February 2017 Goal Check In

I wrote a New Year’s Resolutions post at the beginning of January 2017 and was so thankful for the positive response that I received from everyone. I plan to come back every month with a goal check in, so that I have even more incentive/accountability to continue working on my goals. Here is my goal check in for February.

Goal #1: Publish at least one blog post per week on Luggage and Literature.

In February I met this goal! Woot woot! I think the key was writing posts ahead and scheduling them, so that the hustle and bustle of life didn’t take a toll on my blog.

Goal #2: Complete the Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenges.

You can check out my previous post outlining my 2017 reading plans here. So far, I’m a little bit ahead of schedule for completing both the Reading for Fun and Reading for Growth challenges. My What I Read (February) post lists the single category that I fulfilled this month.

Goal #3: Play cello at least twice (preferably more) per month. 

I didn’t meet this goal in February. I wish I had a better excuse, but I was just really busy and didn’t get it done.

Goal #4: Pay down debt.

Mike and I are both lawyers. This means that we both have student loans. And we have a mortgage and vehicle payments. Debt makes me anxious. We were previously much more diligent in our efforts to pay down debt than I feel like we were in 2016. I’d like to get back on track with that so that we don’t live our entire lives in debt. In sum, we continued making progress toward this goal. I bumped my debt payments up slightly in January.

Action Steps:

• Prepare lunches on the weekend. Met this goal every week!
• Pack lunch or eat at home every weekday for lunch, unless meeting colleagues. I ate out 2 times for lunch, so I wasn’t 100% on this goal. But I did try to pick less expensive and healthier options.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. We met this goal this month. We were much better about avoiding dinners out.
• Prepare/freeze dessert items (I have a major sweet tooth, and if we don’t have dessert items in the house at all, I’m much more likely to go get ice cream or run to the store and purchase snack items). I met this goal (of course!). But seriously, it does help to have a few sweets in the house.
• Curb spending on books by utilizing the library. I haven’t gone to the library. I only purchased one book this month, and it was by an author that I adore (Amor Towles) and his book Rules of Civility was only $1.99. So I’m counting that as a win. And I need to figure out how to set up Overdrive on my Kindle Fire. So if you know how to do that, please help!
• Curb spending on clothing and accessories, especially by utilizing Pinterest for remixing my existing wardrobe. I purchased two pair of shoes, a pair of pants, and a graphic tee this month. The shoes were blue flats, that I’ve been needing for awhile;black/white flats to replace a pair that is nearly worn out and that I scored for $10 on clearance. You’ll see the graphic tee show up in some pictures coming up, and understand why I picked it. And the pants are marroon jeggings, which are something new I’m trying. But I have been continuing to use Pinterest when I start to feel like my clothes are boring. And I have had to throw away quite a few things (a dress, a shirt, several pairs of socks/trouser socks) this month, because they were simply worn out.
• Use up back stock of MaryKay and hair products before purchasing more. Met this goal! I didn’t purchase any hair or makeup products this month. 
• Clean out refrigerator/freezers/pantry and use up existing food rather than just purchasing more. Met! We purchased some staple items this month, as well as a few things from Schwan’s (because life gets busy and it’s cheaper than eating out). We did make some progress on using up stuff in our  pantry and fridge, but the freezers are full again.
• Curb unnecessary trips to Kearney (this is about half an hour from our town, so the gas can get pricey when we run there for no reason other than we’re bored/want to go shopping/etc.). I went to Kearney one day for a bit of shopping and a pedicure. And Mike came to Kearney one evening to meet up with me for dinner and a movie. But we unintentionally caught a soft opening at Firehouse Subs, and scored free dinner! So it was a cheaper outing than expected.
• Take on additional cases and work more hours to increase income. I’ve been working quite a few extra hours lately, and have increased my hourly billing by about 10 hours per week. My passive income will be reduced due to the associate attorney in my office moving away. But my active income is up to cover while we search for a new attorney.

Goal #5: Be healthier.

