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Both for my family and for myself we are doing monthly challenges all year long - focusing on a different goal each month. For us this will be a year of actually doing the things we know will make our life better!
There's a lot to be said for small incremental changes, and how they can indeed change the world.
There's also a lot to be said for jumping into the deep end.
For myself, I find that it's easier to eat better if I'm exercising. It's easier to exercise if I'm eating well.
In some cases, it's easier to do a big push than little, seemingly inconsequential actions that are easy to skip. As long as the bandwagon is playing our music, let's jump on!
Challenges for January
Family Challenges:
We are doing a "No Spend Month"
For the month of January, we will spend as little as possible outside of necessities and regular bills. No personal spending money, no outings with admission fees, no new supplies or treasures.
We will spend $20 or less on groceries per week. We didn't stock up, we didn't pre-load. We are going to run out of some of the extras.
We will not eat out, we will not treat ourselves to the little creature comforts, unless we make them ourselves from what we already have at home.
We will get creative with our meals and crafting and go through older ingredients and supplies than we might otherwise not choose over recent purchases.
We will flex our creative muscles and come up with new solutions.
We will start the year off on a good financial footing, especially as our culture recovers from the excesses of the holiday.
We will get Closer To Zero Waste.
Personal Challenges:
I will be going back to personal food/eating rules (no dairy or sweets except on "cheat/feast days" and special occasions, etc.) that have served me very well in the past.
They are a combination of things I've figured out for myself and the advice of my much beloved Naturopath, Dr. Stacey Munro. It was through her guidance that I was able to conceive and carry C to a healthy birth, regardless of my previous struggles.
I've also started practicing my french again using the duolingo app. In the past I've gotten almost a year long streak, and then another almost six month streak. I took French all through grade and high school. When I was 18 I spent almost two months in France with a French family. Even with all this, my French has greatly improved since I started playing around with this app.
Each month I'm going to do a 30 day fitness challenge. Each of these challenges will be a different fitness exercise. They start with a handful of repetitions toward the beginning of each month and end with a much more difficult amount at the end of each month, with recovery days scheduled in.
January's Fitness Challenge: Kettlebell swings
Using a 20lb kettlebell, I started with 25 Kettlebell swings yesterday and will work my way up to 50 swings in a row by the end of the month.
Next month I'll let you know how this month has gone and what our Family and my Personal Challenges will be for February.
Looking forward to our Best Year Yet!
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This is an awesome set of goals. I'm particular interested in how the spending turns out.
ReplyDeleteI love doing No Spend Months!
DeleteWe always come up with a few delicious, low cost meals, that just use ingredients we almost always have on hand. We usually find some food items that are nearing the end of their shelf life, and a few things we've passed over suddenly seem much more appealing because we haven't bought anything new.
It's so easy to accumulate a stash of supplies, materials, or goods, and not even realize.
It's really as much an exercise in challenging how we think than in "not spending" because so many of us have so much!
This is really inspiring. I think we are going to try a no spend month sometime this year. Awesome idea. We buy/have so much food.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard of the idea I was a little reluctant. But after about a week into the first No Spend Month we did (a couple years ago) I realized how proud and accomplished I felt!
DeleteGo Myrrh! Sounds like you've set some ambitious and healthy goals. But I know you can do it!
ReplyDeleteEvery year, we have a Frugal February. Because we only do it once a year, it's a fun challenge to eat all those cans of beans and find out what those unlabeled things are at the back of the freezer. There are also a lot of free and fun things to do if you look for them -- free talks at the library, no admission to the museum on art night, or just go outside and build a snowman.
But I will admit, that we do it in February because it's the shortest month of the year.
Oh there are SO many cost-free fun things to do! I haven't been to very many of the things around her, being outnumbered by toddlers and all.
DeleteLet me know when you want to trade cans of beans and unlabeled things for apple butter, bread and butter zucchini pickles, pickled beets, currant jam, or the like. :)