Fabulous Financials

HEALTHY

I did pretty good in March, but I’m going to keep it simple this month so I can focus on the problem areas in fitness, nutrition, and accountability.

• Increase my workouts to 5 days per week.  I will accomplish this by marking them on my calendar each week in advance and committing to the schedule no matter what.  You make time for what you want and fitness MUST be a priority in my life.

• Eat breakfast, take iron supplement, drink water as primary, and incorporate lots of fruits and veggies into my daily diet by creating weekly meal plans.

• Limit meals outside the home to no more than 3x per month.

• Include God, my most important accountability partner, in my plans and read/write in my prayer journal at least 3x per week.

• Lose a minimum of -1 lb each week but strive for a total  loss of -30 lbs by month end.

WEALTHY

I have two big expenses that I must carefully plan for to ensure they don’t break the bank.

• Now that BG has chosen a school, I can finally book our European vacation.  My goal is to have it done by the end of the month.

• Ma Dukes has a birthday coming around the bend.  My original gift idea was a cruise, but she’s a party pooper.  My second gift idea was a spa day, but she doesn’t want to come up here during Spa Week when services are cheaper.  HER gift idea is a “shopping spree” but she hasn’t clarified her definition of a “spree” so now I’m back to square nothing.  If I haven’t thought of anything by the end of this week, I’ll just send her a check and call it a day.  That’s corny to me but she wouldn’t mind at all.

• As always, I will save and invest according to plan FIRST, then have guilt free fun later.

What are your goals and aspirations for April?

At the beginning of March, I said I would accomplish several health & wealth goals.  Let’s see how well I handled the commitment:

Fitness:

• Complete Week 9 of C25K – Success! I finished the program on March 7th.  Here’s a post that summarizes my entire C25K experience.
• After completing the C25K program, I will continue running at least 3 days per week for a minimum of 30 minutes.   – Fail! I’ve only run 3 or 4 times since completing the C25K program. I had a funny feeling in my left foot for a while so I finally went to the doctor. Turns out, I’ve been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and my doctor has restricted me from running for 4 weeks. :-(
• Increase my workouts from 3 days to 5 days per week by incorporating 2 days of strength training.  – Fail! I’ve only increased my workouts to 4 days per week.  I can’t run, but I’ve found other means of exercise (e.g. elliptical, bike, Biggest Loser and EA Sports Active on the Wii).
• My annual physical has been rescheduled to mid-March.  Remember that was one of my motivation milestones.  – Yes! After months of waiting, I finally had my annual physical.  It was rescheduled again to the last day of March, so other than my BP and HR, I don’t have any other results yet.

Nutrition:

• ALWAYS eat breakfast, take iron supplement, and incorporate lots of fruits, veggies, and water into my daily diet. – Success! This is a daily habit now.
• Continue creating weekly meal plans. – Moderate Success. I created meal plans every week, except the week I was sick.  I will not vouch for the “quality” of those meal plans but they were created and we followed them 90% of the time.
• Prepare all meals at home with the option of 2-3 per month outside the home if there is a special occasion or work related function. – Moderate success. I prepared almost every meal at home with the exception of my girlfriends’ weekend (a special occasion) and 2 other meals outside the home just because.
• Introduce at least 2 new healthy foods to my diet…The challenge is finding meals that I can prepare and would want to repeat often.  – Success! I tried steel oats (hated them), greek yogurt (hated it), asparagus (loved it), and hummus (loved it).  2 out of 4 aint bad.

Weigh-In:

• Lose -1.2 lbs during the first week of March.  Strange number, huh?  I want to complete the the C25K Running Plan with a total weight loss of at least -20 lbs. – Success! I lost exactly -1.2 lbs during the first week of March.  When I completed C25K, I lost a total of -20.6 lbs.
• Lose a minimum of -1 lb in each subsequent week.  – Success! For the remaining weeks, I lost on average a little over -1 lb and a total of -4.4 lbs for the entire month.
• On my last weigh-in for the month, which is March 27 and the start of spring break, I want a total weight loss of at least -25 lbs. – Fail! I did not weigh in on March 27 because I wasn’t home. But when I did weigh in on the last day of March, I was -1.2 lbs short of my total -25 lb goal.

Accountability:

• Include God in my plans, read/write in my prayer journal at least 3x per week – Fail! No excuse or explanation is good enough.
• Track my nutrition and exercise daily using SparkPeople – Fail! I tracked until the last week of the month when I began preparing for our mini spring break vacation.
• Report updates (failures & success) on Twitter, FB, and/or this blog – Success!

WEALTHY

My financial behavior is pretty intuitive so it isn’t necessary to track anything weekly OR monthly.  However, it may be fun to share with you how I plan to spend money in March.

