The folks over at Deals.com sent me this infographic which shows how being fat can cost you money. I’m sure most of us know that but this just makes it a little clearer.
Source: Deals.com
lose weight
July 2010 Goals
As June draws to a close it seems like a good idea to set some goals for July. I have been especially unmotivated lately and perhaps some goals will motivate me. My first goal is to lose weight. I need to lose about 50 pounds. That is more weight than I can lose in a month. I’m going to set a goal of losing eight pounds. I weighed 218 pounds even this morning so that would get me down to 210 which is a nice round figure. In order to achieve this goal I intend to give up soda, exercise at least three times a week, and only eat out for mystery shops or dates with my girlfriend. If I do all of that I will definitely lose some weight.
My second goal is to cut back on my driving. I put about 2400 miles on my car this month. My goal for July is to cut that amount in half. I made several long drives for mystery shops this month that I don’t plan on doing in July. There were some other longer trips that I probably won’t make this month although I might still need to make one trip to KC. With a little planning a lot of the driving I do around town can be eliminated as well.
My third goal is to cut my spending for the month of July. Not eating out and reducing my driving will both help with this goal. I am getting married this month though and there will be some necessary expense associated with that although most of the wedding/honeymoon expense has already been paid. I’m not going to skimp on my wedding just to keep my expenses down so if necessary I won’t count the wedding expenses when considering whether I met my goal.
I think that should give me some things to improve on in the coming month. Now I just need to stop procrastinating and get things done.
August 2009 Goal Review
It is the end of the month and time once again for my monthly goal review.
My first goal is to increase my passive income. I didn’t do anything substantial toward this goal this month. I did reinvest some dividends but I need to do a lot more than that if I want to make a noticeable increase in my passive income. Passive Family Income’s eHow 100 Article Challenge has produced some good results for him and I’m thinking of making a similar challenge for myself in September.
My second goal is to lose weight. I made progress on this goal since my weight dropped from 225 to 221. I’m not happy with this result though because my weight was down to 215 at one point this month. My goal is to weigh 180 pounds by the end of the year. This means I need to lose 10 1/4 a month for the next four months. In the past I’ve lost 10 pounds a month in Guatemala without trying. I’m hoping that is still the case. Once I return from Guatemala though I will have all the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts to contend with. It would probably be best to lose all the weight while I’m in Guatemala. At the end of next month I’ll know whether that is a reasonable goal.
My third goal is to increase the number of RSS subscribers to this blog to 500. I had a high of 448 subscribers this month up from 430 the month before. I’m making steady progress toward this goal but I need to increase my rate of progress if I’m going to reach my goal by the end of the year.
I made progress on two out of three goals this month. That is what I expected before this month started. Since I came back early from my hiking trip though I should have made some progress on the passive income goal as well. In September I should hit all three goals.
June 2009 Goal Review
photo credit: FLY2005
It is the last Sunday of the month and time once again for the monthly goal review.
My first goal is to increase my passive income. I didn’t make any progress on this goal. I looked at buying a rental property but that didn’t happen. I have a different house I’m looking at buying now. I might buy another dividend stock next month but I’m holding off until I see what happens with the possible house purchase. If I’m able to buy the house I’ll consider this goal met for the year. If not then I’ll need to come up with some other ideas.
My second goal is to lose 30 pounds. I went backwards on this one. My weight went from 218.8 pounds last month to 220.4 pounds this month. I went the first half of the month without eating any extra fast food meals or drinking Dr Pepper. That resulted in no weight loss so I decided “screw it” and resumed indulging in fast food and Dr Pepper. That quickly led to weight gain.
I’ve lost some of that weight being in-house for the study. When I have limited choices in what to eat I don’t eat very much. I’m not hungry either although I’m craving a burger. This is only day 4 of 9; I’ll probably really be craving one by the time I get out of here.
Despite my lack of progress I still think I can get down to 180 pounds by the end of the year. This is because I’m going to spend a month hiking and three months living in Guatemala. In my previous hiking experiences I’ve always lost about 10 pounds a month. Hiking 15 miles a day with 30 pounds on your back and only the food you are carrying to eat does work well for losing weight. I lose the 10 pounds a month even though I pig out when I make a town stop while hiking. This isn’t a good long term weight-loss strategy though because when you quit hiking your appetite will remain although you are no longer burning the calories. This causes the weight to come back rapidly.
I also have averaged losing 10 pounds a month when I’ve lived in Guatemala. This was without even trying. I attribute it to walking everywhere and having less fast food and soda. When I first lived there they didn’t have any American fast food places. They just had Pollo Campero. The last time I visited they had a McDonald’s and that has been nine years ago so there might be more chains now. That might make losing the weight a little more difficult but I still think it will happen.
My last goal was to increase my RSS subscriber count to 500. I made progress on that goal this month. I finally went over the 400 subscriber mark and had a high mark of 409 subscribers. I’m not sure if I can improve on that in July because I will be traveling half the month. I’ll need to do more to promote this site to reach the 500 subscriber mark by the end of the year.
I only made progress on one of my three goals this month. I still think I have a good plan to meet these goals by the end of the year. I’ll keep checking in each month to make sure I don’t stray too far from my plans.
May 2009 Goal Review
This is my monthly review of the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year.
My first goal is to increase my passive income. I made a little progress on that this month. I put most of the money I made from the medical study in my stock account and will use it to buy a dividend-paying stock tomorrow. Anyone have a stock tip? 🙂
My second goal is to lose 30 pounds. I went from 219.2 pounds last month to 218.8 pounds this month. That isn’t very good progress. If you’re entered in my $500 weight-loss challenge your odds of collecting look pretty good.
My third goal is to increase my number of subscribers to 500. I didn’t make any progress towards that this month as my subscriber count stayed about the same. I’ve made some small changes this last week, such as installing a new theme, that I think will help increase my subscriber count. I need to work on promoting my blog and improving my content though to make better progress on increasing the readership of my blog.
It wasn’t a very good month since I only made reasonable progress on one of my three goals. There are some big changes coming in June. I’m not sure if they will actually help me meet my goals but there will definitely be changes.
Also, if you want to enter the $500 weight loss challenge you need to do so now. I will be closing the challenge to new entrants tomorrow, June 1,2009.