For 2019, as for 2018, I have set myself some goals and to make sure I do a slight attempt to go for these goals, I post regular updates on my blog. Honestly, writing about my goals keeps me on my toes and it makes me work on them. I was so happy at the end of last year of what I had actually achieved that it didn’t take me long to decide to continue this habit in 2019… so here I am with my 1st update!

Let’s start with the link to blogpost about the goals I have set myself in 2019 and why… you can find it here.

And now let’s have a closer look on the achievements of the first two months…

 Keep watch over my 2018 goals

Exercising:

January has been a month of literally zero exercise I’m afraid to say! I think I went jogging once… the weather was cold, wet and wintery so I didn’t have much animo to go jogging I must confess. BUT… February has brought a BIG chance as I have finally started ballet!

Now I have been saying for nearly 18 months that I would start ballet and I always had excuses not to. But as my daughter had started ballet (after a very long break), she convinced me to join her and so in a moment of complete and utter craziness, I enrolled for my very first ballet lesson… at age 47… and you know what??? I really and truly liked it 😀

Doing ballet has been a childhood dream which I never ever fulfilled. When I was a child, the ballet school was too far away and when I was a young adult, I kept on being interested in ballet, but I couldn’t find a ballet school, or didn’t have the time, the courage, I was busy with my kids, work,…

When my daughter started ballet at the age of 8, I became a very passionate ballerina mum and for the last couple of years, the thought of actually doing ballet myself became more prominent.

Then I came across this young woman who has her own balletschool in Antwerp. I started following her on Facebook and the more she posted about her lessons, the more interested I got… She really stimulates everyone, young or old, 7 or 70, thick or thin to start doing ballet and that’s why on one fine day yours truly went to her very first ballet lesson 🙂 And now, one month later, I already can do the split!!! (Now that was a moment I was so proud of myself needless to say!).

Mind, it’s not my goal to be on pointes or to become a prima ballerina (hahahaha, the thought of that!!!). I just want to strengthen my muscles and to improve my posture and basically enjoy myself!

I honestly am so proud of myself that at the age of 47, no matter what people say or think, I have finally found the courage to actually fulfill this lifelong dream… and I couldn’t be more happy 🙂

Eating and drinking wisely

Hmmmm… I must say that I have frequently disobeyed the rules as both January and February have been months filled with parties which means plenty of food and drinks to tempt me! It was quite a tough time to resist all these temptations. The scales went up a bit… and down a bit… and then up a bit and back down… but I never lost control completely so I’m glad to say that I survived those winter months without too much damage on the scales 🙂

I did try to eat plenty of veggies and fruit though, and in February I participated in Tournée Minérale, a campagne which stimulates people not to drink during the month of February. Frankly, I didn’t want to participate this year as there were so many parties and events in that one short month. But for my job, I had to make an online team on the Tournée Minérale website to stimulate colleagues to participate. As I had made the online team, I automatically was part of the team…

I’m going to be honest… I did drink on a couple of special occassions: there was this rare date night with my daughter on which I drank a gin and tonic, there was this day trip with my best friend who asked me to be her maid of honour… so we drank a prosecco to celebrate of course and then there was the party my husband and I held to celebrate our Silver Wedding which of course meant bubbles and wine 🙂 but on all other occassions, I kept it alcohol-free which of course helps to keep those scales under control!

Start saving for my Australia trip

I have bought a travel guide and ordered a brochure from a  tour operator specializing in trips to Australia so things are starting to get serious believe me! I am slowly starting to think what, where, how long, when,… and in the meantime I am filling up my piggy bank faithfully 🙂

Read 12 books

I guess this will be my easiest goal to achieve. I already have to read 7 books for my bookclub and in between I read other books: travel guides, novels, autobiographies, lifestyle books,…

So far I have read:

• Lam – Hannelore Bedert (review)
• Becoming – Michelle Obama
• Behind her eyes – Sarah Pinborough (nearly finished!)

Quality time with family and friends

I always try to squeeze in as much family/friends time I can in my rather busy schedule and I am glad to say that these first two months of 2019 were filled with lots of parties and events which made me create fabulous memories with my loved ones. The older I get, the more sentimental I become and the more I appreciate being with friends and family I guess!

I especially have fond memories of the party my husband and I threw for our Silver Wedding… As that special day was nearing, it made me appreciate our relationship even more. We do not take anything for granted you know… marriage is hard work and I guess we’re pretty good at it 🙂 We fulfill eachother. The feelings we have for eachother are just so solid and true and they warm my heart like nothing else can. I couldn’t imagine a life without my husband… Peter, I love you to the moon and back!

My good, fab and lovely blog

Still blogging away… nearly 4 years now! Sometimes it’s hard to find the time to have my blogposts up and running, but usually I find the time to post 3, sometimes 4 blogposts a week.

I would like to make some changes to my blog, clean it up a bit, have a different lay-out,… but I’d need enough time to make it really and truly like I want it and as long as I can’t find that time, I will keep it as it is I guess.

Keep watch over my stress levels

The days of my burn-out are now well and truly over and I really feel stronger than ever before. I feel positive and on top of my game these days.

There have been really stressful times at work, but I have never lost my focus. My job content has changed and now I am fulltime in HR which I LOVE! It’s truly where my heart lies and there are many times I think ‘god, I love my job’…

This of course helps me to keep my stress levels under control. Yip… doing great on that department if you ask me 😀

Focus on photography

This is a new goal I have set myself for 2019 which I haven’t started on just yet… I have this book ‘the photographer’s playbook’ which contains several photography assignments and I wanted to do one every two months… I guess my weeks have just been too busy to squeeze that in… perhaps I can show you something in my next update 🙂

Do some bigger chores around the house

In these first two months I didn’t really found the time to start tackling those bigger chores… I guess we will have to plan them in during the summer months.

We did however order a door to put between our hallway and our living room. So I guess that’s one bigger chore taken care off (although we didn’t have to do much for that, just order it 🙂 ). We are now waiting for it to be installed and we will order some new curtains soon, which will make a nice difference in our living room and kitchen!

Well, that’s it for January and February. When I look back on it, I’m actually quite proud I must say!

How are you coping with your goals? Still on track? If I may give a tip: ‘start spreading the news’ I guess!! Writing and speaking about your goals makes them alive, makes you really want to work on them… come on… what are you waiting for?!

Love, Kathleen