Jun 29, 2012

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July Goals

 

I really cannot believe that July is just around the corner.

Wow.

Let’s not talk abut how many months are left in the year, m’kay?!

Although, this does mean we’re getting closer to our Jamaica trip over Christmas!!

June was a bit less than stellar, but, not terrible.

Work has finally slowed to a manageable pace and aside from Stampede, July should be a fairly reasonable month (well, except if we have to move, which I’d be totally okay with!).

Overall, my theme for July is healthy eating and exercise, let’s see how I’m planning on approaching this.

Exercise

I did REALLY well with my fitness calendar in March and April, then I went to Houson and stopped. Completely. For 2 months.

Whoops.

Surprisingly, I still lost weight.

Starting in July (actually, starting TODAY with yoga and a 5k run AND a 5k run on Saturday!) I’m going to get back to my fitness calendar. I’ve mapped out all of my training runs AND made adjustments for days I know I won’t be able to make it, so my goal is to complete 90% or 19/21 scheduled workouts in July. Some days have 2 workouts (usually a run and yoga) so as long as I do ONE of those, I will count it as a success.

I’ll be printing this out and hanging it by my computer so I can check my workouts off when I complete them (thanks for the great idea Cassie!).

July Calendar

 

Food

Sometimes food is a really big struggle for me.

Like, REALLY big.

Why?

I like love food.

Like, a lot.

I also struggle with putting major limitations on food – it just makes me want it MOAR.

However, if I want to lose the last 15 pounds (nearly exactly) I’m going to need to make some BIG changes.

However, instead of diving in all at once with this BIG change, I’m taking some baby steps here. We have a 2 day wedding this weekend and then my dad and his girlfriend are visiting over Stampede, so I know any food goals I set for this time are going to fail.

So.

Starting July 16 (food is supplied when I mark exams) I’m going to follow Bob Harpers Skinny Rules for 4 weeks. My goal is to follow these as perfectly as I can while following my exercise plan.

Per Krissie, my life is going to SUCK for the first 3 days, and then? AWESOME.

Three days of suck to be down 15 pounds?! I’ll totally take it!

***

So.

That’s it.

Two goals, but two BIG goals for July.

I’ll still be praying for a condo sale (and for a way to buy the house!)  but my focus will be on exercise and healthy eating.

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Jun 28, 2012

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June Goals Wrap-up

 

Original goals here; mid-month check in here.

Now that June is drawing to a close (can we all agree that June has absolutely flown by?!) I figured it’s time to do a bit of a check-in on the goals….

 

  1. Cut out dairy, grains and processed food (aka NO SUGAR) during the week. I think with the weekends, it’ll be nearly impossible to be successful at all of these during the weekend, but should be relatively successful during the week. So, healthy is is. This also means sangria and food trucking will occur only on weekend days. Similarly to the mid-month check in, this pretty much did not happen. At. All. But that’s okay. June was far busier that I could have imagined, so I went with it.
  2. EXERCISE.  I certainly did NOT meet my weekly exercise goals from a few weeks back, and then I did NOTHING for an entire WEEK. Not good. At all. I’m going to aim for 5-6 days per week, with exceptions to be made for weddings and travel – however, I can still successfully exercise WHILE traveling :) Again, nopers. I think I ran…..once? Maybe. Oops. Since my half marathon clinic has started up again (of which I have yet to attend) there will be running (among others) in July!
  3. Continue not spending. Having my MasterCard expire at the end of April and not receiving a replacement meant my spending went WAY down. I want to continue this. Now, I will be purchasing 3 months unlimited yoga for the summer ($83/month instead of $140!) and buying tickets for Stampede events, but no clothes or shoes are needed! Aside from the luggage purchased (and 2 new pairs of glasses!) I think I did well here. Buying a house has been SUPER motivating to NOT spend money Smile
  4. Post pictures on the blog at least once a week. I’m drawn to visual blogs that have pictures to tell the story, yet I totally fail here. I want to work towards making my blog cooler (ha!) so more pictures it is! Do you see any pictures on the blog?!
  5. ENJOY JUNE! So much of April and May were filled with stress and work and sickness that I really want to enjoy June. I want to have fun with The Cowboy and just really, enjoy it. We were ridiculously crazy busy in June, but so far, it’s been SUPER enjoyable.
  6. Follow my weekly plan. With all the weekends away, life is bound to get ridiculously crazy if I don’t make a plan. I’m also running at 10km race on June 23 AND July 8, so I NEED to get my ARSE out there running and to the gym. Following the plan should help this. THE PLAN SHALL BE FOLLOWED. Once again, NOPE. Not even a little bit. Oops. I also didn’t run the race. Eek.

