In Five Years...

In five years:

- I will live a balanced, active, fulfilling, meaningful life

- I will be maintaining my goal weight

- I will be employed at a career type job that challenges me and I am passionate about

- Financially I will have:

o Paid off student loans

o Paid off car

o Healthy savings

o Healthy and diversified investment portfolio

o Healthy retirement plan

o House/condo or be saving up for 20% down payment

- I will live in urban area with stuff to do

- I will be involved in things outside of work (including volunteering)

- I will have around 10 close friends that I will visit and communicate with regularly and many acquaintances

- I will be in grad school (or have already finished) in a rewarding field for me personally as well as professionally

- I will have a cat

- I will travel often or as part of my job, possibly already have spent some time abroad

- I will be in a healthy committed relationship and possibly be considering having children

The Difference between Men's and Women's Emotions

Navigating through women's emotions are like walking through a pit filled with quicksand patches. You can kind of tell that the ground where the patches are is murky and different, but you might go through it anyways because there's no grass. Also, the quicksand forms after a heavy rainstorm (event) so you might have an indication to look for quicksand patches. If you get caught in one, the more you struggle, the deeper down it will suck you. there is a long, laborious process to get out of the quicksand.

Navigating through men's emotions is like walking through a mine field. There aren't as many mines as quicksand patches though. It looks perfectly harmless, the grass is growing and pretty, you're happily skipping along, and then all of a sudden out of the complete blue, you step on a landmine set up 25 years ago (possibly before you even lived in the area) and it explodes.

Life Fufilled

Wow! Suddenly my life is completely full! I made the decision to make my life more fulfilling and meaningful, and then here a month or so later, it is!

I have a surplus of weekend plans! Several people invited me to do various things; three people have offered trips in the past week; I literally have had something outside the norm to do every day this week! This is crazy! I love it.

I finally feel settled into where I live. I have a good social life going, my financial situation is improving drastically, and work is good. It makes it difficult to face the decisions I'm going to have to make in the coming months. Especially when I know moving will take me another at least 6 months to adjust. I don't want to ever feel stuck though. Things are coming together for me in my life, and I caused that. Woot.

Credit Card Debt - NO MORE!!!!!!!!

Hello world!!!!!!!!!! Great news!!!!!!!! I just paid off the last of my credit card debt. I am officially credit card debt freeeeeeeeee! It's been a couple years coming, the last year frustrating after graduation and not having an excuse to have credit card debt anymore. It seemed so easy to me to get into a better financial situation, but it's not. To finally achieve this goal, I buckled down and have aimed for spending $20 on groceries per week; switched to cash ($100 per paycheck for gas, food, etc); cashed out my stock; stopped living beyond my means; and cut up my credit card so I would STOP using it.

Next steps:

1. Pay off personal loan of $140 (April 2011)

2. Personal loan of $500 (April 2011)

3. Emergency fund of $1000 (May 2011)

3. Private student loan of around $2500 (currently monthly payment $50) (September 2011)

4. Car loan of around $15000 (current monthly payment $275) (October 2013)

5. Government student loan of around $15000 (current monthly payment $250) (October 2014)

I think I will!

My horoscope for today: Treat yourself to a leisurely morning as you enjoy the creative, romantic vibes coming in from la luna. If you want to poke around your favorite blogs and gossip sites, so be it. Your brain actually needs to relax before you can shift back into high-productivity mode. When the moon enters your workerbee zone this afternoon, you can double-time it and finish all your tasks with a renewed sense of inspiration.

Sounds like a plan :)

A Year in Time

One of my sorority sisters asked for advice on her Facebook page whether she should move 30 hours away to another city for a good paying job or if she should stay in her home state. I recommended that she go for the good paying concrete job and try for a year. Maybe she'll love it there. If not, she can gain experience and get in a better financial situation to move back home.

