Tuesday, January 3, 2012

I've set some goals. Now what?

Setting realistic goals is important.  I know that I could say that this year I want to run a marathon.  That would just be setting myself up to fail.  I've learned that I've got to set short term goals which in the long run will help me achieve my long term goals.  The 4 main things I want to accomplish this year are get a job, continue to work on losing weight, run & take more risks.  I could wait until December to search for a job, lose a couple of pounds that month, run from one side of my house to the other and cross the street without looking at both sides.  But that wouldn't be living.  How am I going to make reach those goals?

As far as weight loss goes, I am making it my monthly goal to work out at least 1,000 minutes & to walk at least 50 miles per month.  Last month I reached 749 minutes and I'm pleased with that because there was one week where I didn't work out because I was sick.  I also walked a total of 42.7 miles in December.  I know I posted that my monthly goal is to lose 8 pounds.  I think that's doable and I am motivated by the fact that last month I was able to lose 11.7 pounds during what is a difficult month due to all the food temptation.

One of the reasons why I decided to join the Do Life challenge was to keep motivated.  I think that has been one of the most difficult areas for me during the past year. I'm still trying to think about how to improve my job search & also figure out how to be more fearless.  Perhaps the Happiness Online project will help me determine that.  I'm hoping to post about that program in the next day or so.  Still trying to get my head around it.


4 things that I did well today:


  1. Woke up before 9am.  Now that may not seem like a big deal but for me it is.  When I worked I used to get up around 6:30.  However the past 9 months I've typically gotten up around 11ish unless I had something going on.  In order to get into a routine, I need to wake up at the same time every day. 
  2. I walked 5K on the treadmill even though I didn't want to finish it.  After about 20 minutes I felt like I couldn't catch my breath.  Instead of stopping, I just slowed down and told myself that my time didn't matter.  Just finish the workout. 
  3. Making a new healthy snack.  I heard about baked garbanzo beans so I am attempting to make them.  
  4. I had a hearty breakfast and although I was extremely sleepy this morning, I only had one cup of coffee.  No need to be excessive in my caffeine intake.   My mom got me some amazing coffee from Mexico.  

4 comments:

  1. Wow 50 miles in a month sounds like so much. Before I had my hysterectomy I had all my exercise tracked on an excel spreadsheet with time and miles walked/run but then I totally forgot to start keeping track again when I resumed exercise a few weeks ago. So thanks for the reminder!

    Best of luck with these goals!! Based on what you've already been doing they sound perfectly reasonable. You'll be rocking that bikini in no time ;)

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  2. I think it's a good idea to get into a routine.

    This is what my friend does who's unemployed at the moment:

    During the week he gets up early at the same time every day, eats breakfast, does housework/chores, spends 2-3hrs or so a day looking for jobs (either online, newspapers or at the job centre) or he does an online course to improve his skills such as word processing or spends time improving his résumé. He then goes to the gym or for a walk to get his focus elsewhere and then spends the afternoon emailing companies his résumé or requests for jobs. In the evening he does at he pleases and at weekends he treats them like most workers do and has 2 days off from his routine.

    So I guess he treats his weekday routine seriously as if it was his job.

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  3. @Kim - I figure if I continue to walk at least 5 times a week and do 5K each time I will easily reach 50 miles. I use Runkeeper & MyFitnessPal to keep track. Great tools!

    @Tim - thanks for the info Tim. I think getting into a routine will be key. It will also keep me sane. I had a bad day today but tomorrow will be better.

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  4. I just started reading the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Some of the ideas are helping me shape my 2012 goals - I have goals in mind, but I haven't finalized them yet! :)

    I agree with your plan and previous comment Tim - when I was unemployed in 2006, I had a routine that helped me feel motivated and focused. Working on a job search a little bit every day is a lot easier than thinking, "I'll just blast out 50 resumes tomorrow." (and then get poor results anyway). It's not rocket science, but one of the concepts in Rubin's book is doing small things daily add up to big changes over time. Other authors/people recommend this too -- it's just a good reminder.

    Keep on stepping sister! :)

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