Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Healthy Lifestyle Rewards

Making the right choice just because you should, doesn't make it easy.  These past few years I've had a horribly unhealthy lifestyle. I never exercise (even the dog walks can't be considered exercise, I go way too slow!), I eat easy to make meals (frozen pizza anyone?) and as you know if you have read the blog before, I've been drinking a lot of caffeine.  The only thing I do right is sleep a lot.  LOL.

I was supposed to go cold turkey on the caffeine a week and a half ago but that didn't quite work.  I went 2 days without and then buckled under the grumpiness pressure and went out and got a "short" chai.  So I'm allowing myself 2 weeks on the shorts before stopping.  They are ridiculously small, and ridiculously expensive, but they have been worth it.  Just another few days to go!  I'm typing this as 6 a.m. and don't have massive cravings so that has to be a good sign.

I've also decided to bike to work when I can.  So far there has only been two days where there was no snow and the winds were less than 60 km/hr but I've biked for both of them.  It is a 14.5 km round trip with a giant hill in both directions (stupid river valley!).  Yesterday coming home was so hard against the wind. When I didn't need to brake going down the hill because the wind was slowing me down so much I knew the uphill portion would be a beast.  And it was.  But I made it.

While plans are nice to have, sticking to them is my downfall.  So this year I have added some incentive.  I figure because I'm saving money not drinking Starbucks, every day I go without, I'm going to set $5 aside towards a fun purchase.   And every day I ride my bike to and from work I also save money, so I'm going to set aside another $5.

As of today, I'm only at $20 but as soon as the weather improves I'm hoping my piggy bank will start growing faster.

Now I just need to figure out what to spend my money on.  Maybe an iPad 2!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's a great idea wendy!

you can do it!

-amanda

Karen said...

I think the money incentive is a great idea!
Hmmm, I think I'm going to do that too:)

Patty said...

Good luck! The money incentive is a great idea and then you can treat yourself to something nice later!