Monthly goals; January edition

After writing up my goals for 2018, I was catching up on my blog reading and there are a lot of people posting about their goals for 2018.  Isn't that what everyone does in January?  Then I came across one person that talked about her monthly goals.  This is not the first blog post I've read talking about monthly goals.  In fact, I've read many, but for whatever reason this was the first time I've thought "maybe I should make monthly goals."

I work in the mental health field and many times a year goals come up in my work for my clients. I know that goals need to be achievable, and it always helps to break them up into smaller goals to reach a bigger one.  So my next thought was, maybe if I do monthly goals that support my overall goals, I'll succeed in some of the ones that I haven't in the past (yoga? hiking?). 

I know January is already almost half over, but I can still set some goals for the rest of the month.  Little ones that will help me succeed in my bigger goals. 

Goal 1: getting outside (hiking) . . . In January I will go for at least one hike. 

I want to go out once with Maddox up Little Mountain, so I will do that.  I would also like to go out with my sister.  She is coming up to hang out with me on the 27th, so I will ask her if she wants to go for a hike on Little Mountain at the same time.  She may not want to if it's raining, so I'm going to keep the monthly goal of getting out once instead of 2 times.

Goal 2: yoga . . . In January I will do some sort of stretching 3 days a week for at least 10 min.
There are 3 1/2 weeks left in January, so that would be a total of at least 10 days of stretching.  I have also been doing squats, so I will also do at least 50 squats at the same time that I do the stretching.

Goal 3: PR half and full marathons . . . I will run at least 3 times a week.
That very generic goal is easy for me, but I need to take it easy on my knee, so even though my goal is to get faster, I can't get faster if I am hurt.  So first I need to make sure my knee is okay, then I can focus on speed work.

Goal 4: healthy eating . . . I will eat a salad 2 times a week, cut back my afternoon coffee to 2 times a week.
This is a very low goal for me for this month.  But it is achievable for me right now.  Anything more may not be attainable for me at this moment. 

I don't know if this will stick.  I'm good at starting things, not so good at keeping it up.  I think it would be better if I had some sort of fitness calendar, but I don't want to buy one.  Maybe I'll do some looking for a free app on my phone, or something to help keep me accountable.  If you know of anything, I'd love recommendations. 

Oh, and the treadmill I moved to the living room?  I finally asked Damian to help me maneuver it to get the mat under it straight and not lumpy.  Once we did that, I realized how hard it would be to get it in and out every time someone wants to use it, so for now, it's going to stay down all the time.  Hopefully it will get used by more than me.  So far I've walked on it for 40 min 2 days in a row (just enough time to walk 2 miles slowly). 

Yes, that is wine, yes, I am walking on the
treadmill.