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Mid-Year Check-in: What I'm Keeping, What I'm Changing, What I'm Letting Go Of
21 Plays11 days ago
Mid-year check-in on my two main goals for 2026 and where I stand at six months. Instead of setting goals in every area of my life, I narrowed focus to financial freedom by paying off credit card debt and getting back into shape. This approach is working better than years of overachieving and doing too much.
Two goals and real progress:
- Credit card debt: Started with $12,500, now paying $1,400 monthly, adjusted strategy in May when progress felt too slow
- Fitness: Lost 5 pounds, increased muscle definition in legs and glutes through lifting and cardio, struggling with nutrition consistency
- Why two goals work: Less overwhelming, more achievable, better for accountability than setting ten goals
I struggled with emotional eating while healing from depression and CPTSD. The deeper I healed, the more emotions surfaced, leading me to emotionally eat through the recovery process. Now working on consistency with nutrition while maintaining a healthy food relationship.
Subscribe. Share. Remember that focusing on two goals creates better outcomes than trying to achieve ten at once.
Small steps, big healing. Keep growing! ✨
Join the conversation! What are your one or two goals for 2026? DM me on Instagram @YourCoachMari!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Growing With Soul' podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello beautiful soul and welcome back to another inst installment of the Growing With Soul podcast where we explore the moments and stories that shape who we're becoming. I'm Marisol and this is where I love to have real conversations about growth, self-discovery and learning to put yourself first.
00:00:15
Speaker
Whether we're diving into books that change our perspective or unpacking personal experiences that feature something new, this podcast is for women who are done playing small and are ready to embrace their own journey.
00:00:27
Speaker
If you struggle putting everybody else first or even battle self-doubt, then you're in the right place. This isn't about perfection. It's about the messy, beautiful process of growing into yourself.
00:00:37
Speaker
So come grow with me.
Marisol's Transparency and Goal Setting
00:00:39
Speaker
This episode is going to be a little bit of an overshare, I suppose. I decided I wanted to be... you know, a little bit more transparent, it'll give you a little bit more insight into my own journey, the things I'm working on, um and to sort of set the scene, as it were.
00:00:56
Speaker
um little thing about myself, historically speaking, I've been a little bit of a overachiever, i suppose. I mean, maybe not like overachiever per se, because they're, you know, what it's a little bit skewed because like, I definitely would always go into things doing too much, doing the most and like,
00:01:17
Speaker
trying my darndest and to like get, you know, straight A's, that type of student. There's always somebody who was just smarter or a better student than I was. Okay. Like there was, there was definitely somebody in high school taking a lot more APs than I was.
00:01:31
Speaker
Anyway, i was still within that realm of student. um And I have taken that into all aspects of my life. um And as I've gotten older, as I've had more responsibilities, as I've dealt with life more, that way of being has only been actually detrimental to the bottom line, I suppose, to the end result.
00:01:55
Speaker
um So one of the things that I decided earlier this year, back in January, probably even before that, probably like December, November, um is that I decided that I wasn't going to do that.
00:02:06
Speaker
I wasn't going to go and give myself a goal for every area of my life to achieve by the next year, because that never works. I decided to just focus on two things, two goals to work on in 2026 and like, you know, have little baby goals for other things. But that was not going to be the focus.
00:02:24
Speaker
So This year, i decided and i was going to two goals.
Financial Goals for 2026
00:02:30
Speaker
Okay, my focus focuses, foci. I'm going to look that up later.
00:02:35
Speaker
But my first goal was to essentially pay off my credit card. I wanted to focus on my finances. There are a lot of different financial goals that I have, but the main thing, the one thing that I am shooting for, aiming for this year is to pay off my credit card.
00:02:51
Speaker
The second goal that i decided to work on this year was to get back into shape. So I'm going to go and give a little run through of more of what that goal those goals were and where I am now that it is.
00:03:06
Speaker
oh it is July. It is July 1st as of recording this. So we'll see where I'm at. How am I doing? What am I doing differently to make sure I get these goals done? by December, basically.
00:03:19
Speaker
So the first one, pay off credit card. I have technically have two credit cards, but the second one, i use it and then pay it off right away. So I have one main credit card.
