As usual before I post my goals for this month, how did I do in March?
Last night on twitter I said that I’d failed all four goals in March which wasn’t quite true as without realising it we did manage to meet one of our financial goals last month.
- Save at least 50% of all our net income – achieved!
- Spend no more than £230 on grocery – failed spent £286.22
- Lose 4lbs – BIG FAIL!!
- Complete the bathroom decoration – not completed
My husband received a small work bonus and so we were able to meet our savings goal. We’ve put the money straight into our emergency/long term savings fund. Although there was a temptation to put it towards the mortgage with our move to Portugal becoming more imminent, it makes sense to keep it as cash for now.
Onto my April mini goals;
- Stick to a £230 grocery budget
- Save £1k
- Make at least £250 in extra income
- Do a car boot sale
- Finish painting the bathroom
- Update my CV (just in case)
- Walk 3 miles x 4
- Lose 6lbs <—- my main goal!
Ok it’s my intention to kick butt with my weight this month. The hills of Lisbon are awaiting and I want to be able to walk them…easily! So healthy eating and lots of walking are in store for April. Lets go!
Are you setting goals this month?
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, weightloss is my main goal for this month too. I met my savings and debt goals for March, not too sure how April will turn out yet as I had the tax refund issue to deal with. I’m hopeful! Love the photo of Portugal!!
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Laura Reply:
April 2nd, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Jane: Lets do this!
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I am working on getting my life coaching biz up and running, as well as doing guest posting on other blogs to expand my reach. Busy with work and not watching other stuff. Not great!
Hmm, weight loss. In January, I had set out to lose 20 pounds. Here it is the first of April and I have gained 2 pounds. That being said, I HAVE to get my rear moving! My goal for April, lose 5 pounds. I am going to the beach in mid May and would love to lose 10 pounds by then!
You do keep me motivated Laura!
Bernice
My latest post- More about Living a Balanced Life
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Laura Reply:
April 2nd, 2011 at 1:20 pm
@Bernice It’s hard to concentrate on every area of our lives, something has to give…anyway not in April!! Weight loss here we come! Good luck
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Loving the lofty goals you are setting for yourself – especially the exercise one!
I’d like to offer a little bit of advice on the exercise that could help you – you don’t have to pay any attention to it, but I thought I’d offer it, it does come from experience, not just recently, but from all my years of using myself as a guinea pig when it comes to exercise and nutrition.
First of all please please stop thinking of losing scale weight! It should be inches around the fattier parts of your body that you should be thinking of.
If you do any kind of exercise you will probably end up gaining some muscle mass and losing some body fat from it, and when body fat is replaced with muscle mass you don’t lose that much if any scale weight, but instead you will lose inches around the body areas that have the most excess fat on.
Take my partner Dena for instance, during the last month she has been doing some jogging/running/high intensity cycling every day 6 days a week pretty much, so you would have thought she would lose ‘lots’ of weight right?
And yet she has only lost about 4lbs in weight, all this exercise and she has only lost 4lbs – it hardly seems worth all the effort right?
BUT – the most important thing is that she has lost inches from her legs, bottom, stomach and bust area’s – and all these lost inches mean lost body fat!!
Whats happened in her case (as would happen for most people) is from all the exercise she has replaced the body fat she has been losing with muscle mass.
Even though 1lb of muscle weighs the same as a 1lb of fat, the muscle actually only takes up half the space on the body – therefore she has been losing inches around the fattier parts of her body but not losing that much weight!!
I’ll stop there – but if there is one thing I could recommend to you when you take up your walking, is to take some body stats, say around your legs, tummy, bottom and bust, and for good measure go weigh yourself too.
Then start your walking, and don’t weigh yourself or take any stats for 2 weeks.
Then take your stats in 2 weeks time and see what the difference is.
You should find that you have lost inches from the fattiest parts of your body (it might only be a quarter of an inch) and your weight may well have not changed, but you will know that you are losing body fat and building some muscle mass because you would have lost the inches.
Anyhoo – something for you to think about.
Most of all remember to have fun with what ever form of exercise you choose to do!
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Laura Reply:
April 2nd, 2011 at 1:14 pm
@ Mike Thanks for all that. I really struggle with exercise because of my back (sciatica) and last time I walked ‘too hard’ I could hardly move my hips/back for a month! It’s really difficult to get the amount/intensity of exercise right…..that’s why I concentrate more on the scale. Ten years ago I could diet and the weight inches would fall off..now it’s a more difficult process..metabolism/ease of movement etc I suppose. Anyway, thanks for the advice..I’ll keep perservering and reading your blog for inspiration
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WeeMike Reply:
April 2nd, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Ah, I see, way out of my realm, can’t give any advice on that I’m afraid, never had an injury or anything like that (touches some wood!).
Thinking about it though, have you tried swimming or cycling on a stationary bike perhaps, both should be light enough to not induce any pain.
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go girl. you started your walking marathon in London, eh? You could try doing something like cutting out wheat dairy sugar and alcohol. you end up eating mostly vegetables and it cuts out the big sinners. just an idea?
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Laura Reply:
April 4th, 2011 at 9:25 am
@Mo wheat,dairy and sugar..I may expire, lol!
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I’m impressed that you make and track your goals monthly. It seems I blinked and 3 months of the year are already gone. My main goal for the month is to get my taxes done.
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Laura Reply:
April 4th, 2011 at 9:23 am
@FirstGenAmerican Good luck, next year I’ll be doing my taxes for the very first time…I’m not looking forward to it!
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