Saturday, April 30th, 2011

What a beautiful day!  Spring is truly here.  I had a bit of a scare last week.  Earlier last week, I started to have some chest pains, which at first I thought may be a pulled muscle or something. By 2am that night the pain had become quite intense. The pain wasn't really in my heart area (just above where my heart is). When I called my close friends Janel & Jenny the next day asking if I should get this checked out or not, they gave me quite tongue lashing. They said I should have gone straight to the hospital that evening when the pain became intense and not to work the following day.

As I have a real fear of all things related to doctors and hospitals, and besides I did feel a little better by the morning. As well, payroll was due that next day (& I do the payroll for my company).  My thinking at the time was if I take off and go to the doctor or hospital, and there isn't anything really wrong, my boss is going to kill me. I did get it checked out later that next day (after I completed payroll and the full day’s work). When I informed the doctors though, that I had had chest pain, they went into emergency mode.
For me, I was just like, Chill, I just want to run an EKG, make sure was all okay, and go home. I have to say though, God bless them, because they took it all very seriously, and ran a whole battery of test (taking several hours).  When all was done and said they informed me that they found some anomaly in my lungs, but they didn't believe it was life threatening or anything(as I do not smoke), but they said my primary care doctor and I can just keep an eye on it, and perhaps run further tests. They also found a cyst on my liver, which they said was quite normal for people my age.  Well, I’ve had enough excitement to last me a while. :-)

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been getting back to a healthier life style.  I started again buying mostly organic and gluten free products.  You are probably wondering why I’m buying gluten free products as I’m not really allergic to it or anything.  Well, I’ve noticed that a good portion of my friends have problems with gluten.  I have two close friends with colitis and one with celiac, and another with stomach issues. What I noticed for each of them is glutton and bread stuff in particular either makes them very sick or at the very least gives them very uncomfortable symptoms (gas, bloating and such).  My theory, is our culture over does it with starches and breads, and such and our bodies eventually become intolerant or cannot handle it in the quantities we’ve ingested prior.

Nevertheless, I thought it a good idea to eat less of it.  Also, I’ve gotten together with one of my favorite walking buddy’s, for what we call our “Mega Walks”.  We walked 13.5 miles last week, and 10.5 miles this week.  This last walk we actually walked from Bay Ridge Brooklyn to 42nd Street NYC (9.5 miles). Yoohoo!!!


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April 3rd, Seventh day of the Challenge

Wow, I can't believe I made it! Today was a truly awesome day. I've needed a hair cut for quite some time, and my friend invited me over today to cut it for me. Shortly after I arrived they had some yummy burgers for me. Then we all spent the day together; great companionship, great food, and an awesome cut, Yeay!!!

With this money challenge this week, I've noticed one amazing aspect, I've been much happier, calmer and less stressed. I've noticed this week, as I focused on not spending money, that I've often in the past spent money not consciously. Meaning I'll just buy whatever, whenever, without ever really thinking, can I afford this? Then several days into getting my pay check, I start to notice I'm running low on money, and then, and only then, do I think; "Where did it all go to?". Well, this week I know exactly where my money was(in my bank account, and $20. in my wallet).

I've realized that I'm definitely an emotional spender, and when I'm depressed, my spending really skyrockets. Now that I have realized all this about me, I want to take this challenge further. I'm going to continue to gauge and blog about my spending, and all the coffee money I would have usually spent (usually lately at least two fancy cups of coffee a day) I'm going to put that money I would usually spend in a jar and save it. At the end of the month I will blog how much I have saved (from coffee money, treats, dinners out ect...). Well, I'd like to thank Josh Manley & Chanelle Henry  for their suggestion to take this challenge; this is just beginning for me. Thanks Idea Piñana!


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April 2nd, Sixth day of the Challenge

What a beautiful day it was today. I usually do the bulk of my spending on the weekend, so I wasn't sure how today was going to go for me. Sat, and Sun. is when I do all my chores, and groceries, and any other shopping that needs to be done, as well as any recreational shopping. I usually start my weekend going to my favorite diner for brunch (Pegasus). I love their food and the people (I've made quite a few friends their). It is a small family owed business. After brunch, I'd then nurse  cappuccino for a good hour or so, and read a book, and then go off to do whatever other chores that needed to done

Instead, today I woke up and prepared some glutton free pancakes by Pamela's (the co. makes a bunch of mixes and cookies all glutton free, total awesome) some organic chicken sausages, and home brewed coffee. I must say all very delicious. I then watched some TV, took  nap, and then went out and took a nice walk; which ended by sitting on a bench for an hour and reading a good book(Cracking the Millionaire Code: Your Key to Enlightened Wealth by Robert G. Allen & Mark victor Hansen)

I then came back and cleaned a bit, and then made some dinner which I've just finished. I've pretty much done today all my favorite things, including eating some of my favorite foods, I just had to prepare it myself. It's interesting that all the food I've prepared this week, are all the same food I always stock in my pantry and frig.  Unfortunately due to all the eating out I had been doing, a good deal of it often went to waste, and ends up in the garbage. Well, it's time for a new trend! :-) From now on, I'll be cooking (& brewing my own coffee) through out the week. I think I'd still like to hold on to my weekend brunches, but that can be my weekend treat for all the spending I won't be going during the week.

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April 1st, Fifth day of the Challenge

This day was probably the hardest on my challenge. I woke up still having a sour stomach, and super hungry all the same. The first thing I wanted was a banana chocolate chip muffin. Of course I had none on hand, so I spent a good 15 minutes searching my pantry and frig for something that looked appealing, and nothing was doing it for me. I finally settled on glutton free corn chips and a granola bar.  Work was busy today, but not highly stressful. When lunch came though, I seriously wanted to get out for lunch, and there was definitely several times today when I thought,”I’ve completed 4 days of the challenge, that’s good enough, right?”.  Then I thought again, and realized something pretty cool, I’ve saved this week alone some $80.00 that I would have certainly spent by now, (had I been spending money).  Wow, I thought further, image if I did this for a year I’d save more than 4K than what I’m now (which is pretty much nothing). Totally Awesome!!