Functional #PlanWithMe March 2022

I’m back with another installment of #planwithme for the upcoming month. The last one I did was at the beginning of the year with Functional #PlanWithMe – 2022 Goal Setting.

Looking Back – January & February

Highlight – Trips to Jamaica i.e. spending time at home with my Caribbean people. And going to Florida for 2 weeks with the hubs. Could have done better – I found it really hard to wrap my head around not having a regular routine. I was unfocused, grumpy at times and craving some stability.

March Focus

We put our house on the market late February so fingers crossed that it will sell this month. Of course, we have to keep it show ready” all the time. This month it’s also back to travel for work, which sometimes challenges me with maintaining consistency with exercise – so I’ll be keeping my word of the year “preparation” in mind at all times.

Appointments, Holidays & Events

Lent begins – Mar. 2 – Daylight Savings Time Mar. 13 – Spring Equinox Mar. 20.

Going Places: My youngest son made swimming National championship for his division (NAIA) in 3 events, so we’re going to Columbus, GA to watch him. For work I’m headed to Oregon and Maryland. TBD – Finish arrangements for Maryland trip.

Home & Finances

As I mentioned above our home got cleaned & spruced up in February when we put it up for sale. For March, there are a few projects we could do in case it doesn’t sell – replace the blinds in our bedroom; replace broken / missing window hardware; continue to purge!

My hubs & I had a “finance” meeting at the end of February and made a plan for the next quarter – especially with all the house stuff going on. For paying down our debt / credit cards, we’re still using the monthly calendars on a planner. We just put the payment amount and remaining balance for each month until it reached 0. And let’s not forget taxes – we have to get it done this month!

Blogging & Reading

Kim and I have been doing a great job keeping up with this space this year and I don’t want to fall behind. We have our ideas sketched out for March, and started drafts of most, so we just need to finish them up. It’s also time to make sure that I’ve checked in on our Goodreads Reading Challenge group and linked up my reviews plus updated the 2022 Book Awards Calendar.

For the 2022 Book Bracket in my reading journal – it’s January’s winner against February’s. This means The Unfamiliar Garden, Benjamin Percy vs The Violin Conspiracy, Brendan Slocumb (it was so hard to pick a winner this month). The battle between these 2 – my pick is … The Violin Conspiracy. This book will end up doing battle with July/August winner.

I’ve already picked out the books for March’s reading challenges (Such a Fun Age, Kiley Reid and The Death of Vivek Oji, Akwaeke Emezi) and will finally get to some of the unread books on my shelves. I try to get these in at the beginning of the month, and I also have 1 more book to read from 2022 New Releases on Our Radar Part 1 (Akata Woman, Nnedi Okorafor).

Exercise | Workouts | Fitness

January and February I did OK with exercise, but I missed a week in each month from just being overwhelmed with not being home and traveling. So the last week in February I started using the training calendar in Garmin Connect – and basically set up a running / cycling plan (until June/July) plus strength workouts (for March only). I realized you can move the workouts around too, so on Sundays, I go in and move them according to what I can do based on my schedule. For example, – when I travel / am away from home, I’m not going to cycle – so I shift the bike workouts to the days I’m around, and move the weights to those days – and for some odd reason, it feels better to know in advance if I’m going to miss something.

Also Tour de Watopia is on Mar. 9 – Apr. 3. – my goal is to complete all 5 stages running & cycling. There’s also Zwift Run Festival so plenty of challenges to keep me motivated this month.

Re-Stock

• Clarifying shampoo – I use Real Raw Apple Cider Vinegar Clarifying Shampoothie and really like it, but I might also try the Aveeno Apple Cider Vinegar Sulfate-Free Shampoo.
• I’ve been out of Murad AHA/BHA Cleanser for awhile, but didn’t want to spend the $$, so I’ve been truing a few different ones – but nothing works like it!
• I’ve been using fresh Rose Deep Hydration Oil-Infused Serum and it was OK to add moisture in the winter, but it’s not really for me so I’ve going to try Murad Rapid Dark Spot Correcting Serum … and re-stock on my tried and true favorite TruSkin Vitamin C-Plus Super Serum.

---

And that’s it for planning for March. See more of this type in our Plan with Me section. Do you keep more than 1 of some products, so that you never run out?