The last 12 weeks

I don’t have a real accurate reading of the last 12 weeks as there were a couple weeks I didn’t record anything due to situational circumstances (or excuses). My plan was lacking and my expectations were higher than I should have had them.

My goals for quarter one were as follows:

1. I will lose 10# in this 12 weeks. My starting weight was 173.6# and my ending weight was 171.4#. I did not reach this goal! I believe I had too many goals/tactics for each one.
   • My tactics:
     • I will track my food intake with weight watchers every day. It’s a great idea to track your food so you are aware of what you are eating and putting in your body. However, that’s all I did most of the time; I tracked it. I didn’t limit calories or really pay attention to what I have been eating. I have recently, within the last couple weeks or so, been researching nutrition and making more homemade foods, even the simple things like Ketchup. There is so much sugar in store bought Ketchup…or even peanut butter. It is so easy to make at home too!
     • I will intentionally exercise for 20 minutes every day. This isn’t a bad tactic at all and I’m not sure why I didn’t execute every day. I had the intention to exercise in the morning and then the comfort of my bed held me back. Then I’d tell myself I’d exercise after work but there is always a kid to run to a practice. I would have to say I greatly improved on this! I went from never exercising to exercising at least a few times per week so I am proud of the improve I made in this area.
     • I will meditate for at least 5 minutes every day. This one was easy for me! It’s very relaxing and calming. I use apple fitness+ for my meditation (and fitness) and is usually guided meditation. I did forget to meditate some days though as I easily stacked this habit with my fitness and would meditate immediately after exercise.
     • I will brush my teeth every night. Ok, I already did this. I added this for a couple reasons: one of my daughters got braces and I wanted to emphasize the importance to all the kids regarding making sure to brush your teeth at night. I wanted to add onto this already formed habit to routinely wash my face at night and apply moisturizer but I didn’t get there, or not routinely anyway. Also, I wanted to at least mark one thing off per week to boost my score a little bit. Probably not the best logic as I should be challenging myself.
     • Reward: I will buy myself new workout shoes. I didn’t meet my goal. Losing weight has been difficult for me since having my last child. I use to bounce back quickly prior to having him and after having the other kids. I think I should do little reward after each week if I complete each tactic. Maybe that seems like too much but sometimes I need just a tid bit more motivation.

1. I will be closer to my family and husband.
   • My tactics:
     • I will plan one half hour uninterrupted time with my husband every week. This sounded like a great idea…however, there were some weeks we barely seen each other; I mean like maybe five minutes per day. We both have set schedules with our jobs and they’re typically fairly predictable, but there are times where I happen to work later than expected or there are times where he has to pick up a couple days depending on the time of year. So this was well intended but maybe a far stretch for some weeks.
     • I will plan one activity with the kids every week. I think I did fairly well with this one! Due to my husband and I having opposite schedules at times, I have extra time with just the kids. We played board games or baked a lot together especially during these colder months.
     • Reward: Take the family to an indoor waterpark. This did not happen; I wanted to do this anyway and not as an ‘reward’. We did go to Florida on vacation as a family and that counts.

1. We will sell three items through our business during this 12 week year.
   • My tactics:
     • I will create a Facebook page for our business once we are approved for our FFL. This…this is what held us up forever. We had our established business in August 2024 but it took until the end of February this year to get approved by the ATF to have our FFL. It takes a lot of paperwork, a home visit, and meetings to get approved for an FFL. When we finally received our official FFL in the mail I was a little discouraged to moved forward. I still have not created a Facebook page but this is within my next ’12 Week Year’ goals.
     • I will post once weekly on Facebook to promote our business. Well, I didn’t make a page.
     • We will have business meetings weekly. Ha, this one is kind of funny only because I attempted to plan ‘dates’ or uninterrupted time with my husband for us which was difficult at times.
     • Reward:  Buy myself a new trigger. I did not meet any of my tactics for this goal and did not buy myself a new trigger for my .350 legend. I will probably end up buying myself a new trigger before deer season anyway as this is what I use to hunt. Right now, my trigger has a long trigger pull.

1. I will plan my week and review my week on Sunday mornings at 7:30am.
   • My tactics: I did not write any tactics for this. I just thought I would do it and I did (most of the time). I do track my week from Monday to Sunday so I will need to adjust my WAM (weekly accountability meeting) to Sunday evenings. I would like to do this Monday mornings but our mornings are fairly busy.
     • Reward: Keeping myself on track and accomplishing my goals.

It looks like I did not meet much of my goals which would be lag indicators but I did greatly improve on my lead indicators. There was a lot I needed to learn with this first 12 week year and I’m glad I found the book. During this 13th week, I reread The 12 Week Year. I thought the 13th week should just be for relaxing and doing nothing but maybe prepping for the next ’12 week year’ but I should’ve continued my goals/tactics to continue my momentum. I was able to reflect and gain insight on what worked the last 12 week and what didn’t. I made new goals for the next quarter, but we don’t call it that, it’s 12 week year. I took notes from the book The 12 Week Year so I am able to review them often if I become lost or confused. I ordered the book as well since previously I was only borrowing from the library.