2011 Goals Check-Up: August/September

I hiked Black Prince Cirque in Kananaskis in August.

I went to the Club Club Community Cookbook Launch in September.

Can't believe it's October already! Here is my "monthly" check-up of the goals I should be working on:

7.5 hours of sleep per night - Not doing this AT ALL! While I was staying with B., I did average 6.5-7 hrs of sleep per night (August), but now that I'm at home playing "legal guardian" to my underaged sister while our parents are away, I've been averaging ≤ 6 - YIKES!

Drink at least 1 L (one water bottle) of water per day - I am doing pretty good with this; sometimes more, sometimes less. Definitely less on weekends though, so I think I'm going to shift my goal to focus on them.

Read at least 12 books this year - I finished reading A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Oneand am now working on The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business. It is taking longer than I'd like because I am taking notes so that I can get continuing education credits, so instead of just reading a couple pages before bed, I have to have the full setup of book, notebook, pen...

Win a kickboxing/Muay Thai fight - Despite scaling back on my training this summer, I participated in a "continuous tournament" two weekends ago. A continuous tournament is a very casual (almost disorganized) event that's geared toward novices - the weight classes are huge (20 lb range), but no one fights full power because the focus is on technique and how aggressive you are, and KOs are not allowed. I lost, but got lots of positive feedback from my trainers and am excited to get back into it again! However, I must admit the time commitment is pretty daunting. One of my friends who recently won a ring fight said that she took time off work to do additional training, which is something that is not realistic for me right now. I've put my name in to fight in December, so we'll see!

Cook at least one recipe from every cookbook I own - In August I made a berry crisp (or "Fieldberry Croustade") from Cooking with Foods That Fight Cancerand I recently made Aimée Wimbush-Borque's (from Under the High Chair/Simple Bites fame) Maple Blueberry Deep-Dish French Toast for a potluck brunch! Will blog soon eventually.
  
Pics to show it did happen

Put my savings/RRSP somewhere where I can make more money - Ack! We're now in October and I haven't moved my money yet. It's getting down to the wire! I think given the current state of the economy I'm just going to throw as much as I can into my RRSP and TFSA accounts for now and then move it again if I have to once I finally set up a meeting with a financial advisor.

Set aside one weekend every month with no commitments - I sort of did this for September long weekend; B. was away visiting family, so I had his place all to myself, and I was on-call so couldn't wander very far away. I did go for brunch with Tiffany at Blue Star Diner (again, will blog eventually), and went to the Club Club Cookbook Launch & Epic Potluck, but neither felt like they sucked a lot of my time. Read a good chunk of my book that weekend, it was nice! I'm hoping to have a similar weekend for Thanksgiving long - Mama T is just coming back from HK, so I don't think we will be doing Thanksgiving dinner due to her jet lag. Hoping to tie up all the loose ends at work and just commit to blogging, reading and eating! Wish me luck!

Rewards
The only reward I want at this point is time to myself so I can do the things I want! I do have too much on my plate and am looking for opportunities to unload :S We are going on a trip for my birthday in November. We ultimately decided New York because New Orleans was too expensive - although we did miss a bunch of sales and our flights to NYC were very expensive anyway... but I think it will be worth it!