January: Week 4 Check-In

JANUARY 2013 GOALS

Month is currently 90% over.

CAREER - 88% Complete

Hit target number of monthly illustrations. - 86% complete
Number illustrations completed - 67% complete.

Make target income for the month. - 130% complete.

Draw one illustration for myself. - 100% complete.
Some notes: So according to this, it appears that I'm behind on commissions.  That's not true.  Everything will be completed 100% by the end of the month.  The total complete for this section reflects the true nature of where I'm at, honestly.

FINANCIAL - 95% Complete

Make target income for the month. - 130% complete.

Keep budget. - 90% complete.
Some notes: Things are going well.  My husband and I intend to sit down on Thursday and discuss our budget.  I'll have a better idea of where we're at in our savings plans then.

HEALTH - 95% Complete

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 90% complete.

Lose 3 pounds by eating a salad every day and avoiding take-out. - 100% complete.
Some notes: I weighed myself on Saturday and was 168.4.  So I'm staying fairly stable.  I shouldn't be weighing myself that often, but I also typically don't weigh myself until Thursdays.  Wanted to be able to check in accurately.

HOME - 100% Complete

Organize my computer. - 100% complete.

KNOWLEDGE - 80% Complete

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 90% complete.

Begin taking supplements - continue for entire month. - 90% complete.

Begin daily mental exercises. - 75% complete.

Read one book. - 65% complete.
Some notes: I've doubled up on my mental exercises every day this week.  I've also gotten quite a ways into my book.  I expect both to be completed by the end of the month.

PERSONAL - 86% Complete

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 90% complete.

Begin meditating. - 50% complete.

Draw one illustration for myself. - 100% complete.

Lose 3 pounds by eating a salad every day and avoiding take-out. - 100% complete.

Adhere to my planner schedule. - 90% complete.
Some notes: Since most of these come from other sections aside from my schedule, look at those sections' notes.

RELATIONSHIP - 100% Complete

Do one date night: Watch movies in. - 100% complete.
Some notes: I believe we're having the second date night on Tuesday.

SPIRITUAL - 50% Complete

Begin meditating. - 50% complete.
Some notes: I'm getting much better at this, but still not where I'd like to be.  I've planned more meditation for this week, so it depends on how many of those sessions I can make.

Check List for February

1. Decide on a theme for my personal illustrations.
2. Sketch out thumbnails for my personal illustrations.
3. Sit down with my husband and our bank accounts to analyze our budget Thursday.
4. Divide February's home organization goal of the office into four smaller chores for each week.
5. Get two clear water bottles so I can mark the hours of the day on them to ensure 8 glasses of water a day in February.
6. Get a jar to put money in for each pound lost.
7. Get some loose ones to put in the jar for each pound lost.
8. Select a new book to read.
9. Plan out February date night.

How are you doing on your January goals?

Burn Out

The next time I say, "I'd rather make more money than take a week off this month," just punch me in the face.  Maybe this will be a lesson to me in the future.

I'm burnt out.  I'm behind on work this week because picking up the tablet pen is sometimes flat out painful.  It's like pulling teeth to lay down a few lines.  Honestly, sometimes, I simply don't want to draw.  And that's a problem when it's my job.

I think that's the hardest part about freelancing - you're always "on."  Granted, I know a lot of jobs that are high stress and I'm certainly not saying freelancers have it the worst, but we're pretty high up there.  There's no downtime when we work.  No messing around on the internet, playing games or watching a show.  My husband has Steam and every time I see him play a game while he's at work, I get severely jealous.  Why?  I don't get paid to game.

I get paid for my hard work.  Which means that if I'm not drawing or answering a correspondence e-mail, I'm honestly not getting paid.  Even then, I get paid what I ask.  Sometimes, I misjudge projects.  Sometimes, I just want something to look really good.  Sometimes, I invest extra hours for free.  I know, I know, for shame, but it's part of what I consider being a good illustrator for my clients.

Then there's that whole hypocoma thing I blogged about a few days ago.  Sleep really is my worst enemy.  Sometimes I finally find the will to work only to be thwarted by my eyes dragging.  I don't get much of a choice in the matter.  Once my body's tired, I'm done.  Doesn't matter if I actually go to bed; my husband's found me sleeping on my keyboard on more than one occasion.

That's what happened tonight.  I spent the day taking commissions, so most of my work was correspondence.  I cleaned the house a bit.  Then there was exercise night.  Once the girls left, I went to my parents' to get dinner.  After eating that, I finally sat down to draw and... oh god was I tired.  Food coma, most likely.  Aaron went to bed and I went to cuddle, then woke up this morning at 4 am with this terrible thought:

I have to get all of my commissions for this week done today.

I need some time off.  A week to catch my breath would be great.  Unfortunately, my vacation time doesn't accrue like most people's does.  Mine is defined by how much income I've made over my target monthly goal and if that covers a typical week's work of work.  At this point, I've got a week of vacation covered but that's the thing: it's just a week.  Things tend to go wrong at the worst possible time; I'd hate to take a week off now only to need it later and not have the availability.  Or, there's the possibility I may need to cash it out for something that blows up financially.

My check for Monday's gig will cover half a week and will come in mid-February.  If I can muster up the will to bust my rear, I might find myself with enough pay to cover two weeks by the end of February.  It'd then be much more plausible to take a week off.  In that case, new goal:

Take February 24th - March 3rd off without causing any set-backs to my goals.

Meditation

One of my most important goals spiritually is to start meditating again.  It's been something I haven't done for some time and my stress level shows it.  I meditated a few times through January, but that certainly wasn't what I had in mind.  I often noted in check ups how much I neglected this portion of my goals and I eventually started scheduling it in this week.

And what a difference it's making!

I'm fresh out of a meditation session and I feel pretty darn good.  What does true meditation feel like?  Well it's certainly not just sitting in the middle of a room, doing nothing with your legs crossed.  Honestly, as my sense of being fades, my hearing fades and I begin feeling as though I'm rocking.  It's almost as if I'm on water.  When away, it's like a dream - something vague yet very real.  And when I return, there's a pleasant numbness and warmth that fills me.

For those of you who don't believe in meditation, you're simply not doing it right.  There's nothing supernatural about meditation.  We don't truly leave our bodies and float off to another plan - we instead recess to the part of our minds that's filled with light and hope, bathe in it for a short time, and return to the real world.  It's liberating.  I dare you to try it.

