Weightloss Without a Gimmick

Day 31- Weightloss Without a Gimmick
At Thanksgiving, my Mom said that she wanted new family portraits taken for Christmas. We went out to the Riverside and had several shots taken. Looking at the pictures afterward, it
was undeniable, I had gained weight.

I wasn't exactly sure how much I had gained since we don't own a scale. But pants I had bought just six months earlier stopped fitting. And my dress shirts just didn't hang on me like they used to.

The last straw was on New Year's Eve. My beloved peacoat did not close. It wasn't even thinking of closing. It was way too small for me by a good two inches.

I knew what I had to do. Loose some weight.

Growing up, I didn't have the most healthy relationship with food. Which is often the case with Middle Class Americans.

When money got tight, I would cheer myself up with eating out. Which made money tighter. Which would stress me out more. Which meant more eating out.

Plus, since giving up being a vegetarian, I stopped being intentional about what I ate and when.

So all that laziness and stress left a big old gut and some puffy cheeks.

I am not going to let that happen again. So this is what I have done to get my eating ritual back into shape.

1. No More Eating Out- What I mean by no more eating out is actually: No more eating out everyday. Preprocessed foods tend to have more fat, more sugar, more salt, more everything! Plus, they are way bigger than they need to be. So, instead of going to Chipotle, I make a burrito at home, which is about 1/4th the size. 1/4th the cost. 1/4th the bad stuff. Instead, I eat out once a week. And I give myself a budget-$7 a week.

2. Track every calorie- With all those gimmick diets out there, it is no wonder people are confused about what to eat. Good Carbs, Bad Carbs; Medeterranian, South Beach, Scandinavian. There is a simple way to lose weight and feel good. Eat less calories than you consume. thedailyplate.com is a great way to track your meals and exercise. It tells you how many calories you can eat in a day and then how many you have left to eat today. It then subtracts your exercise for the day and then gives you handy charts, marking your progress. I learned those $8 chipotle meals I was eating everyday was the equivalent to what I should have been eating in a day and a half!

3. Exercise according to my needs- I don't have a subscription to a fancy gym. It doesn't fit into my time or financial budgets. But, I do walk the route to and from work almost every day. That is an Hour and a Half of walking a day. And since I don't have a lot of time and I am out of shape, I don't make myself work out more than five minutes a day.

4. Snowflake exercise- The other day, I introduced you to the idea of snowflaking your debt away. This is snowflaking your way into health. Everyday I have a series of good old fashioned exercises: situps, pushups, jumping jacks, etc. Everyday, I add one more than the day before. I get a little bit stronger each day and I can see and feel concrete growth.

5. Water- Water is the ulitmate energy drink. It keeps hunger at bay, it makes you feel refreshed, it keeps you energized, it flushes toxins. Instead of the four cups of coffee I have been drinking at work, I have my morning cup and then keep a pint glass constantly full. Refilling the glass also gets me a way from the computer and phone.

Pretty easy. Its all about the small steps toward success, not the big leaps. Already, I am feeling better and my clothes fit me again. and seeing the concrete success means I am motivated to keep going without getting discouraged.

Comptence Highlight of the Day-Completing 30 pushups!!!! Something that seemed impossible a month and a half ago.

Financial Order

Day 29-Getting Your Finances in Order

Getting your finances in order can be a huge job, especially right out of school. Living on your own for the first time means big new responsibilities. Even folks living on their own for a while can struggle. But if you take things one step at a time and keep your self together, it can start running on its own.

So, now that it is almost the end of January, here are some tips:

1. Get your 2008 Credit Report- According to law, you are allowed one free credit report a year, so you might as well take it. Getting your credit report can be extremely helpful. www.annualcreditreport.com will get you in touch with the three major credit report companies. I got mine. Not only did they not have my new address, but I also found out I owed *a lot* more to the Department of Education for my student loans than I had thought. That made me rethink my budgeting plan.

2.Track every Penny- I dusted off my old quicken account but I also looked into Mint.com and wesabe.com. I personally liked the ease of quicken. But Mint and wesabe both had really neat functions. Knowing exactly where my money goes allows me to reassess my priorities. (Did I really need that forth burrito from Chipotle?)

