2017 Goals

Morgan recently wrote on I'm an Organizing Junkie, "We have dreams that remain just that, dreams.  It's pretty amazing what you can accomplish, when you commit to organizing your goals."  As I plan my 2017 goals, I want them to be:

• Realistic – carefully consider your current season: ability and availability.
• Accountable – announce your goals, ask for support, and share your progress.
• Flexible – change, revise, and update your goals and/or methods, as necessary.

I hope that you can look ahead and take an even more determined approach with your goal setting. You can do anything that you set your mind to, and I hope that you do!

2017 Goals

• Exercise (3 times / week) and Daily Step Goals (8,000 daily; 56,000 weekly)
• In 2016, my weight was creeping back between 160-165 pounds and my ankles were swelling.  I rejoined Weight Watchers on April 27, 2016.  I have reached my goal and currently working toward obtaining lifetime membership with them.  I am amazed at how much I have toned and the inches I have lost.  Over the next five weeks, the goal is to maintain my weight between a plus / minus two pounds of my goal weight.
• Jeff and I have continued to exercise in 2016 and we both ran the Abilene Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day.  We both beat our goals with Jeff finishing in 26:08.1 and I finished in 36:55.  Personally, my goal is to run three 5K races in 2017 split throughout the year to give us time to continue to train and become healthier and more fit.
• Read at least six books
• With a combination of being busy and many other excuses, I would like to read a minimum of six books in 2017 with hopes of reading more.  I have learned in 2016 to take more time for me.  I have found that I do not have to "go-go-go".  I am finishing up on Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers and plan to read her next book in the series, Her Daughter's Dream after finishing the first.
• Read my bible and continue to grow my faith
• Reality for this goal to obtained, it all goes back to slowing down, taking time for me, and spending purposeful time reading my bible, reading devotions, and taking time to learn more.  The Proverbs 31 ministry provides free daily devotionals and other online bible studies.  Last June, I ordered a study guide over the book of Numbers and did not finish it.  So with a combination of using their app, First 5, I am planning to spend more time with God.  
• My church, Cross Way UMC, is offering new classes this upcoming spring which I am excited about attending including Sunday School, Life Groups, and Illustration Journaling!

Abilene Turkey Trot

My "why":
After my youngest, Ashlyn, was born in 2011, I weighed 170.2 pounds when she started preschool / daycare.  I am committed to this weight-loss journey because this past March, my weight was fluctuating between 160-165 pounds and my ankles were swelling.  I rejoined Weight Watchers on April 27, 2016.

Current Update:
Since rejoining Weight Watchers, I have been able to slowly build back up and have been walking / running.  When I started back with Weight Watchers, my ankles had been swelling with no official explanation.  I went to the doctor's office and many test were completed.  The Run-On store helped me pick out new shoes and mentioned the possibility of doing too much too quick and/or not having the right support.

On Thanksgiving, my family and I ran in the Abilene Turkey Trot.  There were over 1300 people who either walked or ran the 5K that morning.  Ashlyn cheered us all on from the sidelines along with Lana and Gregg, my mother and father-in-law.  Jeff's goal was to finish under thirty minutes and my goal was to finish under 45 minutes.  We both beat our goals with Jeff finishing in 26:08.1 and I finished in 36:55.  When the race begin, the boys took off ahead of me.  I caught up to Jakob and was able to help challenge him to run a little more and he actually finished before me with a time of 36:38.6.  We were proud of him because he had only done a little training prior to running this 5K.  Roland did not give up and finished in 54:38.

Results

Last Friday, I spoke with my Weight Watcher's leader, Roni, about adjusting my goal and she agreed.  She stated if I made it too low, I could become frustrated.  I am amazed at how much I have toned and the inches I have lost since this past April.  Over the next six weeks, the goal is to maintain my weight between a plus / minus two pounds of my goal weight.

2014 New Year Resolutions

2013 sure seems it has gone by quickly.  Roland turned seventeen, Jakob turned eight, and Ashlyn turned two in 2013.  Jeff was diagnosed with Pre-Diabetes early June and through changing our diet and increasing our exercise we both have lost weight!  He went back to the doctor in October and due to our changes we made he is no longer on the diabetes spectrum.  Since his diagnosis, he has lost about thirty pounds.

