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Starting A New Lifestyle By Taking a Month To Prepare

January 5th, 2012

In the past I use to make resolutions, then after the first week when I didn’t hop into those new resolutions instantly, I would give up on them thinking that I already violated those goals so why even try.  Obviously, this wasn’t the best way to accomplish such goals.

white egg

This year, I’ve learned my lesson!  From this point on, January of each new year will be my transition month into the new year.  So instead of jumping into a new lifestyle head first, I’m going to the shallow end of the pool and easing myself into my new mindset and lifestyle.  No more “cold turkey” dumping the old and jumping to the new for me.

Some of you can jump right in with the new year.  You planned your strategy in December and jump in head first on day 1 of January.  If that works for you, then great!  I just find that December is too busy for me to adequately plan my strategy.

So you might be wondering how I’m going to start my preparation for my lifestyle change…  Well tonight I’m going to hard boil eggs!  Not very exciting huh…  Then the next day I’m going to eat two eggs for breakfast as part of my weight loss program.  After eating my eggs in the morning, I’m going to start developing the dietary path for my weight loss portion of my New Year resolutions, and let the strategies for those resolutions develop from that point.

Oftentimes, the hardest part of change is the first step, so for me the first step is boiling eggs.  Not sexy, but a start!

So I start my lifestyle change be using a simple task to ignite the process.  I would like to say that this is the first time I’ve used such techniques, but it’s not.  I use similar tasks and tricks to help me write the assembler and operating system software back during my college days.  So in a way, instead of waiting for perfect inspiration or betting everything on day 1 of the New Year, instead I’m going to trick myself and do whatever it takes to change my lifestyle.

And now I’m off to boil eggs…

MR

 

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Rich in the Past or Middle Class in the Present – I Choose the Middle Class

September 17th, 2011

Recently, I went to the Edison and Ford’s summer homes when I was in Florida during vacation.  After touring their homes and getting a feel for how they lived their lives, I started wondering if I would rather live like I do today or live a life similar to one of these great men of the past.

Surprisingly, I choose the present, and here is why:

  • The world is at my disposal because of cheap transportation via the airplanes and airline infrastructure!  It’s relatively cheap to fly today versus in the past.  The trick in the past would be to even finding a flight to even a small fraction of the places airplanes can take us today!
  • I like air conditioning, especially during hot summers like we just recently had!  I can imagine that the folks back then were often pretty sweaty during their summers!
  • I like central heating!  It’s nice have an even flow of heat throughout the house!
  • I like the heater in my car!  Can you imaging driving to work in the winter (especially if live in the North) without a heater?
  • It’s nice to have great inflatable rubber tires!  If I lived in the past, I might get stuck in the ruts in the roads that they had back then, especially when it was snowy.  which brings me to my next point:
  • I like our roads and the fact that they are plowed when it snows!
  • Credit and credit cards (like the Chase Freedom credit cards)!  Now we too have access to credit like the rich of yesteryear had.  While some complain about available credit, at one time the middle class didn’t have such opportunities.  Credit is just a tool,  what you do with that tool is up to you.
  • Modern medicine is huge!  The rich back in the days of yesteryear didn’t have it nearly as good as we do with respect to medical treatments!
  • Technology, yes as much as I state that we are losing jobs to technology, I still love it!  It’s amazing what we can do today versus yesterday.  Shoot, I’m not even sure if I can write a paper letter more than a page long anymore.  Think about when was the last time you wrote a real multi-page letter to someone where the letter was more than an invitation to an party?  Do I even have to mention cell phones, let alone a smart cell phone?
  • I love indoor plumbing.  Oh they has some systems back then (think  outhouses), but still, we have it better.
  • And then there are all of the recreational activities!  boating (not the slow boring type of the past either), jetskiing, snowmobiling, affordable snow skiing, parasailing, and the list goes on and on!
  • And finally, the Internet!  Yes this is a part of technology, but it’s so much more than that!  Currently, we surf the web, email each other, play games, blog, watch movies, listen to music, educate ourselves, fix things via information googled on the internet, socialize, etc…  The internet  just continues to snowball into bigger and more incredible things.

Actually the Internet really tips the scale!  I would bet that we of the here-and-now have been exposed (via the internet) to twice as much as the people in the middle classes of Edison and Ford’s era!

As much as the media complains about how bad the middle class has it today, I wouldn’t switch places with someone that was rich just 40 years ago, let alone over 100 years ago!

Sometimes we need to sit down, look around, and realize how incredible we really have it!

I say enjoy the here-and-now before it has come-and-gone!

So here is to a great weekend, now it’s time to enjoy it!

MR

 

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Frugal Weight Loss and Body Shaping

July 5th, 2011

I just weight myself this morning and after a little over 3 weeks, I’m down 20 pounds!

So what’s the big deal about losing 20 pounds?

I’m going to exercising to start shaping my body into the athletic look that improved the way I feel and perform when doing physical tasks.  It’s nice to be thin, be even better to be in optimal shape to go with the look.

How am I going about it?

I decided to start my frugal weight loss using the Akins diet.  It’s a very cheap way to start if you use eggs and cheese as your stable during those first few weeks of the diet.

