Happy New Year again! Have you recovered from NYE yet? Granted, my recovery was not from drinking too much alcohol, rather the extended lack of sleep with staying up until midnight to see the new year in, followed by a night with Finley!
As I mentioned last year, I’m at a point in my life where I am ready to set goals for myself again. I had a period of being almost too goal orientated so switched to having monthly pledges instead. However I need the renewed motivation and accountability of goals right now. I did set myself a few goals for 2014 and actually achieved half of them despite finding out I was pregnant only 3 weeks later. My theme for last year was ‘Enjoy the Ride’. It could not have been more apt!
This year I have been using the wonderful Shining Year Life and Biz workbooks from Leonie Dawson and I wholeheartedly recommend them for anyone wanting to get their shit together in 2015. They have really helped me get clear about what I want to achieve and how best to go about that. They brought out some truths that I needed to face up to in terms of my time management and my tendency to bite off more than I can chew. They also helped me to see what my priorities should be in order to feel the way I want to feel.
As well as the list of goals I’m about to share with you, I have chosen a sacred word for the year and I’ve created secret boards on Pinterest for inspiration in various different life areas such as home, life, health, body, self care, style, business etc. Yes I take this shit seriously!
Here are the things I’d like to achieve and feel by the end of 2015:
- Feel fabulous, lose some weight, feel fit, strong and healthy – basically like ‘me’ again. This is important to me, because I can only be the best mother I can be when I take care of myself first.
- Do some Park Runs, complete the Great North Run and raise a tonne of cash for the Children’s Heart Unit Fund
- Have a new family home – a place that feels like a perfect fit for us (I also have a wish list of things I’d like in our new home)
- Grow my business, especially the online part of it, and be earning enough each month to afford everything we could need, grow my savings significantly, and be able to start a pension (I have some other specific business goals too)
There we are! Some hefty goals like buying a new home, but as we live in a one bed flat with a little one it’s something I’m really committed to getting sorted this year.
My journey to get pregnant, while I was pregnant and then the last few months of stress, have really left me feeling depleted, tired and less than fabulous. Something I am realising more and more is that I can’t be the best person I can be, whether that’s a mother, wife, friend, daughter or health coach, unless I am taking care of myself properly.
I may have managed to fit into some old jeans on NYE, but I’m far from where I’d like to be and finally I feel able and ready to tackle that. I’m certainly not about to go back to old restrictive ways and I don’t hate my body, I just know I need to eat better, move more and take better care of myself.
I’m looking forward to running again, but it will be on my terms and I’m not going to be looking at speed etc, it’s about enjoyment, and as for the GNR my only goal is to finish it, even if it takes me 4 hours! I’ve already completed it in well under 2 hours a couple of years ago, I don’t want to push it and end up injured.
As I said there are incremental goals within each of those that take me towards each one, and every month it’s those little steps I’ll be working on to get me there. So for January I will be working on…
January Goals
- Meal plan and food diary more consistently
- Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day
- Make sure all my main meals contain a good source of protein
- Exercise 3 times a week and complete the Plank a day challenge – see below!
- Get a hair cut (sooo needed!)
- Listen to my Lucky Bitch audios
- Put our flat on the market again
- Begin a gentle sleep plan with Finley
- Start a milk expressing schedule to get a freezer stash before Finley starts nursery
- Develop a routine, use my zen habits, and stick to my ritual days – something from the Shining Year Workbook where I have made Organisation Mondays, Finley Fridays and Cook Up Sundays
Plank a day challenge
So I thought it would be fun to actually challenge myself this month and give the old will power a test. Since my core muscles are a disgrace, then a Plank a day challenge felt like a good idea. If you’d like to join in, please do! I’ll post updates here on the blog and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. All I will be doing is at least one plank hold a day and timing myself each day with the hope that I’ll be able to extend how long I can hold the plank for by the end of January. If you want to join in to you could:
- Just do the plank each day for as long as you can
- Do it for a set time, for example 3o seconds, then aim to increase it by 5 seconds a day etc
- Do it the same as me, time your plank, holding it for as long as possible and keep a record to see how much it increases by the end of January.
If you aren’t sure how to do a plank, here is a good guide from Greatist. Make sure you check that out, use good form and don’t push yourself or even try the challenge if you have any injuries. For my challenge I’ll be doing a forearm plank as shown below and above:
Image via Greatist
If you have a blog and fancy joining in feel free to right click and save that graphic to use too.
What are your goals / resolutions for 2015? Are you working on anything specific this January. Anyone up for the Plank a day challenge?
P.S – Have you entered my Giveaway for a big bundle of healthy living goodies yet?
Great goals Laura! You are so organised about getting yourself mentally ready for 2015! Checking out the Shining Year book, it looks awesome!
Thanks Claire! Hope you have a wonderful year!
Amazing stuff :)
Thanks Niruja!
Haha I think we’ve switched goal/pledges with each other! I decided to take a leaf out of your book (blog!?) this year and try setting myself a monthly goal rather than yearly. I love your plank challenge – I’d do it myself if I wasn’t doing a personal push-up challenge for the next 6 weeks – think I should focus on one challenge at a time this year!
I think its interesting how our lives need one kind of approach and then another, hope you enjoy the pledge style approach! Hope your challenge goes well, I would love to be able to do a push up! One day soon maybe.
