Happy February, my friends! January always seems to feel like a long month, but I didn’t mind it being that way honestly. It was nice to have nearly five whole weeks to ease into the year. I am really happy with January – it was a productive month and a happy one. Can’t get better than that!

Here’s how I did with my goals for January:

1) Get blood work done.

Complete! I took care of this the first Saturday in January, and I’m actually meeting with my doctor this afternoon to discuss the results. I was able to look at my results already, and some of my numbers were a little concerning. She’s a proactive doctor but not an alarmist, so I’m interested in how she interprets my results.

2) Set Eloise up with a new vet and sign up for pet insurance.

Complete! I took Eloise to the vet in early January and she had some tests done to make sure she was fully healthy, and everything came back normal. She’s also at a healthy weight, which meant I was able to ditch the wet cat food and put her on a dry food only diet. Woo! I also set her up with Banfield’s wellness plan but after much discussion with other pet owners on Instagram, I think I’m going to end up canceling the plan and start a savings account for her pet expenses instead of forking over $40-$50 a month for pet insurance.

3) Get new tires and a wheel alignment.

Complete! This whole process wound up costing much less than I expected ($166 for two tires and an alignment!) I am so glad I found this mechanic. His prices are so reasonable and he can usually get me in for an appointment quickly. His shop is also within walking distance of my apartment, which meant I dropped my car off in the morning on a day I worked from home and picked her up in the afternoon – easy as that!

4) Try out a meal delivery system.

Complete! For three weeks, I subscribed to Catered Fit’s meal delivery service where they delivered two pre-made meals right to my door. All I had to do was heat them up and enjoy! However, I canceled the service this week because the expense was a little too much to justify. Back to cooking I go!

5) Schedule a dermatology appointment.

Complete! Fun fact: my appointment was already scheduled and I had it in my calendar. I completely forgot that I had booked this appointment last year! I honestly couldn’t remember if I had gone for my annual skin check in 2018 but apparently not only did I go to this appointment – I also scheduled a new appointment. Oy.

6) Sign up for Mint and organize my budget.

Complete! This one almost didn’t get done because I was having the hardest time connecting my bank with Mint. Originally, I wasn’t using the correct login info so I kept changing my bank password and Mint still wasn’t accepting it. I finally gave up after a few tries, nervous about my bank locking me out of my account. Finally, I went back to Mint this week and was able to get my bank connected and spent some time organizing my budget categories. I’m still not exactly sure how I want to use Mint but I think I just need to spend more time on the app to figure it out.

How’s that for productive? Six out of six goals complete! WOO! I can’t remember the last time I went 100% on my goals, so I’m really happy with that.

Here’s what I want to accomplish in February:

1) Organize all my files.

I keep a lot of files. I keep files I probably don’t even need to keep (like all of my pay stubs, which can be accessed online). And I have two filing systems: one for files for the current year and one for files for past years/important documents. At the beginning of every year, I like to spend a little time reorganizing my files. I take the files in my “current year” filing system and move them into my “past year” filing system. And then I also look at all of my other files and see if there is anything I can shred (especially anything that is more than seven years old). It’s a nerdy little exercise and I’m excited to tackle it in February!

2) Give up candy.

You guys. I feel like a child making this a goal for February but it needs to be done. I have fallen into a habit of picking up a bag of candy during my normal grocery shopping routine and eating a few pieces every day. And no, that’s not a problem in and of itself but I feel slightly out of control around candy, and those few pieces are usually combined with an ice cream bar or cookies after dinner or snacks from the work break room during that inevitable 3pm slump. So, I’m cutting candy out of my life for the next 28 days. It must be done.

3) Track my food.

This is one of those goals I seem to always come back to, even though I realllllly hate tracking my food. But I’m doing it as an experiment and I’m going to track it in a journal, not on My Fitness Pal, to get in the habit of writing down what I’m eating and how it makes me feel. I just want to spend the month analyzing what I’m eating, how hungry I get between meals, how I feel after I eat certain foods, and how I can build myself a diet that makes me feel good and also helps me to lose weight.

4) Spend 10 minutes stretching every morning.

I wake up every morning with lower back pain and I’m really just tired of it. I may end up going back to a chiropractor about it, but first I’m going to experiment with stretching. I want to spend the first 10 minutes of every morning doing a few lower back and morning stretches to loosen my muscles and see if it makes me feel better.

5) Start my nighttime routine by 8 p.m. on weeknights.

