1/4/10 - New Year's Resolution review

So, I just remembered that I made some new year's resolutions last year. As documented in this post on January 2nd of last year. I followed up as recently as the end of February, but nothing after that.

Here is the final update of how I did last year.

1) Working out again. This did happen. Me and my brothers have been going for close to 3 months now I think. We are actually starting a new routine tonight, so there are no real signs of slowing down. In fact, I think we have missed 2 workouts and they were both due to the Christmas holiday.

2) Getting up better and going to bed earlier. This is a joke, if anything it has gotten worse. I noted that I was getting up at 7:30 last year. To end the year, my average wake up time was around 8:00 and getting to work just a little after 9:00. Going to bed earlier...hahaha...I usually crawl under the covers between midnight and 2:00 and midnight is very rare.

3) I can't see that I was really eating horribly, although eating could have been better. The holidays, especially with Cristi's mom in town for 2 weeks (and us still eating leftovers) was not a good thing for eating healthy. Considering in 2 weeks we went through 3 boxes of butter, I think I was on the Paula Dean diet. Almost all the leftovers are gone, so I'm going to give myself a passing grade on this resolution.

4) Grass Guys is in good shape. I could have ended the year with a bit more preparation, but a combination of laziness and being satisfied left me with a broken mower, blower and trimmer, still no uniforms that I'm happy with and a lack of marketing material. All these things will be purchased/fixed hopefully in the next two months so they can be written off for the 2010 tax year and before the season starts. I did decide on the insurance bit (with just a tad more research needed) which will help greatly in the commercial expansion. This didn't go so well in 2009.

There you have it. My resolutions last year were pretty vague, but I thought I did pretty well, some of them almost unintentional. The only resolutions I'm making this year is to not shave or cut my hair for a year (I actually plan on breaking this one next weekend) and to play a lot more Call of Duty. I'm pretty sure I can stick with that one.

Labels: resolutions

0 Comments - Leave one yourself

2/25/09 - Resolution Update

1) Working out...forget about it. I see no signs of this picking up. I've had zero motivation to do anything. I ran a week or so ago, but haven't done anything "exercise" related in nearly a month. I want to, I am simply not taking the initiative to get something going.

2) Getting up better. Well, I consistently get to work by 9:00, but my goal was to get to work closer to 8:00 or early. This has failed. The prime culprit is playing Gears of War 2 every single night until 1 and 2 in the morning. I could easily turn this around, but for now, Gears of War is a lot of fun.

3) Eating better. I am still eating better now than where I ended 2008. The last week or so I have basically stopped my diet, I have simply made sure to limit my meals and intake per meal. Then of course there is the most recent dessert I am experimenting with. Let's just say that it will probably be featured on ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com once I'm finished with it. (Thanks Ryan for posting that link on your blog). I will say though that although my intake has changed from my initial diet, I have maintained the weight after a 10 pound loss. I'm holding steady at around 163-164 pounds (about 74 kilos for those people reading in countries advanced enough to use the metric system).

4) Grass Guys. This is still a little slow going. I made an effort to get a few commercial accounts under contract and that went horribly. I went to probably 20 different businesses. I only gave 2 quotes and I have not heard back from either. I left my card with probably 5 places, no calls from them. Most of the others required a call to their corporate headquarters which meant that I would probably be bidding on all of their local places of business which most will be outside of my mowing radius. Since then, I have not done any real work. I will start passing out door hangers pretty soon which will keep me busy most nights. I think in the years past I have started doing that around spring break. I've actually already gotten two door hangers this year, but I think it is still way too early. Most people aren't even thinking about lawn care this early in the season. After my horrible experience with the commercial arena, I'm pretty discouraged and think I'll just continue with residential this season and try to build up a strong customer base. This will also mean that I won't HAVE to get insurance. If my customer base gets large enough though, I will get it. With no real commercial, it won't be a requirement though.

So there ya go. I have basically failed on all fronts with the exception of Grass Guys which I just haven't had the ability to really work on it too much.

Labels: resolutions

2 Comments - Leave one yourself

1/23/09 - Diets really work.

Although I believe I am a rare case, it takes almost little to no effort on my part to drop weight. Since starting this last Tuesday, I have not worked out, and have done cardio twice (basketball games on thursday nights). Yet still, by simply cutting my caloric intake to 1500-2000 calories a day, I have gone from 172 to 166 pounds. Averaging about half a pound a day, the only day that was not the case was the day after I caved in to my desire to eat at Golden Corral and enjoy their Applewood grill (which is absolutely amazing...you have got to try the chicken) when I gained a pound a half. The opposite is that between this morning and 24 hours prior, I dropped 3 pounds. I think our scale is screwed up.

So, with that said, here is a quick recap on my resolutions.

1) Working out - as mentioned above, I haven't gone in almost 2 weeks.