I began my 5th year teaching eighth grade math and algebra.  I also finished four more classes towards my Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of North Texas.  The fall semester was extremely challenging because I was enrolled in two classes, but through the help of a great husband I made it through with two A's.  I now have a 3.875 overall GPA and have only four more classes remaining to complete the degree!  My goal is to graduate with a minimum of a 3.8.

Resolutions

1. Exercise on Elliptical (3 times/week) and Daily Step Goals (7,000 daily; 49,000 weekly)
   Since Ashlyn was born in 2011, I have lost about 20 lbs.  I would like to continue to tone and lose about five to ten more pounds.  I set my goal for 7,000 steps because I am currently averaging about 5,000 steps per day.
2. Blog… Kid accomplishments, artwork, family stories, menu plans, coupon savings, etcToday, A Frugal Friend posted a daily photo challenge with daily themes.  I have done a challenge before which was called Project365.  I will do my best towards this challenge, but it correlates perfect with wanting to blog more!  
3. Read at least six books and read my Bible.
   As sad as it seems, I have not read many books in 2013 due to my crazy schedule.  I want to slow down a little and read more.  Six books may not seem like many, but it much more than I read last year.  Part of the reason I haven't read fun books in the past year was because I was reading college textbooks.  I did finish Fresh Disasters by Stuart Woods recently!  I started reading a new book from Janet Evanovich, The Heist.  My goal is to have it completed by January 18th since it is due back to the Denton Library on this day.

Freedom Run 5K to Shopping with Coupons!

Saturday morning, I participated in Freedom Run 5K run with my pastor and his wife.  Overall, I finished right at 42 minutes.  I have been exercising on the elliptical, but had not actually ran outside!  I'm thinking about letting Jakob play with chalk outside while I do the Couch 2 5K application on my phone and slowly build my endurance.

Last week, I learned about Bountiful Baskets and signed up for basket.  The first basket is $15.00 plus a $3.00 fee to allow them to purchase the laundry basket, and an online fee for $1.50.  So overall for my first basket, I spent $19.50 for everything above!  Next time it will be $16.50 with the online processing fee.  I think in about two weeks, we will get another basket of fruits and vegetables.  The program is volunteer driven to keep the cost down, so I think I will try to volunteer within the next month.

I think it is pretty neat and thinking about trying to make some basic baby food from it for Ashlyn to help in the cost of her baby food since she is eating more and more!  I might try to cook a few of the pears and lightly mash them.  She is getting to the point where she is eating Cheerios and random bread, so she would probably do okay with lightly mashed fresh pears.

I realized on Saturday afternoon, I had a $1.00 ECB expiring on Sunday, 4/15, and since I had plans to run to Target I figured I should try to use it on something.  I have some other ECB, but there was not anything else we really needed or wanted so I am saving those.  I picked up the feminine pads for $3.99 and used a $1.00 coupon and the $1.00 ECB and paid $2.15 for them out of pocket today.  Then it printed me a another ECB for $2.00 to use on my next trip!  I currently have $11.00 in ECB for a future trip!!

After running to CVS, Jakob, Ashlyn, and I went to Target.  We bought some more baby food, including meat, which sure adds up.  The price of baby food is leaning me toward learning how to make some of the simple things.  My time is valuable, so I will probably not be able to make too much food.  I will have more time (sorta) in the summer months, but will also be enrolled in classes for my graduate's degree. Together, we spent $71.83 at Target today.  The food purchased will last us easily into next weekend and we have plenty to make food from home the rest of the week between Target and our new co-op!  Here's the breakdown of my Target trip:

Baby:
2 - Sippy Cups $2.79each = $5.58
12 - Gerber Meat 2nd Foods $0.99each = $11.88
3 - Up & Up Puffs $1.57each = $4.71
6 - Gerber 2nd Foods Vegetables $0.97each = $5.82
=$27.99

Grocery:
Market Pantry Egg Substitutes $2.54
Market Pantry 2% Milk $2.59
Uncrustables $2.94
Oscar Mayer Lunchables $1.59
Market Pantry Pepperoni $2.99
3 - Ragu Pizza Sauce $1.09 each = $3.27 - ON SALE

Produce:
1lb Strawberries $1.99 - ON SALE

Healthy-Beauty-Cosmetics:
4 - Head & Shoulders $4.74each - ON SALE
-B1G1 Head & Shoulders product, max $9.99, PG 4/01
-B1G1 Head & Shoulders product, max $9.99, PG 4/01
=$9.48 for all 4 (Jeff and Roland use these from time to time, so this will last for a while!)