This is another goal I seem to consistently put on my goals list. I used to be so good about getting to bed by 9 p.m., but lately, I find myself either trying to finish up a blog post or scrolling through Instagram late in the evening so that I’m not getting to bed until 10 or 11 p.m. As mentioned during my posts about sleep, I require a lot of sleep (more than the average person) and I need to make sure I’m getting that. This goal is as much about self-care as my nightly bubble bath ritual, and I need to treat it as such.

6) Work out every day in February.

I only worked out seven times in January, which puts me behind in my goal of working out 150 times this year. I’m just not in the habit of working out regularly right now but I think that challenging myself to get in a workout every day in February (even if it’s just a walk!) will help me gain some traction on my workout goal and get me back in that workout routine.

What’s something you want to do or accomplish in February?

Ah, it’s time to get back to my monthly goals! I took the latter part of the year off because, well, goal setting wasn’t top of my priority list while grieving the loss of my beloved grandpa. But it’s a new year and hopefully a new me, and I’ve got some great goals to start off the year with:

1) Get blood work done.

It’s been years since I’ve had my blood work done. I need to go to an actual diagnostic center for blood work because my veins are notoriously hard to get a needle into, but I have the paperwork and this is an easy task I can cross off in January. I may even just go to my local Quest location first thing tomorrow to get it done!

2) Set up Eloise with a new vet and sign up for pet insurance.

I’m sort of cheating with this goal because Eloise has an appointment today with the vet. 🙂 But it has been my goal for January since I adopted her, so I’m still counting it! I just want to get her in their system and also check in on some issues she had prior to me getting her and make sure she’s healthy. I’m also going to talk to them about her feeding schedule because she’s been on a “put on all the weight” diet since she was rescued and was skin and bones. I leave out dry food for her at all times, and also give her a can of wet food twice a day. I’m hoping I can stop with the wet food soon because that ish is expensive. And, I also need to sign up for pet insurance! Whew. A big month for little Ellie.

3) Get new tires for my car and a wheel alignment.

I’ve been putting this off for far longer than I should, and the anxiety I experience every time I drive my car on the highway means I need to get this taken care of ASAP, if only for my mental health. I replaced two of my tires last year (thanks to two tire blowouts on the highway, hence the anxiety), so I only need to replace the other two and I also need a wheel alignment, which is always a costly maintenance fix. I’ve gotten estimates from a few companies, so now I just need to get a few more estimates and then schedule the appointment.

4) Try out a meal delivery system.

So, I hate to cook. I do not find cutting vegetables relaxing and nothing I make ever seems worth the amount of work it takes. Plus, as a single gal, a lot of my meals end up providing way too many leftovers than are good. But I can’t keep eating out – I want to lose 40 lbs this year! So, I’ve decided to test out a meal delivery service. It’s expensive, but I already spend an astronomical money on food when I account for eating out, Starbucks, and grocery store runs. I’ll probably end up spending the same amount of money, honestly! I’m a little apprehensive, though, because I am a very picky eater but I’m willing to give it a try.

5) Schedule a dermatology appointment.

I usually go for my annual skin check in January or February, and this time, I’m going to talk to my derm about getting all my skin tags removed and what that process entails. Gosh, it will feel so good to have them removed! They annoy me so much and some of them can even be painful.

6) Sign up for Mint and organize my budget.

I am so intimidated by the process of getting my budget organized on Mint, but it needs to be done. Maybe I’ll make this special and take myself to Starbucks while I do it! (Does that defeat the purpose of using a budgeting system to be better at money? Hmm.)

What’s something you want to accomplish in January?

It’s a shiny new month, which means it’s time for shiny new goals. But first, let’s take a look back on my September goals to see how well (or not well) I did:

1) No more shopping. Oh, boy, I had such a hard time with this goal and I ended up failing the last week of September. I bought a few unnecessary items at Target like a t-shirt and shower curtain, and then I caved and bought something that was sitting in my Amazon cart for weeks (a Bluetooth shower speaker so I can listen to podcasts while I shower because my obsession knows zero bounds). So, all in all, I was not successful with this goal.

2) Walk 10,000 steps every day. I did this most days, and I made the conscious decision not to on certain days. Sometimes, it was due to mental health struggles and knowing I needed rest more than I needed steps. Other times, it was just my body letting me know that I need to take a break and let my body heal. (More about that in a minute.) I love this goal, though, and my plan going forward is to walk 10k five times a week.

