My Goals for August

Is it time to wave the white flag and admit defeat when it comes to my 2020 goals?

Once COVID hit, I lost the ability to achieve many of my goals.  Clearly we won’t be traveling to Japan or Michigan.  I couldn’t go to daily Mass because the church closed down for many months.  It’s only now reopened, but in our area, with so many cases, I don’t feel safe going.

And then there’s the psychological and emotional toll of the virus.  Since our case load in AZ is high, we’ve been home almost non-stop.  (Yes, we are privileged that we homeschool and I freelance from home and my husband’s work became remote, allowing us all the opportunity to stay home.)  Some weeks, I get an amazing amount done.  Other weeks, I’m lucky to get our basic homeschooling, my freelance work, and preparing meals accomplished.

I’m tired of beating myself up because I haven’t revamped so many blog posts a week or I haven’t cleaned a closet.  We’re all going through unprecedented times, and I want to be gentle on myself.

So, I’m scrapping my 2020 goals.  I’m going to start over with goals more inline with our current situation.

The Focus of My New Goals

The main focus of my new goals is going to be on my health, wellness, and weight.

I had heard in May that those with a BMI over 40 were at risk of severe COVID-19 if they got the virus.  My BMI was 41.5, so I knew I definitely had some work to do.  I got serious and followed the Purple Plan on Weight Watchers.  On the first week, I lost 5 pounds!  And then over the next three weeks, I only lost a total of .5 pounds.  I switched to the Green Plan, and each week I lost 1 to 1.5 pounds.  I have been on the Green Plan now for five weeks, and I’ve lost another 5 pounds, bringing my total weight loss since May 23rd to 10.5 pounds.  My BMI is now 39.7.

But then I heard recently that the CDC revamped their guidelines so that anyone with a BMI over 30 is at risk of severe COVID.  Having a BMI of 30 or lower means I need to lose another 57.5 pounds!!

I’ll be honest, once I heard that, the information messed with my head.  I felt hopeless and thought I should go back on the Paleo AIP plan (how I’ve previously lost weight but never kept it off).  But I don’t think that’s the answer.  I think slow and steady with lifestyle changes is the answer.

So, considering COVID is still so prevalent in my community (and the entire United States), I feel like the best thing I can do for the rest of 2020 is to get in better shape and lose weight.  I also need to bring up my exercise so I am eventually exercising at least 2.5 hours a week.

My Goals for August

So, having said all that, here are my goals for August:

• Follow the Green Plan faithfully every week.  Limit sweets to only at night and less than 28 points per week (out of a grand total of 259 points available to me per week).
• Eat 8 fruit and vegetable servings per day.
• Exercise 60 minutes each week.
• Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night.
• Create a recipe book for the family.
• Experiment for one week with tuning out the FB noise.  I want to give myself 15 minutes a day to check FB and no more.  All of the drama drains my soul, so I want to see if mostly avoiding it helps me mentally.

That’s it.  Short and sweet, but effective.

Are you having trouble staying focused on goals during these difficult times?