Delirity

… kind of like this little green bug who rode to work with me last week. He hopped onto my mirror who knows when and wound up holding on for dear life for 18 miles!

I’m sad to have to say that pretty much all the goals I set at the beginning of the year have been abandoned in one way or another. Probably the worst thing that I’ve let go of (and the first thing I absolutely have to get back) is being selfish: paying attention to and taking time for myself.

Life has been stressful in so many ways over the past 6 months. I’ve been doing what I can to keep my head above water, but somewhere in there I forgot that the point of doing that is so that I can breathe. Thankfully, Jesse and I had a great talk a week or so ago and have started instituting at least 1 hour of “meaningful activity” every day. Sometimes we spend the hour together (frequently playing cards – we’re attempting to play through all the rummy variations in the book we’ve got) and sometimes we use the hour as personal time (starting back at the gym, going for a long walk, or taking a much needed soak in the tub with a book).

This week I’m working on getting myself back into exercising regularly – I’m thinking 30 minutes 5 times a week would be an awesome place to start. 1 day down!

I’m proud to say that I maintained my weight in February. I started out the month fighting off a cold and then got really busy at work, so just maintaining and hitting the gym about 2/3 of the time has been a huge accomplishment! I’ve spent part of this weekend prepping food and gym clothes for the week, so March should be spectacular!

February non-fiction books were Malcom Gladwell themed (though I snuck another one in too). All the Malcom Gladwell books are incredible and, if you’re looking for an audiobook, very well read in audiobook form (by the author!). I highly recommend them.

Planning for our trip to Italy has taken an interesting turn. We still really are going to try to make the trip happen, but it may turn into a 1 week stay in Florence and a few days in whatever cities we fly in and out from. Why? My husband is coming home to me for good in April (mid-April if you want to be nitpicky about it)!

Jesse coming home is really exciting. It does some very interesting things to my other goals… my income will be pretty much entirely spoken for between living expenses for the 2 of us and trying to start up his practice, plus we now have no idea what our life will be like come next May… but I’m hopeful that we’ll still accomplish the goals I set for this year and more (like, say, having Jesse’s practice open and bringing in some money)!

In December I lost 10% of the weight I’d like to lose by the end of 2010. In January I lost another 11%! After fighting off a cold the first week of February, I’m just now getting started for the month. Wish me luck!

In January I read 3 non-fiction books (weight loss theme!):

I loved the Jillian Michaels books (and am currently in the 6th week of the weights plan in Winning by Losing which is a major butt kicker), but didn’t really like Bob Harper’s book.

I started adding money to our Italy Trip Fund and also started working on the basic planning for the trip. I’ve learned that you can only book airplane tickets 330 days in advance (so I can’t really estimate airfare yet…), but that you really shouldn’t book things til 2-3 months in advance (so I’m tracking May fares for this year, starting now!). Also, 1 thing I know I’d really like to do is to rent an apartment in Florence for a week. Beyond that I have no idea.

Emergency fund is filled! Also, after a few paychecks (upped health insurance costs + flex spending account deductions) I realized that saving $8000 during the year is actually the reasonable goal… and that if I work really hard hopefully I can manage $10,000 or maybe a little more. Back to the drawing board to see what else I can reign in or cut out!

It’s January 22nd and I’ve completed my goal of finishing up our 6 month emergency fund. It felt really good yesterday to transfer in the last few hundred dollars and then open up another ING sub account titled Italy Trip 2011. I even managed to throw $400 into that account.

It’s really nice knowing that we’ve got money that’s set aside for those just in case moments. I’m hoping that the money will serve as a warning to Murphy that he won’t upset our life too much, so it isn’t worth bothering us… I’d really like all our spare money to go to the trip as opposed to refilling the emergency fund

I’m thrilled to have 1 goal for the year completely knocked out before the end of January!

Over the past few years I’ve managed several fairly minor injuries (hand pain, shin splints…) that have completely derailed me from whatever workout schedule I was on. I’d get frustrated I was injured and then just not go back to the gym or the trail (if I was in a running mode). Then, when I’d finally get back I’d ask myself why I couldn’t be that person that’s just walking on the treadmill or doing the elliptical machine. I hated being that person who gave up because of something so minor… that’s not who I believe myself to be.

A few months ago I started going to kickboxing fairly regularly. And then low and behold my shin splints reappeared. I was frustrated at having to stop kickboxing because I was enjoying it so much. But finally, instead of letting it completely stop me from heading to the gym at all, I simply switched activities. In fact, my gym going has gotten even more regular and I’ve finally re-mastered reliably getting in my gym time before work (the last time I did this really well was 4 years ago!).

I am really proud of myself for finally becoming that girl that goes to the gym and does whatever she can. I’m fairly good at doing this in other areas of my life, but for some reason this one has always been a challenge for me. I think I may have finally figured it out and in doing so I’m one step closer to actually being the person I know I am.

Is there something in your life where you just need to be that girl?