Now that we’ve reached the third week of January, I thought it might be time to write another update on how it’s going with my New Year’s Resolutions. I’m actually doing pretty well, despite a few minor setbacks that I should be addressing at the end of this week.

1) Learning to Swim. I did sign up for swim lessons again, and last week I did a front stroke across the pool and was able to take two breaths while swimming. My instructor says that my kicks and arms are great, and I can actually feel a difference now in the way my body moves through the water. I think if I can stop over-thinking things when I’m in the water, I’ll be able to breathe while swimming pretty soon. I understand now that when you’re swimming, your body naturally rocks side to side, and that it’s all about letting your body’s natural movement tell you when to lift your head to the side and take a breath. All there is now is to keep working at it until I’ve got it down pat. Oooh, I also learned to float on my back without help, which is HUGE, especially since I started swim lessons being pretty terrified of not touching bottom.

2) Start Running 5K Races Again. I haven’t signed up for one yet, but I’m going to run in a 5K race on January 29th. I’ve been running daily, and though my time isn’t great, I’m actually running, not walking. Even cooler, a friend and old coworker of mine got into running after I ran my marathon in 2009. He started running longer distances just about the time I was in too much pain to continue. Now he’s been running longer races, and I asked him if he’d be interested in doing a 5K with me. He was enthusiastic about it, and now we’re on the same street team in RunKeeper and encouraging each other via Facebook daily. It’s nice. I know we won’t be racing against each other or anything like that, but it’s great to have a buddy to do this kind of stuff with. It only makes me want to improve.

3) Budget Food Expenditures. Honestly, I’m not doing great at this, but I’m a lot better off than I was before the New Year, so we’ll keep working at it. I at least haven’t been spending exorbitant amounts on snack foods, so that’s something. It’s just that I know I could really cut back on my grocery spending, and live for a while on what I already have stored up. I’ve been better about eating the food I already have, but I did break down and go to Whole Foods the other day to stock up on soup and eggs, which definitely could have been avoided. One funny thing that happened with this is that on Saturday, I did end up buying brie, crackers and prosciutto at the store. When I got home and tried the brie (it was a new brand), it was so gross that I ended up throwing it away. It was kind of like a tap on the shoulder from the Universe, to remind me I wasn’t supposed to be wasting money on stuff like that, anyway.

4) Put Money in My Savings Account. I did! I’m awesome! I organized my budget so that the first expenditure of every paycheck is to put money in my savings account, and since it’s such a pain to withdraw money from the account, I should end up doing pretty well on this goal. In addition, as I mentioned awhile ago, I’m receiving a spot of loan money that is going to help me with my next resolution, thereby in the long run helping me save money away, as well.

5) Pay Off Credit Cards. Like I said, I’m trying to carefully watch my money in order to pay off my cards, and I’ll also be getting a little chunk of change next month that will help me with this goal. I hope to be CC debt free by May, and maybe even sooner, depending on where I’m able to make more cuts in my budget.

6) Be Happy and Have Fun. Still working on this one, but it’s much easier to be happy when you’re physically fit, so that’s something I have going for me. One thing that’s impeding my ability to go out as much is still not having my license renewed, so got to take care of that on Friday. Otherwise, I’ve made plans to hang out with a new girlfriend that I’ve been playing Weds. night trivia with for the last couple of months. We’re going to go out dancing on Saturday, which will be the first non-trivia thing we’ve done together. Hopefully it’ll be fun, and I’ll have made a new friend.

7) Finish Writing at Least One of My Books. I haven’t even started working on this goal. Shame on me.

8) Create a Schedule and Stick to it. Um, so no. I haven’t been able to create a schedule OR stick to it, other than the calendar I put up on the fridge the other night that I fill in to prove that I’ve run, done Zumba and weighed myself every day. So I guess that’s kind of a schedule, but what I really meant by this resolution was to wake up earlier and get more work done. Now that I’ve got my little part time copywriting job, this is even more important than ever. Needs improvement.

Overall, I’d give myself a B- on this, though I’m somewhat biased. What do you think?

Are you doing better on your resolutions, if you made them?