Life Balance

5 Budget friendly Family Travel Tips

2013-04-28T12:30:00Z

What is your idea of a fun family getaway?

Whether it is taking the kids to Disney, a cruise or a family friendly resort, chances are that your family getaway will not happen if you are not able to afford it.

Here are five ways to save on your family travel budget.

Have Extra Family Come Along

Considering you can have fun with your extended family members, it can help to ask some of them to travel with you. Then the shared costs of the hotel room, gas, toll charges, food, etc. will save money as well as time. Some hotels will even offer you a group discount, so you save even more on your stay. To avoid any complications during the trip, it is best to gather everyone going and have a vacation plan before you hit the road. Go over where you will eat and stay, take restroom and meal breaks (if you are traveling by car) and childcare.

Use Membership Discounts

Programs like AAA have several discounts for travelers. Some of the discounts include gas savings, food, attraction tickets, hotels and more. If you are traveling by plane, this may be the best time to cash in on your frequent flyer miles.

Use Any Spare Gift Cards

If you are planning ahead of time for your trip, the holidays are the biggest time of year to give and receive gift cards. Some of these gift cards, especially the restaurant gift cards, can help you save at meal time. If you run into gift cards you do not need, some companies will let you trade in those gift cards for actual money. That is money in your pocket that you can use towards your trip.

Take Food and Snacks with You

Sometimes the biggest expense on the trips can be meals and snacks. Just by bringing along a cooler you can pack it full of snacks and drinks. If you are traveling with friends and family, before leaving make sure everyone traveling has an ample amount of snacks.

Choose the Right Hotel

When traveling with a family, look for a hotel that offers added freebies such as free breakfast, free Wi-Fi and internet access, and free rollaway beds or cribs. Some hotels will offer a local entertainment book that is full of coupons and other discounts so you can save on your trip.

By taking the time to plan ahead of time and using a little creativity, you will be able to have fun on your vacation and not break your budget.

Celeste Whitehead

Celeste is a work at home mommy of two living in sunny Tampa Bay Area, Florida! A California girl at heart moving to Florida kept her close to her love...the beach. She spends most of her time living, loving and laughing with her husband and their two amazing children. As a Global Team of 200 member, Celeste loves that she can use her blog as a voice to lend to those that do not have one. She loves to encourage others to provide support and help to those in need all over the world.

Assessing Your Fitness

2013-04-09T11:45:00Z

How fit are you? How fit do you want to be?

Answering these questions, and writing down your answers so you can revisit them later, is a great way to kick off a fitness program -- or to take your fitness program to the next level.

What Are Your Fitness Goals?

First, write down some fitness goals. I encourage you to jot down some ideas for this -- really get the pencil moving across the page -- even before you're certain of the goals you're choosing. Call the first version a rough draft, if you need to, but get your ideas on the page. You can always refine them later.

It's crucial that these are YOUR goals. Maybe your brother has run eight marathons -- that doesn't mean you "should" want to run even one. Maybe you don't care about how you look in a bikini -- which is fine. Write down things that are meaningful to you, even if they're as simple as "Fit into my old jeans again."

Also, be sure to come up with a handful of goals so that it's not all about one thing. There may be days when you're not motivated to work on losing fat so you can fit into your old jeans . . . but you could work on your flexibility, your strength, or your nutrition.

Numbers from Your Doctor

It's a good idea to talk to your doctor before you launch into a fitness program, especially if you're following training or nutrition plans that you haven't tried before. And while it's hardly a fun thing to think about, you should also have your bloodwork done so that your doctor can talk to you about cholesterol and related fats, blood glucose, and other indicators of your health.

For that matter, when's the last time you had a full physical? If it's been more than a year, pick up the phone and set an appointment today. What you find out from that visit may help you clarify or expand your goals to include things like lowering your cholesterol or getting your blood sugar in line.

How Far Do You Have to Go?

