Becoming A Healthy, Wealthy World-traveller

[Siegfried]

This morning I watched "The Most Important Commitment You Can Make," and really realized that the difference between my dreams and reality was committing. So here's me committing. I've decided to dedicated myself to my self-actualization, starting with posting here every Sunday. I plan on using this journal as a record of some basic goals and progress tracking, as well as a sounding board for some of my deeper self-development. 

Where I am Now:

Weight: 256

Bank Account: $10

Debts: $3,500 credit card and personal loans, $40,000 school loans

Eating Habits: Trying to eat healthy, but binging on sugar regularly

Mental Health: 6 or 7/10. 

Habits: Watching more than two hours of Netflix a day, procrastinating on homework (and everything else), skipping class, not exercising (except for walks and bike rides), but doing well at my part time job (not missing days, completing all work well), partying and drinking one or two nights a week, journaling about once a week, not reading very regularly, getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night. 

 

My Top Goals (For the next 8 years, before age 30):

Live abroad at least two years

Learn French and one other language 

Weigh Less than 200 lbs. 

Hike the Pacific Crest Trail

Backpack for a year

Publish a book

Become sustainably self-employed and debt free

 

Goals for 2016

Get weight down to 215

Graduate 

Move abroad

Establish some emergency savings

Get rid of credit card debt and personal loans

Start a travel/lifestyle blog 

 

New Habits/Goals for This Week

Meditate every day

Exercise three days 

Read 20 pages of a book a day

Complete an assignment/1 hour of homework a day

Practice French at least 15 minutes a day 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2016 by Siegfried

[Ike Carter]

You have a large amount of work to do. 

As a friend that cares for you, putting myself in your shoes i would begin with conquering procrastination.

Make your weakest point your strongest, Its usually the link that holds us back from becoming great.

-ike

[Sattu]

Amazing goals you have.

The of the below two words said by Leo gura i am remembering and doing as prayer repeating six times in a day.

Excercise and Meditation should be done daily and in fixed time,else don't do that i will frustrate you.

Honey and Decipline.. if you have commited 3:00 p.m. to 4.pm. for study in daily routing you should be do this between 3-4 pm.

    what i am doing, I stated warm up my body 5 minute daily in the morning, because it is not possible for me do this for more than 5 minutes daily, so i am doing 5 minutes daily. So my previous frustration gone  i am not excercising.

[Siegfried]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! Here's my review of week one and update of week two.

 

Week 1: Review

Goals/New Habits for the week (success rates in parentheses)

Read 20 Pages a Day: (5/7)

Meditate Daily: (5/7)

Exercise Three Times a Week: (3/3)

One Hour of Homework a Day: (4/7)

Practice French Daily: (3/7)

 

Weight on February 7: 256 lbs. 

Weight on February 14: 244.6 lbs. 

 

Where I am Now:

Weight: 254.6 lbs. 

Bank Account: $40

Debts: $3,460 Credit Card and Personal, ~$40,000 School

Eating Habits: Eating only clean foods, lots of veggies

Mental Health: 8/10

Habits: Getting to work and class on time, finishing assignments, working out, meditating, reading and practicing French regularly. Eating clean and not impulse buying food. Procrastinating a bit on small tasks and watching more than an hour of Netflix a day. 

 

Areas of Accomplishment: 

I've improved my diet immensely, cutting down gradually through the week to a completely clean diet. From Thursday on I only ate fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, beans, and a bit of brown rice. I'm cutting processed foods and sugar from my diet completely as this has been the area of greatest struggle for me in the past, to the point that I was nearly a sugar addict. The first few days, I found myself expecting a sweet treat in between class or after work and found that I was really living to eat. 

My mental health and happiness has significantly improved. I think meditating and reading every day has had the greatest impact on this, but simply spending less time on the couch and more time getting things done is significantly reducing my stress level. 

 

Areas of Improvement: 

While this week has been much more accomplished than last week, I still didn't reach 100% for my new goals/habits. So, my goal for this week is to have 100% achievement. 

