July 20, 2013

4 Weeks In

Four weeks ago my husband cleaned off our dry erase board that hangs on the kitchen wall.
Four weeks ago we sat down for a long talk about finances, eating habits, and our team work.

We have gone through these phases before. Something similar to a New Years Resolution Wake-up-call. We have tried to lose weight, save money, be better stewards, or plan for a trip. We have tried all this many times.

This time nothing was different. Same goals. Same reason.


But now, it's 4 weeks later.
We made it 4 weeks !


Week #1 
This week we went back to healthy basics. No more fast food. No more Dr.Pepper. 
Our favorite food secret weapon is eMeals ! ( Thank you Jon Acuff ) We have been using eMeals off & on for out 3 years now. This time, we jumped in with both feet and signed up for a full year of meal plans!

 Instead of a Taco Bell run, my husband would bring a picnic to work !
To get off the couch we started using our Xbox Kinect instead of paying of a gym fee. Workouts during the day and 1 mile walks every evenings. Every Monday we weigh in to see the results. 

Some positive fridge art !

One of the powerful things we learned that week about healthy food habits was this:
"Cant go wrong with fruits and veggies. And look at every meal, see if there is at least one item you could switch for a fresher version." 

Week #2
The regular exercising and fresher foods increased my energy. Late one night I decided our house needed a deep cleaning. This was about the time of my ( Mid 20's crisis). I started cleaning out closets,drawers, and boxes from the garage. All of a sudden we were ready for a garage sale !

We jumped to the hustle, got an ad in the paper, and signs on town corners for a Friday and Saturday sale.  This was at the end of Day 1.

On day #2 of the sale, we had a secret weapon for sales: 

The sale was a huge hit ! We made over $500, cleaned out our lives, and created the fresh start we were looking for. It felt amazing to have more room and less to worry about ! 

 We were exhausted but it was so worth it !


Week #3
We can really feel the extra energy and clutter free living space. I started week 3 with a Pinterest project I had put on the back burner. A great display for all of our ticket stubs !

We also increased our walking to 3 miles a night and my husband is considering a signing up for 5K in September ! This week we also introduced a cleaning routine to keep us on our feet and keep our house ready for any guests and any time.



Week #4 begins Now ! 
Going into week 4 feels awesome.
I crave water and better food. We had a fast food snack on a busy day and hated it !
We love our evenings walks and arrange our plans so we don't miss it.
I sleep better. I feel better.


Like I said. We have tried this before. I think it speaks volume that we are trying to better ourselves. We are trying and that is something.

Like I said, it's been 4 weeks.
That's pretty awesome progress !

~Renda

4 comments:

  1. This is awesome! I am loving that Pinterest project for the ticket stubs! Keep It Up! :)

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  2. wowee! what a month! you are inspiring. I want to clean out my entire house now! I imagine that little cutie you had peddling lemonade made you a fortune.
    stopping by via Women Living Well - have a great weekend!

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  3. You guys are on fire! So proud of all the things you have accomplished!

    1 mile a day... that seems like something I could accomplish. Even though I dislike running, you can do anything for a mile right?!

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  4. I'm so inspired by you, Renda! My husband have those "talks" all of the time. Many times we stick to the plan for quite a while, but somehow we always slip up! We LOVE eating food together. It's so silly because I know we love eating healthy food together too! And our finances... eww! We have a hard time sticking to a budget. It's been a BIG year and we've had unexpected trips due to illnesses and deaths so we keep getting behind. I was so excited to come home yesterday and see my hubby working on our budget.
    And, he's signing up for the Start Experiment! Yahoo!
    Here's to new beginnings... healthy, financially free, beginnings!

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