Now that you have a good idea of where you're headed, figure out exactly where you're starting. Look back at that list of goals and figure out how you'll measure progress for each one. For example, if you want to fit into those old jeans, but you know you're three sizes too big for them right now, each smaller size from where you are represents a milestone along the way to your goal.

Finally, "field test" yourself against your goals. Forgive yourself in advance for any results that aren't ideal, but be sure to write down the results. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

Try on all of your clothes. If you're slimming down, go through your wardrobe to see what fits you now, what will fit you when you're partway to your goal, and what (besides those jeans!) will fit you once you've hit your goal. Sort your closet by size so that the next smaller set of clothes is waiting for you as a reminder of the fitter version of you that will be arriving soon.
Go for a half-hour walk, run, swim, or bike ride. If you have goals for cardiovascular fitness and endurance, take a crack at your favorite activity to see how it works for you. Maybe you figure out that you can jog for only 15 minutes before you get winded, but that you can walk the rest of the half-hour with no problem. Maybe you figure out that you need new running shoes. Whatever it is, write down what you learn.
Test your ability to do pushups. Even if you plan to hit the weight room to get really strong, you can use a simple pushup test to determine where you're starting. How many pushups in a row can you do? Or how many sets of 20 pushups can you do within 15 minutes?
Take your best shot at your favorite yoga pose. Maybe once upon a time you could bend at the waist and touch your nose to your knee. If flexibility is one of your goals, see how close you are to your old standards. Just don't give yourself a muscle strain!

Your findings from these field tests -- along with the numbers from your doctor -- will give you a baseline to compare against as you make progress toward your goals.

One note: I recommend that you DON'T make the number on the scale a regular part of your self-assessment. Sure, weigh yourself now -- and even take your picture in your bathing suit -- so you can have a "Before" to compare yourself to later. But don't obsess about your weight along the way, because it can fluctuate naturally even when you're succeeding with your fitness plans (especially as you add muscle). Focus instead on how your clothes fit, how you feed yourself, and how you feel, and the number on the scale should take care of itself.

Now get started!

What are YOUR fitness goals right now?

How fit will you be a year from now?

You ARE an Athlete

Take Charge: Tackle Childhood and Family Obesity

Tim Walker

Tim is a writer, marketer, and social media pro living in Austin, Texas. He joined CareOne's blogging team as a contributing writer in 2009. As a blogger who has personally overcome debt challenges, he draws from his own experience to provide tips on living a balanced life and keeping fit. You can read more of his thoughts (on fitness and everything else) at his personal blog, What I've Learned So Far. You can read Tim's CareOne blogs in A Straight Talk on Debt. Compensated Blogger for CareOne Debt Relief Services.

To connect with Tim on Google+ click Tim Walker

To follow Tim on Twitter click here!

Raising Kids with Healthy Habits

2013-03-12T12:30:00Z

Want to adopt healthy habits for yourself? Spread the love! Helping your kids to eat better, stay active, and practice good financial habits is a winner for everyone.

For starters, it's simply good parenting to model the behaviors you want your children to adopt. More than that, involving the whole family can create a virtuous cycle of positive reinforcement. Adopting a new habit can be hard, but it would be even harder to do it all by yourself. Changing your habits alongside people who love you makes it so much easier.

Show Commitment

A great place to start with this is to pick one habit, then take small actions that reinforce it and show your commitment to doing it better. For instance, if you want to eat healthier, stop buying the junk food that you've been putting in your pantry and refrigerator. If there are no chips and sodas in the house, every member of the household is likely to eat just a little bit better, day in and day out.

Similarly, you can make exercise a regular part of your household routine. One easy way to do this is to get a big dog and bring one of the kids with you when you take it for a walk. You get fresh air and some quality time with your child, and the youngster thinks of it as "getting outside with Fido" (fun!) rather than "exercising with Mom" (boring!).

One other way to show commitment is to deliberately keep things positive. Energy is infectious -- spread yours around!

