The Twelve Things, Part One

When it comes to achieving a goal, I’m a big supporter in reviewing progress along the way. I was doing that recently when reviewing 12 things that I wanted to learn about or how to do this year. And while I was reviewing my progress, I realized something: A lot of the things on that list matched a list of “desired fitness goals” I had written several months ago. I guess my subconscious was pushing that to the front so that I could stop dreaming about it and start DOING it! 

I thought that was pretty awesome.

And, I thought, an even better thing to do would be to chart my progress so far. After all, I will want to look back one day to see how I made it all happen, and I will want to know if there was anything else I could add to that experience. My blog is basically a record of things and it’s a good thing to turn back to every now and again to recall things or check for facts. Yes, I could put ALL of this into my journal, but I just feel it would be better to have this information available on a public forum. 

And so, here it is. My review of my progress so far!

JANUARY

For the month of January, I wanted to learn about cars (the basics, anyway). So I borrowed a book from my oldest that was titled Auto Mechanics Fundamentals by Martin W. Stockel and spent my weekends reading it. I also went out to the garage to peek under the hood of my husband's truck to look at things that were covered in the book. Unfortunately, I was not able to read the whole book by the end of the month, but I was satisfied with my progress.

 

FEBRUARY 

Exercise and physical fitness

When I first made this list, I didn’t really think about being specific with these goals. But when I got to this one, I thik it would have helped if I had been!! Sheesh! So I just grabbed a related book and started reading it. The book I grabbed was called Stretching by Bob Anderson and I tried out some of the stretches in it. I’m glad I read it, because I learned I had been doing some stretches incorrectly. Oops!

 

MARCH

Running

I ran in cross country in high school and while it was…challenging…I remember it being an amazing and awesome experience. I love to run! Sadly, I stopped running in college and, aside from the occasional dash somewhere, I didn’t really make running a part of my weekly routine. But now I want to bring that back! Both my doctor and my cardiologist gave the green light to start running again. So naturally I turned to a book to start reading about it! Initially, I started reading Galloway’s Book on Running by Jeff Galloway, but I also started reading articles about resuming a running routine after not running for a long time. The month of March was challenging for me – I had A LOT of health problems and of course a trip to the ER – but I tried to keep it going. (NOTE: I did a test run on 2/21 to test a route and also see how running felt.) I did figure out what trouble spots I needed to address. Fortunately, this book has a variety of running routines tailored to runners of all levels, and I found one that is just right for me. Once I figure out a good place for me to run, I will start using it.

 

This is my progress so far. More to come in Part Two!