I started the last check-in with a story about the weather and I’m going to do the same today. The last week has been a little crazy — either that or Mother Nature’s cheese, as Katie would say, has slid off her cracker. Last Saturday morning woke us up with a dreary, dull sky and plenty of steady rain. Around mid-morning, a giant downpour landed on us, bringing with it about 3-5 minutes of shooter-marble-sized hail. What a drag. Tolerable, however, until I opened the door to go to the store and found that my sunroof had been open all night and the entire inside of my car was doused. This led to the insides of my windows being frosted at 4:30am on Monday which was every bit as exciting as you can imagine.

A couple of days later, we got two perfect spring days, damn-near Summer-esque. I rode my motorcycle with a t-shirt on, rode around in my (now dry) car with the windows down, cleaned my grill. It was amazing. And then today, April Fool’s Day, of course, it’s winter in East Tennessee again. Wind that could freeze someone to death and reports of snow flurries in the Tri-Cities.

It’s been like this in East Tennessee every year since I’ve been alive and will continue to be as long as I live here, but I’m going to complain about it every time like I’m surprised. I feel like I have a license to do that since I’m an Appalachian native.

Lots of amazing things happening in the month of April and I can’t wait to share them all with you. But first, here’s how we’re looking on those yearly goals:

Goals I’ve Kept Up With:

Produce One New Video Per Week

I can’t believe I’m still rocking this one! I also can’t believe how hard it is to get your friends to support your efforts when you’re trying to build something huge. The good news is that I’m resilient and more motivated than ever to build an empire from this platform I’ve built and I have no desire to stop. In the last month, I created What are Macros?, Stop Saying “I Can’t”, Rest Days and What is Protein?. This means I’ve produced 12/52 videos this year! Or 3/13 for those of us who like to simplify fractions!

Read 12 Books by EOY

Am I a little behind on this? Yes, however, I’m still on track to finish this goal. In the last month, I was able to finish The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau. This is a very informative book that I recommend to anyone who’s considering breaking off and doing their own thing — it really helped me put some things into perspective and even gave many step-by-step instructions for how to get the ball rolling on some rather intimidating tasks. I’m currently reading The Art of Manliness – Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues by Brett and Kate McKay and I’m in the process of reading the Christian Bible “in a year” again.

Consistently Hit All Budget Goals

There have been several things that have hit me this year that have made budgeting extremely difficult, however, without the strict budget process, my finances would’ve been all over the place. I spent years not following one and only started following one in the last few years when I had — literally, NOTHING — and out of necessity. I’ve since been following it strictly just because I finally see the benefit of it and now that I’ve had some very strange financial hits lately, I’m now seeing that having the budget has made those hits hurt a helluva lot less. I give myself an A+ on this one.

Hit 15% Body Fat by End of Summer

Killing it here as well. This week I started part II of my Tabernacle program and weigh-ins have me down a few more pounds and officially down to 16.5% body fat — that’s a full 1% down from where I was in August of last year and to be honest, I’m really not even trying that hard right now. This will start to pick up heavier come May.

Take More Photos

Not as good as last month but I DID take several photos this month that are worth sharing. Here are a few I snapped of my girl and Ozzy in the backyard during our first spring-like day of the year. I even went so far as to shoot a video because that’s just how damn cute we are. Enjoy!

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Ride More Motorcycle

Like I said before, the motorcycle thing has been RAD during our warm days this month. I was even able to ride out to the gym one night wearing a muscle shirt, just don’t tell my mom or my friend Mandy. With gas prices being what they are and with the addition of a new goal that I’ll cover shortly, riding the motorcycle will be prioritized for the rest of the season.

Prioritize Mobility

I shot my Rest Days video primarily because I was in desperate need of taking one. So I did. And it was amazing. I spent the entire week not lifting weights, choosing instead to continue doing my boxing classes like I normally do and doing daily yoga sessions with Katie. I love doing that with her because it’s a fun thing we can do together while we’re at home, it’s great for our mobility and stress plus it’s just a fun way to cross-train after doing so much lifting and boxing all the time.

Goals That Need Revision:

Revise JTF Website By EO February

Wow. Original goal was January, then revised to February, now revised to May. Work has been slamming me lately and I’ve been tending to a lot of adulting that largely involves Katie moving in, cutting ties from my previous life and being a lot more responsible about my vehicle registration hahaha (all of my modes of transportation are up to date now, btw). Anyway, this kind of thing gets pushed to the backburner when more pressing stuff gets brought up and that just is what it is, but I have every intention of getting it up and running so people can use my website to sign up for my running club in May.

Pay off CC by Christmas

At first it may seem as though this is me just putting off responsibility or lying about how good my budgeting system is, but after a few weird months it seems as though I owe less on the motorcycle than I do the credit card, so if the bigoted Dave Ramsay has taught me anything (other than what a hateful old rich asshole he is) it’s focusing on the smallest debt first so I can create the snowball. And that Harley is damn-near all-the-way mine. So this is now revised to be Pay Off Motorcycle by February 2022.

New Goals:

Buy a Truck (Or at Least Begin Looking at Trucks with a Down Payment In-Hand) by May

Talk about a goal I never thought I’d see coming. Being a homeowner is amazing and I love every second of it, but owning your home also means owning the maintenance that comes with it. And unfortunately, THAT then means it’s necessary to use a truck to bring things to your house that a CR-V unfortunately cannot. With that in mind, it’s about time to trade in ol’ Gobius Hamburgertime and I plan to turn her into a truck that’s sexy but doesn’t tell the world I’m compensating for a short … attention span.

Goals I’m Letting Go:

Launch Meal Prep Service by EOY

Again, this isn’t me being irresponsible, just a revised goal that’s being temporarily dropped for now. The goal of opening a food-based business in a year is not impossible but it IS extremely overwhelming and difficult. Add to that the fact that I’m already working two jobs and didn’t realize what all went into opening such a business in the state of Tennessee and you have a goal that’s not gone forever, just gone for now.

So that’s April 1, no foolin’. Let’s prepare for the official announcement of the Viking Army and a couple of RAD long weekend trips, shall we?

Ever onward.