Finance and Fat

My 54 Pound iPhone Challenge

Eden — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:25:53 +0000

I want an iPhone. I’ve had my eye on one since it was released back in June of 2007. However, I’ve resisted purchasing one because I don’t NEED an iPhone. It is purely a WANT, an indulgence, a waste of money. I could try to justify it, but it’s just an expensive toy.

While it’s true that the iPhone is just a toy, there are no rules in personal finance against buying toys. You just have to be smart about it and, for me, that means planning ahead, saving the money, and paying cash. I can do all of that, but I still haven’t made the purchase.

Yesterday, I decided that I am finally going to do it. However, there is one big caveat. I made a deal with my wife that I won’t buy an iPhone until I get my weight down to 210 pounds.

I think this is a great way to incentivize my weight-loss by adding a tangible reward. It’s something I really want and it’s also easy to put up pictures of the iPhone as motivation/reminders for me to stick with my exercise and diet routine. It also gives me plenty of time to save the money, decide for sure that I really want to buy one (of course I do, but it sounds good to say that), and hopefully enough time for Verizon to start selling the iPhone so I won’t be stuck with AT&T.

To be clear, I’m not only losing weight for an iPhone. I want and need to lose weight and I’ve been working on it, unsuccessfully, for the past two years. This is just another tool in the motivational toolbox that I’m trying out. If weight loss was only about rational decisions, I would have lost the weight already. It’s obvious that I need more help on the emotional/mental side and that’s what I’m hoping this little game will do.

As of my last weigh-in, on June 30th, I was 263.4 pounds. Losing 54 pounds will put me just under 210. Obviously, this will take some time. Averaging 1 pound per week means this could take more than a year. However, I have a lot of weight to lose and I think I could get it done a lot faster if I really work at it. This will be an interesting test of the benefits of external motivation and whether I will do better than I have so far.

I’m going back to weekly weigh-ins and reports on this blog so please check back in to see my progress. Also, please let me know if you’ve tried a reward system when losing weight and how that worked for you and if you have any tips for success.

My 54 Pound iPhone Challenge

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Weekly Web Favorites

Eden — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:05:27 +0000

Sharing some of my favorite links from the past week or so.

Teach yourself to cook [from Wise Bread] – Great look at how and why you should be cooking at home (I completely agree).

Benefits of Homemade Household Cleaners [from Five Cent Nickel] – Why you might want to make your own household cleaning products.

the four(ty) hour workweek [from brip blap] – In-depth look at the popular book (The 4-Hour Workweek
) and figuring out what freedom from work really means.

FDIC Steps In to Keep Ally Bank’s Interest Rates Lower [from Consumerism Commentary] – Too much government interference in the private sector? I certainly think so.

Note – I add all of my weekly web favorites (as well as many more links) to my StumbleUpon page, which you can visit at any time to see all of my favorite links.

Weekly Web Favorites

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Eating Fresh Isn’t Easy

Eden — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:08:21 +0000

I’m working hard to eat more fruits and vegetables in my diet. I’m also preparing large batches of brown rice to bring to lunch at work during the week. This takes a lot of time!

Buying fresh fruits and vegetables means taking the time to clean, cut, and store everything. Making rice means prep time to put together the vegetables, rice, and other ingredients. You have to cook it all, store it all, and clean up afterward. Doing all of this takes a lot of time. It would be a lot faster to take a Hot Pocket out of the freezer and microwave it for two minutes (this is what I did for a long time). No offense to Hot Pockets, but that is obviously not the healthy choice.

It’s not easy, and it’s hard to sacrifice the time when you’re busy with work and life but it’s worth it in the end. After all, when is taking the easy way out the right decision?

Eating Fresh Isn’t Easy

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The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class

Eden — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:40:52 +0000

To follow-up yesterday’s post, here is another excellent book that I came across while cleaning out my book collection yesterday. The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class by Keith Cameron Smith.

This is another short, excellent book that covers the basics that need to be understood to become wealthy. Don’t read too much into the title though, the focus isn’t about becoming a ‘rich millionaire’ rather solid advice that anyone can follow to become wealthy an successful.

Much like The Richest Man in Babylon, this book is packed with great information and keeps the advice short and sweet. It’s only 112 pages long (small pages at that), so you should probably set aside a couple of hours to read it all at once. However, the key with this book isn’t to just take in the information and move along. I highly recommend looking at each of the 10 sections and taking the time to review and work on the areas that need improvement in your life.

Read this book if you want some great motivation and an outline for financial success.

The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class

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Weight Loss Update, May 2009

Eden — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:42:12 +0000

I’m late posting this update, but I want to make sure it’s here so I can look back at my weight loss posts later. On May 26, 2009 I weighed-in at 258.4 pounds (see my all-time weight loss chart here).

I’m participating in a weight loss contest with some of my family and we weigh-in once a month, so the May 26th weigh-in was my ‘official’ weight for the month. That was good for a loss of 1.6 pounds in May. I lost 4.6 pounds in April, so I suppose it’s reasonable to expect a bit of a drop-off, but I feel like I should have lost more weight in May.

