1 month down, 11 to go.

Since we have one month of the New Year under our belt, I thought it would be a good time to check in with how my resolutions are going. This helps to keep me accountable!

Here’s where I stand on my 3 resolutions:

Project T&T

Goal: To lose the 3 pounds I’d gained over the holidays and basically tone and tighten all over.

Update: Well I lost the 3 lbs. but not the way I intended to nor in a way that will provide lasting results. Case in point, I’ve put 2 of them back on. I was feeling pretty down and being hard on myself this weekend as I realized I haven’t made much progress here. The problem is that though I work out regularly and hard, I don’t eat that healthy. Let’s just say I have a hard time saying “no.”

Then I did a reality check. First of all, the number on the scale means nothing. What matters is how I feel and how healthy I am. I have a clean bill of health so that’s not an issue. What is the issue is how I feel about my looks. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m hard on myself. I won’t accept anything less than perfection (just ask Team Trader – last week at volleyball I got disgusted with the mistakes I was making and stopped talking. Real grown up,  I know.). But I also know that perfection isn’t possible. Heck, even supermodels and celebrities have cellulite!

To that end, here’s what I can say with pride:

• Thanks to the one hundred pushups program, my arms are getting toned. Look out Michelle Obama, here comes Sarah Trader!
• I have long, lean, and muscular legs. They really got toned up this summer while I trained for a 5k and I’m happy to report that I’ve been able to keep them sculpted.
• C-Sections wreak havoc on your abs. They cut ‘em right open and it’s really hard to get them toned again. So while my stomach isn’t flat anymore, my abs are strong thanks in part to the two hundred sit ups program.  I still have some extra fat to take off the top so that my six pack can make an appearance, and I’ll keep working on that, but I’ll gladly pay the price of not having flat abs to have my beautiful daughter.

I will continue to push myself in my workouts and try my best with my eating. But I think that for all intents and purposes, I will call this resolution reached and stop being so freaky about it!

Mission Debt Diet

Goal: To pay off our credit card debt and pay down our mortgage and car loans, all the while socking money away in savings.

Update: This one has been good and bad. On the one hand, I’ve managed to pay off almost half of our credit card debt thanks to a nice rebate check from our FSA and regular committed “over payments.” I’ve also been able to consistently put away a dedicated amount of money into savings. I’m really happy about both of those accomplishments.

What we haven’t done so well on is sticking to our budget. We overspent in many categories, including groceries, retail, eating out and entertainment. So it’s time to re-evaluate. Either our budget wasn’t realistic to begin with or we need to work even harder at reigning in the spending. I know for certain that there are some fast food runs that could have been skipped, shopping purchases that I didn’t need and extra groceries that weren’t necessary. I think we’ll stick with the budget as is and try again to be more frugal. If it still doesn’t work then we’ll see if the numbers need to change.

[Update 2/1/11: OK so I was totally wrong. I actually went in and added up our spending from  January today and it turns out we were UNDER budget by $73! Go us!] 

Operation Dream Home

Goal:  Clean, de-clutter, and organize our house, in preparation for putting it on the market this Summer.

Update:  I started out really gung-ho on this and have faded a bit. I got some projects done right off the bat and was really excited. But then I got busy, and I was seeing us going over budget, so I stopped. I haven’t done any more projects but what we have done is maintain the organization that I put in place already. The play corner has really helped keep the living room in order and we removed the coffee table (because I always worried that Munchkin would hit her head on the edge) which gives us even more room. Our new filing system in the kitchen has been awesome. And I’ve even kept up with my Perpetual Journal, writing in it every day.

Proof!

I still need to go through closets and other rooms in the house, but that will come. We also need to ID other more “major” projects to be done and get going on those. Last night we CJ steam cleaned the carpets so that was good. They look sooooo much better!

Other

I didn’t talk about any other resolutions in my original post but there are some things I’ve thought of over the weeks that I want to do on a more regular basis. Here they are:

• Reach out and call friends to chat. I’ll admit that I’m not a phone person. I’d rather meet and hang out in person or IM or email. I don’t like talking on the phone. But it is important to contact some friends, especially those I don’t see much, and stay in touch.
• Floss every night. I know, I know. I used to be a real stickler about this. In fact I’d floss twice a day, every day. But then I got braces (for the third time) when I was in my late 20’s and ended up with 2 permanent retainers (one behind my top teeth and one behind my bottom teeth). So in order to floss, I have to use a special tool and it’s time consuming so I don’t do it every day. But I need to get back to that because, well, it’s gross not to.
• Plan date nights. It may seem like CJ and I get a lot of date nights but we really don’t. It just so happens that we’ve had a couple in January. Usually though we get too busy to plan them. Well, not anymore. We need to put them on the calendar like any other appointment and just do it!
• Drink more water. This one is a constant struggle for me but still something to work on.
• Spend more time with my sister. We both live in Omaha. We’re both moms. You’d think we would hang out more but we don’t. As with everything, life gets in the way. But whenever we do have Sister Nights, it’s really enjoyable. It needs to happen more often.

That’s probably enough. Too much more and I’ll get overwhelmed.

Well, I hear my family playing upstairs so I’m going to close this up and join them for fun! Ta ta!

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