Category Archives: Goals

I’m pretty sure I say this on the first of every month, but HOLY HELL HOW IS IT JUNE ALREADY? The year is almost halfway over. I mean, how is that even happening? This month flew by, and honestly I’m not sure I have a ton to show for it, progress-wise. I’m feeling a little lackluster about my fitness goals so that seems to be clouding everything. But I did have FOUR intentions and they weren’t a total loss.

Here’s how they shook out:

Fitness

Unassisted Pullups, Trail Running, Kayaking were all on my “I’m totally gonna rock that in May” List. All of which I DID NOT DO. We did plan a kayaking trip on Garrett’s birthday weekend but the weather didn’t cooperate and haven’t tried again. Perhaps in June!

This was definitely a rough month at the gym for me but honestly I’m gonna cut myself a little slack because even though I wasn’t in the best fitness head space I showed up and tried hard quite a bit. And I mean, I kicked Murph’s ass — that has to count for something, right?

Food

I had hoped to do some serious dining al fresco and let me tell you I OWNED THIS ONE! 🙂

There was grilling and cocktails and amazing salads and dinner on paper plates almost nightly! It’s starting to get pretty sweltering around here so we’ll see how long we can keep up with that. For now, it was awesome and I’m glad we’ve made an effort to enjoy our backyard so much.

Celebrations

There were plenty! Garrett’s birthday weekend was a relaxing affair, my cousin Gina had her bridal shower and we got to send off our good friend Erin to her next chapter in New Mexico. It’s nice when a month goes by and you realize you have done a lot of glass clinking and toasting to future merriment.

Style

I wanted to wear dresses for a week and cut my hair. I successfully did both. Score! Style Victory.

Now what the hell am I intending to do in June?

That’s a good question.

I want to head over to Sonoma when it gets hot because it is gorgeous there.
I plan to address some items from my 2012 Goal List that I’ve been avoiding (Hello, Finances and Home Improvement!)
I hope to run more and improve my speed (and perhaps think about this half marathon in October that some friends are doing.)
I want to spend time with friends and family, enjoy summer and get to working on my Summer Bucket List.
And I want to talk Garrett into another Guest Post. 🙂

We’ll see how it all goes….

Well April went by in a flash, but I’ll tell you what — I feel like I just sucked the life out of this month!

Trashing the scale turned out to be a wonderful act of kindness toward myself and I have to say — even though tomorrow is May 1st, and I am well within my right to weigh myself, I’m NOT going to. (WHO AM I?) Part of this, of course, is that I have just come off a Major Food Bender, which means good looking odds are not really “ever in my favor” are they now? But more important than that, is that it has felt good to show the scale who has the power in this relationship. I think in May I’m going to get my body fat measured. Like, for realsies (EEP!) It might satisfy the little tracker-nerd in my heart, but still keep me sane. We’ll see what happens.

It was nice to get back to cooking and planning menus in April that did not involve counting blocks or carbs or proteins or fats or whatever. I can do all of that just fine and it does appeal to the little organizer in my brain, but man — there is something really satisfying about cooking from your heart. God that sounds so cheeseball, but I really enjoy creativity in the kitchen. It’s a quality of life thing, and I have enjoyed getting back to it this month. I plan to continue it more in May.

I didn’t get the garden in the ground like I had hoped, but honestly that was just laziness on my part this past weekend. It just means I’ve given myself some weeknight homework this coming week.

Maybe a little Wednesday night soil testing. 🙂 GAH! I am so far behind on the garden chores this year!

I’m going to grow tomatoes, spaghetti squash, zucchini and summer squash again, but I might try my hand at a few other things like regular cucumbers (I grew lemon last year but they were only good for a few weeks, then they got seedy) and maybe some other wild card things. Who knows? Locals, if you’ve got recommendations, I’m all ears. I basically fly by the seat of my pants when I garden and then just beg Elizabeth and Sarah to commiserate with me. It’s worked so far.

