fitness goals Archives - Food, Booze, & Baggage

June Monthly Goals

June 1, 2015 by Mariah 14 Comments

May flew by and I kind of sucked on getting my goals checked-off. May didn’t go quite as planned and I forgot to take into account time I had already committed to other activities. I think I was a too ambitious in my May goals. At the same time I feel like I should push myself with my goals. Le sigh, let’s get to it.

Exercise

GO TO A YOGA CLASS!!

Didn’t make it out to one 🙁

Continue video workouts and focus on 30 minute + classes. I also want to start practicing a new pose or two a week; pick a pose to work on or towards.

I did good with the 30+minute classes, but did not do extra poses. I want to do better and I only got in 3 classes a week on average.

Go on a hike this month, if my allergies stop trying to murder me 🙂

We made it to Torrey Pines State Reserve yesterday. Pictures and more will be in my Discovering San Diego post later this month.

Planning

NOPE

Roadtrip to San Francisco

A little, mainly I pinned a lot.

San Diego bucket list

YES, plus putting together the brewery list

Work on big picture goals and develop plans of action.

I’ve started an idea journal and tried to work on some items related to those.

Routine

Be out of bed by 6:30 a.m. during the week. I actually usually wake-up around this time, but end up laying in bed playing on my phone for 30+ minutes. I want to break that habit. Basically, I want build a better morning routine.

NOPE

Get out of the house at least once a week, during the day, while P is at work. Go to a yoga class, go to the beach, something. I really need to force myself to get out of the house on my own.

Yes, and no. I had things scheduled each week, so this wasn’t a tough on, but I didn’t really go out just to go somewhere.

Develop a cleaning routine. I’m going to try doing a few items everyday, instead of spending several hours in one day. We will see how this works.

NOPE

Blog

Find blog to sponsor

No, any suggestions on this one?

Reach 200 Instagram followers. I really want to put more effort into IG. I love it.

No, I gained 30 which is not too bad, I didn’t really focus on this so it was ok. I didn’t even keep up with posting.

Go through at least 20 of my pinned articles on blogging.

Yes. I’ve been deleting pins and putting some of the idea/articles to practice even.

Create

4 design projects-Not so much
4 Skillshare classes-YES 5+1 YouTube

Photography Challenge: Capturing The Beauty in An Everyday Object by Andrea Stocks (20 minutes)

I liked this one the least of many of the short photography classes. I didn’t feel she gave very much in terms of sparking creativity or instruction. It fell short, though I liked the idea behind it.

Fundamentals of Lightroom II: Editing and Post Processing by Lotus Carroll (1 hour 37 minutes)

I thought this was a very good, concise class. She went through a ton of tools. I now see why Lightroom is so valued by photographers, and I was impressed with how much fine tuning you can do with it. Very useful class if you are starting out in Lightroom.

Making Your First Zine: From Idea to Illustration by Kate Bingaman-Burt (46 minutes)

The instructor, Kate, is very enthusiastic and captivating. This was one of those just fun little classes. I had no idea about the history of zines or all the different categories of zines. It’s an interesting class. I liked the examples she shared and prompt ideas. I’m trying to think of one to do and share.

Mini-Class: Urban Explorer Photography: Shooting the Forgotten + The Familiar by Cubby Graham (17 minutes)

A good little class, not overly instructional, more inspirational, but did have great tips. It inspired me to try to work with the VSCO app more, and try to take more photos through the VSCO camera instead of just using the phone camera. He did mention several apps I had not heard of: NightCap & Average Camera Pro. Both apps are for getting better pictures in low light with your iPhone.

Freelancing For Creatives: Kickstart Your Independence by Margot Harrington (58 minutes)

This was an interesting class. It definitely got me thinking and had some good concepts. Her presentation felt rushed, and I thought organized a bit oddly. It almost felt like she was just throwing thought/ideas at you. It was a good casual listen. She did provide an extensive list of additional resources, which are quite helpful.

Getting Started As A Freelancer by Clients from Hell (YouTube 1 hour, 12 minutes)

This was an interesting webinar. The host is a bit annoying, but it gave some good advice. I wished he let the guest talk a bit more. They went through a lot of advice and questions on starting as a freelancer. I liked the guest’s advice on using trial and error to get started, don’t be afraid to explore your skills and see what happens.

