It's a boy!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately. As many of you know, Baby #3 has been teasing me since 34 weeks. Well, baby is finally here...and it's a boy!

Y'all probably couldn't care less, but I'm going to share the story with you anyway...

because it's a good one :)

I was induced with my first baby ("Hutch") 8 days late because he was NOT interested in coming on his own. I cried every day for weeks because I would have sold my left arm to get him out. 

18 months later my second baby (Priya) came 10 days early and caught us all by surprise, and happened to come at a bit of a busy, inconvenient time...but we were thrilled to welcome her, of course.

Ironically, even though they came 18 days apart they were identical in size (7lb 10 oz, 19" long). 

They are best buddies :)

18 days is a big difference between babies so we had no idea what to expect with baby #3.

At 34 weeks I woke up at 4am having mild but consistent contractions, 4 minutes apart. As much as I would've liked to not be pregnant any more, 34 weeks was a BIT early for my taste. Not to mention it was only 2 days before Frugality Boot Camp 2013.

Worst timing ever...

I headed into L&D and they gave me a shot to stop the labor and sent me home with bed-rest orders until 36 weeks.

Bed rest? Yeah right...

I made it to 36 weeks and patted myself on the back for not having a pre-term baby.

A day or two before 37 weeks I woke up with mild but consistent contractions again. 

I got excited about getting the baby out because I was basically full-term at this point...but I was extremely caught off-guard. In fact, when I woke up with contractions I buzzed around my house cleaning, vacuuming, and doing laundry. I even made a quick grocery run to Walmart to stock up just in case baby came (...yes, all at 4am). I headed into L&D once all was taken care of at home.

...unfortunately it was a false-alarm and they made me take the walk of shame from L&D.

Bummer.

At this point I was SICK of being pregnant and SO READY for this baby to get here, but was sick of the false-alarms. I vowed that unless my water broke or physically had a baby limb coming out of me I was NOT going back to L&D.

Gross, but true.

  At my next appointment I asked my doc if she'd induce me early because I was so miserable (physically and mentally). She said she couldn't induce me more than a week early unless there is a medical reason. She said she was going out of town for 10 days but would induce me when she gets back, 3 days before my due date. I was bummed that she wouldn't be around to induce me earlier, and extra-bummed that my baby would probably come while she was gone and some stranger would have to deliver me.

...but I accepted. Begrudgingly. 

Days feel like months from this point on. I walked around always wondering when the baby would come, and mentally "checking out" of...well...everything in terms of motivation for doing...well...much of anything. I scheduled lots of lunches with friends and lots of playdates to distract myself, but it didn't help much.

All contractions and any signs of labor completely stopped, so I consigned myself to the fact that baby was going to wait until my induction date to make it's debut. I figured it was probably for the best anyway since my mom had to fly in from Oregon to help me with my 2 kids and it made logistics much easier. 

Dang logistics...

Monday Feb 25 was scheduled for my induction date. I have cleaning ladies come Saturday (best money I've spent in a LONG time...), I get all my grocery shopping done, my house is spotless (for about 2.6 seconds), my mom flies in Sunday night, laundry is caught up, meals are planned out, baby paraphernalia strategically placed all around my house...locked and loaded, ready to roll. Throughout the weekend my contractions pick up again, a little stronger now but still pretty mild, and this time they weren't as consistent. I reminded myself that unless my contractions were so bad that I was screaming and hitting Bubba like they do in the movies OR unless a baby was crawling out of me, I wasn't going to step foot into L&D again, so I toughed it. The contractions continued to come and go all weekend which only annoyed me more. I kept thinking, "There should be some law in the universe that unless a contraction is pushing a baby out of you, they shouldn't exist!"

If only I was in charge, right?...

The hospital called Sunday night to confirm my induction for the next morning and told me to call at 7am, and unless super busy (which they said was unlikely) they would most likely have me come in at 730 am. I showered and shaved my legs for the first time in 9 months (or so it felt, anyway), we set our alarms and we headed to bed, excited for baby to come the next morning. As we're falling asleep I say to my husband (Bubba), "How cool would it be if I went into labor naturally tonight? Because then I'd know the baby was ready, it'd be easier on my body, and everything would logistically be perfect because my doctor and my mom are both in town now. Oh, actually, that means I'd be up in the middle of the night laboring so never mind. That would suck to get no sleep."

Verbatim.