So shall we discuss May Intentions? I’ve got 4 things on my mind:

Fitness
So June is goal testing month at CrossFit, and I’m aiming for ONE (just one!) unassisted pull up. That means this is the last month I’ve got to get my chin up over that damn bar. Will I do it? Hmmm…I hope so. It’s a goal that is feeling lofty right now, but I’m not going down without a fight.

Also, mark my words — May will be the month I get in some exercise outside. It’s just way too nice out lately. Trail Run? Yep. Kayaking? Yep. They will both happen this month, FOR SURE. I’m saying it out loud here!

Food
I want to enjoy some alfresco dining. Alfresco…it just sounds fancier than “Eatin’ Out Back” right? 🙂 But seriously, I want to enjoy the nice weather before it gets sweltering here in Sacramento. And you know what is great for alfresco dining (how many times can I say alfresco in one post?) — Good Looking SALADS. May is the month I will have fun with salads!

Pear and Gorgonzola with Balasamic Vinaigrette will probably make an appearance or two!

Celebrations
Garrett is turning 31 this month. While we certainly won’t be celebrating like we did last year, I want to make sure he feels special!

Style
My big style items including getting some more color in my wardrobe and I need to do something drastic with my hair. You can also consult professionals from https://www.markjameshairstudio.com.au/ to try out different hairstyles and get your perfect hair style done.

It’s time.

My hair is the longest it’s been since 1997, you all. The last time I had hair this long flannel was cool. Men can get great styles too, depending on their choice and hair type.

But the truth of the matter is, I’m a short haired gal at heart! I love a good sassy haircut and I’ve got my eyes peeled to find one that I’m inspired by (and can also pull off my face during hot summer workouts) and then get into my hairdresser. Let’s see if I have the cajones to do it next Month.

Also, I need to purge my closet soon and finish reorganizing. I’m still planning to wear dresses for a week in May. 7 days of them. Anyone else in? We could do it together? And take Facebook Fish Face Self Portraits? It could be fun!

HAHA! Happy May, my friends. What’s on your To-Do list this month?

It’s going to be April, you all! Where the heck is the time going? We are a quarter of the way through the year and I’m all of sudden feeling like there is quite a bit left to do! Ah well…that’s why I make lists!

In February I kicked ass at work but felt a little out of balance. I wanted March to be more fun. In the end, I’m happy to report that this was pretty easy to accomplish! March was full of relaxation and doing things just because I felt like it. I always fear that if I allow myself to only do what I feel like, nothing will get done. But do you know what the weird part is? I got a metric ton of work done on my 2012 Goals WITHOUT REALLY FEELING LIKE I WAS TRYING. Funny how that works. There’s a lesson in there somewhere and I think the lesson is going to sound a lot like “Follow your passions and the rewards will come.”

I get it…but it’s still a bit of a struggle.

I read A LOT of books in the bathtub this past month — my bathroom might officially be my favorite room in our house! I’ll be telling you all about what I read next week — lots of good ones actually — but I’m most excited about this victory because if you’ve been around here the last two months, you know that reading has been sorely missing from my daily routine.

I also worked out with abandon! More than 20 times in March despite the fact that we had weekends full of wine tasting, Girls Night’s with my mom, and dinner parties with my family to throw and life to live! Fitness-wise, I challenged myself this month by participating in the CrossFit Games Open. I have a lot to say about that, so I will probably do so in another post. But rest assured it was a blast and I’m so glad I did it!

I made a lot of progress this month towards getting that first unassisted pullup (June is the goal date! I’m gonna make this happen) and I started doing regular push ups in WODs (aka, not on my knees.) There’s no going back now — and my knees are going to be so happy that I’m no longer doing scaled push ups this spring because: Dresses + Town Whore Knees = Not A Good Look For Me. 🙂

Speaking of dresses — I bought a bunch of new ones and now I am so ready for spring it is silly! (Wear dresses everyday for a week is on my Spring Bucket List, so I’m sure I will show them to you sometime soon. Dresses make me so damn happy!) The weather was FINALLY nice enough for me to wear this dress yesterday and man, I still love it! I think I need to figure out some new ways to style it because I want to wear it every freaking day!

