My Neighbors Want Me to be Fat… Apparently…

As I’ve mentioned a few times since the beginning of the year, I am using the 2018 year to focus on and improve a few different areas of my life. I gave myself January off because a meme told me to. Specifically this one:

Yes- memes run my life.

I am a sheep.

I’ve decided that, in an effort to keep me on the up and up with my goals, Tuesdays will henceforth be known as “Transformation Tuesday.” I plan on using this day to reflect on the past week and the progress I have made on each of my goal areas. The effort is to share my insight and whatnot.

I’m hoping this will be helpful not just for me, but for anyone looking for the best way to forge ahead on their own journeys down similar roads.

This first post will likely end up a tad long since it’s encompassing the first 13 days of the month but I’m also really excited for the progress I have made so far in each of my areas of focus. I had been starting on some areas earlier than February but I promised myself that on February 1^st I would begin in earnest and start making real strides towards meeting my goals.

Let’s take a look at the last 13 days!

FITNESS

February 1^st Weigh-in: 191.8 lbs
February 13^th Weigh-in: 191.8 lbs

This one has been a tad frustrating because, as you can see, no weight change has occurred.

I’m going to come back to that.

To help me reach this goal, I sat down and made myself a workout plan for the month using a combination of my favorite Beachbody programs: 21 Day Fix and Country Heat. I created and printable calendar with which workouts I wanted to do each day. I wanted to have something tangible to look at and mark up as I did or didn’t workout each day. Something to keep me motivated.

While the entire calendar is full, I have no intention of beating myself up for not working out every single day. My goal is to workout for at least 30 minutes, 5 times a week. More is great but I wanted to be sure to set reasonable expectations for myself. I didn’t want to start off going at 100mph only to burn out a week in as a result. It’s tempting but not going to help. It’s also important to remember, for myself, that I have a physically demanding job at the restaurant and I’m often doing these workouts before I head in for the night.

Gotta be smart.

Back to the weight. While I haven’t been perfect in these first 13 days, I have been working hard and eating better. I missed a few days of working out after my experience at the doctor where she unleashed hell upon my body in the form of a painful shot. My arm was useless on Monday and still hurt on Tuesday so I opted to be cautious and not cause more pain.

Tuesday and Wednesday I stuck to just the Country Heat workouts since they didn’t really require heavy use of my arms. Thursday and Friday I did both 21 Day Fix and Country Heat workouts. Saturday I rested since my back was killing me, not from the workouts but from work. I had a bartending shift on Friday night and the constant bending at the bar killed my back. I didn’t sleep well Saturday night so I slept on Sunday until it was time for work, opting to rest over working out even though it was just Yoga on the schedule.

I actually hate Yoga.

This past week I’ve been on antibiotics and it turns out those tend to hinder weight loss and actually, in some cases cause weight gain. I’m guessing because I was exercising and eating right, I managed to simply plateau rather than gain or lose.

I’m fine with this. I’m hoping that now that I’m off the meds, I’ll start seeing a drop.

However, I’ve preached many times before that it’s important to look at the non-scale victories. I’ve been seeing subtle changes in my appearance and I’m feeling better about myself. One of my managers even commented I was looking skinnier and I’ll take it.

Ego. Boosted.

I’ve learned a lot from this week and I’m actually going to re-evaluate the current plan I have in place. I also know I want to start working running back into the mix. I’m cutting back on races this year but that doesn’t mean I want to lose what I’ve gained. Might have some big things in the mix so I want to be prepared!

My neighbors, on the other hand, are less than thrilled about me working towards my goals. I live in an apartment-style condo so I have a condo below me. It has been empty for quite some time but recently found new occupants. I met one of them on Wednesday when he came up to complain about the loud noises coming from my place.

Those noises being me.

I explained the working out and apologized. He was super annoyed and asked that I stop. I didn’t promise that it was going to stop but I explained my schedule and that I keep my workouts scheduled during the day time so at least this wasn’t happening in the middle of the night or early morning.

Choose your battles dude. I would have been a tad nicer but he came in, guns blazing so he didn’t leave me much choice than to be a bit snippy.

Also he interrupted my workout.

I went into the next try and tried to lessen my impacts during certain exercises but it felt like I was cheating.

Apparently my neighbors prefer me fat.

WRITING & BLOGGING

I’ve made sure to write something every single day, even if it’s crap. It might be work for my book, it might be blog stuff, it might be nonsense. But I’m writing.

My composition notebook comes with me to work since I always get there early. I’ll use the extra time to sit in my car and write. I pity anyone that finds this notebook should I lose it. I’ve started so many things in there (including this blog post) but have finished them on my computer. So it’s a bunch of half stories or posts.

My views on blogging have certainly changed from what I’ve said before about certain things. I have found myself writing some posts ahead and scheduling them up rather than writing and posts haphazardly. It wasn’t working. I would have ideas for posts and say to myself “okay, I’ll write it later since I don’t need to post it now.” Then I would either forget about it, lose interest in it, or see a shiny object and follow that.

Yes- I’m working on figuring out an editorial calendar. I said I’d never do it but it makes more sense since I’ve gotten more into the swing of this. This whole idea of a “Transformation Tuesday” post speaks to that.

Look at me go.

More to come.

READING

This one is a bit tougher but I’m working on it. I just wrapped up “Predator One” by Jonathan Maberry on audiobook. I started in last month when I was driving back and forth from Tallahassee for a presentation at a school. I wrapped it up just last night as I’ve been listening to it on my drives back and forth from work and other times I was in the car.

I do have some physical books that have been collecting dust for some time that I’d like to dig into. I’m thinking once I’m done writing mine I’ll feel more comfortable with using my downtime to read.

I have a few audiobooks to get me through right now and I’ll hopefully get to the real things very soon!

FINACNES

This has been an interesting one. For the first time in my life I sat down and made a budget. I looked at everything that I have been spending money on regularly and re-evaluating my need for them in my life. I removed a lot of subscription services from my life which has helped save a little here and there.

I’ve been a member of mint.com for quite some time I actually took some time to make it work for me. I’m no expert but I’m feeling a little bit more in control.

This was one of the areas I started working on in January, taking some baby steps. When I work my serving job, I come home with cash every night. I decided that each night I work, 20% of my take home or $20 (whichever was higher) would go into a little box in my room. The rest would go into the bank.

I’ve done this before as a method of saving because the money isn’t accessible. If I put it into my regular savings account, I can just keep moving it around as I need it. I know it’s there and I can use it if needed.

I needed a better plan.

At first, I looked into some banks other than the one I use. I could throw the money in there and just not think about it. As I shopped, I saw the interest rates were rather laughable. I want my money to work for me. Granted, any interest is better than what I’m earning from a box in my room.

I then stumbled upon online banking from Capital One in the form of their 360 savings account. I did some research and liked what I saw. It’s not the best in the world but it’s a great option for what I’m looking for in getting myself started.

I’m annoyed that it has taken me thing long to learn about and take control of my finances. This isn’t something that I was ever taught either by my parents or in formal education. This is a big complaint from my generation and I can’t help but agree.

See.

Memes.