March/April Evaluation:
Fitness:
- I want to get stronger. 5 day routine.. 10-20 minute burn out arms and legs x2/wk, a cardio/abs work out 35min-1hr x2/wk, and 1 new video/work out style x1/wk.
Jan: Too cold, did some working out, not near 5 days a week yet, wanted to incorporate P90X.
Feb: Set a goal of 5 days/wk by April, did not do P90X at all, but still wanted to try, did not hit 5 days a week.
Mar: Drop the 5th day to once every other week perhaps, still not hitting 5 days a week.
April: Not hitting 5 days a week, it is clear this habit needs to be developed more slowly. I did travel during this month, and that hindered a bit.
May goals: Going to start with 10-20min legs and arm sessions 2x/wk and 1 cardio session 1x/wk, see if I can do this 2 months in a row. If I can do this consistently, I think it will be easier for me to add onto it. Going to try the shorter sessions on work days instead of my initial plan to work out on my non-working days.
- I want to become more flexible. Complete a 30 day beginner yoga challenge and 90 day yoga challenge. 1 Stretching video post work outs x3/wk. 5 minute bed stretch routine on work days.
Jan: Basically did nothing.
Feb: One out of every 3 days I was stetching fairly consistently, even at work. Got to day 8 of 30 day yoga beginner challenge.
Mar: Wanted to complete it, but only got to day 15. Basically stretched almost twice a week.
Apr: Did not start out the month stretching at all, but on the road to see the 30 day challenge almost to completion. Lots of impatience issues with stretching, it still annoys me for some reason.
May: See stretching challenge to completion, and perhaps start the 3x/wk stretching videos section of things. Start out with once a week for the first two weeks, and maybe bump it up to twice a week for the next two weeks.
- Go to all of my doctor appointments no matter what.
Jan: I have none in January! Yay!
Feb: Again, no MD appointments this month!
Mar: Went to the only doc appointment I had. I was sleepy as hell and didn't want to and was pissed and still did it.
Apr: Got in contact with my VSO, need to call him back on May 7th for an update as he sent an inquiry and thinks they made a mistake on my paperwork (via not sending me any or posting any lol), I also have two appointments next week back to back--dentist, and annual check up. I will go to them hell or high water feelings-wise.
May: Call my VSO, and see through any appointments made by my primary care doctor based on my check up.
Food:
- Focus more on eating appropriate portions, reigning in snacking. Curb free food habits, make snacks vs buying them. Try intermittent fasting. By May consistently eating 12-1300 calories of food itself.
Jan: Restructured goals to be more sustainable and make sense and broke stuff up. Started IF, joined 1200isplenty subreddit, eating 2 meals and 2 snacks a day.
Feb: Eating 1 heavy meal and 1 light meal and 1 snack daily. Very few days of breeching 1200 calories a day. Hoping to see weight loss and thus improvements in my itching flare ups.
Mar: Stopped writing down calories as much/often, but have continued to do daily counts of calories. Stayed within 1300 calories a day nearly every single day with 2 days of 1400ish calories. Down from 136 lbs to 132 lbs.
Apr: Had a few days of overeating (birthday, Easter, 2 days while on vacation in Texas) which was expected. Still at 132 lbs, expectedly. Overall, the month has been fine, and even on vacation I ate within my calorie limits.
May: Continue IF, 1200 calories a day, dropping the making snacks goal as healthy snacks are incredibly cheap here.
- Smaller plates when serving food, asking for a to-go box at the beginning of a meal out.
Jan: I didn't eat at restaurants that provided food outside of a typical serving size.
Feb: I didn't go to many restaurants here either! Only on V-day.
Mar: Went to Carrabbas, a notoriously calorically pricey restaurant. Ended up eating a 600 calorie meal there so did not take a to-go box, but I did remember this when I went.
Apr: Chose a friend's house for my birthday over dinner out. Did not take to-gos at restaurants as I ate appropriate portions while on vacation with the exception of 2 days. I was okay with the food I ate on those two days, and with my birthday meal. Easter I could have taken a to-go box but it was odd at a friends, will post below.
May: Continue to either make smart choices at restaurants or take a to-go box if it's a higher calorie count than I would eat at home.
- More fish in meals and protein in my diet. Cooking experimentation goals. (Cutting this goal as it's limiting in some ways. Still aim to experiment, but with more arbitrary things.)
Jan: Did not fulfill.
Feb: Cut the experimentation goal. Still have a desire to try new dishes to cook though.