Personally, because it's been a lengthy time since I've touched meditation, I've been following guided beginner meditations on Youtube.  I have the advantage of knowing when I'm truly meditating and when I'm just not thinking about anything.  It's made some of the meditations frustrating for me because I want them to catch up, which means I should probably step it up a little.  On my most recent one, I ended up ahead of the meditation but somehow still following it, which I actually thought was a little neat.  That being said, I want to make it through a few weeks of beginner level before I move on.  Having a solid foundation is the most essential key to doing anything.

If I can keep up the progress this week, I'll have no problems labeling meditation as 50% by my 4th week check in, and 100% by the end of the month.  That's a steady jump from 15%.

Do you meditate?  What does it feel like to you?

Why I Shouldn't Weigh Myself Early

Yeah, yeah, go ahead and mock me.

I weighed myself two days early and the scale said a pound more than what I'm at today.

That's what I get.

This doesn't mean I stop fighting the fight.

It just means that I hit my weight goal for January.

WOO!

Edit: Also, my thyroid lab work only costs $40!  I think I can deal with the lab nurse for that.  Today's becoming a good day!

Bah.

My husband called my doctor's office on Friday because I wasn't available thanks to my mom's physical therapy and work.  He was directed to the nurse's office where he got a voice mail and left a message about the cost of my thyroid tests.  No call back.  I called this morning and got the same runaround. Left a voice mail and never got called back.

The billing department was able to tell me that it would cost $15-$35 for them to draw my blood, but that doesn't include the actual lab.  Since they use an outside lab, I would have to pay that lab for them to analyse my blood.  God knows how much that'll be.  They didn't know and said a nurse would be more apt to answer that.  If only one would answer the damn phone.  I don't like things being in a state of flux.

I also don't want to have to search for a different doctor.  I don't want to end up with one that screws me over.  The last time I changed doctors, she changed all my medication.  I ended up having to go back to my regular doctor to get switched back to everything I was previously on.  It took three months for me to feel like myself again.

I'm content to stay at the same doc, but his nurses are awful.  Not to mention the lady who does blood work is, for lack of a better word, a bitch.  Every time I tell her I need to lay down to have my blood drawn, she gets frustrated with me. The one time I didn't lay down, I told her I felt nauseous and she said, "Oh, everyone feels nauseous after having blood drawn."  That was less than a minute before I defiled an office trashcan with a ball of vomit.  I don't handle getting my blood drawn very well and I wish she'd respect that a little more; instead she acts like I'm just trying to make her job harder.

On the bright side, said office trash can didn't have a trash bag.  I hope she enjoyed scrubbing my puke out.

Because of what blood work does to me, I'll have to have Aaron take a half-day so he can come with me.  I can't drive after having my blood drawn and will probably be clammy and nauseous afterward.  One time, I passed out and it took about fifteen minutes for me to come to.  Clearly, I'm not best suited to operate a vehicle when done.  I'll probably also need him to watch me for an hour before going back to work to make sure I don't pass out or violate another trash can.

I wish I handled blood work better.  Nothing like paying hundreds of dollars for them to do something to you that makes you nauseous and/or faint.  It's like my body completely rejects every idea of my blood coming out through a needle.

This whole post is gross.

3/5ths of a Pound

So my curiosity got the best of me and I weighed myself today.

My goal for January is 169 lbs.

I was supposed to be 170 by this Thursday.

I'm just a bit ahead of schedule! Woo!

Climbing the Ladder

This week is all about what it takes to make it to the next rung of my goal ladder.  It's eerily like sprinting towards the finish line after jogging a long marathon.  There's a lot to be done and I plan on seeing it through.

The primary areas that I haven't succeeded in this month are mental exercises, reading and meditating.  I've found these easy to push aside for things like work and dieting.  This week, I've scheduled in extra time specifically to those areas.  I should be able to finish my book by Saturday if I stick to it.  I'll be meditating every other day to make up for not having touched it the past few weeks.  I'll also be increasing memorization and memory games this week.  If I can stick to the schedule, I'll have no problems marking those items at 100% on my final check-in.

As I mentioned in my last journal, I've been unable to weigh myself this past week.  I'm looking forward to Wednesday when I can find out where I am on my diet and adjust accordingly.  This may mean adding in extra exercise hours or cutting down my calories a bit to make sure I hit my goal.  I ate out only once on a night where my husband worked until 10 PM.  As he's the chef of the house, that put us in a tight spot for food.  When I ordered, I cut back so significantly on what I would typically get that I still stayed within my diet.  I'm pretty proud of that.  Otherwise, I've been staying on top of my salads and have been tracking my meals with MyFitnessPal.com.  I wasn't supposed to be tracking my meals until around March, but I decided to start it early in hopes of hitting my goal weight for this month right on time.

Tomorrow I need to call to my doctor's office to find out how much my thyroid lab work is without insurance and how long it takes to process.  Depending on his answer, I could be getting it as soon as the last week of January.  I'm hoping I can push it as close to the 18th of February as I can.  That day marks the last of my levothyroxine.  I'll also need to ask how often I'll need my lab work done.  I know the last time I was there, they were thinking of every three to six months.  That'll tell me how many times I'll have to go to fulfill my goal of keeping up with my blood work.

More or less, here's a quick list summary of the above.  Think of it as a to do list for this week.

1. Meditate every other day.
2. Finish my current book.
3. Use my memory phone application every day.
4. Weigh myself on Wednesday. Weighed early and under weekly goal!
5. Adjust my diet and exercise accordingly. No need.
6. Call my doctor's office about my thyroid tests. Around $40.  Results in the next day.

Also, as we see the first day of February next week, I'm starting to look forward to goals I have specifically for that month.  Here's a list of things I need to do sometime before January 31st to prepare for February's goals:

1. Decide on a theme for my personal illustrations.
2. Sketch out thumbnails for my personal illustrations.
3. Sit down with my husband and our bank accounts to analyze our budget.
4. Divide February's home organization goal of the office into four smaller chores for each week.
5. Get two clear water bottles so I can mark the hours of the day on them to ensure 8 glasses of water a day in February.
6. Get a jar to put money in for each pound lost.
7. Get some loose ones to put in the jar for each pound lost.
8. Select a new book to read.
9. Plan out February date night.

Busy busy.  With that, I think I'm going to bed and getting some rest.  I'm going to need to energy if I'm going to make this sprint towards the finish line of my January goals!

January: Week 3 Check-In

Eventually I'll have my own stock image for this...