Hey, it was only like 2 seconds ago so I remember pretty well, ok! :)

At 2:45am I hear my son wake up so I head upstairs to check on him. On my way up the stairs I feel the all-too-familiar false-alarm contraction that I've grown to hate so much. I remember thinking, "sucks that getting up in the middle of the night is what gives me contractions. Why can't it be chocolate, or pedicures, or shopping..."

I go back to bed. 

Sometime between 3-4am I start having weird labor dreams. I wake up a few times to some pretty deep,  bothersome contractions. I fall back to sleep thinking "ugh, these ones are really annoying." I was so out of it I felt like the contractions were hours apart from each other.

By 4(ish) am I wake up and realize that I'm not just dreaming, and that I'm having steady, pretty painful contractions. I time them for a while. They were between 3 and 4 minutes apart, just like my false alarms, but this time I knew they were different, as they were steadily getting stronger.

I woke Bubba up and told him I was having pretty painful contractions. I said, "You might want to hop in the shower, we should probably get to the hospital."

I did my hair and makeup while he showered (yes, makeup. Vain? Sure! But who wants to look and feel nasty on a day when you get 5000 pictures taken of you?? Plus, I was about to have a baby. Who KNOWS when the next time I put makeup on would be!).

Before my walk of shame at 36 weeks I called the nurse to see if I needed to go to L&D or not. I told her my contractions were mild, but consistent. She said (quote) "that's where people get into a lot of trouble - when they wait for their contractions to hurt. Especially with your 3rd baby it might not take much to prepare your uterus for delivery. That's how people end up having babies in cars; because they wait too long." What she said kept ringing in my ears as I got ready. My contractions started getting really painful, really fast. I kept thinking, "oh my gosh, we might really need to hurry"...and then a contraction would hit that would freeze me on the spot.

Needless to say, I did my makeup in the car.

The hospital is only 10 minutes away and we made it in record time. We pull up around 5am. Bubba was going to drop me off at the door, but a contraction hit as he pulled up, which left me frozen in my seat. DANG those things hurt. He said, "Ok I'll just park real fast while you ride it out and we'll walk in together." I swear he drove over every bump in that parking lot as he parked. I thought I was going to punch him. (Just kidding babe, love you!)

He parked and I stepped out of the car...

and my water broke. 

It took me a second to figure out what happened, then I thought...

Whoa. That was close. Those seats are upholstered.  

I looked at Bubba around the other side of the car and said, "Um...yeah, so my water definitely just broke. Thaaaaaaat's gross." and waddled ahead of him into L&D.

I "walked" up to the admit desk and when they said, "How can I help you?" I answered with,

"So, my water just broke in your parking lot and I'm pretty sure I'm going to leak on your floor. Where would you like me?" Let's just say they got me to a room in record time.

Don't let this picture fool you. In between contractions I felt great, was perky, and happy as a clam. During a contraction?...I wanted to break somebody's arm.

We were checked in by 5:15am-ish. It took a full hour of them monitoring my contractions, taking my blood pressure, drawing blood, asking me a million questions that they already had the answers to from my previous walks of shame. The contractions were getting unbearable. I wanted to cry every time one hit. And let me tell you, that is saying a lot because I have one of the highest pain tolerances that many doctors have ever seen.

Er...or so I thought.

My poor husband felt helpless because he didn't know what to do when a contraction hit. Hey, I'm SOOOO pro-Epidural! We didn't take any lamaze classes and I didn't really feel any contractions with my other two (no strong ones, anyway) so we had no idea what we were in for. He kept asking the nurse, "so when can she get her epidural?" She explained that it was too early and no anesthesiologists were around because there was only 1 other woman in L&D and she decided to go natural. She was like, "we'll call him and see if he can get in here early but he wasn't planning on being in for a few hours."

I wanted to hurt her.

Only during the contractions, of course.

During that hour my contractions only got worse. I kept thinking, "Isn't someone going to check me to see if I'm dilated? I swear this baby is crawling out of me"...and then I silently cursed myself for making that agreement for labor. I take it back! I take it back!

The nurse finally checked me and I was already dilated to a 7/8 and progressing quickly. She left to call my doc and to check on the anesthesiologist. She came back with blessed news...

"turns out the other woman changed her mind about the natural labor, so they called the anesthesiologist (A-Doc as we will now call him because that's a really long word to spell) in and he will be right in as soon as he's done giving her an epidural."

God bless you, woman!