3) Eat three home-cooked meals a week. Nope. I made my first recipe in months this week, so I did not accomplish this goal at all in September. It’s just so much easier to get takeout!

4) Schedule a facial. Complete! Unfortunately, I couldn’t get in until the first week of November. (Mostly due to my schedule because there were definitely times available before then.) Oh, well. It will be a nice treat to begin my birthday month with, right?

5) Sell my sectional. Complete! It took over three weeks, but it’s sold and out of my apartment. I just love being able to open my blinds and walk out to my patio without having to climb over my couch to do so.

6) Cultivate a better nighttime routine. I wrote about it, does that count? Ah, well. Why do the hours in the evening go by so fast? As I’m writing this post, it’s nearing 9pm and I don’t feel like I’ve done anything more than make dinner, watch an episode of The Office, and take a bubble bath. How did that take three whole hours? Sigh.

Three complete(ish) out of six. Not my best, not my worst. I’m holding out hope that October will be a much more successful month, and I’ve got some interesting plans in store:

1) Figure out what’s causing all my back and foot pain. I’ve been having sacrum pain for weeks and weeks now (originally thought a massage would help, but it didn’t), so I finally scheduled an appointment with a chiropractor to get it looked at. I’m also going to talk to the chiropractor about the foot pain I’ve been having for the past few weeks. Walking has started to become really uncomfortable (not so much when I’m wearing my supportive running shoes, but definitely when I’m barefoot or wearing sandals or flats), and my joints crack like crazy whenever I stand up and walk a few steps. I may need to see a podiatrist for this, but I’ll start with a chiropractor and go from there. Oy vey, getting old is so much fun!

2) Prepare my home for kittens. I’m not sure if I’ll be adopting kittens in October (it’s a really busy month for me and I won’t have a ton of time to check out animal shelters), but I do have just about everything I need. I placed a huge order on Chewy.com over the weekend and now I just need to put some of the items together so my house is kitten-ready for whenever the time comes.

3) Get ready for NaNoWriMo. Yep – I’m attempting this challenge again this year! I have been working on my plot outline for awhile now and I want to put the finishing touches on it this month, so I’m totally ready to start writing on November 1st.

4) Buy some new bras. So, confession: I’ve been buying my bras at Target for a long time now. I just cannot fathom spending more than $30 on a bra, even though it’s something I wear daily and is a pretty important part of my wardrobe. Unfortunately, the wire in one of my bras snapped recently so I’m down to just one bra and I think I’m ready to invest in a good bra. No more Target bras! I was thinking about trying out Thirdlove, since it’s raved about on every podcast I listen to, but if anyone has a recommendation for a different brand to try, I’m all ears.

5) Journal every night. I decided to do this after I had my second therapy appointment where I forgot just about everything I wanted to talk about (a fun side effect of social anxiety). Thankfully, we found plenty to talk about but I’d like to have a place to figure out what sorts of things I’d like to talk about in therapy. I’ve already started this process, and I’m just reflecting on my day using a series of prompts (what made me proud today? what was I grateful for? what was hard about today?). We’ll see how it helps, but I’m enjoying it so far!

6) Do something politically engaging. How’s that for a vague goal? I don’t know what I want to do yet – maybe phone banking – but I do know that I can do something rather than complaining about everything that’s happening and feeling helpless.

What’s something you’d like to accomplish this month?

Well, June is over and it wasn’t exactly successful when it comes to my goals. However, June was difficult. It’s always a hard month because my dad’s birthday is on the fifth and then there’s Father’s Day to contend with, so it brings up a lot of emotions in me. Coupled with a major depressive episode for the majority of the month and… well, my goals weren’t at the front of my mind for most of the month. Ah, well. I tried my best! Here’s how I did on my June goals:

1) Lose 5 lbs. I lost 3 lbs in June, which means I didn’t make my goal of losing 5 lbs, but I did make some progress. And I’m going to choose to be happy about that.

2) Make a file on my computer with my mom and stepdad’s engagement and wedding pictures. Guys! I finally did this. And I’m in the process of putting together her wedding album now. I may actually get this done before the end of the year! Who knew?!

3) Make a therapy appointment. Well, I emailed two therapists, does that count? One of them never responded to my email. The other emailed me back, asking me to call her, but she didn’t leave her number. Which means I need to search to find it myself. It’s not a difficult step, but it’s still a step I have to take and I just haven’t made the time to do it. After the depressive episode I had in June, combined with some relationship stuff I’m working out, I know I need therapy more than ever, but man if the process of finding a therapist isn’t incredibly taxing.