One of the things I’m looking most forward to this spring (aside from new clothes) is some of the places we are going. We solidified some travel plans this month and I’m excited about all of them! In a couple of weeks we are going to Portland — it will be both of our first times so if you have any recommendations of things to see or do, wait scratch that — recos on WHERE TO EAT (ha!) please let me know in the comments! We are excited to be heading up there (it’s one part work, one part play) and it should be a great time. We also ironed out the details of our long Sonoma weekend — both of which are on the Dream Travel List this year. I seriously can’t wait! And finally, for Garrett’s birthday the plan right now is to try and make it out to New Mexico to see his parents. I really would like to make that happen because we had so much fun out there last year.

March also had me switching up our meal planning a bit. We did a stint with some Zone/Paleo for about a month and while we definitely noted some positive changes, it came at the expense of my creativity in the kitchen. But I’m not giving up just yet. I’m taking the things I loved most from Zone (smaller portions, more balanced meals, kick ass food prep) and incorporating that with some of our Paleo passions (meal planning, not eating as much dairy, not having a “cheat day” — can you believe I didn’t enjoy the cheat day? WHO AM I?) My passion for cooking things just isn’t worth giving up! Not even for weight loss, so we’ll see if we can bring back some kitchen creativity and still get to my goals. Remember what I said in the beginning of this post about following your passions? I think I’m going to take that approach with my weight loss strategy!

Last but not least, I took the first steps to making my Summer Garden happen for 2012.

I seeded my tomatoes a little late, but they don’t seem any worse for the wear. I’m getting ready to cut them back and maybe put them outside to harden. Can we all say a little collective prayer that I don’t kill them in the process? Pretty please? I can’t even tell you how excited I am to have fresh tomatoes and squash and who knows what else all summer long! Best part of the season last year, hands down. YUM!

So with all of that said…

Intentions for April:
*Trash the scale, continue to CrossFit for the joy it brings to your life
*Run a 5K just for fun (Local peeps, want to come? It’s such a good cause!)
*Get back to planning some good looking menus
*Travel and document the hell out of it (Yep, I haven’t forgotten about Project Life! I’ll have an update for you in April.)
*I may even do a Week in the Life Album this month. We’ll see!
*Wear some dresses, enjoy the weather
*Get the garden in the ground

Low pressure.

I think I’m enjoying this strategy, so why not keep it going. Let my goals bloom at their own pace. It’ll happen when it happens!

It’s hard to know where to begin when talking about Progress this month. I hit the gas pedal hard on many things this month, but others came to a grinding halt. All in all, I felt off and mostly unbalanced. If I were going to make this post short and sweet I would say February: You Did It Wrong. My one intention for February was to read more and it was one of the MANY things I didn’t even make an attempt to accomplish.

What I *did* accomplish was a ridiculous amount of professional things and fun side projects and at least lucky for me “Move Towards Your Professional Goals” is on my list. Forgive me that I won’t talk about that stuff here, but you know the drill. Mark my words though: it was good. The question I really found myself asking towards the end of the month though was — was it worth it? And strangely enough, I’m not sure. I thought my grand professional goals were SUPER IMPORTANT but when I put all my efforts into making them happen, I felt — quite deeply — the loss of some of my simple pleasures.

So my intention for March is a clear one: Balance Work, Play and Love. And for me love includes nurturing my family relationships, friendships and of course, Garrett. While we did have multiple fun outings together, and also dinner with friends I want to get back to watering those roots. Also, if you can believe this, I’m looking forward to a month without significant travel. We’re going to Portland in April, I’d like to get out of town in May for Garrett’s birthday, and then there is a long Sonoma weekend in June. I think I’d like to just enjoy being around our house this month, if that’s okay. And you know what? I think it is.