I was on vacation for the past week and a half and I know I ate a lot of food so I’m not going to be getting on the scale again any time soon. My next contest weigh-in date is June 30th, so I’ll probably wait until the week before that to weigh-in again.

I attribute most of my success over the past 2 months to playing basketball. But it’s been about 2 weeks since I last played, so I need to get back on that as soon as possible. Not only is the basketball great exercise, but I have the desire to do exercise apart from playing basketball to help improve my game so that’s an extra bonus. It seems that having a sport to focus on is incredibly helpful with weight loss motivation.

I’ve also bought a few exercise gadgets lately and I’m trying some different workouts, which I will write about in further detail in the coming weeks as I have a chance to evaluate them.

Weight Loss Update, May 2009

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The Richest Man in Babylon

Eden — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:54:23 +0000

I spent some time cleaning out my book collection today and came across a few favorites that are worth mentioning again. One of which is the The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason.

This is one of my favorite personal finance books and it’s a definite must-read if you are working on improving your finances. Not only is the information excellent, but it’s a short book too (my version is only 144 small pages).

The beauty of this book is that it’s not selling a gimmick or an easy way out. It simply gives you good fundamentals and a simple plan that anyone can understand and implement in their lives.

If you already know to pay yourself first and avoid debt, then you probably don’t need this book. Everyone else should read it as soon as possible. I found it to be one of the best books I read as I was getting started with figuring out my financial mess. This book and Your Money or Your Life are the two that come to mind first when someone asks me where to get started with personal finance.

The Richest Man in Babylon

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Fitness Reset and Weight Loss Update

Eden — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:36:23 +0000

Back on September 12, 2007 I started writing about my weight loss efforts on this site. That was more than a year and a half ago and I weighed 266 pounds. I mentioned in that post that it was “the heaviest weight of my life”. On January 6, 2009 I weighed 267.6 pounds. How’s that for progress?

The sad part is that I was down as low as 245.8 pounds back on March 11, 2008 (see my complete weight loss chart here). That was pretty nice progress, losing just over 20 pounds in about six months. However, I remember thinking then that my progress was too slow. Needless to say, I’d give up a lot of things today to get those 20 pounds back.

As of today, I weigh 260.4 pounds. My goal for 2009 is to weigh 217.6 pounds (50 pounds lower than I started the year). I have a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it, but I’m committing myself to the fitness routine again and I’m going to try to get back to what I was doing right a year ago. Look for regular, more frequent fitness and weight loss updates here in the future.

Fitness Reset and Weight Loss Update

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What I’m Trying to Accomplish Here or a ‘Where’s the Value’ Manifesto

Eden — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:26:37 +0000

*Maybe this is just a rant, and maybe it’s a bit long, but I think it turned into something worthwhile.

What’s the point of this blog and why do I spend my time writing it?

I started this blog after discovering a few personal finance blogs, I think Get Rich Slowly was the first one I found. I thought doing this would help me get organized and get focused on getting out of debt and getting in shape.

If I’m being honest, I also thought that by writing a blog about getting out of debt I could find vast riches and end up paying off all of my debt just by posting those annoying little Google ads on the site and waiting for the dollars to roll in. Of course, as 99% of all bloggers have found, the money doesn’t come rolling in very fast and only a select few, such as J.D. at Get Rich Slowly, Darren at ProBlogger, Bob at Christian Personal Finance, and Leo at Zen Habits can actually turn blogging into a full-time job (see what I did there? I linked to all of those fancy bloggers hoping that I would get noticed—I can’t help myself!).

I started off fairly well here, I was up to almost 200 subscribers after only a couple of months of blogging. Of course, back then I was posting frequently and taking the time to comment on other blogs and link to other blogs to help get noticed. Shockingly, not posting frequently and not working to get any attention for the site caused the traffic to drop substantially.

And therein lies the rub…you have to work on your blog like it’s a full-time job, or at least a part-time job, just to get it off the ground and achieve even a modest level of traffic, all the while only putting a few dollars in your pocket- if you’re even lucky enough to earn money above your hosting costs. And that’s when blogging died for me*. I could spend that same time doing freelance work for real money as opposed to earning pennies per hour for my efforts here. So that’s what I did, and I earned a lot of money on the side and paid off a lot of debt.

*Not that I’m bitter, this is officially a hobby, not a business. At least that’s how it will be until the money starts rolling in, and that’s okay. Really, I’m not bitter. I think. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m not.

So where does that leave me and what’s the point?

I’m going to keep writing here and I’m not going to worry about the money or turning this into a job. I already have a ‘real’ job it’s pretty good to me, and I enjoy most of what I do there. I don’t need to add a second job to my already busy life. However, I actually enjoy writing, and I need to do more of it to improve my skills, so that is going to be the real motivator behind continuing to write here.

To be perfectly honest, I find the topic of personal finance rather boring—if you’re honest about it, don’t you think so too? I wish I had chosen a different topic. Once you figure out that you need to live below your means, you’re pretty much done with your personal finance education. That’s the 80% part of the 80/20 rule. The rest is just filling in little details, which can certainly be helpful, but your bang for the buck drops precipitously the farther you go.

