Yes, it’s time once again to compare my actions to my goals and see where the gaps are. By the calendar, it’s a little past time, what with it already being Cuatro de Mayo, though since I didn’t finalize my goals until Cuatro de Abril perhaps I’m not behind at all.

As expected, I’m quilting and reading up to par, with one baby quilt done in April and two books finished. I also did what I said I’d do on home projects. One month’s of magazines went off to be recycled, my clippings files did not grow, and I got two and a half months of pictures onto photo album pages.

Where things did not go well is with my body goal. I was going to walk 60,000 steps a week or do three Firm workouts. I was going to track my WW points and stay at or under my maximum at least five days a week. And I did, but only for one week, the week just after I set the goals. I almost did it the second week, but then I went out of town for work and things just fell apart. I ate whatever and wrote nothing down and didn’t get out for walks and certainly didn’t do any Firm workouts. When I returned home, I didn’t get right back into a good routine, either. I did a little better this past week. To start to atone for my slacking, I did the Tough Aerobic Mix tape, which I dislike so much that this was the first time I’d done it since I started keeping the exercise log in November, 2002. It combines my least favorite parts from the classic Firm workouts– all the jumping jacks and running and those goofy robot moves from Volume 3– and makes me very aware how much flab I’ve got, but getting through it made me feel pretty good about myself even though I did modify some of the high impact moves. Still, I ended the month at 168.5 pounds, which is not good news.

So what am I going to do? I’m not willing to give up on my body goal. I feel and function better when I’m lighter and stronger than I am now. The thing that threw me off last month was the work trip, and I’ve got another one coming up in a couple weeks here. If I can manage that better this time, I’ve got a chance to end this month closer to my goal rather than farther away. So in addition to aiming to meet the exercise and eating goals I set last month, I’m giving myself the additional assignment of coming up with a strategy to cope with being out of town on business and all that entails.

I need to do more in the house area, too, so in addition to the magazine and photo goals, I’m also going to empty at least one box in the basement this month. There are certainly plenty to choose from down there.

Looking at the big picture, I did pretty well this month, doing what I set out to do in three of the four areas I decided were important enough to set goals for. But since the one I didn’t do is the one that’s most visible, the one that affects me the most as I go about my day, it feels like it wasn’t a good month. I hope to be able to make a better report for May.