Classes I Did Not Finish Or Recommend

The Art of Travel Photography by Phil Ebiner (4 hours, 58 minutes)

I had this class picked out when I made my goal about travel photography, but had not started it. After 4 lessons in I had to call it and unenroll. It was not a well put together course. I couldn’t listen through 4 plus hours of it. I know I could pick up much of the same information from a few articles/posts I had pinned. I was hoping it would be more inspirational, more hands-on but he was just sitting in his parents garage presenting basic photography information in a poorly constructed format.

Shooting Outside & Making It Beautiful by Marshall Rimmer (14 minutes)

This was such an odd class. It was presented very weirdly, almost like if someone was asked what are your 5 top tips and they just blurted them out with no follow up or introduction. I didn’t feel like this was a very informative or inspiration class. He keeps saying take a picture but it’s suppose to be a video. I don’t recommend it.

1 recipe shoot (or more).

Roasted Tomato & Basil Gimlet

Read/Take a class/Work on landscape/travel photography

The class I was planning on taking, did not pan out. And I just didn’t take the time to find an alternative. Photography took a backseat this month.

May 365 Project

As I said, photography took a back seat this month. I didn’t even get 31 pictures 🙁

June Goals

How many fresh starts in a year? Twelve 🙂 Onward and upward as they say.

Exercise

Yoga, yoga, yoga 🙂
Get back into the Fitbit steps game. I’ve been slacking on this, I think part of it is because the weather has been blah. Goals is 50,000 steps a week.
Get a hike in or better yet two.

Planning

TRIPS
Idea journal and plans of action

Routine

Develop a morning routine. Get up out of bed by 6:30 am.
Better organize use of time.
Pick one project or action item to work on a day and schedule one or two hours just for that item.

Create

Recipe shoot/post
Work on photography
Do two design projects

Blog

Find a blog to sponsor
Reformat pictures on at at least 5 prior posts

What are your big plans for June? Any vacations planned?

March Monthly Goals

March 2, 2015 by Mariah 37 Comments

I really don’t even know how to address my goals from February…so I’m not going to 🙂 Basically, I did none of them. Let’s just start fresh, shall we? Alright then.

March Goals

Let’s assume I try to mark off some of the items on the February list, without listing them all here in March. So February goals take-two 🙂
Get back into practicing with the camera. Do more manual practice. Resume the 365 challenge.
Keep up with the whole exercise thing. Yoga at least 4 days a week, and try to get in 50,000 steps a week. I’m actually pretty proud of myself in this area and have been doing better about sticking to doing one yoga video a day. I need to be more proactive about getting my steps in.
Get some Skillshare classes done and complete a few projects. Goal of 3 classes & 2 projects.
No more mindless TV during the day. One show maximum during the day. I’m going to see if I can’t find some podcasts or something more educational to have on; sometimes I just need the extra noise.
Go through my to-read or to-do boards on Pinterest and my other to-do lists. Read or do the things.
Catch up on all the blogging things 🙂 Reading, Writing, Commenting

In general, I need to hit the reset button on 2015. I need to organize and re-focus. I need to force myself into action, pick a direction…I’ve been floundering. I really hope March turns out to be the month that I feel more energized and I’m more productive. Fingers-crossed 🙂

What do you want out of March?

December Monthly Goals

December 1, 2014 by Mariah 12 Comments

November flew by!!! Seriously, I’m sitting here scrambling because I thought I had one more week to write this post!? 🙂 Having more specific goals in November was definitely better, though I was not all that productive. So let’s see how I did:

Complete new about page for the blog
Yep, didn’t do that. I collected some good examples/ideas just need to figure out what I want to do for mine.

Complete category designs for the blog
Nope not this one either. I’ve played around with a few designs, my big hold up is what categories I want displayed.

Do two exercise classes a week either at home or elsewhere (1 hour)
2.5/4. Did nothing this last week of Thanksgiving..oops and another week I only did two 30 minute ones.

Take Sam for a mile or more walk at least once a week
3/4. Did much better about walking Sam. I’m not sure we went over a mile on a single walk the second week in November but I got him out more.

Take 2 photography classes
No. I read a number of posts/guides on photography and took one Skillshare class (this one), though it was not technical and I need technical.