I want to get back to some routine: Eating well, sleeping well, taking care of my body, and staying creative. I want to have a chance to work on mundane things like Home Improvement and fine tuning our finances (I know…SNORE!!! But I really want to.) I want to be more present here. I want to cook more food and take more pictures. I want to read more books and tell more stories.

So that’s the plan, Stan.

I don’t feel like February was a failure at all, but I do feel like I spent the majority of my resources in a way that only met the minority of my needs. I’m ready to change that. It’s time to jump in with both feet.

How has the first month of the year gone by already? I feel like we were all just sitting around making plans for what this new year would bring and now tomorrow is FEBRUARY. Insanity!

In an effort to remain accountable to my annual goals while also celebrating the journey (AKA not being too focused on the outcome — enjoying the act of making PROGRESS) I’m going to do a monthly Progress Report for my 10 Major Goal Categories and then try to re-focus for the upcoming month. Hope you don’t mind my thinking out loud? 🙂

(2012 Goals are listed here)

Personal

Most of these are wedding/pregnancy/baby related so I probably won’t address too much here until later on this year, but hey I downloaded a Fertility App, so hey — Baby Steps (SEE WHAT I DID THERE? BAHAHAHHA, I KILL ME.)

In all seriousness though, “Moving Toward My Professional Goals” is an important one in this category and Garrett and I did lay down some ground work on a professional endeavor. I’m not ready to talk too much about it, but I will tell you this: THAT SHIT IS EXHAUSTING. On top of working full time, doing some freelance stuff, working out, cooking and sleeping it has been ALL BUSINESS IDEAS ALL THE TIME. Creative overload. And honestly, we have a long way to go. But also? It’s exciting! It’s something we’re passionate about! And we get to do it together! So, you know WIN. With a side of HOLY MOSES WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING?

Intentions for February: Keeping up the good (hard) work!

Relationship

We did have a fun date night. Actually, we had two! But we didn’t get to have dinner with friends this month I don’t think.

Intentions for February: Multiple dinners with friends! Our first will be this weekend for sure, to celebrate my friend Sarah turning 30!

Travel

While we didn’t GO anywhere in January, we solidified the weekend for our trip to Portland and I am scheming to get myself to the midwest to hang with AndreAnna in August so we can do this. OHMYGOD, hold me!

Intentions for February: We’re hitting up the Central Coast, which is a bonus trip I didn’t even bargain for. HOORAY!

Style

Currently working on it. And I have a running list in my purse of items I would like to purchase. I actually haven’t purchased too much yet this year, but I will definitely be adding some things to the wardrobe!

Intentions for February: Hot Pink Pants! Ha…I don’t know just yet. But I will definitely be finding some patterned stuff for sure, since it’s totally lacking in the wardrobe.

Finances
Nada

Home Improvement
Nada

Listen, we can’t all be good at everything. And I may continue to avoid these categories in February too. 🙂 But learning about My ADU makes me eager to continue this plan and, of course! I need to secure my finances first for this project.

Fitness

I’ve been working super hard on my goal to get an unassisted pullup and I am making GREAT progress. I’m pretty sure I will get there by June. As for getting to my goal weight. I’ve got about 40 lbs to go. That seems like such a small number to me, so I know I can get there. But I’m also in the throes of a major plateau despite lots of clean eating/working.

Intentions for February: Well I’m doing something new. And I’ll be talking about it next week.

Nutrition
Weekly Meal Plans – Check
Eating More Greans – Check
Game? Not so much yet. Fish Oil? Still not in the habit. Garrett’s PWO? Nothing yet.

February Intentions: All of the above.

