2018 Goals Recap

Last year I shared my 2018 goals and did a monthly recap in an attempt to keep me accountable and I am so happy that I did so! While I didn't accomplish all of my goals, I did make an effort towards each of them and even checked off a few big ones off my list! Before I dig into my 2019 goals in my next post, here is a recap of how I did last year:

Daily Goals

• Drink 8 glasses of water a day: 

• For the most part I was really good about drinking water. I think it helps that I really only drink water and coffee and once 2pm comes around I skip out on coffee. 

• Journal everyday: 

• I'd tried journaling before and always failed because I put too much pressure on myself to sit down and dig deep every single day. This time around I was easier on myself and considered a list of what I did for the day as a journal entry. There were days when I had a lot to say and I am glad that I had a forum for me to get my thoughts out on. 

Weekly Goals

• Workout 4 days a week: 

• 2018 was the year that I fell in love with working out. I am a much better person when I get exercise in regularly. Not only does it help me feel accomplished, it also helps keep my anxiety in check which is good all around. For a majority of the year I actually worked out six days a week. I alternated between 3 days of strength/HIIT training and 3 days of running. That was my favorite routine because I felt like I hit all the muscle groups and it also offered variety. One of the programs I completed this year was Kayla Itsine's Sweat 12 Week Challenge, you can read my review about it here. Towards the end of the year when marathon training got really intense I scaled back and only did what my training plan called for, which was a short run, mid distance run, and long run. I may have cut the number of days I was working out but the amount of time I spent running made up for it! 

• Cook a new meal once a week: 

• The first few months of 2018 were spent trying out tons of new recipes in anticipation of our first Whole30. During this time I was cooking something new two or three times a week. Once we started Whole30 we had our favorite recipes figured out. After Whole30 we continued to cook all our favorite recipes week after week. I tried new recipes here and there but it wasn't a new one every week. 

• Work from a coffee shop 1 day a week: 

• I set this goal because I didn't want to spend all my time working from home in my pajamas. I always feel and am a lot more productive when I've gotten dressed and ready for the day and have somewhere to go. I didn't make it out to a coffee shop even week, but I did make an effort to get out of my pj's and into real clothes on work from home days.  

• No TV or Social Media 1 day a week: 

• I utterly and completely failed at this. I honestly did not think it would be that difficult to go a day without TV or Social Media but it is. I think in the entire year I may have purposefully disconnected a total of two days.  

Monthly Goals

• Read 2 books a month: 

• I've always loved to read. Growing up I was mostly a well behaved child and I kid you not, I once got in trouble for staying up late reading. What can I say, once I started reading the Harry Potter series I couldn't put it down! My goal for 2018 was to read 24 books and I ended up reading 26 books! 

• Try a new restaurant: 

• I have an ever growing list of restaurants I want to try so this was not a problem to accomplish. While we cooked at home a lot in 2018 I also got to try a ton of new-to-me restaurants around the city and country. 

• Plan a girls night:

• I think a night out or in with just the girls is a great way to reset and refresh and have a little fun. Steven and I do everything together and sometimes it is nice to spend some time apart doing things with our friends. While I didn't have a planned girls night every month I did make an effort to go out for coffee or dinner with a girlfriend here and there. I also got in a lot of girl time during my trips to NYC, California, and Mexico. 

• Send birthday cards:

• I think there is nothing more special than receiving a hand written card. I always love getting letters in the mail and I wanted to share that feeling with my closest friends and family. While the birthday cards were sometimes a little late - oops! - I did get them out and hope they made my loved ones day a little more special. 

Yearly Goals

• Run a 10k: 

• When 2018 started running 3 miles was a challenge for me. As a long term goal for the year I decided that I wanted to run a half marathon, therefore I broke down the goal and set "run a 10k" as one of my stepping stone goals. I didn't want to wait to long to accomplish this so I signed up to run my first timed 10k race on February 24, 2018. Running that first race was exhilarating! I loved being surrounded by other people working towards the same goal. In 2018 I ended up completing many 10k runs! 

• Run a Half Marathon:

• It's funny how the world works. Going into 2018 I set my sights on running a half marathon as my ultimate fitness goal. Just a few weeks into the year I was watching the Houston Marathon coverage on TV and was so inspired by what I saw that I decided to sign up for a full marathon there and then. Immediately running a half marathon became a stepping stone goal. I won't say running a half marathon is easy, because getting to the point where I could run 13.1 miles took a lot of consistent training and effort, but now that I am on the verge of running my first marathon, a half marathon looks like a walk in the park to me! I ran my first half marathon on July 15, 2018 and was so proud and oh so sore! Once official marathon training got started in September I ended up running a few more half marathon distances with 20 miles being my longest run. You read that right... 20 freaking miles. I am proud of all the training I did to get to the point where I could run (and walk a bit) for 20 miles. Now I am crossing my fingers that all that training pays off when I run my first marathon on January 20, 2019! 

• Complete a Whole30:

• Steven and I prepped for Whole30 for two months. Once March came around we had a great understanding of the Whole30 guidelines and had a list of our favorite compliant recipes. Getting through Whole30 was not exactly easy, but was not as difficult as I'd anticipated. You can read more about my Whole30 experience here. 

• Plan our 30th birthday party:

• Steven and I are both December babies and our birthdays are only three days apart. From the beginning of the year I had my heart set on going all out and throwing a big birthday bash to celebrate entering a new decade in our lives. As it turns out life had other plans for us. Just a couple of days before our birthday party I got a text message from my mom telling me about my grandmothers passing. Of course we immediately cancelled our party and headed off to my home town to be with my family. We ended up spending our birthday weekend surrounded by loved ones while mourning the loss of my grandmother.  The weeks that followed were very bittersweet. On one had I was sad that grandma Maria was no longer with us and on the other I was excited about entering my thirties. It was a weird feeling to be both sad and happy at the same time. I guess that's just grief. We ended up rescheduling our party for New Years Eve and while it wasn't the all out bash we had originally planned for, it ended up being a perfect night.