January Recap & February Beginnings

01 Saturday Feb 2014

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And the first month of 2014 comes to an end.  Touching base with the monthly goals.  I completed 4 of 7 in January with a couple more well on the way to completion, so a pretty successful month.  Very happy with the habit and fitness goals as well as my Fitbit for making it not only easy but fun.

February has some standard ones related to taxes, but the habit goal is going to be the most interesting.  I wanted to figure out something that would be creative and require me to pay attention to stuff I normally wouldn’t so I decided on either taking a picture every day (ah, the joys of camera phones) or drawing something every day.  The ITIL certification is creeping into probably March to finish Expert, but it has been moving along steadily, so the extra time isn’t a concern.

So, let’s take a look at January:

  • Fitness – Hit my Fitbit goals for the month (yep, Christmas present)
  • Professional – Complete the ITIL 2011 Intermediate SOA qualification
  • Habit – Fitness and Food Journaling
  • Home – Guest bedroom
  • Financial – 401K and retirement accounts
  • Decluttering – File for 2013 taxes, set up 2014 files
  • Cost cutting – Insurance review

And February:

  • Fitness – Sign up for the NC Half Marathon Twilight 5K in March
  • Professional – Complete the ITIL 2011 MALC (Expert) qualification
  • Habit – Take or draw a picture every day
  • Home – [month off to catch up if needed]
  • Financial – 2013 Taxes completed and filed
  • Decluttering – Scan/Shred old records
  • Cost cutting/saving – Cut dining out to one dinner and one lunch per week
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Gadget Review at 30 Days: FitBit Flex

30 Thursday Jan 2014

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So I got my FitBit Flex just before Christmas pretty much to see what all the fuss was about with the fitness trackers (and because they hired a Windows App team so I can nearly taste phone sync in my future).  I posted some initial impressions about the device a while back and figured I would revisit after a month and then again at the 3 and 6 month points.  And I’m still in love with this thing – to the point that I purchased Premium just to have more data to play with and to use the trainer dashboard.Fitbit-Flex

I’ve lost 9 pounds.  I’ve increased my daily activity even in the face of a bitter cold winter.  I’m hitting my water intake goals (64 oz/day).  Best of all, I’ve gained some major insight into my sleep patterns, done a bit of tweaking and am sleeping both longer and better now.

The battery life is as advertised.  It’s extremely simple to use, including the food journal.  The charge battery and update emails are really neat and a nice touch.  It connects to social media platforms as well as other fitness apps (in my case, HealthVault and Endomondo – both quite good if you are looking).  It is comfortable.  The dashboards, settings and goals are mostly well thought out (there is one dashboard widget that isn’t terribly useful, but you can customize the dashboard so not a huge deal).  The data is cool and you can “compete” either with yourself on a daily, weekly, monthly basis or you can add friends and compete with them.

I’ve started actively looking for opportunities to get in more steps and have found myself out taking a long walk to finish up the daily step goal.  And hey, it has blinking lights.  Everyone loves blinking lights. 🙂

Week Four Update

26 Sunday Jan 2014

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Completed bold green with strikethrough, in progress in bold with italic, notes, summary and updates inline.  Not started in blue.

  • Fitness – Hit my Fitbit goals for the month.  Still on track for weight loss, not so great on the daily goals but it’s been cold as the Grinch’s heart around here.  I did add some FitBit friends to provide competition. 🙂
  • Professional – Complete the ITIL 2011 Intermediate SOA qualification.  Completed through Module 5 of 12.On Track!
  • Habit – Fitness and Food Journaling.    I’m declaring this one complete as the habit has definitely formed – almost to the point of obsession.
  • Home – Guest bedroom.  Nothing this week.
  • Financial – 401K and retirement accounts.  Waiting on the new account information.
  • Decluttering
  • Cost cutting – Insurance review

Two down – probably going to have to move a couple over into February, but still happy with the progress.

Week Three Update

18 Saturday Jan 2014

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Completed bold green with strikethrough, in progress in bold with italic, notes, summary and updates inline.  Not started in blue.

  • Fitness – Hit my Fitbit goals for the month.  Purchased FitBit Premium and configured the trainer.  Not hitting the band goals but hitting the trainer goals, so I’m good with that.  Down another 2 pounds and currently 2 pounds off my goal for January. 🙂
  • Professional – Complete the ITIL 2011 Intermediate SOA qualification.  Completed through Module 4 of 12.On Track!
  • Habit – Fitness and Food Journaling.    Still doing pretty well on this and it’s becoming a habit to log food right after eating.  Particularly like the dashboard widgets in FitBit that let you watch your calories vs. activities.
  • Home – Guest bedroom.  Nothing this week.
  • Financial – 401K and retirement accounts.  Got news that my new 401K was being moved to another firm.  Looks like I’ll be updating the updates sometime next week, LOL!
  • Decluttering
  • Cost cutting – Insurance review

Moving on along – particularly pleased with the fitness goals for this month.  Developing a lot of awareness of what I eat and how much I move around vs. sitting.

Week Two Update

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

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Completed bold green with strikethrough, in progress in bold with italic, notes, summary and updates inline.  Not started in blue.

  • Fitness – Hit my Fitbit goals for the month.  Meh.  Running behind here courtesy of “the polar vortex” followed by “build an ark”.  Going to need to add some extra steps in the next couple of weeks.  Have lost 5 pounds since the holidays, though.
  • Professional – Complete the ITIL 2011 Intermediate SOA qualification.  Completed through Module 3 of 12.On Track!
  • Habit – Fitness and Food Journaling.    Doing this pretty regularly, love the FitBit.  Discovered I was getting up every few hours and walking 52 steps.  No, not sleepwalking – letting the dogs out.  Started feeding them in the mornings, sleeping MUCH better now.
  • Home – Guest bedroom.  Hopefully this coming weekend.
  • Financial – 401K and retirement accounts.  Let this one ride for the week though I did download the 2013 tax forms and instructions.
  • Decluttering
  • Cost cutting – Insurance review

One complete, five underway with the last one requiring a single session (that I just haven’t managed to get motivated to do since it involves sitting and I’m trying to focus on moving).