Summer Goals Update #3

Another Friday (opps...Thursday!) update on my goals...

I've included my updates in colors:

Green = success

Blue = plan

Red = failure

I'm going to be changing a few goals/combining some for next week too and moving those that are complete from the week before to the bottom...

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100% - Weeks 4 - 66%, missed 0ne run due to knee :-(

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.) - Week 4 - done! Two Local Barre classes, one elliptical session and lots of walking

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership - 1 more time gone, 23 left to go

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #2!) - Done! And have attended 2 classes

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #2!) - planning to do next week (same)

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day - Not every day, but most days!

7. Combining goals 3/4/5 into one goal - Attend 40 sessions total (local barre + bootcamp + gym classes + swimming + elliptical) - Status as of this week - 31 sessions left to go

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness - Done in week 4!

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day - week 4 - Yes!

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week - week 4 - 5 days, I'll take it!

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks - need to find another cookbook

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible - zero meat in week 4

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks - Done in Week 4! Will track every Monday

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures - FAIL, need to do better with this

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time - 3 posts done, I think 5 may have been too ambitious

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill - still on my to do list

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with - did find a dog walker, but still need to find a trainer

6. Read Harry Potter Books 1-7 (new! started on book #1 yesterday) - Just started book 6

7. Download and read books recommended to me for "self improvement" - still on my to do list

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French - Got through 1 lesson, need to do more

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety - haven't watched one class yet

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?) - haven't done anything with

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?) - haven't done anything with

5. Read Joyful Wisdom - Done in week 4!

6. Review the level 1 CFA books - found a friend I can borrow them from, now just need to actually get them (same status)

Completed Goals:

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out - Check!! DONE in Week 2

Summer Goals Update #2

Well I made some progress on the goals I posted two Fridays ago, last Friday I was in Vegas!

I've included my updates in colors:

Green = success

Blue = plan

Red = failure

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100% - Weeks 2/3 - 75%, missed two runs due to knee injury

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.) - Week 2/3 - done! Yoga and a ton of walking - need to do better with things other than walking, but Vegas was a good chunk of this time so I'm giving myself a break

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership - 1 more time gone, 24 left to go (yikes may need to rethink this goal or get a move on!)

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do today/tomorrow

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do next week

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day - Stretching yes, foam rolling no, but I did find my foam roller

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness - still haven't done, need to set up for Sunday or Monday after my next long run

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day - week 2/3 half check, yes for every day I wasn't in Vegas

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week - no, not if you include Vegas!

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks - got one cookbook in the mail! had veggie lasagna today and it was excellent, also been experimenting with veggie burgers, YUM

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible - complete FAIL, ate more meat than I'm proud of in Vegas

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks - got a tape measure today and will start tomorrow with my weigh in

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures - FAIL, need to do better with this

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time - sucked here, need to get back on the ball

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill - still on my to do list

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out - Check!! DONE!

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with - did find a dog walker, but still need to find a trainer

6. Read Harry Potter Books 1-7 (new! started on book #1 yesterday) - already halfway through book 4

7. Download and read books recommended to me for "self improvement" - still on my to do list

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French - purchased, now need to download and get started

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety - haven't watched one class yet

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?) - haven't done anything with

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?) - haven't done anything with

5. Read Joyful Wisdom - on page 230, 30 pages to go, should be done by next Friday

6. Review the level 1 CFA books - found a friend I can borrow them from, now just need to actually get them (same status)

Well, you win some you lose some. I'm not as far along with some of these goals as I'd hoped, but am hopeful that I can make a pretty good stand at getting most of them done before I start work in 5.5 weeks. I'm making a promise right now to myself to at least try as hard as I can (even if I know I won't quite make it, ahem 30 visits to the gym) and log in every Friday to track my progress. Until then...

Summer Goals Update #1

Well I made some progress on the goals I posted last Friday...I've included my updates in colors:

Green = success

Blue = plan

Red = failure

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100% - Week 1, done!

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.) - Week 1, done! 2 Elliptical sessions, 1 swimming and lots of walking!

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership - 2 more times this week, 25 left to go (yikes!)

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do after Vegas

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #3!) - planning to do after Vegas

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day - stretching yes but foam rolling no (can't find it?)

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness - need to call today for appointment tomorrow

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day - week 1, check!

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week - only was under 4 days this week (but I did change my calories to target 1.5 pounds lost a week from 1 pound, so I'm still eating less than I was - need to do better this week!)

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks - made spaghetti with fake meat sauce, vegan chocolate chip cookies and cookie dough bites, and stir fry with tempeh, also pre-ordered one vegan cookbook, just need to find another

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible - did pretty well here, just ate pepperoni on my pizza today, I was meat free every other day

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks - FAIL, need to buy a tape measure for tomorrow!