The A-Doc came in and I wanted to hug him. 

My husband wanted to kiss him.

He administered the Epi. My hubby kept asking, "so...how long before it takes affect?"

I didn't know whether to think it was sweet, or to be offended by it.

(Haha ok so I swear I wasn't a monster! I was actually a silent sufferer...he just couldn't stand seeing how painful it was for me. Sweet guy.)

They gave me the sweet, sweet meds...but I could still feel my contractions on the left side. BIG TIME. I was panicking at this point. They rolled me over and tried to get it to work on both sides, but they said   my labor simply might be progressing faster than the meds can keep up with and it might just not work 100% this time.

I wanted to cry. 

Then hurt both of them.

Then cry again.

I kept pushing that blessed little blue button that administers more Epidural, hoping it would eventually work. It was taking the edge off, but I could still feel a ton of pressure.

The rest is a bit of a blur, but by 7:15 I was fully dilated and ready to rock. The epidural had done it's job and I was finally comfortable and no longer anxious about when the next contraction would hit. We were waiting for my doctor to arrive, and they told me to hang tight and "don't push."

Ok, sure, I'll do that.

Turns out it ended up being a SUPER busy day in L&D. They had a ton of women come in, and come to find out, they got so busy that if I hadn't gone into labor naturally I probably would've been bumped and they wouldn't have induced me...potentially for a few days.

Then I probably would have ACTUALLY hurt someone.

Close call on that one!

(Side note...it's because it was a full-moon that night! I always swear that my kids turn into werewolves and are horrible sleepers when there's a full moon. Turns out L&D goes crazy, and it's a fact - according to all the L&D nurses, anyway. Weird.)

Anyway...

My doc arrived, got suited up, we made friendly small talk about her vacation and the weather, and it was go-time. We had great conversation and had a gay-ol' time now that the Epi was in effect. 

I love labor when meds are involved.

They had me push, and it only took 2 contractions to get the baby out. The entire delivery was less than 5 minutes and he was born at 7:54am. The first thing the doc said was, "Wow! This is a big baby!"

To me, he looked miniscule. 

 

We hadn't found out the gender this pregnancy, but the "feeling" and guess was that it was a boy. We obviously wouldn't care either way, but were excited about the thought of a boy. It was so fun to FINALLY learn  the gender. He was the best baby while he was being cleaned off, weight, poked and prodded. Bubba and I were continually impressed at how easy-going of a baby he was, and still is.

The fact that everything went so perfectly with his labor (him waiting for my doc and mom to get to town...my water breaking in the parking lot and not the car/house...getting the epidural in time...going into labor naturally and not getting bumped...my doc arriving in time to deliver me...) is indicative of his perfect little personality so far.

We decided on the name Beck Avon Page (Avon pronounced like "Gavin" but without the G), named after two of our Grandpas. We had a list of names that we liked, but just knew he was a Beck as soon as we met him.

My recovery has been incredible. Chalk it up to it being baby #3, a super fast delivery, going into labor naturally, or a combination of all 3, but I feel like a million bucks. In fact, I couldn't get out of the hospital fast enough. I begrudgingly stayed in the hospital over night, but was out of there as soon as Beck was circumcised and cleared all of his newborn tests today. I figured, "If all I'm doing is sitting around holding the baby and watching lame-o TV...I might as well be doing that in my own bed."

I didn't even stay long enough to enjoy the special steak dinner they provide for the new moms/dads.

That's ok...just take it off my tab, folks!

My kids couldn't wait to meet him, and are absolutely enthralled with their new "Baby Beck".

...unfortunately they are both in the process of getting sick again, so we are all UBER paranoid about getting ourselves - and especially Beck - sick too.

That is one good, cautious daddy!

So that's my story. I hope you forgive me as I might take a little more "family time" these next few weeks as we adjust to life with our cute little man.

Isn't he a doll?

...Mimi sure thinks so.

Have a great week, everyone!

New Year's resolutions - 3 easy steps to keeping them...all year long. Free budget-tracking printable included!

Well, folks, it's February. 

(...and end of February, at that!)
January 1st now seems like it was AGES ago, doesn't it?

If you're anything like me, the New Year brings new motivation to set and achieve goals for the year. And, if you're anything like me, you tend to start off great....

...for about 3 weeks.

And then reality hits.

Hard.

