Monthly Goals

In my previous post, I wrote about how my yearly goals were going and mentioned how my monthly goals haven’t been going as well.

I started off on the right foot with January and ate three servings of vegetables a day the entire month. I was able to roll that goal into February, March, and now April.

February and March didn’t go as well. The goal for February was one snack per day and I hit that goal around four out of twenty-eight days. 

March’s goal was two sweets per week or fewer, and that also didn’t go as well. I think I maybe made it one week without sweets

Although my February and March goals were a bust, I did get down to race weight, which sets me up for April’s goal of maintaining race weight. As of this writing, I've been at or under race weight since the end of March.

Even though I missed February and March's goals, I'm going to retroactively incorporate them in to the rest of this year, with one modification.

For the snack goal, instead of one snack per day, I'm going with one snack on days when I work out for fewer than 45 minutes. For awhile while I was working on my weight, I was losing a little more weight than I needed to, so a couple snacks on days when I work out over 45 minutes isn't going to break the bank.

As far as the sweets goal goes, I'm rededicating myself to two sweets per week. And that means two sweets, not a free-for-all on days when I'm eating sweets. To make myself more likely to be successful, I'm going to plan out my treats and look forward to them rather than putting myself in a deprivation mindset.

Initially I was tempted to tell myself I'd just take a couple days off per week from sweets, but this feels better. 

Eleven more days of April and I'm off to the next goal.

Stay well.

Goal Update

Every year for the past decade or so, I've set goals for the year. I did the same this year, but I also added some monthly goals. The yearly goals have been going great. The monthly goals — well, not so much. Here's an update on the yearly goals:

1. Run 1,400 miles: I don't want to jinx this one, but it's been going better than I would have thought, especially considering a foot injury last November that slowed me down at the beginning of the year. If I continue running at the rate I've done for the first three months of the year, I'll be over 1,750 miles by the end of the year.

2. Break 18:15 in the 5K: Last year my goal was to break 18 minutes, and from July through October, I couldn't get it done. I came agonizingly close with an 18:02, which happened to be my last attempt of the year. Being a year older this year and imagining I wouldn't been training quite as hard, I thought 18:15 would be a stretch, but doable. Imagine my surprise when I ran 17:53 on my first try of the year. One goal accomplished before the end of March.

3. Run an in-person race: The running club I’m in, Run Minnesota, is putting on a 5K on Saturday, April 17. I’ll be there barring any unforeseen circumstances.

4. Finish a Marathon: If I can stay healthy, I'll either finish Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon or do a virtual marathon.

5. Average one-and-a-half hours of strength training per week: I've been averaging around two hours a week, so this one's going well and should be easy to complete since I can do strength training injured or not.

In my next post, I'll give an update on my monthly goals.