Monday, January 2, 2017

January Goals


It's time to take my yearly goals, and break them down into more actionable monthly goals. Here's what I'm planning to accomplish in January!

To kick off my fitness goals for the month, I'm going to give up alcohol in January! It will be a financial win, but I'm hoping it will jump start a bit of weight loss as well. I typically have 1-2 glasses of wine on weekends, but indulge more over the holidays.

*No idea what happened to the original post. It disappeared while I was making the font bigger, so here it is again!*


1) Financial - Figure out our housing situation, and get it all resolved (i.e. moved, job changes as needed) before school starts. 

  • Build our pricing range (it's not fixed, as there are a variety of contingencies, depending upon the sale of our Seattle house). 
  • Inventory & track various stockpiles, to reduce waste & minimize what we need to move.
  • Come up with one new way to reduce what we need on an ongoing basis. Examples I've kicked around: find an alternative to all of the ziplock bags/plastic wraps we use for kid lunches. Put a container in the shower to save water for the yard. Collect rain in buckets. Create a compost bucket for the kitchen, so it's easy to compost food scraps. All of these are meant to be permanent changes, so not focused on one time savings. 

2) Family - Spend more time together as a family!
  • Do a minimum of one fun activity/month with the kids. This can be family puzzle night, cooking dinner together, board games, going out somewhere, etc. 
  • Be more present with the kids & M - play games, minimize computer time, exercise together, etc.
  • Have two dates with M per month (one lunch, one evening) 
  • Figure out what to do with our February trip. We were originally going to spend 10 days in Seattle/Portland, getting the boys familiar with the area & skiing. Given our change in plans/unknown status, we may stay here instead. 

    3) Fitness/health - Lose 20 pounds, bringing my weight to 133. This may sound familiar, as it's also a carryover goal from last year!
    • No alcohol in January!
    • Run 16 miles in January. 
    • Eat five servings of fruit & vegetables (combined) per day
    • Complete 1,000 minutes of cardio
    • Complete 6 strength workouts.
    • Complete 6 stretching workouts. 

    4) Work/career - Improve my work life balance.
    • Keep better perspective at work/reduce stress (until I leave)
    • Work from home 2x this month.

      5) Personal/creative - Spend more time on myself/creative pursuits.
      • Bake bread, and try a new recipe.
      • Do something social at least once per month.
      • Volunteer a minimum of 1x/month.

      That's it for me. What about you? What are you hoping to accomplish in January?

      2 comments:

      1. Happy New Year!

        We switched over to non-disposable items for the girls' lunches back in the day: flatware from Goodwill, cloth napkins, stainless containers and sandwich wraps for their food. We offered a reward for the first few months for bringing it all home every day so nothing was accidentally thrown away. We stukk occasionally used a Ziploc bag for something, but they also brought those home so we could wash them out.

        I'm cutting back on the alcohol too - just Friday and Saturday evenings. Saves both money and calories! Otherwise I've given up on any weight loss, although I still exercise and eat mindfully.

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        1. I have one child who would bring back all of the tupperware. . . the other, not so much. Maybe I will start by switching my more responsible child over & see how it goes.

          I hear you on the weight loss. I've been tracking calories for 20 years (no joke), and this year I've decided to stop, focus on getting enough fruit & vegetables, reducing sugar, and just listening to my body. I have a feeling it will be a bit of an adjustment, but obviously what I was doing wasn't working.

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