Mar: Bought more fish filets in my grocery budget.
Apr: Mussels, clams, shrimp, and fish have all been part of my diet this month. Shrimp was on sale BOGOF so I stocked up well. Experiments: skinnytaste bagels, boiled enoki dish, zucchini pizza bites.
May: Continue to refine fish cooking skills. ... ideas for experiments...Try to make a new Japanese dish or two? Takoyaki is something I love and think I can afford to try. Same with dango I love this dish. Onigiri is something I've neglected trying my hand at lately. Try out a healthy al pastor recipe I found with chicken, shrimp, and pork tenderloin.
- My water intake. A small cup of water/tea with each meal, and a cup of water when I first wake up.
Jan: Used tiny water bottles when I woke up, worked well. Drank tea with each meal.
Feb: Drinking water at work and home, water bottles were not replenished and thus waking up fell off as a habit too. Still, overall felt I drank plenty as thirst and hunger became more apparent and separated.
Mar: Fell off a bit, did not drink as much tea with meals and resented the cold continuing. Work nights were busy too. Overall, drank a decent amount of water (my urine was never dark or anything) but felt I could improve.
Apr: (Currently writing this a little hungover. does not take much anymore. two drinks and I feel yucky.) Drank decent water amounts while on vacation helping out and drank one large glass at restaurants and hit water fountains each time I passed one by. Continuing to grab a glass of water at beginning of shift, and brewing cold tea and hot tea to have on hand for meals.
May: 1 glass of tea or water with each meal (or chug one just before, this has been working well for me too) + 2 glasses at each work shift. Going to try for a small glass of water when I wake up again, we'll see how it goes. May end up picking up more mini bottles.
- I need to break the "im so poor I need free food" habit.
Jan: Came up with a plan to carry an empty tupperware around. It was useful.
Feb: This has worked really, REALLY well for me. Took home lots of free items to eat later.
Mar: Really useful, I ended up forgetting to put the tupperware back in my car but not in my backpack?
Apr: My backpack was stolen, so will replace my tupperwares and get a few in my car instead of one. So far haven't had many parties at work so hasn't been an issue, have taken a donut home in a piece of paper so the idea is still there. Could have packaged Easter to-go but didn't out of a lack of tupperware in my car at the time. Overall, a wonderful habit I've adopted.
May: Figure out a way to remember to take things back into my car, continue the tupperware trick.
General cleaning/organizing:
- Clean up 5 minutes a day.
Jan: Started this habit, did alright with it.
Feb: Whirlwind cleaned the house, and that made this habit really easy.
Mar: Completely forgot and fell off the bandwagon on this.
Apr: Was on vacation for 2 weeks, did lots of cleaning there though, and have taken time to put things away, put stuff in slots, etc. since coming back home. Hope to continue the trend.
May: Clean 5 minutes a day.
- I'll pick a project, a room, something, and spend the whole month on it.
Jan: Picked paperwork. Started it.
Feb: Continued paperwork. Was unsuccessful with fluffing up paperwork in Jan. Made a cheap (free) organizer for my hats on the wall.
Mar: Did not continue paperwork, started Konmari method on clothing but only at the end of the month. Paperwork was bogging me down. Started clothes. I did deep clean the kitchen though, and threw out many old items and organized other areas.
Apr: Continue to go through clothing and organize them. Hope to fit all of my clothing into the closet so that I can get rid of the dresser in the bedroom and make room for a bigger bed.
May: Hopefully completed clothing early on, and start to go through something else needed badly like perhaps my army stuff and storage items.
Financial:
- I want to max out my IRA this year, my emergency fund as well in a high interest savings account, finance the rest of my HEMA equipment, and truly get started in investing. I've been holding onto my savings right now because of some big picture stuff coming up in the near future.
Jan: Picked out a high interest savings account. IDed things needed: feder, armor, traveling. Made a budget.
Feb: Feder is paid for, armor is being made, did well with the budget. Added vanguard to my paychecks each month.
Mar: Did very little in terms of financial stuff. Only did my Taxes really.
