Back to my original thought, according to the math you either lost 3 pounds of muscle or its just w water weight fluctuation. The quickest way to lose is to keep protein intake up and sugars down with a nice balance. Eat your bigger meals in the morning, spread them out instead of 3 x 500-750 calorie meals have 5 to 6 250-500 calorie meals. Also keeping in mind that your body naturally burns X amount of calories by doing nothing. For example I’m 143lbs and have about 115lbs of muscle, so I burn about 1550 calories by sitting on my but for 24 hours. A good rule of thumb for protein is 1 gram per pound of muscle you have to maintain muscle mass while working out. Alternatively a minimum of a half gram per pound of muscle to maintain while not working out. Just dont let it dip too low, dont forget vitamins, etc. Also liquid sugar drinks are the worst to have period, if you need a caffeine fix learn to drink diet. After a while they actually taste better because your brain craves the caffeine more than the sugar. Addictive drugs are bad.

On a side not I used to be 185 pounds, now I’m 143 with a semi-balanced muscle mass. I’m still a few pounds under what’s recommended, but my body fat is ideal for my size at 5′ 7″ which is cruising around 16-17%

There is probably more that I could go on about, but I’m in no way qualified in any sort of nutrition. I just got tired of standing up and getting that dizzy feeling. Or sitting at my computer and my heart would be palpitating. Curious as to where you stand now that its a year later, if you read over the comments drop me an email. curious…

Try going to some finance classes or reading real TEXT BOOKS, not stupid “get rich quickly/slowly” crap.

Here are some goals I posted, not necessarily for 2009, but for the next 5 years. I’m a believer in if you want to succeed, everyone must know what you’re up to:

1. achieve 10,000 subscribers – go from 200-to 10,000 is pretty intense, but I want to achieve it in 365 days.

2. Become famous and star in a blockbuster movie – I have never had acting experience in my life, but I will make this happen because it has been something I always wanted to do.

3. Appear on a late night talk show- watch out for AJ Kumar

4.Finish writing my book: Religion Inc. – The Power of Christ Compels You, To Give Him Money

(This book explains how how organized Religion has used the concepts of sales and marketing to generate outrageous sums of income for personal gains and empowerment. The book is set to launch this Spring May 2009

I did not set any goals for 2008. However I managed to lose 5 more pounds (on top of 20 in ’07) and maintain; save enough cash to refinance our house; open a couple of CD’s; get married; make financially smart travel choices; and experience being comfortable with my financial situation.

I came short on a few (read only 4 books instead of 6) but far exceeded my expectations on others (saved an obscene amount of money, thanks in part to GRS finally convincing me to set up auto-deposits to ING.)

Now that I know it can be painless to save via ING, I am going to divert some of the savings to auto-contributions to my favorite charity (a 2008 goal I was afraid I might not be able to afford) and have more of my pay deposited to ING.

Regarding weight loss, my husband has had amazing success in 2008 on weight loss. He attributes his achievement to two things: 1) he went to a nutritionist who helped him change his eating habits. (His lifelong habit has been to eat very large meals, her response was to teach him to eat very large, flavorful salads with very small meals.) 2) He set up a home gym with a television, DVD player, and cordless headphones. Now he gets an hour a day of guilt-free tv watching and a very enjoyable workout which speeds by.

10 pounds in a year may not sound like much, but really, the direction is much more important than the speed. If you keep it up, and get rid of 10 unwanted pounds every year, you’ll be your ideal weight in a few years. That’s perfectly fine.

For most people, it’s not as if the 40 unwanted pounds -appeared- in a single year either, so I don’t see why they should nessecarily disappear in one.

I met all of my goals for 2008. I’m quite happy with them. Main thing has been settling into a job that’s related to my career and offers lots to learn, while at the same time working on my bachelors degree.

1. One month emergency fund – 80% complete
2. Start blog – Done and ongoing. (Considered complete for 2008)
http://www.javafoto.com/wp
3. Pay down cc by 30% – only 12% paid down.
4. Increase 401(k) contribution – decided to reduce this to 1% and divert $$ to cc payments.
5. Refinance rental property – unable to due to low equity with housing prices declining.

Overall, I was glad to see things move in a positive direction, however slow it has been. Circumstances changed so I plan to set some realistic goals for 2009 and modified versions of the above.

-Charlotte
http://www.javafoto.com/wp

I just started following your blog and love it. Thanks for the good work you do.

I would like to find out if you have a list of blogs that you follow or ones that you reccomend. I’m looking for a good blog in the area of personal development.

Thanks!
Shannon

I wanted to focus on myself (I have 2 young children) and did that with exercise (wanted to run a 5k) and having time out with my friends (the self guilt was removed, making it more fun all around).

Lose weight (like essentially everyone else) I did get to my size 8 (20 lbs), but the weight has started to creep back up this holiday season, so a new goal was set there.

Pay off our car early, which we did in July.

My goals were: 1) erase my student loans of 19K. 2) read at least 8 books.

i had few others, but i lost the document i saved. i’m proud to say that i have accomplished the two mentioned above. i’ll come back tomorrow to share my 09 goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8rhIw_9ucA

Last year looking for information on how to get rid of my TV cable I stumbled on personal finance blogs and I was hooked

I was reading like a mad man for about a month all blogs that came under my eyes. Although I was not in debt at all (quite the opposite), I learned so much and was able to look at my financial situation in a different perspective and reorganize and plan for future. For that I thank you for your contribution to my knowledge.

I made goals for the emergency fund and asset allocation and roth ira contribution (something I’ve not done in the past).

I managed to get the EF and Roth IRA 100% but did not get to read enough about asset allocation so I have not done too much about it. I did however rebalanced my 401k and picked more index funds.

Also, a subconscious goal was to get in better shape and I can say that here I did well. Although my weight did not drop by much, it is more muscle now than it was last year and I do feel better indeed.

I do this by playing sports. Physical exercise to me is way too boring so I play sports instead or swimming.

For myself, I exceeded my goals on fitness by completing my 100-lb. weight loss goal and reducing my BMI from 35 to 22. That took precedence over everything else, and I’m glad I allowed it. Now I have the energy (and that scrumptious feeling of success) to drive other things on my goals list. Which I guess I’m not sharing until Friday. *g*

After reading this article in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/fashion/01change.html

I was feeling a little uncomfortable in my own goal setting task for today. Reading your site every day has helped me to stay motivated and on task, even when I’ve fallen off the wagon a little or my financial goals seem totally pie in the sky.

In 2008, I’ve completed a big step in changing careers and have taken a sizable bite out of my consumer debt.

Happy New Year!

My other goal was to stay in shape and my body weight down. I had lost almost 50 pounds in 2006 and 2007 and wanted to keep it off and I did. Avoiding foods that I am intolerant to (soy, gluten, sugar, dairy, corn, processed foods, etc) is key for me. Exercising 5-6 times a week not only keep my body weight down, but my energy up.

I will make business and financial goals for ’09.