New Year, New Goals 2017

Photo from my Y, where we are all invitied to write our goals.

Since I didn't refer much to my 2016 goals throughout the year, and petered out on quarterly check-ins, I thought about forgoing them 2017. But I enjoy lists too much, and even if I only get around to a few of them, I still find the practice worthwhile and I think I did check off a good amount - about 7 out of 11:

• End the run streak when the time is right/obvious. Yep, I did this and am still coming back from ye olde plantar fasciitis. 
• Read 55 books. Woot! 62!
• Do the Book Riot read harder challenge. Welp. I never outlined books to read for the challenge and really didn't make decisions based on the prompts. However, it's fun to see how many I tackled looking back and I checked off about half the list!

• Run 5 races, including one trail race. Ha! Nope.   
• Aim for one PR. Welp. I can't PR if I'm not racing. I sincerely hope that my PR days are not behind me...  
• Plan a girls trip with my high school buddies. Yay! DONE.  
• Plan another summer family road trip. Also yay! DONE.
• More picture taking and maybe a small weekly or monthly roundup. Check! I enjoyed adding 'everyday life' to my weekly meal plan, because those are the posts I look back on the most. Definitely keeping up this routine.
• Get at least 5 new meals into regular rotation. I barely squeaked this one in, with exactly 5 favorite new recipes this year.   
• Try new restaurants with the hubs. Hm. Do vacation restaurants count? 
• Have more fun with makeup and find the right routine, colors, etc. for me. I think I can check this one off, too. I am definitely having more fun with it and learned a thing or two.

For this year, I thought about going with the increasingly popular idea of coming up with my one word for the year. And it was haaaaard. It felt rather limiting to me, and I love lists. I suppose I could do both. So my best attempt for a 2017 word is: SUBSTANTIVE. I want to engage in things that are substantive and nourishing to my life. Which equals reading things that bring me contentment and knowledge, continuing to eat healthy meals (mostly! everything in moderation!), more in person time with friends, less Twitter (and OF COURSE Facebook - I deleted the app from my phone/tablet months ago) and more New York Times (I added that app when I subscribed). Yet I had to write a list...

• Read 65 books! It'll be fun to attempt this, but like the Read Harder challenge, I think I'm going to forgo any hard and fast reading goals. I like the idea of reading pretty freely with the intention of: reading more diversely (hopefully increasing my percentage of POC authors to more than 10% this year), keeping advance copies to about one a month (though it's always so tempting to request ALL THE BOOKS), get back to reading more YA (I read so little in 2016) as well as more middle grade/Newberry Books.  
• Get back to regular Mom's Demand meetings, and perhaps add ACLU ones. I fell off going regularly to MDA when the school year started and all of a sudden it was the holidays. Plus I joined this equally substantive organization and will try to learn more about volunteer opportunities.

• Get plantar fasciitis under control. It's SO much better, but not entirely gone. I don't feel it at all before, during, or after a run up to about four miles. But if I add distance or speed, my foot aches at night. I did end up getting orthotics and I'm hoping they help me turn a corner. But, I have let a lot of the prehab slide, so I need to commit to that daily.
• Run three races. This sounds ridiculously easy, given my past racing history. Yet there it is. I don't want to aim for PRs, I just want to feel 100% injury free. Obviously Hot Chocolate and the 5K for the first time! And the Tenacious Ten (see sidebar!), albeit the 10K rather than the 10 miler that I wish I could do, but I know that would be pushing it - even as far out as April.
• Eat more fruit! I am a veggie person and get plenty of servings at lunch and dinner to cover the lack of fruit. But, I think it'd be a good thing for my overall health to incorporate into my diet/change things up. 
• Get 6 new meals into regular rotation. Why not one up last year's goal? I already have one to put on the list, too!
• Plan the summer road trip and PERHAPS another girls trip. I have yet to hit my girls up on ideas about this, but I kinda want to make it happen!
• Do the 52 Lists Project. How could I not want to dive into this beautiful book every week?