Learn by Doing, Learn by Teaching

As you encourage new habits in yourself and your family, make a point to emphasize learning new things rather than getting everything "correct" on the first try. When you give people permission to try things, screw up, and try again, they're much likelier to grow in a good direction.

For your kids, the best thing you can do is to teach them to learn by getting their hands dirty. Some examples:

Want to eat healthier? Get in the kitchen and start making a mess -- eventually it will be a healthy, delicious mess.
Want to learn about computers? Start programming. (Code Year is a great place to start.)
Want to get better at handling money? Set up a bank account and a spreadsheet today and start tracking and budgeting.
Want to get fitter? Skip the elaborate workout plan for now and start with some pushups.
Want to make your own cool projects? Head over to Make magazine, then hit the hardware store.

For you, the best way to learn something is to teach it. So, for instance, if you want to know more about good nutrition, educate yourself enough that you can give simple, straightforward answers to your kids about why you're making the healthy choices you are with the food that you all eat.

Persistent Progress

As you go along, remember to focus on one small thing at a time . . . and then repeat that process endlessly. It's the right way to build good new habits for yourself, but it also sets the right tone for your kids. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the fact that something is a big project shouldn't make it a BIG SCARY PROJECT. It just means that you need to slice it into smaller parts, then start immediately to take care of those parts.

Taking these steps means that you'll have allies in your household who are pursuing the same goals that you are and who encourage you in your efforts. Cultivate those allies!

What are YOU doing to raise a family with healthy habits?

Take Charge: Tackle Childhood and Family Obesity

Use the New School Year to Reboot Your Family's Habits

9 Ways to Keep Your Kids Active through the Summer

Tim Walker

To connect with Tim on Google+ click the following link: <"href="https://plus.google.com/107398706366779880914?rel=author">Tim Walker</a>

<a rel="author" target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/107398706366779880914?rel=author">Travis Pizel</a>

To follow Tim on Twitter click here!

Automatic Progress

2013-02-12T13:30:00Z

Are you sure that you're making progress toward your goals?

Can you rely on the habits you have to day to move you forward automatically?

Today I'm returning to this theme, which I've approached from several different angles in past columns, because I think it's that important. Ready? Here it is:

You must set up rituals that lead to automatic progress.

Moving ahead on your goals is hard enough when you don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. It might be impossible -- and will certainly be discouraging -- if you're constantly flitting from one method to the next. What you want are some rock-solid habits that bring good results (even small ones), rain or shine.

Look for Leverage

Think about the big areas of your life. What's really important to you? It's probably some mix of health, finances, relationships, career, and what we might call "fulfillment" -- all of those things that help us to love life more. Now, think: what's are simple but powerful ways that you can reinforce each area's importance and ensure steady progress in that area?

1. For your health, you're looking for rituals that encourage good nutrition and regular exercise -- like planning your nutrition and finding a workout buddy.

2. In finance, you want to reinforce sensible spending, debt retirement, and a habit of saving. Spend ten minutes on this blog and you'll find lots and lots of ideas for positive financial rituals -- but one of my favorites is to set up automatic payments and deductions that foster good behavior.

3. In relationships, the emphasis is on nurturing deep bonds with the people who matter to you, and doing it regularly. In our hectic lives, this often needs to be planned if you want to make sure it gets done.

4. If it's your career, it should be about building your work skills and experience -- and your connections with relevant customers and peers -- week in and week out. Again, this often doesn't happen on its own.

5. If it's fulfillment, I encourage you to step back and think about the whole fabric of your life. (Maybe by writing your own obituary?) Focus on the one or two things that you could change that would bring you the greatest sense of fulfillment.

My advice is to get a notebook and a pen, sequester yourself someplace quiet for an hour or two, and just start scribbling notes for each area. Don't worry about getting it "right" at the beginning -- just start airing out your ideas.

Make Fewer Decisions

Starting with your notes about the high-leverage areas, make some simple decisions that you won't have to rethink every day. If you know that drumming up new business is the most important thing you can do in your career, then commit to working at it for at least some fixed amount of time each day or week. For instance, you could make a habit of e-mailing three new prospective clients in your network first thing each morning.