Finish at least three Skillshare classes and two projects from past classes
No. I started two photo editing classes (but have not finished) and restarted this Illustrator course and the project that goes with it.

Do one off computer skill, either sewing, knitting, or drawing project/class

I started knitting, and just got supplies to start my first project. Here is Eddie enjoying some of my practice 🙂

A photo posted by @foodboozeandbaggage on Nov 11, 2014 at 4:09pm PST

I started (or restarted), “You Can Draw In 30 Days”

For the Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge, the theme was “Organize”.

I was able to complete this one! Ordered this chair (P put it together), hung pictures, and finished unpacking a few items…still not perfect but much better! Oh, that big box? It’s the the coffee table I’ve been waiting on since September, and it’s not what I ordered! I’m so upset over this and still waiting on the Etsy shop to reply about the problem. Other than the box, I think we could use some more pictures, and I need a bit more organization. Still, it is a much more useable space now!

Not the most successful November, but onto a new month.

December Goals

Finish one knitting project
Plan/book a trip
Renew passports
Finish 3 Skillshare classes
Start practicing with the camera in manual mode
Complete at least 5 more chapters in “You Can Draw In 30 Days”
Finish re-do of about page
Go to at least one yoga class and continue to do two one-hour classes a week

I’m linking-up with Melyssa at the Nectar Collective to share my monthly goals.

December’s Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge is “Simplify”. P and I don’t over do the whole Holiday thing so nothing really there. I’m going to choose to try to de-clutter my personal inbox and unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. It would be nice to start the new year with less electronic clutter.

What are your goals this month?

November Monthly Goals

November 3, 2014 by Mariah 16 Comments

It’s truth time! Let’s see how well I did on my October Goals:

Do yoga or run/bike at least 3 times a week
Not exactly. I made this a little too vague. Does it count as a run if I only run part of the way or bike a mile? I certainly was more mindful about getting up and moving but it was not all intentional exercise. My November goal in this area is a bit more specific. I want to be intentional about doing exercise.

Complete 5 design/code Skillshare classes
Yes, for this one. Even though I did not finish the Webmaking 101, I did do two classes in Codecademy plus the Webmaking 101 is really long.

***All of the links for Skillshare are referral links meaning if you sign up I get a free month and you can too, I do not have any affiliation with Skillshare, this is an offer to all users. I highly recommend both of Jenn’s classes for a great introduction into HTML and CSS.

Take at least one photography class
Fail, Fail, Fail 🙂 This is going back on the November goals.

Finish website redesign
Not finished but certainly made progress. I still have some work to do but I got it started. This also was too broad of a goal. Stupid, principle of SMART goals being right and all 🙂 I’m sharing specific items from my blog to-do list for November goals.

Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge~ Food

Try making chia seed pudding, this is something I’ve been wanting to try for ages
Tried it, here is a picture just to prove it 🙂 I’m not a huge fan. I think I’ll stick with overnight oatmeal. It tasted fine, it was a texture thing for me. The texture was a bit too jello like for my taste.

Make fresh pasta
Didn’t happen. I’m going to blame it on the weather. Hello, 80°F in October, that is beach time not making pasta time. Maybe this month! I would really like to make some raviolis to freeze.

Make something with pumpkin (to at least acknowledge the season)
Another total fail. We did make some yummy butternut squash lasagna and that is almost like pumpkin 😉 Right, right? Partial credit??

You can check back Thursday to see some of the other reasons I did not complete my food challenge 🙂

November Goals

My November Goals are less vague and more specific. We will see how I do with that.

Complete new about page for the blog
Complete category designs for the blog
Do two exercise classes a week either at home or elsewhere (1 hour)
Take Sam for a mile or more walk at least once a week
Take 2 photography classes, I’m doubling down on this one
Finish at least three Skillshare classes and two projects from past classes
Do one off computer skill, either sewing, knitting, or drawing project/class

I’m linking-up with Melyssa at the Nectar Collective to share my monthly goals

I’m going to join in the Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge again with this month’s theme of organize. Who doesn’t need more organization in their life?

To be better organized I want to finish setting up the office:

Order desk chair
Finish hanging pictures
Finish unpacking items

What goals do you have for November?