A Totally Fascinating Update

Hey peeps!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far.  I have to come clean and tell you I was being sarcastic in the blog title. I don’t anticipate this post will be such a page-turner that it will keep you up late at night with a flashlight under the covers, but c’est la vie.  Nevertheless, I’d love to hear from any readers about what you think about what I’ve been working on for GUU.

I thought it would be helpful for me to check in about how I’m doing on all my assignments, so below I’ve included an update for each course by pasting in all the course assignments and participation points from each syllabus.

Tomorrow I have a (hopefully) more interesting update planned about how my cooking has been going, and my first two Rachel Cosgrove-based strength training workouts.

A totally unrelated photo to distract you from the fact that you're about to read a list (and photographic evidence that our 3 cats do, in fact, love my husband best).

Here’s the breakdown of everything I’ve aimed to work on, by course:

Healthy Living 102

Ongoing participation:

1) Averaging 180 minutes or more of exercise per week over 16 weeks—Aside from when I was sick, I’ve been on track with this.

2) Eating no more than 3 meals weekly out at restaurants – Going well! (What’s that I hear?  A Chorus of angels singing Hosannah?  Must be a miracle!)

Assignments to complete by the end of January:

1)  Take a ballet class—dragging my heels on this one for whatever reason.

2) Watch The Future of Food—TBD

3) Read a cooking-themed book—about 20% done with this one

4) EXAM: A WEIGHTY MONTH (resistance training 8 times)—I’ve done 2 resistance training sessions so far because of my illness.  If I do three a week for the next two weeks, I’ll get all 8 in.  How are my Resistance Training Buddies doing?  I’d love to hear from you two in the comments .

Spiritual and Existential Studies 101

Ongoing participation:

1)  Meditating with Zen sitting group 5 times over four months- None yet, but I’m planning to go the 27^th.  I was hoping that meditating with the Zen group of Pittsburgh would get things rolling along a bit more, but I was too sick to go last weekend (the sounds of snotty breathing and sneezing might have made it a wee bit difficult for others to be all Zen).

2)  Personal reflection and contemplation 10 min, 5 days/week- so far, so good (journaling, no meditating). I am trying to be more mindful, and have also been working on getting routines in place to “protect me from the whim of the moment.”  In particular, I’ve been focusing mostly on a morning routine that includes moving my exercise to the mornings.

Assignments to complete by the end of January:

1)  Finish the first half of Life with Full Attention- I read the first chapter.

2) Do a volunteer activity- nope. Need to spend some time this weekend figuring out what I’m going to do.

3) Watch parts 1-3 of Cosmos- Nope. Maybe the hubs will watch an episode of it this weekend with me

4) Listen to Mindfulness Meditation- Nope.  I keep forgetting about this one.  I will also try to start listening to my mindfulness audiobook on my iPhone while I’m waiting for the bus and/or driving to the gym.

Financial Principles 101

Ongoing participation:

1) Achieve spending and saving goals each month- so far, so good!

2) Read at least 6 posts from personal finance blogs weekly—doing it—I’ve been reading Wisebread, Money Saving Mom, the Simple Dollar, and the Thrifty Mama. I like them all.  I haven’t learning anything terribly earth-shattering yet, but it’s helped me stay mindful of my spending.

Assignments to complete by the end of January:

1) Read Get a Financial Life- about 80% done with it.

2) Complete budget/ spending review- done (see my last post)

3) Set monthly spending/ saving goals- done

4) Organize all financial paperwork-  TBD

Thanks for reading–more tomorrow!