It’s my favorite time of the month! It’s time to assess how I did on my April goals and set some new intentions for May. Let’s do this!
April Goals
1) Have a no-spend month. Somewhat complete. I didn’t spend money on any purchases, but I did use Ubereats a few times, womp. However, I used it much less often (in Q1, I averaged $142 a month in Ubereats orders and in April, I spent just under $80!) so that’s a win for me.
2) Reorganize my Google Drive. Complete! It is so nice to have all of my documents organized into their folders and to not have dozens and dozens of untitled documents and spreadsheets floating around.
3) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. (25/30) Well, I didn’t move my body every day but I did move it more days than I didn’t, and I’m considering that a win. This month, I did 11 long walks, 10 spin classes, and 4 strength workouts.
4) Review 2016 and 2017 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Complete!
5) Take the dogs to Salty Paws in Dunedin. Complete! The dogs couldn’t eat their ice cream fast enough. We’ll be back!
6) Fill up my water bottle every morning. I did this 6 days out of 30. Maybe in May, I can get to 10 days?
7) Make a doctor’s appointment. Not complete. I really hate being on an HMO insurance plan, bleh. I had to pay $225 out of pocket for my mole removal and another $150 for my emergency dental cleaning in April, and I know a regular doctor’s visit is at least $100 out of pocket (and who knows how much more things would be if I needed to see a PT for my leg pain). So I decided to put off the doctor’s visit for now. My HSA took a beating in April!
8) Eliminate red meat. Ugh, no. I eliminated it from my homemade nachos, switching to ground turkey. But giving up pepperoni pizza is going to be the hardest thing for me to do. 🙁
9) Decide on my tattoo design. Complete! While I haven’t sketched out the design (I have no artistic ability when it comes to drawing and there’s no way I could sketch out something like this, lol), I do have a few photos to show the tattoo artist when the time comes and I’m confident they’ll be able to turn my vision into reality.
10) Make an extra car payment. Complete! I am so proud of myself for making this happen. Financial goals are so, so hard for me.
May Goals
1) Move my body for 30 minutes every day. I really like this goal, even if there are some days when the last thing I want to do is work out or even go for a walk outside. I’m not someone naturally inclined toward exercise, so I need strict goals like these.
2) Review 2018 and 2019 blog posts and list out the posts, categories, and tags. Another month, another blog categorization goal. I’m nearing the finish line of the first part of this massive goal!
3) Fill up my water bottle every morning. Still not a habit, still on the list.
4) Update all of my blog pages. I recently noticed that a lot of my blog pages are out of date. I don’t even have my last cruise (from 2019!) on my Cruising page and the “about me” widget on my sidebar says I’m 32 still. Oops. Time for a refresh!
5) Try to trim the girls’ claws. Eloise will usually let me trim her claws but the last time I tried to corral Lila for a trim, it was a traumatic experience for the both of us so I haven’t attempted it again. They both use the numerous scratching pads around the apartment and their claws don’t grow long enough to irritate their footpad, but I would like to get into a monthly cadence of trimming their claws. So here we go, I’m going to attempt this sometime in May and see what happens.
6) Be in bed, lights out, at 11pm every night. My ideal bedtime is between 9:30-10:00, but since I am regularly going to bed at midnight on weeknights, I know I need to start with an incremental change. In May, I want to turn the lights out by 11pm. That means if I don’t get into bed until 11, I don’t get to read and play on my phone until midnight. It means I go directly to bed.
7) Find three tattoo artists to call. Breaking up a big goal like “get a new tattoo” is much easier when I break down each step into smaller goals. So my next goal is to find three tattoo artists I like. Bonus points if I call them for a consultation!
8) Research digital recipe book options. One of my goals this year is to put together a recipe book so that I can have an easy place to find the recipes I love. Right now, I don’t have any sort of system so I often make a recipe, love it, and promptly forget about it. I don’t think a physical recipe book would work for me so I’m hoping there are some digital options available.
9) Go for three 5K walks. I am wayyy behind on my goal of walking one 5K every month. I missed doing a 5K in both March and April, so now I need to triple up in May. Thankfully, my weekends won’t be too busy this month so I think I can get all of these walks in, as long as I prioritize them.
10) Eat one serving of fruit every day. A small, simple change. I think I can handle this!
Sounds like April was a great, successful month and I love your new goals for May!
You may have already considered this, but have you tried turkey pepperoni? My daughter and I LOVE pepperoni, and I notice that there’s always a turkey option (which I avoid, so I get it if you ALSO want to avoid it). Also, I recognize that it’s easier to do turkey pepperoni if you are making pizza yourself, and not so easy if you are ordering pizza out!