I'm fairly awake.  I'm groggy.  Let's do this.

JANUARY 2013 GOALS

Month is currently 65% over.

CAREER - 82% Complete

Hit target number of monthly illustrations. - 68% complete
Number of those illustrations completed - 43% complete.

Make target income for the month. - 116% complete.

Draw one illustration for myself. - 100% complete.
Some notes: I don't think I'll be able to hit my target number of monthly illustrations this month.  I might potentially hit around 75-80%.  This is almost irrelevant though given that I've already hit my target income.  I consider that perfectly acceptable.

FINANCIAL - 82% Complete

Make target income for the month. - 116% complete.

Keep budget. - 65% complete.
Some notes: We've fully budgeted in my husband's inner tie rod replacement and expect to repair them in mid-April.  I'm trying to make this a bit sooner, so my excess income from this month will go entirely to that.

HEALTH - 83% Complete

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 65% complete.

Lose 3 pounds by eating a salad every day and avoiding take-out. - 100% complete.
Some notes: I don't know where I'm at on my weight right at this moment.  I can't weigh myself this week for, um, womanly reasons.  Seriously, I gain three to five pounds during that magical time.  Not even kidding.  Also, I need to get a hold of my doctor's office to find out how much my thyroid lab work is and how long it takes for the results to come back.  I'll have to schedule that accordingly, which may or may not mean doing it this month.

Edit: Weighed myself!  3.4 pounds down!

HOME - 100% Complete

Organize my computer. - 100% complete.
Some notes: Blew through this on my last check-in.

KNOWLEDGE - 48% Complete

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 65% complete.

Begin taking supplements - continue for entire month. - 65% complete.

Begin daily mental exercises. - 25% complete.

Read one book. - 35% complete.
Some notes: I'm no better about reading and daily mental exercises than I was in my last check up.  This month may be an utter failure there.  Monday's entry may be spent scheduling in more time to work on this in the upcoming two weeks so I can actually get these done.

PERSONAL - 58% Complete

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 65% complete.

Begin meditating. - 15% complete.

Draw one illustration for myself. - 100% complete.

Lose 3 pounds by eating a salad every day and avoiding take-out. - 47% complete.

Adhere to my planner schedule. - 65% complete.
Some notes: Since most of these come from other sections aside from my schedule, look at those sections' notes.

RELATIONSHIP - 100% Complete

Do one date night: Watch movies in. - 100% complete.
Some notes: We're still planning a second date night for the last week of January, but I'll consider this one done.

SPIRITUAL - 15% Complete

Begin meditating. - 15% complete.
Some notes: Yeah, still not getting on top of this.  Like I said in Knowledge, I may have to spend some time actually scheduling this in to get it complete.

How are you doing on your January goals?

Hypocoma

Sleep is my mortal enemy.  It regularly screws me over.

Over the past two weeks, I've slowly turned work into a graveyard shift.  Get up at 5 PM, go to bed at 9 AM.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  What a mess!  Sometimes I feel absolutely incapable of normal human functioning.  So I decided to fix that on Friday.  I had to get up relatively early and got about six hours of sleep.  I decided to forgo work, pushing it back to today, in order to get back on a day schedule.  I went to bed around 11 PM and woke up around 9 AM today.  Perfect!  Now to work.

This is where my hypothyroidism laughs maniacally, saying "That's what you think."

I should have known the minute I got up that something was wrong.  I slept for ten hours straight without budging after going to bed early.  It should have been a huge warning sign.  But I happily ignored it for as long as I could - which was about an hour.

Then it hit me like a pound of bricks.  I was not only tired - I was absolutely exhausted.  Yawning with my eyes watering, cold and shivering, and my eyelids would not stay open.  I don't even remember going back to bed.

Then I woke up at around 8 PM.  A whopping 10 more hours later.

This is the side of my hypothyroidism that I absolutely abhor with all my being.  Despite being on good medication, taking my Omega-3's, my vitamins and my supplements, nothing makes it go away.  There's that day, usually once a month, where I simply sleep forever without meaning to.  I call it a hypocoma.

This was a mild hypocoma at 20 hours, unless I make it to 9 PM and can't keep my eyes open again.  Then it'll be relatively normal.  Most of my hypocomas will last around 24 hours on top of a normal 8-hour sleep.  Just ask my best friend.

Last year, I decided to take a break from the hell of 2012 to visit her about 500 miles away.  She was desperate for a new entertainment system, so we went to IKEA for one.  We woke up fairly early and it only took us a few hours.

The minute we got home, something was wrong.  I was tired and cold; I could feel it coming on.  I fell asleep on the couch watching TV within 30 minutes of making it back in.  Not only did I fall sleep sitting up, but I was slouched over to the side with my arms and head on the armrest.  It was not comfortable and no normal human being should be able to fall asleep that way, but I did.

I woke up briefly for my friend's curry, then fell back asleep - almost with the bowl in hand if someone wouldn't have woken me to put it away!  They then pulled apart the entertainment system, vacuumed in front of me, put the new entertainment system together complete with knocking, put both my dog and her dog out for a bathroom break and went to the store.  I didn't wake up for any of it.  I slept through the night and woke up the next afternoon going "Holy hell, what happened?"

I slept for 24 hours on top of normal sleep slouched over and  through all sorts of noise without budging.

I haven't found a solution to this problem.  When I had my one year of insurance, I should have gone to an endocrinologist.  Unfortunately, with no insurance, that won't be happening.  I've tried all sorts of diets, supplements and folk remedies trying to fix this issue with no luck.  I'm doomed to waste one day a month sleeping my life away at this point, and it's very frustrating.

That being said, my eyes are starting to weigh.  At this point, I've lost the day anyway, so I might as well surrender to the hypocoma and finish off my sleep.  I suppose I'll work tomorrow with no weekend this round.  Not very fair, body.  Not very fair.

100% Monthly Target Income!

Actually, 110%.  Things are definitely looking up!

Technically, commissioners pay up front though - not after the fact.  I have a very strict rule about not paying myself until the work is complete.  I won't be able to cut myself a paycheck for the next batch of commissions until next Friday.  That being said, that still leaves me with one week left in the month where I can earn some extra wages.  Plus the caricature gig I have on Monday, January 28th.

I'm super stoked to be able to make a bit of spare cash.  I could easily be looking at an extra 30% income this month.  Maybe I can throw it at my husband's inner tie rods and get them replaced sooner?  Or I could stash it away and use it as padding in case something goes wrong.  Maybe a little bit of both!

