2025 Goals: Health/Fitness

Next up- my Health/Fitness goals! These are probably a little more boring, but important to me and I still like them.

1. Do 200 strength, 150 cardio and 50 yoga workouts this year.

I originally had shared about this idea a few weeks ago, to zoom out and try to hit a yearly total instead of just looking at weekly totals. I mean, it’s basically the same difference, but I just thought it would be fun.

My standard weekly goals have been 4 strength/ 3 cardio/ 1 yoga weekly. Doing the math and removing a couple weeks for vacation or just “anticipated absences”, I came up with yearly goals of 196 strength, 147 cardio and 49 yoga.

Well. Those are not fun numbers, are they? I ended up rounding up to 200, 150 and 50, which conveniently kind of incorporate some 2s and 5s for 2025!

This goal is basically a continuation of what I’ve been doing (or trying to do) in 2024. I just feel my consistency dipped at times (but was also really solid, at other times), and I’d like to make it REALLY consistent this year. This is something I’m naming as a priority.

How I’ll Track:

My usual Time Log/ Journal sheet, plus I check it off on my digital Habit Tracker.

I had printed off a yearly paper tracker, but honestly, I haven’t used it yet! I am already in the above trackers anyway everyday for other things, so it just makes sense to do everything there and be done.

I did add the “running total” in parentheses. (So, I can see as of January 5th, I’m at 4 strength workouts for the year so far of my 200. 2% of the way there! This might get a little ugly as the numbers get larger, so we’ll see. Maybe I’ll switch that up.)

I do have a spot to tally up my Monthly Totals on my Habit Tracker, so I guess I could always just do a Monthly + Yearly Running Total there, too (e.g. January Strength Total= M 20/ Y 20. February Strength Total= M 18/ Y 38).

2. Go to 25 fitness classes.

This came to my mind after reading comments on SHU’s post about seeking out strength training options. I don’t need classes for strength, but I COULD use some structure and encouragement around both cardio and stretching.

I have a gym membership which is a block from my house and offers about 9,245 fitness classes which are included with my membership on a weekly basis. And yet I have not attended a fitness class since 2020!!

I mean, it’s fine- I do my own thing for strength and have (sort of) stuck to some cardio via online videos + treadmill.

But it’s well established here that I do struggle to consistently get enough cardio in. And, I’d say it’s debatable how “intense” my solo cardio workouts are. There’s definitely room for improvement.

There are all sorts of cardio classes I could attend. I also used to attend a BodyFlow (or something like that) class regularly that I really liked- sort of a mix of yoga + stretching stuff (I’m also historically bad at fitting in enough mobility work). I also got pretty ripped abs at one point by doing a weekly 20 minute CXworx core class.

The perk to classes is that you’re ideally supposed to sign up in advance online. Which means then it’s “booked” (for free)- and means I have at least some sort of accountability to actually go!

HOWEVER, in reality, I’m already (hopefully) at the gym 4x/ week lifting. And typically I’m squeezing at least 2 of those lifts in over a weekday lunch break (ie I don’t have time to then also attend a class.) Lately I’ve just been squeezing some cardio in at home a couple times a week.

Therefore, I didn’t want to go too crazy with this goal.

25 classes in the year would average just 2 classes a month. I feel like that is a super realistic goal, while still allowing me to dabble back in the fitness class world. Who knows, maybe I’ll find a schedule that works and will go to a bunch more!

How I’ll Track:

Just going to check it off on my Habit Tracker. Hopefully I should see at least 2 “X’s” in that row for the month.

3. Eat a high protein/ big salad 2x/ week. Also, track food in MFP 1 week per month.

I decided against any major “food goals” this year. But I know I can use more fruits/ vegetables in my diet.

I decided to keep this bar relatively low and aim for 2 big, high protein salads per week. This feels realistic, do-able and yet, effective. 2 salads a week= 104 salads in the year!

In the past I’ve gone on “salad kicks” where I’ll eat a salad almost daily, and then have long stretches with no salads. Lately, I’ve been on the No Salad train.

But I do like salads, and I have to eat lunch anyway. Topping them with easy high protein sources (my go-tos if I don’t have any fresh cooked protein handy are to just open a can of tuna, or heat up frozen grilled chicken strips or a turkey burger patty) will also guarantee that at least twice a week I’m eating a) a bunch of lettuce and b) a bunch of protein for lunch.

