My Birthday Month, Goals update! Friday, March 19, 2010

Happy Birthday to me! Since its my birthday month, I usually cut myself some slack. But I do not want this entrie month to go to waste!

 

With regards to my goals, they are a few things I have done so far :-

 

- Career: I updated my CV and I have been working on building a good Linkedin profile.

- Weight: I went walking and to the gym sporadically. My birthday resulted in way too much food and drinks and no gym and weight gain!

- Finances: I have decided to go all rogue on my finances, which I will detail in the next post. But I have been spending on my debit card, so I do not incur any debt.

- Blog update: First one in exactly a month.

-Positive attitude: Decided to get more proactive and move forward in life.

-Declutter: I have been getting rid of things I no longer use and just takes up space in my life. I have even listed things on eBay for sale. :)

 

I am a big 27!!!!! lol!

Goals 2010 breakdown Friday, February 19, 2010

I will lose 50 pounds: I wrote an earlier post about my issues with my weight. I am still 50 pounds heavy for my frame and this need to change. The biggest reason being my health and also my self esteem. I have become so conscious about myself and I think people judge me because of my weight. I need to lose my weight and most of all I need to gain a healthier attitude.

 

I will focus on building a good career profile: I need to update my linkedin and work on my transferable career skills. This way atleast I will not feel this insecure everytime I feel like I need to change.

 

I will reduce my debt to zero: Personal finance is one of the main reasons I fell in love with blogs. Realizing there are other out there who understood how I felt about money made be feel like I was not alone. I have worked several times to reduce my debt to zero and I have been successful, but I keep piling on the debt again. This time around I need to learn how to use a credit card and budget more efficiently.

 

I will blog more regularly: As you can see from the blog, I rarely seem to stick to something I start and give up very easily. So I will try my best to blog regularly this year.

 

I will declutter my life: Too much of everything just take too much space and gives you too much stress and most of all costs way tooo much money. I am going to downsize on the clothes, shoes, jewelry (the hardest one), make-up and books.

 

I will learn to be more POSITIVE: My biggest road block is my negativity! I think I need to change this and learn to be more positive and attract myself some good Karma.

Goals for 2010

Now, going thru the blogsphere....I came across the site ..Live it for Less! Now Greg, is all about living a simple life and what I liked more was his simple goal setting for 2010. He chose to focus on 4 main goals. This seems far more easier than making a long never ending list. Being inspired by this, I have decided to focus on 6 main goals for 2010.

 

 

- I will lose 50 pounds

 

- I will focus on building a good career profile.

 

- I will reduce my debt to zero

 

- I will blog more regularly

 

- I will declutter my life!

 

and the last goal is something I need to really work on as much as the weight loss...

 

- I will learn to be more POSITIVE!

 

 

These are the main goals for 2010 and some these are going to be really challenging, especially the last one! Trust me! Negativity and me have been friends forever.

While these goals are coming in a bit late for the year but I guess better late than never, RIGHT!?!

 

Try and Try Again... Friday, January 29, 2010

Its nearly the end of Jan 2010 and here I am back to give a shot at blogging. AGAIN!

I have done this several times over and given up at being consistent with updating the blog and holding myself accountable.

This post sounds very much like the first post I ever, wrote on this blog. :)

My next few posts, will be an update of the last year and my goals for 2010.

Enjoy!

Meg.

Attempting to Run, Part 1 Saturday, February 28, 2009

One of my biggest goals for this year, is to become a runner. I decided to follow the Couch-to-5K plan that was listed on Quarter Life Girl's fitness site.

This plan extends over 9 weeks where you slowly build up the your strength thru a series of interval runs.

