So this is long overdue. A few months (!!!!) back, I wrote an update post on where I was with the goals that I had set two years ago when I first started this blog. I met some, I made some progress with others (but have since slipped back) and made no progress with a few. So I want to update the list and try again. I feel like I’m finally at a place with my littles where I am able to come up for some air. Let’s do this.
1. Eat a homemade dinner a minimum of four days a week. I’ve done this before but some weeks are just crazy. In the last month, I was able to do this twice. I want to do it all the time. It saves our wallet, our waistlines, our diabetes risk, animals (since we don’t cook meat at home), our health, and often it reduces trash because we bring food home since it’s easier to eat at home than in a restaurant with the kidlets. And hell, I feel so proud and so good when I cook for my family. It’s more work and it sucks when I can tell no one liked the food, but it’s a value I want to instill in my family and it’s just the right thing to do for so many reasons.
2. Cut out the soda. Soda makes me fat. It does. And it weakens my teeth and bones. And it’s full of high fructose corn syrup. And I don’t like drinking too much caffeine, especially when breastfeeding. So I need to stop. Recently I’ve been having 2-3 per week. I think I can easily drop that down to one every 3-4 weeks. And I’ll need to cut back on iced teas too. I think the ones that are brewed and I can control the amount of sugar are ok. It’s the boba-type iced teas or the sweet teas I can purchase that are bad news. So those I’ll only have when I’m out with my husband. There’s nowhere nearby where we love the tea so I don’t see me having these more than twice a week.
3. Reduce Trash. We are very consistently recycling more than we’re throwing away. And I use my reusable shopping bags most trips to the market and often when going to department stores. I also tell the cashier I don’t need a bag fairly often. The biggest trash savings, however, come from cloth diapering our babe. Not just the diapers but also the wipes, since I use cloth wipes. And I make her baby food, so comparatively little trash there. I’m prouda all-a dat! BUT we can do better. We do a lot of online shopping, which means a lot of boxes in other boxes wrapped in shrink wrap with a bunch of filler. Too much trash. And I want to get better about cutting back on the amount of plastic forks, knives, and spoons we use as well as paper towels. I’m starting to use reusable sandwich/snack bags too.
4. Get those vitamins in. I am horrible at taking my vitamins daily, which isn’t good because I breastfeed and I need those nutrients. Unfortunately I am also bad about giving the girls their daily vitamins too. One day I’d like to get to the point where I don’t feel like we need vitamins because our diets are balanced and healthy. But honestly we’re not there yet.
5. Exercise three days a week. Hubs just got us a gym membership and Miss K. is going back to school this week. This should free up some time for me. I need to get back out there and move. The definition here is 30 minutes or more of movement. It can be a walk, it can be yoga, an exercise video, cardio/weight combos…whatever it is, I need it.
6. Drink more water. Everyone knows why. Goal is 48 ounces a day. And to use my water bottle rather than bottled water.
7. Make some time for me every day. This doesn’t have to be a big deal. It can be 10 minutes to paint my nails or an hour for a haircut or massage. Or even 15 minutes of listening to music while sipping an iced tea. Or writing my blog. This does not include mindless internet surfing. I just know that I feel like crap, I look like crap, and it’s not good for me. I might have to inconvenience my husband or my mom or disappoint my kids but I need something. I’m stretched out and my family deserves more from me. I deserve more too.
8. Use my clothesline more often. I put up a clothesline. I’d like to regularly use it for drying rags, diapers, and blankets. I’m not ready to commit to using it for clothes yet. But even if I did just these items, it would probably be 4-5 loads of laundry a week.
9. Find ways to reduce our water, electricity, and gasoline bills. The good news is that I walk a lot to the grocery store, library, dinner, etc. And now our daughter’s school is less than 3 miles from our house. But the bad news is that our utilities at our new place are through the roof! There has to be ways to cut back and I’m gonna work on finding them.
10. Use at least 10 different vegetables in my cooking each week. I might be doing this already. If I am, I’ll up the ante. I promise. And though I don’t cook with them often, corn and potatoes don’t count. Miss K. actually likes broccoli, spinach, kale, peas and carrots. So I need to work harder to make sure she’s eating those and finding ways to introduce her to other veggies and lay the foundations for healthy eating for life.