Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you're all off to a wonderful start.  A lot has happened since I last posted a few months ago.  Here are the highlights:

• I finally talked the boyfriend into getting a kitten!  We adopted an adorable black cat who we named December;
• I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and wrote my first ever novel in 29 days;
• I finished the fall semester in one piece (although it was the worst semester GPA-wise of my academic career, pulling an A- in each class.  But I guess I can be ok with that);
• and unfortunately, I let life get in the way and my workouts slacked, bad eating habits creeped back in, and I regained pretty much all the weight I worked so hard to lose in the late-summer/early fall.

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty bummed about regaining the weight, but I'm not going to let that get in the way of me having an awesome 2013.  There is so many exciting things happening this year, including finally graduating from college (with my Masters) and entering the real world!

In the spirit of the new year, I want to share my New Year Resolutions with you.  Normally, I make a list of goals (usually 10-15) that I want to accomplish that year.  This time around, however, while I still made that list of 10 goals, I'm only focusing on three of them right now.  These three goals, once accomplished, make the rest of my goals possible so that's why I'm focusing my energy on them.  They are:

1. Get in shape
2. Revise my novel
3. (Graduate and then) get a job in my field

Here's a little clarification since goals should be measurable and have a plan of action to meet them.

Getting in shape to me means losing excess fat, gaining lean muscle, increasing endurance, and overall being healthier.  My ultimate goal is to be around 145 and a size 8-10.  I want to be fit enough to run a 5K and strong enough to do 10+ push-ups on my toes.  To accomplish this goal, I'm tweaking things a bit from what I did before.  First, I've started a new program called Les Mills Combat.  It is a mixed martial arts style program and it is AMAZING so far!  I started on January 1st and I am incredibly sore.  I plan to do three rounds of Combat (each round is 2 months and each round increases in intensity).  During round 3, I will add 5K training 3x/week and after that I will most likely mix Combat with running and Pump for weights.  Nutritionally, I will be eating clean, drinking Shakeology every morning for breakfast, and also tracking my calories daily (something I didn't do before).  I have a myfitnesspal (MFP) account (feel free to friend me!--my user name is SamAdams125) and I have the MFP app on my phone so I can track cals on the go.  I have a great support system (I'm looking at you Melissa B!) that includes friends and family, and I'm ready to reach my fitness goals!

So, about that novel.  I had never written a novel before NaNoWriMo, and never taken a creative writing class.  It was just something that I wanted to do, and I found out about the November contest the day before it started, and I just went for it.  It was super fun and I met the 50K word count!  Now, I want to revise my novel to make it something worth reading.  However, revising means way more than simply fixing grammar mistakes.  There are plot inconsistencies, whole plot points that I now think are stupid and need to be eliminated (but the info in them needs to still be in the novel somewhere), and all sorts of issues.  Since I want to do this right, and have no background in this type of thing, I'm taking a 22-week online revision course by Holly Lisle called "How to Revise Your Novel."  I'm almost done with week 2 and I'm learning so much!  I know this is something worth my time, too, because I get so incredibly excited when I read each lesson and start figuring out what's wrong (and what's right!) with my story.  To revise my novel completely in 2013, I'm committed to doing at least 15 minutes of revision a day, working through the online program, then (once that's done) I'll send the new version to a couple of beta readers to make any final changes.  I've very excited to have a readable novel within 12 months, even if it's a lot of work!

And finally, the dreaded "get a job" goal.  I'll be graduating from my master's program in May, and the anxiety about getting a job (and hopefully a local one, since I really like where I live) has been at the back of my head since this summer.  I would love to have a job by graduation, but I know that that's not  realistic.  Instead, my goal is to have a job by the end of August and I'm going to focus on the things I can control, like how many applications I send out.  I have conferences I need to look into, local college job websites in an excel file that I will begin checking weekly, and I'm on a mailing list for jobs in this area.  I'm going to do what I can to remain calm, to not be too picky while being selective enough that I end up in a "good fit" position, and to make myself the best candidate I can be.  I know it will be a stressful process, but I am very much looking forward to the day I am no longer a student and am instead a college staff member.

So, what about you?  What are your goals for 2013?  Do you have a plan on how you're going to reach them?  Leave a comment and let me know!

Stay heathy!