I feel relatively good about where I've been heading financially the past year, but it's time to kick it to the next level. For a while, right at the end of 2012, I paid my credit card off completely. It felt AWESOME. Unfortunately, I got into the trap of using it again with all of the new house expenses, and now I need to pay it off again (only $800, nothing crazy).
To help me be successful, I've downloaded Dollarbird, a REALLY cool and intuitive finance app that I've been a fan of so far.
I have a goal of paying down my credit card by the end of the year again, and then starting to save aggressively again to put away $4K next year (it's not much, but I can only spare about $400/month these days for savings).
Wow - that was a long break from the blog! Guess it's going to take a few attempts to really build this into a habit.
The big fitness-related news this year is that I've signed up again for the B.A.A. Half Marathon! When I attempted the race in 2011 I didn't train correctly, and subsequently I hobbled through the course. I really messed up my IT band and couldn't walk without intense pain for about a month.
This time I'm taking training seriously. Today was my first day; only one mile, but it's a start!
I'm also signed up for a Nerd Fitness 6-Week Challenge, and I've given myself a point-based system to track my progress. That post is located here.
Other new updates since the last time I posted...
Rich and I bought a house in Jamaica Plain!
I got a promotion at work to a Director position!
I've gained a ton of stress weight :-P
To curb my out-of-control eating, I have signed up for Weight Watchers. I'm still trying to get good about posting all of the food I eat every day, but I'm getting there. The next step is to start planning my food ahead, as opposed to just tracking whatever food I put in my mouth and shrugging when I reach my points limit.
Wish me luck on this reboot of my fitness journey!
So I've been pretty good about sticking to paleo foods so far this week (except when I put edamame in my salad; whoops!) but I find that I'm thinking about eating so much that I end up eating CONSTANTLY. I need to do a better job of finding out exactly how much I need, and getting that food into my 3 square meals. I'm also contemplating intermittent fasting, but I'll try that in another few weeks once I've gotten regular-paleo down. Until then, I have to realize that, just because it's made out of an animal or a vegetable, I don't HAVE to eat it right away :-P
So I'm pretty happy with how I've been over the past week or so; working out more, running (or trying to), moving towards pure-paleo and now doing a week at 100%. But it feels like all of the efforts are scattered. My boyfriend, on the other hand, gets up at 5:30am every single morning and runs 5-6 miles. Every day. If he doesn't do it before work, he does it afterwards. I, on the other hand, have a haphazard approach that isn't really going to work in the long term. I did see something cool about the Level Up Challenge on Nerd Fitness yesterday, which will be a 6-week highly-structured program for everything I need. But I want to start making good habits between now and the June 18th, when it starts up. So I'm deciding that every day, no matter what, from 8am-9am, I'm at the gym. I don't know 100% what I'll be doing there yet, but that's a time I know I can make work. And once I've been there every morning for a week and a half, I'll be ready to devote that time to my Level Up Club challenges! Woot!
As Steve Kamb over at NerdFitness mentions often (and accurately), 80% of my success is going to be determined by what I put in to my body. I've been frequenting his really often, along with CrossFit sites, personal fitness blogs, etc. The one thing that they all have in common is that they are huge fans of the Paleo lifestyle. I use the word "lifestyle" as opposed to "diet" advisedly.
I've done SO many rounds of no-carb over my life. It's been my fall-back go-to diet, and I use it almost as a punishment. "Take that, fatty! No carbs for a week!" Only, it hasn't been helpful or effective, ever. However, I do have lots of practice avoiding grains and processed foods, and my day-to-day meals are usually pretty paleo. It's the stuff on the side that ends up screwing me over - the quick little baggy of goldfish, the Snickers when I'm hungry outside a 7-11, the bread I convince myself I need before a run...
Here are some AWESOME beginner resources I'm using:
The Paleo Solution author, Robb Wolf, giving a great overview and addressing specifics:
So, here we go. Paleo. This is something I need to do a little bit MORE research on (usually not my weak point), but I've geared up for an inaugural week. I'm ok with bland and repetitive, so this is my 5-day plan for the workweek:
Breakfast:
2 eggs and an orange Lunch:
Salad (romaine, cucumbers, mushrooms) with seasoned baked chicken tenderloins Dinner:
Variable - but always a meat and a veggie.
- Lots of water.
- Almonds for snacking
- Celery for habit-based eating
This is such a bare-bones version of what I'm hoping to do in the future. Anyone have any suggestions about good sources of info for Paleo? I'm going to pick up Robb Wolf's Paleo Solution later today, and have subscribed to his podcast.
Wish my luck on my first full no-exceptions week of Paleo!
This summer is presenting me with some unique challenges, but nothing I can't handle. For example, I have 3 weddings in June, and Pride, and a barcrawl. That's a major drinking event on every one of June's 5 weekends. Yowza.
Dave 2.0 wasn't good at handling peer pressure; hell, even "peer hinting" could persuade me to have "just one more drink." But I'm moving towards Dave 3.0, who moderates himself and thinks about the long term. Especially when it's 5 back-to-back weekends.
So, Step 1: I have to be saintly during the weekdays. No wiggle room there. The weekends have to be my exceptions, not my status quo.
Step 2: Go into each event with a plan. Today is the Fenway Pubcrawl; we do 9 bars that represent 9 innings, all around Fenway. It's a blast! I've decided that I'm bringing just $100 in cash with me, only drinking light beers, not ever having more than 2 drinks/bar, and keeping a bag of almonds in my pocket to avoid to drunken orgy of eating that is associated with day-long drinking.
Big props to The Tin Man at NerdFitness for having this as his avatar. I'm printing a few out here at work (stealing color ink, mwahaha!) and hanging them up all over my life. Such a great nerdy take on a classic fitness slogan :-)