The point is, once each decision is in place, you don't revisit it or change it unless it's obviously -- and I mean obviously -- hurting you.

More examples:

Trying to keep off all that weight you lost? Pick three junk foods you can live without -- say, doughnuts, potato chips, and hard candy -- and then always refuse them. You might still allow yourself other treats, if that works for you, but not those.
Want to rejuvenate your relationship with your spouse? Set aside a regular date night (a friend of mine uses alternate Thursdays), block it out on your calendar, and book a babysitter in perpetuity. Then defend that time against every possible interruption.
Always wanted to be a musician? Book those guitar lessons for yourself right now, or find a playing buddy who will expect to see you twice a week at scheduled jam sessions.

For more ideas, check out my column on the power of making fewer decisions and then sticking with them.

Rethink Your Schedule

In my own experience and from all of my observation and reading, successful people typically embed rituals into their schedule that automatically lead to the outcomes they're looking for. It could mean focused reading to become an expert in your field, or it could mean the daily practice regime of a Roger Federer or Yo-Yo Ma.

Recently I came across a great summary of some of these powerful daily habits from the well-known business coach Brian Tracy. He includes habits like rising early to read for an hour in your specialty, planning each day in advance, and constantly asking yourself what you can do better next time. Although the article frames these in terms of pursuing financial freedom, they really work for whatever big goals you're trying to achieve.

Now, over to you:

What are you doing to ensure automatic progress toward your goals?

What will you do differently -- today and this week -- to increase your success?

Automate Your Financial Decisions

Organize Your Nutrition in Advance

Set a Training Schedule and Follow It

Tim Walker

To connect with Tim on Google+ click the Tim Walker

To follow Tim on Twitter click here

Take Pleasure

2012-09-18T12:30:00Z

For the past couple of months, we've been using a new mantra each week as a reminder to pursue good balance in life. This week, it's not about self-improvement, but about enjoying the things you already have.

The mantra: "Take pleasure."

See how often you can repeat those words to yourself in the days to come, and let those words steer your thoughts in a positive direction. The point is to take pleasure each day, in the normal settings of your life, instead of waiting for things to be better "someday."

Appreciate Where You Are

The problem with "someday" is that it never comes. When we get past one challenge, we often don't pause to savor that moment of achievement. Instead, our minds shift to other worries. Life can feel like an unending burden.

My advice: take stock of everything that's good in your life right now. Maybe your financial situation is bad, but your health is good. So take a minute to appreciate your good health. Or maybe you enjoy your job. Maybe you've been getting into better shape. Maybe your dog loves you. It doesn't matter what it is -- just look around and find something that's working for you.

Keep in mind that it doesn't have to be something "big." You could take enjoyment from listening to a band you really like, or reading Game of Thrones, or digging in your garden and watching the plants grow. Whatever is good, savor it.

Assume that Life Is Supposed to be Good

And savor life itself. Living and breathing and trying to achieve something good day by day is better than the alternative. That's why you should take pleasure in everything good that comes along.

Sure, when things are going bad, or when life in general seems to be a drudge, it's easy to overlook the good things that are happening. You take on a pessimistic view. You worry. You doubt. Maybe you even come to believe that the deck is stacked against you.

But life isn't out to get you. And life can be beautiful, even at times when it seems bleak. That's why I encourage you to make "take pleasure" your mantra this week -- and to look for all the ways that you can take pleasure from life.

Today, for instance, we finally got a milder day after months and months of the sweltering Texas summer. I have a million projects underway at work and plenty of other concerns in my life, but for a little while as I drove around today I could simply take pleasure in the clear skies and cooling breeze.

In your own life, you might hear a beautiful song, talk to an old friend, visit one of your favorite places, or simply enjoy a wonderful memory. (Note that those are all things that you can initiate for yourself.) Whatever happens, you have the ability to look for the good in life and enjoy it.

