Category: October Resolutions

It is the end of October so it is time to reflect on my resolution’s I created for myself this month. My resolutions are in detail here October Resolution, but I will go through them individually to reflect on my successes and area’s of improvement.

Time Management: this month I really wanted to focus on my time management specifically in terms of school. I think this is an important skill that I master before becoming a full teacher as teaching requires a high level of time management skills.

Successes…

• I started to use my apple calendar and reminders app to schedule in time slots of when I need to work on different assignments and tasks. This has helped with budgeting my time better!

Areas for improvement…

• I am on the hunt for a better app that I can use simultaneously with my apple calendar, because now with scheduling in specific time slots for school, it looks a bit overwhelming with so many events happening in a day. My thought is to have my apple calendar be my personal calendar and find another app for school specific. This could be useful for work in the future as well.

• Although I have found that I’ve been able to get ahead of my coursework, my school/work/life balance has suffered a bit. Because I have been so focused on getting ahead, even when it’s not necessary, I have lacked on spending time with my friends, family or putting aside personal time for myself.

Excercise: my goal for this month was to take 20 classes in the month of October at Lagree to hit my fitness goals and hopefully win some of the fun prizes they are giving away this month!

Successes…

• I hit 20 classes today! I feel so much stronger than I did at the beginning of the month and am feeling very proud of myself for sticking with it!
• Although classes tend to be a bit more expensive than having a gym membership, I find signing up for a class and paying for it holds me accountable to show up and do the work!

Area’s for improvement…

• Taking 20 classes in one month was quite a lot, not so much on my physical body, more so just with managing my time. It did force me to do something for myself 5 times a week but I think for November I will probably go down to 8-10 classes a month. I work on top of going to school, so often I don’t get much downtime. I found in October I really didn’t have much extra time at all because of how busy I was keeping with work, school and then fitness classes on top of that. In the future I would love to get back to going 15-20 times a month but I think it’s important I give myself a bit more free time right now so I don’t burn out.

Proper Nutrition: I think as many people going to university may feel, it can be challenging ensuring that you are getting proper nutrition. My goal for this month was to try and meal prep and cook at eat at home as much as I could!

Successes…

• I started making protein smoothies in the morning and tried to add extra greens and vitamins in it to get some extra nutrition. I noticed this helped with my energy through the day!
• I made a concious effort of when eating out to try and go for healthy options. (One thing to note on this is that eating healthy out is expensive! It makes sense why students have poor nutrition as a salad is 3x the price of a slice of pizza!)

Area’s for improvement…

• I definitely did not hit my goals of meal prepping and eating at home like I wanted to. I notice that I am always running out the door whether that’s to school or work so it would be good to have high protein, healthy foods that I can quickly grab. Some ideas for this are turkey pepperoni, protein smoothies, veggie’s and hummus, and meal prepped salads! A continuing goal will be ensuring that I am focusing on getting proper nutrition in and having quick meals I can grab easily!

We are coming up on the second week of October and so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on this months monthly resolutions. My resolutions for this month were time management, excercise and proper nutrition.

Succeses so far…

Excerice! I have completed 9 Lagree classes so far in the month of October so I seem to be on track for my goal of 20 classes. One thing I think that would benefit me is making sure I am stretching. My muscles feel pretty sore so I’d like to start doing 10 minutes of stretching in the morning and before bed. I will try to impliment this into my routine, starting with stretching on the days I plan to take a class and then maybe increase that to become apart of my daily routine.

Areas that need improvement…

Time Management… this one has been difficult as I find myself getting distracted with other things. I’m going to try using my Apple Calendar and specifically schedule in time for me to focus on school, cleaning, or my hobbies. I think it would also be good if I broke down my schedule for school into specific classes, that way I dedicate an hour to focus on just History and get ahead or just PHE, etc. I’m going to try implimenting this for the rest of the month and see if it helps with my goal of getting ahead of the work.

Proper Nutrition… this one is so important but I have been majorly lacking. I love cooking and making new things but have found myself being so exhausted by the time dinner comes around that I just order in or get something premade. I’m going to try using the Apple Calendar for the rest of the month to schedule cooking and meal prep times and see if that helps me stay on track a bit better.

Key Take Aways…

It will be important that I use the Apple Calendar to schedule things in but more important that I actually follow it. I think one thing I’ll have to keep in mind is not to overschedule as that will lead to a burn out if i’m over doing it. I’ll need to make sure I schedule enough time to enjoy my hobbies, relax, or spend time with my friends & family as that is so important for maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle.

September was a very busy month, being back at school and working more than I thought I would be. As the month comes to an end I am starting to feel a bit worn out, so I want to reflect on a few highlights that happened during the month of September. I got to see my bestfriend who lives in Calgary and spent a few days with her and our partners in Scottsdale, Arizona. School started and although it has been busy, it has been exciting finally taking teaching specific courses and not just general study year one classes. It also has been a highlight doing observations on Wednesdays at a local school, my mentor teacher is so lovely and the students are a blast! Another big highlight is that my friend had her baby! Even though she lives in another province it has been so sweet recieving photos of her newborn and seeing how well they are doing.

A few things that I felt I lacked this month were my time management, excerice and proper nutrition. With time management I found a tool that seems to work well for tracking assignments and due dates, however I would like to get ahead of the work instead of just making the deadlines. For excercise I am a passholder at Lagree and I really love going, but I found myself cancelling classes more often than not so didn’t get to go as much as I would have liked to. I have definitely fallen off my proper nutrition, because I have been so busy it has been hard to find time to cook at home and meal prep. This has caused me to eat out a lot and have a higher salt intake than I would like.

With these in mind my October Resolutions are going to be as follows…

1. Time Management: get AHEAD of the course work. When I have downtime read ahead, work on my blog, work on my sketchbook, start on assignments that aren’t due for another month. Try not to leave things to the week before but instead have it finished by the week before to lessen the amount of stress it causes leaving it last minute.
2. Excercise: go to Lagree 20 times in the month of October. This is a fun goal because for the month of October Lagree is having a fitness challenge where you win prizes after taking 5, 10 and 20 classes in the month! This will mean that I will have to take early classes before school to ensure I hit my goal, so getting to bed early is also very important!
3. Proper Nutrtion: meal prep and have ready to eat food available in the fridge. Because I find I live a very busy life it is hard to find the time to cook a full meal at home. Instead on a day off or an evening after school, meal prep for the week, have lunchs and dinners prepped and ready to grab to eliminate having to eat out so often when I’m in a rush to run out the door.

Resources for Excerice goal… I choose to do lagree due to research I have found about the importance of strength building specifically for women.

Benefits of Strength Training for Women – UH Hospitals

What women need to know about strength training – UC Health

Resources for Proper Nutrition goal… I’m looking at nutrition from a women’s health persepctive.

Healthy eating for Women FAQ’s from Office on Women’s Health…

More on healthy eating for women, from John Hopkins…