January updates on my 2018 goals

Happy Thursday! Happy February! I cannot believe that one month of 2018 has already passed. Seems like just yesterday I was making a list of goals that I wanted to complete in 2018. One of the things that I have figured out about goals, is that if I make the list and then don't look at it, then I forget all of them. So I thought I would come back here at the end of each month/beginning of the next month and see how I am progressing toward achieving my goals. 

So without further ado, let's see how I did in January: 

No fast food for the year. The only exception for this will be if we are traveling on a vacation or if the kids request this as their birthday dinner. 

• So far so good. I haven't had fast food at all. I have only wanted it like on one or two occasions so good to go here.

Give up pop. I have gotten into a very bad habit of drinking pop and I have had at least one kidney stone this year. I am pretty sure that I have been dealing with one the last week as well. I feel bloated most of the time and think that this is due to the amount of pop that I have been drinking.

• This month I had pop three times. Once, when Bill and I had a lunch date at Bob Evans and on Tuesday I had a glass of Coke when I had a headache all day and Tylenol wasn't helping. The caffeine helped. Then last night, I was exhausted but still had work to do so I had another glass of Coke to wake me up to get my work done. Other than those 3 times, I have been drinking water, sometimes with flavorings added.

Lose 40 pounds. I MUST do this. My health needs to be my priority this year. I am not getting any younger and I need to make sure that as I approach 40 that I am in better shape.

• If you follow along with my Weigh In Wednesday posts you will see that I lost 6.8 pounds in January, so only 33.2 pounds to go! 

Walk at least 3 days a week. This was hard in 2017 as I would get into a rhythm, then with the weather change and I started babysitting and I did not have time at all to walk. I feel so much better when I get outside so I am going to try for 3 days at the minimum.

• Well, with the snow/ice/cold temperatures in January, I haven't been able to get out as much as I would like. However, I did end up with 6 walks in January so it wasn't a complete loss. 

Read 24 books. I really love to read and I find that I would read more however the lure of electronics is strong and I have been laying in bed playing "Blast" solitaire on my tablet instead of reading before sleeping. I will stop doing this and will start reading instead. I hope to bring back my what I read this month blog posts.

• This month I read 5 books: Under a Cloudless Sky, The Sound of Rain, The Two of Us, The Last of the Firedrakes, The Rise of the Dawnstar

Declutter 500 items from our home. We have way too much stuff.  There is just no getting past that we need to get rid of stuff. 500 items is on average about 42 items a month. I can do that.

• I have several trash bags full of donations ready to take to Goodwill but haven't done it yet.

Go on a family vacation with Bill and the kids.

• Currently in the thinking about it stage :-)

Have at least one date time with Bill each week-- be that a walk together, lunch out, date night in, watching a movie, etc.

• We took a walk together on January 9. 
  
• We played Scrabble against one another one night at home. Bill won. 
• We had date night at home and ordered in food from Buffalo Wild Wings using a gift card that Bill got for Christmas on the 20th. 
  
• We took a walk together when the temperatures hit 60 degrees on the 22nd.
• We had a lunch date out at Bob Evans on the 23rd as we both had the morning/afternoon free from work obligations. 
  

Try 24 new recipes.

• This month I tried 4 new recipes: Vegetarian Crockpot Minestrone, Applesauce Banana Muffins, Zucchini and Sweet Potato Hash, and Pork Fried Rice

Deep clean and declutter each room in our house.

• This month I deep cleaned Rebecca's bedroom and the game closet 

  

  
  

  
  
  
  

So that is the January update. Not too bad at keeping up with my goals. In fact, I am very pleased with the results. If you are working on goals, how are you doing since the first month of the year is now done?