Isn't that better than dwelling on what's wrong? I hope you'll agree that it's at least worth a try.

What will you do this week to take pleasure in your life?

Count Your Blessings

Think of How Far You've Come

Time to Examine Assumptions About Money and Happiness

Tim Walker

Tim is a writer, marketer, and social media pro living in Austin. He joined CareOne's blogging team as a contributing writer for the Life Balance blog in 2009. As a blogger who has personally overcome debt challenges, he draws from his own experience to provide tips on living a balanced life and keeping fit. You can read more of his thoughts (on fitness and everything else) at his personal blog, What I've Learned So Far. Compensated Blogger for CareOne Debt Relief Services.

To connect with Tim on Google+ click here: Tim Walker

To follow Tim on Twitter click here!

Eliminate Distractions!

2012-05-01T12:15:00Z

How serious are you about your core priorities -- the Big Things you want from life? However serious you've been, my advice is to increase your dedication to those FEW things that will matter to you on your deathbed someday.

What I'm proposing today: clear your mind and your schedule by eliminating everything extraneous so you can pour yourself into the Big Things.

What Counts as a Distraction?

You might think of a "distraction" only as something that interrupts you or obviously keeps you from concentrating. People stopping by your desk at work, a dripping faucet, that sort of thing.

But take a wider view. A distraction is ANYTHING keeping you from doing your Big Things. It could be a relationship that's out of whack, or money worries sitting at the back of your mind. It could be your health, or the fact that you haven't clarified your Big Things.

Find these distractions, no matter how big or small, and commit to eliminating them.

How Do You Get Rid of Distractions?

There are probably a thousand ways to do this, but here are six to get you started. All of them work for me.

Emphasize peace and quiet. Just like it's a bad idea to let your kids do their homework with the TV on, it's a bad idea to try to concentrate on your Big Things with random distractions around. If you're unsure about your ideal working environment, try silence and calm first.
Go for Flow. Psychological research has demonstrated that we do our best, most creative work when we have long enough to sink down into the work without worrying about time pressure or the immediate outcome of the work. You know when you get "lost in your work" to the point that you lose track of time? You want to put yourself in that state regularly.
Build good little habits. I work in an open office environment that can be noisy, so I always have my headphones and classical music handy. If I need to concentrate, I shut off my e-mail, play some Bach, and dwell in my own little world. Find habits like this that work for you.
Prepare. It's hard to write the Great American Novel when you can't find a sharp pencil. Whether it means packing your lunch ahead of time, keeping your guitar in tune, or setting your alarm to go off early, make the preparations you need to support your work on the Big Things.
Fix everything two ways. This means that you not only stop the sound of the leaky faucet by closing the door to the bathroom, but that you actually get in there and fix the faucet. Note that this applies to things like relationships, too. If you're having trouble with your spouse, for example, a quick apology might fix it for the moment. But to really mend a broken relationship, it might take a year of therapy and many tear-filled conversations. Yet that year of work could be a small price to pay, in the scheme of your whole life, for the sense of resolution it creates. So, however big the problem is, get in there and fix it.
Decide what you will and won't care about. This one's pretty simple. If displaying your prosperity isn't high on your list of priorities, go ahead and decide that you don't care what the Joneses think of your old beat-up car. It's much cheaper and simpler than buying a new Mercedes.

And Then What Happens?

With distractions out of your way, you can put more time and more energy into your core priorities. It's no good if you get rid of distractions and then just sit around waiting for inspiration to strike: you have to work hard and work regularly -- probably every day -- on the Big Things. That will sharpen your mind to the tasks you need to accomplish, and you'll be able to get farther, faster simply by virtue of having more practice.

But you'll also likely find that keeping your Big Things in mind will help you see all kinds of new connections that you never saw before. Ideas will come to you in the shower or on your morning commute. You'll want to sit down after dinner to jot down your ideas. That sort of thing.

When it happens, harness it. Let the process of creative problem-solving take over your mind. Don't resist it or revert to your old habits of distraction. Double down on your newly honed priorities instead.