Maybe I should try making pizza myself! Every time I’ve made my own pizza, it never turns out the way I want it to, though. Womp. But I do love turkey pepperoni when I have it! I love a good cracker + cheese + turkey pepperoni combo.
We have never trimmed Zelda’s claws. I mentioned this to the vet who was quite surprised because we tend to do all the things for our pets, but it’s never really been a problem. She uses her scratching posts and is good to go. I sometimes wonder if I should *try*, but I value my life and worry she would cut my throat open if I tried to mess with her claws.
Good luck with your May goals! I’m so impressed with all the organizing work you’re doing on your blog. Sometimes I think I should try and organize more and then I realize that I’ve had my blog for eighteen years and I just decide it’s fine as is! Ha!
I am relieved that you also don’t trim your cat’s claws! I’m surprised she lets you brush her teeth but not cut her nails! I’ve never even attempted brushing either girls’ teeth. Eloise would maybe let me, but Lila would claw my eyes out. I’m suspecting that trimming Lila’s claws will be another traumatic experience, haha, but we’ll see how it goes.
I can’t believe you’ve had your blog for 18 years! That’s amazing. Your blog is ready for college, ha! I would definitely not want to touch 18 years of posts, either.
OMG, trimming claws. We would risk life and limb if we tried to do this to Oscar. It hasn’t seemed to cause problems, though. She had some teeth removed last fall and we had them trim her claws when she was put under because that is basically the only way you could do it. She is FIESTY!!!
This is a good set of goals for the month! The moving your body one is a great approach since it gives you flexibility to accomplish it however you’d like. For the 5k walk goal, maybe there is a friend who would want to do it with you? or your mom? I really love going for walks with a friend as it combines 2 things I value – exercise and connection!
One of my goals for May is to get my engagement ring resized. It is too big, even though I had it sized down to 4.25 after we got engaged. I was nervous about making it even smaller since I didn’t want it to get stuck when I was pregnant, but it always easily fit during pregnancy so it’s time to make it smaller so it fits better. I don’t wear it right now since it slides around my finger, too much. Instead I just wear my wedding band – which I love! But Phil spent a good chunk of money on the engagement ring so I would like to get back to wearing it!
“Risking life and limb” is about right. That’s how it feels when I’ve tried to trim Lila’s claws in the past. She hates it! But she’s been better about letting me hold her lately so MAYBE I can attempt it. Ellie is fine – she just meows really sadly while I’m doing it, which breaks my heart. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t trim claws, though
I had my mom and the dogs join me for my first 5K I did this year so I need to have them come on another one. They make the 5K walks so much more fun!
Ugh…I have just cleaned up my Google Drive but everything else is in shambles. Just SO MANY documents and digital things. It feels like I’d never be able to overhaul it properly, but every so often I have a mini-breakdown about what a mess it all is.
It’s actually not that messy…there are just so many folders within folders within folders and…*throws hands up into the air in defeat*
Ohmygosh, I am RIGHT THERE WITH YOU. I was just thinking about the digital file overwhelm that I have this morning. Emails, files, downloads, Dropbox (I have so much storage and rarely delete things and… argh). I can’t even fathom how I would ever have the time to organize it all…
I FEEL YOU! There is so much digital clutter that we don’t think about because it doesn’t take up physical space. But I really need to get so much of my digital life in order because it all feels very messy. One thing at a time, right?!
Wow, Stephany, fabulous job on your April goals!! Way to go, my friend!
All those May goals sound great too – I’m cheering for you!
Thanks, friend! <3
I am using “Pocket” to save (and organize) my recipes – maybe that could be an option for you?
Keep chipping away at that water drinking goal – you’ll get there (I know how hard it is, but I am proof that you can also change your drinking habits!).
I’ll look into Pocket for recipe organization. Thanks for the tip!
I say it every single month but you are rocking the movement goals. Go, you! And I love your new approach to the water – maybe just try to have some incremental improvement every month? Vs. going from 0 to 60 (so to speak) in one month?
Hopefully the change in seasons is helping with the fruit goal! 🙂
For the water goal, I thought I was making it as simple as possible. Literally, all I’m asking myself to do is fill up my water bottle every morning. I don’t have to drink any water or hit a specific oz goal – I just have to fill it up! And even that has been hard for me, lol. I don’t know how much easier I could make it!
OK, I’m going to throw something off the wall out there, but… is it the *timing* of when you do this? If I remember, you were a cold water person (which I do not understand but that’s another topic…). Could you see if maybe filling up your water bottle and putting it in the fridge at night would help? Or (and the environmentalist in me cringes at this…) could you just … buy some bottles of water until you get used to the habit of taking a bottle with you to your desk? I don’t know, just throwing random things out there. Feel free – obviously! – to IGNORE me! 🙂