What great goals Laura! I love the plank a day challenge idea too – my core is scared but I think it should happen! I always avoid working my core…
I love the look of those workbooks too – I feel it may have to happen :)
Let me know if you try the workbooks, they rock! I’m like that with my core but after months and months of neglect, it was time!
Love the plank challenge! My personal best is 2.5 mins, but at the moment I’m doing one minute reps x 4. Can’t believe how good plank has been for me! I’ve definitely noticed a difference across my body – it’s toned my arms, chest, the back of my legs, stomach. Everyone should try it!
I’m hoping I can see a big difference from it. 4 x 1 minute is amazing!
Great goals, good luck for the year ahead.
Thanks Lauren, hope 2015 is great for you!
Brilliant goals! I really hope running goes well for you as I know you struggled (like me) in the past with it. I think your goal for GNR is fab. My fingers are firmly crossed for you!
I like the sound of the plank a day challenge as well – that’s such a great thing to do for overall core strength.
My plan for January is to try and not eat any cake or naughtiness until I get to January 23rd when I’m off to the States. We’ll see how well that goes…
Me too, I’m going to have to train really carefully I think. You lucky thing going to the States, how exciting!
So inspiring!! My plans for January are to pass my exams and I am up with the challenge! I wish you luck on the sale or your flat and as I love everything home related I can’t wait to see you telling us more about your new home when you’ll finally find a new one!
Thanks for joining in the challenge! I’m so glad you like the home stuff, believe me there will be lots on here once we get moved!
I’m in for the plank challenge! I’ll update you weekly on Instagram – just remind me what tags I need to use!
Yey! Just tag me @lauraagarwilson or #wholeheartedlyhealthy or #plankadayjan
Love the idea of a plank a day challenge – my abs are a focus for this year along with building up arm muscle. Loved your newsletter too:) I am aiming to grow business to and take my gut health to a whole new level:) plus be able to do more pull ups!!
Glad you enjoyed the newsletter! Great goals, I wish I could do a pull up!
Good luck for the Great North Run ~ I’m sure you’ll run a great time, even if you don’t think so at this point. Taking the pressure off will probably actually help with that!
Let me preface this by saying I obviously know nothing about children, but it surprises me that you’re putting Finley in a nursery when you work from home? I could obviously understand if you had to go back to an office and only had limited maternity leave, but I would be worried about him with all the germs and viruses around those places. I’m sure he’s fully recovered and you did say not to wrap him in cotton wool completely, but he’s had such a hard start in life and I’m sure he would miss you? It’s none of my business anyway, I just couldn’t understand why he would need to be in a nursery environment at all when you could both be at home, even working full time.
I’m hoping that will be the case with the GNR! He’s only going into nursery one day a week so I can get some focused work time. I can still do some work with him at home, but it’s really not as easy as I thought it would be, when he’s awake he needs constant attention, literally going to the loo is hard sometimes, never mind trying to coach a client! I also need at least a day when I can work on community and school projects. It’s hard, as I think it is for any Mam, because ideally we’d be able to have it all, but even for someone self employed like me, it’s not realistic and I need to make money to keep a roof over our heads so its a balancing of a lot of priorities. Luckily Fin is completely recovered as in not immune compromised in any way, it’s probably going to strengthen his system being exposed to some germs from time to time. I’m also lucky that the nursery is very close by and excellent so I know he’ll be getting the best care on that day.
great goals! good luck with the running too! I find it a challenge to run during the week with work and looking after a toddler so I am really making the most of it during the holidays – unfortunately I took a bit of a tumble on my run today but I’ll try and get back to it tomorrow! I have been feeling a bit blah at the moment and definitely need to focus on my eating – just brought the I Quit Sugar for Life book so looking forward to reading that while the little one naps and doing some meal planning. Really enjoying doing a plank a day with you – hopefully it can become part of my everyday routine!
Thanks Bron! Hope you are ok! The IQS book is great, some lovely recipes in there. So chuffed you are joining in the plank challenge, I’m hoping I can keep up the habit too!
Love the idea of a plank challenge. I suppose any exercise can be turned into a challenge, but one focusing on core muscles is great! I’m in!!! I like how you are very specific with your goals and break it down for the month (short and long term goals). That increases the likelihood that you will commit to them and complete them :-) Hope you have an amazing 2015!!!! Small positive steps over time result in massive improvements!!!!
Thank you Scott! Glad you are in on the challenge! I agree re the goals, I try and break them down as best as I can, fingers crossed I’ll complete them all!
I’ve managed to do something to my back this week (no idea what!) so intend on starting your plank-a-day challenge, but just a little later on. You’ve set some great goals for this year. I like to see that parkrun features in your list too! One of my aims for 2015 is to get to parkrun more often.
Hope your back is ok Mary! I’m really looking forward to my first ParkRun hopefully soon!
I would love to jump onto the plank challenge! Core strength is so important for avoiding injuries, so I incorporate forearm and side planks into my personal yoga practice twice a week. Once a day would give a lot more results though. Thank you for the motivation!
Great Alexis, chuffed to have you on board!
I like how you’ve given yourself goals for the month and I think I might do the same.
I’ve set myself resolutions for 2015 but I think breaking them down into monthly goals will make them more manageable and hopefully mean I will stick with them!
Good luck with 2015, your goals and the plank challenge.
Helen x
Thanks Helen! I do think that breaking them down like that really helps. Hope you have a great 2015!
I hope you enjoy parkrun when you get to one- I love them and they all encourage families to join in too.