Now, how about you? What are you doing to eliminate distractions?

Tim Walker

Follow Tim on Twitter;http://twitter.com/twalk

Track Your Progress Visually

2012-04-24T12:30:00Z

So you've got big goals -- for fitness, finances, or whatever. How do you stay on track with those goals from day to day? My super-simple suggestion is that you make visual reminders that help you stay on track with where you are and where you're headed.

Track Your Trajectory

Years ago, I read a great suggestion about tracking your weight -- though it could apply to other things, too. The writer taped up a chart on the back of the bathroom door, and each morning she took a pen and marked her weight on the chart. When she needed to lose weight, she looked for the line joining the marks to go down week by week. When she wanted to maintain her weight, her focus was to make sure that the line didn't trend upwards.

In general, I'd tell you not to focus too much on the number on the scale, but the principle is still sound: track where you are, and whether you're headed in the right direction. You could be charting your weekly weight, your monthly net worth, or your maximum bench press -- the principle is the same.

Track Your Chronology

Another easy way to track your progress is borrowed from Jerry Seinfeld. Before he got his big break on television, when he was still working as a standup comic, he wanted to make sure he wrote new material for his act every single day.

So he got himself a wall calendar that he mounted above his desk. When he accomplished his daily allotment of writing, he would put a big red "X" across that square on the calendar. As he kept at it, he started building an uninterrupted chain of those X's. At some point, wanting to keep the streak alive became an extra part of his motivation.

Seinfeld's advice to those who wanted to stick with tough goals? Use his calendar trick, then "Don't break the chain."

Track How Close You Are

One other technique I've used successfully is to make a blank table that represents how much of something I have to accomplish, and then fill in the squares as I knock out each one.

For example, I used to have a job that required me to update a certain number of database records in a week. Let's say the number was 30. At the start of the week, I would make a 5 x 6 table in a word-processing document and print it out. Then, throughout the week, I would mark off one of the squares on the grid every time I updated a record. It helped that there are five workdays in the week, and there were five rows of squares on the grid. It made it easy to see where I was for the week and whether that was ahead or behind the needed pace.

You could do the same thing to track workouts. If you want to get in great shape, you might set a goal of 20 workouts per month, for example, and then track that with a 4 x 5 grid. And Seinfeld's principle -- to put a big red "X" in every square -- would still apply.

Keep Yourself Motivated

The point in all of this is to keep it simple as you build your momentum toward your goal. Track your progress visually in ways that are easy to grasp and easy to get excited about.

You don't have to share your tracking mechanisms with anyone else. Maybe those red X's are in your pocket calendar, not on the wall where anyone else can see them. Whatever works for you.

When you hit your big goal -- or blow through it -- people will ask you how you did it. You can smile and say, "Oh, I just stuck with it little by little."

What are you doing to track progress toward your goals?

Tim Walker

Follow Tim on Twitter; @Twalk or follow us by clicking here

Take the (Guess) Work out of Investing With Dollar Cost Averaging

2012-04-19T12:15:00Z

Is investing a task perpetually on your "to-do" list? Are you befuddled by market timing, wondering when and how to invest your money?

You can invest effectively without being a market guru or knowing how to time the markets. (In fact, nobody can accurately predict the markets 100% of the time, no matter how good they are).

With dollar cost averaging, you take the guess work - and the grunt work - out of investing, safe in the knowledge that you are getting the best average returns for the least effort expended.

What is Dollar Cost Averaging?

Dollar cost averaging involves investing a set amount of money on a regular basis into a given investment. For example, let's say you have $100/month to invest. You set it up to be automatically withdrawn from your account and deposited to an investment of your choice.

Advantages of Dollar Cost Averaging

First off, dollar cost averaging is maintenance-free once it is set up. And because you can set the withdrawal dates and intervals as you please (for example, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly), you can arrange for the money to be withdrawn right after payday; this is the best way to "pay yourself first".