Also, I'm still procrastinating in a few areas when it comes to accomplishing small tasks (I've had to ship a book to return for the past week and kept putting it off because it was a multi-step process and it was cold outside). 

And, while I did exercise three times, it wasn't very regular. 

 

How I'm going to improve: 

Setting a schedule: I will go swim for at least twenty minutes at 9pm on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday in the afternoon. 

I will complete one hour of homework and practice my French from 6:30-8:00 pm every night. 

I will assign a specific time to my daily tasks when I make my to-do list in the morning (e.g. "Ship book return at 4:00)

 

Goals For Week 2:

Read 20 Pages a Day

Practice French Daily

Meditate Daily

Swim Three Days This Week

Complete One Hour of Homework Each Day from 6:30-8:00

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sattu]

I appreciate your hard work. keep it up. I also started excercise 5 miutes daily.

[Siegfried]

Already to Week Three! I am feeling absolutely amazing. My energy is through the roof from a clean diet, exercise, and sleeping regularly. I've noticed my stress levels have significantly decreased from the meditation and probably getting work done. My procrastination has improved considerably, though I'm still putting off smaller tasks. 

Week 2 Review:

Where I Am Now:

Weight: 249.2 Lbs. 

Money in Bank: $35

Debts: $3,400 Personal and Credit Card, ~$40,000 School

Eating Habits: Eating clean, a few cheat snacks.

Mental Health: 9/10

Habits:

Meditation: 6/7

Reading: 7/7

French Practice: 5/6

Homework: 5/6

Exercise: 3/3

 

Areas of Accomplishment: 

I'm performing my healthy habits much more regularly than the first week, am getting more done, and am being more reliable. I'm absolutely stoked to get my weight below 250 lbs. again. I haven't seen the 240's in a while. I'm celebrating this victory, but I'll be even happier to get to the 230's as I haven't seen that number in a VERY long time. 

 

Areas to Improve

I'm still struggling to get some of the smaller things off of my to-do lists. Between my new habits, school and work, those smaller items are falling by thew wayside. I've decided to set out to do less of them every day, but to make sure that the one's I write on my "to-do" list in the morning actually get accomplished. 

 

Goals for Week 2

Meditate every day

Read at least twenty pages every day

Practice French Every Day

Exercise 3 times

Complete 1 Hour of Homework every Day

Complete an 8 page paper this week. 

 

[Guest]

Tip: The fastest way to lose fat is by not drinking your calories. Drink only water and nothing else-- it's one of the healthiest choices you can make; transformed my life.

[Siegfried]

@Saitama thanks, I'm definitely on board with you on that. I'm basically doing a Paleo diet; eating mostly fruits and vegetables, meat, no carbs. I drink coffee a couple times a week and green tea but other than that only water. 

[Guest]

@Siegfried Okay, keep in mind that diets are only temporary. Ideally, you just want to make a permanent and sustainable shift to healthy eating. Carbs are a necessity. Honestly, I'm not even sure if it's healthy to cut them out completely for the short term. 

[Siegfried]

Already finished with week three! This is still just the beginning, but I already feel that I've made some life-long changes. This week will be a month of keeping this record, and seeing myself become more successful in one of my worst areas (sticking to my goals) is making an enormous difference in how I think about myself. I feel strong, and I feel like I can keep going. 

Week 3 in Review:

Weight: 247.6 (Weight loss to date: 8.4 lbs!)

Habits:

Meditation: 5/7

Reading: 7/7

French: 7/7

Homework: 4/7

Exercise: 3/3

 

Areas of Success: 

     I significantly improved in French this week through an app I discovered called HelloTalk, and have been communicating regularly in French with people around the world. I've read a huge amount this week and joined a 52-books in 52-weeks challenge, which will mean bumping up my daily reading from 20 to 30 pages. I've also had a lot of huge advancements in terms of starting my own online business and have gotten connected with other people who have the same goals as me. 

 

Areas to improve:

Homework, ah, homework. At the end of a long day of work and class it's been really difficult to get myself to do more than the bare minimum. I'm going to break that this week by making sure that I push TWO hours a day, and make it a top priority for me to accomplish this. I need to force myself to take it as seriously as working or working out. 