The Doctor's Companion

So this is the product my drawing for myself this month.  I like to have covers that I personally design, particularly because I do a lot of networking on Facebook. Almost all of them have involved my pets in some way.  At one point, I was Dorothy and my dog was Toto from the Wizard of Oz.  My cats were flying around in the background from the tornado.  It was simple but I loved it.

At one point, my pets were out to get me because I had the food bag.

And when Nyx passed away, I even did a memorial cover picture.

The truth is, though, that I feel like I kind of wasted my one drawing this month.  I'd like to do something more portfolio-worthy than Facebook covers with my pets.  I really need to sit down and come up with a series of images I can work on over the next 12 months that I would be proud to display on my website.

Something elaborate yet in my style.  Something that focuses on my strengths and can really add to my current body of work.

It's going to take more thought than just a single post.  That being said, I'd like to hear from you guys!

Any suggestions on a series of 10 illustrations you'd like to see from me?

My Favorite Salad

What you'll need:
10 leafs of Basil
10 leafs of Mint
1-2 cups of Baby Spinach
1/4th - 1/2 of a Cucumber
Sea Salt
Pepper

What you'll do:
Mix the basil, mint and baby spinach.  Add according to your taste.
Slice the cucumber on top.
Add a bit of sea salt and pepper on top and enjoy!

The cucumber will pick up the salt and pepper. You can then grab a piece in every bite for the full flavor effect.  The best part about this salad?  No salad dressing!

Calorie Count: Just 50.  And that's on the high end.

We are Gangnam Style!

Who says your workout has to be some dull and difficult exercise video?  Up on Youtube is a video of Psy practicing the full Gangnam Style dance with his back ups.  There's even a slowed-down version which is still surprisingly strenuous for the non-dancer.  One laptop plus a flat screen later and you have everyone at exercise nights huffing "OPPAN GANGNAM STYLE!" as they try to keep up with the moves.  The workout easily hit 30 minutes without us even noticing.

P.S. Made progress on the book I'm reading last night - 81 out of 234 pages.  There's 35% down, which is a significant catch up from my whole 0% just a couple days ago.  Slowly but surely!

What do you do to make exercising fun?

What are You Doing for Your Goals Tonight?

Me?  I'm scheduling.  It's my Sunday night ritual.

What are you doing for your 2013 goals tonight?

Mid-January Check-In

I admit that I spent a lot of time on this blog in the planning phase.  I admit that most of the initial posts were pre-written while I was working things out in December.  I also admit that posts will probably become less frequent after today - likely every 2-4 days from here on out.

Because the planning phase was so extensive, I was unable to relate how the first seven days of my 365 Day Journey went.  And here we are, a day from the end of Week 2 and my Mid-January Check-In.  At this point, I think it would be safer to combine posts instead of bore you guys by cramming more posts down your throats.

So, how has it gone?  Well, let me give you a run-down section by section.  To compare, January is 42% complete.  For future months, my mid-month check in will be at the closest to 50% complete as I can get.

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CAREER - 72% Complete for the Month - So far, so good!
The Good: I am well over where I need to be to hit my target monthly income for January, and I've finished the drawing I need to do for myself.  Overall, I'm ahead in this section!  I'm also exceedingly proud of the work I've been doing and how well I've been staying on schedule.

The Struggles: I've been commissioned for the right amount of illustrations so far, and I'm definitely adhering to a strict schedule on finishing them.  Unfortunately, I'm about to fall a little behind.  I confirmed a few more illustrations for this week, all of which should be finished by Friday if I can stay on schedule.  That's the catch though.  I'm concerned that I won't be able to finish them all by Friday directly.  Last week, I had a head start by working over the weekend to finish half of the sketches.  This week, I'm being very headstrong: No. Work. On. The. Weekends.  The catch will be seeing if I can finish all the illustrations this week and stay on top of my other goals.

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FINANCIAL - 57% Complete for the Month - Ahead and feeling great!
The Good: If I can stay on schedule as I mentioned above, I might be able to exceed my target income for the month.  Of course, I may have just jinxed that by saying it publicly, but I'm super stoked.  On top of it, I have a bit of padding by having a caricature gig on Monday, January 28th.  That gives me a last-minute three-digit padding for the month.  Even if I fall behind, there's a really good chance I'll hit my goal anyway.  Bonus!

The Struggles: Aaron, my husband, has a flat on his car from one of the tires he needs to replace.  This is budgeted for, but not for a few months.  I guess I thought the tires would last longer.  We're going to have to replace it early - tomorrow in fact.  I'm not sure what kind of effect this will have on our finances at this point and will need to sit down with him soon to sort it out.  On the bright side, we can pull it from our monthly spending money for Aaron until we can work it out.

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HEALTH - 44% Complete for the Month - On target.
The Good: Stepping on the scale and seeing a pound and a half down was fantastic.  In fact, I've lost more weight than I needed to at this point in the game.  Hopefully it's not just water weight.  I've also started taking my hypothyroid medication again.  Haven't skipped a beat there.

The Bad: We've eaten out not once, not twice, but three times in the past three days.  Usually it's small, like a single doughnut from QT or a hash brown from McD's, but I'm guilty of two chicken quesadillas from Taco Bell tonight. Groceries, which prevent us from doing such horrible things, are my financial responsibility.  Because it's the beginning of the year, I haven't been able to cut myself a paycheck from work until just a couple days ago.  On the bright side, it should process on Monday and it's a pretty awesome paycheck.  I don't mind dipping into savings knowing that paycheck is coming.  So tomorrow, after Aaron fixes his car, we're heading to the store.

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HOME - 0% Complete for the Month - You had one thing to do, Marietta.  One thing!
The Bad: I haven't even started.  Not even a tiny bit.  I need to organize my computer and I'm slacking this month.

The Good: After I post this blog entry, I'm going to get on top of that.  Expect that number to change on my January 2013 Goals post by morning.

Edit: 100% complete now!  Booyah!  It pays to do mid-month check-ins!

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KNOWLEDGE - 27% Complete for the Month - Behind but kickin'.
The Good: By staying on top of my thyroid meds, I've also stayed on top of my supplements.  I've definitely been feeling less groggy and dense, so that's a load of help.