Home:
Up & Up Hand Wipes $2.49  

Weight Watchers Deal:
14 - Variety of Weight Watchers Meals (I purchased a variety including one breakfast meal and one dessert Weight Watcher Meal)
-$5/12 Weight Watchers Smart Ones (Facebook) printable 
-FREE Breakfast Weight Watchers WYB 6 Meals
-Target Deal: Buy 6 Get 1 Free
-Target Deal: Buy 6 Get 1 Free
=$21.27 or $1.52each

Toys/Games:
Pokemon Cards $4.19

February Weight Loss and Exercise Goals

My goal for February is to walk, run, or use my elliptical for 26 miles!  It is my largest goal and I am close to meeting my goal.  I started losing weight after Ashlyn was 1 month old and really would like to get to my pre-pregnancy weight before I had Jakob. I am working on possibly 10 more pounds and know I can do it with the great support I have at school. I work with the best group of teachers working toward similar goals.

This past week, I have done at minimum ten minutes on the elliptical or on a treadmill.  I am amazed at how good I feel.  I thought I would be tired, but I have so much more energy from it.  I have done 8 miles this week and 18 miles for the month so far!  I had a pretty off week last week and was thinking I would not be able to make my goal.  I am so excited to report that it looks like I will meet my goal!  Yeah!!

Below is my before and after photo with my weights.  I am proud of my accomplishments and not embarrassed to post.  In high school I ranged 135 pounds and was what I thought bigger at the time because the other girls had not caught up to me.  That is what my mom reminded me at the age.  After high school, I ranged between 140-150 pounds.  When Jeff and I married, I was 150 pounds, so I am very proud.

It still amazes me to see how much I have lost in my face!  It will be so neat to post my final picture combined.  I know I will begin to plateau as I tone and build more muscle.  I know muscle weighs more and I am perfectly fine with all of that!  I want to be healthy and fit and really enjoying the exercise because of how good it feels.  The level of energy is amazing!  I hope you stay with me on my journey.  If you haven't already, come join me on MyFitnessPal!  I'm amazed of how simple and easy it is to use instead of paying for WeightWatchers.  Post your username as a comment and I will add you!

Running Log powered by RunningAHEAD

Back to Reality and Back to Losing Weight

Over the break, I read the following post from a friend that I found true.

"Some people worry about what they eat between Christmas and New Years.  People should worry more about what they eat between New Years and Christmas more." ~Author Unknown

After I read the post, I agreed with it and therefore decided not to stress over my holiday eating.  I decided the cravings of some of the foods was probably better so I would get right back on track with school starting back up.  I regained about 4 pounds over the break from lack of exercise and just eating too much!

One of my "Goals" this upcoming year is to continue to lose weight and to exercise three times a week.  Before I got pregnant, we bought an elliptical machine.  It has been used, but not as much as it should be used!  Tonight, I watched How I Met Your Mother and did 30 minutes on the elliptical.  According to my elliptical, it stated I burned 225 calories!  So my thought process is I need to build my work-out schedule around my favorite television shows!  So hopefully by next Tuesday when I re-post, I will be a few pounds lighter!

Weight Loss Goal

Last night, I found an application on my Android phone called WWDiary.  It uses the same concepts from Weight Watchers and is FREE! It calculated my points and keeps track of what you eat using your phone! It even has an option to scan a barcode of a product to pull the name of the food!  It creates a weight log for whenever you enter your current weight.  The program allows you to enter exercise too along with favorite foods.  At the moment, it does not know the point values automatically but it does calculate the points using calories, fat, and the fiber count.  Jeff and I did this last year using a spreadsheet I created, but I like having this on my phone since my phone is normally with me all the time.

My weight loss goal is currently sixteen pounds.  I sure have noticed the change since we moved to our house.  I no longer have to climb three sets of stairs and since it's summer, I am not as active.  So it's time to count points again and lose a few pounds!

Keeping busy!

