2014 Monthly/Annual Goals

Hello, hello!

Well, it looks like I am snowed in for another day. Besides heading out to the gym, I have been bundled up, cozy on the couch the past couple of day! I have actually been quite productive, and am completely caught up on grading and ahead for lesson planning. 

Perfect time to blog, no?

It is January 6th and I figure I should set some goals, right?

Like many of you, I'm not a huge fan of yearly resolutions and would much rather set smaller goals that work up to something much bigger. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.

Similar to what Kelly does on her blog, I would like to set monthly goals and blog about them. We'll see if I actually follow through. December was kind of a wreck. ;)

For January, here is what I would like to accomplish:

• 31 days of fitness. Yep, you read that right. I want to move everyday in January. Let me explain before you think I'm a loony that is setting myself up for failure. I have recently rejoined Gympact, now simply called Pact and Bill got me a Fitbit for Christmas. The goal on the Fitbit is to get to 10,000 steps daily. Once I make it to 10K steps, it will count as a "workout" on the Fitbit. This added feature to Pact is what pushed me to change my pact to 7 days instead of a typical 5 day pact. So, some days I may not make it to the gym, but as long as I get in the requisite "steps" I will be okay. So far, a typical day at school has been 6,000 steps, so getting in another 4,000 outside of school really should not be that difficult!
• Read 4 books. My attention span has been crap lately. I cannot seem to focus on anything for longer than 20 minutes... I feel like a 4th grader! Ha. Ok, that's not funny. But, really. I want to read more books. I have been reading a lot on the treadmill and the elliptical, so hopefully that helps with my total books read for the month/year.
• Track all meals on My Fitness Pal. Even on the "bad" days. Simple as that, right? Wrong. I'm going to try though. I want to look goooood in my wedding dress. I tend to avoid MFP when I have been bad. Ignorance is bliss.
• Strength training class at least once a week. I am terrible at getting to body pump or doing some lifting on my own. I am sort of a cardio freak and will just do cardio. However, I am well aware of the benefits of strong muscles, so I really need to make this a goal of mine and get to more strength training classes. Body Pump is a great start. I have also downloaded the app Sworkit, so hopefully I can squeeze in a little strength training at home here and there. My wedding dress really requires a toned back and arms, so upper body is my focus!
• Cut out pop. Completely. Aspartame makes your body think it's hungry when it's really not. As a good friend of mine (who happens to be super smart) pointed out to me, the soda people and snack people are manufactured by the same companies for a reason... I still really crave that fizzy, bubbly drink though, so this weekend I picked up some La Croix sparkling water on sale at Whole Foods and a couple cans of Zevia. It seems to do the trick!
• Blog at least once a week. I miss you guys. Plain and simple. 

As you can see, most of my goals this month are pretty cliche. Really cliche, in fact. I am sure my goals will be very similar in February - or at least, I hope they are.

I don't care though.

I am not drastically changing anything. I have been living a relatively healthy lifestyle for two years now (ever since that damn PE Methods class where I found out my actual body fat percentage and drove home bawling my eyes out!) and now I just have something even more motivating to get me going....

Wearing a wedding dress in front of 150-200 of my closest friends and family and having pictures that will be seared into time forever. If that isn't motivation to get your butt gear and tone up, I don't know what is.

What are your goals for 2014? Are you on Fitbit? If so, lets be friends!