Tuesday, January 5, 2010

This is a fine mess you've gotten us in...

I'm not really sure who I'm fooling - obviously no one but myself. I need to come to grips with reality and develop a plan of action to fix the mess I've created.

Mess # 1 - overspending and now I'm behind on major bills.

Mess # 2 - overeating and now my weight is up to 170lbs.

How did I get into mess # 1? I can give all the excuses under the sun: Christmas shopping, needing items for self, etc. etc. But honestly, it is pure and simple - poor budgeting & counting on money I didn't have in had (promised cash). Yeah, I've said it before but now I have no choice - I CAN NOT SHOP unless it's a total necessity and right now, the only necessary object I need is....NOTHING! I use restraint not visit with exBF, exFriends, not to drive too far over the speed limit. So why can't I use that same restraint not to shop? The better question is why am I shopping? Boredom, the desire to acquire crap, not very happy personally. These may be all valid reasons - but now I have to correct/overcome these issues and the only way to do that is DO WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY.

Plan of action for Mess # 1:

1. Do more reading. I'm actually reading Bob Harper's book, Are You Ready? which will work hand-in-hand with Mess # 2
2. Hang out at the museums, art galleries, and other artsy/fartsy events - I love attending gallery openings, even add them to my calendar but find an excuse not to go. I'm too young to act like a fuddy-duddy, so I'm going!
3. Learn. It's time to take the GRE. Not being in school, I have WAAAAAAY too much time on my hands - hence all the damn shopping. So it's time to take some CEU courses, online courses through MIT or even a grant writing course through work.
4. Pull out my budget and beginning in Feb return to using my envelope method. Why the late start you ask - because I have to play catch up on 2 major bills and it's going to take both paychecks this month to get back on track. This is actually # 1, but I don't feel like cutting and pasting to re-order.

Mess # 2 has come about because of Mess # 1. All my overspending has cause stress which equals stress eating. Yeah, so 8 lbs may not be a big deal to some but to me - it is. I went from 203 to 163 (give or take 2 lbs) and now I'm up to 170. I dont have any size 16s any longer and since I can't shop, I REFUSE to buy anything that goes up a size. I can't continue to comment on fitness blogs if my eating habits are out of whack. There's no point in working out if I'm gonna return home to a pint of cookies-n-cream. ARGH!!!!

Plan of Action for Mess # 2

1. Start my food journal (acutally I had this journal entry written on Sunday - it's now Tuesday and I've started my journal).
2. Plan/Pack my breakfast, lunch, snacks - measure/weigh each item and nothing goes in my mouth that's larger than my fist (1 serving only). No that doesn't mean I can cut up 1/2 a chicken so it's palm size and eat the entire thing!
3. Revamp my workout schedule. I've been hooked on Zumba for about 2 months now - haven't really seen any change in body - but the class is fun. Well guess what, Zumba is cut back to 2 days a week. TurboKick is back on the schedule for 3 days (man, my upper body is sore!), and I've pulled out some old weight training schedules I've used in the past - those are back in rotation. I've attempted that blasted Hundred Push-Up challenge twice - not gonna happen. However, I have incorporated push-ups (2 sets each) into my circuit training which is on Sunday.

Yes, I know it's only day 2 of my action plans, but I've already seen a 2 lb decrease and I've earned $20 toward my bills! Baby steps, baby steps.

So if I can get over these two messes (and I know I will), I can concentrate on my next round of goals: Save $300 and apply to graduate school. I just need to learn accountability. I've said it before but I'm trying it again - with the help of online journaling, my BF and my offline friends I should be able to dig myself out of this.

So the process begins (again).

2 comments:

Tricia said...

Sounds like a great plan of action. Good luck with your goals!

Pauline Wiles said...

Best of luck!!
It's a time of year when you're quite rightly taking stock and being very firm with yourself. And it's great that you're thinking about your weight before it goes up even higher than you'd want. Hopefully, as you start to feel some of the benefits of exercise, you'll find the ice cream is less of a temptation anyway, and if not, I can thoroughly recommend Skinny Cows!