It’s been a good year.  I’ve finally started to achieve a few things that have been missing in my life, or at least things that I’ve always wanted to do but just never done.  Financially I’ve managed to get to a much better place.  I’ve paid off almost £10K in debt in the last year. Since last June I’ve lost 2.5st and finally feel like I’m on the right path in terms of being healthy and looking after myself.  Exercise has been sporadic to say the least, but I’ve managed to get to a point where i’m doing it because I enjoy it, and not as some other means to an end (e.g. to lose weight), which i’ve found doesn’t work for me anyway.

However, it’s easy to lose focus sometimes.  I’ve definitely done that a little over the last couple of months.  I think being so intent on getting rid of debt left me feeling a bit flat because I had to say no to so many things, and I wanted a break from it.  While I’ve not added to my debt, I decided to undertake another course which has now started, so I had to pay for that.  Also, in a totally unplanned and random move, I swapped my car earlier than planned, and upgraded it a year earlier than intended, so I had to pay a deposit for that.  I’ve also paid for a couple of holiday things next year, which isn’t too bad as it’s paying ahead rather than after returning from holiday, but again, this means i’m not paying my existing debt off.  All this means is the total of those costs came to around 3.5 months worth of debt over-payments, hence i’ve only paid the minimums in the last couple of months, and the upshot is i’m effectively going to take a few months longer than planned to get to the point where it’s all paid off.  A few times in the past two months i’ve also spent more than planned, and thus paid less back to debt, adding a few weeks on to the repayment schedule again.

Food wise, I’ve been really busy lately so focusing on nutrition was getting a bit old hat, and I let prep slip so fell off the sugar wagon, as I said in my last post.  Interestingly, for me the whole money thing is also really linked to this…I get lazy and then buy a lunch i should have brought in, or I nip to the shop and buy some unhealthy snack.  I find if I let one thing go, everything starts to slide.  I’m definitely an all-or-nothing kind of person.

So I’m just writing this as a reminder to myself that actually it’s time to refocus again.  I’m never going to let my debt creep up again, but I DO want to get shot of it once and for all, so back to being strict again.  It works, so that’s what I need to do.  Food wise, I can feel old habits and patterns creeping in, and there is no way i’m putting that weight back on again, and I DO want to get shot of the rest of the weight I need to shift, so back to normal low carb life without flour or sugar, and the weight will take care of itself.  I think clearly what I’ve been doing this year works for me, because even though I’ve strayed off the path a little, it doesn’t feel great to do so, and i’m keen to get back on it.

Being a little bit strict and having to cut back and say ‘no’ to too many outings again isn’t great but it WILL be worth it so I can rid of all my excess debt and all my excess weight.  It’ll be great to finally see the back of both! 🙂