Goodbye November...Hello December!

That sad (but adorable) little puppy looks how I feel right now... (in the sad way, not the adorable way).

At the beginning of November, I had created a blogpost with very specific goals to rock the socks off of November. Cue Pac man's little getting-eaten-by-the-ghost soundbyte .... EPIC FAIL.

Let's review those goals:

1. Track on MyFitnessPal EVERYDAY on my iphone ----FAIL. Although, I seriously watched my portions and I am still not eating fast food (since June!)
2. Drink 68 oz of water EVERYDAY and track with WaterLogged on my iphone - FAIL. I was sick with some nasty cold/sinus infection/chest cold and I didn't feel like drinking much.
3. Make a calander for workouts so I have a visual and so it is planned out ahead of time! FAIL. I just plain didn't do this.
4. Do Turbofire workouts 4 times a week- HALF FAIL (or should I be more positive and call it a HALF SUCCESS?)- I did this for 2 weeks of November until I got sick.
5. Do Chalean extreme 1-2 times a week.- NOPE. Didn't do this either...when you are sick, you really don't feel like exercising.
6. Jog 1.5 or more miles on each jog 3 times a week. - FAIL- Hard to run when you can hardly breath because you are so congested and your lungs fill like they could burst!
7. Do ab work outs 3 times a week with either Tony Horton's extreme abs or Turbojam/turbofire's ab workout - ONCE AGAIN- FAIL
8. Make a weekly meal plan on Sunday night. HALF SUCCESS- I did alot of crock pot meals this month.
9. walk 1-2 times a week, depending on the weather- HALF SUCCESS. I did walk a few times with Little E, but often it was just to cold to take him out.
10. Drink shakeology 4-5 times a week. - HALF SUCCESS- I drink it about twice a week.
11. Commit to 3 blogposts a week. EPIC EPIC EPIC FAIL

Not to make excuses, but I was genuinely sick. And pretty much felt like a zombie...The Walking Dead (I could have been a zombie cast member this past month). And while the old me would look at all those "epic fails" and get extremely discouraged, I am looking at it as a challenge to do better this month. And although I had many epic fails this past month, I have also had successes.

1. Before I left for Thanksgiving vacation to visit my family for a week and a half, I was 133.6. So I have maintained all month. We shall see what I am when I return home to Texas this weekend.
2. I started to feel more human again shortly after arriving to visit my family. While I have been here in the past week, my hubby and I did our very own Turkey Trot, completing 3.5 miles in 50 minutes and battling some massive hills. And we also ran 2.77 miles (hills again!) on Monday. Now I am dying from shin splints again...I really must do some more research on how to alleviate this problem.
3. Thanksgiving---what a day for temptation. But I did so good! I successfully "sampled" everything and did not go back for seconds. My plate was 10X less full than it had been during past Thanksgivings ;)
4. The most important success of this month: My MOPS presentation went beautifully (by the Grace of God!)...The Crafty Christmas Gifts presentation I gave was super fun but more importantly, the body image presentation was a success! Even though I cried nearly the whole time I spoke (for about 45 mins!) on negative body image, my battle with it and how to overcome it. I'm pretty sure some of my audience was in tears too ;) And it was a touching experience to have the girls come up to me afterwards and relate to my stories and say "I really needed to hear that. thank you." Oh that gives me goosebumps!

So what's on the agenda for December? All the same goals I had for November. Except this time, I am really going to strive to meet those goals. I am so close to my goal of 125 lbs (9ish lbs away). I honestly don't expect to get to that by Christmas but I really am aiming to get out of the 130s. I am also very much considering doing a video blog on my fb page and sharing what I shared at my MOPS presentation. I really think that sounds fun (not to mention very vulnerable but that's ok---I would so do that for you lovely readers!

So while I started as that super sad, but adorable puppy, I choose to be this puppy. Yes, that's MY puppy. That is Cali and that is her exact personality in a picture. I choose to not look back at the month of November and see only epic fails. I choose to look back (briefly!) on November and see that I also had successes and I will move forward and make December a great SUCCESS!