Tag Archives: Progress Report

November Progress + December Intentions

Wow…so this is probably the last progress report of the year. That’s weird to think about. I guess I should also start thinking about what next year’s goal setting/tracking will look like. These updates worked somewhat well this year — the idea was to stop allowing “achieved vs un-achieved” be the only barometer of success and celebrate PROGRESS — but I think the first half of the year was slightly more successful. There is going to be lots of thinking done on that front — what do I want next year to look like, what do I want to focus on — but honestly I just don’t think I’m in the right head space to start planning that just yet.

Maybe in a week or two.

November was a rough month, you guys. 50% success as far as intentions go: We had some fun meals with my family and Garrett’s mom’s visit was definitely a success in that it happened and we all made the best of it. But obviously with Garrett’s grandma dying and all of that it was a much different visit than I think any of us thought it would be. But I think that was even more powerful, actually. I can’t tell you how many times Garrett and I said to each other during that week, “Can you believe a week ago we were concerned with dust bunnies and meal planning and now…NOW all of that sees SO IRRELEVANT.”

Time is weird that way. I mean, I am a planner. There is no way I will ever NOT be someone who makes lists and sets goals and makes plans. (More on that later this week in my monthly book update. During November I read this book which was so interesting!) But the time is going to go by whether we make plans or not. Most of the time I find that sentiment super motivating — time is going to go by anyway, might as well get stuff done. But something about this November has just made me realize that I spend a lot of time planning for the future and that definitely does make it challenging to live in the present.

I posted this picture on instagram last week and I have literally been thinking about it daily since I originally saw it.
I've been thinking about this SO MUCH lately.

I do a lot of thinking about the future and it helps me in a lot of important ways. But one of the consequences of that is that it also creates a very particular anxiety in me that has just sort of weaved its way into my lifestyle. And I think I want to work on that. So with that,

December Intentions

I’m just going to aim for some peace.

I would like to try and finish this year being focused on the present. Sure there are lots of things I want to accomplish, and I don’t plan on sitting on the couch for 31 days doing nothing, thinking about nothing, and going where the wind takes me. But I just need to be in the moment a little bit.

What that looks like? I have no idea, but I’m willing to throw my plans out the window and find out.

I’m hoping that this will help me narrow my focus for 2013 and give me a little bit of clarity. I have done A LOT of thinking about how I thought 2012 would look and how it actually looked and definitely have some things to say about that soon, but I want to make sure I close out what has been an awesomely successful and challenging year in a peaceful place, so that I can start a fresh page next year.

How are you doing with living in the present? Did you have a phenomenal 2012? Are you planning for 2013 yet? What’s on your plate?


October Progress + November Intentions

November is here, fall is ramping up, the weather is amazing and life is good. October was a great month, despite the fact that I ate my weight in Halloween candy more than once, and I’m looking forward to finishing up the year feeling relaxed but accomplished. I think my goals are reflecting that.

I had 4 main intentions for October

*Successfully go without caffeine for 30 days

Well, I did it, but I’m not sure I would call going without caffeine a success. It sure was informative though. If you missed it, here were my thoughts on that. Sadly this past Saturday morning I woke up and had 2 whole cups of coffee throughout the morning and I was literally SO AMPED I was uncomfortable. My tolerance level was definitely affected, which in the end is a good thing I guess. Starting tomorrow we are brewing half decaf at home!

*Run a half marathon

Hooray, I totally did that!

And as I’ve already said, it’s kind of lit a little bit of a fire in me. I’m trying to keep the heat from that fire under control for the rest of the year because I don’t want to go and put a bunch of running events on my calendar and then feel overwhelmed, BUT — I’m totally enjoying working on my running on my CrossFit rest days. I even fooled around and tried some Yasso 800s this morning just for giggles. I totally didn’t do 10 and for the record I have ZERO desire to run a marathon but it was good times!

*Start Outlining Cookbook

Done and Done.

This week I’m going to tell you more about my cookbook plans and I’m kind of excited to share them. We’ve been doing lots of brainstorming in our house around it, and you know how it is when you are thinking about something ALL OF THE TIME but not really talking about it? It feels weird. So we will remedy that this week as I plan to share exactly how we are approaching it. It’s going to be a ton of fun, and I’m totally planning to involve you all.