The Bad: I haven't started my book for the month.  It's something I plan to jump on tomorrow.  I also have only been doing mental exercises on days I have to take my mom to physical therapy.  I want to do daily mental exercises.  Fortunately, my husband found a pretty neat app for the phone that should help me fix this.  As soon as I've had sufficient experience with it, I'll do a review!


PERSONAL - 46% Complete for the Month - Right on schedule.
The Good: A lot of the goals in this section come from other sections.  Also, most of the goals in this section I've already gotten a head start on, such as completing one illustration for myself or losing 1.5 pounds already.  The main goal that's separate is staying on the schedule I created for myself in my planner - and I've been doing pretty well at that.

The Bad: What's actually pulling this number down is spiritual.  I'll hit that section in just a moment anyway.

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RELATIONSHIP - 100% Complete for the Month - Spontaneous date night success?
The Good: Aaron and I had our date night tonight, albeit a bit spontaneously.  He and I chose to do a movie night in for January.  We had been planning it for the last week of January but I was so amazingly bored this evening.  Hey, I'm a freelancer. I haven't had a weekend off since 2010, but my new schedule gives me weekends off. I seriously don't know what to do with my new found time!

The Bad: There's really no bad to this goal as long as we complete it.  I think we're still going to hold out for the last week of January though and do it again as planned.  Double the date nights, double the fun!

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SPIRITUAL - 15% Complete for the Month - Oops.
The Good: I have started meditating more often.

The Bad: It's been... twice.  And once while I had a migraine so I could "escape" the pain.  I don't know if that really counts.  But I did head downstairs tonight and do a small session.  If I can get more on top of this, expect to see this number go up fast.

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OVER ALL FOR JANUARY: 45% Complete

Biggest success so far? Making nearly 3/4ths of my desired income for the month in the first two weeks.  That made me really excited.

What I need to work on the most? Organization.  I'm so lazy about organizing things because I know how OCD I get once I start.  It always turns into a larger chore than I anticipated.  This month's goal isn't even a physical organization but getting my computer cleaned up.  Yeah, gonna go do that soon.

What I'm the most worried about? Getting my commissions done on time having taken the weekend off.  Also, losing the full three pounds this month now that we've eaten out so much.  Might have to throw in some extra exercise nights to burn the calories.

What am I the least worried about? Despite having not touched it yet, I'm the least worried about reading my book.  The book I chose was short (250 pages) and instructional, which means I'll blaze through it once I pick it up.  I just have to get there.

Girls' Night? Pfft, we have Exercise Nights.

Goals for the month of January 2013

Today, I'm dividing up my goals into achievable steps for this month.  Fairly short and sweet!  Making it a single post will make it easier to access and, come the end of the month, I can tally up my successes as well as not-so-successes.  Expect this post to be updated regularly as I work on these goals.  They will now be updated on weekly check-ins!

JANUARY 2013 GOALS

Month is currently 42% over.

CAREER

Hit target number of monthly illustrations. - 43% complete.

Make target income for the month. - 72% complete.

Draw one illustration for myself. - 100% complete.

FINANCIAL

Make target income for the month. - 72% complete.

Keep budget. - 48% complete.

HEALTH

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 48% complete.

Lose 3 pounds by eating a salad every day and avoiding take-out. - 47% complete.

HOME

Organize my computer. - 100% complete.

KNOWLEDGE

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 48% complete.

Begin taking supplements - continue for entire month. - 48% complete.

Begin daily mental exercises. - 25% complete.

Read one book. - 35% complete.

PERSONAL

Begin taking thyroid meds - continue for entire month. - 28% complete.

Begin meditating. - 15% complete.

Draw one illustration for myself. - 100% complete.

Lose 3 pounds by eating a salad every day and avoiding take-out. - 47% complete.

Adhere to my planner schedule. - 48% complete.

RELATIONSHIP

Do one date night: Watch movies in. - 100% complete.

SPIRITUAL

Begin meditating. - 15% complete.

Next time: What happens at Girls' Night most certainly doesn't stay at Girls' Night.

What is one goal you have to be completed in January?

The Planner and My Big Three

This is my planner.  Well, this is a picture of the kind of planner I got.

Technically, this is my planner.  And yes, the sleeve you see is a coat sleeve.  That picture is courtesy of the time in December when we had no heat.  Good riddance, 2012.

When December began, I had already fleshed out my Wheel of Life and all of my goals. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with 2013.  It wasn't anything amazing, like an overseas vacation or skydiving, but it was exactly what I needed: a 180 spin on a hopelessly bad 2012.  I even already knew I needed a planner.

I had a whole $10 and some change in my bank account when I walked into Walmart on Christmas Eve for a planner.  I know there are other less selfish things I could have spent my money on.  I could have digitally scheduled my life.  In fact, this was the exact response my best friend got when she posted up her planner to begin her 365 day journey.

And that's the truth.  I'm an obsessive to-do-lister.  I have Sticky Notes on my desktop.  I keep a marker board calender (and I actually keep it updated).  But I needed something that I could take with me everywhere - something that I could not only schedule my whole year in, but be able to schedule my day to day activities.

That's when this planner jumped out at me.  First and foremost, it's pink.  My love of pink is less "OMG, I'M A PRINCESS MAGIC PONY PINK!" but a more "That's a great color. I can't wear it but it's eye-catching." sort of way.  When I opened it up, I discovered a well organized daily schedule with a This Week column.  Perfect!

Check out their website to see more.

Yes, I spent my last $10 of 2012 on a planner.  And I'm damn proud of it too.

After Christmas, I finally got a chance to open up my planner and begin doing a little 2013 scheduling.  Being just a touch overwhelmingly OCD, I can't lie that this was an exciting moment for me.  But, before my pen touched the paper, that dark, nagging voice rang out in my head.

What if you can't accomplish everything?

I'd love to say that I ignored the dark voice and kept going about my scheduling business.  I'd be lying if I did.  My pen dropped and my first thought was, "Oh no!  What if I really don't accomplish anything?"  Ugh, bad, pessimistic thoughts!  Bad Marietta!

But it is true: I'd set out to do a lot in 2013.  There's a good chance that I'll falter a lot along the way.  There's even a chance that I won't accomplish everything I set out to do.  With as fragile as my subconscious is after last year, I'd hate to be shut down mid-way because I missed some goals.

That's when I decided to do one last thing to my Wheel of Life: pick out my Big Three.  Just what are the Big Three, you ask?  If I accomplish absolutely nothing else, what are the three goals I can accomplish in 2013 that would make me feel like a rock star?

