i have been thinking about the areas of my life that i want to see changed. this always leads me down the road to weight loss. i have made great strides in this particular area of my life. thanks to jenny craig i have lost thirty pounds, this weight loss has changed my life in so many ways. my knees feel better and as my knees stopped hurting i began to feel as if i could do more, be more active. i hired a personal trainer for ten weeks to help me figure out a safe way to exercise with out re-injuring my knees. after working out with leslie i was amazed at what i could accomplish. i really, truly, surprised myself. she would demo an exercise for me and i would think there is no way i can do this, is she serious? then i’d try, and then i’d do it. part of getting myself ship shape is turning off the negative inner dialogue. did you see it there? she would demo an exercise for me and i would think there is no way i can do this, is she serious? yup, there it is. now i think to myself, i can do this. i can do anything for two sets of eight. when i turned forty i started setting my standards by my kickboxing teacher tona, i found that i was able to keep up with her on certain things i had never been able to do before. i may not kick as high as she does or punch as hard as she can, trust me if you’re ever in a dark alley, you want tona in your corner, but i can keep her pace now. that feels great!
so what does all this have to do with the topic at hand? i wanted to change my weight and i did. not only do i exercise regularly and consistently, but i enjoy it now, and i can tell a real difference on the days i don’t exercise. my body says, hello? why aren’t we moving? i can enjoy so much more in life now that i can walk up stairs without knee pain, and i am not automatically limping every time it’s cold or raining. i didn’t get there on my own though. i needed help. from jenny craig, from leslie, and from tona. the next room i needed to get in order in my house was finances, but i realized it wasn’t going to happen without help. i took a lot of advice from dave ramsey. i started the envelope system and started paying for almost everything with cash. i put the debit card away for everything but my jenny craig food. i had my dad sit down with me and teach me how to balance my check book. i switched banks and made a fresh start. i had so many errors with my last account that my former bank converted my savings to a non-interest bearing account and charged me a monthly fee of one dollar for the privilege of being allowed to keep my money with them, mind you it’s not their fault i had so many overdraft transfers. my checking was so out of whack i didn’t know what was coming or going. starting with a new bank was a good way to get a fresh start. i had to change my attitude about money. i had to stop working for money and make my money work for me. by paying for everything in cash i knew when my money ran out. i wrote out a budget and paid for almost every thing in cash. the biggest pia was gas, it is so inconvenient to stand in line to wait and pay for gas. once my debt is paid off my reward will be to start using my debit card at the pump again, but until then it’s long lines at the gas station for me. i made myself check my bank statement on a daily basis until i got used to living within a budget. i had to be flexible with my budget as well, i found out after a few short weeks that i needed to budget more for food. i had a certain amount budgeted for jenny craig, but it was the food i bought at the grocery store that i was short on, and i had over budgeted for gas, so i made a few adjustments, it took a bit of tweaking to get it just right. i also had several online resources from groups who live frugally to groups who are paying off debt. like mined people banding together to lobby ideas. in 2008 i made $1200 selling on amazon that i used to pay off debt, in 2009, so far, i have made $700 selling on ebay. after i am all ebayed out, i plan to hit the flea market in 2010 and sell off a few more things, as well as knit up some wash clothes and sell them. i got a huge box of cotton yarn from my mom so the supplies were free (to me) and all i had to provide is the labor. however much i get for them, it’s all profit. all of this money will go towards chipping away that debt.
the next few years will be dedicated to financial fitness. i looked up the word fitness on dictionary.com and this is what they had to say. Fitness, The state or condition of being fit; suitability or appropriateness. i have arrived at a point where i am comfortable and confident in my physical fitness. i am moving towards a place where i am comfortable and confident with financial fitness, it’s a ways off yet, but i can see it as an achievable goal. i have a spread sheet that i update monthly, that shows the balance i owe to my remaining three creditors. the nice thing about this is i know at any given time how much i owe and to whom, but even better i can watch my total amount of debt get smaller and smaller every month. it’s like losing pounds at jenny craig and watching that scale go down.
my next goal is getting organized, once the ebaying is over this will be so much easier because i won’t have a ton of baskets sitting in the computer room! lol! as i get my finacial room in order, it makes it easier to get more organized, they almost go hand in hand. i think of my ten year life makeover plan as a life fitness plan. reaching a point in my life where my life is in a condition of suitability. so think about what area of your life would you like to see change? then make out a fitness plan, draw on any and all available resources, there are people out there who want to help you, all you need to do is ask!
and for positively july, my positive thing for the day. that co-worker i bought the doughnut for? recipocated with a fudge mint brownie! (i didn’t tell him i was on jc, but i did eat the brownine anyway) so far it’s the second day into july and both my positives involve food! lol!
