2012 Goals: July
First of all, I know I probably say this each month, but...Where the fluff did July go? Seriously. Just yesterday it was still May and school had just gotten out and now it's fluffin' August? Well, tomorrow is fluffin' August, anyway. School--both K-12 and college--is about to start back up. K-12 starts next week and college a couple of weeks later. So yeah. Where the fluff did summer go?
Anyway, you'll be happy to know that July has been kinder to me than June. Goals-wise, anyway. June was fun but it kicked my goals' butts. July, however, while slightly stressful, was mildly easier on my goals.
Here's the breakdown:
Health and Wellness: While I did not, in fact, get back to walking or exercising regularly (and how big of a bitch is it to spell "exercising"? A huge one with a capital B!) it was a step forward from June's utter abandonment. For one, I began dancing at home. I can't claim that my dancing is anything that would get me on any talent show on television--more like, So You Realize You CAN'T Dance, it is indeed a fun way to work off some calories. And it's good for the soul. Traumatizing to Libby, but then again, so was the aerobic walks. hehe Unlike formalized forms of exercise, dancing makes me feel happy on the inside. It doesn't feel like a work-out. Probably because it isn't so much of a quality work-out but still. It's movement. Which is more than I can say for my couch surfing habits of yore.
And so here's where I admit that my latte habits were still out of control in July. I think I averaged about two a week. Plus a bagel or a scone here or there. Plus, plus a couple of trips to BK and some less than stellar moments with the vending machines across the street. I curse the day they installed credit card readers on those things. Two swipes of my debit/credit card yields me 450 useless calories--Coke and chips or Coke and candy bar. *headdesk*
BUT...don't fret, kids, it's not a total loss. I have, actually, still been keeping up with my calorie counts so that I think maybe only two or three days of this month showed an overage beyond what SparkPeople.com says I should be consuming. AND I managed to lose three pounds over the course of the month. So that's something, right? Not at total loss.
Hallelujah and Amen.
Financial Goals: I managed to maintain my $50 worth of savings without borrowing any. However, I'm still paying for June's excesses so I only managed to pay $200 toward my biggest credit card balance. I borrowed $100 from the $300 I'd normally pay to the big cc payment and instead used it toward the other cc I'd exercised so hard in June. I'll have to do the same in August in order to get the smaller balance completely paid off. In the grand scheme of things, while I'm disappointed that I've shortchanged the big credit card payments, I realize that it's better to correct my smaller more recent mistakes as quckly as possible to avoid any long term problems that might occur otherwise.
Being wise with money is as hard as being wise with calories.
One good and happy financial event from July is the 3% raise I earned. We weren't expecting raises this year because the economy is still in the crapper and the university's budget is still toughing it out. We are fortunate, however, to have an administration with stealthy financial skills and high regard for their staff. They were gracious enough to dig deep into their pockets to give us what they could.
Now, 3% of not much to start with isn't much but I'm thrilled to report an extra $50 in my paycheck each month that I didn't have before. So I'm SO THANKFUL to God in Heaven and the administration on earth for taking such good care of me. :)
I'm considering adding that extra $50 to my savings each month. That would be the smartest financial move. It's what all the financial advisers I read on MSN Money would tell me to do. Paw-Paw Joe would tell me the same. (He'd've whipped my tail if he'd ever known what a financial mess I'd let myself get into. He was super savvy when it came to finances and gave awesome advice--which we all ignored, unfortunately.) I also, however, wonder if it wouldn't be smarter to either a) invest that money in my credit card payments or b) invest that money in myself to keep me from reaching for the credit card again in the future. Or maybe split it between savings and credit card? Or savings and me? Or credit card and me? So many options for such a small amount of extra dough. ;-)
Spiritual Goals: While I've continued to maintain my individual Bible study, I only attended one evening service for the month of July. Would have been two but they cancelled this previous Sunday's evening service.
I finally just realized that whatever it was that was holding me back from resuming my evening attendance wasn't as important as being obedient to God. I need to attend those services. Yes, it's awkward and uncomfortable at times but in between those awkward moments of socialization...those moments when the pastor is feeding me God's word? Those moments are beautiful. Those moments fill my soul with so much. How can I deny myself that spiritual feeding--and an act of obedient--just because of a few awkward moments before and after the service. And who knows? Perhaps one day I'll figure out how to make those awkward moments less awkward. God does, after all, give us opportunities to learn through every experience in life. AND, if I can survive Broadcast performance class circa 2001, SURELY I can survive 20 minutes of awkward socialness a week. Right?
Books Read: I only read two books this month. I know. So sad. Both books were sort of slow starters, though, so that's one reason. Titles? Off the Menu by Stacey Ballis and The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner. Both were good once I got into them.
And okay, in the interest of complete honesty, I did re-read a couple of other books. I came across my old (read: ancient) YA collection a few weeks ago and ended up re-reading a couple of books. Ghosts of Books Read Past, you could call them. ;-) They seem really hokey now. We're talking YA of the early 90's here. Before cell phones and vampires. Back when the parents had an active role in their kids' lives and teenagers had to ask permission to go to the hospital to visit an elderly friend. You know, totally weird books. hehehe
So that, kids, sums up my life in goals for July.
For August I'm making up mini-goals for myself. I hope/plan to: 1) Complete SparkPeople's 28 Day Bootcamp DVD which I actually purchased back in May and have only completed one day of. 2) Live without lattes for two weeks out of the month. 3) Read four books 4.) Save an extra $20 5.) Drink more water than coffee
Here's to kicking August's butt!