*Keep Socializing to a Minimum

Ah yes, Be Anti-Social. I was pretty good at this actually. Lots of lounging and relaxing with the pup this month and I don’t regret that one bit.

(Garrett is doing his Burt Reynolds impersonation in this picture I think.)

We have definitely still had plans, and my mom came out for a weekend but mostly all our socializing has been of the mellow variety, and it was much needed!

October was great, so let’s build on that for November!

November Intentions

Have a family dinner with my mom’s side of the family – We’re hanging out with Garrett’s family on Thanksgiving so I want to get my mom’s side of the family together beforehand (since traditionally that’s who we have Thanksgiving with.) A fun potluck, a yummy menu – should be a good time. Thumbs up for family dinners.

Spend A Week With Garrett’s Mom – Guess who will be in town the week of Thanksgiving? Garrett’s mama! I want to make sure I do lots of planning ahead for her arrival so while she is in town the 3 of us can spend some quality time together. I have the entire week off, so I want to make sure we have some good meals and good times.

Get my Christmas Cards In Order – This sounds so easy, but I basically fail at it every year. So I’m going to put it on the list this month, and since it’s short I expect to get to it, dang it!

Workout Like A Maniac
– The holidays are a time when stress is at an all time high and my food rules tend to get…oh, how shall we say? A bit lax. So I want to make sure for my sanity and for my physical health that I am putting in the time at the box. I may not be a picture of clean living, but I will definitely commit to giving 100% to my exercise routine this month.

And that’ll just about do it. See ya at the finish line.


September Progress + October Intentions

Well September came and went and now we are already a week into October. The end of year “Holiday Pace” is coming on (I can feel it!) and I’m dying to push the pause button on life! I’m going to start by quickly looking back on September. Living in the past totally stops time, right? Oh wait, nope. It just encourages wearing acid washed jeans and bad hair-dos. Hmmm… πŸ™‚
Well, I’m doing it anyway.

I had four intentions for September, outside from my overall goal for it to be AWESOME-tember! (SPOILER ALERT: It kind of was!

*Dive head first into experimenting with your skin — I forged a plan for The Great Skin Care Experiment and I tried to ready myself to execute. I started mentally preparing to quit caffeine (sob!) and slowly but surely found some newer and more natural skin and body care products. This is still a work in progress since technically I’m going all in for October, but I think I’ll still give myself a check.

*Give a successful and honest presentation in Colorado – This went better than expected in a number of ways, but what I will say is that I definitely was honest. That part was the most scary! I’ve given a lot of presentations for work, but I’ve never had to get up in front of 150 people and talk about my life and my feelings. That was a little nerve-racking but in the end, it was an amazing experience!

*Run. Um, Some More – I got off my butt and did this, which was necessary since I’m running a half marathon on October 28. I still can’t really believe that is going to happen. YIKES. What did I sign up for?

*Eat Well – While I didn’t stay completely Whole 30 compliant, I ate pretty well during the month of September! What sticks out the most to me is that I really think I have kicked my dairy habit. I no longer by dairy at the store and we don’t have it in the house. That’s a major change from the month prior to the Whole 30. Also: my wine consumption? VASTLY DIFFERENT. It makes me a very cheap date now. πŸ™‚

All in all, September was pretty successful and I mostly credit that to the fact that I aimed low and didn’t put too much on my plate. I’m doing the same for October!

October Intentions

*Successfully Go Without Caffeine For 30 Days– You will be hearing about this all month, I’m sure. Apologies in advance. This is a huge deal for me. πŸ™‚

*Run A Half Marathon – My goal for this first time is just to get through it. I’m not worried about pace or time or athletic performance, I’m worried about survival. I think “Just Survive” is a great goal.

*Start Outlining Cookbook – So I’m definitely planning on writing a cookbook. End of Story. Cookbooks make me happy and I have lots of recipes to share. I’ve hinted at that for a while now, but I’m just going to start doing it. These things take awhile so I’m just going to put one foot in front of the other, and ultimately this little dream of mine will come to fruition.