I don’t want a ‘lose X number of pounds by a certain date’ or an unrealistic ‘exercise everyday’ type of goal. Instead, I want to make realistic changes in my life so that I’m healthier. I want to feel comfortable rather than cramped when flying. I want my frequent headaches and neck pain to go away. I want all of the clothing in my closet to fit better. I want to feel comfortable in a swimming suit or a wetsuit for the first time in my life. I just want to feel better and more energized in my day-to-day life. I’m down 3.3 pounds since the beginning of 2017.

Action Steps:

• Drink no more than 3 pops per day, preferably no more than 2 (but I’m realistic about my job). I met this goal probably 85% of the time. There were a few days where I simply felt exhausted with my hectic schedule and added a large diet pop in the afternoon. But I tried to continue being diligent about following this goal most days.
• Drink at least 8 cups of water per day. Met.
• Eat/drink at least 2 servings of dairy per day (when I did Weight Watchers, the studies showed that this contributed to weight loss, plus I know that it makes for healthier bones and teeth). Met probably 95% of the month.
• Eat at least one fruit or vegetable per day, preferably more. Met probably 75% of the time, and yes I realize how ridiculous it is that I struggle to eat even 1 fruit or vegetable per day. But there was a week where I hit 2 fruits/vegetables per day…so that makes up for it right?!
• Drink 1 cup of water before each meal. Met 50% of the time probably. I hope to do better with this goal going forward as I know that it will help me to eat less at meals.
• Take my water bottle with me during the day. Met 50% of the time. And I definitely think that doing this more consistently will help cut down on afternoon snacking because I won’t have to stop and purchase a beverage (which for me often leads to buying a snack too).
• Pack lunches or eat lunch at home during the week. Met with the exception of two days.
• Eat dinner at home five nights per week. Met.
• Do 10 sit-ups and 10 push-ups 3 times per week (in law school, I had a professor who expected all students to do 10 push-ups at the start of each of his classes, and was surprised how doing this 3 times per week actually made me feel stronger by the end of the semester). Met 20% of time. I pretty much failed at this one. And I will try to do better in March.
• Exercise (walk/swim/yoga/YMCA class) 3 times per week. I exercised 1-2 time per week in February. So I’m moving in the right direction (from 0 times per week in December, and 1 time per week in January).
• Walk at least 6,000 steps per day, preferably more. Met probably 75% of the time.
• Sleep 8 hours per night. Met 85% of the time (and I definitely could tell when I did not).
• Continue taking a daily multivitamin. Met.
• Track food daily in My Fitness Pal. Mostly met. I started filling out my food diary every day, but didn’t finish it on 3 different days.
• Continue utilizing my Fit Bit to monitor activity, steps, food, sleep. Met.

Goal #6: Take one trip or visit one local area attraction per month.

I get stir crazy if I stay home for too long. To combat that, I think that this goal will help. Although monthly travels to exotic locations aren’t realistic in my stage of life and with my career, a monthly trip somewhere is realistic. So it can be international, domestic, or just a local area attraction, just some reason to leave my house and my town. Plus there are several museums in my area that I’ve been meaning to visit, but just haven’t gotten around to. So I’m actually really looking forward to this goal. This goal is in progress.

Action Steps:

• January: The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA), and The Great Platte River Road Archway, Kearney, NE (I’ve wanted to visit the archway since we moved to the area, but haven’t gotten around to it yet…probably because Mike is absolutely not excited about visiting it). We visited MONA in January. After looking at the admission price for the Archway, we opted to skip it for now.
• February: Roatan! What a great time! I’ll be posting about this in the future, so stay tuned!
• March: Scuba diving at Bonne Terre again, perhaps
• April: Black Hills for Easter with family, I hope
• May: ??
• June: Stuhr Museum, Grand Island, NE
• July: Michigan again and Canada, perhaps
• August: Total Solar Eclipse on August 21 right in my area
• September: Pioneer Village, Minden, NE
• October: ??
• November: Florida perhaps (Mike wants to get his full cave diving certification, and I’d like to go back to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal)
• December: ??
• I also need to plan a get together with my dear friend Tara. She and I have talked about several different options, but need to nail down the date and location of our visit.
• In 2016, I also had a super fun girls weekend with some of my closest friends from college. We talked about making it an annual occurrence, so I need to check in with those gals as well, then nail down the date and location of girls weekend 2017!