Oh boy, it’s been a bit of time since I’ve checked in on my monthly goals. I originally set these goals back in July and carried the majority of them through until August. I’m glad I gave myself a tiny bit of a break on goal-setting, though, because I found it very invigorating to set some new goals for September.

July/August Goals

1) Schedule a consultation with a dietician. Complete! I had my consultation in early August and she’s the perfect dietician for me.

2) Take a spending break after my vacation. Complete! I went on a spending break from mid-July to about mid-August, and it was much needed.

3) Figure out my ingrown toenail issues. This has been mostly solved. The ingrown toenail treatment I bought at Target works WONDERS! After just one day of using it, I could feel the difference.

4) Get my skin tags removed. Not complete. I’m pushing off this goal until 2024, as I just have this feeling that it’s going to cost more than I thought. (I’m still getting bills from my derm’s office from my mole removal in April. Ugh.)

5) Turn off all devices by 8:00 p.m. Not complete. I forgot I set this goal, lol.

September Goals

1) Schedule my LASIK appointment. There are a lot of little to-dos that will go into this goal, as I need to figure out the financing portion and call my vision insurance to get the rebate set up. My goal is to schedule this for sometime in October, depending on how everything shakes out.

2) Go through my “deal with it later” basket. Everyone has this basket in their home, right? I throw everything in there that either needs to be filed away or put away in a very specific spot. And then the basket overflows and I realize I need to finally deal with all of those things. September is the month I finally do that.

3) Visit my PCP for a physical. It’s been way too long since I had a physical and I also want to discuss a few health-related things with her, like my increasing carpal tunnel pain. I also want to get blood work done + get a referral for a sleep study (one of my 2023 goals!).

4) Stop using my phone when I’m in bed at night. I have a bad habit of getting into bed with the intent of reading for a bit before going to sleep, but usually, I spend more time scrolling through Instagram Reels or playing games on my phone than I do reading. Time to bring Downtime back to my phone!

5) Get back to my workout routine. I really fell off my workout routine in August (and most of July, if I’m being honest). I want to figure out a sustainable way to work out that makes me feel good, which I know really comes down to long walks and strength workouts (typically Callie Gullickson’s classes on Peloton). Sometimes I think about getting back into group fitness classes, but I don’t know if I trust myself enough to join some sort of gym and actually go there regularly. (I’m v lazy when it comes to exercise.) For now, I’m trying to commit to three strength workouts a week and at least a 20-minute walk every day. We’ll see if I can handle that, at least.

Do you have any goals for September?

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.