Me-I-Want-To-Be

In years past on my birthday I’ve done a list of goals (the amount of goals equal to the number of years) that I wanted to accomplish over the next year. It has been only mildly successful. :) This year I thought I would take a different tact. I believe I’ve mentioned that I’ve been going to Weight Watchers and this week our meeting topic was about goals. And the exercise was to write a letter to yourself stating the goals you have accomplished as well as the goals you plan to accomplish and the changes you will make to get there. So I decided to expand on it a little.

Dear Me-I-Want-To-Be:

What a terrific year this has been! Over the past 12 months you’ve made great strides:

You’ve completed an Olympic triathlon as well as 3 Sprints, one ½ marathon, a 10 mile race and two 10k’s. You are in as good as or better shape then you’ve ever been in your life.

You’ve lost 25 pounds! Your starting to feel better about yourself and having more faith in your abilities.

You’ve maintained a good relationship with your boys even though they are teenagers!

You’ve made changes in what you eat. You have managed to change your diet to much healthier food, eliminating most “fake” sugar and many processed foods and sticking to “real” foods and whole grain ingredients.

You’ve stepped out of your comfort zone and done some things that you wouldn’t normally do both in the athletic area and the personal area.

It hasn’t always been easy but you have acquired some tools to make these changes easier and to help you to stay on track and continue to grow. And in the coming year you can and will achieve these things:

You will train for and finish The Boulder Tri Series including the ½ Ironman.

You will be at or very close to your “goal” (this is yet to be determined) weight. And continuing to work towards a healthy relationship with food.


You will find in your life a little more balance. Balance between work, training, computer, home. Making more time to spend with the boys and “forcing” them to do a few more “family” activities. :)

And that comfort zone…well you will be stepping out of it in many ways this years.


Good work MIWTB, You’ve come a long way in the last 4 years and here’s to another year of healthy, happy living!


Love

MIAT (Me I Am Today)

45 Goals for 45 years

I did this a couple of years and made a list of things that I wanted to do over the year. I do this on my birthday and make as many goals as I am years old. The last time I did this I didn't achieve all of my goals, but I do feel like I did many things that I would not have done otherwise. So I think it's time to do it again! Some of these may have been on my last list, and may be on my next one too, but it gives me some things to work toward!

1. Volunteer for something, anything.

2. Olympic distance Tri

3. Get rid of some of this weight, I would be happy to see 175 (still heavy but a feel good weight for me.)

4. Read at least 4 "self help" books, about any subject. Money, fitness, weight loss.....

5. Go to a spinning class.

6. Spend more time with friends, keep in better contact.

7. Go on a date. :)

8. Work on becoming a positive person again. Try to get rid of the negative.

9. Hiking-do it this summer!

10. Get a new bike.

11. Do bike across Nebraska if Jen does.

12. Denver 1/2 marathon

13. Do some kind of "race" every month of the year.

14. Drag the boys out and do something more often

15. Have Mom and Dad over for dinner more.

16. Cook more this year, try some new recipes.

17. Increase my mileage in all sports, running, biking and swiming.

18. Scrapbook 5 times this year
19. Seriously think and look for new job as economy gets better.

20. Pay down my credit cards-alot! All though I don't have much debt, it's more then I'm comfortable with.

21. D0 not use credit cards unless it's an emergency! That new bike is not an emergency. :(

22. Do something with this hair! Certainly a cut and maybe a color.

23. Get out! Stop sitting at home so much.

24. Cut out "fake" sugar

25. Be better about cards this year! Send some b-day cards to friends and *gasp* maybe some Christmas cards!

26. Become more organized as far as my paperwork goes.

27. Clean out closet.

28. Paint the kitchen.

29. Tear out that darn deck out front that I have hated for 18 years!

30. Try a new exercise class.

31. Go camping this year at least once.

32. Take the boys somewhere in Colorado that we haven't been.

33. Clean out china hutch.
34. Paint the boys rooms.

35. Take a cooking class.

36. Plan a girls night out.

37. Run faster (35 minute 5k? What can I say...I'm really slow now. :) )

38. Do a Stroke and Stride this summe
39. Do an organized Bike ride (beside or including BRAN)

40. Swimming...get in that pool!

41. Get new glasses!

42. Be a nicer person....I know you can do it Julie!

43. Go to a museum.

44. Take more pictures this year

45.....Be happy

Happy birthday to me. :)

2008 in review and Goals for 2009

So this is the post where I look at what I've accomplished in 2008 and what my goals for 2009 will be. Last year on my birthday I did a list of 43 (that's how old I turned) things that I wanted to do during the year. I did not do all of them but I did get almost 1/2 of them done. Many I would not have done had they not been on my list. Some didn't get done because of changes in circumstances, others just didn't get done. This year I think I will just set some main goals for the year.

2008
1. I feel proud that I continued to run and ended up at 500 miles for the year.
2. I ran my first 10K
3. I competed in my first Sprint Triathlon
4. I biked numerous 30+ mile bike rides including the longest being 45 miles and biked to work a few times.
5. I volunteered at the Denver Marathon
6. In order to complete that Tri I managed to swim and complete several Stroke and Strides at Boulder Res. that helped me learn to swim in open water.
7. Planned and executed a very successful family reunion
8. Saved money and planned trip to Mexico for the boys and I.

Goals for 2009


1.Get to my goal weight of 170/175
2.Run a ½ marathon
3.Do an Olympic distance Tri
4. Step out of my comfort zone more often in personal situations
5. Push my limits in exercise.
6. Join Tri club
7. Get more control of my financial situation.
8. Make a will.
9. Learn how to swim right!
10. Work on more quality time with the boys.
11. Get new glasses
12. Maintain a cleaner house.
13. Paint in the Kitchen and bathroom
14. Spend more time with Mom and Dad
15.Really work on food issues.

Now to get to work on all of these things! Here is to a good year filled with family, friends, fun and exercise!

P.S The Wordle at the begininng of this comes from a link provided in Sarah's blog http://www.chasingiron.com/ Thanks for sharing that with us. Very cool!

Swimming and running

I have got to get back to the pool! It was my intention to do it today and well...just didn't happen. I did get a run in this morning, an easy 4 mile run. So now I need to sit down and come up with a schedule so that I will get some riding and swimming in as well as up my running. My goals for October.

1. Continue with the strength training class

2. Swim twice a week.

3. Weather permitting get on the bike at least once a week. (Would love to have one of the trainers, but really not in the budget, so as weather gets bad will have to go to a stationary bike, never taken a spin class, but I think that will be happening this winter also.)

4. Increase running miles, I want to hit 58 miles this month.

Well that should be enough. :)

Let's see what we can do!

Slow week....

I've not accomplished much this week at all....so far one 2 mile run...wow.. I was scheduled for a tempo run this morning, but it didn't' happen. Will try to get it in tomorrow. I guess I feel a little lost now that I'm not training for a triathlon. (although working on training for a 10k) Next week I'm starting a 2 month, twice a week class with a trainer, I'm excited about that, as I've really not done much strength training and never used any weight machines. Hopefully I can gain some insight into how to best train for my goals for next year. I've not done hardly any swimming and I need to work on fitting that in sometime. It is one of my biggest weakness...swimming that is, not fitting things in, although that may be a weakness too. I don't really have any strengths yet, I'm just king of average (or lower) at all of it. But I love it. :) I don't mind being a back of the packer... :)

So my objective is to figure out what to do from here, where to go, and what to do to be able to compete better and stronger and longer (I would like to do at least an oly) next year. Input?