Monday Inspiration: The Battle of the Bulge

Happy new week all! So, as I have been getting deeper into blogging and trying to figure out exactly where I want my blog to go (I know, I know - wasn't I supposed to do this BEFORE I started the blog?!), I think I have finally hit on a good pattern and feel! This is what I am going to try to have my blog look like every week:

• Monday Inspiration post: everyone needs help on Monday's to be happy about the work week in front of them. Why not help get everyone going and thinking happy and positive. It is the type of person I try to be, so why not try to infiltrate the world with more positive energy and thoughts?
• Wednesday Home Life: I love to decorate, craft, bake, and organize. I will share my adventures on the home front!
• Friday Fashion: I have really been trying to let my creativity become more free in my fashion these days and I want to share my fashion ideas (and mistakes!). This may include good buys and finds, trends I am following, and What Not to Wear recaps.

So as it is a Monday, let the inspiration begin. This week my inspiration stemmed from one of my best friend's from high school and fellow blogger Caitlin. Cait is one of those people who I bonded instantly with in an English class in high school. Our dumb jokes and silly behavior in high school blossomed into a life long friendship. She was also one of the people who inspired me to start a blog. She started Cait Strides this year and spurred me to go ahead and start one too.

Her incredibly honest and thoughtful blog she posted recently is worth the read. It is all about her struggles with something that we all know about: weight. I can totally relate with Cait. When I was in high school I was always crying to my mom about how unhappy I was with my weight. I was always comparing myself to all the beautiful, popular girls in high school with the perfect complexion and super skinny waists. Even as an athletic vegetarian, I couldn't seem to drop the pounds that I wanted to.

Then start the challenge of college with the alleged "Freshman 15", late night study breaks, and hours sitting in the library. It was a time that I gradually gained even more weight without even knowing I was.

Long story about the whole Walmart thing, but this was mid college.



Then came my life changing summer. It was the summer between my junior and senior year of college. I had just come back from our China abroad, which completely changed me as a person. I went to China a questioning, worrisome girl and feel like I came back a strong, confident woman. It was a time that was wonderful, powerful, challenging, and awe-inspiring. It made me confident and a person who was motivated and happy to be herself.

In China, where I think I started losing the pounds.

So when I left China for summer break, I was excited for the next three months. I was living by myself for the first time and working full time at my high school job at The Forest Cleaners (a dry cleaners) which I actually loved. It was summer that was perfect. I worked hard but also got to govern my life completely for the first time. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted; took time to do things I loved (like scrap booking about China); and I exercised every day.

That summer I realized a few major things about eating. As it was the first time that I could eat without anyone else's schedule in mind, I ate only when I was hungry. So if it was dinner time and I wasn't hungry I didn't feel obligated to eat because everyone else in the household was. I would just wait until I was hungry. Since I was on my own I could cook whatever I wanted. As someone who likes to eat healthy, it wasn't a time for me to binge eat, but to try all the weird healthy meals I liked. It included a lot of salads with lots of yummy toppings, heaping veggie pizzas, and dessert every night (I can't help it - I blame my mother the sweet tooth!). Oh yes, the other huge part of this. I was supremely happy. I loved myself and wasn't constantly judging myself but accepting myself.

So summer ends and I go back to school and I get this huge reaction from my peers that goes something like this: "Megan! You have a waist!" I had lost about 30 pounds and was at a weight that made me happy. I didn't really think about food obsessively anymore. I ate my correct portion sizes when I was hungry, worked out regularly, and didn't beat myself up about everything.

At my happy weight.

So that is my success story at that point and what it took to get there. That was about 3-4ish years ago. I have been mostly able to maintain that weight, but life sometimes works against you and I still struggle with this now. It does take eating healthy and regular exercise. Life does get harder when you have a desk job. Talk about sitting all day long! I am having a slight struggle with getting balance back in my life with junk food and exercise. I have struggled to find a way to fit in exercise regularly with my desk job. I didn't do a good job with it my first job out of college. That job stressed me out totally and completely. Working out was the last thing on my mind when I came home. I was too spent. I would try to work out on the weekends and sometimes in the morning before I came home. Unfortunately, I think I stayed thin by being unhealthily stressed and overworked/too busy to remember to eat. So when my new job rolled around this August, I had more time to think about leading a balanced life. I actually joined a gym but it unfortunately closed forever LAST WEEK! So working out has been on my mind recently, as I have struggled to let go of the holiday pounds and find a way to fit exercise into my life again. Since I had gotten into the pattern of working out after work by stopping by the gym, I shopped around at gyms last week. There wasn't a good fit nearby. So I decided to take those gym membership dollars and funnel that toward building my home gym. Hello Craigs List! I scored this $200 elliptical machine off Craigs List the summer after college:

This past week this is the machine I have been hitting up after work. But no one is going to be able to do the same workout in the basement every day forever. So I began perusing Craigs List again. I came upon a rather sweet workout DVD listing. So I met a man in a public parking place in the light of day with my husband in the car (you can never be too safe with Craigs List) and scored these TEN DVDs for only $35 (he was originally asking $40 - it never hurts to bargain!). So here goes the workouts in the home gym after work!

So after a long and long winded post I will draw some conclusions.

• Being healthly is more about a lifestyle and making it a pattern in your life.
• Only eat when you are hungry.
• Find out what your really portion size should be and let go of those super-sized American ideals.
• Love and accept yourself as the beautiful person you are. Because you are. We all are.

