2018 Goals

1.    Following Flexible Eating and continued weight loss

Mixed. I did lose three pounds, but 1.5 was fat and 1.5 was muscle and I was told that I am probably not eating enough calories, so I am still trying to figure out what is the right balance. Our gym held a competition where members paid $10 to do a weigh in before Thanksgiving, those who maintained or lost weight get their money back and split the rest from those who gained. I was just a pound over my starting weight, so I lost (by not losing). It’s frustrating as I felt that I did eat sensibly and squeezed in extra work-outs during the holidays, but I’m going to set as a new goal for 2019: not to be so obsessed with the scale. 

2.    Cross-Fit 
Success! In 2017 I kept a sticker chart to track how often I go to the gym or to swim practice. Last year I made it to the gym 78 times. This year, I did 126 work-outs. What helped achieve that total is that I adopted a “no excuses” approach. From analyzing my 2017 sticker chart, I saw how easy it is for life to keep you from the gym (work events, sick kid, Husband’s away for work or hockey) so I only gave myself 5 passes when I missed because I just didn’t feel like it going. I managed to keep it only to 5 and it included my illness, returning from a trip, the two time changes and an England match in the World Cup quarter finals. I also purchased a 20 inch box, a kettlebell and a pair of 35 lbs dumbbells so I can do work-outs at home while Chris is away. No excuses.
Skills: I got Chest to Bar (Kipping) and I’ve been hitting a lot of PRs with my lifts. I competed in the Cross Fit Open and did one more competition 
   Targets for 2019
   Hand stand push-ups
   Rope Climbs
   CrossFit Open and 1-2 more competitions
   Working more on lifting technique 

3.    Sending cards for birthdays
Success! I may have missed one or two, but I received a lot of follow up that friends really appreciate snail mail cards. 

4.    Keep up with Kate’s Share Days
I did well in the beginning of the year, then completely fell off. However, we’re required to being in snack once a month at her new school and I’ve been good about keeping up with it.  

5.    Adjust to my new role in a leadership position 
Mixed to fail. I don’t want to go into any specific details, but there was a difficult situation at the end of the year and my weakness as a leader was truly exposed. My position ended up being eliminated due to another leadership reorganization and I was relieved as I probably would have resigned.  I don’t want to give myself a total fail as I feel I did some things well and I came up with a few good ideas. I’ve been thinking back to when I was a Junior in High School and I was denied admission to the National Honor Society due to lack of leadership activities. My school administrators knew it back then. I’m not a natural leader. I was devastated as a 17 year old who was convinced that no good college would accept her and I wouldn’t get to wear the gold cords at graduation. As a 42 year old I accept that I have other skills and good qualities. Being in a leadership position is not one. 


6.    Send my In-laws photos on a monthly basis
Success until April; then total fail. I have no excuses, just apathy. 

7.    Run some 5K races with Kate
Success! We did (6) 5 Ks and I ran (2) 10Ks on my own. Kate ran the first mile of our Thanksgiving day race on her own and Husband ran the New Year Day’s race and placed third in his age group! 

8.    More FaceTime with Husband
Getting better. We lost our monthly date night when we switched Kate to her new Pre-School, but we managed to go out twice while my parents were in town for Christmas and we’ve already lined up a babysitter for Valentine’s Day. Husband has been getting back to the gym and his recent third place finish is encouraging him to do some more runs, so we’re spending more family time together. 

9.    Swim Times
I had a surprise PR in the 50 Free early in the season, but was really disappointed with how I did at our Spring meet. I was happier with how I did in our Autumn meet, which included competing in the 200 Fly. My biggest challenge with swimming has been consistency. I took a few days off after our Spring meet, then Husband had a work trip, Kate started waking up multiple times a night, we went to Hawaii and suddenly I missed 6 weeks of swimming. Then we lost days in November due to the poor air quality from the Camp Fires. We only had a few days back before the pool’s heaters broken down in December and at press time, still have not been repaired.  I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself to PR at our April meet given I’ll only have had a few months of training leading in
   Targets for 2019
   Avoiding any long and unnecessary breaks
   Completing 7 events in the SCY and SCM Championships (No scratches and no DQs)
   Doing 200 Fly in both meets
   Brute Squad challenge (missed this year due to pool closure)
   PR 400 Kick for Time (also missed due to pool closure)

10.    Parenting
Mix of Successes and Fails. I was really hoping to be completely potty trained by the end of the year. I bought a box of Night-time pull-ups in May, hoping it would be the last box we ever purchased. It wasn’t. By October, I was so fed up with doing laundry every morning that I decided we needed to take a two week break. I picked up a small bag of pull-ups from Safe.way and then decided that it was really nice to sleep at night and not have to get up to do Kate’s dream pee. So the next time I was at Costco, I picked up again what I hope is out last box of pull-ups ever. I decided it would be a good idea to keep her in pull-ups during our visit to her UK grandparents and our stay at a hotel in Ireland as no one would want to deal with wet sheets. We’ll get ready to give it another go when we get back. This will hopefully lead to two other unfulfilled goals of 2018: getting a proper big girl bed for Kate and getting her to fall asleep on her own. 

I had also wanted to be better with discipling Kate and just after her third birthday, I was feeling that it was a major fail. Just in the past few months, she has made such a change for the better and I give a lot of credit to her new Montessori Pre-School. Making the decision to switch her to the new school was one of our major successes for the this year and hopefully beyond. Even during my parents visit, where she previously fell apart due to the extra stimulation, she was much better behaved and even my mother noticed and commented. We still have our battles with getting her to stay seated and eat at the kitchen table. I discovered that I’m not afraid to be a hard-ass. It drives me crazy when she lays across the seat so after she didn’t listen to my warning, I pulled the chair out from under her. She was startled and I’ve threatened to do it again, and she’s been better about sitting. Eating in a reasonable amount of time is still a challenge. 

Targets for 2019.
Continue to limit screen time. Currently, she watches 2 twenty minute shows in the morning and 2 in the evening. Especially if one of us is solo parenting, it keeps her occupied so we can get ready. There are times when we get home from school when she wants me to play with her, but I need to start getting dinner ready. If I can’t get her to play by herself, I’ll offer letting her watch some shows, which I really hate doing, but sometimes you need to get stuff done. As she puts in a 10 hour day at school with the commute, I figured she’s earned some down time with the TV. I still refuse to let her watch anything on my phone when we are out. 

I also want to work on her letters. We have a dry erase board for practicing letter and she does surprisingly well (when she feels like working on them). I know it’s ambitious, but I’d like to gear her toward reading. She has an amazing recall and can practically recite a book after hearing it only one or two times, so I have the feeling that she is keen, although she resists sometimes when I try to show and explain words while we’re doing story time. Mostly my goal is to make sure she’ll be kindergarten ready by the end of the year as (gulp) I can’t believe she’ll be starting Kindergarten next year.

2019 is going to be a busy year and I hope it’s a good one!