2) Getting up a better time - This has been alright. Although I've been a little sick (just a stopped up head), so I've been dragging a little bit, but this morning I was up and going at 7:00 with very little problem. I'm not doing as well as I would like, but I'm doing better than before.

3) Eating better - I am definitely doing well in this area. Of course, I am going to a team lunch with work today, and we are going to larry's pizza, an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet that serves some of the best pizza ever, so I'm sure that doesn't really count as "eating better".

4) Grass Guys - still, not a whole lot of stuff I can really be doing. Very soon I'll start research on liability insurance, and I need to write up my commercial quote template still, but advertising won't start until march.

Labels: resolutions

1 Comments - Leave one yourself

1/13/09 - Resolution progress - 2 weeks

1) Working out. This has gone great. 3 times a week, we all three seem to be motivated, and the workouts have kicked my butt. I'm giving myself a high mark on this one.

2) Getting up at a better time. I have failed on this one. I did great last week, but only because Cristi and I were carpooling together. Since I didn't HAVE to be up at a certain time, I have slept until 7:30-8:00. At the same time, I've stayed up until midnight and later.

3) Eating better. Today I started my diet. It's not going to be easy, but I have to do something. I have decided to not eat more than 200 calories at a time, and I can only eat once an hour (preferably every two hours or so). I'm also going to log exactly what I eat during the course of the day as a running diary for me. On top of eating better, I am going to drink a gallon of water a day. The first few weeks of the year I did the complete opposite of eating better, but I was mainly doing that to "get it out of my system" so I could start this new venture. It's difficult to grade myself on this because to this point I have done what I have planned, but it's not really a great plan.

4) Work on Grass Guys. I haven't been able to do much at this point. I need to write up my Commercial Quote document and research liability insurance a bit, but other than that, this is a slow time for the lawn care stuff. I can't grade myself on this one.

Labels: resolutions

2 Comments - Leave one yourself

1/2/09 - A new year, a fresh start?

The first of the year is kind of a joke. Most people treat it like it's a fresh start to everything. It's almost like they think that the previous 365 days (or 366 during years following a leap year) can just be wiped away.

I can see how that is somewhat true. The holidays for me are always a time of year where work slows down (way, way down), I have to use up the remainder of my vacation, and we get several days off in the months of November and December for holidays. Starting January 2nd, work picks right back up, days off are rare for holidays and I try to save as much vacation as possible for the summer. As far as that goes, it kind of does start over.

Years past, I know that new year's resolutions don't work. It was a coincidence that Cristi and I started an envelope budget on the first of the year, but we have actually kept that all year (and it has worked tremendously...if you want more details, just ask...). I've never known anyone to keep a resolution for more than a month or so, and typically it lasts no more than 2 weeks.

I say all that to say this. I think I might try a resolution or two this year. If they work out, it's a bonus, but if for some reasont hey don't, I'm not going to beat myself up. I was doing really good with fitness and eating habits until about 2 weeks ago. My workout partners got real busy (as did I) with travel, work, etc. so we basically quit working out. On top of that, with Thanksgiving and Christmas brings all sorts of good (and not healthy) food. All that together means that I'm not quite where I want to be.

Here are the things that I'm going to work on.

1) Start working out again. If the other guys can't do it, I have no excuse as I have all the equipment I need at home to get a very good workout every day.

2) Start getting up at a better time. Considering I am supposed to be at work by 8:00. 7:30 is not the best time to be waking up. I also need to work on getting out of bed when the alarm goes off instead of hitting snooze for an hour. This will make my wife very happy if I can fix it. Along the same lines, I need to start getting to bed at a better time, that should help with getting up earlier.

3) Eating better. I think this will come naturally once the holidays are over and all the leftovers are eaten, but it would be nice to start cooking again which would quite possibly save on grocery/food expense, it would allow to better control what I'm eating, and it would give me a reason to use some of the awesome Christmas gifts I received.

4) Really work on Grass Guys. This year, now that I have a few clients pretty much locked in for the next year, I can branch out a little and start expanding into the commerical area. This will take a bit of faith because I will be required to get liability insurance (which is not cheap). Of course, I've been gambling the last two years by not carrying it, but in all honesty, even as well as I did the last two seasons, I couldn't afford it to get it. For me to get the insurance and add this expense, if I don't truly focus on getting the commercial accounts, I'll be in the red for the 3rd year in a row which according to the IRS means that I will have to pay backtaxes on the last three years, filing my business as a hobby (this is of course assuming that I understand the tax laws).

That's the four I've got going, I think what I might do is try to post updates occassionaly on how I'm doing with these. It might give me a bit of motivation knowing that other people will know if I fail or not. It will also give me the ability to go back and look at my progress as well by keeping a log.

Labels: resolutions

2 Comments - Leave one yourself