Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Catching Up

Resolutions: I decided that every week or so, I’m going to do a recap of my resolutions and how I’m sticking to them. I’m hoping this helps keep me motivated to stick to them…

Health Related:
  1. No unhealthy fast food.
    I have not had one piece of unhealthy fast food thus far. YAY! In fact, I haven’t had any fast food period.
  2. No soda and limited caffeine.
    I have had a few cups of coffee, but absolutely no soda. I’m very proud of this one as I’ve been tempted a couple of times to get a Sprite for an upset stomach, but I’ve figured other ways out of it and haven’t succumbed to soda.
  3. Use my gym memberships.
    This one gets a big fat fail right now… I haven’t been to the gym at all this year. I’ve actually been contemplating canceling my YMCA membership and getting a treadmill. I know, I know… I am still a member of Curves and don’t plan on quitting there because I do like the workout I get. When I go to the gym, I usually just ride a recumbent bike or walk on a treadmill. The elliptical throws my back all out of whack… I don’t feel like I get a good workout on the recumbent bike so I’d rather walk on a treadmill. When I was doing SO good with working out, I was just going to Curves and then walking on a treadmill for an hour. I could do that from home and then I’d be less likely to skip the gym. My electrical problem has been fixed so I don’t have to worry about tripping the breaker every time I’d walk on it. I spend a little over $250 a year on my gym membership and I don’t use it. I could get a treadmill for that much… I’m not 100% decided yet, but I’m thinking about finding one when I get my tax return back… Decisions, decisions…
  4. Log all calories all year.
    Off to a bad start here. I’ve logged most days, but not all of them. I am proud to say that the days I have logged, I’m logging everything I eat… That’s a start I guess!
  5. Do at least three 5Ks.
    Zilch done yet on this one, but I still have all year to plan!
Non-Health Related:
  1. Put at least $25 from each paycheck into my savings account.
    I haven’t been paid yet this year… Unfortunately, my first paycheck of the year is going to be so little with so many bills due that I will only have $15 left to my name for two weeks. I will make up for this with my last paycheck of the month by putting $50 into my savings.
  2. Finish one of my novels.
    I haven’t worked on writing at all yet this year. I need to set aside time to do this.
  3. Read at least 24 books.
    I have already read two books so I’m off to a good start on this one.
  4. Pay off all of my credit card debt leaving only my two loans open.
    Yeah, not done yet. Haha. I hope that in about a month I can say I’ve made some real progress on this one. At this very moment, not including my two loans, I owe $1844.60 across five different credit card accounts. Since I’m not going on any trips this year, I will definitely have more money to apply to these. I’m hoping that after my tax return, I can be down to less than $1000 owed. I should easily be able to pay this off. Even before I get my tax return, I’ll be able to pay off one account (with my next paycheck).
  5. pend more time with family and friends.
    I haven’t done this yet either. I haven’t spent any time with any friends or family yet this year at all… That’s sad… granted it’s only nine days into the year.
Mom S:

A few weeks ago I was online and one of my best friends was on Facebook chat. I sent her a message asking her what was up and we started chatting a bit. She informed me that her mom’s cancer had come back and the doctors said there is nothing they can do for her this time. This whole situation absolutely breaks my heart. When I think of my friend’s mother, it always takes me a while to remember what her first name is because ever since middle school I’ve just called her “mom”. I don’t know if they gave her a time frame or anything, but it’s just so sad… Please keep my friend and her mother and the rest of their family and friends in your prayers.

Let’s Get Healthy!:

I have been running a weight loss group on another site since 2007. That site has some server issues and randomly goes down for days at a time so I would like to move my group elsewhere. Also, because of the nature of the site, it's hard to get a lot of participants and I'm hoping to expand the group greatly. The following is my attempt to move the blog over to this site...

Here is an overview a quick overview. The next phase doesn’t begin until the very end of March. A lot of people are worried about privacy issues… Ultimately, you decide how you participate in the group. You have a few options… You could just do weigh ins which will not be shared online at all and I will be the only one to have access to everyone’s weights. All weigh ins will be done via email instead of by comments on an entry. With the current phase, I introduced Phase Buddies. These are a person (or persons) that you email one-on-one to help support you in your healthy goals. In the next phase you will be given two buddies (one for the first six weeks and one for the latter six weeks). You could also join the Facebook group. Right now the group is closed and only members of the current phase can join, but I will be opening the group up to whoever is interested in joining once the current phase ends.

I’m also introducing something with the new phase that I’m calling “Monetary Motives” or “MM”. For some people the option of winning some money motivates them. I know money always motivates me… If you decide to participate in MM, you must send in a $10 participation entry fee and photo of their feet on a scale for proof of their weight. The size of the overall pot depends on the number of people participating. There will be five prizes and they will be awarded like this:
  1. The participant with the highest percentage of weight loss will win 35% of the pot.
  2. The participant who refers the most people to sign up for the MM portion of the phase will automatically win 10% of the pot.
  3. Every participant that weighs in each week of the phase without missing any weeks will be entered in a drawing to win 20% of the pot.
  4. Every participant that completes each weekly challenge and has documented proof (email, blog entry or photo, if needed) will be entered in a drawing to win 20% of the pot.
  5. Everyone who submits a personal phase challenge at the beginning of the phase and completes his/her personal challenge by the end of the phase will be entered in a drawing to win 15% of the pot.
Please consider joining... If you're interested, you can sign up for the next phase starting immediately.


Please let me know if you have ANY questions. I will be more than happy to answer them!

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I was getting a lot of spam comments, so I had to turn off anonymous user comments. Sorry! I love reading your comments though!