Wishes & Goals 2010 Check-Up - October

Every month this exercise gets a little more painful - each time I do one of these check-ups, I feel like I'm slipping just a little further away from my goals as opposed to inching closer to them. You'd think that knowing that I'm not doing very well would make me more motivated to do better in the month ahead, but no, I just feel miserable about myself.

Don't get me wrong - snacks are now an integral part of my weekday routine, and now I eat more fruit (and cheese) than I used to. I'm also drinking more water than I used to, and now I notice it more on the days when I don't get enough. Last year, going to bed at 1 AM, maybe even 2 on a weeknight was normal for me. Now, even though I don't make it to bed at 11:15 every night, it is a big deal if I see that it's past 12 (let alone past 1) and I'm never awake at 2 AM anymore (except on the odd weekend). On December 31, I probably won't be able to say that I have a morning and afternoon snack every day, or that I get at least 7.5 hours of sleep every night, but I will be able to say that I've moved forward in certain areas because I did set those goals. More importantly, I've learned a lot about setting and achieving goals that I can use for myself and my clients - one of these lessons is to not be so stubborn about keeping the same resolutions/goals for an entire year that it makes you feel miserable every month.

My Goals for 2010
7.5+ hours of sleep
Looking at the colours, it looks like I didn't sleep at all in September, and this month hasn't been going so well either. For the most part, I'm still going to bed within an hour of my set "bed time" so it's not that bad...

Each snack must contain a vegetable or fruit
I think this is probably the only goal that I'm doing well with. Towards the end of the month I've started to fall in love with those mesh bags of Babybel cheeses and those boxes of Armstrong cheddar cheesesticks (Mmmm... smoked cheddar) as my "protein". We'll see what my cholesterol has to say about that in May. I don't think I need snacks on the weekend because I clearly sleep in... an afternoon snack might still be necessary, and good to get more fibre and vitamins in my system!

Be able to do 100 full, proper pushups without stopping by December 2010.
On average I did my pushups about once a week and got up to 40 pushups, then fell off the wagon and the last time I checked I was back down to 31. However, that was on a Thursday after kickboxing class. This month I am taking a break from pushups because I will be upping my kickboxing to about 4-5 times a week and will probably be too tired for pushups. I will still try to do my biweekly checkpoints though.

Drink at least 48 oz of water at least three days a week, INCLUDING Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.
This month was mostly off, but towards the end of the month I started to get back into my groove. I'm finding I'm drinking more water at home now, which is good, but I need to get better about carrying a water bottle with me - I actually don't like those stainless steel water bottles because I can't tell how much I've drank. I'm eyeing this Thermos water bottle (it has one of those fancy one-touch flip lids and a rotating meter so you can keep track of how many bottles you've drank :P), but I'll most likely just dig up an old water bottle somewhere in the house...

I will save at least ⅓ of my paycheque every month in hopes of buying a house/condo within walking distance from my work by 2011-2012.
I didn't put any money into savings this month because I had to make my annual payment for my life insurance. However, I didn't have to take any money out of savings, so I think that's a good thing.

Wishes for 2010
Do a thorough room purge.
Yikes. I need to do that.

Recipes/Techniques I wanted to try this year:
I canned crabapple jelly and made soup from KitchenScraps! (Vote for Pierre in Project Food Blog!) I didn't even realize I did two things this month! Now I feel awesome.

Blog Stuff
Continue upward trajectory of posts this year
I posted 9 entries in September 2010, vs. 5 in 2009.

Include nutrition information for my recipes whenever possible
I haven't done this for past recipes since April.

Rewards/Positive Reflection
Despite not having a stellar month (and it's now 11:13 and I haven't brushed my teeth yet - yikes!) I think this entry has had a pretty positive spin on it and even though I probably won't meet my goals as written, I've made good progress towards them. So the only thing that I'll be missing out on is those physical rewards (a new camera, etc.) that I'd promised myself - who cares?