 

 

[Siegfried]

Beginning of 1st month

End of 1st Month

 

This past month has changed my life tremendously. I've lost about nine pounds, changed my habits, and even started my own business. I'm so proud of myself for sticking to this for a month straight, and am excited to see what kind of results two months, six months, a year can make. 

 

 

Week 4 Review:

Weight: 247.8 (+0.4 lbs)

 

Habits:

Meditation: 4/7

Exercise: 1/3

Reading: 7/7

Homework: 2/6        

French: 4/7

 

Areas of Success:

            I had a lot of advancement in my business this week and am failing forward fast. I’ve gotten Victor on board as well and he’s excited. I’m confident that this is going to really change everything. I really enjoyed reading The Four Hour Workweek.

 

Areas to Improve:

            I slipped a lot this week. I’ve eaten poorly because of stress, and much of that stress hasn’t actually resulted in me getting anything done. I’m exploding my work and thinking it will take me all day, resulting in me dreading it and not actually doing any of it. I felt pretty tired this week because of all this stress and ironically didn’t work out, which would have been an enormous stress reducer.

 

Lessons Learned:

            Working out is a major priority. Don’t be intimidated by your homework.

 

Other Notes:

            I am proud of myself for not giving this up despite some slip-ups. This kind of week would have completely de-railed me in the past. 

 

Goals for Week Five: 

100% success rates for habits

Complete everything on my "To-Do" List before Friday so I can really enjoy Spring Break

Exercise four times

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Siegfried

[Veggies]

• You can do it! 
• Check my blog too
• I like your pictures

[Siegfried]

Week 7— Returning from break. 

Weight: 248.8

I didn't finish out my daily actualization tracker for week 5, and skipped week 6 altogether. I've missed a few days, but I skipped week six on purpose as it was spring break and I wanted a FULL break from everything: school, work, even self actualization. I really needed that time mentally to just be in the moment. 

Accomplishments: I started my own blog this week! It feels great to finally do something I've been talking about for so long. 

Areas to Improve: I need to get back to eating healthier and exercising more as I've let the habits slip a bit and gained a few pounds back as a result. 

Change of Habits: It felt good to pursue the same goals for a full month, but with the new month I'm allowing myself to whittle them down. So until the end of April my only "habit" goals will be:

Meditate Daily,

Read Daily,

Exercise Three Days a Week.

I find that everything else I manage best by making adjustments day to day and don't want to try and force a habit for. 

Goals for the rest of this week:

Exercise once

Complete application for executive assistant position

Meditate and read every day

 

 

[SmartFixer_OceanJjb]

Gosh!  I'm so envious of your body fat photos!  

I don't have the luxury to post my fat! ..  Because I'm female.  

Posting female body photos are taken as more sexual, which I HATE.  

Im not denying that I'm So envious for guys, on this point.  

[Siegfried]

@OceanJjb You might find people are more supportive than you'd think! I was a bit anxious about posting these, but decided that wasn't a winning attitude. Fuck em, post what you think will help you succeed. 

[Siegfried]

Week 8

Well, last week wasn't much better. I've really slipped in my self-actualization habits. Having my girlfriend in town (we do long distance) pretty much occupied me for two weeks. 

I've had this problem before of getting really into a goal, obsessing over it, and pursuing it like crazy, and then after a while letting it slip away and moving to another goal. But I keep coming back to this. I made a commitment that I would pursue this project for four years, until May 2020, and I'm not going to let missing a week or two de-rail that. 

Current Weight: 251.4 (yikes, i didn't want to see that number again)

Goals for This Week: 

Finish My Job Application

Post on my Blog

Work out three times

Meditate daily

Read daily

[Siegfried]

I haven't logged into Actualized in a long time, but I've been doing well and keeping track. Finishing my last semester of college was an absolute whirlwind of activity between work, planning to move to England, finishing up classes etc. So here's where I am now:

Health: 247 lbs. For more than a month now I've run at least three times a week and can run 4 miles now pretty comfortably. I'm considering training for a marathon next year, a huge bucket list item for me. I even joined Weight Watchers with my girlfriend, which I think is a really sustainable eating plan that focuses on reasonable, healthy choices over the long term. 