1. Get back on my hypothyroidism medication.
2. Lose 15 pounds.
3. Up my number of monthly illustrations.

There's my Big Three - in big, bold letters.  Appropriate, no?  So how did I decide on my Big Three?  I looked at, surprise surprise, three main factors: goals that crossed multiple sections, particularly low percentage areas; goals that were linked to other goals; goals that were surprisingly small and relatively obtainable.

For example: The first of my Big Three, getting back on thyroid medication, actually crosses three of my low percentage areas - Health, Knowledge and Personal.  If I want to stay on it, I have to keep up with my thyroid test.  Also, staying on it will help me lose weight.  So that immediately links it to at least two other sections in Health.  On top of it, I take my supplements at the same time I take my medication, so that links it to supplements in Knowledge.  Finally, popping a pill once a day is not all that hard.  This goal attunes to all three factors of a Big Three goal.

So there you have it!  The process I went through to discover my goals for 2013 was surprisingly in depth and took me the better part of a month to flesh out.  On the bright side, these are well thought out and achievable goals.  Even if I don't achieve all of them, I know which three are the most important to work on.

And I even have my trusty planner to do it.

In the upcoming days, see my progress on my 365 day journey.  Find out how I did the first week and where I'm headed.  See picture updates as I work out, eat salads, draw, read, check off tasks and, eventually, shade in my chart little by little!

Do you own a planner?  How often do you use it?  If not, how to you keep track of your tasks?

2013 Personal Goals: How Depression Led to a Planner

Finally, here we are.  After a week of non-stop posts, I can officially say that this is the last for my Wheel of Life.  Today, I'm chatting about my Personal goals.  Personal goals can mean a variety of things, but what does it mean to me?  Aren't all goals, on some level, personal?

I want to take a moment to discuss 2012.  Remember the first post I made about how disastrous last year was?  Remember that I stated I went through three months of depression?  It seemed so nonchalant in that post to just fly over the word depression, but the truth is in the nightmare I experienced after everything went to pieces.  

In late March, a lot of those horrible events from last year had already occurred.  January was the setting for probably the most terrible month of my life - the month I went to two funerals, the month we almost lost our dog to a medication allergy, the month some kid spun out in our parking lot and nearly totaled our car with little to no insurance.  We'd suffered a huge dent in our savings, so my husband and I were already looking to move out of our nice but somewhat expensive apartment.  Despite having a roommate, we  were still living penny to penny and I was getting frustrated with our overall housing situation.  In fact, I was compiling a list of apartments I had called and was still interested in the day my husband came home with devastating news: he was now unemployed.

It shook my world. There was no reason to keep looking at affordable apartments now.  With the current economy, the chances of my husband finding a supportable job within a month was slim, and my freelancing job, while often supportable, was not a fixed income.  What if, for whatever reason, I didn't get enough commissions one month?  What would we do?  Without saying it, my husband and I both knew the inevitable about our living situation.  

We were moving back home with the parents.

Granted, shortly after that, a beam of light broke through the clouds and we were offered the amazing house rental that we currently enjoy.  I'm not saying that I'm not thankful every day for this opportunity.  What I am saying is that the moment I listed above and everything that happened subsequently broke my spirit to pieces.  Everything my husband and I had worked for every minute of every day for the past four years was thrown to the floor and stomped on.  Stomped on by the economy, stomped on by every event of 2012, and stomped on by my weighted soul.  I don't remember a lot of the first month in this house.  I spent most of it curled into a ball on the bed hoping I'd make it through another day.  I didn't want to set foot on the floor for fear something wrong would happen.  Despite the amazing opportunity we had with the house, the offer would never have been there had we not fallen flat on our faces.  Every moment in these walls reminded me of all of our failures.

To make matters worse, because our insurance was no longer valid, I couldn't afford the tests to keep my levothyroxine going.  That meant I felt even more terrible than I did.  In some ways though, being off of my meds was a blessing.  I often slept through the awful mood swings, sometimes through whole days even, if given the chance.

So that's the long of it.  In short, things went really bad and I recessed to a very dark place.  Did I find the silver lining, realize the amazing gift we'd been given and pick up the pieces?  I did.  But it took three months.  When I finally did come out of it, I wasn't quite the same.  I've never been a perky optimist, but I can't say I've had a permanently dark view on life - not until after those three months.  Anything bad that happened after that would send me back down that dark path - things like my car going to pieces just a few short weeks before I was supposed to drive 500 miles to see my best friend, or my cat suddenly developing liver failure and dying in three days.

Despite having a new outlook for 2013, how would I rate how I feel about myself?  Well, at least it's not as bad as I feel about our finances, but it's certainly not great. And that's what Personal is really all about - what will make me happier and more confident.

Not surprisingly, many of these goals come from other sections of my Wheel, the first being my thyroid medication.  I already mentioned above that the lack of levothyroxine was a proverbial kick in the groin while I was already on the ground, so it almost goes without saying that reintroducing it would lift me back up a little.  That's straight from my Health goals.

What else would make me feel better about myself?  Giving back to my community, from the Spiritual section.  A once-girl who used to volunteer often doesn't feel right as a woman who does nothing for others.  Setting that straight would certainly bring me up a bit.  It would also keep me busy, which keeps my mind from wandering into that dark place I discovered last year.

Next, I needed to protect myself from that dark place.  My spiritual goal of meditation would help me to become right with myself, being at peace with my life and the world.

So I'm medicated, I'm protected and I'm giving back, but what am I doing for myself?  Well, from my Career goals, I'm drawing 12 illustrations just for little ol' me.  Being able to indulge in my life's passion would definitely be a step in the right direction, and one of the only "selfish" things I could do that I'd be completely comfortable with.

Finally, not that I wanted to add appearances, but losing weight would certainly help.  And any kind of exercise is sure to make me feel better - in fact, my weight loss adventure last year is what pulled me out of my depressive funk.  Doing it full time would definitely drive it away.

But I still needed one final goal.  I looked at all of my goals and noticed one thing: I had a lot to do this year if I wanted to 180 my life.  How in the world was I going to get this all done?

I needed a planner.

Tomorrow on The Progressive Planner: Picking out my planner and my "Big Three" goals.

What's one goal you have for 2013 that you know will make you feel better about yourself?

2013 Knowledge Goals: Memory and Clarity

I saved the Knowledge and Personal sections for last as I knew they would have the most overlapping goals. Overlapping goals are perfectly fine, even encouraged.  They keep us sane by bettering ourselves with less stress yet ensuring we still feel accomplished.