This week I set my pedometer goals for 5000 steps daily and 2000 steps of aerobic walking. My new pedometer I bought from Amazon connects to the computer and keeps track of all of the information. I averaged about 4000 steps daily and 1600 aerobic steps. I only wear the pedometer when we go out and not around the house. Overall, for the week I walked 8 miles. Since starting all of the walking, Jeff and I have both lost about 5 lbs!

This past week was the last week of school and I figured there would not be many teachers out of school needing substitutes. Instead, I enjoyed my last week with Jakob at school since Friday was his last day until August. I had random things to do the entire week including errands and a dentist appointment, so all in all, it's good.

We spent some time at the pool this week! I took Jakob to the pool on Monday and Wednesday. Since Friday was the last day of school, I picked up Roland at 1:00PM and then we had lunch and picked up Jakob. After we got home, we changed into swimming attire and headed to the pool. We spent a good 2 - 2 1/2 hours at the pool on Friday! They have so much fun and hate when I tell them it is time to go.I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday. The appointment was originally next week but I was able to reschedule it since I was trying to take a week off of daycare expenses. Since my dentist appointment, I am learning to floss! I ended up having four fillings in-between my teeth. Where if I had been flossing, it would have helped. I was able to get in quickly and returned on Thursday for my fillings. The fillings are not bad, but the being numb forever sure is a pain! Around 2:30PM, I was still numb and decided to just take a nap since I couldn't eat and I wasn't in the mood to do anything! I remember waking up around 3:30PM and realizing my mouth was almost normal again and deciding to continue my nap though! Finally got up around 4:00, made a peanut butter and jelly and went to get Jakob from school!

Wednesday night was the free rootbeer float from Sonic after 8PM. Jakob rode his bike and Jeff and I walked with him all the way to Sonic. It is about a 3 miles roundtrip. They sure were busy, but were handling the crowd well. Jakob was not sure of the ice cream and said, "I don't like this ice cream." We told him we were going to get ice cream. He does not drink soda so the rootbeer float was something new! They did not put a lot of ice cream with the rootbeer so it was primarily rootbeer, but was still good.
On Saturday, we went to the Lewisville Library for their Summer Reading Kickoff event. It was really busy which is good, but I was surprised with the number of people. I got the boys signed up for their summer reading challenges and Roland found a few books. Jakob picked up some Transformers books, but they are getting returned tomorrow. We needed those books for the short term process of waiting in line for the freebies, but are way over his head for understanding! Saturday evening we headed over to a friends house for a dinner party. Jakob got to play with 3 of his other friends, while we all visited, had spaghetti with great desert, and laughed and laughed! There is about 6 of us that have met from Children's Courtyard that we all get along really well and have been getting together to let the kids play while we all visit and have a good time too!

We went rock climbing today at Summit Climbing Gym in Grapevine, TX. We met up with Daniel, Jeff's brother, and the five of us climbed! I sent an email with a link for pictures because there are many great pictures! Jakob took over the photography and did well on most pictures...however, I did delete a lot of pictures before uploading them to send out! He was having a blast taking the pictures of everyone climbing. Jakob did okay climbing, but think he was a little apprehensive about the harness around him. He did go about twice his height on the wall and you'll see that in the pictures. Roland enjoyed every minute of climbing! Jeff and I were glad that Daniel mentioned it because we sure enjoyed doing it. It was something different and we figured if Jakob does it again, he would probably do better at it. I had found a coupon on www.entertainment.com that saved us 20% off our cost today, so pretty much paid for Jakob between the 5 of us that climbed today! I posted all of the pictures to my gallery.

3 more weeks until California!

Get this widget!

Only 3 more weeks until our vacation to California! I have entered the airports, hotels, and attractions into the GPS! I am sure I will add a few more between now and the trip!

Here's last week's update:
Last week went fast and we did a random amount of things. Overall, I walked 11.4 miles last week!

Last Sunday, we went to the pool for about an hour. It was pretty busy since it was the Memorial holiday weekend. The boys enjoyed it and played! They did not want to leave when it was time to go. Roland primarily played in the regular pool while Jakob and Jeff hung out in the kid splash zone pool. I took pictures this day!

On Memorial Day, I got together with a bunch of Jakob's friends and moms and we all went to Boomerang's. It is a place with about 6-7 bounce houses and the kids played non stop for about 5 hours!! They ran and ran...the people would blow the whistles and tell them to walk. I think they got tired of telling them and stopped after a while because there were hardly any kids there!