3. Make a budget- There are two schools of how to make a budget. One involves planning ahead and deciding how much you are willing to spend in the next day, week, month, year on different things. The other involves tracking your spending and reacting to your needs. I personally like the latter. While I wish I were more proactive, I am also not psychic. I cannot correctly assess how much I will spend next week on things and I like to freedom to be able to spend if I can. I do set goals however. To keep track of my budget goals, I took the advice of J.D. at Get Rich Slowly with a Spending plan.

4. Snowballs and Snowflakes- One image that would always make me laugh when I was little was when, in the cartoons, a single snowflake would fall of a tree and roll down a hill getting larger and larger. First, it would be pea sized, the golf ball, then baseball, basketball. It would get bigger and bigger, and faster and faster. Until it was huge! And it would crush the villain. Debt can be a lot like that. Debt relief can be a lot like that too. Put any extra income you may receive directly to debt relief. Those snowflakes might not seem like a lot. But, snowflakes can become big things. Check out I've Paid For This Twice Already... for a great primer on snowflaking your debt away.

With successfully accomplishing goals 1, 2, and 3, I have found goal 4 much easier to accomplish.


Competence Moment Highlight- Treating myself to a burrito after two weeks of not eating out.

"Heroic Competence"

Heroic Competence- Day 28

When I told my co-workers the other day that I have started down the "long, arduous road toward competency", it was just a joke at first. I liked the way it sounded. Anything that long and that arduous should result in something beyond "just competency". It should result in something heroic and profound.

But after the meeting, one of my coworkers came up to me and said, "You know, when you say that you are heading toward competency, you make people think you are not competent."

"I know," I said. "It is just a joke."

But not quite. There are plenty of things I am competent at. I can cook a mean Macaroni and Cheese Casserole. And I am going on my twentieth year able to tie my own shoes. And I am pretty good at a million other things.

But, other things, I am not competent at. And this is the point of my project.

In Season 3 of "The Simpsons", there is an episode called "Homer Defined" where Homer saves Springfield from a nuclear disaster. He is given an award by Mr. Burns for "Heroic Competence".
Homer is treated as a hero until he needs to repeat his display of heroics in nearby Shelbyville. When people learn that he randomly selected a button through "Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe" he is revealed as the fraud he is. However, his dumb luck is lauded as he is finally defined- not as a hero, nor as stupid, but simply lucky.

I am not calling myself a fraud, at all. If anything, I have been riding life out by quick wits and luck. But how nice would it be if I weren't late because I couldn't find my keys. Or shocked once again when a check overdraws my account. Or frustrated because my clothes don't fit right.

So, lets all strive for some Heroic Competence. Not demanding perfection at all times. Or outrageous feats of strength and skill. But just making it through another day where you feel in control.

Competent Highlight of the Day: Blazer that didn't fit two weeks ago now fits! (With some squeezing)

The Road Toward Competency

Day 27- The New blog

My name is Alex. My life is going well. I live in Washington, DC with a wonderful partner named Christine and six awesome housemates. I have just finished college. I have an amazing job living out my passions. Life is good and I have no major complaints.

But, even as I told myself that over the last few months, there was always a searing ball of dread, guilt, anxiety, and fear. While things were great on the outside, I was a mess on the inside.

My finances were in tatters. I wasn't happy with my body. Deadlines were piling up at work. I had lost track with many of my best friends outside of DC. Things were just generally a mess-both literally and metaphorically.

So, on Dec. 28, 2007, I made a New Year's Resolution. Which became two. Which became five. Which became a dozen. Which became two dozen.

Why so many? I had been reading many blogs telling me if you just say, "Get my finances in order", NYRs don't just happen like a genie's wish. You have to make them happen. So, "get my finances in order" was followed up by: Balance My Checkbook, Pay off Loans On-Time, and Watch My Spending.

I did this strategic planning for every goal.

And I have been reading blogs on finance for young people, organization, time management, and healthy living.

And I am going to condense them here. For all of us to share.

I am on the Road Toward Competency. Would you like to come along?