• Taxes: I plan to have my taxes filed and refunded (practicing positive thinking, work with me here) by the end of the month.  – Success! My taxes were filed (no refund) as planned.
• Vacation: Use tax refund (assuming there will be one) to have fun and splurge during spring break – Success! There was no refund but I did have fun and splurge in more ways than one.
• Gifts: One of my close friends has a birthday coming up.  Not sure what’s in store, but I know whatever it is will require a gift or a girl’s night out.   – Success! The girl’s night out turned into a girl’s weekend out.  Total cost: ~$1,100.
• Want List: My ‘want list’ has been growing since January and I think it’s about time I treat myself.  I ‘want’ a Wii and Wii Fit Plus.  I ‘want’ a KitchenAid blender.  I ‘want’ a pair of princess cut 1/4 carat diamond earrings.  And I ‘want’ a new bedroom set.  At least one of these things will be marked off my ‘want’ list by the end of March. – Success! I finally bought a Wii. I still do not have Will Fit Plus, but I do have several fitness related games.
• Investments: As usual, continue bi-weekly contributions to my 401k, IRA, non-retirement, BG’s 529, and regular savings account.  By the end of March, I should meet 25% of my annual financial goals. – Success! I’ve exceeded 25%, thanks to market gains.

Looking back, I’ve had some success and some failures. But I’m pretty happy with the results overall.  I will celebrate my success and learn from my failures – and I use the term “failure” loosely because they simply show me what I need to improve upon and conquer during the next month.  Stay tuned for April’s goals!

HEALTHY

I’m about 2.5 months into my health & fitness journey and I think I’ve developed a few intuitive habits.  So I’m going to scale back the goal setting & reporting from weekly to monthly, beginning with March.  If I begin to slip or find that I’m more successful with more specific details, I will revert back to weekly goals.  For now, here are my plans for March:

Fitness:

• Complete Week 9 of C25K – the FINAL week consisting of three 30 minute runs.  I am sooo excited about this.  Not only have I stuck with the program, I’m super excited about my progress to date.
• After completing the C25K program, I will continue running at least 3 days per week for a minimum of 30 minutes.  My primary focus will be to improve my distance and speed.  By the Fall, I’d like to run a 5k.
• Increase my workouts from 3 days to 5 days per week by incorporating 2 days of strength training.  The running gives me medium to high intensity cardio exercise, but I need something else to work on other areas of my body.  My fitness center has weight machines, so I may search for a structured online program (similar to C25K) and do it by myself or I may decide to hire a personal trainer.
• My annual physical has been rescheduled to mid-March.  Remember that was one of my motivation milestones.  I’m nervous about this appointment.  The results will either make me very, very happy or scared enough to kick me into full throttle fitness.

Nutrition:

• ALWAYS eat breakfast, take iron supplement, and incorporate lots of fruits, veggies, and water into my daily diet.
• Continue creating weekly meal plans.  I will share them on the blog if I run across something new and interesting.
• Prepare all meals at home with the option of 2-3 per month outside the home if there is a special occasion or work related function.
• Introduce at least 2 new healthy foods to my diet.  This will not be hard because my diet is very limited.  I have a list of new foods I want to try (steel oats, zucchini, greek yogurt, eggplant, asparagus, squash, etc.).  The challenge is finding meals that I can prepare and would want to repeat often.

Weigh-In:

• Lose -1.2 lbs during the first week of March.  Strange number, huh?  I want to complete the the C25K Running Plan with a total weight loss of at least -20 lbs.
• Lose a minimum of -1 lb in each subsequent week.  On my last weigh-in for the month, which is March 27 and the start of spring break, I want a total weight loss of at least -25 lbs.

Accountability:

• Include God in my plans, read/write in my prayer journal at least 3x per week
• Track my nutrition and exercise daily using SparkPeople
• Report updates (failures & success) on Twitter, FB, and/or this blog

WEALTHY

My financial behavior is pretty intuitive so it isn’t necessary to track anything weekly OR monthly.  However, it may be fun to share with you how I plan to spend money in March.

• Taxes: I plan to have my taxes filed and refunded (practicing positive thinking, work with me here) by the end of the month.  I also need to schedule a follow up with my accountant to review tax plans for 2010 just to make sure I’m still on track.
• Vacation: Use tax refund (assuming there will be one) to have fun and splurge during spring break, March 27 – April 3.  If we don’t take a week long vacation, we may visit ATL or Miami for an extended weekend.
• Gifts: One of my close friends has a birthday coming up.  Not sure what’s in store, but I know whatever it is will require a gift or a girl’s night out.  If the latter, a new outfit may be on the horizon to go with my new shoes.
• Want List: My ‘want list’ has been growing since January and I think it’s about time I treat myself.  I ‘want’ a Wii and Wii Fit Plus.  I ‘want’ a KitchenAid blender.  I ‘want’ a pair of princess cut 1/4 carat diamond earrings.  And I ‘want’ a new bedroom set.  At least one of these things will be marked off my ‘want’ list by the end of March.
• Investments: As usual, continue bi-weekly contributions to my 401k, IRA, non-retirement, BG’s 529, and regular savings account.  By the end of March, I should meet 25% of my annual financial goals.

