January Goals

Hello again. I know I posted about goals just a few days ago, but I also wanted to take a few minutes and talk about my personal goals for this new month. I got the idea for monthly goals from Cate at her blog. Each month I hope to be able to link my monthly goals to a particular yearly goal. I hope you'll join me in my journey to improve myself and my life one baby step at a time.

For January my goals are...
Eating Better: Start brewing my own kombucha. All I need is a bottle of "starter" tea, a box of green tea, and a gallon glass jar.
Eating Better: Take cod liver oil daily I already have it. I just need to get husband interested in taking it every day.
License: Set a weekly driving lesson time for me. I have lofty ideas of having my license before summer--can it be done?
Finances: Review budget for this year with Husband. This won't be too bad. My biggest problem is I'm still spending too much on food.
Finances / Personal: Work on something crafty. I've already started this! But I have a long way to go to reach my secret goal on this one (hey, you never know when a crafty project will turn into a birthday / Christmas present later on).
House: Get a Realtor. Hopefully this won't be too hard to do.
Finances / Eating Better: Finalize plans for balcony garden / order necessary stuff. I'm mostly set on my garden. I need to find (free) dirt, and I need to order my seeds. My goal is to spend around $50 for all the seeds I need.
Personal: Sell / donate unused items. I have a collection of stuff I keep meaning to get rid of. Anything I haven't sold or donated by the end of the month is getting unceremoniously thrown in the dumpster. :)
Personal: Resume working a bit each day to improve my posture. I feel like this won't be too bad. I already started a little bit yesterday.

Ok, I know this sounds like a lot, but I really fell behind at the end of the year..(hmm, September? Is that really the "end" of the year? Well, you know what I mean).

Day 16

For those of you just joining me, you can find my first post in this series here. Basically, I am on a 1 month journey to perfect better posture!

Well hello there,

I officially am sick of working on my posture. I am sticking it out, but it's really hard. My muscles just don't like it one bit. They would much rather do what they're used to doing--nothing!

I didn't do so good over the weekend, but I did alright. I think I need to put up some post-it notes to remind me to continue to sit / stand up straight during all these different times because otherwise I forget. Also, sitting up straight all through church really hurt! I don't know why though. Maybe I need to start stretching / exercising my back muscles a little bit every night to help with this project...

It's time for a new goal!

Goal 06: Sit up straight while blogging (ha!). (I am currently slouching as I type this)
Goal 6.5: sit up straight from 9am to 10am at work (expanding on goal 2.5).

Let's review my other goals so far:

Goal 01: Sit up straight while eating breakfast.
Goal 02: Stand up straight while brushing my hair and teeth.
Goal 2.5: Sit / Stand up straight at work from 9:00am to 9:30am.
Goal 03: Sit up straight during lunch.
Goal 04: Sit up straight during dinner.
Goal 05: Stand up straight while cooking dinner / doing chores.
Goal 5.5: Sit / stand up straight during church / chapel.

So, that's that. My muscles are so not happy with this project. I'm half done, I can do this.

Day 13

A new goal today!

For those of you just joining me, you can find my first post in this series here. Basically, I am on a 1 month journey to perfect better posture!

Goal 05: Stand up straight while cooking dinner / doing chores.
Goal 5.5: Sit / stand up straight during church / chapel.

Let's review my other goals so far:

Goal 01: Sit up straight while eating breakfast.
Goal 02: Stand up straight while brushing my hair and teeth.
Goal 2.5: Sit / Stand up straight at work from 9:00am to 9:30am.
Goal 03: Sit up straight during lunch.
Goal 04: Sit up straight during dinner.

Icing on the Cake
So far I've been doing well, one thing I am sometimes forgetting is to square my shoulders. Even though I stand / sit upright without hunching over, sometimes I still slump my shoulders. I'm not recording this as a goal, per say, but it would be nice if I could remember this a bit more often. It might get added to my official goals at a different date, so we'll see.