That's basically what I've been doing. I've heard that it takes a year to adjust to anything. I've been pondering lately if it is better to pursue financial stability and professional career or to pursue happiness and love. Basically brain vs. heart. Logic vs. passion. Logic won last time. After a year, I wonder if heart will win.

Update on $50 Challenge

I ended up spending about $16 last night on groceries...

This is what I came out with:

- whole wheat noodles

- whole grain sandwich rounds (not Nature's Own but another brand that looks more natural ironically)

- 4 apples

- 5 yoplait yogurts

- local newspaper (it's not published online...)

- a whole dozen organic eggs (on sale for 90 cents!)

- Rice milk

- black beans

Rain

I stumbledupon this wonderful image today - Girl with frog umbrella in rain on top of van. It really spoke to me and made me happy for some reason.

I have been listening to rainymood.com alllll day long. It's actually helped me be more productive today. I was productive at school work listening to it as well.

There's just something about the rain that relaxes, calms, and contents me.

$50 for Two Week Challenge - half way

Update on $16.77 groceries:

- Bag of grapefruits - half gone

- 2 peaches, 2 nectarines - 1/4 gone

- small loaf of bread - gone

- 2 bags of pre-cooked chicken - 1/2 gone

- cottage cheese - 1/2 gone

- bag of cheese - 1/2 gone

- 4 yoplait yogurts- all gone

Spent $20 on gas, and maybe something else so I have exactly $12 and some change left.

I've been eating a lot of beans. I made a whole bag of beans on Monday and have had them for at least 4 meals. Not too bad for like $1.

I'm about to go out tonight, so I may spend all $12 tonight. Ick. The poor diet doesn't quite work though because I end up being hungry and insecure about food so end up eating more, and more of bad things like pizza...

Current Musical Moods

These are the folks that I seem to be hearing a lot of recently:
- Jill Scott
- Lily Allen
- Nicki Minaj
- Ingrid Michaelson
- Ke$ha
- Pitbull
- Lil Wayne
- Jazmine Sullivan
- Kid Cudi
- Alicia Keyes
- India Arie
- The Pierces
- The Duhks
- Beyonce
- Bjork
- Enya

Plans (A, B, C, and D)

"It's never too late - in fiction of in life - to revise."

Nancy Thayer

I'm revising my life plans this weekend. Some of these inter-relate; it's hard to separate areas of your life.

These are the areas that I will focus on:

- Career

- Health - nutrition and exercise

- Happiness Plan

- Finances

- Volunteering

- Social Life

I'm excited to see what areas of improvement and goals I come up with.

$50 for two week challenge

Faced with yet another paycheck to paycheck month, I have $50 to last the next two weeks after bills. So, can I live on $50 for food, gas, and everything else? We shall see. I'm approaching this as a challenge, a game - making it a choice and opportunity to learn.

So, today is Weds. So far this week, I have spent $16.57 on groceries:

- Bag of grapefruits

- 2 peaches, 2 nectarines

- small loaf of bread

- 2 bags of pre-cooked chicken

- cottage cheese

- bag of cheese

- 4 yoplait yogurts

More and Less

Things I need more of in my life:

- Connections

- Authenticity

- Fun

- Motivation

- Sunshine

- Exercise

- Good food

- Intellectual stimulation

- Fulfillment

- Creativity

Things I need less of:

- TV

- Alcohol

- Unproductive days at work

- Bad attitudes

- Moodiness

- Hermiting

- Junk food

- Soft addictions

- Caffeine

Flying to SWVA

The following is the overwhelming results of my research on flying to SWVA:

Timing:

• Cheapest : Saturday - Wednesday (or weekdays in general, Tuesday, and sometimes Monday).

