June 2012 Report Card

A few weeks ago I wrote a post listing some of my goals for the month of June 2012. Now that we've found ourselves in July, I figured it'd be a good time to step back and look at how I did! I'm going to be doing something like this each month using the title of "Report Card" - I think it'll be fun! Well...unless I end up with a big, fat "F"

Below I have listed the goals that I stated back towards the beginning of June. I've graded each individual goal (kind of like as if they were their own class in school). *GULP*

1. Lose 15-20 pounds so I can get myself back into the 250s - D+
2. Avoid all non-diet soda - B+
3. Be able to run 5 miles without stopping - C-
4. Gain 50 combined Twitter followers/YouTube subscribers/Facebook page 'Likes' - A-
5. Blog at least once a week - A
6. Read one Runner's World and one Men's Health - F


OVERALL: C

So let's walk through these in a little more detail, shall we?

1. I gave myself a D+ for losing weight because I have lost about 5 of those 15-20 pounds. Percentage-wise that probably warrants an F, but I know the effort I've been putting in lately. Definitely room for improvement!

2. I've been doing pretty decent on the soda, but a few times in the last month I gave into the orange Crush in the fridge at work. Free stuff is so hard to pass up sometimes!

3. I'm just kicking off my half marathon training, so the endurance isn't quite there yet for five miles. I've logged a lot of treadmill time in June, but wasn't pushing myself hard enough to increase endurance. Kind of just settled for the running/walking pattern.

4. These numbers SHOULD be easy to track, but then again, I failed to take note of where all the stats stood when the month started...whoops! I have, however, upped my Facebook and Twitter 'likes'/'follows' quite a bit, because I've seen all the notification emails that have come through my inbox. Thanks to everyone for joining me!

5. I think I've stayed pretty on top of this one. I think things here at the blog are really gaining some momentum, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the opportunities that come from this here site.

6. The closest I got to reading my mags was packing them in my backpack last weekend when we went camping. I have them on my person a LOT, but have never found myself unoccupied enough to bust them out and flip some pages.

Looking back, this month hasn't been anywhere near a TOTAL loss. I've made some solid steps forward, and plan to carry the progress over into July. And don't worry, I'll have a July Goals post up REAL soon! (Probably later today)

15 Down, 65 to Go!

Let's say you're on a cross-country road trip. It's a long drive, right? So naturally you find little things along the way to make the trip feel shorter. For me, I would celebrate whenever I crossed a state line. A few summers ago I took a three-month road trip for my alma mater and covered 18 states and one Canadian province. And along the way we took pictures of each, new state sign we encountered. It broke up the trip, made it more fun and made it MUCH more manageable.

And there's something to be said about this for weight loss as well. When you're staring down the barrell of a huge number of pounds that you want to lose, it's quite easy to feel intimidated, hesitant and scared. But when you set checkpoints along the way where you can celebrate, it makes the journey (as I said in the last paragraph) more manageable.

Which is why I'm writing this post! I hit the 15 pounds lost mark this morning, and it makes me feel really, really good. Sure, I've been lighter than this before during my weight loss efforts, but it's very affirming to see that my hard work is paying off once again. Now I just can't wait to see 20! Hopefully I'll have a good update for you on that number again next week.

Every five pounds lost is definitely something to celebrate, and I hope you're able to do that as well if you're on a weight loss journey. Heck, every pound is a success! What are some of your checkpoints and 'state signs' along your way? How do you celebrate these smaller accomplishments on your way to your final goal? Or if you've already reached your goal, what tools and rewards did you use to keep yourself motivated and moving in the right direction?

Seeing Results

Yet another personal epiphany struck me this past weekend - one that helped me wrap my mind around why I succeed at some things in life, but then fail to get off the ground in another area. Turns out that it all boils down to me being a visual person. 

Just about anyone who really knows me knows that I am a pretty organized person. I make my bed in the mornings, I keep a neat desk and I love checking things off of lists. These things are rewarding to me because I can actually SEE the progress I'm making - a made bed, an organized workspace and a paper full of crossed-off items. It's actually why I enjoy vacuuming too - I can see the instant results!

However, this is also unfortunately the reason that my weight loss journey seems to get derailed after a week or two of hard work. Sure, I can see the number on the scale creep downwards, but not seeing a physical change gets discouraging and eventually knocks me off the exercise and healthy eating horse.

After being hit in the skull with this realization, I've since taken some action to try to combat this urge to quit when I don't see visible results in my own, short timeframe. Let's see how it works! I'll keep you posted.