Happy Sunday!
I know, I know…these posts usually go up on Saturdays (hence the title), but our weekend has been jam-packed with fun family activities and I simply haven’t had time to sit down and finish this post. What can I say? I am trying to prioritize family time, after all. 😉
I choose to share my personal progress because I feel it holds me more accountable to the goals I’m aiming to achieve. But in addition, I think some of my own thoughts and experiences may resonate with some of you. And couldn’t we all use a bit of validation from time to time?
So here’s a super quick recap of my goals and my progress:
Prioritize family time. In my last Summary Saturday post, I mentioned I wanted to lessen the time spent on my phone throughout the day so that it doesn’t take away from family time quite as much. I’ve definitely decreased the amount of time spent just surfing around, but many of my organizational tools (Google Calendar, HabitBull, Noom, etc.) are apps that I continue to access daily (many of them multiple times a day). Still working on a solution for this. I’ve heard there are apps that actually track your screen time for you. I’d be interested to see if the amount of time I think I spend on my phone matches up with the amount of time I actually spend on my phone. To be honest, I’m kind of scared to find out!
Exercise 4 or more times per week for at least 30 minutes. I had a thought the other day. Yup, just a single thought. And it was this: “I can’t believe I’ve only made it to the gym once this week. What a slacker.” Then, I had another thought, (I know, right?!). I re-framed that initial, automatic put-down into this deliberate, positive statement, “I’ve exercised more in the last 2 months than I probably have in the last 2 years!” And suddenly, my frame of mind shifted. I went from feeling discouraged to feeling energized. I went from being critical of myself to celebrating the positive changes I’ve made in my life. And suffice it to say that an energized, celebratory me is more likely than a discouraged, critical me to be more active than sedentary in the future.
Stop eating after 8:00 PM. I’m down 10 pounds since starting Noom. I’ve yo-yoed and plateaued a bit in the last two weeks, and my scale always reads something drastically different depending on its location on our bathroom floor. But I’m going to stick with it because, well, it costs $45 a month and I’ve already paid for February. Truth bomb! OK, OK…maybe that’s not the only reason. Maybe it also has to do with not wanting to give up on my dreams or whatever. Ugh! There, I said it.
Stick to our budget categories. Doing pretty well here. We went over a bit in our just-for-fun spending at the beginning of this month, but we’ll cut back in another area to make up for it. Yay for flexibility! (If you’re new, be sure to check out my beginner budgeting mini-series for helpful tips on starting your first budget! You can also find each of the five tips here, here, here, here, and here.)
Channel as much money toward our emergency savings account as possible until we hit our target. Making small contributions here and there, but focusing mainly on saving for summer vacation.
Build up our travel fund. Slowly and steadily.
Establish and stick to a consistent schedule for blog posts. I’m a little late at times, but I’m mainly sticking to the schedule I set for myself.
On a related note, I’ll be spacing out these summaries a bit in the coming weeks and months. Initially, every two weeks seemed appropriate as I was making a lot of changes all at once and simply had more to say. Now, in my current stage of goal pursuit, I’m thinking two weeks is not enough time to see blog-worthy progress. So, for the foreseeable future, my goal is to post an update on my progress toward my resolutions about once a month.
And that’s it. Some peaks and some valleys, but I’m still climbing.
Thanks for stopping by! Now it’s your turn. What goals have you been working toward in 2019?
See Sierra Save 