Airports:

• Cheapest : GSO, CLT, RDU, LYH, AVL

Full list of major airports near SWVA:

(TRI) Blountville - 5 miles (AVL) Asheville/Hendersonville - 76 miles (TYS) Knoxville - 103 miles (BKW) Beckley - 111 miles (GSP) Greenville/Greer - 114 miles (CLT) Charlotte - 121 miles (INT) Winston Salem - 123 miles (HTS) Huntington/Ashland - 127 miles (CRW) Charleston - 134 miles (GSO) Greensboro - 139 miles (LWB) Lewisburg - 142 miles (ROA) Roanoke - 142 miles (LEX) Lexington - 160 miles (LYH) Lynchburg - 184 miles (AHN) Athens - 186 miles (CHA) Chattanooga - 189 miles (CAE) Columbia - 192 miles

Websites:

• Kayak - my fav, nice to show different airport options.
• Travelocity - Shows deals from airlines
• Priceline - Name your own price can save up to 40% but you can't pick arrival/departure time
• Cheapair.com - never used but looked ok
• Bing travel - interesting to show some options
• Last minute deals.com - recommended by friend's sister
• Expedia - ok

Airlines: Sometimes (though rarely) I find better deals directly from the airline's website:

• Air Tran, Delta, Us Airways, and United all fly to the area

America, the Obese

I've been thinking about how our society is built for obesity and not health. Social gatherings center around food (football game night, movies and popcorn, dinners, lunch, birthday parties). Our schools serve junk and processed food and too many carbs (at least my schools did) without gym class or physical activities every day (especially true in high school). Things like soda, candy, etc. are sold in food aisles, even though they have little nutrition value. There's the constant lure of convenient, cheap, fast fast (whether at McDonalds or in the grocery store). We're all about convenience and our communities are designed (mostly) for cars instead of bikes or walking. Our portion sizes are horribly skewed (including my own). For example, a healthy portion of meat is the size of a package of playing cards - can you think of a restaurant that serves steak or chicken or hamburger patty anything that size? This really adds to the challenge of trying to make lifestyle changes for a healthier me.

Checklist of recommended SO screening questions:

Checklist of recommended questions for screening a potential Significant Other (SO):

1. Have you ever been convicted of a crime or been to jail?
2. Are you addicted to any drugs, including caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine?
3. Are you currently married?
4. Are you currently in a committed monogamous relationship?
5. Do you have children? If so, how many and what ages, do they live with you, is your baby mama crazy, how is your relationship with her?
6. Are you employed in a legal non-sketchy profession?
7. What STDs do you have?
8. Where do you live?
9. How many people are you currently dating? What is your definition of dating? What is your dating and relationship history?
10. What makes you angry?
11. Have you ever: gotten into a physical fight with SO, had the police called because of a fight with SO, gotten into a physical fight after the age of 22, or stolen anything after age 18?
12. When was the last time you lied?
13. How old are you?
14. When is your birthday?
    
15. What is your legal first and last name?
16. Can I see your driver's license? (see if their info matches,and then run a criminal record check later with this information)
17. What they are looking for/deal breakers.

Before becoming intimate with someone who you want to have a serious relationship with:
- know the answers to all these questions;
- see their place of residence;
- meet at least one friend/family member;
- wait at least one month.

Run fast if:
1. talk of marriage/engagement/love/having babies comes up in the first month;
2. they keep showing up in different cars
3. they live somewhere illegal or refuse to show you where they live within 1 month
4. they want you to star in a "film"
5. their age/number of children keep changing
6. they don't have a driver's license, are over 18, and not living in New York City
7. they ask you for money before the month is up

Change Machines

My new bank (I moved several months ago) does not accept coins. I miss Wellsfargo (not in my new area) because every bank I used of theirs had a coin machine. I wish banks would get into this century and 1. process things quicker 2. get the machines where you can do deposits 3. get coin counters! 4. be open during lunch so people can use their lunch breaks to come in. While there may be benefits of the small-town, close during lunch, no coin machines, do everything by hand banks, I cannot think of any.

