I really wanted to share my new year's resolutions somewhere.  I'm generally not the resolutions type and even if I made them I never really talked about them publicly because I didn't want my inevitable failure to become public knowledge.  

This year is different for two reasons:

  1. I have concretely defined and achievable goals
  2. I'm highly motivated to complete them

So here they are:

  • Lose 10% of my bodyweight in the first 6 months of the year (duh... that's my dietbet!!)
  • Maintain the 10% loss or (stretch goal) lose up to an additional 10% of my body weight to reach my ultimate goal weight
  • Exercise for 30 minutes at least 3 times per week - no excuses outside of illness or injury but it doesn't have to be a specific type of workout.  For example if I'm at a conference and rack up 10+ miles of walking over the course of the day I'm ok with counting that as a workout day...
  • Eat more fresh fruits and vegetables! This is definitely my least defined goal.  I'm having difficulty figuring out how to quantify and track this.  I think it's definitely acheivable because I honestly like eating whole fruits and vegetables.  I think more consistent meal planning will be key to this

Ok, I have documented them somewhere so hopefully that will keep me accountable.  I'm probably the only one who will ever read this but at least I've made a written declaration of intent so to speak.

 

I also have one non-health related goal: Increase my savings by 10K

This one may be a bit oddball for a weight loss forum but I've come to see the principles of weight management and  budgeting to be very similar.  Just like eating poorly and not exercising is bad for your physical health, not being mindful of your spending habits can be bad for your financial health.

Even though I've always thought of myself as frugal I never had a comprehensive picture of where all the money went until I started budgeting and tracking every transaction.  Prior to that the idea of amassing 10K in savings in a year would sound like crazy talk, but for the last year and a half I've been using a budgeting program called You Need a Budget (or YNAB for short) and it has completely transformed my relationship with money.  Assuming my work situation doesn't implode (totally possible and part of what's driving me to set this goal), this is actually a totally acheivable goal.