What are your goals and aspirations for March?

Results for the week of Feb 14-20:

• Fitness: I completed Week 7 of C25K – a full week of running 25 minutes nonstop. Yay!
• Nutrition: I ate breakfast, drank more water, took iron Rx, and prepared almost every meal at home (except V-day and Saturday dinner).  V-day dinner was bad bad bad, but Saturday’s dinner was just a caribbean grilled chicken salad.  Overall, I ate way more veggies: love kale and spinach, hated the veggie juice challenge. *gag*
• Weigh-In: My goal was to lose -1.5 lbs this week.  As of Saturday morning, I lost another -1.6 lbs for a total weight loss of -17.8 lbs!

New goals for the week of Feb 21 – Feb 27:

HEALTHY

• Fitness: Complete Week 8 of C25K – three 28 minute runs.
• Nutrition: Breakfast, iron Rx, fruits, veggies, and lots of water daily.  Also, prepare every meal at home.  Our weekly meal plan includes:
  • Sunday: Lowfat spinach lasagna
  • Monday: Leftovers
  • Tuesday: Vegan sausage, whole wheat penne pasta & veggies
  • Wednesday: Leftovers
  • Thursday: Homemade veggie pizza on whole wheat dough
  • Friday: Turkey meatball sandwiches with salad
  • Saturday: Quesadillas with chicken & veggies on whole wheat tortillas
• Weigh-In: My goal for this week is to lose another 1 lb.  To accomplish this goal, I will use SparkPeople to track my nutrition and exercise everyday, read/write in my prayer journal, and ask God to strengthen me when I’m weak and help me to resist temptation.

WEALTHY

I’ve been slacking on the finance updates so I plan to incorporate them when I have something relevant to share.  This week, my personal finance goal is to book reservations for our spring break vacation and spend no more than $1,500.  I also plan to meet with the accountant this week to file my taxes.  Hopefully he can find more deductions so I won’t owe Uncle Sam as much as I think I do. *fingers crossed*

Aight y’all!  It’s a new week and a new opportunity.  If you’ve been slacking on your New Year’s resolutions annual goals, jump back on the bandwagon and let’s get it in!

This is a question people ask me at least 3x per week.  In response, I’ve written, deleted, re-written, edited, changed my mind, deleted, and re-written this post several times in the past several weeks. This time, I’m going to roll with it, but I’ll try to keep it short.

Fabulous Financials is my online home and I miss it. But…I don’t miss blogging about personal finance every single day.  However, I love blogging and I love my readers, so I’ve been thinking about returning to the blogosphere with a different focus.

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know what I’ve been up to lately.  For those who don’t, I’ve committed to a permanent lifestyle change of health & fitness. Here’s my vision board for 2010.

As you can see, health & fitness is front and center in my life right now.  And you already know, when I set my mind to something, I live and breathe my goals and tackle them with unyielding determination.  Since the week of December 20th, I have made the following improvements:

• From thinking of food as comfort and convenience –> To thinking of food as merely fuel for my body.
• From drinking zero water –> To drinking at least 24-32 oz every day.
• From dining out 4-5x per week –> To creating weekly meal plans and preparing healthy meals at home at least 5x per week.
• From skipping breakfast and gorging on junk for lunch and dinner –> To eating 3 balanced meals per day followed by 3 healthy snacks.
• From reaching for a candy bar –> To reaching for a piece of fruit.
• From a sedentary lifestyle –> To exercising a minimum of 3x per week with other “fun” physical activities in between.
• From walking and being winded after 10 minutes –> To run/walk intervals for a minimum of 30 minutes at 4 mph on a 1% incline.  I’m about to begin Week 5 of the C25K running plan.  If all goes well and God is willing, I hope to run my first 5k later this year.
• And last, but not least, an 11.2 lb weight loss…and counting.

I still have a burning passion for personal finance.  It is a part of who I am and that will never change.  My financial goal is still to save and invest $47,500 this year.  But as I told my tweeps a few weeks ago, my new LIFETIME GOAL is to be Healthy & Wealthy.

I will return to blogging if you will join me on this new journey. What say you?  Free free to leave a comment below and/or respond to the embedded poll: