New Years Resolutions 2014: My Health, My Money
NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS TO STAY
With the arrival of 2014, New Years Resolutions are on the minds of many people right now.
Whether you are striving to meet a new fitness goal, quit smoking or better your finances, staying on track throughout the year to meet these goals can be a challenge.
While many people give up on their New Years Resolutions pretty quick, writing down your resolutions and the reasons why you chose these goals can be helpful in motivating you throughout the year.
Whatever your resolutions have a plan and you will find the confidence that you will need to achieve them. I have a couple of New Year Resolutions for the year of 2014 to improve my quality of life.
My health
As a single mom of two very busy, active children it isn’t hard to overlook taking care of myself adequately.
As the kids get older so do I. I may only be 31 now but I want grandchildren one day and if I am not taking care of myself properly now I may not be around as long as I hope.
Being on the go all the time and not always making the best meal choices for myself I often find myself tired so as part of my New Years Resolutions I am working towards making some lifestyle changes to improve my overall health and build some energy.
Eating better
Diabetes is very common in my family with multiple family members in both my mom and dads’ side of the family having been diagnosed.
Reducing the amount of sugar I consume in a day is on my priority list this year and another one of my New Years Resolutions. Having an extensive family history of diabetes I am only speeding up the process by ingesting the amount of sugar that I currently do.
After watching an episode of The Fifth Estate all about sugar, I was terrified and it really opened my eyes to just how much sugar is in some of the food that we eat and drink.
Cutting all pop out of my diet and replacing my daily French Vanilla from Tim Horton’s with tea will give me a good start at reducing my sugar intake while discovering other food and drinks to remove from not only my diet but the kids as well.
Quitting smoking
I am not one to watch a lot of television though in the last 24 hours being New Year’s day and with everyone making their New Year Resolutions, I have seen at least 5 commercials advertising quit smoking aids and promoting a nicotine free life.
I am not proud of the fact that I have smoked for many years and these last few years it has been something that hasn’t been common knowledge to many people. Not only for my health but also to open up more money in my budget I need to quit once and for all.
Mr. CBB shared in a previous post how him and his wife beat the addiction to nicotine coming up for 2 years at the end of January. Not only did they quit, save their health they also saved money on their life insurance premiums which went down after one year of being smoke-free.
While having someone to quit with and support each other along the way can make the whole experience easier to get through, I am doing it alone and after many attempts over the years this will be my last.
Although I have more than enough reasons to quit along with wanting to be in better shape, as something to work towards I have registered for Tough Mudder 2014 and I am determined to bring home that orange headband!
What is Tough Mudder?
For those who are unfamiliar with Tough Mudder, it is a 10-12 mile military-style obstacle and each participant who completes the challenges receives an orange Tough Mudder headband along with bragging rights.
I will not be able to complete this 10-12 mile obstacle course if I am still smoking. With 8 months until the big day I am saying goodbye to cigarettes, this relationship is over!!! The best way to quit is to not pick one up and put it in my hand.
I will not be spending anymore of my hard-earned money to shorten my life expectancy. I started cutting back significantly during November and December of 2013, and 2014 (I know it’s only been a day) to this point has been cigarette free!!!
More coupons
I have to admit that the last few months of 2013 my coupon use slowed down quite a bit. I also missed many opportunities throughout the year to obtain coupon inserts in local newspapers.
Though I did manage to get my hands on a few of them, I will get a lot more this year having printed the insert schedule from Coupon Christine so I will now have a heads up when they are coming out and can plan accordingly to get my hands on them.
As I grow up I appreciate practical gifts a lot more and so for my birthday this year my parents asked what I wanted and I responded with a new printer.
Previously having an inkjet printer, the amount of printing that I am required to do for my job was becoming more expensive than what I was being reimbursed for so printing coupons was definitely out of the question.
Now having a laser printer that will print around 3000 pages per toner cartridge, compared to approximately 200 copies for ink cartridge, a lot more printable coupons will be finding a home in my coupon binder.
Smart goals
Being realistic and setting achievable goals will give you a better chance at meeting them. If getting out of debt is a New Years Resolution for you depending how much money you owe becoming debt free in one year may not be possible.
Set a goal to pay down a certain amount of debt for that year that is doable and then re-evaluate that goal the next year. Our lives will not change and improve overnight but by setting attainable goals you will start out on a better path.
What are your New Year’s resolutions? How do you plan to stick to them?
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Good luck to you and for goals in the coming year. For me, my goals all circulate around finding ways to earn a living, as well as saving for the future and my passions.
Eating better and moving around more (exercise) is also important to me. But I have to admit I’m so stubborn about quitting smoking as I’m nervous by nature, even though quitting outright would save me £60 a month!
