2008 Goals Revisted

More than half of 2008 has passed so it is time to re-examine the goals that I set at the beginning of the year.

Do at least one full pull-up

I’ve done a few assisted chinups and can do a few unassisted chinups if I jump up onto the bar from a step box. I want to be able to do a traditional pull-up from a straight hanging position. I want to do it like the big boys! I found this link from CrossFit about how to develop pullups while blog surfing a while back. I had thought about trying this process from Stumptuous but I would prefer to work on this at home. I just ordered the Creative Fitness Door Gym from Amazon which should work nicely with the CrossFit training method. I will start working the CrossFit plan into my weekly workouts in August after I’m done focusing on circuit training.

Run a marathon

I am on track to complete this goal in Richmond on November 15. I am currently in Week 2 of an 18 week marathon training program.

Run a sub-2 hour half-marathon

I completed the ING Georgia Half Marathon back in March in 1:53:51. Sweet!

Reach goal body fat of 20% (17% for wedding!)

I didn’t even get close to 17% for my wedding, much less 20%. In fact, I know that I am higher than my lowest body fat now. Oh well, my wedding dress fit perfectly and I felt great on my special day. As to the 20% goal, this is definitely do-able by the end of the year. At the end of the month, I will go for another BodPod body fat test to see exactly where I am starting.

Develop and sculpt arm and back muscles for my halter/low-back wedding gown

I worked hard with a trainer from January to May. I think my arms looked great! I definitely noticed progression over that time period. I’m pretty happy with my arms. I remember being mortified at the thought of wearing a sleeveless mock turtleneck for my flag girl costume in high school. I’m not that girl anymore.

Continue journey towards a clean-eating lifestyle

Ugh. I haven’t been doing so good on this one. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about food and diets and trying to come up with something that works for me. I don’t know that I will ever be able to adopt a truly clean Tosca Reno approved clean diet. However, I think I am OK with that as long as I eat mostly good foods that fuel my workouts.

Becoming the best wife that I can be

I’m trying my best! This is all new to me and I’d imagine this is a lifelong work in progress.

Maintain financial self-discipline and continue process of becoming debt-free

Just like weight loss, this has its ups and downs. Due to an unexpected setback close to the wedding date, we weren’t able to cash flow everything like I anticipated. However, we are on track to pay off all wedding related debt by December. We should be debt-free except for the house by April 2010. That seems like forever away, but I feel like cheering when I compare my current debt level to that of late 2006. This is definitely an area that I could tighten up further though. I haven’t had the giselle intense that Dave Ramsey preaches about so this process has been lagging some.

Complete at least two of the Sun Java certification tests

Honestly, career-related stuff has been so far off my radar this entire year. I have made zero progress towards this goal. I am very happy with my current job and don’t anticipate job hunting any time soon. But you never know what may happen, so I do need to keep my skills sharp and being a Sun Certified Java Architect is a very good look on the resume. I may push this one out 2009 though.

Develop a routine to maintain/organize my household better

I joined Flylady at the beginning of the year and have done nothing towards implementing their plan. Since things have settled down a bit, I have gotten better about cleaning up but I need improvement here. I am always playing catch up on Saturday when the marathon cleaning sessions could be avoided by doing small things daily.

I feel good about what I’ve accomplished so far this year and what I am on track to accomplish over the next six months. And if I don’t hit every goal – so what? I tried!