Documentation

Well we have talked about Project Life Progressalready, and I think this weekend’s adventure down to the Central Coast may end up being my first Mini-book of the year. We’ll see. It’s been harder and easier than I thought all at once.

Keep it all up!

Blog

So many goals, so little time! 🙂
I’ve posted 3 recipes so far this year, so I’m chugging along towards my goal of 52 this year. What are you guys interested in? Breakfast Recipes? Lunches? What’s on your mind, I will post it!

I’ve been actually pretty good at sticking to my editorial calendar, which has been kind of nice because it’s allowed me to post just about every day this month. I like having this space as a daily touchstone. It keeps me motivated!

The Paleo e-book is coming. It will be FREE, it’s just going to be a whole metric ton of info in one space. If you have questions I could answer in it, let me know!

February Intentions: Start thinking about a redesign for functionality.

Books

Well, my goal to read 75 books and take a bite out of my bookshelf is definitely a streeeeeeeeetch goal. I’ll be talking about what I read this month later on this week so we’ll get into the actual number then, but let’s just say this is already proving to be tough with all of the other things I’m juggling.

I did participate in Blog Her Bookclub this month though, and Garrett did start his own little project here in this space so that’s been fun.

February Intentions: MAKE MORE TIME TO READ. It’s my one little pleasure and I need to carve out time to read like I carve out time to workout. It can be done, and I need to make it happen.

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I’m making some progress, but there’s a long way to go. One month down, eleven to go. I’m still excited about 2012 — are you?

My 2012 goal page is up, and boy is it A DOOZY!

But remember, this year it’s all about:

No pressure to get EVERYTHING done, just a desire to move forward in all of these areas, and the list helps me out. I can’t wait to get started! (Ok, let’s be honest, I’VE ALREADY STARTED! At least with The Bookshelf Project, which is now also posted above.)

I tracked my 2011 Goals all year long and below is how it ended up shaking out if you’re curious. Even though a lot didn’t get crossed off, I’m mostly happy about it! The things I still want to do got transferred to the 2012 goal list, the things I don’t feel quite so passionate about I dumped. Easy peasy.

This year I will save the tiny, fun things for my seasonal Bucket Lists because those are so fun for me, but the big ideas will stay documented here.

Thanks to each and every one of you for following along and supporting me — this is such an energizing space in my life! I feel most happy when I’m creating, accomplishing, writing and sharing.

I am wishing you all a safe and happy new year!

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2011 Goal Re-cap

Health
Lose 50 more lbs — meh, I think I lost maybe 25???
Run another 5K (under 35 minutes) — 37 minutes, in the rain. Ok by me!
Run a 10K

Do 10 Non-Girl Push ups VICTORY IS MINE
Continue Paleo Cooking/Eating Yep!
Sleep 8 Hours Per Night – For the most part!

Travel
Visit all of the following places:
Austin
Arizona (stay at hotels in flagstaff az)
New Mexico
Boston

Finances
Merge finances with Garrett
Add to Savings
Open Roth IRA
Rollover old Retirement Account
Make financial life more automated

Home Improvement — well I moved this entire category to 2012. 2012 will be the year of the well styled home!
Re-do Guest Bedroom Baby steps, updated photos here
Paint Kitchen Cabinets
Paint Living Room, Office
Re-do Master Bedroom

Random Other Stuff Thrown In For Good Measure
Find a good red lipstick This one! That was easier than I thought.
Buy a pair of boots And I kind of love them
Make a Cooking Bucket List (done!)
Read 50 books
Start Fertility Charting
Entertain at least once a month (January: New Year’s Brunch with Kelly + Gee, February: No one – but two in March counts, right? March: John + Janine, Jeremy + Katie April: No one May: Garrett’s 30th Bday June/July/Aug/Sept: I think we failed, October: Liz and AndreAnna count!,)
Write somewhere daily
See one of my favorite writers speak
Go to the ballet
Wine Taste Check!

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Cheers to 2012, friends!