Practice Makes Perfect

"Practice yourself in little things, and thence proceed to greater." Epictetus

Practice makes perfect, even if the practice isn't fun.

set a 100 day goal

I love the "motivation to move" podcast, and the creator has a "100 day challenge". I like this idea, regardless of whether it's applied to fitness or some other goal. I'm currently trying to set a 100 day goal, and once I've done that I going to try my own 100 day challenge to see what I can accomplish. It will probably be a fitness or weigh-loss related goal, but I've also have a few personal finance-related goals that could be a good choice as well!

Quote of the day

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
- Thomas A Edison

Planning My Meals Helps

I find that planning my meals each morning, and actually writing them down, helps me better control what I eat each day. I've also started to discover my own weaknesses, and I'm working to improve in specific areas. For example, I struggle with what I eat mostly in the evenings and on weekends. Small steps. :-)

I believe in myself

I have a strong belief that I can do anything I want to. My problem with dieting is that I know it's mostly a behavioral issue. I simply need to retrain how I interact with food. That's why I like the Beck Diet plan, because it's all about changing my behavior.

This may also be why I get depressed if I fail to reach and maintain my goal. Since I know it's up to me, I'm also the cause of the failure. Everyone that succeeds fails though, so failure isn't the finish line for me.

kiddos are here

Just wanted to mention that my wife and I are now parents of twin girls! Sorry I haven't been posting much, but clearly we've had our hands full.

In the future I plan post about our experiences with cloth diapers and some other frugal ideas we have been thinking about. Stay tuned!

Simplicity Rules!

I've been thinking a lot about simplicity lately, and I'm trying to identify some ways to simply my life. And it really should be that hard, even with a life like mine that (I believe) is already pretty simple. My plan is to identify things I spend time doing that I would rather not do, and the first thing that comes to mind is going to so many grocery stores each week to find the best deals (~3 or 4). One of those stores is Sam's club, and as a first step to a more simple life I'm going to start going monthly rather than weekly. I expect we'll run out of stuff or miss a few items at first, but eventually we'll learn to inventory what we have and purchase the right amount of foods on each shopping trip. That alone will save me 3-5 hours a monthly easily.

What would you like to simplify?