Day 12

Today I did pretty well with my goals. I've been doing really well at work for the most part. I've been having a little bit of trouble sitting up straight during dinner though. I am tired! at the end of the day so it's hard for me.

But I've been doing pretty well--and I really can't believe I'm almost halfway there.

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow for my next posture goal.

For those of you just joining me, you can find my first post in this series here. Basically, I am on a 1 month journey to perfect better posture!

Day 11

I did awesome today.

I completed every one of my posture goals.

Cause I'm cool like that.

Except now it's super late and tomorrow's going to be exhausting and.... yeah.

PS, today I am feeling overwhelmed with the task of eating healthily. It seems like it will never be good enough or healthy enough or frugal enough.

For example, I use way too much white sugar. Argh. I'm trying but it's hard.

Does anyone have a good recipe for hot chocolate mix that doesn't use white sugar? Would maple syrup work? Currently I use 1:2 cocoa to sugar with a bit of cinnamon for something new. That's probably my highest intake of white sugar currently...

tired.....

Day 7--Wait, it's Day 10 Already?

So you remember my lofty month goal to improve my posture? I've been doing well, except at remembering to post! Yikes, seriously, my memory this week.

For those of you just joining me, you can find my first post in this series here. Basically, I am on a 1 month journey to perfect better posture!

So, we're gonna' pretend that I'm introducing Day 7's goal on day 7, because... I haven't posted in forever, but we're gonna call it day 10 (because it actually is day 10, lol. Ok? Ok.

Day 7, Goal 03
Sit up Straight during Lunch. -- I've actually sort of been doing this! No perfect, but ok.

So, I'm supposed to be posting another goal today, as it is Day 10... So here's my Day 10 goal.

Day 10, Goal 04
Sit up Straight during Dinner. -- I've sort of been attempting to kind of do this, lol.

As far as my other goals, I've been doing well! Let's review:

Goal 01: Sit up straight while eating breakfast.
Goal 02: Stand up straight while brushing my hair and teeth.
Goal 2.5: Sit / Stand up straight at work from 9:00am to 9:30am.

Um.. Goal 1 -- owned it. Goal 2 -- um, did pretty well. I forgot to brush my teeth once I think (sad). Goal 2.5 -- Did I really say that? I don't think I would have impromptu added an extra goal on my plate because that's just ridic--oh, I really said that? hrmph. I did ok. I vaguely remembered at 9 to sit up straight, which I did for a few minutes? Do I get at least a few points?

Ok, overall, I've been doing rather well. I've been remembering during the work day to at least try periodically throughout the day and I have felt better overall so I am still definitely excited.

Day 6

Why am I counting days and what are these random goals? Click here to find out!

Today's posture goals are the same as yesterday:

Goal 01: Sit up straight while eating breakfast.

Goal 02: Stand up straight while brushing my hair and teeth.

Goal 2.5: Sit / Stand up straight at work from 9:00am to 9:30am.

So far I am doing well. I am so glad I decided to take control of my posture!

Day 5

Why am I counting days and what are these random goals? Click here to find out!

Today I am continuing my first 2 goals.

Goal 01: Sit up straight while eating breakfast. I did this!

Goal 02: Stand up straight while brushing my hair and teeth. I did this!

Goal 2.5: Sit / Stand up straight at work from 9:00am to 9:30am. I sort of did this. I wound up not doing it at the time frame, but exerting a more conscious effort to sit up more at work.


And, now I've just got to write my food waste post and schedule it for tomorrow and then it's off to bed for me. I just finally got caught up on a week's worth of reading the blogs I follow so maybe tomorrow I can catch up on real life. haha. It was nice to have a mental break tonight after this bear of a week.

Day 4

Why am I counting days and what are these random goals? Click here to find out!

Today is day 4 and you know what that means: A new posture goal!

