Thursday, March 01, 2018

March Habits and Goals


So, since I didn't get a February post up about habits and goals...let's make sure it happens in March! ;) 

For a recap, last month I decided to focus on drinking water for a personal healthy habit.  I was shooting for 72 oz of water per day, and I did really well for about half the month.  I found a good water tracker app for my phone and kept up with the water goals well...as long as I remembered to record stuff in the app.  It kept me motivated, knowing I only had so much left to go each day.  Then...I slacked off, kept forgetting to record my water intake, and basically bombed the second half of the month.  Sometimes I'd get to lunchtime and realize I hadn't had a drop of water yet that day...nothing to drink other than coffee.  Oops!  So I think I need to refocus on this goal in March, and I'm going to kick it up a notch by making exercise more of a priority, too.  I did fairly well in January (isn't that the way it goes with starting a new year?!), but in February I only recorded 4 runs on the treadmill, and no other specific exercise.  No wonder my jeans have been a little tighter... :(

I have a personal goal this year of running/walking (combined) 200 miles.  So far I'm up to 24 miles (including today), which isn't bad, but isn't as far as I could be, for sure.  In March I'm setting a goal of 20 miles, and would love to do even more than that.  I also want to get back to doing my workout DVDs a couple times a week, as I see better results in muscle definition when I use those.  Summer's coming, which means short sleeve/sleeveless weather, and I'd kinda like my upper arms to not be so jiggly!!

Another goal I have set for myself is to read 40 books this year.  Last year I started using the Goodreads app, which was really fun and motivating for me.  I decided to track not just the books I read for myself, but the chapter books we read together for school, too.  I set a goal of 30 books last year, and ended up reading about 35, which was encouraging!  Granted, the majority of them were read-alouds for school, but I think about 1/4-1/3 of them were personal reads.  So far this year I'm up to 8 books total, 4 in each of the first 2 months.  I'm excited about that, and glad to be doing better with making books a priority again!  (More about what I'm reading in a future post...)

In February I also realized I still need lots of work in building that waking-up-early habit, as well as making my daily quiet time a habit!  The past few months have been rough with lack of sleep (that seems soooo much harder to deal with, the older I get!) and I struggled to get up before the kids, many days.  So that's one of my goals again for March...getting myself up by 6-6:30 each day (earlier is better, but this is a good start), so I can have that time in the Word, and hopefully exercise before the kids get up too.  It makes my whole day so much smoother if I can be ready for the day and not put off exercise or devotions till after school, because then it usually doesn't happen.  Now that Ari is starting to get back to sleeping better again, and it's getting light out earlier, I think this should be easier.

As far as goals/habits for my home (word of the year!)...the main thing I want to zero in on this month is menu planning.  I have been terrible at that over the fall and winter, and I know life would flow much more smoothly if I had a good plan every week.  I also want to utilize my crockpot more on the days we are out of the house a lot, or need to leave the house early for church.  I've also really gotten away from using my Happy Planner, except for school, and I want to get back to that.  Just last week I missed an important deadline because while I'd written it down in my planner I forgot to, you know, actually LOOK at the planner that day!  (Thankfully it all worked out okay...but it could have been a problem!)

So, to condense it all...here are my March goals:

  • Wake up by 6-6:30 every weekday (today was a flop because my phone died in the night so my alarm didn't go off...oops!)
  • Drink at least 72 oz of water every day
  • Run/walk 20 miles and incorporate exercise DVDs twice a week
  • Finish 4 books
  • Make a menu plan every week
  • Make a to-do list in my planner daily (and check said list!)
I think that will give me plenty to work on this month!  How about you?  Do you have specific goals for this month?

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