*Keep Socializing To A Minimum – I realize this makes me sound like a total recluse, but I’m doing this during October for a bit of self-preservation. November and December are ALWAYS crazy months. I just want to spend October chilling out, enjoying fall, cooking, watching good television in a blanket fort on my couch and snuggling with Garrett and the dog. Seriously. THIS IS ALL I WANT! πŸ™‚ And since October is my birthday month, I think I’m allowed, right? And you can’t do that if you fill up every weekend with something social. So that’s where this is coming from.

Only 3 and a half weeks left of the month — it’s time to get started!


August Progress + September Intentions

I’m doing this a day early because this weekend is a long one. Because it’s full of socializing and family and fun things I want to just get September STARTED already. πŸ™‚

Despite my eagerness to move on, August went swimmingly.

As I’d hoped, we had a successful Whole 30, and I really set my boundaries in life, at work, and in my friendships. And of course I also had made plenty of time to watch bad television. Gold star, self! There were some difficult times this past month, but you stood your ground and did what you said you would do. Thumbs up!

Sometimes you just need to write the simple, important stuff down and stick to it. Worked for me! Next month is full of stuff already, and I know quickly we will be sliding down hill into the holidays (and then a whole new YEAR of goals — CRAZY!) so I’ve made a pretty simple list of what I’d like to accomplish.

September Intentions

*Dive head first into experimenting with your skin. This should be a fun one (HA! Only a little bit of sarcasm there.) I have a list of things to do and try in order to get my skin under control. Some are easy, some are hard but I’m going to take the plunge and commit to them!

*Give A Successful and Honest Presentation in ColoradoI’ve mentioned that Melissa, Michelle and I are talking about all sorts of Paleo goodness at the end of the month in Estes Park. Wish you would join us. I’m so nervous/excited/anxious/stoked I just can’t wait!

*Run. Um, Some more. — So I haven’t mentioned this too much here because I’m still scared/unsure and not AT ALL feeling confident in my decision, but Sarah has talked me into running a Half Marathon with her at the end of October. That girl is PERSUASIVE. I’m nervous because I don’t know too much about, you know, being a better runner. But I do know that I am in the best shape ever and I ENJOY running, so I figure that’s enough to get me across the finish line. But I also need to do some training that works with my CrossFit schedule. I need to get on that!

*Eat Well — The Whole 30 was indeed life changing, despite my opinion that I already knew all I needed to know. I want to keep that close to me this month while making food decisions. Keep the positivity flowing!

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And I think that’s enough, really! We have lots of social events on the calendar already that I am excited for, plus the start of football season and apple picking season and hopefully cooler weather. My friend Mike declared next month Awesome-tember the other day and I love that. I am READY FOR THAT.

Are you?


July Progress + August Intentions

Oh July, you were a wily one.

I wanted to keep one day per weekend to myself and I did not do a great job at that. The beginning of the month started strong but in the end we traveled, and overscheduled, and basically got a little crazy.

All fun, but not what I set out to do. Not even close.

Whenever I set intentions and don’t actually do them I try and figure out if I was not being honest with myself about what I really wanted, or if I just failed to set boundaries appropriately. This month was a boundary issue, for sure.

My intention to eat clean 7 days a week got a C-minus. On the days I did it, I was supah dupah clean and awesome. On the days I didn’t – well, we ate a food trucks. I wish I had the energy to be upset with myself for all of this, but oh wait — no I don’t.

That said, I miss having energy. So let’s switch this mutha up, shall we?

August Intentions

We’re going easy-peasy this month.

1. Have fun with the Whole 30. Commit, without craziness. That is my one intention for the entire experience. Enjoy cooking. Enjoy observing. Enjoy learning. Enjoying sharing about it. That sounds manageable.

2. Figure out what you really want and set your boundaries clearly. If you don’t want drama, don’t engage. If you don’t want to be tired, sleep. If you don’t want to be doing 900 things at a time, then say no to 899 of them. That sounds slightly harder. Yet doable.

3. Review Summer Bucket List. Then figure out what’s left that you feel like doing. And the rest? Don’t worry about it!

4. Watch a lot of bad TV.
Oh you guys, we bought a Roku box and I seriously never want to leave my house again. If you need me I’ll be on my couch streaming television until the end of time.