Additionally, dollar cost averaging carries the advantage of giving you the best passive returns on a fluctuating investment. Let's illustrate:

How it Works

You invest $100/month into Investment A; for example a mutual fund with a price that fluctuates with the underlying investments.

Month 1: Price = $10; $100 gets you 10 units

Total Investment Value: 10 units x $10 = $100

Month 2: Price = $20; you get 5 units

Total Investment Value: 15 units x $20 = $300

Month 3: Price = $5; you get 20 units

Total Investment Value: 35 units x $5 = $175

Month 4: Price = $10; you get 10 units

Total Investment Value: 45 units x $10 = $450

After four months, you have invested $400 of your own money, and despite the fact that the investment is the same value as it was when you started (which would be a 0% return if you had invested the entire $400 on day one without further investments), you have made $50, a 12.5% return!

This example uses a wildly fluctuating investment and is being used for illustration purposes only. Your investment preferences should be dependent on your time frame and tolerance of risk; something your financial planner can help you with.

Start Small

You don't need to have $100 to start dollar cost averaging. Many investments allow you to get in with as little as $25.

Buy Low, Sell High

You might suggest your returns would be higher if you had invested the whole $400 when the price was $5. While this is true, statistically it's very difficult to predict when you're at the bottom, and most investors become scared when an investment plummets; buying at the right time is difficult.

By dollar cost averaging, you're lowering your average cost to buy an investment, thus increasing your returns over time, without you having to constantly monitor it.

All this gives you the peace of mind of knowing you're saving money, while allowing more time for the things you love to do.

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Nora Dunn

Nora Dunn is The Professional Hobo: a full-time traveler and freelance writer. She is a contributing writer under the CareOne Debt Relief Services Life Balance blog. Having sold her business and belongings to travel, she has been on the road since 2007. She travels in a financially sustainable manner, taking advantage of creative volunteering positions. As a former certified Financial Planner, she is financially responsible for her actions along the way. She believes there is a fine balance between planning for tomorrow, and living for today. Compensated Blogger for CareOne Debt Relief Services. You can follow Nora on Twitter @hobonora

To follow CareOne click here!

Organize Your Nutrition in Advance

2012-04-17T13:54:00Z

Sometimes you don't need an elaborate solution -- you just need to follow through with the simple solution. Case in point: eating better. How do you eat better?

Portion control.
More fresh vegetables.
Fewer fatty, greasy, salty, or packaged foods.

Seriously, just start there. Don't count calories or fat grams, don't dwell on how much you love cheap potato chips and your life will be miserable without them. (Really? Show some spine.)

And then automate it. Which brings me to the topic of this post.

Better Nutrition, Predictably

In previous posts I've talked about ditching "working out" in favor of TRAINING. In other words, don't just go through the motions at the gym or on the jogging trail. Instead, set some goals, hit them, and then set some new goals. Push yourself, even if it's just a little bit.

Now I want you to do the same thing with your nutrition. This isn't about "going on a diet," it's about fueling your training, even if you're in training to fit back into a 34-inch waistband. You'll need to exercise to get there, and the effectiveness of your exercise regimen will be multiplied when you predictably follow a better path of nutrition, day in and day out.

The best way to execute something consistently is to plan for it. Planning and budgeting -- whether we're talking about dollars or nutrients -- is a boring but predictably successful way to get what you want. So plan your nutrition in advance.

Save Yourself Some Money

Most people visiting this site need to save money where they can. Planning your meals is a great way to do this. Instead of paying a premium for convenience foods -- I'm lookin' at you, workday cheeseburger -- you cut yourself a bargain by choosing your food at the grocery store or the farmers' market.

You make it and store it in advance, so that when your lunch hour, or your family's dinner hour, rolls around, you're ready. Restaurant food isn't evil, but the cost of it adds up over time, and you're better served to plan your meals in advance, save some money, and eat better while you're doing it.

