I’m excited to be going into a new month and to keep working toward my 2023 goals! I’m the opposite of excited about the most recent challenge life has thrown my way – on Monday I tested positive for Covid. After making it almost three years without catching it, I guess I can’t be too bummed, but it still sucks to be sick! Thankfully I seem to have an extremely mild case of it and except for a couple of times that I’ve spiked a fever I haven’t felt too horrible. But I’m ready to kick this and get back to normal life!

Because I’m sick, going into February I had to revamp my goals somewhat to take into account the fact that at least for the next few days I’m going to need to continue resting and taking it easy. I know that I need to give myself a lot of grace with my exercise and step goals while I recover, so that’s reflected in my goals.

Average 1,500 calories per day. Since this is the integral part of my weight loss plan, it made sense to me to make it a goal for February. I guess in a way getting sick has helped me get a jump-start on making this a habit, since I can’t go out to eat and when I’m sick dessert and drinks sound very unappealing. I haven’t had a huge appetite so I haven’t felt driven to snack – I’m not sure if that’s related to being ill or if it’s because the foods I’m choosing have kept me feeling satisfied, but either way I’ll take it!

Take measurements once a week. I want to have a log of inches lost, so that I’m not relying on the scale for an indicator of progress.

Average 6,000 steps per day. This is quite a bit lower than what I usually aim for, but I don’t think I’ll be back to taking walks for at least a few more days. I don’t want to put pressure on myself to make up steps later in the month, so I’m just aiming for what I think will be reasonably doable.

Read three books. This is the same as my goal for January, geared toward keeping me on target to reach my 2023 reading goal.