JUNE GOALS

1) Schedule a consultation with a dietician. Not complete. I did some research on Zocdoc for dieticians that take my insurance but none of them seemed the right fit for me. I need to do more research, so this will go back on the list for July.

2) Schedule a LASIK consultation. Complete! My consultation is on July 18th and I’m really looking forward to it. (Based on Elisabeth’s experience, I am definitely very apprehensive if they tell me I need PRK rather than traditional LASIK, but knowledge is power, right?)

3) Attend at least one Pride event. Complete! I attended a Pride kick-off event (although we arrived on the early side and nothing much was going on), a Pride immersion experience at a local museum, and the annual St. Pete Pride parade. It was a lovely Pride month for me!

4) Get my skin tags removed. Still not complete. Wah!

5) Use the “Downtime” feature of my phone to stay off apps in the evening. Complete! I have really enjoyed using this feature as it really does force me to stay off my phone in the evenings. I have moved certain apps to be allowed during this time, like my podcast app, Libby (for audiobooks), photos, camera, etc. I’m going to keep this going!

JULY GOALS

1) Schedule a consultation with a dietician. Rollover goal.

2) Take a spending break after my vacation. I’ve been spending money like crazy so I think it’s time to put myself on a bit of a spending break. This means no shopping, no random Amazon orders, and limiting Ubereats orders (1 per week).

3) Figure out my ingrown toenail issues. I’ve been dealing with ingrown toenails for quite a while and have mostly been ignoring them/grimacing in pain every time I get a pedicure. But it’s time to deal with this issue finally. My first step is to try this ingrown toenail treatment that I randomly found during an Amazon search. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll schedule an appointment with a podiatrist.

4) Get my skin tags removed. Rollover goal.

5) Turn off all devices by 8:00 p.m. I have been struggling with my nighttime routine (even though I’m using Downtime on my phone to stay off apps!) But sometimes I’m messing around on my laptop until late. So it’s time to nip it in the bud! The laptop and the TV need to be off by 8:00 so I can start on my nighttime routine and get it done in a reasonable amount of time so I can be in bed at a decent hour.

MAY GOALS

1) Work out every day in May. Not complete, but I have a very good reason for it. I was doing really well all the way up until my mole removal procedure, and then I got nervous to do too many Peloton workouts because of the placement of my stitches. I didn’t want to pull a stitch by accident! I could have continued to exercise with long walks, but I didn’t. However, I still managed 19 days of workouts, which is a whole lot better than April, when I only managed three workouts.

2) Check my bank account every day. Not complete. I’m still struggling with how I want to budget, so I think I may end up going back to the way I used to do it. At least then I was doing something.

3) Schedule a LASIK consultation. Not complete. I just kept putting off the phone call, like the true millenial I am.

4) Get my skin tags removed. Not complete. My mole removal was front of mind for me in May.

5) Do not use my phone until my morning workout is complete. Complete! I am really proud of myself for kicking ass with this goal. It makes me feel so good and productive.

JUNE GOALS

1) Schedule a consultation with a dietician. I wrote about my goal to work with a dietician in a post I wrote last week, and I want to get the process started this week. I’m excited to work with a dietician and will definitely blog about my experience.

2) Schedule a LASIK consultation. Rollover goal.

3) Attend at least one Pride event. It’s Pride month, friends! I have never really involved myself in Pride for reasons I should probably talk about in therapy (and perhaps will blog about), but I am hoping to at least attend our local Pride march. Our city also throws a lot of other events like block parties and festivals, and it makes me grateful to live in an area of Florida that loves to celebrate queerness, especially considering all of the anti-LGBT legislation happening in our state.

4) Get my skin tags removed. Rollover goal.

5) Use the “Downtime” feature of my phone to stay off apps in the evening. Just as I was in a bad habit of using my phone first thing in the morning and delaying my workout, I am also in a habit of using my phone in the evening and delaying my nighttime routine. If I’m not scrolling Instagram or a Reddit forum, I’m playing phone games, and it’s a problem. So I finally implemented “Downtime” on my phone from 6:30pm-9:30pm Monday-Thursday every week. (I may extend the downtime into the evening if I find myself scrolling too much once I’m in bed.) This will hopefully keep me away from all sorts of apps so that I can just focus on making dinner, watching TV, cleaning up, and doing my nighttime routine without getting distracted by my phone every .5 seconds. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about podcasts – maybe I’ll just stream a specific one from my laptop at night? Will report back!

APRIL GOALS

1) Keep a food journal. Not complete. I didn’t even attempt to food journal this month. I have made this a goal many, many times and I never complete it. Maybe I just don’t want to?

2) Replace my bed. Mostly complete. My new bedsheets, pillowcases, and quilt are here. My bedframe has been delivered. My brother has ordered the mattress and box spring from his work. All that’s left is for him to deliver the mattress/box spring and then set up my bed, which should be happening either today or tomorrow. WOOHOO!

3) Schedule a LASIK consultation. Not complete. I submitted a request for a LASIK consultation at a nearby eye center, but I never followed up with them. Oops.

4) Work through the Anxiety Toolkit that my psychiatrist sent to me. Complete! Once I finally sat down with the workbook, it didn’t take me all that long to go through. It wasn’t life-changing by any means, but it was useful to go through it.

5) Set a biweekly budget. Complete-ish. I set the budget, but I did not really check in on it like I wanted to. I must get better about this!

