My friend IRL Deedra has started a great challenge over at her blog, NSpiredbyFaith. The basic idea is to set goals towards a better you and have a community of accountability and encouragement to help you meet them. Some goals may be health-oriented, others spiritually motivated. Every girl knows the areas she needs improvement!

My personal goals are these:

1. Stepping up in the area of study and writing. I want to set aside periods of time each day where this is my focus. Now obviously this will fluctuate depending upon my life at the time, but a girl has to have a goal to meet it!

We've had houseguests this week so I have failed miserably in this area...but watch out Monday! :) As for our company? If you are lucky, and I mean lucky in a 'God opened the sky and blessed me for no good reason' sense, then you have friends/mentors who raise the bar for you, who make you want to be better, and fan to flame the call of God on your life. Chuck and Julie are some of those friends for me and Luke and these few days with them and their precious kids have easily been the highlight of my year! We have not seen them since 1999 though we have remained in touch. I can't wait to tell you all about it...but that's for another post..

My Goal for next Friday? Finish my NT term paper and final exam. BTW - I made a 90 on my second exam. Not as good as the 100 on my first one, but it covered 11 units of study versus 4 so I'll take it! It is still an A! :)

2. Walking/Running 5 days per week - Check! Walking with a girlfriend is so cathartic. I walked with Deedra and Jenny a few days and Julie joined me on Thursday. If you possibly have opportunity to start your day with a prayer walk and praise/worship music, I promise you will be the better woman for it. Weight loss is not my ultimate goal here, but I am excited to say since I started this I have lost 5 lbs! :)

Goal this week? Keep it up with the 5 day walk/run but run more. I am up to running at least 2 miles of my 4 miles. I do this in intervals but I can tell my endurance is getting much better and even though I am not losing tons of weight, I can see some muscle tone returning. I also am going to add an ab workout three days per week.

3. More water, less Diet Coke *sigh* - I actually went on a Diet Coke fast last Saturday and was absolutely dizzy/drunk all day long. So, my diagnosis? Diet Coke must be good for me, else I wouldn't feel so yucky when I quit drinking it! For now, I am trying to limit it to 2 a day. I've done pretty well here and I am drinking much more water which I absolutely hate but I suppose I'll survive.

Goal for this week? Continue with 2 DC's a day...choke down water when possible....

4. Be showered and dressed each day by 10 am. Now unless you are a SAHM, you have no idea what a feat this really is. Especially in the summer when your house if full of kids begging for little things like food and affection. I know from FlyLady example that I feel much more ready to tackle the day when I can answer the door or greet my husband for lunch in something other than my sweaty walking clothes.

Have done pretty well here too, but mostly again because company was here....it is 11 today and I am ready except waiting on my pants to dry..:)


I hope you are setting your goals and attaining them.....I also pray that we put as much emphasis on our spiritual fitness as physical fitness. I am so proud of Deedra for setting this example!

Have a great weekend!