Throughout my twenties I was pretty freaking on point... I worked like crazy, I was constantly training for a marathon or half-marathon, did hot yoga in my down time, and was obsessed with juice cleaning and vegan stints. Â I was also single and surrounded by girlfriends with the same interests as me which made it super easy to stay motivated.
Life has changed a lot since then.  My job is less stressful but more demanding, I’m in a serious relationship and have more responsibilities outside of work.  But I’m also in the worst shape I’ve been in since my first year out of college and am really dissatisfied with my body (both what it looks like and how it feels... I’m tired a lot and am not happy with my overall level of fitness).
I’ve always been a little obsessed with simplifying my life as much as possible- whittling down my belongings, spending my time on what’s most important, and saving money/only spending it on what matters. Â
So I was thinking about all of this when setting goals for the year, and I think I came up with three good ones.  What I like best is they overlap and interact with each other and are a little more complex than “do this” or “don’t do that”. Â
1) Rock the 2017 Chicago Marathon
I’ll be running my third marathon on October 8th and want to train all out and hit a PR (sub 4.45).  I have a pretty specific week by week program that takes me right up to the marathon in three phases- the first is focuses on strength training and diet to get back in shape and shed some extra pounds; the second is a pre-training running plan to rebuild my endurance; and the third is the actual 18 week marathon training plan to build mileage.  There are a few weeks of all yoga speckled throughout to keep up mobility and keep it fun. Â
I’m hoping this goal will get me back in shape, get me back to a happy weight to maintain, and help me rebuild some of the discipline I was so good at in my twenties.Â
2) Save as much money as possible
My BF and I bought a condo which depleted a lot of my savings so this is my year to focus on building it back up (just so we can spend it on renovations on the aforementioned condo... jk!). Â Not going to share my specific goals here but I want both my savings and my retirement accounts in much better places by the end of the year.
The two main ways I’m planning to free up some additional money to save is through putting a freeze on buying clothes this year (eek!!) and spending way less money eating out.  My deal with clothes is that I can only buy to replace something that is a current staple that is no longer wearable (i.e. running shoes, or my black skinny jeans).  Eating out is just a general focus right now, but I’ll put more parameters on it if I’m not making progress. Â
I’m hoping this goal will allow me to head into 2018 feeling good about being a homeowner and having a nice little safety net built beneath me. Â
3) Spend my time on things I really love
All that running and working out will help with this!  I’m also working on spending more time on the hobbies I’ve always loved- reading and playing piano.  I have a stack of books to read on my commute and just got some piano music in the mail I’m excited about.  I’m also not being snobby about this.. I’m focusing on finding TV shows I really like to veg out watching when I need a break and want to start baking some of my favorite treats to share with coworkers and friends. Â
This goal is all about being as happy as possible through the little things (and is honestly the one I’m most excited about!).
So there you go!  Three big and fun goals for the year.  While I’m not going to give the play by play of my progress I’ll probably reflect on how it’s going from time to time.
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