good lord that’s a lot to remember.

My July goals were:

1) Improve my housecleaning process via the Clean Mama protocol (blogged about here);
2) Dry weekdays;
3) Target 10,000 steps a day;
4) Run 50 miles;
5) Participate in Plastic Free July.

I’m pleased with my results. I fell off a bit with the cleaning at the end of the month, but liked the overall process (and my new tools) so much that I’ll be carrying that goal over into August. Dry weekdays did NOT happen and I have no intent of trying to continue that 😉 But I hit both fitness goals, restarted Weight Watchers, and feel like I’m on a good trend of keeping my eating clean and my body moving.

Plastic Free July was one of my favorite initiatives and I’m proud of my progress. If you want to read more about the initiative, some tips to help, and a great article about WHY this is necessary, here are some links for you to check out:

• We Depend on Plastic. Now We’re Drowning In It.
• Plastic Free July
• You Can Help Turn the Tide on Plastic. Here’s How.

I wanted to be efficient in my targeting; I very rarely use plastic single-use bottles, as I have a great reusable travel coffee cup (link to buy here) and several stainless steel and glass water bottles at home that I use constantly, so I knew I didn’t need to improve much there. However, it’s almost impossible for me to avoid plastic packaging at the grocery store, so I sat down and thought about it, and targeted four areas that I knew I could improve.
1) grocery bags – I used ZERO new plastic grocery bags in July. I either remembered my reusable bags, or I used paper bags if I forgot them in the car or at home. As a result, I’ve significantly dwindled my stockpile (which I reuse for cleaning the litter box and lining wastebaskets).
2) single use silverware – I made a great investment with bamboo utensils (link to buy here).  They’re washable, lightweight, I can carry them in my purse or lunchbox or work tote, and where I used to use a plastic fork or spoon almost every day at work to eat my breakfast or lunch, in the month of July I only ended up using ONE plastic knife (before the bamboo set arrived and I needed to slice a banana into my oatmeal at work).
3) ziploc bags – I bought no new ziploc bags and instead washed and reused old ones that come with my Blue Apron boxes for food storage. I used fabric (link to buy here) or washable, reusable bags from Grove Collaborative (link to buy here) for my sandwiches and snacks and smaller food storage.
4) I used NO plastic straws in July. I eschewed straws altogether, in fact, although my bamboo utensil kit comes with a straw and a tiny straw cleaning brush. My new boss at work (whom I love and who resembles Judy Greer and whom I shall now likely call Judy on the blog) recommended glass straws that she purchased at the Ann Arbor Art Fair from Strawesome (link here). I might get one of these as well as she said they’re washable, have a great “mouth feel” and are a nice gift idea.

Flush with my July success, and with the intent to continue the strides I made, here are my August goals:
1) Continue with Clean Mama and Plastic-Free successes from July; carryover.
2) Run 50 miles &  begin training for October half-marathon.
3) 10,000 steps a day;
4) Track food with Weight Watchers every day;
5) Attend Book Club that I’ve been invited to but haven’t made yet;
6) Try out the new yoga studio downtown with the eye to expand my fitness regimen beyond just running.

What are your goals for August? xo and good luck with them!