My April Challenge

Since I had a hard time completing last month's challenge, I decided to keep this month's goals a bit easier to achieve. Not because so I can succeed in all of them without exerting much effort because I know I still will but because I want it to be more realistic and more practical with my current situation.

I know I am starting this monthly challenge two weeks late but I believe that I can still definitely do a lot of good things for the rest of the month. And it's not like I was not doing anything productive lately. It just so happens that I got caught up with personal matters and other stuff that I did not have the time, the energy and yeah, even the motivation to log in and share something with you. Anyways, I think what matters now is that I am back and I am ready to share some awesome experiences and learnings to every online reader who will stumble upon my blog.

Now moving forward, so for the rest of April, I've decided to publish at least 10 posts for this blog (AY = Ankamil Yepuda). I need to halt my second blog right now because I do not have the time for it since I am working on something else as of the moment.

As for my health goals, I will still do my best to do some exercises at least once a week but for this month, I will focus more on what my body is taking in and I think drinking green smoothie and limiting my rice intake are both good starters. Also, since I gained back (sadly) the 1 inch I lost last February on my waistline, I will do my best to lose it back again at the end of this month. Lastly, my last goal, learn to cook two new dishes, will not only feed my hungry belly but it will also enrich my cooking knowledge.

So there you have it! I shall now log out and start working on these goals and I'll meet you all again by the end of the month or on the 1st of May hopefully to share with you the good news about succeeding this month's challenge!

Enjoy the rest of the month guys!

My March Challenge? FAIL!

Whenever I look at My March Challenge, I could not help but sigh a deep sigh because all of my goals were not really that difficult to accomplish and yet, I still failed a couple of them.

It's just that last month was kind of a crazy month for me due to personal matters and forgive me because I will not be giving further details about it because I'd like to keep them private. It's just that it can be really challenging to accomplish something properly when your mind is preoccupied with something else. Also, the continuously warming and humid weather is not helping especially when it comes to working out.

So yeah, because I failed my March challenge, I am gonna have to sacrifice something. I have been dreaming of and drooling for some ice cream lately because of the summer heat. But because I didn't achieve all my goals last month, I will not allow myself to have any of that cold, creamy, smooth and sweet goodness until the rest of April.

I know that it's almost the third quarter of April now but I believe that I can still accomplish goals before the month ends so I am still gonna give it a go. Find out what my goals are for this month on the next post which will be up right after this one.

What about you, did you meet or are you meeting your personal goals as of this moment? And what do you do when you fail to accomplish them?

Feel free to share your experiences guys!

Stay tuned because my April Challenge post is up next!

My March Challenge

Hear ye! Hear ye!

The month of March has finally begun which means that it is also the start of my new monthly challenges. I am excited more than ever to meet all the goals that I have set this month because based on my performance last month, I am doing very well.

I remember myself writing down my New Year's resolution almost every year and ending up not doing most, if not all, of them. It's not that I did not want to, it's because I didn't have the motivation I needed and I did not really track my progress that is IF I even started one task I wrote on my resolution list.

Anyway, without further ado, let me share with you guys my March Challenge list.

Notice that my first 3 goals were quite similar with my first 3 February goals. This is because I believe that I am not done with those challenges yet and that I just have to push myself harder into improving not only my craft (blogging) but more importantly my health.

As for my fourth challenge, this is something that is really hard for me to give up because I love rice but I know I have to do it. Where I come from (the beautiful country of Philippines in case you're wondering), people live and breathe rice. We eat rice with just about anything but I know that eating rice, as fluffy and as yummy as it can be, can also contribute to health challenges such as weight gain and increased risk of developing diabetes.

For my final task, this is something that is going to be very challenging for me because Indian cooking can be really complicated with the hundreds or even up to thousands of different kinds of spices they use for their cooking. However, I still want to learn how to cook at least a handful of them because I want to be able to feed my husband his favorite dishes and keep him happy. You know the saying right? The way to a man's heart is thru his stomach. Haha!

So there you go guys. What about you? Don't you want to do something that you've been really wanting to do for some time now for self improvement but has been delaying it? NOW is the time to start. Start with baby steps and stay on the right track and in no time, you'll find yourself get better more than ever!