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Anyway. Goals: short and sweet. Written down. Because I need that right now.


June Progress + July Intentions

The world works in mysterious way I tell you.

You see, I’ve been thinking about what I want to write in this post for a couple of days now. Usually it’s a fun monthly recap and a reminder for me to take a minute and think about what I want the next month to look like. What can I say, I like intentions and of course the ritual of finishing one chapter and then starting the next.

Looking back on my intentions for June, despite the fact that they were all kind of vague (Spend time with friends, hit up Sonoma, work on my running YADA YADA YADA) they were mostly successful. I checked off some events, did some traveling, crossed items off lists, and basically did what I had set out to do. Great, right? Oddly enough though, when I look back at June I don’t really feel all that victorious.

I figured it was partly because I was coming out of an overwhelmed funk. I mean, let’s be real, I’ve been getting a little emo around here lately. Then I thought I was just being hard on myself because I am sort of this way by nature. Or maybe I just needed a good pep talk. Yes! That’s perhaps that was why I felt a bit of an empty victory over June. But yesterday morning I came across two things that made me think a little more about the whole thing.

The first was a quote on my calendar at work. I started my Monday morning by flipping to the month of July, and the quote at the bottom said this:

It made me stop and think — what do I want most? As a goal-setter/list-maker this is a hard thing for me to distill down. I have SO MANY goals and I want to do them all! Unfortunately this means I can get easily distracted, but usually it is not for long since The Malaise sort of takes over when I veer too far off course. So I thought about it some more.

What do I want MOST?

And the answer — as it has been all year — has been to be in the best shape possible when we start trying to get pregnant. Not the skinniest. Not the fittest in America, but My Personal Best. And lately a lot of the things that I have been prioritizing — the eating and drinking and traveling every weekend — while fun, have not really been getting me closer to that goal.

I’m not saying that letting loose over the summer is a bad thing at all. But for me, and for THIS summer — it is not the thing I want MOST. It ends up being the thing I want RIGHT NOW when I get to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And while indulging on the weekends is fun, it is also tiring and takes some recovery time. Back to back weekends of getting out of town and eating crappy food on the road and clinking a few too many glasses with friends have left me feeling a bit worn down.

Not what I want MOST.

The second thing I came across was this New York Times piece about Busyness that spread like wildfire through basically all of my social media channels. My favorite line:

“The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it.”

I’ve talked about The Cult of Busy before and how it is something that I struggle with. And I think the thing about June, to me, was that everything was sort of crammed on my plate in 30 minute scheduled increments and I just kind of let it all fly by.

Acquiescing is a choice. And I would like to make a different one in July. So with that, here’s how I want July to shake out.

July Intentions

*Keep at least one weekend day to yourself – If you have to say no to things, people will understand.
*Get back to clean eating 7 days a week – my weeks are pretty dialed in but the weekends tend to lack some focus.
*Make some performance based fitness goals – I’ll talk more about this later, but I touched on it a bit here.

And honestly, that’s it.

And right now, that’s enough.


May Progress Report + June Intentions

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

Broke in some new kicks this AM #minimuslove

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

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

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.

That's a fine lookin' dinner...even if it is on a paper plate!

Celebrations

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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

Busted out the denim pencil skirt to make it 5 for 5 on dresses/skirts this week. Spring bucket list: CHECK!

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?

Untitled

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. πŸ™‚

We’ll see how it all goes….


April Progress Report + May Intentions

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!

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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.

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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.
Soil Testing...will it make a difference?
Maybe a little Wednesday night soil testing. πŸ™‚ 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? πŸ™‚ 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!
Dwarf Pears
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.

Day 16: Sunglasses - a lot of good they're doing me in the rain #marchphotoaday

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


March Progress Report + April Intentions

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!

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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.

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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. πŸ™‚

Starting my day off on a good note. Also on a stack of truck tires. Same diff...

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!

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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.

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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.

Day 17: green - late bloomers. Not sure about my tomato seedlings this year. #marchphotoaday #daylate

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!

GORGEOUS

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 ridiculous how happy a change of table runner & a cheap bouquet can make me.


February Progress Report + March Intentions


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.

Ready!

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