4) Write 2,000 words a week in my novel. Nope. I had a rough time with fiction writing in June, so I only managed to write about 1,000 to 1,500 words a week.

5) Spend less than $150 on eating out/entertainment. Oof, no. This was a spend-y month, and I went over by about $50. I really need to get this section of my budget under control, especially as it relates to eating out!

6) Spend an afternoon at my pool. Nope. WOMP. The easiest goal on my list and I couldn’t get it done. Ugh. I even planned to have a fun pool day with my mom last weekend, and we got rained out.

One goal completed out of six! Eeps. I hope that July is a much more successful month for me because I need to see some momentum with my monthly goals. Here’s what I’m planning for July:

1) Design and order my mom’s wedding album. I’ll be really happy to get this done, so I can stop stressing about it! It’s been three years since her wedding, and that’s three years of this little task hanging over my head. (To be clear, my mom has not asked for a wedding album. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for her, so all the stress is self-induced.)

2) Leave positive ratings and reviews for 10 of my favorite podcasts. I am a voracious podcast listener, but I’ve never left any reviews for my faves. That needs to be remedied because I know ratings and reviews help them so much.

3) Add two extra writing sessions at Starbucks. I meet up with my friend M. once a week for two hours to write, and I’d like to add in two other two-hour writing sessions on my own. This feels much more doable than trying to write every day or something like that.

4) Schedule a therapy appointment. Back on the list. Let’s hope I can find a good therapist in July. Fingers crossed!

5) Have a no-spend week. I know that I can’t go completely no-spend in July, but I would like to attempt a no-spend week. Just seven days! I can do seven days!

6) Visit a new-to-me nature preserve. We have a bunch of nature preserves all around the Tampa Bay area, and I’d like to start visiting more of them because moving my body and being out in nature are helpful for my anxiety disorder.

What’s something you’d like to accomplish in July?

Linking up with Feel Good, Dress Better’s Small Goals linkup. 

Okay, guys, I have to come clean. I did terrible on my May goals. Is it just me or did this month fly by? It’s like I blinked and suddenly, it was the end of May. I can’t believe today is already the first of June! What? Are we seriously nearing the midpoint of 2018? I cannot handle any of this.

In any event, here’s what I hoped to accomplish in May:

1) Lose the cruise weight. Um, nope. I lost a pound! So, I mean, at least the scale dipped down and not up for me. There’s that, right? It was really hard to get back on track after the cruise, especially since I was sick for two weeks. Ah, well.

2) Make a file on my computer with my mom and stepdad’s engagement and wedding pictures. What do you think? NOPE.

3) Email two therapists. I bookmarked the name of one therapist. Does that count?

4) Write 1,500 words a week in my novel. COMPLETE. The one goal I managed to accomplish this month. Every time I hit a rough spot in my novel, I want to throw in the towel, and that happened more than a few times this month. But having this tiny goal helped me to continue to move along in my novel. It’s all about that shitty first draft, you know?

5) Go on a spending freeze for the rest of May. I forgot I even set this goal, oops. I don’t think my spending was out of control in May – I think I spent maybe $5 on books and bought a $5 makeup item. It’s really my food budget that I need to figure out more than anything else. I spend so much money on food!

6) Take my car in for a checkup. Okay, I didn’t complete this goal either, but I did that on purpose, ha. My car still has a good 500 miles before it’s due for an oil change, so I’m pushing this goal off until July.

*hangs head in shame* So it wasn’t a super successful month for me. Womp. Let’s try again with my June goals:

1) Lose 5 lbs. I know, I know. I shouldn’t set an arbitrary weight loss number, but instead focus on making better, healthier choices. Alas, I like having a number to strive for so I’m going to spend June chasing after a 5-lb weight loss.

2) Make a file on my computer with my mom and stepdad’s engagement and wedding pictures. Well, maybe the sixth month of this being on my goals list will be the charm. Maybe!

3) Make a therapy appointment. I really hope I don’t have to transfer this goal to my July list. Say a prayer for me, will ya?

4) Write 2,000 words a week in my novel. I’m upping my novel writing game this month by 500 words. I can knock out 1,500 during my weekly writing date with M., and then I’m going to try to find time during the week to knock out the other 500 words. I really need to get myself on a better writing schedule with my novel, so this is my small way of implementing that.