Week 1 - Alternate: Run 1 minute, Walk 90 seconds (8 intervals)

Week 2 - Alternate: Run 90 seconds, Walk 2 minutes (6 intervals)

Week 3 - Alternate: Run 90 seconds, Walk 90 seconds, Run 3 minutes, Walk 3 minutes

Week 4 - Repetitions x 2: Run 3 minutes, Walk 90 seconds, Run 5 minutes, Walk 2-1/2 minutes (32 minutes total)

Week 5 - (1)Run 5 minutes, Walk 3 minutes (Repeat x3);(2)Run 8 minutes, Walk 5 minutes (Repeat x 2); (3)Run 20 minutes

Week 6 - (1)Run 5 minutes, Walk 3 minutes, Run 8 minutes, Walk 5 minutes, Run 5 minutes; (2)Run 10 minutes, Walk 3 minutes ( Repeat x 2 ); (3)Run 25 minutes

Week 7 - Run 25 minutes (2.5 miles)

Week 8 - Run 28 minutes (2.75 miles)

Week 9 - Run 30 minutes, or 5k (3.1 miles)

So, I started the plan and I could run more than 3 intervals without wanting to scream. Now keep in mind I was doing this on the threadmill, so two things could have gone wrong.

- The speed on the threadmill was too fast

- I was trying too much, too soon

I emailed QL Girl and asked for suggestions which I will post in the next post. I have realised that I need to swallow my pride and start slow, where I reduce my running intervals to 30 seconds and take it from there.

February Food Challenge- Week 3 Recap Monday, February 23, 2009

So, I guess I am pretty much done with the Food Challenge over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks for the month of Feb. I spend $71 last week on eating out and I now have $1 left for the remainder of the month.

There are a few things to be learnt from this exercise

- Since I listed everytime I dined out, I now know where I need to cut back on my spending.

- Also, this made be realise that $150 for dining out will not suffice with my current lifestyle.

I am going to have to cut back and balance out to reach a proper figure that I should be budgeting towards dining out.

February Food Challenge Week 2- Recap Tuesday, February 17, 2009

I know its we are in the middle of week 3 of the food challenge. But I honestly havent had the time to breathe over the weekend thanks to deadlines at work. So as a part of week 2 of the Food Challenge being hosted by Krystal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks, I spent a total of $31.35. This is far better than week 1, cause the first two days were spent at a day long conferences which spared me the need to spend on food.

Week 1 and Week 2 have brought my total food challenge spending to $79.29...which pretty much keeps me on track with my budget.

However, I can assure your week 3 ...aint going so well...I have been eating out constantly......ouch!!!

Lets see what I learn from this challenge.

February Food Challenge- Week 1 Recap Saturday, February 7, 2009

Week 1 of the February Food Challenge is finally over. I spent a total of $47.96 on dining out over the past week. I guess I spent most of time eating out with my colleagues at work, despite taking food from home. Now I did not waste what I packed, since I would have it at dinner instead.

I need to keep my dining out budget for dinners and not waste my packed lunches. The best part of this exercise is that it will help me budget better. It will help me decide if $150 is enough or if I can even stay within the amount I alloted.

I have already used 31.9% of the $150. Lets see how I do during week 2.

My Weight Profile Part 2 Friday, February 6, 2009

2009, is the year that I am going to start looking after myself. In the past one month, I havent gained a single pound which I get is great. However, I need to start eating healthier and increase the fibre in my diet and metabolism.

Goal Weight: 100-110 pounds
BMI: 19.5-21.5
Exercise Profile: Hopefully a runner!

Honestly, I dont know how long this will take. But as long as I am healthy and have an even healtheir self image I think I should do fine.

Quarterlife Girl used this amazing program from a magazine that shows you how you will look after your weight loss, which I think is really amazing and encouraging.

BEFORE



AFTER

Wish Me Luck!

My Weight Profile Part 1

Name: Megat25
Height: 5ft
Weight : 165 pounds

My BMI is 32.2 which means I AM OVERWEIGHT!

My weight has been a big problem. No pun intended! I was always what you considered a healthy girl. When I joined university, I started putting on weight. Along with the freshmen 15, I added on some more.

During my third year, I started having a more healthy routine and going to the gym on a regular basis. Upon graduation, I was having a though time finding a job and started looking to food for comfort. Well I did end up getting my first job in the Summer of 2005, nearly 8 months since my graduation. My weight has been fluctuating since!

In 2008, I became even more irresponsible and started eating out over lunch and was putting in long hours. What did I end up with? Lots of fat and no raise thanks to our recession. When I see myself in the mirrior I get angry. Angry at myself for not taking care of myself and becoming this unhealthy. My metabolism has tanked to non exsistent.