The problem with dieting is that while you’re losing fat, you are so losing muscle, but that’s where exercise comes in.  Exercising helps to maintain the muscle mass while stripping away the fat from your body while dieting.

A low carb diet is excellent for working out with weight and dieting at the same time.  Since your meals are higher in protein than your typical diet, if you work out with weights or some form of resistance training, your diet provides a steady stream of protein building materials.  They are perfectly complimentary to each other!

Vitamins are a stable!

While a low carb diet (like Akins) is high on protein, I’ve found that it’s necessary to supplement the diet with a daily intake of vitamins.  Not only are they required by the body, they also help expedite the weight loss process.  I might talk more about my selection of vitamins in a future post, but for now taking any multi-vitamin is good and can only help!

Starting slowly

Instead of jumping in and starting to lift weight right out of the gate, I’m going to start resistance training by doing pushups, situps, no weight squats and some curling with light weights.  I’ll do this routing for a few weeks to a month, then I’ll shift gears and start using the weights I have at my house to move into more of a heavy resistance-training routine.

And this is how I’m going to go about it!

Thanks for following me on the start of my new lifestyle, it should beat my middle class lifestyle!

MR

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Are You Overspending Today Because Of A Future Inheritance?

July 1st, 2011
Overspender

Always Broke

 

I have a friend at work who seems to have holes in his pockets!  He is always broke and deep into credit card debt and doesn’t have any equity in his house after paying into his mortgage for over ten years (he keeps refinancing, taking the equity out).

Just this year, he’s bought brand new leather living room furniture, a new expensive washer and dryer, a new zero turn riding lawn mower (so now he has 2 of them in total),a full house backup generator, and well over $1,000 in paintball guns and equipment.  Oh, I forgot that he remodeled his master bedroom, buying hard wood floors and had someone come out to rebuild his deck, oh and bought expensive new bikes for him and his wife.  This is just that stuff that I’ve heard about!

My friend is a clever guy and a peer, so I wondered how we could be so different…  So one day, after his incessant complaining to me about his lack of savings, I asked him why he always spend so much money on new expensive things all the time.

He leaned in close and told me that he plans on inheriting a good chuck of money from both his parents and his wife’s parents.  In fact, he mentioned that his wife’s parents are really loaded.  I hope the expression that reflexively popped on my face didn’t reveal my feeling on his line of thinking…

I think that it’s risky and horrible to overspend today while waiting to receive a future inheritance for these reasons:

  • The parents could give the bulk of the money to charity, leaving my friend a much smaller amount.
  • Some financial disaster could happen and that money could evaporate (think Bernie Madoff or Enron)
  • Some medical problems could eat away at their parent’s money too.
  • Perhaps their parents aren’t as rich as they appear to be.
  • It’s a sucky way to live life waiting for your parent to die to get money, very sad really…
  • Their parents could decide to spend the money, going out in style as they age.
  • You risk becoming your parent’s pets the entire time they are alive.
  • You miss out on trying to establish your own financial empire (lol).
  • You begin to view your parents as an investment instead of your parents.
  • You might be stressed whenever they spend money.

I admit, I envy his lifestyle, and I’m a bit disappointed that I’ll never catch up to him or surpass him financially since he has huge advantages.  That said, I do feel that I’m accomplishing my own financial future by living more within my means and my by financial planning over the years.

So should I hate my friend because he’s overspending today because of a future inheritance?

Naw, I hope the best for him, after all he is a friend first.  I just wish deep down inside I wouldn’t think he was such cold-hearted reptile.  I wonder how long it will take them to blow through their inheritance once the do receive it?

Do you know anyone similar to my friend?  What is their deal?

MR

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Stop Living For the Weekend and Just Start Living

June 14th, 2011

All too often we hear people saying that they “Live for the Weekend”! 

To be honest, I use to be of that same mindset too, I also saved myself for the weekend and during the week I would work, watch TV, then go to bed everyday… until the precious weekend.  But then the weekend would come and it might be cold, or raining, or some other event might be happening that would prevent me from enjoying my weekend.

So what do I do know?

I try to do something everyday, whether it’s coaching my daughter’s soccer team, doing yard work, walking the dog, working on my blog, reading a book etc…  And I plan on starting to workout, swim with the kids, bike ride with the kids, loss weight and meet with friends more often.  Summer is a great time to be more active!

“Live For the Weekend” is something that sounds good because most of the activities that are going on happens on Saturday, and we have the entire day to do things but…

  • going to dinner during the week is less crowded and you can get seated more quickly
  • while at dining out, the food may be prepared better because the cook isn’t rushed.
  • Other activities may be similar to dining out, fewer lines, less waits, and a better experience.
  • The roads will be less crowded, especially after rush hour during the weekdays.
  • If you look, sometimes you can find discounted prices during the weekdays.
  • Less chance of getting a sunburn while outside since most of us get off work after 5:00pm.

Conclusion

While you don’t exactly have to “Seize the Day”, you don’t have to wait for the weekend either.  Waiting to live life just on the weekend wastes too much life.

Personally, I would like to make or change something everyday, even if it’s just cutting the grass…

What activities or ways do you maximize you weekdays?

Cheers,

MR

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