Anyway, you'll be happy to know that July has been kinder to me than June. Goals-wise, anyway. June was fun but it kicked my goals' butts. July, however, while slightly stressful, was mildly easier on my goals.
Here's the breakdown:
Health and Wellness: While I did not, in fact, get back to walking or exercising regularly (and how big of a bitch is it to spell "exercising"? A huge one with a capital B!) it was a step forward from June's utter abandonment. For one, I began dancing at home. I can't claim that my dancing is anything that would get me on any talent show on television--more like, So You Realize You CAN'T Dance, it is indeed a fun way to work off some calories. And it's good for the soul. Traumatizing to Libby, but then again, so was the aerobic walks. hehe Unlike formalized forms of exercise, dancing makes me feel happy on the inside. It doesn't feel like a work-out. Probably because it isn't so much of a quality work-out but still. It's movement. Which is more than I can say for my couch surfing habits of yore.
And so here's where I admit that my latte habits were still out of control in July. I think I averaged about two a week. Plus a bagel or a scone here or there. Plus, plus a couple of trips to BK and some less than stellar moments with the vending machines across the street. I curse the day they installed credit card readers on those things. Two swipes of my debit/credit card yields me 450 useless calories--Coke and chips or Coke and candy bar. *headdesk*
BUT...don't fret, kids, it's not a total loss. I have, actually, still been keeping up with my calorie counts so that I think maybe only two or three days of this month showed an overage beyond what SparkPeople.com says I should be consuming. AND I managed to lose three pounds over the course of the month. So that's something, right? Not at total loss.
Hallelujah and Amen.
Financial Goals: I managed to maintain my $50 worth of savings without borrowing any. However, I'm still paying for June's excesses so I only managed to pay $200 toward my biggest credit card balance. I borrowed $100 from the $300 I'd normally pay to the big cc payment and instead used it toward the other cc I'd exercised so hard in June. I'll have to do the same in August in order to get the smaller balance completely paid off. In the grand scheme of things, while I'm disappointed that I've shortchanged the big credit card payments, I realize that it's better to correct my smaller more recent mistakes as quckly as possible to avoid any long term problems that might occur otherwise.
Being wise with money is as hard as being wise with calories.
One good and happy financial event from July is the 3% raise I earned. We weren't expecting raises this year because the economy is still in the crapper and the university's budget is still toughing it out. We are fortunate, however, to have an administration with stealthy financial skills and high regard for their staff. They were gracious enough to dig deep into their pockets to give us what they could.
Now, 3% of not much to start with isn't much but I'm thrilled to report an extra $50 in my paycheck each month that I didn't have before. So I'm SO THANKFUL to God in Heaven and the administration on earth for taking such good care of me. :)
I'm considering adding that extra $50 to my savings each month. That would be the smartest financial move. It's what all the financial advisers I read on MSN Money would tell me to do. Paw-Paw Joe would tell me the same. (He'd've whipped my tail if he'd ever known what a financial mess I'd let myself get into. He was super savvy when it came to finances and gave awesome advice--which we all ignored, unfortunately.) I also, however, wonder if it wouldn't be smarter to either a) invest that money in my credit card payments or b) invest that money in myself to keep me from reaching for the credit card again in the future. Or maybe split it between savings and credit card? Or savings and me? Or credit card and me? So many options for such a small amount of extra dough. ;-)
Spiritual Goals: While I've continued to maintain my individual Bible study, I only attended one evening service for the month of July. Would have been two but they cancelled this previous Sunday's evening service.
I finally just realized that whatever it was that was holding me back from resuming my evening attendance wasn't as important as being obedient to God. I need to attend those services. Yes, it's awkward and uncomfortable at times but in between those awkward moments of socialization...those moments when the pastor is feeding me God's word? Those moments are beautiful. Those moments fill my soul with so much. How can I deny myself that spiritual feeding--and an act of obedient--just because of a few awkward moments before and after the service. And who knows? Perhaps one day I'll figure out how to make those awkward moments less awkward. God does, after all, give us opportunities to learn through every experience in life. AND, if I can survive Broadcast performance class circa 2001, SURELY I can survive 20 minutes of awkward socialness a week. Right?
Books Read: I only read two books this month. I know. So sad. Both books were sort of slow starters, though, so that's one reason. Titles? Off the Menu by Stacey Ballis and The Next Best Thing by Jennifer Weiner. Both were good once I got into them.
And okay, in the interest of complete honesty, I did re-read a couple of other books. I came across my old (read: ancient) YA collection a few weeks ago and ended up re-reading a couple of books. Ghosts of Books Read Past, you could call them. ;-) They seem really hokey now. We're talking YA of the early 90's here. Before cell phones and vampires. Back when the parents had an active role in their kids' lives and teenagers had to ask permission to go to the hospital to visit an elderly friend. You know, totally weird books. hehehe
So that, kids, sums up my life in goals for July.
For August I'm making up mini-goals for myself. I hope/plan to: 1) Complete SparkPeople's 28 Day Bootcamp DVD which I actually purchased back in May and have only completed one day of. 2) Live without lattes for two weeks out of the month. 3) Read four books 4.) Save an extra $20 5.) Drink more water than coffee
Here's to kicking August's butt!
Comments
Stress has been a big derailer for me. Also, laziness. But mostly stress. I've done fairly well on the whole lattes thing but the rest of it? Fugetaboutit. August has been mean. *sniffle/cry*