If you’ve been a reader of this blog for awhile, you’ll know that I’m always in the middle of working on some goal or other.
The particular goals that I’m currently in the middle of happen to be the same ones that I made at the beginning of the new year (what can I say? I’m a weirdie for actually trying to keep my new year’s resolutions).
Since the year is now officially one-third of the way over, I figured I’d do a quick check-up on my goals to help keep myself accountable.
Goal #1: Eat like a vegetarian at least 3X a week.
Progress Report: Honestly, if you don’t get too technical about holding me to an entire day of vegetarian eating, I’m doing pretty well. Let me explain that better: if you count me eating 9 vegetarian meals a week as fulfilling the goal, then I am right on track with this one (if not blowing it out of the water). At the beginning of the year, I tried to be all technical with the goal and say, “Okay, today’s a vegetarian day.” But, since my lunches are pretty much always leftover from the night before, it got difficult to do that when I’d made a meat dish the previous evening. Overall, though, I would say that about one-half to two-thirds of all our meals are vegetarian on any given week, which I would say exceeds my original goal.
Oh, and remember how I’d originally made a sub-goal to eat 35 fruits and vegetables a week? Yeah, I think I can safely say that I have now successfully made that a part of my permanent diet. I’ve also significantly cut down on my Dr. Pepper consumption. Now if I could just work on giving up sugar on most days…
(P.S. The salad above? It’s our current favorite side dish. All it is: spinach, feta cheese, sliced mushrooms, chopped red onion, and strawberries. Delicious!)
Goal #2: Read Two Chapters of a Book on Most Days
Progress Report: If you’ve been following my monthly reading posts at all, you should know that I’ve actually stuck to this one pretty closely (considering my not-so-impressive attempts at reading in 2012 and 2011). Of course, it helps that with this goal, I gave myself a built-in safety net by saying “on MOST days,” which means I don’t beat myself up too badly if I skip a day or two here and there. It must all be working pretty well though, considering that I’ve read more in these first four months than I did in almost all of 2011.
Side note: this month’s reading tally isn’t too impressive though, I should warn you—I only finished two books.
Goal #3: Completely finish Baby Steps #1 & 2 of Dave Ramsey‘s Total Money Makeover plan, and start on Step #3.
Progress Report: In case you need a refresher course on the first 3 Baby Steps of Dave Ramsey’s financial plan, here they are:
1. Save up $1000 as fast as you can
2. Completely pay off all debt (except the mortgage, if you have one)
3. Build up your savings to cover 3-6 months’ worth of expenses
I’m proud to say that Matt and I have been doing very well with our financial goals. We have completely finished the first two steps, and we currently have almost two months’ worth of expenses saved. So I think it’s safe to say that we’re quite a bit further ahead on this goal than I thought we’d be.
Goal #4: Completely De-Clutter our Apartment by Doing a “50 Weeks to Organized” Post Each Week
Progress Report: If you’ve been following me along at all, you’ll know that I’ve been decently faithful at doing this. Sometimes I haven’t always posted it when I said I would each week, but I still have done one post (which translates to one organizational project) per week. By far, this is proving to be the hardest goal–I simply don’t really like spending all that much time cleaning and organizing and usually save it until the very last possible second (or until we have company coming over). But, I am pressing on, and I imagine that by the end of this year, I’ll at least have learned a thing or two about keeping a tidy house.
Also, you might remember that I also have a sub-goal of getting rid of at least 500 things by December 31st that I wouldn’t have tossed otherwise. I’m about halfway through that goal, so once again, right on track.
Overall Thoughts
Considering that I let myself take on a relatively easy set of goals this year, I’m feeling like I’m about as far as I should be. Even with that said, I’m still a little bit proud of myself for sticking with all of the goals, even though they’re not always easy.
How are you doing on your new year’s resolutions? Or, if those are long forgotten or were never made, what goals do you have in mind for your summer?
For further reading, check out:
*the original post on the first 3 goals here
*my goal to eat 35 fruits and vegetables a week here
*the original post on the “50 Weeks to Organized” here
*the feed for my “50 Weeks to Organized” posts here
