to have 30 days of continuous exercise.

Quiet Time: This was a total fail. While I did manage to have my quiet time during my media fast, it didn’t happen at all in May and last week was a total fail as well. But one of these days, it’s going to sink in. Until then, this is my goal.

Cut down on little expenses: Uh. Well. Fail? During my media fast, I sat down and went through both my mom’s and my bank statements for the last 6 weeks. I separated everything into categories to see how much we were spending. And it was a little sickening. Since money issues are still a problem for us, I plan on blogging about them more regularly. We have to become more in control of our finances, because the fact that we’re struggling is just utterly ridiculous.

THIS JUNE, I WILL…

Become a better tracker. I have noticed that those weeks when I track my food effectively and set out an exercise plan, I do better. I feel better. Yet I’ve been lax on these two areas for the past two weeks. (Although I’ve still managed to lose weight, interestingly enough.) I bought a notebook to write down my goals for the week, track my food and exercise, and talk about how I’m feeling overall. I’m hoping by being more anal about what I am eating and the way I feel when I exercise, I can learn better eating habits and find this healthy lifestyle a little easier to handle.

Get our grocery bill under control. When I figured out where we were spending our money, this is what was the most out of control. Mom and I fell into the bad pattern of going to the store of a few times a week and buying things for a few days. You definitely spend twice as much this way. I want to start shopping smarter, only going to the grocery store once a week, and using coupons more effectively.

Commit to quiet time. I am determined to find time every day to be with God. I know I say this every month but after my media fast, I realized just how much I need and crave this time. I need to read my Bible more, pray more, and journal more. I’m going to find time to do this every day.

*Inspired by Kyla.

I’m keeping with my resolution theme again this month and also talking about how I did with my April challenges.

Resolution #1: Become a healthier person.
Last month, I challenged myself to go 30 days without drinking soda. I made it 46 hours. Truthfully, while going cold turkey sounds like a good idea, it’s not. Especially when you’re addicted to it as much as I am. I did fine on my first day but by the second day, it got a little crazy.

I’ve decided to stop taking things away from my diet because I don’t like deprivation. It doesn’t work for me. (Does it work for anyone?!) So I’m taking on The 30-Day Shred challenge. I am going to do Jillian’s kick-butt routine every day for 30 days. I won’t say I’m excited about this and I cringe thinking about how sore I’m going to be. But I want to show myself I can do this. And I think it’ll go a long way in helping me with my weight loss effort. As long as I stick to eating right.

Resolution #2: Become a godlier woman.
Since I knew how hectic my schedule would be in April, I charged myself with only conversating with God in April. I didn’t do this as much as I wanted to and sometimes it felt more like an afterthought than anything. I think it’s because I wasn’t really involved with God. He’s been a big afterthought for a while.

So my challenge for this month is to have quiet time with God five times a week. Luckily, my life will be a lot less hectic and busy and it will be much easier to find time to have this quiet time with God. And I hope to make an easy, everyday part of my life that I need. And I’m starting a new Bible study that the lovely Kyla Roma recommended to me! This makes me super excited to start.

Resolution #3: Get in control of my finances.
I resolved to start tracking my spending this month and I have done that. I still want to sit down and make some sort of chart of where all my money went and make a budget from that. Unfortunately, the bulk of my money I make in May is going towards tuition so I really don’t have any big plans with my credit cards because of that.

Basically, my goal for this month is to cut down on those little expenses. The two times I get paid this month, I’ll take $30 out of the bank to have for any expenditures. I can use this for shopping, food, or whatever I feel led to buy. I really want to get into this habit monthly while I’m trying to get control over my credit card debt so we’ll see how this month goes.

(Also happening this month: a new phone! I’ll be able to shop around for a new phone on May 25th and I cannot wait. I’ve been using my mom’s awful Blackberry since I lost my phone in November and I hate it. So I’m going to get a new phone then, when I can get a nice one for cheap.)

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?