The hilariously over-optimistic goals I am setting myself in 2010....

dalleDF

....One of which is to find the time to maintain this diary, which will hopefully keep me on track. The 2 main areas for change this year are pretty unoriginal. Like most people, I want to sort out my finances and lose weight. Tied into this are plans to stop smoking (so I can exercise without keeling over, hence losing weight), and cut down my drinking drastically, starting with a Dry January (saving me calories, hence losing weight, and saving money).

But before I get into the boring details of that, here is a bit of boring backstory about me. I am a young single woman who began struggling with money during university days as I tried to support myself. I admit I was irresponsible with money in my first year because I really wanted to go out partying with my new friends as much as possible, but it soon became clear that I was up sht creek with no paddle and needed to get a job. I defaulted and was late with various payments, and my credit rating is still shot from it. But who wants credit anyway right?

Despite working as much as possible and getting help from my uni's hardship fund, I still graduated with huge (consumer) debt (don't even get me started on the student loan). However, I am very proud to say that I came out with a really good degree despite all the trials and tribulations, and general stress of having no money. My debt has gone up and down since then but now that I am in a reasonable job I am starting to make definite inroads and my debt free target is November 2010, but hopefully sooner, as I have been making overpayments as much as possible. I added to my debt with a couple of big purchases, one of which was laser eye surgery (on 0% finance), but at least I have something to show for that extra debt. The rest of it was just living beyond my means. This has been around my neck for years and I will be so pleased when I can finally say I don't owe anybody anything.

Anyway, back to the health stuff.
After a hectic and messy New Year's Eve, following which I felt horrendous, I have not smoked or drunk any booze. However I have eaten lots of leftover Xmas chocolate and a whole bag of crisps. But the healthy eating plan starts tomorrow and the remaining Xmas choc is going in the bin. I have drawn up a meal plan for the coming week (a la Old Style) which will see me using up stuff from my cupboards, everything else I needed I went and bought yesterday. My budget for food this month is ridiculously small as I went a bit overboard on the festivities at Christmas. After doing a big shop yesterday, which should be most of what I need for the next 2 weeks, I have £45 to live on until the end of Jan. Ugh. But I will be taking breakfast and lunch to work every day so there should be plenty of No Spend Days in Jan.

I am also starting a hideous exercise regime tomorrow which will see me dragging my sorry carcass around a park in the freezing cold morning air with a friend of mine, and going to the gym in the evening. I hate the gym. All those people running on treadmills in time to bad house music, staring at themselves in the mirror. It's like Night of the Living Dead. However, it is costing me £42 a month so I am damn well going to start going again. If anyone reads this and wants to give me a kick up the btt when I fail to go to the gym, please remind me that when I sat down on Boxing Day my skinny jeans split. Yes, that's right, they split. Stop laughing. This is why I have to go to the gym.

So, targets for 2010:

- Get Debt Free by November! (or before). Total debt today stands at £8468
- Lose 2 stone...
by....meal planning, regular gym going and running, low carb consumption, no eating late at night (if it's good enough for Halle Berry, it's good enough for me).
- No smoking
- Dry January, followed by no drinking in the week for the rest of the year
- Paint the bathroom

Targets for today:

- Go to the dreaded gym to ease myself gently back into an exercise regime.
- Cook a big veggie stew for lunches next week.

So that's it for now. Wish me luck. Also, can someone tell me how to disable these damn bouncing smiley faces? They are driving me mad. Thanks for your attention.

ncfcbuff

Good Luck with everything Hannah

tiny_courageous

Good luck!

dalleDF

Thanks for the encouragement folks! Ok, so I didn't make it to the gym BUT I did go for a run. I felt as if I was going to vomit up my spleen afterwards, but that feeling went away after 5 or 10 hideous minutes! And I have made a huge pan of veggie bolognese which I reckon will stretch to 6 meals. So I have achieved 1.5 out of the 2 goals I set myself today. Oh well, baby steps.
I have tried to breath some new life into a big bag of Sainsburys Basics muesli which I have hardly eaten any of yet because it is so unpleasant. A bit like sawdust. I have chopped some dried apricots and cranberries and mixed those in so that will be breakfasts at work this week, maybe with some chopped banana. Yum. Have also got instant miso soup, low fat cup a soup, and munchy seeds for those 4pm sleeping-at-desk-due-to-low-blood-sugar moments. This is the time when I would normally go to the shop in search of chocolate.
And, have just realised there is a bottle of fizz in the fridge left over from new year's eve. Hmmm. It can be my reward in February for not drinking in January!

little_h_2

hi, my story sounds similar to yours in terms of how I got into debt!

just wanted to say, I am doing a dry January too and am finding it a lot easier than I thought it would. so far anyway....

