Progress (Mostly)

Tomorrow will be one month since I posted about my 30-day mini goals, so I thought I should give a status report and make plans for the next 30-day period...

1. Fitness. My original goal was to work out at least 5 days a week, and I'm happy to say I've been successful with that so far! I'm down about 4-5 pounds (as near as I can tell) and my clothes are starting to fit differently, so that's exciting. I now have to wear a belt with both pairs of my "big" size jeans... yay! So, I'm going to keep this goal for the next 30 days, with one change/addition: at least 1 day each week I have to go for a run (preferably outside). I hate running, especially on the treadmill. And I have NO desire to run races on any sort of regular basis (I did enough of that in high school track). Nevertheless, my friend B and I have signed up for a "race" in June. It's a 5K and I won't lie... I'm only doing it for the fun stuff you get (a bloody mary at the finish line?! yes please!). Anyway, I need to train for it, so I think incorporating a minimum of 1 run per week as part of my workout routine for the next 30 days is totally reasonable. B and I plan to do some training together, and I can bring the little man and the jogging stroller as well.
2. Healthy eating. My goal was to use the Pepperplate app to plan meals on a biweekly basis. I also added in using the MFP app to track calories. So far the meal-planning is going okay... the app isn't working as well on my phone as I'd hoped (I'm not sure whether this is an app problem or a phone problem). I'm having issues with the shopping list (which was one of my favorite features!), so that's disappointing. And on top of that, our schedules have been all over the place lately, so some of the meals I planned didn't work out in the end. But on a positive note, I've been putting together some freezer meals to help save time during busy weeks! I'm going to continue trying to plan meals and shop/assemble things ahead of time over the next 30 days. I just may go back to my old paper calendar method if I can't get the meal app to work like I'd hoped. As for MFP, I've been using it for about 3 weeks now and I think I'll continue tracking calories for the next 30 days. As I'd feared, it has become a bit of an obsession for me, so I need to be careful. I'm appreciative of the perspective it's given me on portion sizes and intake vs. output; I'm hoping that another 30 days or so will help train my mind enough that I can eventually wean myself off of it :)
3. Education. My goal was to a) find a new adviser for my capstone/thesis project, and b) spend some time researching my topic and beefing up my proposal. So far, I've identified, and met with, my new adviser. Success! I have not done any additional research. So... I give myself a C+ for these goals :) Going forward, my goal for the next 30 days will be to spend at least 2-3 hours per week on my capstone/thesis. I may revise this to be more specific once my adviser and I have set a more detailed timeline for the project. 
4. Organization. My goal was to spend at least 1-2 hours per week sorting, de-cluttering, and/or organizing something. I didn't really keep track of the exact amount of time, but I have made a lot of progress in this department. I think I may actually be addicted to purging of stuff. I filled the back of my Subaru and made one trip to Goodwill last week. So far this week, I have another GIANT bag full of clothes ready to go. If our home remodel takes place as planned this summer, we'll be packing up a large portion of the upstairs living area to put into storage for several weeks. In light of this, I definitely need to keep the momentum going and try to purge as much extraneous stuff as possible before we get to that point! So, over the next 30 days I will continue to spend 1-2 hours per week on organization. I also want (and need) to tackle some long overdue photo projects (albums and scrapbooks to fill/complete, frames to update, etc). My mom will be here for a week, so I'm hoping to devote some time to this while she's around to help with Nathan, etc.
5. Finances. This was a two-part goal: a) I wanted to figure out the best way to use our tax refund, and b) I wanted to make a list of future big-ticket purchases/expenses and prioritize them. I give myself a B+ on this. I did not get around to making a list of big-ticket purchases/expenses. We did, however, file our taxes and receive a nice little refund. After several hours of calculations and spreadsheets (I'm such a nerd with this stuff), I came up with a plan which allowed us to do the following: 1) pay off 2 credit cards + make a larger payment on a 3rd, 2) pay 4 months ahead on our auto insurance, 3) pay off about 2/3 of the remaining balance on a personal loan through our credit union, and 4) pay the deposit on our house rental for our vacation in June. In the process, I also created a plan which will put us on track to pay off all remaining debt aside from the mortgage and our cars by next summer. This is HUGE for us since we both brought more debt than either of us care to admit into this marriage. Having a light at the end of the tunnel will motivate us to stick with it, but we'll also need monthly reminders to keep focused. So, for the next 30 days, the goals will be: 1) Eat out a maximum of 3 times, of which only 1 can be a nicer, more expensive meal, 2) set aside cash for weekly expenses to help with budgeting, and 3) reconfigure how our paychecks are split for direct deposit into various accounts in order to maximize savings, stay on budget, and still have a little wiggle room for fun stuff! :)

So there you go... Overall I'm happy with the progress I've made so far, and I'm feeling good about this next set of mini-goals. Now, if only Mother Nature could make it her goal to STOP SNOWING AND GET ON WITH SPRING WEATHER...