5) Spend less than $150 on eating out/entertainment. This is going to be difficult, but I really need to be careful about my spending habits when it comes to eating out/entertainment. I just really like drive-thrus and Pub subs and not having to cook my own meals. But I also like saving money and not carrying a balance on my credit card so, Steph, you gotta make some sacrifices.

6) Spend an afternoon at my pool. Let’s round out this list with an easy, fun goal for June: going to the pool. I want to spend an afternoon just dipping in and out of the water, reading a good book, and enjoying the sunshine. Fingers crossed it’ll be kinda quiet; the last time I was there, there was a huge group of people having some kind of raucous party. And yes, I am 85 years old, why do you ask?

Do you have any goals for June?

Linking up with Feel Good, Dress Better’s Small Goals linkup. 

Happy Monday, friends! I am back from my oh-so-fun cruise. I have vacation recaps planned for the end of this week and next week, so stay tuned! I cannot wait to talk about all the fun stuff my mom and I did on our cruise because it was surely one for the record books.

But before we get into that, I thought I’d talk about my monthly goals. After four months of my current goal setup (Biting Off My Yearly Goals and Nagging Tasks), I’ve decided to take a step back and instead join up with Feel Good, Dress Better’s Small Goals (thanks to Kate for suggesting this linkup to me!) monthly challenge. My plan is to make four goals that are directly related to my yearly goals, as well as two smaller “tasks” to accomplish.

But first, let’s take a look at how I did in April:

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Go to a movie alone. Not complete. This goal didn’t end up working out this month. I’m not much of a movie buff, so I have to really want to see a movie in theaters and there wasn’t anything that called to me in April.

> Make an appointment with a therapist. Not complete. I continue to put off this goal, ahh. I think it’s just the fact that I’m kinda overwhelmed by the process of finding the right therapist, since my last attempt at therapy didn’t go well. But I know that therapy is exactly what I need and I have to stop resisting the steps to get there.

> Buy a book about the Enneagram. Not complete. Oops, once again, I forgot about this goal.

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos. Not complete. Ugh. Will this wedding album ever get made?

> Write 3,000 words a week. Not complete. I really tried to make this goal, but writing 3,000 words a week is not a small feat! I’m averaging about 1,500 words per week.

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning. Complete. Finally, finally, finally! It literally took the cleaners all of 20 minutes to apply the cleaning solution and clean my carpet (I only have carpet in my bedroom and my bed takes up most of the space). The carpet looks perfect now… you’d never know my elderly dog spent the last year of his life peeing all over the carpet. 😉

> Figure out my nighttime routine. Complete-ish. I started going to bed at a more decent hour last month (closer to 9:30 than 11, at least), but I could still be better about implementing a nighttime routine. It’s a work in progress.

> Hang up my mirror. Complete. Yay!

> Mail my donation to Locks of Love. Complete. Such a simple goal, but one I kept putting off because it took a bunch of little steps: finding an envelope, addressing the envelope, driving to the post office, etc. And, damn, just writing that sentence made me realize that I am incredibly lazy. Ha.

> Clean my oven. Complete. Oh, my oven looks so beautiful now and I’m so glad I finally got this task accomplished! The stuff I used was potent, though, and I had to be super careful about how I removed the cleaner after letting it sit in the oven (I wore gloves and covered the floor with towels). It also made my apartment smell the first few times I used my oven after cleaning it (and, of course, made me freak out that I’m going to ingest some of the chemicals and die because I’m really logical most of the time). I think I’m going try something more natural the next time I clean the oven – I hear baking soda and water does the trick, too!

So, that was a fun experiment, huh? I didn’t complete any of my goals related to my yearly intentions, but got all of my nagging tasks accomplished. Interesting!

Six Goals for May

1) Lose the cruise weight. And then some. I was doing pretty well with my weight loss efforts, closing in on that first 10 lbs gone, but then I kinda fell apart right before my cruise. I don’t have any good reasoning for it, other than I just didn’t want to eat my same ole healthy meals anymore. So, I stepped on the scale yesterday morning to find out that I need to lose 3 lbs to get back to my pre-cruise weight. It’s not as bad as I imagined, so I’m pretty certain I can lose the cruise weight and hopefully another few pounds along with it!

2) Make a file on my computer with my mom and stepdad’s engagement and wedding pictures. Step one: download all of the photos off my camera, step two: organize those photos into files, step three: download the engagement/wedding photos my mom has on her computer, step four: organize those photos into a file. Okay, there. I have a plan! I can do this!