So, June goals.

Kind of a failure, but in my mind, that’s also okay.

June was FAR busier than I could have imagined and although exercise fell off, it’s okay. It happens. I just have to get back on the wagon for July Smile

 

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Jun 27, 2012

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The Sads

 

I know I promised no more posting about the house, but I’m just trying to squish one last post in.

Last week Canada announced new mortgage and housing rules. Canada periodically (or, IMO way to effing often) make changes to mortgage rules. These changes are a doozy. And, they directly impact our ability to buy our dream home.

A summary of the rules:

  • Anyone who puts down less than a 20% downpayment can only have a 25 year mortgage (Canada got rid of 35 year mortgages a year or two ago, but a 30 year option still existed).
  • If your home is valued at over $1M you must put down 20% as you will not be able to purchase mortgage loan insurance for any homes valued over $1M

Well

Our dream home is over the $1M threshold.

Yes, I know you’re looking at that and thinking that’s a freaking expensive house. It is.

However, that’s what you have to pay here if you want a house and don’t want to commute 45 minutes or more into the city.

No joke.

So, we kind of have two options here

  1. Negotiate with our builder to get our price below the $1M threshold (at this point, I’m assuming this includes GST as well). However, this will have an affect on the upgrades we want to include (have to stay below the threshold) and means we won’t be able to add the rental suite (as the cost to build, even if we finish it ourselves) since that cost alone will put us over the threshold.
  2. Discuss with our mortgage broker (and possibly others) to see if there are any other options for us regarding downpayment. It will take us 2 years to save this up after we sell our condo, and I don’t think our builder will willingly wait 2 years to start construction on our house (or, 1 year if we take possession in 2 years).
  3. Have all mortgage stuff done prior to July 9 when the new rules take affect. Now, this just won’t happen. We have so many pricing items to discuss with our builder that there’s no way we can meet this deadline without rushing into it and probably paying far more than necessary for items.
  4. Win the lottery.

I’m not thrilled with any of these options and I’m actually pissed that the government is taking away the option for us to build our dream home. We’ve met with our mortgage broker and have been pre-approved to do so. AND we know we can afford it.

So, it seems, we’re screwed Sad smile

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Jun 26, 2012

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Sunglasses

Okey dokey folks.

Enough of the crazy house-talk for now.

I’m in need of some new sunglasses; prescription sunglasses, actually, and I’m not willing to spend a bazillion dollars on them.

Thanks to ClearlyContacts.ca I don’t have to – but I do have to figure out which ones I want.

So, this is where you come in.

What the heck glasses do I choose?!

Option 1

Nike 1_1

 

Option 2

Nike 2_1

 

Option 3

27556

 

Option 4

21673

Confession: I totally want these as normal glasses. I <3 them, they’re so nerdy!

Tell me, which of these are your fav for sunglasess?

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Jun 26, 2012

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Ebb and Flow

I feel like the past 20 days have flown by but also have taken a year to get here.

I can’t really believe that is was only 20 days ago that we put the deposit down on our lot. Seriously.

Since then I feel like I’ve been up and down like crazy. Some days I’m 100% confident that this is what God has planned for us; others I’m so overwhelmed it’s all I can do to focus on work.

Some days I want this all to be done now (because I’m not always a very patient person) and others I’m okay if it takes a while because I’d like to ease into it (I’m also not that great with change).

Where does this leave me?

Confused, mainly.

Is this what’s in store for us?

Is there another house? but I LOVE (times a bazillion) this house

Will the condo sell? the condo will TOTALLY sell But we’ve only had 2 showings It’s only been on the market since Thursday

So on and so forth.

Ugh.

Which is to say, I haven’t been posting because I don’t know what to post about.

We might have a house if/when the condo sells, but we don’t know when that will be and we can’t design/decorate/buy furniture until that’s done, but all this maybeing is taking up all my time and brain power.

Also, it’s rained nearly steady for the past freaking month and that’s also depressing.

The past 20 days, while awesome, have been an ebb and flow of up and down and all around. Being in a tizzy isn’t terribly conducive to blogging, especially if you’re me.

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