New Year, New Focus: Losing Weight, and going Green!

(My Original Blog Post: -*http://www.theresabloginmysoup.com/new-year-new-focus-losing-weight-and-going-green/)
Ali Vincent
Image by mgonamission via Flickr

In times past this blog has been a blog about blogging. I've also blogged about marketing, and pretty much anything that mattered to me at the time. I'm finding now isn't the best time in the world to be starting a blog to make money.

Sure I'm still making some money - not nearly as much as I used to, especially being banned by google because somebody clicked on too many links from my page - none of my fault.

I've made a new plan or goal in life - first off I am spending 6 -8 hours working out 3 days a week, and changing my diet. I've lost 75 pounds since January 12th, 2009. (Yes that's under a month but I have a lot of weight to lose - I started weighing 660 lbs, and now weigh 577).

This is my primary goal right now - my wife works in Private duty home health, I am currently between jobs - other than my blog, which I have neglected a bit as of late. These days just about everyone is either between jobs or knows somebody else who is.

Why - being between jobs isn't such a bad thing - for me I have always had excuses for why I couldn't lose weight, or workout. My main excuse - was I have a lot of work, not enough energy, and not enough time.

Well - my wife took that excuse away agreeing to work, while I workout - for every hour she works I spend an hour in the gym - for the most part anyways. We are also changing our diets together and eating healthier. I have no excuses now to losing weight and it's working like a charm - almost as good as if I were accepted on the Biggest Loser, which I've always dreamed of being on.

This year I've decided I can wait until I get accepted on the Biggest Loser - and maybe die in the process or I can be my own biggest loser. I spend 6-8 hours x 3 days per week using water weights while swimming, water walking, and water kickboxing.

I'm also drinking 1 gallon+ water per day, and cut out 90% of soda - I'll have a coke zero every now and again but mostly drink water.

My other focus - I'm going back to school to get a degree in Sustainability(that's green technology, green science, green business, basically anything green or eco related.) With my desire to go into green technologies as a career - I've decided to change my blog's theme a bit. From now on this blog will feature a lot more information on going green and being an eco-friendly blogger.

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(My Original Blog Post: http://www.theresabloginmysoup.com/save/)

Energy-dense foods, such as fast food (picture...
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Soda and other flavored or sweetened beverages are a luxury. They are also an expense that if removed can save you not only thousands of dollars, but also thousands of calories, and 10+ pounds per year.

The average american drinks 50 gallons or so of soda per year. The average obese american or overweight American can drink as much as 500 gallons, and many healthy people drink 0 gallons.

I myself on some days could drink as much as 2-3 liters per day. (Think 3 large cups at McDonalds is equal to 3 liters.) Some days I could drink a lot more.

Let's do some math.
Let's say you eat at fast food restauarants 4 times per week, and you upsize your meals. That's 208 liters of soda per year. It's also roughly 312 dollars (at $1.50 each), and 79872 calories (at 384 calories per liter of soda). 3500 calories is equal to one pound, so that's the equivalent of 22 lbs gained per year just from soda.

Let's say beyond eating at McDonalds you eat at nicer restaurants maybe twice a week, like Olive Garden, or Applebees. You order a coke, and get 3 refills of a 12 oz glass. Now you're spending a little more per drink - about $2.50 on average, and you drink about 36 oz. In a year you would spend $260, drink another 39900 calories, gaining another 12 lbs.

Do you drink soda at home? What about during football games? What about at parties? At School?
This is just how much money you spend by yourself - what about the rest of your family - your spouse, and any children?

Using the example above in a two person family, just a husband and wife, if you ordered water every time you eat out, you could save the following:

$1144 saved.
239544 Calories saved.
68 lbs saved.

On top of that you'll add years to your life.

Some other good ways to save money is to stop going to places like starbucks if you need coffee brew it at home and save money. You can spend thousands a year on latte's and it's just wasted money. If you eat out religiously every week, try taking one week per month and having a spending freeze - spend no money except on bills and absolute necessities, you will find yourself saving hundreds more.

Times are tough right now, and American's are more overweight than ever, just drinking water at restaurants can not only save your life and make you more attractive but it can save you from financial ruin.

I myself have lost over 80 lbs since January 1st 2009, by eating healthier, now's a great time to eat healthy, and you can save money by doing it as well. It's a win-win proposition.
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