3) Email two therapists. Back on the list for the fifth month in a row. Let’s see if I can actually schedule a therapy appointment this month.

4) Write 1,500 words a week in my novel. Every month, I make a goal for writing 3,000 words a week and I never make it happen. It’s not even like it would take me awhile to write 3,000 words – maybe three hours tops. But yet, it eludes me. So, this month, I’m going to take it easy on myself and only try to write 1,500 words a week, which I often do during my weekly writing dates with my friend M.

5) Go on a spending freeze for the rest of May. Vacation always means that my credit card takes a bit of a beating, which I don’t regret, but it means I need to be diligent about paying it off and not spending unnecessarily. This means no more one-click Amazon orders or Target trips or takeout orders. Time to buckle down with my spending!

6) Take my car in for a checkup. My car is due for an oil change soon, and I think I’m going to take her into the dealership so they can do a full systems check to see if there is anything I need to replace or repair. She’s got 110,000 miles on her now, so I’m crossing my fingers there isn’t anything major to replace!

What’s something you’d like to accomplish in May?

I published my February monthly goals just a few days before Dutch passed, so obviously, all of the goals I set fell to the back burner. February (and some of March, if I’m being honest) was about survival for me and just getting through each day. In March, I started feeling as if I could tackle some of the goals I set and I started working toward them, but not pushing myself too hard.

And now it’s April (well, almost!) and I’m feeling good. I still miss Dutch desperately, but the rawness of losing him has dissipated somewhat and I feel ready for what lies ahead of me. So here we go with goal-setting once again, and it feels really good to get back to it.

Let’s start off by recapping how I did with my February/March goals:

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Track food on MyFitnessPal. Complete. I’m not using MFP to track my food, but an entirely different system that is working much better for my needs and has led to great results so far. I’m working on a post about it, so stay tuned!

> No soda at work, no soda on Mondays. Complete. Oh, hell yeah. The solution to my soda addiction? LaCroix. It took me awhile to get used to the taste because no, it’s not the same as soda (gotta love that HFCS). But once I got used to the taste, there was no turning back. By adding in sparkling water to my diet, I’m down to just 1-2 sodas a week.

> Buy a book about the Enneagram. Not complete. Oops. Forgot about this one.

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos. Not complete. Geez. Why am I so resistant to this goal? I just need to download the damn photos!

> Write 500 words every day. Not complete. Lolololololol. Even committing to writing 500 words daily is just too much for me right now.

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning. Not complete. I wish I could schedule this online because damn, I hate calling companies to request quotes. But it really needs to get done because my carpet needs a serious deep clean.

> Frame the painting I bought in Puerto Rico and hang it up. Complete. Fiiiiiiinally! I did it! It’s hanging up in my bedroom and it’s perfect.

> Organize my kitchen. Complete. I did this after Dutch died because I needed to get rid of his treats, food, medication, etc. and it prompted a complete kitchen reorganization. So, I’m glad I did this, but wish it wasn’t for such a heartbreaking reason.

> Find a place to recycle. Complete. My mom’s apartment complex has this nifty little recycling center, so I’m using it as my recycling center. Ha. It’s the perfect setup for me. Now, if only my apartment complex could figure this out but, alas, they don’t even have an online system for rent payments and maintenance requests, so I think I’m expecting too much here.

> Clean my oven. Not complete. Oops. Forgot about this one.

So, I accomplished 5 of the 10 goals I set and honestly, I’m happy with that. These past two months have been a doozy for me to say the least, so even attempting these goals is a step in the right direction. Plus, two of those goals were massive accomplishments (tracking my food and cutting out soda), so gold stars for me.

Here’s what I’d like to accomplish in April:

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Go to a movie alone (goal: try something new once a month)

> Make an appointment with a therapist (goal: start therapy)

> Buy a book about the Enneagram (goal: figure out my Enneagram type)

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos (goal: make a wedding album for my mom and stepdad)

> Write 3,000 words a week (goal: finish my novel)

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning (back on the list and hoping third time’s a charm)

> Figure out my nighttime routine (because going to bed at 11 p.m. is no bueno for this girl)

> Hang up my mirror (I bought a full-size mirror over a month ago and have yet to hang it up… obviously, I need this accountability)

> Mail my donation to Locks of Love (um, oops, I probably should do this, huh?)

