First Checkpoint

It’s been almost 2 months since I posted my destinations (goals) for the year.  I thought it was about time make a little stop to check out where I’m going and make sure I’m still on the road to getting there.

• Fit into my clothes again – I’ve missed a few days here and there but for the most part I’m keeping up with my workout goals.  For cardio I’ve been running on a treadmill.  I’m doing the treadmill as opposed to running outside for a couple of reasons.  1, It’s the middle of winter so it’s freaking cold outside, and 2, on the treadmill I’m better able to track my speed and time and I’m more likely to keep going instead of taking rests.  Let me just state right now, I hate running.  People talk about getting a runners high and how it’s a time they can focus on things and clear their thoughts, etc.  Yeah, for me?  Not so much.  I still have some anxiety left over from pregnancy.  It isn’t nearly as bad as it was when I was pregnant but it is still there so when I have time to just think about things, if I don’t have something specific I’m trying to figure out it isn’t a good thing for me.  The time I spend running is a time like that.  So I pulled out my good old MP3 player and began listening while I ran.  I rather enjoyed it and would sing along as I ran.  It didn’t sound great because, well, I was running but I didn’t mind.  ODD did, though.  He said if I was still able to carry a tune well enough he could tell what it was I probably wasn’t working hard enough.  So I tried reading while I ran.  Can I just say, it isn’t very convenient to read while holding a book and bouncing up and down.  So what I’ve finally settled on is watching things on my computer while I run.  Sometimes I catch up on episodes of The Office or House but lately I’ve been watching the recent BBC Emma.  BTW, if you haven’t seen it you must.  It’s lovely.  Watching something while I run makes running much more enjoyable which, in turn, makes me much more likely to keep it up.  As an aside, one night I was running when Fuffy came over for a visit.  ODD let him in and told him where I was.  When he saw me running he laughed and said, “You’re running!”  Doesn’t that just say it all?  I thought so.  For strength training I’ve been doing some weight lifting.  Stop laughing, Lacey, I know you’re probably remembering that hysterical 5 lb weight incident our Sophomore year.  Wow that was pathetic.  Anyway, it’s true, I am doing some good weight lifting and I love it.  I never thought I’d say that but it’s true.  I use light weights and do lots of reps because I’m not trying to build huge muscles.  I also do a lot of ab work.  The first few times I did it I was sore for the next 3 or 4 days and my legs were jelly.  I still felt good, though, and love feeling like I’m getting stronger.  As for my weight it is going down.  It isn’t super fast which is kind of annoying to me since I like instant gratification, but it’s enough that I’ve noticed.  I still don’t feel comfortable wearing all my regular clothes but I am feeling better about wearing more of them.  One night while complaining to ODD about not losing weight fast enough for my taste he pointed out that with the weight training I’m building a lot of muscle which, as we all know, weighs more than fat.  I guess I’m okay with that.  Plus, if i’m losing it slow and steady and building muscles along the way I’m more likely to maintain it.  Another thing I realized is I’m still nursing so I probably still have some hormones bouncing around helping me hold on to some weight so I can feed my babe.  I don’t know how scientifically accurate that is but it makes sense in my brain.  I am only about 5 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight so that paired with slowly working my way back into my pre-pregnancy clothes makes me happy.
• Organize my recipes and get rid of my magazine collection – See below.
• Pare down my photos – See below.
• Publish my blog again – I’m lumping these in together because they all suffered for the same reason.  I was really good about all of these in January until I got a new laptop.  Our old desktop finally kicked the bucket and the one laptop shared between ODD and me was making us both crazy.  We also like to back up all our stuff on Carbonite but didn’t have enough space on just the one computer to fit all of it so after finding out we were getting a nice tax return we decided to splurge a little and get a second laptop.  It’s been awesome but required some time to transfer everything over.  I’m a bit anal retentive about the way things are filed and now that I have my own computer I can do it my own way without having somebody else move things around without telling me.  So instead of spending time working on some of these things goals I took a break from them for a while so I could spend that time getting my computer the way I want it.  It’s pretty much where I want it now so I’m hoping to get back on track with my original goals.
• Sew at least one project each month – Sewing with Wingnut has been hard.  I can’t remember how I did it with Peanut but Wingnut doesn’t like it when I sew.  Part of the problem is his crib currently resides in the sewing room.  This makes it hard to sew while he naps or sleeps (when I suspect I sewed when Peanut was a baby) so I end up trying to do it when he’s awake and fussing at me.  Because of this it takes me a million times longer to sew anything than it would if I did it while he was sleeping.  I’m still trying though, and being more selective about my sewing projects since they each take so much time.  January’s sewing project can be seen here and February’s can be found here.  For March I’m planning to make Peanut an Easter dress.  Despite some of my frustrations actually sewing I’ve liked taking the time to really plan some of my projects before diving right in.

Though I decided to take a break from a few of my goals in order to get my computer organized I’m still feeling really good about my progress.  With two months down already I think the things I’m choosing to shoot for are do-able and by tracking the things I’m doing on my blog I feel like I’m being held accountable.  I’m proud of the work I’ve done so far and have every intention of continuing.