I even managed a Saturday night in with no wine, normally one of my weak points.

how I will feel when i am back at work and it gets to Thursday evening and I feel like treating myself because it's "almost the weekend", I don't know.

Sounds like you are really going after the weight loss/ fitness thing, good for you!

GOOD LUCK and happy new year! :j

dalleDF

Thanks Little H, yes weekends are the hardest! This is why after January I will allow myself a little tipple at weekends but not in the week. I am going to hide all the booze in the house (if I can't see it hopefully I won't think about it) and buy in lots of lovely fruit and herbal teas to drink instead. Let me know how you get on, we can support each other in our dry month! Am looking forward to being thinner and feeling better over the next few weeks!

dalleDF

Oh yes, have also washed and put away the ashtrays. Out of sight, out of mind!

dalleDF

I went to a friend's house for dinner tonight. She very kindly modified the food for me to be lower in fat and carbs, and I managed to resist wine yay! However, I did eat a small bag of chocolate buttons for dessert. Oh well. I haven't smoked either, and every muscle in my body aches from the rigours of Boot Camp on Monday, so if it hurts it must be working. I even walked up the escalator today more than once, despite the pain. Tomorrow it is going to be snowing but I will still be out there running (or sliding) about and doing press ups.
I was supposed to make a tuna and bean salad today for tomorrow's lunch, according to the meal plan, but am shattered and have to be up so early tomorrow, so I think it's going to be veggie bolognese for the third day running. Boring but necessary.
God, what an exciting life. If anyone is actually reading this dull account of the minutiae of my life, I must apologise. I will try and inject some humour, mild peril, and possibly a love interest over the coming weeks.

dalleDF

Well, I hate to say it, but exercising in the snow was actually quite invigorating. Am feeling less achey today, think my body is starting to adjust to the new regime. Will weigh myself when I get home and see if there has been any change at all. Probably not. I'm still feeling the post-Christmas bloat, if I'm honest.

On the MSE front things are not going too well. You may remember I worked out that I had £45 to live on for the whole of January, which was pushing it I think, although I know some resourceful people are able to do it. Well an unexpected work-related expense (that I can't claim back) popped up that took half my budget, so I had to resort to *whispers* a payday loan. This is hugely embarrassing as I know how awful these things can be, although I have used them before during months where I've been short and I never roll them over or anything like that. So have borrowed £100 which will tide me over til the end of the month. Have tweaked the budget for next month to accommodate it and as I have to repay £130 (eek!) this means I have to forego a couple of things, namely a hair cut and some money I was going to save towards my summer holiday.

So not great, but at least I can eat for the rest of the month. All the monthly direct debits and standing orders went out of my account this week and I am now up to my overdraft limit of £500. This is on my list of debts to clear as I always use it all by the end of each month, but it is not a priority for me at the moment.

Anyway, away from Rich and back to Skinny. I am not normally one for new age bunkum, but I saw a free podcast on the Times website for this Hypnodiet hynotherapy weight loss thing, so I gave it a listen before bed last night. Could not stop smirking for the first five minutes as the woman put on this ridiculous Madame Zelda voice, but I had calmed down and was starting to feel relaxed by the end. Sadly the podcast ended before she moved on from relaxation to the bit where she makes me less of a greedy pig. I looked for some more free podcasts from her but there were none, so I confess I bought the CD. From Amazon, as cheap as I could get it, with free delivery. I am still v ashamed though. But I will sell it back on Amazon as soon as I have listened to it. God I am such a sucker.

domesticgoddess789

hey Hannah,

Loving your diary so far! You have a lovely entertaining way of writing and I look forward to hearing more from you over the coming months.

Goodluck with your goals and welldone so far!

dalleDF

Thanks Pink Hayley!

Weighed myself today - have put on 1lb! Arg. This is starting to feel like Bridget Jones' Diary. Hopefully the weight gain is muscle because I am bulking up. But I would rather be lithe and bendy like the Special K lady in the red one-piece.
Am also fretting about the number of things I need to pay for over the next few months - summer festival-going for example. And I am in desperate need of some new boots. Mine are about five years old, broken, letting in water and have no grip anymore. The number of times I have nearly gone a*rse over t*t in the snow today. But if I have to shell out for boots I want really good ones that will last me another five years. Have seen a pair of gorgeous Uggs but they are £140. Can I really justify this expense? Discuss.

Summary for today (Day 6), in the style of Ms Jones:

Number of cigarettes smoked - 0
Bottles of wine drunk - 0
Chocolate eaten - 4 squares
Weight gained - 1 lb
Gym visits - 0
Running around in the snow - 45 mins
Cash spent - £9 on Hypnob*llocks CD, £8 on salad stuff and fruit in Sainsburys

Hmmm. Well, in the words of New Labour, things can only get better.