> Clean my oven (back on the list… April’s the month of spring cleaning, right?)

What’s something – big or small – that you’d like to accomplish in April?

Has January felt like it was 74 days long to anyone else? It’s been a weird start to the year. Not in a bad way, just in… a weird way. But I’m excited to mark this month complete because I feel like I checked off some important goals and I’m looking forward to what February will bring.

Here’s how I did on my January goals:

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Start tracking my food on MyFitnessPal. Not complete. I attempted to track my food, but I wasn’t consistent with it. I know that tracking what I eat is the key to losing weight (I like to pretend it’s not, but it is), so I just need to get into a routine of tracking no matter what.

> Drink only water and coffee while at work. Complete. This was a great success and it was actually a very easy goal to complete because I gave myself simple, attainable parameters.

> Email two therapists. Complete. The first therapist I emailed doesn’t accept insurance and I’m waiting to hear back from the second one that I emailed earlier this week.

> Write 10,000 words in my novel. Not complete. I only wrote 3,500 words in January, which puts me behind in my goal of finishing my novel this year.

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos. Not complete. Oops, just completely forgot about this goal!

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning. Not complete. Ugh, I filled out an online form on a carpet cleaning company’s website and they never contacted me back. Argh… I’m going to have to actually call them on the phone and I just keep putting it off.

> Put together my bookshelf. Complete. I’m really happy to have two bookshelves in my room now. It was much needed because I’m using the second one as my “TBR” shelf, of books that I own but haven’t read yet. It’s not too full because I only recently started buying books (after years of only buying e-books, if I wasn’t borrowing the book from my library).

> Sell my coffee table. Complete. I listed it on Craigslist on a Saturday and by Sunday morning, I was meeting up with the buyer to hand it off. It was so easy and I’m enjoying the extra space in my living room. I hope that selling my sectional is just as easy!

> Donate my old laptop. Complete. I recently learned that Goodwill now accepts old laptops and I had a drop-off to do there anyway, so it was a quick and painless task.

> Frame the painting I bought in Puerto Rico and hang it up. Not complete. I actually completely forgot I had this as a goal. I need to figure out the frame size I need and just get this done. That painting is too gorgeous to be sitting on a shelf.

So, I accomplished 5 out of the 10 goals I set and I’m ok with that number. It’s only half of the goals, but half is better than nothing, right? Here’s what I want to get done in February:

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Track food on MyFitnessPal (goal: lose 30 lbs)

> No soda at work, no soda on Mondays (goal: cut out soda completely)

> Buy a book about the Enneagram (goal: figure out my Enneagram type)

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos (goal: make a wedding album for my mom and stepdad)

> Write 500 words every day (goal: finish my novel)

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning (back on the list it goes… here’s hoping I will have freshly cleaned carpet by the end of the month)

> Frame the painting I bought in Puerto Rico and hang it up (back on the list… no more procrastinating)

> Organize my kitchen (in December, I went crazy organizing my bathroom and walk-in closet, and February is when my kitchen gets the organization overhaul it desperately needs)

> Find a place to recycle (I don’t recycle and that has got to change)

> Clean my oven (I’ve lived in my apartment for nearly a year and a half… that oven needs to be cleaned)

What’s one goal, big or small, that you’d like to accomplish in February?

So, here we go! It’s January and it’s time to put all of those goals I have into action. My biggest goals for 2018 are to end the year thinner and more financially secure than when I started it, which means I need to put in the work to make that happen. It won’t just magically occur without deliberate action on my part!

Usually for my monthly goals, I name around five goals I’d like to work toward during the month, but I’m changing things up a bit in 2018. Instead, I have two categories for my monthly goals: Biting Off My Yearly Goals and Nagging Tasks. The first category is exactly what it sounds like: I’m taking those big yearly goals and putting specific action steps in place to be able to accomplish them by the end of the year. And the second category are tiny tasks that don’t have anything to do with my yearly goals; they’re just these nagging things I need to get done and I’m much more apt to do them if I have to report back in February. 🙂

Biting Off My Yearly Goals

> Start tracking my food on MyFitnessPal (goal: lose 30 lbs)

> Drink only water and coffee while at work (goal: cut out soda completely)

> Email two therapists (goal: start therapy)

> Write 10,000 words in my novel (goal: finish my novel)

> Make a file on my computer compiling all of my mom’s engagement and wedding photos (goal: make a wedding album for my mom and stepdad)

Nagging Tasks

> Schedule a carpet cleaning (Dutch has destroyed my carpet and it needs a deep cleaning from a professional company)

> Put together my bookshelf (I bought one last weekend!)

