September Recap & October Goals

Happy almost October! It seems like once I hit October, I’m so excited for fall and all the holidays and suddenly it feels like the year is basically over. But this weekend I savored every minute of the newly chilly, rainy fall weather, and the excuse to get cozy inside with a fall movie and a book (something I plan do more of in October- see below).

It’s so interesting to me to look back at the beginning of a month because it’s crazy how different my progress or perspective can be 30 days later. This month was a big one, especially when it came to my mindset.

 

Health & Fitness

At the beginning of September I had just finished the Chicago Triathlon, a big goal of mine that I had enjoyed working towards for a few months. So I was feeling a little lost in fitness going into the new month. I love being active so continuing to workout was difficult, but I felt like there was nothing I was excited about anymore since I didn’t have a clear direction or outcome in mind.

We also had engagement photos and wedding dress shopping coming up, and I came to the realization that suddenly my reason for working out changed too. Rather than working out to reach a goal like a race or a PR, it became a means of controlling my appearance, which clearly wasn’t good enough motivation for me to get up each morning. So once I approached fitness with a new mindset, by setting new running and strength goals, I found my energy again.

In September I complete 26 workouts!

This included running (interval runs, 5k’s, and 8k’s), swimming, 3×3 at Studio Three, a rooftop workout with Barre3, and yoga at The Space Between,  Lululemon Lincoln Park, and Mirepoix. Plus I tried out CrossTown Fitness for the first time and loved it- review coming soon!

 

Travel

While we didn’t go anywhere big or new this month, we did spend two of our weekends away with close friends and family, which was just as great. One weekend we went up to Wisconsin for a night of camping with friends at Governor Dodge State Park and the next day and night in Madison, where I finally made it to a football game at Camp Randall. The next weekend we visited my extended family in metro-Detroit to celebrate my great grandma’s 95th birthday. I was so glad I was able to see her and spend time with the rest of the family that I don’t get to see too often.

I’m looking forward to staying in Chicago this month and having everyone come visit me 😉

 

Books

Not my best month of reading. I started two books and completed none…Many days this month I had things going on in the evenings, but it was never late enough to be an excuse for not reading before bed. I just consistently stayed up, usually doing nothing important, before realizing how late it was and going right to bed. Granted, it was usually around 10 o’clock, but I like to get up early and value sleep too much to miss any of it to read.

This next month though, I’m going to do a better job of planning to read earlier so hopefully I can get at least half an hour in before going to sleep. I have 5 library books stacking up, so it’s really a necessity at this point.

 

Career

I feel like this area got a huge mental shift this month. The majority of the month each week went by where I felt incredibly busy without actually completing anything productive. So I did a bit of an audit of my weekly schedule. I figured out where I was losing a lot of time, what was causing the lack of productivity, and took it out.

After making some adjustments, I had an amazing week. I was actually finishing things that mattered in the grand scheme of my business. I had time to get really creative and work on a personal project (coming to the blog soon!). And overall I just felt more excited about my work each day.

 

October Goals

I feel like September and October can be a time where we push all of our goals and resolutions to the new year since it feels like this one is practically over. But with a whole quarter of the year left I’m going to make the most of every last bit of it. Here are my goals for the next month:

• 1 interval training class a week (definitely going back to CrossTown, plus trying Shred 415 and Studio Three’s interval class)
• Add in swim speed work (rather than just a steady 30 min swim)
• Finish all 5 of the books I currently have checked out
• Make time for another personal project for my creative health