00:03:30
Speaker
And at the start of the year, I had approximately $12,500 it, like that I need to pay back. And original plan was, and my original plan which wasn't much of a plan it was more of like, let me just try this and like, see how it goes. It wasn't very thought out. It was just like, bare bones of a plan was let me just put $1,000 every month towards this payment, you know, which was more than don't even know what the minimum he was supposed to be. But I was like, this is a payment I'm going to every two weeks, I'm going to put $500 towards my credit card and just see where I'm at.
00:04:05
Speaker
you know, assessed in a couple months. um And then in May, i realized I don't, I keep throwing money at my credit card. And yeah, it's going down, but it's not going down quickly enough.
00:04:18
Speaker
And I need something, i need something to move the needle because One thing i need to work on as an individual is patience in general.
00:04:29
Speaker
I can be a little impatient. And when you're working on a goal and you feel like you're doing a lot to reach that goal, but you don't see anything changing. That frustrates me beyond like I can't even explain how much that frustrates me.
00:04:42
Speaker
So I decided in May that I was going to up my payments and that I was going to now put essentially an extra $200 to every payment that I make.
00:04:53
Speaker
So essentially, i was going to be doing $1,400 every month towards my credit card. It felt really ambitious. Like it felt really ambitious when I decided to do that. But I was like starting in June, thats what i'm going I'm going to trial it in June, see how it goes.
00:05:11
Speaker
And if it's too ambitious, I'll recalibrate. I did it. I did it in June, in my my trial month, and it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be.
00:05:25
Speaker
So I'm going to keep doing that. I'm going to keep you know going with $1,400 a month, which honestly, it's basically like a rent payment. Okay. It's basically like paying rent, but it's going to my credit card instead.
00:05:39
Speaker
Moment of full transparency. I do currently live with family, so I am able to do this without it being detrimental to other areas of my life.
00:05:50
Speaker
So I am very grateful and thankful for that. um With that being said, i would like my own place. So as part of that process, I need to pay down this credit card because I'm tired of it, honestly. Like, is it is it hurting me? Is it bothering me?
00:06:07
Speaker
No, but i don't like it. So am focusing on that as my main financial goal for the year. I'm going to be putting $1,400 towards that credit card every month until December.
00:06:20
Speaker
Will i fully pay it off by then? Probably not because of interest. So there might be a little bit left over in the beginning of next year. But we will assess and recalibrate as the months go on. And I keep making that payment.
00:06:34
Speaker
potentially I'll be looking into other ways to increase my bank income to put more money towards that goal. So yeah. um Overall, it's going well.
00:06:46
Speaker
This first month went well. And hopefully next year I'll be able to put that amount of money towards actual rent instead of a credit card. But we'll see. Student loan payments might get me instead.
00:06:58
Speaker
um
Struggles and Strategies for Fitness
00:06:59
Speaker
Okay. Second goal was to get back into shape. Again, context for me Emotional eating is the death of my waistline. Okay.
00:07:10
Speaker
And for a little bit more context, I gained roughly 30 pounds through the years of dealing with just like depression, CBTSD, and like the whole healing process.
00:07:22
Speaker
And what's really ironic is that With the whole like emotional eating, depression and all that stuff, like when I'm really depressed, when I'm deep in the depression, I don't want to eat.
00:07:36
Speaker
i don't want to eat. I want nothing to do with food. I want to just literally waste away in bed and cease to just function as a human being. I mean, not that I want to do that, but that's what happens when I'm really depressed.
00:07:49
Speaker
So ironically, i found as I or I observed rather that as I worked on my healing, The more I healed, the more emotions I needed to deal with came to the surface.
00:08:00
Speaker
And as a lifelong emotional eater, the emotions that came to the surface while healing learned me to emotionally eat while healing from that depression and CPTSD. So ended up getting the 30 pounds. Plus, not to mention, like it was COVID. So like I wasn't going to jujitsu. I wasn't going to the gym on top of all that.
