Goal Progress

1. Work: make at least one presentation. DONE.

2. Work: write an article.  Started working on it!

3. Work: get involved in "the community".  Not yet.

4. Workout: Train for something in a focused way.  Not yet.  I've been focusing on P90X3 and diet in January, but I'm starting to realize that I need to get my butt in gear for triathlon season.

5. Workout: Get at least one not-in-Texas race.  Not yet.  Looking at you, Florida.  In June.  Hot.

6. Workout: Do a triathlon.  Signed up for the CB&I.

7. Workout: Get my butt back in the pool regularly.  Not yet.

8. Workout: Go climbing. Not yet.

9.  Life: Lose 20 pounds.  I noticed that I never officially declared my weight, but on January 2 it was 152.6.  Weight this morning was 151.6.  One pound down.  That is a sustainable rate, though not exciting, rate for me.  I restarted using MyFitnessPal and have been focusing on eating well and exercising daily and hitting a 10000 step goal.  I feel better and my pants are fitting better, and both of those are more important than the number on the scale.

10. Life: Focus on conscientious spending.  January is one of those months where we know we'll be in the red because of tax stuff.  However, without the taxes, we'd have been close.  If you also deleted the travel, we'd have been green.  Overall I was pleased - I felt like we were more aware.  But it killed me to watch these huge expenses turn the month red.  And we still can do better.  It is worth remembering that having people over is expensive, though we could have done it cheaper.  Traveling will always be expensive.  And taxes, don't even get me started with the taxes.  One other note: we have a variable part of our income that usually deposits on the last day of each month.  I'm deciding to change the date in our budgeting software to make that the first day of the next month for every month except Dec 31/Jan 1 (because I want to know how much we make in a year) so that it makes it easier to actually budget for what we have, instead of what we GUESS we are getting.  Ideally I'd like to budget as if that number was always going to be zero so that that income could be extra and go towards savings, but we aren't there yet.  One step at a time.  I logged into Mint this morning and adjusted budgets until we were slated to be green for the month.  Now we just need to stick to the plan.

11. Life: Improve the garden. We did get out into the back yard and do some cleaning, and got the lawn guys in for a mid-winter mow.  Yesterday we made a trip to Home Depot and I bought ALL THE THINGS and got about half of them planted.  Updates to follow once the rest are in the ground.

12. Life: Go camping in Brazos Bend State Park. Not yet.

13. Life: Go camping in Huntsville State Park. Not yet.

14. Life: Have an epic Disney vacation.  Not yet, but I'm paying it down.

15. Life: Make stained glass things. Not yet.
16. Life: Take fabulous pictures with the awesome new camera.  Yes!  Preston actually got some really cool photos for my presentation and in Boston, and I'm really pleased with the backyard session I did this month with the bubbles.

Not a goal, but I read or listened to 7 books in January!  Also not a goal, but the aquarium is set up and running, hopefully fish in February!  Also not a goal, but I did race once in January, so if I wanted to do one-race-per-month year, it isn't off the table. ;-)