Last year I had a laundry list of goals in several different categories, and I think I did a pretty good job of achieving a lot of them. This year, however, I’m going to make a little simpler, and have a shorter list. Here goes:

1. Replace my morning mocha with tea. My office has a Flavia machine (similar to a Keurig), that I typically use once or twice daily to make myself a mocha (on this machine it’s really 1/3 hot chocolate and 2/3 coffee). I like that this is a free beverage option (rather than making regular Starbucks runs as with previous jobs), but I think tea would be a better alternative. I’m not ruling out the occasional fancy coffee drink, but making it more occasional is the goal.

2. Reduce my sugar intake on a regular basis. I know, I know, this is very vague, but it basically means I’m going to make an effort to curb my sweet tooth. Nothing bothers me more than when someone says, “you know, I’m not much for dessert, I’ve never really had a sweet tooth.” No one asked you, go sit in the corner. I typically only want sweet food, so my goal here is to stick to a less sweet routine, because I think it will make me crave sweet less often. Just like the mocha thing, I’m trying to break some habits.

3. Follow the stock market regularly. I find the stock market pretty fascinating and intimidating, and I check various stocks from time to time. This year I pick a few stocks I’m interested in, and I’m trying to check them on Yahoo Finance everyday. I’ve been very interested in the athletic apparel recently because I think Lululemon is in the process of taking a big hit from more cost friendly competitors like Athleta (part of the Gap group) and Under Armour. I want to watch that play out, so I’m following all of them, plus Nike and Adidas (it’s a two for one since they own Reebok), and Pepsi for good measure. I never felt too comfortable with finance class in business school, but with all the case studies we did, I learned it’s kind of fun to follow a few companies and watch their progress. Speaking of which, can we talk about Lulu’s December:

4. Be Better, Faster, Stronger. No specific fitness goals this year in terms of races I want to run or times I was to get. I just want to continue to be committed to my regular workouts, and continue to improve. I was going through a slower running phase last fall, so I’m hoping to snap out of that and pick up the pace. Plus I think if I put a little more effort/consistency into my weight workouts I could up my weights a little, and get stronger. And Pilates as much as possible, because I love it! When you’re stressed for time it’s hard to push the envelope at the gym, so hopefully I can make some time for that.

5. Blog more regularly. I went from blogging very regularly when Carrie and I started the blog, to being very sporadic this year, so hopefully I will find a new rhythm in the 2014! (and maybe Carrie will too, wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Are you sticking to the typical resolutions this year, or did you pick something that’s more out of the box?