Weight Loss Motivation

• Health - being obese is unhealthy
• Self confidence - I would feel better lighter
• Clubbing - confidence and actually look better
• Keeping up with bf - he's really active
• Promotion/Career - research shows that thinner/healthier people have more promotions
• Plane seats - it was to the point where it was painful
• Family
• Less stress
• Social Life
• Hiking

My Health Goals

· Nutrition:

o Log food/drinks every day in CC/PT/ notebook

§ If electronic is skipped, add CC and PT logs later

§ Record with meal categories

§ Record meal times?

o Calories per day – 1400 optimal, up to 1700 allowable

o Drinks – avoid empty cals – allowable drinks include:

§ Water - record daily on PT

§ Coffee - 2 thermos per work day with creamer
• Cut back to 1 eventually
• 1 cup of mocha cappuccino on non-work days

§ 100% juice – one per day max (counts as fruit)

§ Alcohol in order of preference – one per day
• Red wine is best,
• blush,
• white wine
• Honey mead (half bottle)

o Fruits and Veggies: log on PT every day, count on Sunday

§ 2 cup fruits per day

§ 2 - 3 cups veggies per day

· http://www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov/what/examples.html

o Nutrition Grade – report Sunday on PT

§ B+ nutrition for 4 weeks every day on CC

§ A nutrition every day on CC

o Money

§ $70 on eating out per month

§ $120 on groceries per month

o Vitamins:

§ Take a multi vitamin every day

§ Watch Vitamin D, vitamin B, Fiber, Iron, Potassium

o Portioned snacks

o Colorful foods

o Watch desserts

§ 3 bite rule

§ Occasional treat when needed – single servings, healthy choices

o Healthy yummy foods:

§ Proteins: Hummus, Turkey, Fish, Chicken, Eggs, Nuts, yogurt

§ Vegetables: especially Beans

§ Fruit: especially Avocados, blueberries

§ Carbs: Brown rice, WW spaghetti, WW fiber cereal, Oatmeal

§ Other: Enriched almond, enriched rice milk, Slim fast

· Exercise: Record daily on CC/PT

o Strength:

§ 2 weekly 15-20 minute weight lifting sessions

· 1 set each of 9 exercises per session
• Arms, Crunches, Arms, Lunges, Arms, Squats, Arms, Pushups, Arms

§ TV workout (less than 10 hours per week): every commercial

· 25 squats, 25 pushups, 25 jumping jacks

§ Cardio:

· Workout 4 times a week for 30 minutes

· 10000 steps per day – get outside every day

· Classes (they also incorporate strength training)

· Weight: Weigh self and log at least 3 times per week on CC, record
Friday and Sunday on PT, measure on Sunday and log on PT

o Lose 1-2 pounds per week (deficit of at least 1000 calories per day)

o Weight Milestones:

§ 235 lbs – August 2010

§ 221 lbs - November 21, 2010 - Started Peer Trainer

§ 218 lbs – December 2, 2010

§ 215 lbs – December 15 2010

§ 209 lbs – New Years Eve (goal was 210!!)

§ 205 lbs- January 2011 - 30 lbs! (1 year from this date – NWLR)- Nick Minaj CD

§ 200 lbs - February 2011 – comforter

§ Under 200 – February 2011 – new scale

§ 195 lbs - February 24 2011 - Show off -40 lbs at friend’s Wedding and Dexter Weekend; Weight when started CC in 2007

§ 190 lbs – March 2011 - Post Russia weight!

§ 185 lbs – June 2011 - 50 pounds! – no longer obese BMI!

§ 180 lbs – July 17 2011 - 55 lbs by my 23rd birthday

§ 175 lbs – August 2011- 60 lbs!

§ 170 lbs – August 2011 - 65 lbs! High school weight

§ 165 – September 2011 - Goal weight!!! - 70 lbs – new clothes!

· Go to doctor to decide if 155-160 = normal BMI

· Develop weight maintenance plan

o Other Milestones

§ Weight trend decrease on CC – got it!!

§ No more back fat!

§ Fit into my blue dress

§ Fit into plant seat comfortably – already making progress!!

§ Fit into ALL my pants

· Size 16

· Size 14

· Size 12 GOAL

§ Normal BMI