Sixty-Two Sixty-Two

Happy Friday, everyone. Quick progress update today. Another 30 day cycle has passed.  Some of the line items that were over: Food budget - +$38 Credit card repayment - +$113 (thank you, JH) Recreation/Entertainment - +$125 (Father's day golf/dinner with extended family) All and all, a good month. Minimal fitness - walked 5 miles, cycled 45 miles, 2 resistance training circuits.  I've changed up my progress graph into non-mortgage debt/mortgage (this is progress since February this year). The more motivating graph, for me This shows the completion of the first 6 months, shown as Qtr 1 and Qtr 2.  After recalculating, peppering in some aggressive/honest math, I'm hoping to have the non-mortgage debt paid off by Feb 17, 2020 - President's Day. Let's do this. Freedom, baby. Have a great weekend, everyone. Hope you have some goals that you cuddle up with at night, and that you're making progress. Keep up the good fi

Another week in the books, and things continue to go pretty well. There is 1 week left in the month since starting the new budget, so I will discuss how I did with goals hitting each line item as well as progress graphs. I had a moment where I started surfing eBay again, perusing auctions on used golf clubs. Was interesting how close I came to buying a few "deals". eBay was the forum where I spent money mindlessly - I rarely spent money in box stores. My brain seemed to enjoy the reward of not only buying something, but thinking I got a "deal" on it.  Minimal fitness went well this week. I cycled 55 miles (40 of which came on Sunday while watching the US Open - 2 hours on the bike). I jogged 2.5 miles and walked 4.5. I logged 2 resistance training circuits. I consider that a decent week since I spent 3 days on the road traveling just under a 1000 miles. I had to remind myself of how much I've accomplished this year during this process. I don't want to s

For the past three years, a book has sat on my book shelf. I picked this book up at that point with great intentions of reading it. The book sits amongst excellent company; other books I purchased with intentions to read.  The book is titled The Power of Habit , and I started reading it yesterday.  Our brains are a fascinating organ, with many discoveries of its function still emerging, but many insights into its many processes already developed. One of which being the function of habits.  Habits are created with great purpose. It allows the brain the ability to operate in autopilot, a phrase I've used before, to carry forth tasks that are often repeated in our daily lives. The function of a habit, or autopilot, is beneficial because it allows other areas of the brain that process new information to not have to utilize/waste energy for repeated tasks. For instance, the next time you eat, eat with the opposite hand. You'll most likely sense your brain having to think throug

Let's start with minimal fitness this week - the family hiked Chick Hill on Saturday, which ended up being a 3.1 mile walk with an elevation gain of 830 ft according to an app I used. Went for a 2 mile walk on Monday, and 2 mile run on Tuesday. I logged 30 miles on the bike, and did 3 resistance training circuits. I also logged a quick agility ladder workout. Great week. Weight is still trickling down, and I'm thinking/hoping I need to buy a new wardrobe at the completion of debt payoff phase 1 as a celebration. Doing the quick math, I'm thinking the completion of that phase is lining up with May/June next year. Daily progress. It's been nice having the new budget breakdown the past couple of weeks. It may sound complicated, but I'm utilizing multiple checking accounts that are responsible for certain bills, broken up as 1.)credit card debt only , 2.)lifestyle/utility bills, and 3.)everyday spending along with future savings. I've never utilized cash, so these

This debt journey started for, and has helped incredibly with, a different journey altogether. I was in desperate need of a rebound year. A year where I focused on myself more than I typically do. I was getting to a point in my life where momentum was taking me in the wrong direction. I was depressed. I was negative. I wasn't physically healthy. All while working as a "wellness coach", which inflated the negative feelings surrounding these things. I'm mostly an introvert. An observer. I've learned a new term recently, and believe it applies to me - a trait known as "hyper-feelers", meaning if you and I are having a deep conversation, I'm likely to take some of that emotion/energy along with me for a while. Positive or negative. Sometimes a long while. And I work with people. A LOT of people. While I'm personally pulling myself back in the right direction, my personality remains the same and I still work with a lot of people. I can't he

Little later than normal, but better late than never.  I'm two weeks in to the revised budget, and things are going well. I did have one purchase outside of the budget - I caved and bought new cleats. I've had my other ones forever, and they were become pretty uncomfortable. I would have had to buy new insoles and shoe goo to make them work, and there was no determining whether that would have fixed the blowout in the side. There's room for being frugal, and room for being reasonable. My feet thanked me the last 4 games in the new cleats. $40. I officially broke a weight plateau that I haven't seen in a while, and things are going pretty well with the diet/frugal fitness routine. This week I hit 37 miles on the bike, 6 miles walked, and 4 softball games (sprints!! haha).  Charts: Paying my car insurance in early June put the brakes on significant debt repayment progress, and was the catalyst to altering the budget - again, to do a better job saving for

Spending this week has gone well, and it's the beginning of a new budget that will get me in to the practice of setting aside money for my non monthly bills. The budget has experienced refining as I get a few months of execution under my belt. I'll have a 30 day update next week . Frugal fitness has gone really well. I got 35 miles in on the bike, 3 resistance training workouts, went on a nice 3.5 mile hike with some family friends on Sunday, walked 5.5 miles, and broke my own rule and started running, getting 3.5 miles in. Down 18 pounds since peak hibernation weight, shooting for 15 more before Thanksgiving. Hope everyone is seeing positive momentum in their life. Enjoy the weekend.