So here we are. . .

So here we are.  It’s September 7, and it’s the first day of the rest of our lives.  Cliche, I know, but we’ve decided it’s time for a change.  We’ve been together five years in November, and in that time a lot of good things have happened, but we’ve also developed some bad habits (and continued ones we had before “us”), and now it’s time to change all of that! 

We are now in control.  We are taking control of our bodies, our money, our food, and our house.

We’ve both put on some pounds over the years, we’ve tried off and on since we’ve been dating to lose the weight, but then we’d get busy or get lazy, and that would stop.  Last April I finally decide enough was enough, and I got moving.  I’ve lost 25 pounds since then, and I’m still 22 pounds from my goal.  Josh has started working hard the past couple of weeks.  Hopefully he sticks with it.  He wants to drop about 100 pounds in the next year.

Our money habits are something we’re trying to change, too.  I’m a teacher, so I think it goes without saying that my income is not huge.  Josh was a graduate teaching assistant last year, but he graduated in May, so obviously that income from teaching classes and the scholarships he had is gone.  He’s struggled to find a job here; the economy sucks, and not many places are hiring.  He’s working as an adjunct instructor at a community college, so he is getting some income, but we’ve experienced about a $10,000 pay cut this year.  We’ve also got one car loan, increased insurance fees (his parents kindly gave us their old car when they got a new one, so we now have 2 cars to insure), and some credit card debt–nothing exorbitant, but had we been smarter with our money, it wouldn’t be there at all.  We’re trying to manage our money and pay our bills without having to make dramatic changes to our lives.  This will likely be the hardest part of all.

Food is a weakness for us, as you probably guessed when I mentioned we have weight problems.  We both love food.  Even worse, we both love to eat out, which has contributed to money problems.  We’re trying to change so that we’re in control of food, rather than food controlling us, our money, and our weights.  We’re cutting down how much we spend on food; we are going to avoid eating out as much as possible (I’d like to say we’ve cut it out altogether, but I know we wouldn’t be able to stick to that!).  Josh is going to try to cook more (he’s still a beginner), and even though I’m tired when I get home, I’m going to suck it up and cook anyway.  This will help us save money and eat healthy.

Our final challenge is getting control over our house, specifically all of our stuff that clutters the house.  It’s not trashed or anything, but we do have stuff that doesn’t make it back to its appropriate home like it should, and in some cases, we have stuff that doesn’t have a home at all.  We need to get rid of stuff, get more organized, and make a committment to put stuff away right away.