Slump & Resolve

I was in a major life slump last week. Minimal exercise -- totally pumped the brakes on my 30 day shred progress! -- terrible eating habits, and a bit of financial stress.

On Sunday, I looked at myself in the mirror and thought Self, these are ALL things that you can control. You have the materials and tools to build and sustain a wonderful life...why are you letting yourself live this way?!

The night was spent looking at mortgage rates, discussing the future, and taking a step back from myself to reassess myself.

Today marks exactly 5 months since I started working at Liberty in Charlotte and it is time for me to stabilize! I have taken care of all of the crazy abnormal expenses that come with moving and adjusting to a new lifestyle. Time for me to start making smarter decisions that will lead to a happier future for myself (and not to mention a happier day-to-day feeling!)

I woke up at 6 a.m. today. I was ready by quarter of 7....I'm normally not even out of bed by that time! But it felt good!

I made my breakfast/lunch, planned dinner, got gas and made it to work 30 minutes early.

Here are my resolutions:

For this week:

- No grocery shopping (except for produce). My cabinets are full of dry goods and I have a bunch of meat in the freezer. I don't need to spend money on groceries when I already have so many!
- No coffee. I will be drinking tea, instead. It's cheaper and less caloric.
- No going out to eat. This is an expensive and unhealthy habit. I should be making bigger dinners so I can have leftovers for lunch. I don't need to go out just to go out.
- Exercise every day. At least 30 minutes a day of walking and/or aerobic exercise. Need to get back into my videos for bigger impact and to maintain/strengthen the muscles I had built! And I need to keep doing my daily lunch walks to ensure that I'm stepping away from the computer and taking a breather.
- Budget. I should not be spending more than $350/wk. That is absurd for one person. I need to be saving and I need to not be dipping into my savings to pay off my credit card. This means I'm spending too much!!

Long term:

- Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes a day for a minimum of 5 days/wk.
- Maintain budget of spending under $350/wk every week. I should be saving $1000/month. If I'm not, I'm doing something wrong. I will be keeping a weekly log of all of the dollars I spend per week to ensure that I'm not going over budget or dipping into my savings.
- Limit going out to eat 2x/wk -- 1 lunch/wk and 1 dinner or breakfast/wk. That's it.
- Find more fun, free things to do. And creative ways to spend time w/ my boo that don't involve going out to eat or going out for drinks or spending money.