A Year of Change

It’s very cold here, we live in the western United States and while we’ve missed most of the heavy snow this year we’re in the midst of a 4 day span with an average temperature of 10 degrees with all nights way below zero. What’s this mean? For one, the kids are inside more than out which requires creative ideas to keep them occupied.

For the most part, yesterday was a good day. Besides the sink still clogged, (who knows what my brother or sister in law threw down the sink on New Years Eve!) and the bitter cold, everyone had a lot of fun on the first day of the new year.

The kids didn’t really miss the sweets and did pretty well with their dinner. My wife cut up a bunch of fresh veggies and made some fresh guacamole and chips and just put them on the kitchen counter. Turns out kids will graze, kind of like cattle, on just about anything you put in front of them. My wife is sore from her New Years Eve workout at the gym, (man she’s tough, like pro athlete tough), and will try to get there or somehow get some exercise today. It’s a bit after 5am with everyone still sleeping and I’ll get to the gym by 6. The sewer man comes at 9am so church is probably out today. We’re really trying to make a consistent effort to get to church for the kids. They actually enjoy it and are at the age where they’re asking a lot of questions we just don’t have the answer to. Funny how a 7 year old can stump even the most educated adult.

So everyone ate pretty healthy, no Dairy Queen binges, we didn’t go out and buy new Rolex watches, passed on alcohol and managed to get some good sleep. Today I have to tackle my home office as the new work year (and I’m already weeks behind with work, can never get caught up!) starts tomorrow.

Need to also organize the cupboards as whenever we have any little extra cash, we now buy extra food. Anyone notice how food prices keep rising? Not to go off on a rant but we are living in scary times. Everyone must prepare for the worst and hope for the best. If you look around the world (just watch the news) there are some real issues and the problem is we’re all so desensitized that we all just accept it as normal. Imagine if you were in a coma since 1960 and just woke up! Boy would you be scared!

More tomorrow as the gym awaits, turns out the old saying “use it or lose it” is true. In fact most of what my parents told me when I was young is actually true! WOW, wish I would have realized that, would have made life much much easier. When our parents were kids, it was the older people that were respected, revered and considered to be the wise ones. Not sure when this changed (must have had something to do with rap music) but it wasn’t a good thing. Change isn’t always good. If you could pick a generation or time span to grow up and live in, what would it be, hmmm, interesting thought to ponder.

God Bless

Well, here we go, day one of our 365 day family makeover. I’m sure all of us have things we’d like to change about ourselves or our lives. It’s said that the overwhelming majority of New Year’s resolutions are never kept. Reasons for this are many so we’ve tried to come up with a few tactics to help us reach our goals.

One of the main purposes of this blog is to keep us focused daily, and by being in writing, hopefully keep us on track and more accountable to ourselves. Next is to realize that we’re not really making resolutions, which are usually temporary,  but rather lifestyle changes.

The first thing we need to do is set goals which must be realistic and attainable. Next is to develop a plan on how to get there. So here goes, hoping for the best!