MAY GOALS

1) Work out every day in May. This will be a tall order for me, but I’m also excited about it. I failed miserably with my walking/exercise goals last month, so I am very behind with my goal of logging 50 Peloton workouts (of 20 minutes or longer) this year. I’m also not doing great with my goal of walking every day. A goal like this, where I have to find the time to get in a workout daily no matter what, has worked well for me in the past and I’m hoping the same holds true this month.

2) Check my bank account every day. After many years of being meticulous about tracking my spending and itemizing every purchase, I grew very tired of the practice in early 2023. And… I just gave up on it. I wanted to find a different way to track my spending that didn’t feel so overwhelming. I’ve been playing around with different options, and I may have finally settled on something that works better. It may feel like this idea of a daily check-in of my bank account isn’t any less overwhelming than itemizing my purchases, but we’re experimenting here. Maybe this works, maybe it doesn’t. But I won’t know unless I try!

3) Schedule a LASIK consultation. Rollover goal.

4) Get my skin tags removed. I have a variety of skin tags that need to be removed by a dermatologist. I’ve had to get skin tags removed before (I’m prone to them), and it’s a very easy process, but best handled by a professional. I just need to schedule an appointment!

5) Do not use my phone until my morning workout is complete. Elisabeth has been having some interesting conversations on her blog about phone usage. I have a tendency to use my phone a lot (my current daily average for screen time is over 6 hours, if that tells you anything). I don’t necessarily feel bad about how often I use my phone, but I do think I use it as a crutch to avoid switching to different tasks throughout the day. I also almost always use it first thing in the morning, blearily scrolling through Instagram as I try to wake up or wasting the first 30 minutes of my day playing phone games (ugh). Since I have a goal of working out every day this month (and I’m going to try to always do my workout first thing in the morning), I’m going to try to build this new habit right alongside it. I already keep my phone on DND from 8pm-8am so it’s not that I get distracted by notifications when the alarm goes off… but other apps can easily distract me. Hopefully, this goal will not only challenge me to use my phone less but also to get up and do my workout so I can use my phone, ha.

It’s Q2 of 2023, friends! How did we get here already? I have been pretty satisfied with the way the first quarter turned out, especially as it relates to my goals. I got a lot accomplished! However, as I’ve been thinking about my goals, I’ve been craving simplicity. Setting 10 goals every month is a lot, and some of them were really just placeholders (do I need to tell you I’m going to recategorize another year of my blog, or can I just fill you guys in when I do my yearly goals update at the end of every quarter?). So, I’m shaking things up a bit and have settled on five goals for April. Much simpler, much more doable.

But before we get into April, we need to look back on how I did in March!

MARCH GOALS

1) Put my bedframe on Facebook Marketplace. Not complete. Well, technically, I did put my bedframe on Facebook Marketplace, and within 30 minutes, I had multiple offers. So, I realized that a) maybe I priced it too low originally ($50) and b) I need to wait to put it up for sale until I’m ready for it to be gone. It will probably sell much more quickly than I anticipated!

2) Recategorize all 2013 blogs. Complete!

3) Do the 30-day fitness challenge (found on Elisabeth’s blog, who found it on Kyria’s blog). LOL, no. I made it to day 12 or 13 and then gave up. I started to notice that I was putting off my Peloton workouts because I was so focused on this goal, and had to ask myself which was more important. In the end, I decided my Peloton workouts meant more to me so I willingly gave up on this challenge.

4) Do a few plantar fasciitis stretches every morning. Not complete. Maybe I’ll move this to the evening and combine it with my nighttime routine. I am wearing my PF slippers more often, though! I don’t wear them all the time, only when my heels start hurting, but they definitely lessen the pain.

5) Do a Goodwill drop and get rid of the old cat tower. Complete! I felt a little bad about getting rid of the cat tower since the cats liked to use it from time to time, but it was time to give it up. And now I feel like I have so much more room in my living room! I also did a nice little Goodwill drop last month – felt great to do that.

6) Work through the Anxiety Toolkit that my psychiatrist sent to me. Didn’t even open this once in March.

7) Order new bedding. Complete! It’s all ready and waiting to be made up on my new bed.

8) Watch a 90s classic rom-com. Not complete. I chose to watch silly reality TV shows rather than watching a movie.

9) Stand up for one hour each workday. Not complete.

10) Limit myself to two Ubereats orders and two takeout orders per week. Complete! I’m really proud of myself for making this happen.

APRIL GOALS

1) Keep a food journal. I need to start eating better, but I want to do it in a way that feels good. To start, I want to keep a food journal where I can list out what I ate in a day and how it made me feel. I don’t care about how many calories or carbs or macros I’m eating… I’m just curious if I can find any patterns in the way some foods make me feel.

2) Replace my bed. I’d really like to finally get this done in April! There is some coordination that has to happen, like having my brother order the bed through his work and then having him deliver it and put the bed I ordered together. But I should be able to make it happen this month!

3) Schedule a LASIK consultation. This is one of my 2023 goals. I don’t have to make a decision about LASIK this year, but I do want to know what my options are and how much I can expect it to cost me.

4) Work through the Anxiety Toolkit that my psychiatrist sent to me. Rollover goal.

5) Set a biweekly budget. I did not meet my savings goals in Q1, and that’s because I don’t have a concrete plan for my money right now. It means I’m more apt to spend money when I should be funneling it to my savings. I think setting a budget every two weeks (since I get paid every two weeks) should help rein in my spending a bit.