Goal 2 is to stand up straight while I brush my hair and teeth every day. This goal is two-fold because, for whatever reason, I've fallen out of the habit of brushing my teeth everyday. Today that stops. Also, instead of hunching over the sink while I brush or standing on one foot (don't ask), I'm going to focus on correct posture while I do these things.

That was going to be my only goal for today, but since I'm doing so well, and because I've already started standing up straight while brushing my hair, I'm going to add to it this new goal: Sit up straight at work in between 9am and 9:30am. A half an hour at work seems like an age, however, so while I am excited this is going well, I don't want to add too much at once and fall on my face. So we are still taking it slow.

I accomplished Goal 1 today, so let's see if I can do the same with Goal 2!

How are you doing with your goals? What are you striving towards? Have you decided to join me in my fight for better posture?

PS. The reason I didn't post how I did on my goals for this project yesterday is because I have a cascade of projects due at work on this Friday and have been busting my butt to get them all done. I wouldn't even be posting now except that I had already written this post over the weekend.

Day 2

So far I am doing great (heh, yay positive self-talk) at this whole posture thing.

Yesterday I was sitting up straight on and off all day and today I started off the day right by continuing to sit up straight while I ate breakfast.

Day 2, Goal 1 = Accomplished.

For those of you just joining me, you can find my first post in this series here.

And, just like yesterday, sitting up straight makes my back feel noticeably better just by starting out the day with a little bit of extra effort to maintain good posture.

Come back tomorrow to check on me and my goals, or on Wednesday to see my next posture goal.

Day 1

Today marks the first day of my new Self Improvement Project (SIP)

Plan for Improving my Posture.

My first goal I actually just accomplished: Sit up straight while eating breakfast.

I can tell you, My back feels so much than it usually does in the morning. Usually by the time I finish breakfast, my back still hasn't recovered from sleep-induced stiffness and I trudge off to the shower hoping it will help. My back still hurts some, but it doesn't feel as bad as normal.

I will be sitting up straight while I eat breakfast for 2 more days before adding another goal, so stop by on November 10th to see my next goal!

Even though I've completed my goal for today, I am still sitting up straight while I type this. I'm sure it won't last to lunchtime, but here's to a great start for this SIP!

Another Self-Improvement Project

I've decided that I should be constantly working on improving myself. Personally, I think everyone should strive to grow and learn throughout their life. That's my opinion though, so please don't feel like I'm going to beat you over the head with it. That being said, I still think it's a good idea. ;)

There are lots of ways to improve yourself. It could be you've decided that you need to stop using certain words or that you need to cut out that extra chocolate bar at work. It could be that you want to add a positive habit such as brushing your teeth twice a day instead of only once. I decided to do my first self-improvement project over the summer (before the blog) and had positive results.

Sooo, starting tomorrow, I am beginning my next self-improvement project.

Here is my Plan for Improving my Posture (PIP for short).

Background
Coming from a family of computer nerds with terrible posture, it was only natural for me to absorb their bad habits. We always slouched at the computer, we slouched at the dinner table, we slouched when we watched tv, we walked with our shoulder curled forward a bit instead of straight. None of us have good posture. So, when I say I have bad posture, don't think Igor, but that's not too far off.

I want to change not only because I will look and feel better about myself, but because it's just better for my physical health to have good posture. I have pretty regular back pain associated with my bad posture along with trouble sleeping sometimes and extreme discomfort sitting still for long periods of time. I don't just want to change, I need to change.

Plan
Starting tomorrow, I will set a small goal for myself regarding my posture. Every 3 days, I will add a new goal on top of the one(s) I am already doing. By the end of 31 days, I am hoping to have terrific posture (or at least something better than my current rank of "abysmal").

Every time I add a new goal, I will write a short post about what the goal is, and I how I am doing on my previous goals.

Feel free to join me in this project and share your story along side mine. Or, comment about a time when you did a self-improvement project: what you picked and how it went.

Stay tuned tomorrow to find out what PIP Step 1 is!