> Sell my coffee table (I really want to redo my living room and it starts with getting rid of my coffee table)

> Donate my old laptop (y’all, it’s just been sitting in my apartment collecting dust for a YEAR)

> Frame the photo I bought in Puerto Rico and hang it up (it’s so gorgeous and has just been sitting in its plastic wrap for 8 months)

What’s something you want to accomplish in January?

I love having monthly goals back into my life. There’s something about the ordinariness of them that I need and I like ticking off specific goals in my bullet journal. I don’t have a ton going on in February, for which I’m grateful. My grandpa is having back surgery, my mom is hosting her annual Super Bowl party, and I’m going to try to get out to some trails for long walks. (The weather has been unseasonably gorgeous lately.) I also need to file my tax return and it will be my first time declaring freelance earnings, which has me all sorts of nervous. (Anybody with experience with this want to help a girl out? Please?!)

Anyway, let’s get into my monthly goals recap! Here’s what I hoped to accomplish in January:

Write 2,000 words weekly in my fiction novel. Complete! I’m so thankful for my weekly writing dates with my friend, M. We usually try to meet on Sunday mornings and I’m able to knock out my 2,000 words within two hours with her. And then she forces me to read aloud to her what I’ve written. I’m currently at 10,000 words in the novel and I’m enjoying the process so very much.

Walk 5,000 steps daily. Mostly complete. There were a few days when I didn’t hit my step goal (and two days when I didn’t wear my Fitbit at all, whoops), but generally, it wasn’t too difficult to get to 5,000 steps. On particularly sedentary days at work, it forced me to go for a walk in the evening, which is never a bad thing!

Update my “Work With Me” page on my blog. Not complete. I forgot I even made this goal in January. Oops.

Submit one personal essay. Not complete. My weekends in January ended up being pretty busy and I was given a freelancing assignment that I had to prioritize over other writing (and paid writing > unpaid writing, sorry not sorry). I do have a great idea for a personal essay, so I just need to find the time to write it.

Work out three times a week. Mostly complete? Ish? I fell apart towards the end of the month (whenever I’m feeling particularly anxious, it’s hard for me to exercise, even though I know that’s exactly what will help me), but it’s a goal I’m constantly striving toward.

Not too bad! Three-ish out of five completed, and I’m happy about that because January ended up being a crazier month than normal. February should be a bit calmer, and here are the goals I’m setting:

No pizza February. Since I really want 2017 to be the year I finally get my health under control and lose some damn weight for once, I’m taking measures to slowly cut out the bad stuff from my diet. January, I gave up fast food and, aside from one slip-up early in the month due to not planning properly, I didn’t have any fast food. February, I want to give up pizza because I eat it, no joke, at least 5-6 times a week. If I order a pizza for dinner, that usually yields leftovers for 2-3 days and then, last year, I fell into this habit of eating pizza rolls whenever I didn’t want to make dinner and end up eating those at least twice a week. It’s just… it’s bad, you guys. Too much pizza! I want to cut it out completely for 28 days and then allow it back into my life, but with restrictions. As in, I can only eat pizza from non-chain restaurants. No more Dominos. No more Pizza Hut. Their pizza isn’t even good pizza anyway!

Update my “Work With Me” page on my blog. This is back on the list for February because it’s a task that really needs to be completed. Fingers crossed I don’t forget about it!

Work out three times a week and walk 5,000 steps daily. I’ll probably have some sort of exercise/step goal every month because I need the accountability of coming to my blog and reporting. At this point, I just want to go for three long walks a week and maybe in March, I’ll finally join a gym so I can start getting in more high-intense workouts.

Stick to a 9:30PM bedtime. I feel my best when I go to bed early and lately, I haven’t been shutting the lights off until 11PM or later. Sometimes, this is due to working at my computer until late in the evening or just spending too much time scrolling through my social media feeds on my phone when I should be turning off the light. I’m committing to a 9:30PM bedtime in February and I know I’ll feel so much better for having done so.

Write 10,000 words in my novel. This equals out to 2,500 words per week, which is a little more than I wrote in January. Since I can usually write 2,000 during my weekly writing date with M., I’ll just need to schedule in extra writing time during the week… only about an hour or so, which is totally doable.

Do you have any goals for February?