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My wife and I have been looking to make some changes in our diets and lifestyle. Throughout my life I have always tried different diets and workouts and was always trying to live on the healthier side. After college that seemed to diminish quite a bit. I stopped working out and jogging. I also started to eat a lot more fast food. It has been quite some time since college and feels like it is time for a change. We have been doing quite a bit of research on some changes we would want to make. These changes we feel will be essential to our health and life in general. We just need to make the commitment to make the changes and stick with them. My goal is to list most of them out and to write about each one. Here are some of the changes we are looking to make.

Health and Fitness

My health is very important to me. I not only want to be alive and well when I have grandchildren (a loooong time from now), but I want to be able to run around and play with them as well. I was always very active and involved in sports when I was younger. I eventually started weight training and took this very serious for quite some time. I also used to go jogging every night and competed in a 5k run. All of this is far from me now and I miss feeling so energetic and fit. Many people lose interest in their health and fitness over time due to the busyness of life. The most important part of us we should invest in becomes the last thing we think about. I do not want to be included in that statistic.

As far as dieting I feel that one thing I failed at was using a lot of “diet” items. Diet sodas, sweet and low, low fat desserts etc.. Over time I have learned that many of these items not only do the opposite for you but they are really bad overall. I have not always been a big fan of the organic items and some of the herbal stuff out there. After doing quite a bit of research on it I have changed my opinion a lot on this. We are also researching the benefits of cleansing as well. I have no plans of going over board on supplements and spending a fortune on all organic items but we will do as much as possible to be smarter about what we eat. I will be sharing on many of these items as well.

On the fitness side I did start TaeKwon-Do recently and plan on sticking with that. It is a great way to get in shape and get mental focus. The whole family is actually doing it. I also plan on jogging again and competing once again in a 5k race. As far as weight lifting this will probably be kept to a minimal for now. The most important thing to me right now is getting back into really good physical condition. I will be writing about some of the tips I have learned and routines.

Lifestyle

There are many things in my life that I have implemented to ensure that I live smart. Some of these things are a bit more sporadic than I would like. Some of them were never followed through completely. It is one of our goals to change this. These things include a variety of items including, work, prayer, study and probably a few more that will come up as we start to really invest in this. One major thing we would like to work on is more organization. I am very organized when it comes to tasks or jobs. But when looking at my day or week as a whole it is much less organised. I am usually a late nighter and would rather sleep in a bit. I usually get about 6 hours of sleep but from night to night I go to bed anywhere from midnight to 3 am. I have been doing some studying on sleep patterns and going to bed earlier to wake up early and will most likely be making a change in this area. Waking up early for some reason is always a struggle for me. Even though it is the same amount of hours I usually get when I am up late.

Finance

From the time we got out of college we have been paycheck to paycheck. Can never seem to make enough nor save enough. I have been researching some better ways to live financially. I not only want to be able to provide for our needs now but to save for the future as well. I want to do this without going into debt and building wealth the smart way. We have already begun to make changes in this area and will continue to do so. My goal is to write about as much as possible and share what I have learned and how it has helped us.

I will be writing about all of these changes and not just what we are doing but why, how and the benefits we have seen. I am not one to do anything unless I have done enough research to know that it is a smart decision. Many times it can be hard to get good advice on these things because you don’t know who to trust, or you are afraid they are just out to make money. These changes I make and write about will be not only researched thoroughly but tested and results logged. I am looking forward to the challenges and simply by writing this I have created some accountability to keep me motivated.

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