00:08:17
Speaker
So it was just a cocktail of a hot mess, really. um And then from a fitness standpoint, like I'm not even talking about a number on a scale. I'm literally talking about just like my actual fitness level.
00:08:30
Speaker
I feel the difference. Okay. Because I i haven't going to jujitsu consistently. I will be transparent about that. And that's my fault for doing too much.
00:08:41
Speaker
but When I do go to jujitsu, I feel the difference. Like I remember i used to be able to just like literally roll the entire time and not take breaks in between rolls. Like i could just roll after roll that like wouldn't happen to break in between rolls.
00:08:57
Speaker
Perfect. Fine. But now like sit out a roll. I do every other roll because I'm so out of shape. I feel it. Okay. And I hate that. I hate that so much. I want to be in better shape. One for jujitsu and two for life and three for the aesthetics because let's be real.
00:09:13
Speaker
However, I struggle with this because i also know how important it is to heal my relationship with food. And I refuse to track my macros ever again.
00:09:28
Speaker
Like, it's so much work. I don't have the like, extra mental space to worry about all that. And I just, like, I can't. Like, it's too much for me. And, like, you know, like, 2014 MyFitnessPal era, I was a victim to that. So, like, I just...
00:09:43
Speaker
I don't want to do that again. Plus, because I did that, I already know pretty much what a healthy portion size looks like. I know like what my macros like are, protein, fiber, all that stuff, carbs, all that. like I know what it is.
00:09:54
Speaker
So I pretty much know what like a healthy portion size is and all that stuff. So in terms of what I'm doing to reach my goal and recalibrate, because again, I've struggled with this all year.
00:10:06
Speaker
um so essentially my current plan would be lifting three times a week, jujitsu one to two times a week, a little extra cardio every day. Thankfully, I do have a like stationary bike where I live.
00:10:19
Speaker
So i can do like 20, 30 minutes on that every day. and then in terms of nutrition, intermittent fasting, because i will snack. So I just need to You know, you should just limit my window because I will snack.
00:10:32
Speaker
um But within that, i will be focusing on protein and fiber. Fiber is very important, guys. OK, so that's currently what I'm going to be doing. i definitely need to work on consistency because, again, when it comes to like the nutrition piece, like can work out every day. i love going to the gym but I can do that every day and be perfectly fine.
00:10:52
Speaker
At the same time, when it comes to the nutrition, that's where I struggle with the consistency, obviously, hence the relationship with food. um so I need to work on the consistency. But in terms of what I've been able to do thus far in 2026, I've lost roughly five pounds.
00:11:08
Speaker
You know, roughly. um And then in terms of like non-scale progress, I can definitely see more definition in my quads, more definition in my hamstrings, the glutes. I can see that my calves are overall slimmer.
00:11:24
Speaker
And I do notice a little bit more like definition in terms of like my arms, my biceps. However, I do tend to lose weight last in my upper body, which makes sense that my legs are looking a little bit more defined and slimmer in comparison.
00:11:39
Speaker
So there has been progress, which is important to take note of, but I would definitely i like a little bit more progress in the aesthetic area as well. You know what I'm saying? um But yeah, that's basically where I am with that. And I just need to work ultimately on the consistency with the nutrition. Yeah.
Engaging with Listeners and Life Coaching
00:11:59
Speaker
But yeah, that's where I am with my two goals in 2026. I do have my action plan for the rest of the year. i will, of course, be checking in with myself pretty much on a monthly basis just to see how I'm feeling, where I'm at, and if everything is still aligned with where I ultimately want to be and go and achieve.
00:12:18
Speaker
I would really love to hear what you guys are working on in 2026. So definitely let me know what are one or two goals that you are really passionate about, really focused on for this year, and even what you're doing to get there.
00:12:29
Speaker
If you have stayed this far, I definitely appreciate you. If this episode resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, leave a comment, and to share it out with somebody who think would also enjoy this episode.
00:12:41
Speaker
I am a certified life coach and I definitely work with people who are working on their goals, who are also working on self-esteem, their confidence. And if you are looking for accountability or someone to talk to about those things, definitely feel free to schedule your very own discovery call with me through the show.
00:12:59
Speaker
Until next time, keep growing.