As I mentioned in my Health Goals post, I am hypothyroid.  Among the many symptoms I struggle with, lack of memory and fogginess top the list.  The worst part is that forgetting makes me very frustrated with myself.  It's one of the reasons I put organization on my Home list; I get tired of being mad at myself for losing things simply because I'm in a fog and can't remember where I put them.  Heck, it's probably the most basic starting point for how The Progressive Planner got started.  I have to be so organized and write down all my to-do's if I want to have any kind of hope in remembering them.

This is one of the reasons why I chose Knowledge as one of my eight areas.  I remember a time where I could whip out 100% on advanced tests.  I have the IB diploma from high school.  When I was in college, I was never a B student, graduating with a 4.25 GPA summa cum laude with additional honors.  That's not a bragging right; it's just a fact - one that my inner voice shoves in my face every time I forget to turn the oven off or leave the dog's food bowl empty all day even though I've seen it multiple times.  Forgetting seems so harmless until you chance starving your beloved pet or burning down the house.

Strengthening my memory is of utmost importance to me in 2013.  But just how was I going to accomplish that?

Some goals to achieve better memory come from other sections of my Wheel of Life.  First and foremost is getting back on levothyroxine for my hypothyroidism, which will do me a world of good in a multitude of areas.  In addition to that, I need to start taking my supplements and vitamins again.  Whenever I go on extended trips, I feel like a crazy pill-popper with my bag of meds and supplements, but you can't diss what works.  Just my Omega-3's alone could make me feel more alert and ready to take on the world.

Of course, exercise has been proven to improve mental clarity, but you also have to work your brain like a muscle.  Daily mental exercises can improve even my wretched memory.  This is something I've already been working on - when I take my mom to physical therapy, I sit down with a Sudoku puzzle book.  Using pen, I don't make any marks on the page except for when I know a number goes in the box.

And I'm getting pretty fast, too!

But all of my goals above have been about improving my memory.  What about building on my knowledge base?  Reading is essential.  If there's one thing the International Baccalaureate program in high school broke me of, it was my love of books.  After having to read as much as we did in a single day, you'd hate reading too.  This year, I'd like to rediscover my love of reading by selecting twelve books I'd like to complete.  They can be on any topic - in fact, the one I've picked out for this month is spiritual.

Only one section left!  Look for tomorrow's post on my personal goals for 2013!

Do you have any knowledge or memory improvement goals?  Share them below!

2013 Spiritual Goals: Looking Inward and Giving Back

Before I got swept up in college and the three jobs I took to pay for it, I used to volunteer quite often.  I like giving back when I can and it fills me with a sense of more than just myself in the world.  This year, I'd like to volunteer on at least three separate occasions.  I'm look at once at a pet shelter, once at a soup kitchen and once at our local hospital around Christmas time. 

My second goal is to meditate more often.  I spend so much time in the real world that I often struggle to keep things in perspective.  Having that peace of mind often could truly help when it comes to my stress level, plus it adds to my religious beliefs of harmony and forgiveness.  Since it's a smaller goal and I have a multitude of other goals, I don't see a point of putting a number or a due date on it, but I do want it in there.

Tomorrow: My 2013 knowledge goals!

Do you have any spiritual goals for 2013?

2012 Relationship Goals: Date Night Ideas

For relationships, I'm actually really happy.  Despite losing a multitude of friends last year, I actually made a remarkable set of friends from acquaintances.  They are the same girls that come over twice a week for Girls' Night (read: Exercise Night).  We definitely have more in common than I could have ever imagined and I hang out with them pretty often.  As for my marriage, my husband was my high school sweetheart.  We've been together nine years, married four, and still going strong.  But, in the bustle of last year between my parents and everything that went wrong, we ended up spending less time together than I would have liked.  So, when I was making my goal list, I leaned over my chair to the man sitting across from me and asked, "Hey, what are some date night ideas you'd like?"  After a small 20 minute discussion, here's our list of ideas:

• Movie Night In
• Ice Cream Day
• Stargazing
• Weekend Camping Trip
• Weekend Trip to Hannibal, MO - I went here in high school and loved it!
• Improv
• Alamo Movie
• Royals Game - We try to make one game a year, but we typically go with his parents.  Not this year!
• Worlds of Fun - They have a new dinosaur attraction.  I also love their Halloweekends.
• Expensive Restaurant
• Chateau Avalon for our Anniversary - This is where we stayed on our wedding night.
• One repeat date night.

For January, we're choosing the movie night since it's the easiest to plan and the least expensive.  A lot of the other date nights will need to be saved for.  I mentioned to my husband that I'd take a look at our budget and plan for them, but he insisted he wanted to use his monthly spending money to cover date nights.  So problem solved there!

Tomorrow on The Progressive Planner: My 2013 spiritual goals.

What's one thing you could do this year to improve your relationship with your significant other, friends and/or family?

2013 Home Goals: Small Steps towards an Organized Home

The next areas I wanted to tackle were short and sweet: Home and Relationships.  In both areas, I'm nearly perfectly happy, but there was still something more I could do.

The goal for home came fairly quickly as I looked about my office: I needed some serious organization around here.  I can't tell you how many times I've lost something and spent hours looking for it only to get frustrated.  Something like that can ruin my whole day.

But instead of organizing the house in a day or a month, I wanted to split the task into 12 months.  By tackling just one small thing a month, I'd end up with a happy house by the end of December.

This was certainly doable and gave me plenty of time each month to get it done in!

Stay tuned.  Tomorrow's topic?  My 2013 relationship goals!

What's one thing you'd like to do this month to achieve a happier, healthier house?

2013 Career Goals: Positive, Quantitative Goals

Let me start with this: I'm a freelance illustrator and I love my job.  I am not half-happy with my current job, but I'm half-happy with the amount of effort I put into it.  Many times, we struggle with balancing our career and our families.  More often, you hear of the person who lost his family because he stayed at the office until midnight every night, but you rarely hear of the people who lost their careers because they spent too much time with the fam.  The second one would nearly be me, particularly with my parents.  I really should learn to say no.  But instead of "saying no to my parents" being a goal, I wanted to make positive, quantitative goals.

The first goal I actually pulled from my financial goals: making my target income for the year.  I would certainly feel better about my career knowing that I made the money I was supposed to make to cover our budget.  See how goals can often cross multiple sections?  I now needed to decide just how I was going to make that amount.

