28 by 28

okay, yes I know I'm not 27 yet. (only a month to go.. but doing 27 things in approx 32 days didn't seem quite feasable especially when most of them will take a good chunk of this year to do) I've seen several other bloggers do this with regard to the year (ie 2012 - 13 things to do before 2013...) or with regard to your age which is what I'm doing.  Let me share with you my list:

1. Eat out no more than 3x a week
2. get to 200lbs by 8/1/12
3. Have a fully funded emergency fund by 3/1/12
4. Practice piano/guitar 3x a week for 30 minutes
5. Complete A+ certification
6. Clean out closets
7. Revive blog
8. Get debt free (and subsequently scream that on the Dave Ramsey Show)
9. Drink 8 glasses of water a day
10. Work out 3x a week for 30 minutes
11. Read and do Simple Abundance every day
12. Give more
13. Read bible/pray more
14. Take more photos
15. Keep car clean and organized
16. Keep track of expenses and an accurate budget
17. Read 2 new books each month
18. Do hair and make up every day
19. Send birthday/holiday/thank you cards
20. Try a new recipe each week
21. Re-read/refresh Finanical Peace
22. Read and finish 'Thin Again' (if I can do this this year, it will be a BIG deal...my mom gave it to me when I was a junior in college (back in 2005) and I have yet to get more than 5 chapters in).
23. Get a doctor, dentist and get check-ups for everything
24. Finish shabby-ing chest of drawers and get washers for knobs
25. Get better about grooming habits
26. Start new car fund
27. limit myself to 1 soda a week
28. Get up when my alarm goes off. (the first one...not the 6th one)

And since I will have had these extra 32 days to work on these I should have a good head start right?  Well, let me just say it's only the 2nd day of the year and I've already changed about 6 of these - clean out the garage was one but my roommate took care of that yesterday and it looks quite lovely! I've done better about drinking more water and so far have done good about doing Simple Abundance and journaling.

You might notice that several of these (7 to be exact) are goals under the "lose weight" umbrella. I want to set myself up for habits that I can continue throughout the rest of the year (and my life) to help maintain and encourage weight loss. And with Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays off I can use those days to plan meals and cook ahead of time so when I get home I just pop something in the oven or microwave for dinner and I'm good to go.

One thing my sister and I talked about was doing water aerobics or joining the YMCA - well...one perk about working at Cook Children's is all the discounts we get - and yes, there is one at the YMCA...just might be going three this week to enroll!!