Resolution Challenge 2012: March

Yeah, yeah.  Don't get on me for the lack of blogging.  Anyway, if I updated you on my life, it would look like this (every single day):

I go to work.  I go to work again (after-school program).  I work again (teach piano lessons).  I write lots of papers (for grad school).  I make dinner (occasionally).  I read lots of boring books and articles (for grad school).  Sometimes I talk to my husband.  I rarely sleep.

Yeah, not so good.  But I am still working on my resolution challenge, so I thought I would at least blog about it to help keep myself accountable.

In February, I promised not to eat fast food.  And I didn't.  I also said I was going to try to eat a much smaller portion of dinner and not again unless I was hungry.  I am happy to report that I was 95% successful.  One time I got a second helping of dinner (it was so good) and another time my sister and her friends came to visit (which was amazing) and we had a girls/snack food night.  It broke my rule and it was totally worth it.

For March, I have decided to start on March 2.  Because I have been up until 3am the last few nights working on grad school stuff and I am taking a friggin' day off.  I deserve it.  Really, I am not taking a whole day off.  I at work right now (my lunch break) and then I still teach my after school program, then I am making dinner.  But anyway...

Starting tomorrow on March 2:
--Wake up every weekday early enough to do 15 minutes of pilates BEFORE school.  This is going to be HARD.  I mean HAAAARDDDD.  I am not a morning person.  At all.

--Do at least 30 uninterrupted minutes of grad school work every single day.  Lots of days I will do more than 30.  But I can never take a day off.  If I do, I will get behind again and never sleep until December 2012.

--No junk food whatsoever.  Ever.  This includes: potato chips, soda, and all sweets.  If I want a snack, I will have to have fruit, veggies, popcorn (this is healthy without butter), crackers, or cheese.

I am definitely setting myself up for failure.  HAHA.  But I'm gonna try real hard!

Resolution Challenge 2012: February

In my last post, I mentioned my resolution challenge for this year.  Basically, each month I am going to try and have small resolutions that will eventually be carried out through life to some degree.  My challenges for January were:

1. Floss every night.
2. Take a multi-vitamin every day.
3. Do not watch TV in bed at all.

I was 100% successful with both flossing and TV, but I did miss a multi-vitamin on Jan 28.  It was my dad's wedding day, believe it or not, and I was busy and totally forgot.  But overall, I am pretty happy with my success.  I am going to continue flossing every night and I am going to continue taking a vitamin every day.  I am going to read more often in bed and just go to sleep more often in bed, but I can't promise to never watch TV again.  And although I could have watched it last night (February 1), I chose to read instead :-)

Here are my plans for February:

1. During dinnertime and after: I will only eat until I am not hungry anymore.  Then I will stop.  I will only eat again (snack) if I get hungry.  I have the hardest time with over-eating.  Only with dinner.  For breakfast, I usually eat cereal, oatmeal, or toast with nutella and fruit.  For lunch, it's leftovers (if I have them) or maybe a salad or half of a sandwich.  I usually bring some sort of fruit and always yogurt.  But for dinner, I seem to always over eat, and then I snack later.  This is going to be the hardest challenge of a lifetime!!!!!
2. I am not going to eat fast food once during the entire month of February.  I typically don't eat fast food.  But every once in a while (maybe once every 2 or 3 weeks) is it just more convenient.  And I usually end up at Taco Bell.  Yeah, well, not this month!

Wish me luck!

Resolution Challenge 2012

Do you have a New Year's Resolution?  I have never done one before, but I am giving it a good go this year.  I am doing something a little different and I think I am setting myself up for success, rather than failure.  For each month (30 days or so) I am going to set one or more very small goals.  The point is that I will try to complete all 30 days and then realize that it wasn't so bad after all and continue on with in life.  Or at least part of it.  I will pick one or more things at the beginning of each month, share them, and then also give an update on how the previous month's goals turned out (completed or not).

January consisted of three very small goals:

1. Floss my teeth every night.  (This only takes a minute or two, but somehow always seems like a huge pain in the you-know-what.)
2. Take a daily multi-vitamin every day.
3. Do not watch TV in bed for the entire month.

I figured those were realistic goals. I only have 1 1/2 days left in January and I will update on the status of these goals at the beginning of February.

Here are some ideas that I have for monthly goals:

• Read a chapter of The Purpose Driven Life every day.
• Run/walk a certain number of miles every day.
• Get up early and work out before school every day (this one may be impossible).
• Spend 5 minutes every day being thankful.
• Don't eat any junk food/sweets for a whole month.
• Do something really special for someone every day.
• In the summer: Weed/garden/spend time outside in my yard "X" amount of minutes per day.
• Watch Oprah's entire Life Class in 30 days.
• Clean a room of my house EVERY DAY.  Yeah, we will see.
• Do "X" amount of minutes of grad school work every day.
• Write a blog post every day.
• Don't eat any meat for a whole month.
• Don't drink any alcohol for a whole month.
• Eat "X" number of servings of fruits and/or veggies every day.
• Try at least "X" number of new recipes in a month.

Does anyone have any other ideas that I could give a go?  I think I have at least one good idea for February, but don't know if I will add any more.