Its been 8 years since I started putting on weight out of depression and mindless eating. But enough is enough. I need to make one big change in my life and that is to take care of myself and my health, because our life is the most valuable thing we have. This is going to take a lot of effort, self control, determination and will power, I hope I can do it!

Networth: End of Jan 2009

I calculated my networth at the end of Jan 2009. I am happy to say I achieved an increase of +8.71% since Dec 2008. I did not save the standard amount that I put aside every month over the past year. I needed to pay down my debt on credit cards 1 & 2.

I will get back to saving my standard amount as of March 2009.

My laptop died on me in Dec 08 and I now need to find a new one. I have been working on my work laptop over the past month. This will affect my networth, but I am planning to pay it off on installments. So, I hope to find a decent deal on it.

However, I am really glad with the positive growth on my networth, though it came out of me paying down my debt than increasing my savings. ;)

Vanity Files: How much is my face worth?

Last month, Fabulously Broke in the City and So Very Fabulous did an exercise to determine how much they spend on their face. I thought it was pretty neat and interesting to see how everything adds up.





FACE PREP

• Thursday Plantation Daily Face Wash ($13.25)
• Clean and Clear Deep Cleansing Astringent ($9.99)
• Nivea Visage Aqua Sensation Moisturizer ($12.25)
• Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sun Block SPF55 ($9.99)
  

MAKE UP: FACE

• The Body Shop Pressed Face Powder ($18.50)
• MAC Blush ($21)

MAKE UP: EYES & LIPS

• Lancome Le Crayon Khol ($23.50)
• Lancome Definicils Mascara ($24)
• Clinique Long Last Glosswear ($14)

It reaches a GRAND TOTAL of $146.48

Wow!!! this is exactly how much i spend everyday. Other than a few days when i may use an eye shadow so it shud actually come up to $160.

We all need to take care of our skin and be presentable, and its not a bad spend keeping in mind all this tides over a few months.

February 2009 Goals Friday, January 30, 2009

As I mentioned in my first post, I tend to take on too much and not stick to it. So rather than listing several things to do this month. I am going to follow just three.

February Food Challenge: I have joined the February Food Challenge to stick to a budget while dining out. I have set aside $150 for this and will be posting a weekly review.

Exercise four to fives times a week: I really need to get into the habit of exercising on a regular basis so I am goin to try four- fives times a week for 45 mins. It will also keep me awaying from shopping. :D

Planning my meals: I am going to make an effort to plan my meals, so that I can focus on healthier eating.

February 2008- Food Challenge

I have decided to join, Krsytal at Give Me Back My Five Bucks on her monthly Food Challenge for February. We are supposed to allot a food budget for the month and try our best to stick to it. We should also give a weekly recap on how we have done. Our budget can include groceries or dining out money or both. I have decided to go ahead with alloting $150 for dining out.

I guess it will help me budget while helping my wasitline at the same time ;). My weight issues will get a whole other post.

My Finances- Networth 2008

While we are all a month into 2009, I thought I would start off with my finances. Please do keep in mind that I have only been tracking my networth since March 2008. Hence it should have been more than this, but this is good enough. 2008 ended with my networth increasing by

So, how did I manage such an increase?

• I saved a fixed amount every month.
• Got promoted on my job.
  

How is 2009 going to be?

As much as I would like to achieve something similar this year. It might more difficult since I was informed I will not be receiving any increments this year. Also I spent like crazy this January (highly irresponsible) and will be spending most of February's pay to pay two cards off.

So, this year I am going to aim to

• Reduce my debt to zero.
• Save as much as I can.
• Have a No-Spend month.
• Become a sensible spender. (I will try my best at this)

WISH ME LUCK!!!

Welcome!

I have tried to blog several times over the past three years and failed miserably at them.

So, I am going to try again.

The reason I think I failed all those other times is because I was trying to do much.

This time around, I am going to try to blog twice a week till I get used it. Maybe use the other days to think about topics I would like to focus on the blog or just work on them during the weekends.

However, majority of this blog will focus on my journey thru my late-twenties. It can be finances, weight loss, career, relationships, dreams and anything else that interests me.