Based on the poor progress of last year, I’ve decided to keep things simple in 2009 and only focus on two big goals.

1. Lose 50 pounds

How I’ll get there:

I had the most success last year when I was part of a friendly weight-loss competition with some of my family. We helped motivate each other and knowing we would share results each week was extra motivation to stick with the plan. We did this for about four months and it worked well for all of us. Unfortunately, over the rest of the year I gained back all the weight I had lost and then some.

We are trying the competition again this year, so far we have about 10 people signed up, and our plan is to keep this going for the whole year. We are also putting in some small amounts of cash each month ($5 per person) and giving it to the ‘biggest loser’ on a monthly basis. This is a little extra motivation, which doesn’t hurt, but obviously the important part is getting in shape and staying that way.

As of January 6, 2009, my official weight for the start of the competition is 267.6. Sadly, that is almost exactly 20 pounds heavier than I was when I wrote about achieving my first weight loss goal about a year ago—on January 7, 2008.

I’m frustrated that not only did I fail to lose weight last year, but actually gained 20 pounds when I was supposed to be focused on losing weight (that is one big reason for this blog after all), but I have to get over that and move on with things this year.

I need to take my frustration and turn it into increased effort and change my attitude this year. I can no longer accept being over weight and thinking that everything is okay just because I haven’t been hit with any major health problems (yet). I know my current lifestyle is leading me down the wrong path and I need to make some big changes before it’s too late. I’ve been overweight for about 3 years straight now and I’m getting seriously concerned about the long term effects on my health and well being.

I said my goal is to lose 50 pounds…and while that would be great, it is really just an arbitrary number. What I really want to accomplish this year is to become fit and to make exercise a regular part of my daily routine. I know now that just putting in some extra effort for a short while will get me some results, but without continuing that extra effort the weight will just come back on. I need to change from a mostly sedentary life to a regularly active one.

Rather than just making diet or exercise plans, I’m going to try to focus my time this year on developing new habits that will lead to health and fitness. For the short term, I just need to get off my butt and do any kind of exercise. For right now, that is going to mean using my treadmill and doing equipment-less exercise like pushups.

I’m also considering joining a gym, mostly because I have an inexpensive one right next to my office and it would give me access to more equipment. I’d really like to use an elliptical trainer rather than a treadmill so I’m also checking Craigslist for a good deal on an elliptical machine. For me, that’s a better way to get my heart rate up and it takes a smaller toll on my joints. Jogging can really be tough on the knees when you have an extra 50 pounds of weight to carry!

I’ll be updating my weight progress once a month and I’ll be writing a lot more this year about fitness and diet. I’m looking forward to making some big changes this year!

2. Pay off all credit card debt

How I’ll get there:

I recently wrote about finally getting our credit card debt out of the five figures. As of the start of this year, our total credit card debt is $9,776.07. That means we need to average about $815 per month of principal paid to be done with the credit cards this year. In reality, we need to add on about $50 per month for finance charges, though that will of course decrease as the year goes on. I’ll make my plan to pay $850 per month on the credit cards and to throw any extra money we have toward them.

We shouldn’t have any problem accomplishing this in 2009, but I also thought we’d get this done last year so I can’t be too sure yet. We are tightening up our budget even more than we did last year and we are continuing to cut unnecessary expenses from our lives. I think those efforts combined with some extra income from side business will be enough to accomplish this goal.

That’s it for the big goals this year. I want to keep things simple and really focus on these two things. I hope I’ll have more success than last year. Best of luck to all of us with our goals this year!

By Eden, Wed 7 Jan 2009, 2 Comments, Categories: Goals