Febuary Goal Recap, March Goals

I should get a gold star for accomplishing so damn much in February and it being a short month.  Holy schniekies!  Let’s just get on with it.

1. Maximize diet score, minimize calories when possible.  Get there by pre-planning your day of eating.  It looks as if a 30+ score (top is around 33) is achievable with around 1800-1900 cal when all the food is good food.  That should maintain a bit of a deficit (and grow a little this month with some extra hours).  I’ll try to stick there.  Weigh less than 183.2 (yesterday’s weight) by the end of February.

Huge ups on the DQ score.  My diet is way cleaner than it’s ever been thanks to the double check if it’s plus or minus points on the scale.  Huge boos to the weight.  184.0 has been my lowest.  Apparently eating the shit out of healthy food still doesn’t work.  Noted.

2. Volunteer at Austin Marathon (t-shirt exchange) Feb 16, cheer Feb 17.

Check!  Even got to cheer my friend Mariko to an overall win!  Wheee!

3. Have two days in Feb where I just veg most or all of the day.  Quix-y needs some downtime!

Sorta-check.  Got one lay-in-bed-all-day day in early Feb, and had President’s Day off and relaxed most of the day, but got some stuff done that I wanted.  I really have an issue just not doing shit lately.

4. Get scuba licensed!

We do our open water dives this weekend and then we are open water diver certified and can go diving on the cruise!  (I am about 25% nervous and 75% excited for this weekend)

5. Mend something on the sewing machine or make something simple.

Check.  I thought I was going to have to write this one off, as I spent an evening this week swearing like a sailor at my stupid goddamn fucking sewing machine and my own stupid ineptitude and the regression of me not even being able to make it make a stitch, but then Zliten helped me and we got it figured out and my Rookie shirt no longer has an armpit hole and it doesn’t even look that bad.

6. Finish the sewing book, start a fiction book.

Not check.  Instead, I finished the Diving textbook that I didn’t expect to have to read, and have been working through the Sewing book slowly.

7. Get living room set up with new furniture, organize DVDs and area around the TV, and the mantle (Feb’s “zone”).  Determine whether painting and/or rugs are necessary.

Hmmmm.  Living room is set up.  Determined that I’m ok without paint for now.  Also determined that I want red lampshades, a funky set of lamps, a red throw, and some pillows with primary colors to make the room a little more fun.  However, I’m trying to hold off on spending that much right now, and while I’ve shopped online to get some inspiration, I’d rather buy something local.  So, that’s on hold.  The DVDs are on the list for this weekend.  So… sorta!

8. Keep up the things I did in Jan that I want to maintain, have a game night, no sweet treats (minus once a week), no cigs, HR train, batch cook.  They are habits now, just dedicating this goal to keeping them up.

All sorts of check check check here.  Had 3 game nights.  Have had very few sweet treats – I had two the first weekend to celebrate February (yogurtland and a rum truffle I got for Christmas), and one for v-day (split a piece of key lime pie).  58 days no cigs.  HR training for life.  Batch cooking when we could, buying my fit foods or snap kitchen when we couldn’t. 

9. Make a training plan for Feb and nail each workout.  Incorporate running and biking drills in this month.  Incorporate a little gentle speed work in this month.  Enjoy the hell out of my recovery week in 4 weeks.

Check – minus the running drills.  I did running speedwork only late this month because of my heel, but I’m getting down with it.  Currently loving only having 5 hours of training on the schedule this week.

10. Race the Indoor Tri 2/24 and DO NOT GET DEPRESSED ABOUT THE RESULTS.  I’m talking to you – self!  Last year, you were trained up for a half marathon+ and never lost fitness from the tri season.  This year, you are just coming off two months of pure base building after a wonderful offseason.  DO NOT GET PISSED BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T BEAT EACH DISCIPLINE FROM LAST YEAR.  Compare the results to last month’s threshold tests rather than 2012.  And if you beat last year’s times, then fuck yeah!  Either way, no tears and enjoy the first bottle of race champagne this year.

