Good Morning Bloggies!

I hope you’re having a fabulous day so far. Are you pumped for the long weekend? Today I want to share something with you that I came across via Twitter yesterday and think is absolutely fantastic. I know I’ve been talking about Lululemon a ton lately, and a while ago I introduced you to the Goal Tender, one of the company’s tools for helping people like you and me to set goals. Well I apologize for getting all goal-y on you again, but Lululemon has declared this week as Goal Week, and it’s made me even more enthusiastic (perhaps annoyingly so) about goal setting! To read about what Goal Week is, and to see a schedule of topics for each day, click here.

Today is day 2, and the Lulu bloggers are talking about what a goal is, why you should set them, and how to get started. One of my favourite pieces of advice from their posts is:

A goal inspires you to do the work. Your goals should excite and even scare you.

A goal is not a ‘to do’ list or an idea, what your family/boyfriend/girlfriend/etc. wants for you, or what society states is for you.

So often when I decide what my goals are going to be, they are things I feel I should do, and not things that I want to do. The result is that I don’t end up actually achieving them because I don’t want them badly enough. Inspired by Goal Week, the fact that it is a new month, a new season, and after reading this post from Lisa, I sat down at my desk yesterday with a notebook, and pen, and a big peach and pineapple-y smoothie – all the essentials for some hardcore self-reflection and goal setting.

I’m a big believer that it is important to maintain a healthy balance across all areas of life, so I’ve set goals in the following categories:

• Financial
• Health & Wellness
• Career
• Spiritual
• Social
• Family

The bulk of my energy was in setting financial goals, because this is one area that I feel I neglect on a regular basis. To be honest, I just don’t like thinking about it. One of my biggest and most difficult financial goals for the coming months is to stick to a grocery budget, and I’m not liking the idea of it, but it has to be done. It’s also going to be a challenge and I want to prove to myself that I can do it. There is a plan of action for reaching this goal, but I’ll save that for an upcoming post – stay tuned!

It’s probably not necessary for me to divulge all of my goals to the rest of blog land, but let’s talk about health and fitness goals, shall we? Although it can be difficult to know exactly to go about reaching a goal, I like to use the SMART acronym for a bit of guidance:

Although some of the goals below break the SMART rules, these are the items on my list:

1. Practice mindful eating - I’m pretty sure I eat faster than the average person, but I’ve been reading a lot lately about the psychology behind eating and mindfulness. It takes our brains approximately 20 minutes to register that we’re full, but my average meal probably lasts about 10 minutes once it’s on the table (provided I’m eating alone). This will be measured by the length of time spent at the table. I’m anticipating that I’ll also get more enjoyment out of my meals once I begin to pay more attention to taste (sort of like my experience at Whole Foods on Wednesday, during which I loved every single bite.) To learn more about mindful eating and how to do it, check out this article, or check out the website of The Center for Mindful Eating.
2. Increase flexibility, and gain x lbs of lean muscle mass before the end of 2010 – I will first explain the reason behind the x. Yesterday, I booked another round of sessions with Mr. Trainer, and I’m SUPER excited to start training again!! Those of you who have been following Eat, Spin, Run, Repeat for a while now will know that Mr. T has the ability to put my bod in extreme pain, but achieve awesome results at the same time. We will be meeting soon to discuss my training program over the next year, and that is also when we’ll discuss specific body composition goals numbers-wise. Working on my flexibility is also going to be built into that plan, and I’m excited for this because it’s a component of fitness that I neglect when working out on my own. Measurement will include pounds of lean mass gained, inches gained, and performance on various flexibility tests.
3. Unplug more often – This is more of a wellness goal, but it’s one that I feel is mandatory for good health! One of the most anticipated parts of my day is scrolling through my Google Reader and learning about what my bloggy friends are up to. I also love reading your comments and emails – you guys make my day!! However, I do spend a lot of time online and on my CrackBerry, which I feel should be cut down a little in favour of non-electronic activities. Therefore, (and please don’t hate me!) effective this week, I have decided not to post on weekends. Don’t be sad – this will just give you even more interesting adventures to wake up to on Monday morning!

The next 2 are career goals, but are also health and fitness related:

1. Finish my Fitness Instructor Specialist certification by December 18th – This one has been in the works for a long time, ever since this post! However, I am determined to gain this certification so that I can start teaching classes off the bike!!
2. Complete a Nutrition & Wellness Specialist certification before the end of 2010 – I’m super excited about this one. It has to do with food – are you suprised?! This is another Can Fit Pro course which I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time but just never felt like I could fit it in with my student schedule. My motives for this are to increase my own knowledge of nutrition and wellness concepts, and also so that I can provide my lovely blog readers (that’s you!) and group exercise participants with oodles of useful information!

Today’s Lululemon post also talks about a vision board, which is something I’ve been meaning to make for ages. I think it’s the arts & crafts nerd in me that likes the idea of this. Basically, a vision board is a collage of pictures that inspire you. They can be people, places, things, etc. You can also write some of your goals on it, and keep the board in a place that is visible so that you can look at it every day. Since I’ll be working on the “unplug more often” goal this weekend and not blogging on Saturday morning, the plan is to make my vision board instead. It may make an appearance on the blog soon!

When I wasn’t setting goals yesterday, I was busy trying to recreate a salad equally as delicious as the one I had at Whole Foods.

It wasn’t quite as mind-blowing, but it was still pretty tasty. The goods:

• Romaine lettuce and pea shoots (gotta have a strong base!)
• Cucumbers
• Red onion
• Red bell pepper
• Hard boiled egg
• Roasted butternut squash
• Green and purple beans
• Chickpeas
• A smattering of walnuts and a few splashes of balsamic vinegar mixed with olive oil.

Veggies dominated dinner as well, which consisted of chicken marinated in lemon and herbs, and some veggies (parsnip, Brussels sprouts, red onion, cherry tomatos, and eggplant) tossed in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, parsley, and marjoram.

Ridiculously simple but oh so good.

Alright, I’m off to buy a new sim card for my BlackBerry. It seems to be a little sick these days and keeps freezing on me – oh the woes of technology!  But first, I want to know…

• What are your goals for September?
• Do you have a vision board? What sort of pictures have you included that inspire you?
  
• Of the listed goal categories above (financial, career, health & wellness, etc), which area do you feel lacks attention? How can you give it more attention over the next month?