I hope this helps and gives you a little inspiration on your Monday to both be happy, healthy, and LOVE YOURSELF! Please share with me any of your struggles, ups and downs, and successes. And be sure to go to www.caitstrides.com to support my awesome friend Cait in her healthy goals of 2012!

What Not To Wear: You Want to Dye My Hair Pink?!

Hello friends and welcome back to the What Not To Wear post! Did you catch this week's episode? Well, I loved watching this week's. Definitely one of my favorites ever! The featured woman this week was Beryl, a young, edgy artist who wore ratty, simple clothes. She was so cute underneath that though! As a young 20-something you could definitely see the potential behind the homeless look with the badly dyed pink(ish) hair. She was young; she was funky; she was receptive.

I also loved the ideas that this show delved into this episode. It really shows how they definitely reach deeper than just what the clothes are. They really look into what is causing this person to dress so drab. This week's answer by Beryl was that she wanted to looking like she wasn't trying in her clothing as not to distract from her work. Then, as the episode continued, her answer expanded. She said looking at herself equaled criticizing herself. Reading that you think "How terrible!"  but really, who doesn't do that almost every time they look at themselves. Stacey's answer was "What's the purpose of hiding your light?! Be amazing!" I absolutely loved that! Of course, be amazing. We all can be in our special way. And Beryl did just that at the end. She was absolutely amazing. It was also a first that I remember on the show. They gave her fuchsia hair. It. was. awesome. Just check it out!

[ I apologize if the video isn't working. I'm still working on the code thing. Click here for the video. Thanks for your patience!]




Now to delve a little more into Stacey's outfit highlights. Here is her on the intervention day. I love how she always tries to dress appropriately. You can see that this is a little bit of her edgy, but still classy and sophisticated. It was neat, when they surprised Beryl they were part of living art!



Recently I read a fashion article that was talking about staples that you need to have in your closet. They surprised me by saying you need a statement necklace. I guess the whole unique piece that can be changed between outfits so gets it worth. I think this is definitely one:



I LOVE this dress. It is really showing the bold colors and patterns that this season is all about.



Hope you liked this week's recap! I would love your feedback on how you are liking the second reoccuring post. Love it? Hate it? Keep it? Trash it?

What I'm listening to: Adele - 21 (of course! It's the #1 album of 2011 so really, who isn't listening to it?)

New Year's Resolution: Budgeting!

Happy New Year! With the new year, of course new year's resolutions are rampant. On the top of many people's lists is a better year of budgeting and (less) spending. I am one of those people this year too.

I actually really like budgeting and saving. It may be a control thing. I think it all began at a young age in Monopoly. I would always stow away enough money for Board Walk and Park Place under my chair, in a pocket, under my leg at the beginning of the game. Then, when everyone thought I was broke and I landed on Board Walk/Park Place - BAM! Buy it. Win it. Game over. Anyways, I read something recently that really changed my attitude about money in life. Overall what it said was:

"It's not how much you make; it is about how well you budget." That really hit a chord with me.

So when I had some time over Christmas I sat down and got busy on setting myself up for a budget friendly 2012. So the first thing that I did was head to google and search "Microsoft excel budget templates". I thought, why not see what is out there before I start fooling around with tons of formulas. It brought me here.

I scrolled through them and downloaded everyone that I thought may be helpful for me. Since they are all similar but break things down VERY differently, I actually wanted to play with the different templates before I chose one. So after I downloaded 10 or so, I went to playing with them. While going through them think about a few things:

• How itemized do I want this to be? Do I want to capture every item or just groups?
• How particular do I want my groups to be?
• Do I want it to be monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly?
• How many incomes am I factoring in?
• Is this something that is user-friendly to me?
• Can I easily tweak and change it to fit my budget perfectly?

After asking myself all those questions and playing with all the different templates, I finally chose the budget plan below:

Download it here

 Now it was time to make the budget specific to Eric and me. Although I am not going to share our specific budget layout, I will give you some of my tips. I picked the bi-monthly based on my pay period. Into each of the two sections, I then plugged in my reoccurring bills and items that I will probably use every month - like savings, out-to-eat, groceries, etc. With Excel, it provides the luxury of adding lines into the budget every month if you would like. Now with it all personalized it is time to plug in the numbers and keep it updated. That's the most important thing: stay on top of it, keep it updated, adn STAY ON BUDGET!

What I really like and was my ultimate goal, was to visualize how much and where our money was being spent. Giving a number value to how much I am able to spend every two weeks takes away buyer's remorse. I know how much I can spend (whether it be for fun or for bills). No guilt if I stay in the budget!

I also did another few things to prepare for 2012 budgeting. I opened up a Savers account at the bank, also known as  Christmas Club. Just put a few dollars in it every pay period and they send you a check at the beginning of October. It takes some of the strain out of the holiday season, which I will definitely appreciate next year. Just one less stress out of a busy time. We also have plans to set up another savings account (once we have saved up the minimum) for our travel fund. Just having a few different accounts helps me to NOT spend money. One account that we spend and a few we save for a few different things.

As a final little thing, when in conversation with our financial manager at work, I mentioned my different savings accounts. She reminded me that I could give her the information and dollar amount and she could direct deposit money into into each account. So it takes it directly from what a make and stops giving me the responsibility of putting it into savings - because you know there are always things to buy before you save!

So those are just my few little savings tips to start the news years off. Do you have any budget suggestions to add?