January Goal Review: How did I do?!

Hey everyone! Happy Saturday! I had quite the eventful day. I went to lunch with a very good friend of mine. We met up at California Kitchen and I had the most amazing Cobb Salad with house ranch dressing on the side (used very sparingly).

After a very nice lunch and an amazing time catching up I decided to do some shopping. My goal was just maybe an hour or two but that turned in to about 5 hours where I visited:

• Walmart
• Target
• Trader Joes
• The Container Store

I had to take advantage because most of the stores are no where near my apartment (I was about 20-25 miles away from home). So, believe me! I had a blast. Specially at Walmart  I think I stocked up on enough house cleaning products and snacks to last me for the rest of the year!

So anyways, without further ado I'd like to get to the point of the post which is my January Goals Review. If you missed the very first post of the year you can check it out here. These were my target goals:

1. Read an entire book of choice. January's Selection: Aleph By Paulo Coelho

I finished the book in about 2 weeks in to the month. Although the book was quite good and included several "inspirational- follow your dreams" quotes, which are almost in every Coelho's book--- I still find that the Alchemist is his best work to date. 

Aleph is written as non-fiction and is actually Coelho's personal account of a trip he made
with his writing team while crossing the Trans-Siberian railway (a very, very long and adventurous train ride from Europe to Russia). I wont tell you much in case you want to read it but he shares multiple adventures where the main character is a stalker fan which he allows to join him on the trip. 

Like I mentioned, the book is filled with amazing quotes. Here are a few of my favorites:

"When faced by any loss, there’s no point in trying to recover what has been, it’s best to take advantage of the large space that opens up before us and fill it with something new." -Aleph, Paulo Coelho

"Don’t be intimidated by other people’s opinions.  Only mediocrity is sure of itself, so take risks and do what you really want to do."

"Anyone who knows God cannot describe Him. Anyone who can describe God does not know Him."

2. Get started on my new Jillian Michaels DVD. Shred IN 30

What can I say?! I love, love, love Jillian! I am currently on week 2, day 4 of Shred In 30. Ive been doing the workouts pretty consistently about every other day (minus this past week because I did not have time due to my school-scheduling chaos). Nonetheless, the workouts continue to be amazing and I definitely find this DVD much more challenging that the 30 day shred. I feel so much stronger and with more definition. Cant wait to see what weeks 3 and 4 are all about. I have a feeling I should be quite scared. But I am sure it'll be worth it!

*The way I am approaching the workouts: Since is 4 weeks worth of different workouts what I am doing is completing each week through the course of 7 days (skipping a day in between) which makes it to about 2 weeks per weekly workout. Hope that makes sense! I dont do it everyday because the workouts involve weights so, I like to give my muscles a rest day in between.

3. Look at the NY Road Runners schedule and map out a few races for the year or next 6 months. My sister got me a membership for Christmas (gotta love her!) so I cant wait to put it to use

Yes! So excited I have my 5 races mapped out for the year (I had made a goal of completing at least 5 races in 2013). I sat down the other day and googled some cool races for the year. I still have to sign up but a couple of the ones I am super excited about are: The Rock N Roll Race and The Color Run. Tomorrow I am running my very first race of the year with my sister. Is a 4-miler. Not too bad but I am excited :)

Ok, so I know I mentioned I would have my February objectives mapped out by today but I am still working on a few details for that particular post. I want to make sure my goals are realistic and attainable considering I am about to go back in to my full-time employee/ Part-time student routine so, there's going to be quite a nice mix of time-management going on. I am hoping to finish up rounding up my feb goals by tomorrow.

Question: Did you have any particular objectives for January? What was the best thing that happened to you in the last 31 days?

Hello 2013 and Hello January

Hey everyone! Hope you all had an amazing and safe new years eve celebration last night and that you're all hitting the ground running with this amazing year that has been numbered 2013. Something I didn't share yesterday on my post is that I actually spent a few hours of the morning at my local Barnes and Noble writing out a 2013 "action  plan". I was inspired by a Facebook post by an acquaintance that I really admire and he encouraged an action plan broken down in to quarterly, monthly and weekly goals. I am not quite finished yet but is looking good and is serving as a source of inspiration for me. I also completed my own "Happiness Concept Map" which I came across on this blog post. Erica is great and I actually derived my 2013 action plan from the concept map. I encourage you all to check it out. I first heard about the post on Clare's Blog.

I want to completely finish the action plan with set deadlines by the end of the week. Wish me luck! I have several things I want to accomplish by the end of January but here are a few of the "fun" stuff:

1.. Read an entire book of choice. This month's book:

I bought this book while vacationing in London back in 2011 (actually during my layover between London and Paris). I was going through a serious transition in my life and the book was absolutely perfect for the occasion.  I only ended up reading a couple of chapters because of my vacationing and then other stuff took focus when I came back but I cant wait to finish it. 

2. Get started on my new Jillian Michaels DVD. 30 day shred was amazing so I am excited about this one:

3. Look at the NY Road Runners schedule and map out a few races for the year or next 6 months. My sister got me a membership for Christmas (gotta love her!) so I cant wait to put it t use.

So now I leave you with a couple of photos from last nights celebration. Cheers to an amazing 2013!

Side note: I felt so amazing wearing that blue dress last night! I have never been "naturally skinny". I am one of those people that has to work for it and make a conscious effort each day to maintain a healthy life style and stay active. My hard work in 2012 paid off!!! It all started with getting rid of about 175 pounds (in terms of getting rid of a loser I was dating) which was just causing me to eat and be anxious. That was around February of 2012 and then I decided to take complete control of myself and my life-- began to race (Spartan), did a 5K, a 10K, remained constant with the Jillian Michael 30 day shred and other workouts. Ate healthy most of the time and come December I felt AMAZING and that how I felt last night. Sacrifices do pay off :)

Question: How was your new years eve? Are you making any plans for January or for the year? Thanks for reading!