Goals for the 2011 Year

I know it seems like every year goes really fast, but 2010, whoa!!! I can hardly believe I am writing 2011 goals!

I feel like it's really important for me to have some goals in 2011 because it's the first year that I don't have a planned milestone already in mind. In 2006 I graduated college and became a teacher, in 2007 I searched for my first apartment, in 2008 I moved into said apartment. 2009 was craziest of all...I bought a house, got my master's degree and became a tenured teacher all in one year. This year I got married, which is pretty crazy in itself. In 2011 I have no planned milestones and I'm hoping for no unexpected milestones if you catch my drift, haha. I think that's good though to have a year of relaxation... ha ha, even as I type this I know there will be very little relaxation involved. Oh well, might as well have some fun goals then.

But first, a recap of 2010 goals and how I did:

1. Embrace exercise without running. Between my Groupon membership to Healthworks where I took Urban Rebounding (trampoline) and Hula Hoop classes, and my pretty good attempt to commit to yoga, I'd say I did this.

I also seriously committed to weight training early in the year until I realized it was making my arms look huge (actually they looked fat truth be told) right before my wedding. I think overall I did well with this, and now I can sort of run again in a very limited way.

2. Stop feeling guilty. Yeah um... perhaps this one isn't in the cards for me. I mean sure I did say no more this year... but I wouldn't say I didn't feel guilty.

3. Explore the USA. Eric and I did an awesome trip to Arizona in February, and Hawaii for our honeymoon, so we definitely explored the USA. However, one of my sub goals within this goal was to see one other new state besides Arizona and Hawaii, and unfortunately that did not happen.

4. Just Ask. I kind of forgot about this goal... and suck at asking. However, I have been considering trying to negotiate down my cable/internet bill (I'm sorry but is it just me or are TV/internet bundles absurd?) so maybe this should be a new goal for 2011.

Now for 2011 goals...

1. Get Back Into Running. I know I got back into it in September with a 5K, but since then my running has been a little all over the place. I have specific goals for 2011 including the Marathon Sports 5 Mile CityRun (Sunday April 3rd) and the Great Hyannis Road Race 7.2 miler (Memorial Day weekend). 7.2 will be a personal distance record for me, so if it starts to bother the knee I can do the 5K that same weekend.

2. Stick With Yoga...Maybe For Free. Amber gets her yoga for free by working for her studio. I thought this would be hard with my studio because it's been open for awhile and they already have studio assistants. But, I am going to try. Even if it doesn't work out, I still want to try to go to yoga 1-2 times a week. I also want to do yoga at home as often as possible. I feel like this is probably my #1 way to combat knee problems in running.

3. Spend Less Money on Food. In general, Eric and I are good with our money. However, when it comes to food, we are not the best. When we first moved out a few years ago I tried to budget, cut coupons and visit the insane (but lower priced) grocery store (in addition to other grocery stores in order to get the best food/prices...oh boy). Unfortunately, this made me hate every single Sunday and honestly in the end, I don't think the hassle paid off in the bank account. We still make a list, try to buy products on sale and use some coupons, but I don't feel like as much of a crazy person. However, I'd really like us to up our savings and the only possible place I feel we can cut is from our food spending. Stay tuned for some blog posts about how I plan to cut our food spending while still enjoying restaurants and my Sundays.... (ps. if I sound like I have a plan that's a lie, send tips my way!)

4. One Post Per Week on She Teaches. I kind of neglect my teaching blog because after a long day of working with kids, I'd rather talk about food/fitness/life...most anything except teaching. However, I'd like to be able to gain a teaching following that could perhaps lead me to bigger and better things in that genre... so, I'm going for 1 post per week. Hopefully I can stick with it.

5. Become a College Teaching Assistant. This is something I really want to do, but I have NO idea at all if you can really do this without being in a graduate/doctoral program at the college. So, I need to find that out, and go for it if it's possible. If not, maybe I'll try to get a student teacher next year instead.

Not to mention some ongoing other goals including: eat more veggies, host parties without getting stressed (is this possible?), read more books, plan and go on trips, go ice skating more often, try snowshoeing, try to hate winter less, you know, that sort of thing :)

What are your goals for 2011? Do you have any planned big milestones?