Thanks Alex There are many more reasons to quit smoking than just the money while that alone is a major benefit. When you are ready you can do it! All the best to you in 2014 🙂
Tough Mudder sounds impressive! I might have to check that out and consider signing up myself. It looks like there’s one not far from me in Nashville.
I am very excited for Tough Mudder that orange headband will be mine!! Note: the earlier your register for the event the cheaper it is 🙂
My goals for this year include eating better (more fruits and veggies and less processed crap), exercise 4 times per week (Focus T25 DVDs at home), spend more time with family (via phone, e-mail or text) and save half of my income towards a rent property downpayment fund. Happy 2014 and good luck with your goals!
Happy 2014 to you and good luck with your goals as well!!!
Good luck with quitting smoking!!!! I don’t smoke, never have but the older boy picked up that habit back around the time he hit Basic Training for the military. So many do smoke in the military it was easy to pick up that habit. I’d like to see him quit and he knows it. It has to be his call but he knows I would help him in any way I could to quit. As he has issues with depression smoking tends to be a stress release for him. We are dealing with the depression, then hopefully the smoking. He went from a pack a day to half that after coming home and it stayed at that level for quite a while as he had no income and we were paying for the darn things. He gets CPP-D now so he buys his own. He’s trying to keep it at half a pack and to go down from there.
Watching your diet and cutting back on excess things like sugar will help you make your goals!!! Some people will prepare a bunch of veggies, fruits and such ahead for snacks and meal prep, would that work for you??
You will do very well at your TM Challenge!!! I know you can do it!!! You Go Girl!!!!!!
As for us and any resolutions, the last two years have been run in survival mode and things have settled down some so we can start to figure things out on going from here. Hubby’s health issues will always be there. His test numbers have been good the last few months but we both know the Amyloidosis will rear it’s nastiness again. How, where and when is the question. He had an echo-cardiogram Dec 23, and we get the results in London on Jan 15. Here’s to hoping…… Cardiac function will always be the wild card with this disease.We know it will hit the heart at some point but not how or when. All we can do is deal with today and hope for tomorrow.
Christine I hope you have you and your family have a fantastic year and that your hubby’s health improves. I have some serious training to do yet to be ready for Tough Mudder but I am going to finish it!!
Dear Katrina, you have set yourself some big goals, I applaud you for your determination. I have seen your physical strength in action -and I can also see that you are an emotionally strong woman, after all, you are a single Mum!!! The issue of quitting smoking is familiar, as I quit COLD TURKEY in 1992. If I can do it, I know you can. You have already faced, and conquered challenges of various types, this is just another bump in the road. This will make your children proud!! I drank lots of water, as has been suggested, and kept a supply of chewable mints handy. Keep your hands busy, clean out your car, wash your curtains, mash potatoes, knead bread, knit, dig in the garden, do something to keep your hands busy. If you can, put the money you would have spent on smokes, every 2-3 days into a jar and reward yourself, after 6 months or a year, with an astonishing amount of money you have saved by quitting. Good luck. We are walking with you.
Thank you for your support as always Mary, I look forward to saving money and most importantly my health. Wishes for an awesome year for you!
Katrina, drink lots and lots of water… it helps flush the nicotine from your system faster & you’ll be healing your body in no time!
I don’t have any resolutions for 2014 but I do have goals. For me they are both financial and health related. I believe in that old adage, “Start as you mean to continue”.
I have several TFSA contributions made already for 2014 tax year and will complete the TFSA contribution process on January 9th.
This morning I started the RRSP contributions deposits and I have identified both when and what amounts I plan to contribute throughout the year to max out our RRSP contributions.
As far as health goes, now that I am comfortable with my gluten free lifestyle…it’s time to begin a healthy and life long sustainable eating program. I had a dietician designed program that I have tinkered mildly with. I lowered my intake in the “grains” category because the gluten free options tend to be both twice as many carbohydrates and calories as their wheat based counterparts. To replace these calories, I am bumping up the vegetable section for satiety. No surprise there huh? I was just sharing with hubby last night that it was such a delight to go through the holiday season without any gluten reactions! It’s time for the next phase of my recovery.
To aid in shedding a few pounds… I am slowly re-starting our evening walking program. We’ve both packed on a few pounds while sorting out the dietary problems. It’s time to shake them loose again. 🙂 I plan to add time and distance very gradually so we both stay injury free. This is going to be a great year! We live in a beautiful province to explore on foot! 🙂
Good luck with your goals for 2014!
Mary, drinking lots of water has been my saving grace so far! It’s never too late to think about your health, I wish you the best with your resolutions this year!
Wishing you the beat for 2014 Katrina!! I hope the new year brings you the strength to achieve your goals! No resolutions for me this year except grow more food this summer! I didn’t have much of a garden in 2013. Thanks for the great article!
Thanks Pat, I am doing good so far, some days are easier than others but the hard days are worth it!