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It's not only hard to stay motivated for 12 WHOLE MONTHS, but it's also logistically impossible to be perfect and abide by the new rules you've set for yourself all the time.

Let's be honest with ourselves here, people!

LUCKILY we have all been there (yes, even yours truly)...and it's ok! The real challenge is to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and charge forward.
Two steps forward, 1 step back is OK!

If you beat yourself up for taking steps back at all, you'll eventually throw in the towel because...well...it's just too hard! So whatever your goal is - weight loss, strengthening relationships, or any number of financial goals (my personal favorite...)...

Here are a 3 easy steps for pacing yourself and staying on-track...all year long.

(And, of course, I'm going to focus on financial goals here since, well, that's what I know best!)

Step 1: Set Defined Goals

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Any person who is successful with ANYTHING will tell you that one of the first keys is to set defined goals, and determine your motivation for those goals.

• You can't just say, "I want to get in shape this year" and expect results. Why? Because how the heck do you know if you're "in shape" if you never define what "in shape" means? Same with finances. Don't just say, "I want to get out of debt" or "I want to spend less on groceries" or "I want to put more money into savings". You have to be specific.

• At this year's Frugality Boot Camp (FBC) we really focused on setting, achieving, and maintaining financial goals. I'll share with you a few slides and snippets that we covered at camp to help illustrate my points, starting with this exercise:

First: Write a general goal, much like the examples I gave above. Include NO dollar amounts or time-frames to it yet; keep it very general.

• "I want to get out of debt" or "I want a new car" or "I want to become a stay-at-home parent".

Second: Add a dollar amount to it. Be specific and accurate.

• If you want a new car, figure out exactly how much you need. "I want a new car...so I need $1,200 for the increased monthly payment for the year since it's $100 more per month than I'm paying now, and $2500 for the downpayment = $3,700." 
• If you want to get out of debt, do the math and figure out how much you need! Are you just wanting to pay off your credit cards? Pay off your house? All of your student loans, or just some? Figure out exactly how much debt you want to tackle this year, and set the dollar amount to it.

Third: Add a time-frame to it. Keep it within 12 months, and be realistic. Adjust the goal if needed it to make it realistically achievable within 12 months...but don't be afraid to push yourself, too!

• If you want a new car say, "I want a new car, and need $3,700. I want to buy it in 6 months, so I need to set aside $617 per month." Is that doable? If not, extend the goal time-frame. If you say, "I want to buy it within the next 9 months" that brings it down to $411 per month, for example.
• If you want to get out of debt, add your debt up, divide it by 12, and say, "I want to pay off all my credit cards and student loans, so I need $6,400. I want to achieve this within 1 year so I need to put $533 toward debt each month." If you don't have that much to put toward your debt, then make it a little more realistic. "I want to pay off my credit cards and one of my two student loans, so I need $1,985. I want to accomplish this in the next 12 months so I need to put $165.42 toward debt each month."
• Once again, make it realistic...but also make it a challenge!

Fourth: Determine your motivation behind setting the goal. WHY do you want a new car? WHY do you want to get out of debt? WHY do you want to spend less on groceries?

• This is, quite possibly, the most important step. Why? Because 3 months into it you're going to hit a rough patch, lose motivation, want to give up, or whatever it is. The WHY behind your goal is going to be the only thing that will keep you going! So figure out what it is, and make it good enough to pull you through the rough patches.
• "I want to get out of debt because I want to get ahead in life. I want to provide for my family and protect them; and I want every dollar I make to go directly into my family's pocket, and not toward interest."
• "I want a new car so I can safely drive my family where they want to go. I want a dependable vehicle that won't break down and cost us so much in repairs, so we can put that money toward a family vacation next summer."
• BE SPECIFIC and dig deep!

Physically sit down (as a couple if you're married) and take the time to discuss and define these goals. Focus on one goal at a time if you have to. But start somewhere, and get to work!

So now that you've set your goals, how do you stay on-track?

Step 2: Track your progress

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If you stay organized and on-top of your goals throughout the year, you'll be chipping away at them without hardly noticing...and will achieve them in no time!