Again, I can certainly eat MORE salads, or MORE high protein lunches. But I’m trying to keep my goals realistic and attainable.

Part 2 of that goal is to track my food/calories for one week a month. Not super strictly (I’m fine with eyeballing portions etc), and I’m not aiming to “hit my macros” or anything. Not dieting! I just feel like doing this once a month helps keep me aware, you know? I just want to have a baseline idea of how many calories I generally consume, how much snacking I’m doing, am I eating a decent # of fruits/ veggies, etc. One week a month feels like plenty to get some recurring data, without having to do it all the time.

How I’ll Track:

I made a line for “Salad” on my Habit Tracker. So, similar to my Fitness Class goal, I just want to make sure I’m seeing 2 “x’s” per week in that row.

For the food tracking, I just made a recurring reminder on my calendar for the first Sunday of every month and will track my food in the free My Fitness Pal app.

4. Drink 3 water bottles daily.

I tend to drink a lot of hot tea throughout the day, but I’m not so great about always drinking PLAIN WATER. I also like to drink iced tea or fizzy drinks like Bubblrs.

I guess this is the point where I have to slip a little confession into the post, and hope maybe some people are just skimming and will miss it. 🤣 Okay, here goes. I had a soda relapse this past fall!! I have been so embarrassed that I couldn’t bear to admit it publicly, after all the pomp and circumstance and fanfare that I created surrounding my big triumphant QUIT back on July 1st. 😩😩

What happened is… we went to Mexico in October. Up until that point, I had been 100% off. Well, I had decided that I’d allow myself some Mexican Coke in Mexico during the trip, which felt reasonable. It was just a week long trip- how bad could it be? Except, you guys, I AM AN ADDICT. When we got home, I couldn’t stop again!!! I had said I’d just have a little now and then, you know, for a “treat”. Which I did. Until, I started having, um, a lot of treats. 😩😩

I started drinking progressively more and more again, until I was approaching pre-quit or maybe even higher levels! I KNOW. I know. I am so sorry I “hid” this from you all… it makes me feel gross. But I guess that’s a true sign that it’s like, an actual problem for me. I was HIDING it!! (SHU, I’m sorry… I didn’t even tell you!! 😬😬 I was afraid of what you’d say!!)

But! “Fall 7 times, stand up 8.” I have officially quit again as of 1/1/25. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson (after trying to quit so many times now). I cannot moderate soda. Full stop. I will not try this approach again. I can’t do it. If I ever say, wellll, maybe I can just have one on Fridays. NO. NO I CAN’T. DO NOT LET ME SAY THAT. I cannot have it at all, ever.

Okay, I’m done with all the capital letters now. Back to the water goal- this is just an effort to stay hydrated and obviously drink something besides soda. I got this little metal water bottle at TJMaxx which I love, and it’s the perfect medium size for me. I love the wooden cap and I love the color, and I love how it feels to drink from it, which is key.

How I’ll Track:

Also on my Habit Tracker. I just enter the total # each morning from the previous day. I find this easy to remember. (I always fill this tracker out first thing when I sit down at my computer in the morning, for the previous day.)

5. Wash face and floss teeth daily.

This is one that I had on my goals list years ago, and had gotten to the point that I didn’t even have to think about it anymore. Well, for whatever reason, this past year I slipped into some bad habits here.

Sometimes I’ll stay up just a little too late, and then will feel so exhausted that I can’t bear the thought of those extra minutes to wash my face or floss. I just want to collapse into bed, stat. (I know, the face thing is probably horrible to most of you, but it’s the truth.) At first it was happening just occasionally, and then slowly a bit more and more often.

So, I want to just nip this in the bud and re-commit to ALWAYS washing my face and flossing again.

Besides, I always remember that an aesthetician at a skin place once told me, “Women who don’t wash their face at night have skin that ages 8x faster than those who always wash their face.” Haha. That seems like a very random and difficult to prove statistic, but hey, it stuck with me. 8 times?! Jeesh. lol.

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And those are my Health/Fitness goals for 2025! Please be gentle about #4. 😬

Have a wonderful Tuesday! 🙂

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for having time to take my Christmas decorations and tree down this past Sunday. I often keep up longer, but I felt ready this year! It feels nice to have the house “back to normal”.

P.S. Check out some cute new ornaments I packed away:

A gift from me to Ethan:

And Asher’s:

Charlie’s!

And a fun one my mom bought for me in Kauai: