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Making Good Sound Decisions

Josh and I really want to take our relationship to the next level. I am not sure whether that will be moving in together and living in sin as my parents call it, or whether we will just take a leap of faith and get married. We have discussed taking steps to improve our financial situations prior to moving in together and we have really seriously taken a long hard look at things like our credit cards. We each applied for a free credit report from each of the three agencies and although my credit score was pretty good, Josh's was not so hot. We got together and went to see a credit counselor to see what advice he could give us. The first thing that he told us we needed to focus on was paying down Josh's credit cards and apply for a few credit cards together to help bring up his bad credit score. I decided that it would probably be a good idea for us to apply for a joint American Express card, because it is a good tool to build credit and it is helpful that it needs to be paid every month. At least this way we can be sure that we are not accumulating any further long term debt. I am really glad that we are trying to get the financial ends tied up prior to moving in together. I just think that this is a really wise choice.

I know that we both want a house and a family some day, and I really don't want to wait too long for all those things. Wasting money on rent year after year, seems rather silly when owning a home is at least an investment and with the current state of the market, the trend is such that home prices will probably dropping further over the next year or two. It is a buyers market, and I hoping that we can find the perfect home, in a nice area, with very little money down and a nice low interest rate. I know that if we get a credit cleaned up we will be ready to buy that house before long.

Buying a house is one of the first steps in our life together and I really want to make sure we take good solid steps as we move forward from here. We really work well together, but I don't want to rush into anything, I want a well thought out, well planned out life.

Gained A Few Pounds

I have never really struggled with my weight. I usually stay within about a 5 pound range. Well, I went for my yearly physical and discovered that I have put on 13 pounds since last year. I made them weigh me twice and I almost died to find out that was actually my weight. I know that I haven't been paying that much attention to what I eat, but still I was so concerned about my weight gain that I actually made them test my thyroid. That is how sure I was that I really hadn't gained weight. My thyroid is just fine, but my appetite and eating habits obviously need some help. I complained to Josh, who told me the usual guy thing, you look great to me. That obviously didn't help me any.

I went online to look up healthy weight loss and printed up a whole bunch of articles on fitness, exercise, and dieting. I found some good information and I decided what my course of action was going to be. I decided I would start doing Pilates 3 times per week in addition to joining Curves (the local women's gym). In addition to those 2 changes I was going to have to start eating right, and made a diet plan for myself which had me eating low carb / low fat meals. Also, I am going to start taking natural vitamins, getting more rest, and definitely drinking more water.

With these changes I know for a fact that I can make a change in my weight. My goal right now is to lose 15 pounds, and create a few healthy lifestyle changes to keep myself at my goal weight once I get there. I know that at first these changes won't be easy, but I think once I get used to them, I will be okay. After all, I really don't want to wait to gain anymore weight before taking some steps to fix this problem. I can't become one of those people who can't get out of their house or anything like that, that would be awful. Plus who knows Josh and I may be getting married over the next few years, and I definitely want to look good on that day, after all, they take millions of pictures of you and I can't imagine being immortalized as a heifer if you know what I mean.