My 2015 Resolutions - Week 3 of 52

Here's my third update of my 2015 New Year's Resolutions.   I tried a new method this year, and I'm hoping that weekly updates will keep me on track!

For Myself

1. Get control of my weight and my health. 
Well, well, well, imagine this: If you eat Nutella on crackers every afternoon, and you eat a whole bag of tortilla chips over the course of two days, and you have chocolate turtle cake for dinner, and you eat a pound of leftover peppermint M&Ms over the course of two days, and you only eat healthy meals about four times in six days, then you will gain 1.2 pounds in a week.   Who knew?   :-/

Obviously time for a reboot.

2.  Walk 70,000 steps per week. 
Friday, Saturday and Sunday I was traveling and unable to get my 10K steps in, but the four other days this week I did great.     I had a little hiccup and lost my Fitbit while traveling, so my Fitbit online account doesn't reflect the walking that I did get in from Saturday to Monday.  But I have a new one now, and I'm back on track.  I do love the new habit of walking every day, so will definitely keep this going.

3.  Try one new thing per month to stretch and grow. 

My husband and I joined Oyster Books this week, which is basically like Netflix but for books.  For $9.99/month, you can read as many books as you want from their library of thousands of titles.   I read six books this week (yes, six!!!).  Leaving Church, by Barbara Brown Taylor; Still Alice, by Lisa Genova; The Hundred Foot Journey, by Richard C. Morais, The Gift, by Cecila Ahern; Creative, Inc., by Cho & Ilasco; and Craft, Inc., by Meg Ilasco.

I loved Still Alice, want to see the movie.  I loved Hundred Foot Journey, saw the movie already and it was quite different from the book in term of plot line, but I enjoyed both the book and the movie, though for different reasons.    I enjoyed Leaving Church, I'm always up for a memoir recounting someone's spiritual journey.   The Gift was not such a winner for me, kind of predictable and a little on the hokey side.   The two books about building your own crafting or freelance business were more of a skim read, and I was only vaguely interested in the subject matter, but now I know a little more about each of these areas than I did before.

4.  Daily journalling and reflecting.  

I've been keeping up this practice, and it's always a good thing.    

For My Family   

5.  Stay connected to family (and friends).
We had a wonderful weekend in Minneapolis this weekend, with lots of connection time with our son, his fiancee and our new in-laws family.    I loved every minute and am looking forward to going back again in March.

6.  Participate in our son's wedding plans.  

In Minneapolis, we spent the day on Saturday with the bridal party, shopping for bridesmaid dresses. It was so much fun to meet and get to know the other girls, and to spend a day being girly and pretty.

For Friends and My Community    

7.  Extend at least two invitations per month to friends.
Later this week I'll be traveling to Maryland for quartet rehearsal, so I'm going to meet up with a couple of friends there and catch up.  And I'm walking with my walking buddy tomorrow.

8.  Volunteer at least three hours per month in my community.  

Nothing under my belt yet this month, except I have signed up to work on a construction crew through Habitat for Humanity on Jan 29.    That will give me a solid 7 hours this month.  I'm kind of nervous, but looking forward to it too.

For Our Home

9.  Purge and organize the house by May 1.   

Sadly, no progress in this category.  I blame it on being gone all weekend.    Let's not discuss how I spent the other four days this week... not purging or organizing, that's for sure.

10.  Work in the yard at least 3 hours per week.  

Nope, nothing here either.  

11.  Allow time for at least two fun home decor projects per month.   

No progress on this front this week either.

For Sweet Adelines

12.  Personal singing rehearsal at least 4 hrs per week.  

I've done a lot of listening to rehearsal tapes, which doesn't exactly count as singing but does count for critiquing and self-assessment and identification of what to work on next.  

13.  Do daily vocal exercises for 15 minutes, for 30 days.  

Bad Jenny, bad!   Nothing to report here.

14.  Complete the CHC New Member Handbook by Feb 28th.  

Ugh.   Nothing here either.

15.  Serve the Region 19 Silver Sorority champion's organization with at least 2 hours of activity per week.  
Yes!  I can end the list on a high note, I've got some work done on this category and already have plans next week too.

At the end of week three, I can see that I've set up some real challenging stretch goals for myself, and if I want to really make progress on them, I need to be more structured in how I spend my time.  

How about you? How ar you doing with your New Year's resolutions?  I'd love to hear about it!