Goal Update October 29, 2009

The last time I wrote a Goal Update was in May.  That means that I have five months to account for.  No doubt so much has happened since then & I have accomplished much.

Here are the goals that I knocked off my list since the last update:

Finish Associate Degree, Visit Meteor Crater, Climb Mount Saint Helens, Shoot a Machine Gun, Bungee Jump, Solve the Rubik’s Cube, Skydive, Go Backpacking & Sleep Under the Stars.

Reviewing this list helps me realize just how much I have done in the past five months, it is really quite amazing in my opinion.  It also helps underscore the importance of having goals in life and what a person can accomplish when they have a focal point to work with.

What about the goals that I am currently working on?  How are they going?  How is the 100 in 25 Challenge turning out?

Right now I am working on a couple of major lifestyle changes; eating healthy & exercising regularly.

I’ve really kicked things up a notch recently with eating healthy.  When I first decided that I wanted to change my diet I thought I could do it slowly, eating the food that was already in the apartment and replacing it over time with more healthy options.  What I found was that this approach wasn’t working.  It wasn’t working because I didn’t have a plan.  I was not doing any meal planning or shopping for specific items to make healthy meals.  While I would try to make better choices, it didn’t take long for old habits to return and by the time we left the grocery store we almost always had a lot of Stuff that we shouldn’t have.

I am working to create a more extensive list of meals which I can prepare at home.  Finding recipes that both myself and my girlfriend will enjoy is somewhat of a challenge but slowly but surely we are adding things to our menu.  Most recently I made Bacon Wrapped Chicken with Blue Cheese and Pecans.  We really enjoyed this dish & despite the extra effort that is required to prepare it, we’ll definitely be having it again in the future.

I’ve also started posting photos of my meals on my Fan Page for the readers to see and comment on.  I find that this provides some incentive to eat healthy; when I feel the eyes of world on me, so to speak.  For now, this external motivation is what I need to help encourage me to make smart food choices.  No doubt there will be pizza nights in the future but so long as I am making good decisions more frequently I am okay with that.  We all should indulge once in a while or else we’ll find ourselves bingeing and regretting it later.

Exercising has been difficult for me.  As I mentioned in my 100 in 25 Days Challenge post, I am either really pushing hard or not at all.  I made it my goal to be able to do 100 push ups in 25 days in order to prompt myself into the exercising mentality once again.  How is it going?  I think things are going very well.  I did fail to do push ups on Wednesday.  I was tired and didn’t feel like doing them after being on campus for 9 hours.  I moved past my transgression and am looking forward to the future.  I’m halfway through this challenge and things are actually going better than I thought they would by this point.  After the challenge I really hope to find the motivation to start exercising more frequently.  My goal is 3-4 times a week for an hour each day.  I can get there again!

Another goal that I am working on is to earn my Bachelor Degree.  I am halfway through my first semester at the University and am doing very well.  My lowest grade in any of my classes is a B, otherwise I am earning A’s in all of my other classes.  I have an appointment today to meet with my advisor to schedule classes for next semester and I am concerned about a couple of classes; Statistics, Chemistry & Technical Writing.  They all sound challenging and I will have to work my ass off.

What about the future?  What is next?

I highlighted 7 more goals that I hope to accomplish by May 18, 2010.  None of them seem overly difficult, though sleeping on a park bench in a big city will be a rather uncomfortable goal to accomplish.  I still have some lingering goals from my last effort to meet a deadline such as paying off my car and visiting Eldon, Iowa.  Some of these goals will unfortunately not be met by the deadline I set, while others will be.  Stay tuned!