Every year, it’s pretty much the same. I say I’m really going to do it this year. Then in March, everything goes downhill.

My goals for 2012

Be More Organized.

If I can accomplish this, then everything else will be much easier. I have to remind myself that five minutes of preparation even when I’m dog tired is so worth it to stay on top of things. This means not letting my bills pile up, having a blogging system, not allowing the laundry the pile up, etc….

I already feel much more organized after my spark induced super motivation on New Year’s Day. I cleaned out most of the kitchen cabinets, rearranged the spices to make them more accessible, and removed a ton of unnecessary stuff from the counters. It’s not perfect yet but I can already feel a change within me as I wasn’t frustrated while cooking dinner because all my spices were right there. I know this doesn’t seem like a big thing but for me it’s huge. I didn’t have to find the step stool (I’m short), dig in the cabinets, take everything out of the cabinets, put everything back in the cabinets – just to find one stinkin’ spice that I need for dinner. Calm.

We are doing a eat from the pantry silent challenge as the stockpile in the pantry needs to be reduced significantly. This should help us save money, time, and feel more organized as well! Save money because we will be able to see in our pantry. Save time because we will be able to see and find things in the pantry. Feel more organized because things won’t be thrown and strewn about in the pantry.

Lose Weight.

Yeah, it’s on there again. I lose. I gain. I lose. I gain. Right now, I’m 40 pounds over where I’d like to be. 50 pounds over what I should be according to those danged charts. The good news is the 15 pounds I lost in the fall has not all come back. I only gained about 5 pounds back.

I’m overweight but I’m not out of shape. For someone my age, I think I’m decently fit. I’ve been running or more like a jog for the past 4 months. To encourage myself to keep up running, I’ve been doing 5K’s with friends! I even did a 4.6 mile run on Thanksgiving – which I accomplished in under 11 min/mile. Not too bad for someone who is 50 pounds overweight. I’d love to get under a 10 min/mile and that will be one of my goals this winter/spring.

Things I know about myself and exercise. I’m not a fan of group exercise. Occasionally, I just don’t want to talk to people. I don’t want to have to say hi or make stupid small talk. I’m also not a indoor exerciser. I will do it if necessary but I prefer to be outside in freezing cold or rain rather than to be stuck in the stuffy indoors. Kind of ironic, considering I hate the outdoors on a general basis. Outdoor exercise 3-5times a week, which may be hard in the winter but I already did a snowy ice run so I should be good!

Drink water, drink (2) protein shakes a day, then dinner with portion control. Cut out chocolate and most dairy. I don’t want to have to count points or calories because it’s too much stress for me. Or it makes me think, oh I need to eat X calories because I have these left for the day when I’m not really even hungry. I did this in the fall and lost weight so I know I can do it again.

Balance.

Balance life, work, exercise, blogging, etc. with my family. Do more fun things with the family. Be more present.

Okay, so those are my goals for this upcoming year. Let’s see if we can stick to them!