Daily Goal Tracker

I started using this new goal tracker yesterday called Joe's Goals... You assign points to actions that can be either positive or negative and mark off the days you accomplish the daily, giving you a score for the day or week. I have Go to Yoga as +2, Blog +1, Bring lunch to work +1, Eat out -1. Any other suggestions for items?



I added this little chart in the right hand panel on the blog so everyone can see how I do each day!

Time to Rocktober!

Today marks the beginning of a new month.

I successfully didn't purchase anything unneccesary in September. I also made ten posts... yay! Accomplished both of my goals.

This month I'll be participating in the "Eat. Sweat. Blog." challenge on SocialWorkout.com. Basically, I commit to working out at least 20 times during the month of October and completing 10 of their healthier eating "feats". I've been wanting to step up my yoga practice for awhile, since I'd been down to two practices a week. Bad.

Committing to 20 workouts during October comes out to approximately five per week. I'm going to shoot for most of those being yoga, although Fridays are hard for me to get there (last class is at 5 pm when is usually the earliest I can leave work) so I may have to substitute something else on Fridays.

Throwing a wrench in those plans is my doctor's visit yesterday where I was diagnosed with tendinitis and muscle spasms. I'm not really allowed to do anything that stretchs out my arm or requires heavy lifting... and yoga is all about stretching. Great.

I am happy that I've gotten in six practices the past eight days. I was hoping to keep it up with at least five a week, maybe even six. I feel as though I'm finally settling into a routine and finding my groove and I like it. In fact, these past few days I've been in such a great mood when I wake up... it's been refreshing.

The week begins

I reached my goal of at least 10 posts, yay!

I couldn't get to yoga yesterday, but was able to make it today. The class was a little rough, but I am happy overall that I started the week out right with yoga. I have had a problem with leg cramps in the past and one of my instructors suggested I am not replenishing my electrolytes. So today I had a vitamin water before yoga and... no cramps!

I don't want to pay extra $5-$10 a week the waters would be though, so I just bought some electrolyte pops and we'll see how those go for now.

My no-buy month ends Wednesday and I believe I have successfully stuck to it. Can't believe its almost October, but ready for hockey season!

...but if I had my way, I'd take the rain

My intention last night when I got home from yoga was to write a blog post. But since the power was out in the entire neighborhood, I did the next best thing, pen & paper! The weather has cooled off considerably since it's been raining for two days straight.. but I do love it. It makes me miss Vancouver a lot.

I took 5 days off from yoga and these past 2 practices have been really rough... but at the same time, I notice more starkly my improvements over the past two months. I still hope to improve my balance, but the standing series is much better than when I started. During floor series today, I noticed how strong my spine is and I wonder if that comes from all the years of volleyball... I am glad though that there is strength in my spine and hopefully that will lead to a stronger practice all around.

I've reached a point in my practice where I am able to mentally check out and just do the postures. I haven't yet figured out if that's actually a good thing, but it's nice to suddenly realize we're moving into camel pose and it seems like we just began.

Every day in class I stare at the 60 day challenge wall and consider attempting it... but I can't seem to mentally prepare myself for class five days a week, much less every day (or more!) for two months. Until then, I find peace in the classes I do get... the hour and a half I give to myself.

"Practice yoga, and all is coming." - Guruji

The true death panels.

Interesting true story at the Mudflats.

Miscellaneous Thoughts on $

I spent most of the day re-reading the archives over at Get Rich Slowly. Over the years since I found the blog, J.D. has put out some really great articles about real life money management... he (and his guest bloggers) have covered pretty much every aspect of retirement planning and budgeting, what to do when you're a saver and your spouse is a spender, how to prepare kids for financial intelligence, and even brings up hard topics about what to do when you're financially smart but your family isn't. The commentors on every single post only further the usefulness and wealth of information.

I have managed to come up with a fairly long list of books on Paperback Swap over the past few weeks... there's something strangely satisfying about anxiously waiting for the books you want, hoping they'll come soon, instead of running out and buying it brand new whenever the whim strikes me.

I need to read every book in my collection and list at least 75% of them. I already feel as though I'm accumulating too much Stuff and would love to practice cutting it down early. Interestingly enough, my danger isn't in clothes and shoes like most people I know, but rather books and garden supplies. Go figure.

Since we're already more than halfway through September (and my no-buy is STILL going strong!), I've started thinking about doing wrap ups in a few months of my financial year and lay out my financial goals for 2010.

(Side note... It occured to me recently that next year is 2010. I thought back to 1999 when Y2K was all the talk at this point. I'm really glad that never happened.)

Are there any big financial goals you'll be working towards this next year?

Golden Sand

(from iamhome)

How gorgeous is this succulent in GOLD sand. I love it.