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.

By Eden, Sun 19 Apr 2009, 1 Comment, Categories: Fat, Spending

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!).

By Eden, Sat 18 Apr 2009, Categories: Fat, Weight Loss

I’ve spent some time cleaning up the site and making some minor improvements here and there. If you only read the RSS feed, please take a few moments to click through and visit the new site.

I made some typography changes, added more padding around the text, and I think the text content now looks a lot more readable. The pages feel less crowded and a bit more pleasing to the eye.

I also added two new comment plugins: Top Commentators and CommentLuv.

Top Commentators will add a list of the top commentators on the site, updated monthly (displayed in the sidebar). If you leave enough comments to make the list, your name will display with a link to your site. I did this to help encourage more comments here and to extend a little link love to everyone who takes the time to comment. This list will reset each month.

If you’re not familiar with CommentLuv, it will automatically display a link to the most recent post from your blog (whatever URL you enter when you leave a comment). This is a great way to build links to your site and gain a little more exposure. Try leaving a comment on this post if you want to see it in action.

I hope everyone finds the changes to be helpful. I added the comment plugins to add more value and give something in return to everyone who takes the time to leave a comment. I made the text and design changes to improve readability and hopefully bring a little more traffic to the site. Please leave a comment on this post and let me know what you think.

By Eden, Tue 14 Apr 2009, 4 Comments, Categories: Administrative

At the end of February I weighed 265.4 pounds. That’s a gain of 2.6 pounds for the month, an increase of .97%.

I didn’t do as well as I did in January with keeping my diet under control, but more importantly I only exercised about two times. Obviously, that isn’t going to cut it.

The good news is, over the past couple of weeks, I started playing basketball with a friend who lives nearby for a few hours a week. I also bought an elliptical trainer from Nordic Trac (the AudioStrider 800 Elliptical). I’m going to try to use that two to three times a week, in addition to the basketball. The built-in weight loss program on the Nordic Trac is a really great workout for me so I’m excited and hopeful that I’ll see some better results in March.

By Eden, Tue 3 Mar 2009, 3 Comments, Categories: Fat

As of the end of February 2009, my total credit card debt is down to $8,969.87. This means I have paid a total of $16,589.95 from the time I started this blog with $25,559.82 in credit card debt.

My pay-off pace has slowed a bit lately, but I expect to be making a rather large payment in the next month or two and possibly eliminating the third credit card of the four that I started with.

It won’t be long until I’m done with credit cards for good!

By Eden, Mon 2 Mar 2009, 1 Comment, Categories: Credit Cards, Debt

As I wrote at the start of the year, one of my big goals for 2009 is to lose 50 pounds.

One of my keys to achieving this goal is accountability. I’m doing a monthly weight loss contest with about 10 people in my family and this has really helped me to stay on track and make better choices with the type and quantities of foods I eat.

That being said, I did very little exercise in the month of January. I focused more on my diet and portion control, which obviously helped, but I desperately need to add exercise if I’m going to have a real chance of losing 50 pounds this year.

I started the year at 267.6 pounds and finished January at 262.8 pounds. That’s a loss of 4.8 pounds, for a change of 1.79%.

By Eden, Sun 1 Feb 2009, Categories: Fat

There were many great posts written in the blogosphere over the past week. Below are a few of my favorites.

The thing about goals [from Seth Godin] – Life would be easier if you didn’t bother to set any goals…but you’d be lagging behind your goal setting colleagues.

When Your Financial State Improves, Do Your Frugal Standards Change? [from The Simple Dollar] – Nice look at why we are doing this frugality ‘thing’, what is truly important, and how to progress as your financial life improves.

Ask the Readers: How Much Money Would it Take For You to Compromise Your Principles? [from Get Rich Slowly] – Very interesting discussion on money, values, and ethics. Lots of great comments.

5 Time management tricks I learned from years of hating Tim Ferriss [from Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk] – This is an interesting one, with an obviously negative tone, but it touches on some important points on building personal relationships and how to keep the proper perspective.

The Single Secret to Making 2009 Your Best Year Ever [from Zen Habits] – Great article with one simple thing to focus on this year.

By Eden, Sat 10 Jan 2009, Categories: Web Favorites