Tuesday, I was all ready and dressed to sub for a teacher when I woke Jakob up to find he was running a low-grade fever and half sick. I turned on the closet light and he said he didn't want to get up. Okay...that is not Jakob! He's the one waking me up bright and early everyday!! I knew something was wrong. He told me he didn't want to get up and he was sick. I told him if he was sick he would have to stay home and take medicine and stay in bed. He said okay. I reminded him the 'blue' medicine (he hates it!) and he was like okay. I was sorta shocked that he said he would take the blue medicine and stay in bed. I knew he didn't feel well. I sent an email and canceled my sub job. He ended up in bed all day watching tv or movies. He didn't attempt to do much else. (However...I think he shared his cold a little, as it hit me Friday evening/Saturday.)

The Ford Explorer was coming due for it's annual inspection. I decided to take the day to go get it inspected. It is now 10 years old and I sure could tell when the maintenance employee called me outside with the paperwork. He told me it failed! I was slightly shocked because Jeff and his dad just did so much work to it about a month ago! Turns out the brake master cylinder was leaking and needed to get fixed. Great! I had just figured out that Jakob could stop going to school on June 5th to cut back a week of daycare ($175) and instead was rewarded with fixing the Ford! lol So on Thursday, we took the Ford back into the shop and they fixed it and re-inspected the Ford. It passed, so we are good for another year! Hopefully, as much work that has been done lately between Jeff and his dad, Gregg, it should go for quite some time again. I really do not want another car payment right now!!

We have started walking around the apartment complex in the evenings after dinner. It tends to be after 7pm once it is not so hot. Wednesday, we did a short walk around the complex. Jakob walked and ran the entire way. Our initial plan was to have Jakob ride his bicycle, but I forgot about the garage opener which was in the Ford. We had dropped it off at the Kwik Kar that evening so we didn't have to deal with it in the morning. We did get the car back on Thursday. I took it to get washed and vacuumed before picking Jakob up from school. Sure smells good!

I subbed on Friday for a math teacher. This week is the last week of school. I went ahead and decided I could use the week vacation before the next 10 weeks of keeping kids busy and going nonstop!

We took a good walk on Friday evening. Jeff and I walked while Jakob rode his bicycle. We decided it was nice out so we went ahead and had him ride his bike while we walked to the playground. It works out to be at least 2.62 miles roundtrip, with a playground stop in the middle! Jakob loves every minute of it!

This past Saturday and Sunday, I slept a lot! As mentioned, I think whatever Jakob had on Tuesday was shared to me! Doing better now, but still coughing and slight running/stuffy nose. Initially, I thought it was allergies, but I have no clue. At this point, I am assuming it was some bug Jakob was generous to give me!

Walk a Marathon in 30 Days! (26.2 miles)

I started using MapMyWalk.com within the last week again. I found the website about a year ago, but at the time I did not use it. I found recent goals and one was to Walk a Marathon in 30 Days which is equivalent to 26.2 miles. Since it says walking, it will not count other exercises such as bike riding. As another incentive since it does not count our recent bike riding activity, I also did a goal to exercise 20 out of 30 days. So far, we have been able to do 3 days within the past 7 days. I was also excited to see my total steps today were over 11,000!! I try to wear my pedometer when I go to a school because I walk a decent amount. According to its estimations between walking at school and walking to the playground I walked about 4.6 miles today!

Inspired Blueprints Sketch #21: {Out-side}

I used Coordinates Collections' May 2009 Soda Pop kit to create the layout. I created this scrapbook page for a challenge from Coordinates Collections. Challenge #1 focused on everything May is...one of the choices stated it was National Bike Month. Beginning in April, we have started riding bikes and Roland has also started rollerblading. Jakob has been using Roland's old Star Wars bicycle with training wheels and really enjoys it. Sometimes he gets concerned about going too fast, but usually he does pretty well. The picture of Jeff and Jakob was taken while we stopped waiting for a car to pass. The layout is designed using Sketch #21 from Inspired Blueprints.

Supplies: Patterned Paper - Little Yellow Bicycle, Buttons - Buttons Galore & More, Chipboard Lettering - Crate Paper Crateboard, Cardstock - Bazzill, Tag - Jillibean Soup journaling sprouts