The way I work is by scheduling a certain amount of commissions per month.  I actually say no at my job more often than I do at home.  I have a real job and I need to start treating it that way.  I decided on a monthly number of commissions that I would be happy and comfortable with taking - a number more than last year but that still left me family and fun time.  If I can achieve this number, I will make my target income.  I now had two out of four goals.

As a character designer and concept artist, I'm typically contracted not to show my work until years later.  On top of that, I can't really remember the last time I drew anything for myself.  Creating one drawing a month that's purely for fun could add to both of those.  It would also make me feel much better about my career doing something I love in a relaxed setting.

Finally, because I rarely get a chance to show my work, my portfolio is a little outdated.  By drawing work for myself, I could finally sit down and update my website with work newer than 2011.

Next time on The Progressive Planner:

What are your career-related goals for 2013?

2013 Health Goals: Taking Small Steps and Rewarding Yourself

The next section I attacked was my health.  Some obvious goals really jumped out at me here: my health condition and my weight.

First of all, I struggle with hypothyroidism.  Hypothyroidism occurs when your thyroid doesn't produce enough hormone, which affects your whole body.  I actually experience just about every symptom to a great severity, including weight gain, fatigue, cold sensitivity, dry skin (I actually have psoriasis), drowsiness and oversleeping, depression and even hair loss.  When I was tested back in May of 2011, my results were off the charts.  The minute I got on a heavy dose of synthetic hormone, I felt much better.  Unfortunately, due to finances, I couldn't afford the lab tests required to get my medication, which means I haven't been taking levothyroixine since roughly May 2012 - shortly after my husband lost his job.  I've been holding onto a month's worth of levothyroxine so I can get proper lab results.  Now that I've made my monthly budget back in my Financial Goals post, I know I can not only afford the lab work but the medicine this year.  If I were to start taking my medication again, that would certainly make me healthier.  Getting my lab work regularly done would also help.  So there's two out of five goals that are easily attained and already planned for.

As I mentioned above, one of the side effects of my condition is weight gain.  Unfortunately, I can't blame all my weight on hypothyrodism alone.  When my husband and I struggle financially, it actually becomes cheaper to buy junk food.  Healthy options where I live are very expensive, which makes healthy eating on a budget hard.

Plus, sometimes, I'm just craving a damn McD's hamburger.  Won't lie.

Last year, when my husband found another job and we got financially stable for a month or two, I went on a weight loss adventure and lost 23 pounds, getting down at one point to 159 lbs.  Then my car crapped out, we lost our cat and I was forced to take off a month's worth of work.  Budget eating meant cheap sugary cereals and bulk bags of microwavable chicken patties all over again.  Because of this, when I was making my financial budget, I put a pretty chunk into groceries.  I have a lot of wiggle room to buy the things I should eat!

The first step to determine my weight goals was to jump back on my scale.  Seeing the red "You've Gained Weight" button did not make me a happy camper.

Currently, I weigh 172 lbs at 5'3".

On the down side, I am 13 pounds heavier than I was four months ago.  Never great.  On the bright side, I am ten pounds less than what I was at this time last year. Gotta keep thinking positive!

Since I went on my weight loss adventure last year, I already know my target weight: between 135 and 140 lbs.  If you don't know what the ideal weight for your height should be, give it a quick Google search.  What I chose is actually a little heavier than what I should be, but it keeps my curves.

So my goal is to lose around 32 pounds this year.  That seems like a really hefty goal but not if I lose it slowly.  I split that number into 12 months, resulting in roughly 3 lbs a month.  That's more doable.  But just how was I going to lose that weight?

The thing about losing weight is changing your lifestyle.  That's pretty stressful and takes a lot of work unless you take baby steps by creating small, positive goals.  Don't totally remove stuff like sweets, but replace it with healthy things, like salads and fruit.  And, if you're losing substantial weight, always add exercise.  By doing this, you can create small goals oriented around your strength and endurance rather than your measurements.  Here's a list of my goals to help me lose 3 pounds a month:

Some of this tail ends on the fact that I have Girls' Nights with friends twice a week - and those are actually exercise nights.  Granted, I haven't been exercising the past couple months, but we're all ready to get back on the wagon.  Our first one is actually scheduled for tonight!

Now that I had achievable monthly goals that would help me lose my reachable goal of 3 pounds per month, I needed to think about rewarding myself.  Often, when you're stressed out, that piece of cake looks a lot better than being a healthier you.  I needed something else to look forward to other than my health.

I decided my best course of action was to reward myself with a new wardrobe.  After losing 30 pounds, much of my clothing won't fit anymore.  I looked into the budget and saw what I could spare.  I decided to set my budget for the wardrobe at $100.  Since I shop at thrift stores, this could easily replace my whole closet if necessary.

The best way to reward yourself is to see it in action.  I decided I would split that $100 into pound rewards. The easy way would be to pay myself about $3 per pound.  If you'd like to do that, that's perfectly fine!  However, I decided to start low and slowly increase my monetary reward as losing the weight gets harder.  It's a little more exciting when you're struggling to lose the weight if you know you're getting $5 per pound rather than the $1 you started with.

However, I can already see two problems to this chart.  The first is that having one reward at the end of losing all the weight probably won't motivate me all the time.  On the hard days, when I can smell the food my husband is eating wafting through the room, I need something that's going to push me through - a reward that will happen sooner rather than later.  The second problem is relatively minor, but still present: calculating the money I reward myself is going to be a little tough.  

So I decided to create a chart that would solve both issues.  I looked at my budget and saw what I had in spending money.  I also looked at items that we needed to replace that I really wanted, like a new camera or my tablet.  I then created the chart below:

Rewards on the 5's are smaller - usually around $30.  Rewards of the 10's are much larger, and also already in the budget.  And with the third column  I could easily see how much money to reward myself with at each milestone.

Finally, as you'll note from above, a lot of my monthly exercise goals points towards October, when I'd like to run my first marathon.  When I was in high school, I was a runner.  I loved the feeling of it.  When I started exercising again this year, I started running again and it was amazing.  I started being able to out-lap my husband.  I'd like to do it again, but this time permanently.  In addition to all of that, I can donate and run for an important cause.

Out of all of that, I had determined the five goals I needed to become a healthier person.  My chart was starting to look a little fuller!

Tomorrow on The Progressive Planner: My career goals.

Share one health-oriented goal you're planning for 2013 in the comments!