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures - FAIL, need to do better with this

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time - blogging yes but pictures no

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill - need to do before Vegas

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out - need to make genius bar appointment (this weekend?)

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with - in contact with local dog walkers who also do training, might kill two birds with one stone there until he's ready to go to group classes (in about a month)

6. Read Harry Potter Books 1-7 (new! started on book #1 yesterday)

7. Download and read books recommended to me for "self improvement"

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French - need to fix computer first

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety - haven't watched one class yet

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?) - haven't done anything with

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?) - haven't done anything with

5. Read Joyful Wisdom - on page 110, want to finish before Vegas (too ambitious?)

6. Review the level 1 CFA books - found a friend I can borrow them from, now just need to actually get them

So not too bad for the first week eh? I have 6 more weeks to accomplish everything on this list - at this pace I'm sure I can do it, as long as I keep it up. And if I don't accomplish everything on the list, that's ok to, even accomplishing most everything would make me feel pretty productive. Until next week...

Back to the Beach we Go!

Have I mentioned I love the beach? (or rather, the shore as it's affectionately called in Jersey) One of the things I looked forward to most in taking these three months off is the ability to get down to the shore as much as possible. Jeff's parents have a house down there and they graciously let us stay down there with them. Talk about lucky!

I'm looking forward to another weekend full of walks along the beach, playing fetch with Petey and just relaxing. Life doesn't get any better than that I don't think.

But, while I'm down there I do plan to focus on some of the goals I mentioned in a previous post. I'm taking down the book Joyful Wisdom so I can read it while I'm on the beach. I'll of course do one or two training runs while I'm down there just depending on how long we are there for. I'm vowing right here on the interwebs that I will also spend time strength training (planks/pushups/squats/etc.) and doing some serious stretching. So in between all that relaxing I plan on making some progress towards those goals of mine.

In exciting goal related news I DID make it to the gym today even though I really really really did not want to go. So that's 4 trips so far this summer. Only 26 more to go. Yikes. I'm going to have to start going a lot more often if I want to make that goal even a possibility.

My cross training workout today was as follows:

2 miles on the elliptical - resistance between 6-10, average of 8

3 sets of 10 on the abductor machine with 60 pounds (trying to work on my hip/glute strength)

3 planks for 30 seconds

3 sets of one legged balancing on the bosu ball, 30 seconds on each leg

Ok, so maybe not the most hard core workout out there, but it was something. And I plan to take a long walk on the beach tonight when we get there and spend some quality time playing fetch with the little guy - so not an all together shabby day workout wise. Tomorrow I've got a 3 mile run on tap, and I'm just hoping it's a bit easier than my runs were last time I was down the shore...

To the beach we go!

Goals for the Next Two Months...

I have two months left of my sabbatical. Two months of nothing dictating my schedule but me (and Petey since puppy training is a lot of work!) I want to make the most of it. I feel like I've done a really good job of making the most of my first month off, so I want to make even more out of the next few months if that's possible.

I figure since I'm a pretty goal oriented person that setting out some goals for myself might help me to feel like I've accomplished what I want to this summer when it's all said and done. So here goes.

Fitness Goals:

1. Run 3 days a week, follow my half marathon/marathon training schedule 100%

2. Cross train 3 days a week (yoga, swimming, elliptical, strength training, etc.)

3. Go to the gym a total of 30 times to get the most out of my membership

4. Activate my Local Barre Groupon and attend at least 10 classes (will help with #3!)

5. Activate my Boot Camp Groupon and attend at least 5 classes (will help with #3!)

6. Stretch regularly and use my foam roller every day

Health Goals:

1. Set up bi-weekly massage appointments at Massage Envy to help with my hip/leg tightness

2. Log food into myfitnesspal.com every day

3. Stay at or under my net calories for the day 6 days a week

4. Experiment with vegan cooking, purchase 2 vegan cookbooks

5. Stay away from meat as much as possible

6. Take and track body measurements every two weeks

Personal Goals:

1. Take more pictures

2. Blog 5 days a week and post pictures most of the time

3. Do one more big purge of junk in the apartment and take stuff to goodwill

4. Fix computer before the warranty runs out

5. Petey, training - find a local trainer we can work with

Educational Goals:

1. Purchase Rosetta Stone French once computer is fixed and spend time learning French

2. Watch Damodoran's Corporate Finance Class in it's entirety

3. Start playing the piano again (find a new teacher?)

4. Start playing the flute again (find a teacher?)

5. Read Joyful Wisdom

6. Review the level 1 CFA books

That's a lot eh? And I didn't even mention my biggest goal, to lose weight, because that should happen if I keep to my goals above. I plan to check in once a week, on Fridays to chat about my progress on the goals above, and as time goes on I'll try and add more specifics to some of the goals so they are easy to track!