2011 Family Makeover Goals

1. Get healthy, Wow, that’s kind of a big statement so let’s start with better eating habits and more exercise. My wife and I would like to lose some weight (not her of course, I meant just me), or just firm up what we have while the kids just need to eat better food, which they think is more Mc Donalds. I think the main thing any of us can do to improve our health is change our eating habits. We’ve been gym rats for years and trust me when I tell you, it all comes down to diet. You can workout for hours on end but if you don’t eat right, you’re pretty much sunk. It’s really hard to get this one right when everywhere you look huge amounts of corporate money are spent trying to brainwash you into consuming processed food with little to no nutritional value. I once knew a guy who decided he would eat nothing that had a bar code! What a challenge this was but boy was he healthy. Small steps here are the key, (I hope as the big ones are really hard), so first off we’re going to eliminate white flour and sugar. The white flour thing is not so hard but it seems everything has sugar in it! As I said earlier, that stuff is a drug, particularly for children, right parents? So while the kids are still sleeping, I’ve cleaned out the cupboards of all the sugary junk. (they’re sure going to be surprised) This is not to say they won’t get cake at a birthday party or cookies at grandma’s but it’ll be much harder to find this crap around the house. One of the best things we ever did as parents was not let our kids drink soda pop. It’s not that pop is just full of sugar, it’s also full of all kinds of chemicals that can really cause harm. If your kids drink pop, stop this now! As far as my wife and I, this is just a matter of focus. She has a sweet tooth, especially for chocolate but I can pretty much take it or leave it. If cookies, cake and candy are not right there in front of me, I’ll leave them alone. Of course the biggest enemy here is demon alcohol, which we’re contemplating quitting altogether for a host of reasons other than diet. But regarding weight, it’s a fact that it’s just not the calories in alcohol that get you but the eating binges that come with that euphoric feeling. (This is a whole other subject we’ll get to later) As far as exercise, we’re pretty good here. I am also thinking of killing my TV! (just a figure of speech here people) Outside of movies and sports, there’s just not a lot of value. The news is now so depressing as all they ever show you is bad people and bad stuff. Why can’t someone come up with a news channel that just shows good things happening around the world? I personally am going to make a special effort to play more with my kids, and watch less of whatever. It’s so much more rewarding, and better in all kinds of ways, to get out and play with your kids.
2. Get out of debt, ok this is really going to be a challenge. There’s no magic fix (although we’re still hoping, anyone have any extra cash?), and this is where small steps really count! First off, we’re cutting up most all of the credit cards today, not canceling them, (as this hurts your credit), but just making sure we can’t use them, except of course for the most important card in the World, the holy grail, American Express! (I can see my first sponsor now) You see, you have to pay this off monthly, however even they have cards with extended payment plans, but don’t take the bait, as all credit card companies that let you carry balances are just trying to suck you in and make you a slave to them and their corporate philosophy which is to pretend like they’re doing you such a favor while in truth they could care less about you. How come interest rates on credit cards are as high as 30% when you can only get 2% on your savings account???? Anyhow, this too is another topic we’ll get into later so back to getting us out of debt and then we’ll change the World. So, first step, we’re cutting up cards, this is pretty easy and anyone can do it. Next is we’re going to try to pay something over the minimum payment every month on our bills. This is not always practical but we have to find a way or we’ll be stuck in this quagmire forever. If I have to, I’ll start with as little as $10 extra each month which doesn’t seem like much, but I’m told, it’ll add up. (We’re still not sure how we got in so deep in the first place and of course it wasn’t our fault) But seriously, while it is our fault, the system (big money and big banks), does everything it can to keep you stuck there forever. You could just say screw them and file bankruptcy, which for some people in some situations might be the best thing and it would serve the banks right, but we’re just not those kind of people, or in that kind of situation, yet. If we think we can dig ourselves out through perseverance and hard work, we’ll try, after all, that’s what Americans do!
3. Last is a New Attitude! This should be the easiest of the three, right? Not so fast Sherlock, if you think about it, this is the one change that can’t be solved by throwing out certain foods, cutting up credit cards or not going out to dinner. This change must come from within. I’m not going to go into God here but can only say that I believe he is the foundation from which all good things will come. When things come up that stress you out or cause you to worry, I try to step back and ask myself, am I even going to remember this in 6 months? Usually the answer is no, and if so, it’s really not that big of a deal. The real challenge for us, and I think all parents, is how we react to our kids when they are really “just being kids”. Man they can piss you off or get your blood pressure up quickly. Not sure how to change here but for starters, I’m going to count to five before I say anything. Hopefully this’ll give me time to think about what just happened and how to respond, or maybe I’ll just scream “knock it off” or “you’re grounded” cause that’s worked so well, right. Anyhow, here too, hopefully small steps matter. For one, getting kids more exercise makes all the difference. They have so much energy, (we wish we could steal some) and if it doesn’t get out through activity, it’ll come out in other ways.

Well, enough for day 1 as last night our sink and sewer lines clogged up or froze or whatever, (and we have to try to find a sewer man on New Years Day), we have a sink full of dirty dishes (can’t wash them or run the dishwasher with the pipes clogged), after a great meal with family (which is really the most important thing), the kids are looking for their sugar filled cereal, (told them I have no idea where it went!), my wife is still sleeping (I think she’s faking personally) and the dogs want to go for a walk. Also have to clean the house and get ready to go back to work on Monday, and oh yeah, football is on today, (I’ll have to squeeze in the Rose Bowl as my mom went to Wisconsin), but I’d rather go see True Grit as I’ve been a cowboy (at heart) since I was 2!

God Bless and Happy New Year

Hi, New Years Eve 2010, been a tough year for a lot of people. This day is always great as it gives everyone the best chance of starting something new or deciding what resolutions  they want to implement in their life. Well my wife and I and our 2 boys, age 7 and 9 and are about to embark on a 1 year path to a complete family makeover. What do we want to change? Well the list is long, hardly know where to start but here goes.

First, we’ll begin with our health, time to junk the junk and get in shape. We’re not really out of shape, just could be better. Need to change our eating habits, limit or quit drinking all together (we’ll let you all know in a week or so on the quitting part), and get the kids to actually eat some veggies and get off the sugar. Man that stuff is a drug!

Second, time to get out of debt. This won’t be easy but we’re hoping that by writing about it, we’ll stay focused daily. We, like a lot of others, lived and spent beyond our means when times were good. In the past few years it has become clear that the government, big business and almost everyone else is not going to change their ways and really are just about screwing the public for their own gain. I’m so tired of endless campaigns by self serving politicians but that’s a whole other story. Point is, you just have to look out for yourself.

Next is just a change in general attitude. We’re all really blessed to be here and most all of us just take it for granted and don’t appreciate the life that has been given to us. Of course words are easy as the daily pressure of bills, kids, family, etc. takes its toll but we’re going to really try to transform the way we look at life and others and move through this world with a much better attitude.

So, we’ll see you tomorrow and the day after and the day after and so on as we try to stay focused and change the lives of 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 fish. (the fish are actually pretty content, they eat well, have no debt and have a good attitude)

God Bless and Happy New Year!

Stay tuned, big changes coming in 2011!