Apr: Spent WAY more money than intended on my vacation to Texas. $2000 in total. Some of that was necessary (like paying to break contracts for TV service and internet services and get things started and switched over) but some were not (like not realizing how expensive the buffet I went to had gotten when I treated 8 people out to it, a rental car because I didn't do leg work for buying a car in time, etc.) at all and costed me dearly. I overall expected to spend only half of what I did, and I need to recoup that money. I did earn a bonus from my extra work in Feb, so that helped, but since I used a cool $700 (ouch!) for my feder this was not so great still. Luckily, overtime shifts help. It will take me 6 extra shifts (one overtime each) to recoup this money, and since bonuses are offered for extra shifts, I may end up doing another round of overtime stuff. That would put me right back at even money wise.... Which will further open me up to needing extra money to buy the car for Texas ($2000 alone) and traveling (hoping to go to Europe for $1000, Canada for $500, and Texas again for an extended time for $1000) Sucks hard, but there's no way around it, I got spendy while there and also the things I needed to do were spendy. Overall, I need to make an extra $7,500 in order to cover every single thing. $3,000 is what I pick up for every 6-shift contract I work... so I need 2 Extra contracts + 2 overtime shift weeks this year. I can probably do one of these in May/June, and likely will do the other in August/Sept. November will have to be the 2 overtime shift weeks.
May: Sign up for a contract with a floor that will let me to do overtime weeks whenever I possibly can.
Hobbies:
- Work through the first 20 lessons'. First half of the year to work on the first 10 lessons. Lesson 5/6 in Jan, 7 in Feb, 8 in Mar, 9 in April, 10 in May.. The song book 1 in June and July.
Jan: Started this habit practicing.
Feb: Continued to practice and got to 1st strings.
Mar: Fell off the wagon on this too. March was a slumpy month in general for me!
Apr: Was on vacation and obvi didn't play. Reviewing the things I learned in Feb, and trying my hand at an easy song.
May: Learn second string notes and play an easy song.
- I want to score a winning round in SiS, compete at all in Queen's Gambit, create my leather jacket and put my patches on it, Go to Okoberfecht again, get myself a complete set of useable gear that I can travel with and fight in without any loaner equipment, and memorize at least half of the montante rule sets. Enroll in Sword Carolina Online and start practicing at home.
Jan: Registered for stuff.
Feb: Registered for SiS, and I competed in QG! Started making armor.
Mar: Hung out mostly. Feder is ordered.
Apr: Participating in PHO. Took a hard hit to my head, which made me think I need lots more training. Going to SiS still, and going to practice as hard as I can before it comes considering it is soon. Leather armor is created and done just needs tweaking.
May: Focus on leather jacket and putting final touches on gear.
- Continue going to at least 2 HEMA classes a week.
Jan: Went 2x a week.
Feb: Went 2x a week.
Mar: Fell off the bandwagon for many reasons (some practices cancelled, mar was apparent a shit month for me lol, etc.) so did not do much training there.
Apr: Was on vacation for 2 weeks, will have practiced 3x this week and twice the next so overall did well.
May: Attend twice a week even though I'll be picking up extra shifts.
- I'd like to go snowboarding once this year.
We had unseasonably warm weather mixed with awful cold weather, none of it suitable for snowboarding. Will come back to this goal late this year when the weather turns again.
- I'm going to try to make 1 hash a month. It'll count as a run day for fitness too, so bonus.
Jan: I did alright, I did go to ONE hash this month.
Feb: Did not. HEMA, drama, etc. came first. Extra shifts on weekends did not help.
Mar: 1 hash run was attended.
Apr: Hoping to snag a hash, but doubt it with vacation + Hema tournament and viking fight night.
May: Go to a hash run once even with extra shifts.
- Japanese study - Finish book 1 and start book 2. Work more with anki. Watch 1 show in Japanese a week, 1 podcast a week.
Jan: Started on everything.
Feb: Anki was started, attended study sessions once a week. Started watching shows in Japanese, but no podcasts.
Mar: Study partner is in Japan, so couldn't study with her, and thus fell off the bandwagon.
Apr: My backpack with my textbooks were stolen. -_- fun. Going to do free studying online and with anki until I can replace my book and notes... ALL of my notes. Just... gone. It was pretty devastating. Friend is still in Japan herself, so no in-person obligations.
May: Regain my textbook and re-write my notes, watch TV shows and focus on Anki in the meanwhile.
- Costume Building/Cosplay
Jan: Not a goal.
Feb: Not a goal at the time.
Mar: Became a goal! Ordered some pants that are PERFECT for a cheap-ish Duo Maxwell costume.
Apr: Dye Duo Maxwell pants black and keep an eye out for a decent white shirt that will work for the costume.
May: Repair Asuna costume as I'll be re-using this one. Mumen Rider won't be this year I think, but I will try to work on it soon. Finish Duo Maxwell costume. Perhaps reach out to Ultimate Experience.
