For most of you, my loyal readers (all 2 of you), you are probably wanting to know how the weight loss is going.  I am happy to say that I am still keeping active and slowly shedding the pounds.  In September and part of October I “fell off the wagon” so to speak when I was doing a lot of traveling.  It’s so easy when you travel to overeat and to stop being active.  Hotel gyms are usually sparsely equipped, and after a long day of taking care of business it’s all I could do to just fall into bed and fall asleep watching Letterman.

However, I’ve fallen off the horse many times and each time I pick myself right back up.  That’s the most important part of any fitness program.  When you take a step back, that is OK.  You don’t need to beat yourself up every time you put on a pound or two.  Overall fitness means that you will fluctuate, and you may put on some pounds now and then, but in the long run you are still maintaining your workout and healthy eating goals.

Of course, with the holidays upon us it’s a real challenge for many of us to stay healthy.  What with all the pies, cookies, cakes, holiday candy and fudge that seem to be teasing us everywhere we go.  My advice?  Enjoy it in moderation.  The absolute worst thing you can do is deny yourself these treats.  Because if you do then you are setting yourself up for failure.  It’s just like any fad diet – if you deny yourself something that you like, you are going to fail.  Plain and simple.  The problem is when you fail, you fail harder (and usually eat way more) than you would have if you just ate the foods in the first place.

Again, I’m not saying to run out and eat every piece of pecan pie or homemade fudge that you find.  What I am saying is to enjoy them as a treat this holiday season on occasion and know that when you do then you need to cut back in other areas.  When I know I’m going to a holiday party I cut back on other meals during the day.  I may just have a bananna and a piece of toast in the morning, for example instead of an egg-white muffin and a bowl of cereal.  Just remember – what you do, don’t skip meals!  That is the worst thing you can do for your metabolism.

And now for the rest of the story…

With the holidays approaching many of you know that the economy is still very fragile.  Unfortunately, I know many people who are still trying to find work.  Things are looking a little better, but we have a long way to go.  With that in mind I’ve decided to setup a holiday challenge to not only get me more active in keeping the blog up to date, but also to share some tips that can help you have a great holiday season without spending a fortune. 

There are so many things you can do for the holidays that don’t cost a lot – or are just plain out free.  Christmas has become, unfortunately, a time where we forget about spending time with family and friends and focus way too often on gifts.  So from now until Christmas I am going to post an article each day about how to spruce up your home, make homemade holiday treats, and decorate on a budget.  Check back here bright and early on November 18th for the first post.  I look forward to your feedback on each of them.  I think it’s going to be a great project and I’m excited!

So welcome back readers – let’s get ready for a great holiday season!  Together, there is nothing we all can’t do together!

Now, before my co-workers storm my desk tomorrow, let me explain – this wasn’t a pay raise.  This was something even better, something that I think everyone can get in various amounts.  This raise was courtesy of me cancelling all the stuff that we don’t use anymore.

We all have it, those little charges that are $5 here, maybe $7.50 there.  Seems like such a tiny amount – until you add it up.  Things like cell phone insurance plans, television channels you never watch, and land-line phone services that you haven’t used since the 1980s. 

Today, I happened to be working from home while waiting on the repairman from Sears to come and fix our oven when I took a break and started looking at some bills.  Before I knew it I had my calculator up and running and was amazed at what all this added up to.

• $22.00+ for an “Essentials” package for our land-line phone from AT&T that included call-waiting, three-way calling and other nonsense we haven’t used in years.
• $12.99 for Starz from DirecTV – we have better things to do than sit in front of the TV all day and night.
• $20+ for AT&T wireless “insurance” on our cell phones (all 4 of them).  Of course, they charge you a $50 “deductible” (in some cases $100 depending on the phone) plus activation charges if you use it which makes this totally worthless in every sense of the word.
• $10.00+ on two credit cards for “payment protection” – another worthless product. 

I added this all up and I was astounded to find that in a years time this was almost $700 going down the drain for stuff we never used.  It took me about 30 minutes, but I cancelled every one of them.

It just goes to show how little things can creep up.  I still have more stuff to go through to weed our frivolous charges and I’m confident I can give myself another $500 raise with a little work.