One of my goals for 2009 was to start exercising on a regular basis.  I was riding my bike for about an hour back during the summer and early fall of 2009, but that stopped as soon as old man winter blew in.  I dusted off the rusty treadmill and decided I’d start a running regimen.  I’ve never been a runner. I’ve always been athletic, but never a runner. I played varsity softball in high school, and always bragged that I hit the ball far so that I wouldn’t have to exert myself running. I just didn’t have the stamina to run long distance and to make matters worse, I had really bad ankles.

I had a goal though, and I started ‘treadmilling’ every other day.  I alternated between running and walking and realized that I wasn’t going to die if I did this for about 15-25 minutes.  Treadmilling is the most absolutely boring activity I have ever experienced.  But I kept at it and I it hasn’t killed me yet – neither physically nor from boredom.

Because I was so sure of myself (what else is new?!), I decided to try to train for a 5k race.  My friends and I walked the Susan G. Komen National Race for the Cure in 2007 and I thought that with about 4 months to go, I could maybe possibly train to run the race.  I downloaded a free podcast from iTunes that follows a routine at coolrunning.com called Couch to 5k which has been extremely helpful in my training.  It has been a gradual increase from walking the majority of the time to running. Today, I successfully ran week 4, day 2. I cannot express how proud I am of myself, and how much motivation I derive from my friends and boyfriend who are cheering me on enthusiastically.

I have been really surprised at how my body has been building up endurance. During the first 10 minutes of the runs/walks, my ankles hurt, my calves start to tighten up, I get a slight cramp in my side, and I feel like I don’t have enough energy. But I have found that the longer I am running/walking, the less my body is feeling physical strain and instead, I am a lot more energized and pumped!

I recently read a post over at Get Rich Slowly dealing with cutting back on products.  I started cutting back on dog food when my two dogs got weighed at the vet and were both over their ideal weight.  The vet made a completely logical statement that I am embarassed to admit I had never thought of before.  He said that dog food makers are in the business to make money, so they will most likely exaggerate the amount of food per serving.  DOAH!

I began applying this logic to all other consumer products.  Did I really need to fill the cap of the laundry detergent to the line indicated?  Do I need to make a cute swirl of toothpaste on my toothbrush?  And if I use too much conditioner, I’m just wasting more water trying to get it out of my hair!  Not only is using the minimum amount going to save money, but you will also be producing less waste and thus being a little greener.  I can’t really tell you how much money I have saved, but I do know for sure that I have been buying laundry detergent a lot less often.

We are a country of consumers and we are made to believe that bigger is better.  Thanks to this economy, I think some Americans are realizing that less is more.  You don’t need the biggest car or the biggest house.  Using less saves money and reduces your carbon footprint!

As I sit here dealing with a cold and using endless amounts of tissue, I know that as a teacher, the one thing I refuse to skimp on is soap and hand sanitizer! AH-CHOO!!!

What kinds of things are okay for you to skimp on?

One of the first steps in my Journey was to start a budget.  I got the idea from Small Notebook and made my own in Microsoft Excel.  I am not lavish nor am I a spender, and I have no debt.  However, I have not been saving as much as I wanted, and preparing a budget has helped me see where I was spending the most money. 

One of my goals is to contribute the maximum to my Roth IRA – $5,000.  I set up automatic bi-monthly transfers of $250 (I am a teacher and thus get paid 10 months out of the year).  I also decided to try to save $1,250 a month towards buying a house.  To reach this goal, I set up automatic bi-monthly transfers of $625.

Having a budget can mean different things for different people.  In my case, I use it as a guide where I can visualize my spending in each category, and try to find areas where I can save.  For example, in September I noticed that my cell phone bill was about $20 more than usual.  I checked out my detailed bill and realized that the extra amount had come from texting, and mainly to my boyfriend.  We decided that we can save a lot more money if we were both on the same plan.  It might take a while for the savgings to add up, but having unlimited texting to each other will be a big savings. 

Do you have a savings budget?  How has having one helped you?

Why would someone such as myself need to do any sort of personal improvement? I mean, I am a pretty amazing person – I’m beautiful, extremely smart, and have a great sense of humor. My only quality that might be lacking is humility… but who needs that anyway? Obviously, I’m not perfect.

I was totally intrigued when I attended a mandatory training at work on Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effictive People. I was a second grade teacher at the time, and our school was adopting Covey’s 7 Habits in an effort to establish a sense of leadership among our students. Covey’s habits, as well as his message, made a lot of sense to me. I wanted to be better. I wanted to grow. But at the time, I never made any real changes….until now. Within the last month, I have actively begun seeking personal growth – through podcasts and blogs or webites, and I intend to eventually read the books that are out there on this subject.

I do not pretend to be an expert on personal growth, or anything really. With this blog, I plan on trying the various methods for growth that are out there, sharing with my readers what works for me, and dispensing advice for how they might want to approach things. Remember, I am truly awesome, but I am not an expert.