I feel like I’ve made a lot more progress on the finance part of this finance and fat concept than I have on the fat battle. However, just like ‘live below your means‘ losing weight can be summed up just as easily- burn more calories than you consume. I don’t really need to learn more about fitness, I just need to get off the couch and exercise while eating fruit instead of donuts. Of course the concept is simple and the devil is in the details, but I think mostly we just like adding to those details so we feel like we are accomplishing something worthwhile when the answer is really just to get off the couch and go for a walk or do some pushups.

Well, I just told you that I think personal finance is boring and there’s nothing more to learn about it and I think the same concept applies to losing weight. I guess the cat is out of the bag, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop writing here and it doesn’t mean that I can’t provide anything of value here.

Frankly, I’m very jealous of this guy, Chris at The Art of Non-Conformity, and I want to try to emulate his model of blogging success. I don’t want to remain beholden to Google and AdSense, but I have to create something of real value first. That is of course my next task.

I do think I have something to add to the conversation and I think I can offer a unique perspective. I’m no longer going to share the same crap you can read on 1,000 other personal finance blogs. If I don’t have something at least somewhat unique to say, I won’t say anything at all.

I’ll continue to share updates of my own, real progress because people seem to like that. I think I can offer a little hope, being the average guy that I am who is actually making some real progress to improve my life…and I didn’t do it by finding the perfect money hack or buying the right e-book.

It’s just a matter of working hard and focusing your efforts in the right place. And that’s the message I want to convey and that’s where I think some real value can be created. That’s where I’ll be focusing my efforts and I’m going to do my best to come up with content that is actually valuable to you. And if you made it this far, you really deserve some valuable content! I promise it’s coming soon. Thanks for reading.

What I’m Trying to Accomplish Here or a ‘Where’s the Value’ Manifesto

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Removing Barriers to Success: New Exercise Clothes

Eden — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:20:52 +0000

In the past month or so, I started playing basketball again. I say again because I grew up playing basketball, played it all the way through high school, and continued to play for fun for several years after that. Of course, I was in great shape back then. Sadly, for the past three-and-a-half years, I’ve lived an almost entirely sedentary lifestyle where playing basketball is almost as crazy for me as running a marathon.

Fortunately, I have a friend who lives about a mile away and we have a school nearby with two basketball courts. We decided to start playing to get back in shape. Even though it’s only the two of us playing 1-on-1, the amount of exercise in one hour of playing is tremendous. I felt like I was going to die the first day we played. I was completely winded after a few minutes and I was sore for days afterward. I’ve continued to play though, and I feel more energetic every time we go. I think it’s making a huge difference for me.

So, while all of that sounds great, I did have one small obstacle to clear in order to play more frequently and to enjoy it more. When I started playing again, I only had one good pair of basketball shorts and only two t-shirts that were comfortable and fit me well. That may not sound like much of a problem, but when you’re busy working and trying to fit in a game of basketball at the end of the day, you don’t really have time to manage your laundry. Wearing clothes that are too tight or a little old and worn out, even just for exercise, doesn’t make you feel very good about what you’re doing and can make skipping a day a bit easier than it should be.

To solve this problem, I went out and bought three new pairs of basketball shorts and five new t-shirts. I made sure they all fit me well, looked good, and made me feel good wearing them. I spent about $90 for my new basketball wardrobe. I know this probably sounds trivial, but it really makes a big difference. I look forward to playing more now because I can put on the clothes that make me feel like an athlete again. Sure, I’m still fat, but at least I’m dressed for getting fit.

I value saving money and being frugal, but you’ve got to be prepared to spend some money to set yourself up for success and remove the little barriers that may not be obvious at first. So think about what you’re trying to accomplish and look for the little things that get in your way and don’t be afraid to spend some money to eliminate those barriers.

Removing Barriers to Success: New Exercise Clothes

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Twittering the Pounds Away

Eden — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:23:09 +0000

Since The Oprah is now on Twitter, I imagine it should be safe to write a post about Twitter and figure that most of you will know what the heck I’m talking about. If you’re not sure, just click over to Twitter and give it a try.

I already have a personal Twitter account, where I write about anything and everything- follow at your own risk. So I thought it would be a good idea to create an account just for the Finance and Fat blog.

Finance and Fat on Twitter will be used to keep an exercise journal, keep track of my weight every time I hit the scale, and hopefully it can work as an accountability tool too. I’d love it if you followed me and felt free to yell at me if you don’t see me posting about my exercise regularly, or if you see too many posts related to In ‘N Out Burger…Speaking of food, I’ll try to write a bit about my diet, maybe just the really good and really bad so it doesn’t become too tedious. I’ll be sure to write about anything new I’m trying and whether I find promising results or not.

If you find a real-time exercise and weight loss journal to be compelling content, please follow Finance and Fat on Twitter and help keep me accountable and help me to reach my weight loss goal in 2009 (I’ve got a long way to go!).

Twittering the Pounds Away

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