Happy Sunday to all!

February Monthly Challenge? It's a SUCCESS!

Before I continue about our adventure in Palwan, let me just update you guys about the result of my first ever monthly challenge. Since March has officially started, it's time to review if I've succeeded with my February Challenge.

I'm glad and proud to tell you guys that I achieved all my February goals!

Woohoo! *throws confetti in the air*

GOAL 1

For the first goal, publish at least 2 blog posts per week, for a span of 4 weeks, I am proud to say that I was able to publish a total of 10 posts.

GOAL 2

Oh this is probably the goal I am happiest to achieve! I did lose 1 inch from my waistline. I was size 32 and now, I'm down to 31 inches and I feel so good about it! My target waistline that I wanna maintain is anywhere between 27 and 28 inches unless of course, I get pregnant.

GOAL 3

When I published my February goals, I was doing the bare minimum of working out of at least twice a week for a couple of weeks. But this last week of February, I've decided to up the challenge and I am now working out intensively for a good 30minutes everyday for 5 straight days til now and I couldn't be any happier with how I'm feeling as of the moment. Yes, my arms and thighs and tummy are sore but I know it's because I'm on the right track.

GOAL 4

For this goal, I would have to say that I did the basic de-clutter and re-organize but I still have to re-check if there are still some stuff that I do not need anymore or that has to be moved elsewhere. But still, I know where my files are located so I'm good with that.

GOAL 5

I was able to easily create a lineup of topics for the month of March so I ticked off this goal in just a day or two after I published my February challenge. However, the thing is that I did not follow the lineup strictly. So I guess I'm gonna have to do something about this during my March monthly challenge but what matters is I accomplished my goal and that is to create a list of topics that I will blog about the following month.

So there...

What about you, do you want to improve yourself? Why not start it by creating a list of little challenges that you know you can achieve within a month and see if you can manage to attain your goals!

If I can do it, so can YOU!

Cheers to a better ME and hopefully to a better YOU too!

My February Challenge

I didn't list down my New Year's resolution for this year because truth be told, I will end up not doing most of them, if not all, anyway. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that the motivation and the discipline are not there.

Having said that, it doesn't mean that I do not want to improve certain aspects of my life. I do. After all, I know that I'm soooo far from the perfect me that I REALLY want to achieve. And because of that, I've decided to create mini monthly goals for myself that I SHOULD fulfill at all cost. I thought, in this way, I can list down doable and not that hard to accomplish tasks that are realistic and of course, for self improvement.

Now, in order to keep myself motivated, I have decided to include a reward and punishment system in the picture. Once I successfully crossed out all the items on my list, I will have a reward for myself. If not, I will of course, get punished. The monthly reward will most likely be little things that give me pleasure like I get a cheat day this week or I'll buy that book I've been wanting to have. As for the punishment, it's going to be taking away or delaying those simple pleasures I'm really dying to get my hands on like for the coming month, I am not allowed to have a cheat day so I won't be able to eat my favorite junk food or something like that. And come the end of this year, I'll check my progress and if I stayed on track at least 70% of the time, then that is the time I'll reward myself with something really big and special like a new gadget or a getaway trip or a shopping spree. And if I fail, I don't get the BIG reward.

Since January is over and we're almost halfway of February already, what I've decided to do is to distribute that January point to March and April. If I successfully complete my March goals, I will earn one point plus another half point from the month of January giving me a total of 1.5 points. The same thing goes for the month of April (1.5 points) giving me a total of 4 points IF and ONLY IF I successfully achieve my February (1 point), March (1.5 points) and April (1.5 points) goals.

So for this month, below are the goals that I've decided to accomplish. For the weekly tasks, I will have to start fulfilling them this week. About the reward, I've decided to start with something that may really sound simple to a lot of you (even to me actually) but is really hard for me since it's something that I look forward to having every weekend. So if succeed the February challenges, I can eat my favorite brownie sundae every weekend of March and buy one item from Flipkart! And if I fail, of course, no brownie sundae for the entire month of March and I am not allowed to buy any item unless it is a necessity.

Oh dear! Wish me luck!

I can do this! You can make your own monthly challenge too and I know you can do it as well!