Save Your Precious Time

Convenience food, as the name would imply, seems convenient. You drive up to the fast-food place, order what you want, and then drive away a couple of minutes later. But think of the other time you spend sitting in traffic (I hate traffic), rushing back to the office, etc.

Now imagine yourself walking to the break room, getting your lunch out of the fridge, and eating it with plenty of time to spare. Imagine doing this knowing that it's a healthy lunch that promotes your fitness goals. For that matter, imagine the healthy -- well-planned -- breakfast, dinner, and snacks that go around it.

Take Control

Life is too short to live as a slave to your impulses, or as a victim of your bad planning. Assert your own authority over what you put in your mouth by:

Making a shopping list
Hitting the grocery store for what you need
Taking just a little bit of time to prepare healthy foods
Enjoying your meals
Taking satisfaction in the physical, financial, and psychological results.

It's a winner all the way around. You just have to do it.

Are you up for it?

Tim Walker

Follow Tim on Twitter; @Twalk!

Set a Training Schedule and Follow It

2012-04-10T12:15:00Z

Let me give you a little cautionary tale about why you need to set a training schedule and stick with it.

I set the topic for this post a couple of months ago. I figured I would tell you to use all of your belief (this blog's theme for January), discipline (February), and motivation (March) to follow through on your training schedule. Believe you can do it, have the discipline to do it, and keep motivating yourself to do it . . . and you can't lose!

But then a humbling thing happened: I didn't take my own advice, and at the end of March I bombed on my first attempt to run a half-marathon.

Learning the Hard Way

To be fair, I almost made it -- about 12 miles out of 13.1 -- but when I hit the wall, I truly hit the wall. For the first time in my life, I couldn't even walk purposefully toward the finish. I had to stop, stretch, and sit down to rest several times before I got there. Please don't even ask me how long it took.

In my pride, I thought I was good to go. I thought I had done enough work. Two weeks before the big day, I finished an 11-mile training run and felt great. My nutrition was good. I thought (incorrectly, as it turns out) that I had taken in enough fluid. I mean, it's not like I'm a novice at running . . .

. . . but this experience reminded me that, yes, I am a novice at running 13.1 miles at a time. And I didn't follow my training regimen all the way. Among other things, I learned the hard way about:

Adequate hydration. I thought that drinking 40 ounces of water and Gatorade during the run would be enough. Given my body weight and the temperature, it probably should have been 60 ounces -- and I certainly should have drunk more water the day before.
Getting the muscles loose. I've used a foam roller on my leg muscles regularly for years, but I realize now (after hard cramps in my right calf ended my big run) that I didn't do enough to get loose in the week leading up to -- and especially the few hours leading up to the run.
More shorter runs. I did great with my long training runs on the weekends, but for several weeks in February and March I let my work schedule hijack the shorter midweek runs where I should have built up my "base mileage." My legs just needed more miles on them.

Hard lessons, but well-learned now.

Inch by Inch, If That's What It Takes

There are world-class weightlifters who attain massive strength by adding tiny increments of weight to the bar each week . . . but who persist at that for years on end. Similarly, you could work your way up to running virtually any distance by tacking on an extra quarter-mile at a time to your longest runs.

It's a lot of little things, but you have to do ALL the little things along the way. This is especially true if, like me, you're not a kid anymore. There was a time when I could stack on mileage with no trouble. My legs never bothered me, and as long as I didn't go completely crazy with my pace, I would always recover quickly. But I was half the age I am now, and reality has set in.

So, what do I do now? Keep building up my strength and knowledge, bit by bit. I'm taking all the lessons I learned from my botched run and channeling them into my next big run. And in particular I'm redoubling my focus on the details of my training.

As I see it, there are two ways to truly fail:

Don't learn from your mistakes.
Don't try.

I've got those two licked -- so now I truly can't lose.

What training regimen are you following right now?

How are you coping with setbacks?

Don't just work out: TRAIN.

Is Your Pride Holding You Back From Success?

Reset Your Resolve

Tim Walker

Follow Tim on Twitter; @Twalk or follow us by clicking here!