Check.  Not pissed at all about an overall win.  The run speed will come.  My better swim and bike speeds will only improve from here.  I hurt myself and I liked it.  Happy Quix is happy.

11. Sign up for half of all the triathlons.  Rookie, Pfluger, PlayTri, Couples, and Jack’s.  Next month we can drop a few more benjamins on the rest.

We signed up for the whole TX Tri series.  I need to hit up PlayTri and Buffalo Springs next month.  Austin 70.3 I’m still not sure about so that will be later.

12. Keep doing that confidence and forthcoming about what I want thing at work.  Don’t get devastated if it doesn’t result in unicorns and rainbows right away.

Done my best.  It’s sort of in a holding pattern right now.  Can’t really quantify this with a check or no check.

13. Walk up and down the stairs every day with Zliten at break.  It’s good for me to get away from my desk.

Not check.  I tried to do this often, but when it was yucky outside or I got busy I wouldn’t do it.

Ok, onto March, one of my favorite months!

It’s birthday time, we get daylight savings, and it marks the mental end of the cold dark times of Quix’s year.  Let’s figure out the 13 things:

1.  Stick with my current strategy: approximately 1700 calories (shift up on days that my workout volume reaches the sky).  DQ score: over 20 every day average.  See if this results in any sort of loss.  Low weight of the month: 184.  Let’s get lower.  Accept (and relish) that there will be 3 birthday splurges this month, and just try to mitigate them with good food the rest of the day/week.

2.  Get the leezard to the vet for a checkup.  She’s overdue.  We’re bad leezard parents.

3. Bike outside once a week.  Even if you have to do some rides outside after work in the ‘hood with stoplights.  Ride Rosedale on March 23.  Do it in way less than the 5+ hours it took last year.

4.  Fix up a March training plan.  Nail it.  Start working in zone 3 more, doing cruise intervals.  Start doing some short all out force efforts.  Get to recovery week uninjured and happy.

5.  Make pillows for the couch.  This involves: going to the store, picking out fabric, sewing, and stuffing them.  Complete at least one.  Complete four for the gold star.

6. Finish organizing the DVDs and complete the next zone in the house, the rest of the bedroom/master bath/vanity area.  We’ve already half completed it with the new bedroom furniture, but this involves cleaning out and organizing the vanity area, linen closet area, and stuff in the master bath.  Extra credit: replacing the bunk fixures and faucet.

7. Finish the sewing book, start a fiction book, for reals.

8. This one is for the habits again.  No cigs, no sweets (minus planned splurges, no more than once a week), HR train, batch cook, have a game night.

9.  Find my zen in this month in small chunks.  I do not have a weekend that I know of from now until vacation that’s not booked up with at least one event, most have several.  Find some time to relax and veg out.  Carve out a weekday night where all we do after work is go home and relax and say fuck responsibility instead of doing stuff.  At least do what I did on Wednesday and say “though I have things to do, I am sitting on the couch and watching TV for an hour”.

10. Take care of my appearance a bit.  Self manicure, pedicure, and eyebrow unfluff.  Get a haircut (or schedule a time before the cruise).  I want about 4-6 inches cut off soon – short hair deals with being soggy from training much better than long hair.  Penalty for not completing: I am required to book this  (mani/pedi/brows) at a salon which actually terrifies me.

11.  Play some damn vidjya games.  I have Monkey Island on the PS3, I keep meaning to log in and play Everquest, I need Zliten to educate me in the ways of Bloodbowl (orcs + football) so I can decide whether I want to join the league at work, I have a tablet builder game I’ve been working through…

12.  Figure out this mojo thing.  I am operating my the numbers and schedules and performing, but my spirit is lacking.  My heart just isn’t in it lately.  Analyze the issue and take steps to fix it.

13.  Drink more water.  I’d like to get down 3 bottles before I leave work each day, and one more at home.

That’s quite enough – off to go start tackling it.  Question of the day: what’s your biggest goal for March?