Goals and Rewards.

I hope everyone had a great 'first Monday of the new year' Unfortunately I did not end up feeling very well. My stomach was/has been/ is upset. Today was a pretty productive day anyhow.

I also want to thank everyone for the comments. It is so nice to have such a wonderful support. I hope that you find my comments in your blogs just as (if not even more) supportive.

So today I was busy running errands, working, house cleaning, figuring out the budget and setting up the finances for the year. I'm happy to say that this year my husband and I should be completely out of debt. We've been working it off now for 2 years so by the end of this year we will be out of the red!!!! (Thanks Dave Ramsey)
Of course, the one thing I didn't do today was exercise. I wanted to do some treadmill work, but my stomach is just not agreeing with anything. In fact, I'm going to make some tea right now to help try to settle it.

So I am finally unpacked from my Vegas trip and I've started on the mountain of laundry that I have been avoiding. I've also started on all the chores that also desperately needed to get done.... It turns out wishing/praying for them to go away doesn't really work.

I also set up my fiances for the year... fun stuff.... Basically I file all the old year, and get the filing system ready for the new year. I print out all these free calendars for the new year, and post them in a spiral bound notebook, along with what we owe, the monthly breakdown of payments, and the weekly breakdown of the funds. I have to admit.... I'm a geek/nerd.... though I do have a free spirit side..... but I just love putting it all down on speadsheets and analyzing how we can save here.... and pay more there..... However I would hate being an accountant. I'm a walking oxymoron I tell ya.

There is a lot that I mentioned that I am planning on posting today. I'm posting my goals, my rewards... and the breakdown of what I need to do daily to lose weight.

My goals for 2011 (so far)

1) Always eat breakfast - I am ashamed to say that after all this time... this is still one of my problems. In fact... I didn't even eat breakfast this morning (sick stomach) Arugula!

2) Eat at home more - I plan on all my breakfasts always at home. The actual problem here lies in the business of my schedule that I always just grab something for lunch and then on the way home grab dinner. And since I am journaling my food..... this is seeming very realistic.

3) Normal Sleep Schedule - I use to work at 10:30am everyday, until about a year ago my office hours changed to 1pm (sometimes 2pm) I get off about 5pm. While those are great office hours.... I am not a morning person.... I am a night owl.... Which means I find myself falling asleep around 3,4,5am and sleeping until 11am or even noon. I want to put a stop to this... I know that it is affecting my ability to lose weight, and the insomnia is utterly annoying.... but more than that it's really affecting my husband. He goes to sleep around 11 or 12 and wakes up at 5 or 6am..... different schedules almost entirely.

4) Plant a Garden - I've been working on this.... but this year I would like to plant some vegetables in the back yard and eat what I sow! Pictures of course to come. I already have planted my herbs in containers on the back patio.

5) Keep track of all my expenses - Obviously with the past two years of getting out of debt.... we have been, for the most part, tracking expenses.... But I'm going to break it down more and figure out just how much I'm spending on eating out. The money I will save in just that category alone will probably be a great starter fund towards a new wardrobe when I lose all this weight at the end of the year (see below for the breakdown)

So far this is what I have for goals that I really want to accomplish. Along with Get out of debt.

Reward System:
This is subject to change obviously... But I at this present moment I couldn't think of things that I may possibly want for rewards. This is what I got so far:

215 - Manicure and Pedicure
210 - Massage
199 - Iphone
195 - Manicure & Pedicure
190 - Massage
185 - Guitar Lessons
180 - Shopping for some new Jeans
175 - Manicure and Pedicure
170 - Massage
165 - Facial / New Clothing
160 - Manicure and Pedicure
155 - Massage
150 - GOAL - New Wardrobe!!!

I love manicure and pedicures (can you tell?) and I figured it to where I would be getting a massage every 3 months or so.... and I have a membership at a spa place that I get them for $40 per massage... (jealous much).... I've also always wanted to have guitar lessons. So... so far this is what I've got.

Breakdown for weight loss this year:

I've been listening to Zig Ziglar's ' How to get what you want' and he speaks of when he needed to lose weight he broke it down to what he needed to be doing daily. I decided that it would be interesting to do the same thing.
So I have 68 lbs to lose.
68 lbs divided by 12 months = 6 lbs per month. (doable) (It's actually 5.7 but I rounded up)
6 lbs divided by 4 (weeks in a month) = 1.4 lbs per week (very doable)
1.4 lbs divided by 7 (days in a week) = .2 (I gotta lose .2 lbs a day to reach my goal at the end of the year)
So what is .2 calorie wise?
To lose 1.4 lbs a week I would need to burn 4900 extra calories a week.
Which would be 700 calories a day.

This has put a whole new perspective on this for me. For instance it will help me think twice or even thrice before I put something into my mouth. I will know that I will have to work EXTRA EXTRA harder to burn off something. And.... I'm only aiming to lose .2 a day.... it seems simple. I know that it isn't lol.... I also know that you can't predict what the body will or won't do..... but I'll come darn close!!!  

This has turned out to be and extra longer post than I intended. I haven't completely figured out my workout schedule for the week.... and I will get on that and let you know tomorrow.

Hope that everyone had a great Monday!!! Now I'm off to force myself into some shut eye!!
Love Always,
Amberly