Don’t Call it a Resolution

Last year on SparkPeople I wrote a blog on New Years Day about setting goals for the New Year. I don’t make New Years Resolutions, because committing myself to something that strict never works for me. And apparently they don’t really work for most people, so why try? Instead, I wrote goals. Here are those goals and how I did:

If you’ve been friends with me a long time on SparkPeople, you may remember that I don’t like New Years Resolutions much, so I don’t make any. However, I’ve noticed that since reaching goal weight that I’ve been struggling to find my purpose when it comes to health. I decided several days ago that I need to set myself a few new goals for 2015. Nothing crazy, just little things I know I can accomplish, some weight related, some health related, some heart related and some confidence related.

Long Term Goals:
-Do kettlebells 3x per week (I haven’t missed a day since the beginning of September so I think this should be easy) SUCCESS – I missed maybe a handful of kettlebell workouts all year
-Drink 16+ glasses of water every day (I aim for 20 but sometimes I slack a little and end up with 12 or 14) SUCCESS
-Blog on ameasuredlife.com 3x a week (this one I’m really going to have to pay attention to) SUCCESS – I may have missed one or two.

Medium Term Goals:
-Buy (and wear) a two-piece bathing suit this summer (I want a high waisted vintage style bikini) TOTALLY  DONE
-Get back closer to goal weight by bulking my meals with FRESH VEGETABLES instead of leaving myself vulnerable to candy, cookies, ice cream and potato chips I’m within goal range right now! (Or I was before Christmas week, boo.)
-Get a minimum of 6,000 steps a day (I *was* getting over 10k a day but then I found kettlebells and I’ve been slacking. Plus it’s coooold and I like walking outside) While I didn’t always get 6,000 steps a day, my average only fell below 5,000 steps 4 weeks this year. Counting that as successful!

Short Term Goals:
-Be brave. Sometimes I feel like a shy little kid and I need to work harder on putting myself out there and being adventurous. I’m going to try new things this year: lifestyle blogging, publishing a cookbook, meeting new people. (The selections on Meetup.com are sorely lacking in my area.) SUCCESS – I’m blogging, I joined a walking group on Meetup.com, and I found a community in RoadRunner Sports via the Adventure Runs. 
-Have more girl time. My bestie and my friend Mia and I are going to try to plan cheap camping trips a few times a year for just us girls. I’m also going to try to meet up with my friend Shelby to hike once or twice. (side note: Bingley is asleep on my right arm and he’s dreaming and his little paw is twitching against my shoulder. It’s so cute!) FAIL – Camping trip got canceled due to scheduling and I haven’t hiked once this year. 
-Get cultured. There are a billion cultural things to do around Philly: museums, parks, food, plays, the orchestra, opera, etc. I used to do a lot of these things when I was younger because my dad loved them. Hubs is not at all interested in opera or ballet, so these are things I can do without him. I know there are hundreds of ethnic restaurants in Philly, many of which I haven’t yet tried. I need to try them! I’m going to count this as a fail because while I’ve been to a lot of parks with walking group, none of them are culturally significant, and I haven’t been to Philly this year except for my anniversary dinner, and we’d already been to that restaurant. 

I think I did pretty well with most of these! Here are my goals for 2016:

Long Term Goals:

• Have a complete first draft of a cookbook before the end of 2016
• Pay off all of our credit card debt so we can begin to save for a house
• RUN (and I mean run the whole thing) a legit 5K before the end of the year

Medium Term Goals:

• Learn how to do a kettlebell snatch with proper form
• Go camping/hiking at least once (maybe someone will ask me to go hiking with them)
• Take a road trip to Chicago to visit family

Short Term Goals:

• GET THIS 8 LBS OF CHRISTMAS WEIGHT OFF MY BODY ASAP (probably mostly water)
• Work on better lighting for my food photography
• Return the money I ‘borrowed’ to pay for emergencies to our savings account

What about you? Have you made your goals for the new year? Let me know in the comments!