Money: I've gotten more credit card debt, but actually started my own business which is doing ok and a huge learning experience.

Mental Health: 10/10 I've meditated regularly for almost five months now and the difference is enormous. I feel more in the moment and at peace than I have in my entire life. I feel so different that I was actually a bit worried about losing some of the defining characteristics of my personality (which in the past have been arrogance, snarkyness, depressiveness that contributed to my persona as a "writer") but I've learned that that kind of thinking, "I" thinking, is ridiculously and not worth wisdom and happiness. \

Other Goals

I started my blog, which focuses on travel, adventure and self development. It keeps me writing and I'm so happy to have it off the ground. I've realized that my writing career is extremely important to me and that I need to focus on it without getting too distracted by other goals. My goal for the blog is to write one article a week for the rest of the year. 

Reading: I started a reading challenge which has seriously boosted my reading habits. I read every day (a lot of it great self-development stuff like The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg) and am reading about a book a week. 

I Moved Abroad!! This was a huge one for me. I've moved to England!!! This has had a huge effect on making me feel like I'm really chasing my dreams. I'm staying with my girlfriend and trying to save some money, so it's not a big crazy vacation and a bit quiet at times, but it's a chance for me to really soak up another culture and experience new things. I've been here a month now and it really feels like home. I've gotten pretty used to it by now but sitting here writing about it I really feel proud of myself from how far I've come. 

Graduating College: I graduated in the spring but still have a "victory lap" to do as I complete some online courses. I'm doing pretty well at it and not procrastinating, studying a bit each morning with regularity. 

Adventures: Travel and adventure is what I'm all about. Running three times a week and walking the dog every day is great for getting me into the outdoors. There's lots of great trails near the house and I get into the woods almost every day. But I'd like to get out camping some more. Next weekend my girlfriend and I are going camping and next month I'm planning on hiking the South Downs Way, a 100 mile trail through Southern England 

Habits: My habits have completely changed. I start most days with either strength training or a long run outdoors, then have a healthy breakfast and spend some time reading while I have coffee. Then I study or work on my classwork for a while, do a few chores, and work in the afternoons. While I'm working I usually listen to business or travel podcasts. In the evening I write, work on the blog, or relax with my girlfriend and her family, read some more and meditate before sleep. It's a huge difference from where I started this year, not having the energy to get off the couch or the motivation to do anything other than watch Netflix. I had a lot of dreams, but none of the habits to propel me there. And that's completely changed. 

 

This morning I watched "The Most Important Commitment You Can Make," and really realized that the difference between my dreams and reality was committing. So here's me committing. I've decided to dedicated myself to my self-actualization, starting with posting here every Sunday. I plan on using this journal as a record of some basic goals and progress tracking, as well as a sounding board for some of my deeper self-development. 

Where I am Now:

Weight: 256

Bank Account: $10

Debts: $3,500 credit card and personal loans, $40,000 school loans

Eating Habits: Trying to eat healthy, but binging on sugar regularly

Mental Health: 6 or 7/10. 

Habits: Watching more than two hours of Netflix a day, procrastinating on homework (and everything else), skipping class, not exercising (except for walks and bike rides), but doing well at my part time job (not missing days, completing all work well), partying and drinking one or two nights a week, journaling about once a week, not reading very regularly, getting 8-9 hours of sleep a night. 

 

My Top Goals (For the next 8 years, before age 30):

Live abroad at least two years

Learn French and one other language fluently

Weigh Less than 200 lbs. 

Hike the Pacific Crest Trail (or Camino de Santiago, any 1 month plus trail)

Backpack for a year around the world

Publish a book

Become sustainably self-employed and debt free

 

Goals for 2016

Get weight down to 215

Graduate 

Move abroad

Establish some emergency savings

Get rid of credit card debt and personal loans

Start a travel/lifestyle blog