• Take the time to do it right. When working on a goal, do everything you need to get organized so you only have to do it ONCE.
• For example, if you want to "get out of debt" as your goal, you need to figure out: how much debt you have, how much you are spending each month, how much leftover money you have to put toward debt, if you don't have leftover money you need to figure out where money can come from, etc. This could take hours upon hours...but that's life! It's simply what needs to be done in order to achieve your goal! Remember, if you take the time to do it right, you'll only need to do it once.
• In terms of financial goals, you'll want to operate on a MONTHLY mind-set. Break everything down monthly. But, from there, it helps to break it down weekly so you can track it easier - much like my personal budget (see HERE).
• HERE's how we track our money and spending, and it's really really really really helped us. Remember, we were over $10,000 in debt (on Credit cards alone!), had no savings, and moved to 1-income when I had my son...and we managed to get out of debt in under one year. Having multiple bank accounts played a big role in that, as well as honing in on tracking my own budget, and managing how I grocery shop.

This slides below might not make much sense to anyone who wasn't at the Boot Camp at first. I provided everyone with a detailed spreadsheet that breaks down their expenses and income, showing exactly what they spend each month. You'll need to do this for your family. Whether you like to use Mint.com, or use a simple Google Doc spreadsheet, figure out what works for you to track your income, debt, regular bills for the month (like utilities and lessons), and everything you spend money on in a month...and track it! You THINK you know what you make/spend/have leftover and the end of the month. But I promise, if you do this right, you'll most likely be shocked.

Regardless of what your financial goal is, you need to track exactly how much you make/spend in a month so you can know where to start.

From there, you can take your goal and start to break down your specific goal tracking to really stay on top of it:

• Daily: Be aware daily of where you are for the week budget-wise. 
• Use your phone. Use a list app (Evernote is a great free one), write notes to yourself, track your spending, set alarms and reminders on your calendar. Remind yourself to be constantly aware of your budget.
• For example, I knew I was going to lunch with girlfriends this week on Friday, but it's also Valentine's Day week. I needed most of my budget to go toward Vday, but I needed to plan to leave enough budget to cover going out to lunch Friday. On Thursday I went back and checked my budget to make sure I could go on Friday. Don't wait until the end of the week to be aware that you've gone over budget!

• Weekly: Hold weekly weigh-ins, just like on The Biggest Loser. 
• Pick one day of the week where you sit down with your spouse (if married) and review how your spending/budget/goal went that week. Put it on the calendar and don't skip!
• This won't take nearly as long as the monthly one. In fact, it can potentially be pretty quick - especially if you've stayed on-track that week! It will be a, "here's how I did on my budget this week...I have $14 leftover, so let's put that toward our debt to pay it off faster. Next week I have a birthday part and a shower, though, so I probably won't have any leftover. How'd you do on your budget?" kind of a thing.
• Look at how you did that week.
• Look at the upcoming week and anticipate upcoming expenses. My lunch and Vday example just above is a good example of this.
• Once again, you want everything to run on a monthly budget, but break it down weekly so stay on top of it better. For example, if you know you need $533 to put toward debt each month, divide it by the weeks in the month (usually 4 or 5). This month (Feb) you know that you need to be setting aside $133.25 each week.

Click HERE to download a FREE, incredibly helpful printable 

It was lovingly made by my girl, Lindsay, to help us all stay on-track. It works!

Here's an example of what it might look like for your family:

Here's how this works:

• Each person gets a row (we added an extra for you, just in case you need it). Fill in their name, and their individual budget duties.
• Include the budget AMOUNT next to the budget NAME, so you can remember what the budget total is.
• Keep it simple and lump your budgets together rather than having lots of little separate budgets!! I promise it will be easier to stay within budget if you do it that way!
• For my budget, I keep it very simple and only have a "Grocery" and "other" budget. Fuel is a business expense in our family so my husband is the one that covers it, but you might want to add it to yours. 
• At the end of the week go through and track the total you spent on each budget. 
• At the bottom fill in the "how did I do?" box. Do this each week for the entire month. 

Once again, click HERE to download your FREE copy!

• Monthly: Sit down and review the entire month together.
• Summarize everything for the month - what you earned, what you spent, what you have leftover, unexpected expenses that came up, look at your bank accounts, personal budgets, family budgets, expenses coming up the next month that you may need to plan for.
• Just know it will take a while. But remember, take the time to do it RIGHT!
• Make it a monthly date night. No skipping!
• Review your finances from that month line by line and hold yourself accountable. Just know that someone will probably end up crying...or, that's what ends up happening on our house, anyway :) Talking about finances is tough! But once you do it regularly, it does gets easier. The easiest way to avoid tension is for you to go through your OWN budget, and your spouse goes through THEIR budget. You are still walking through it line-by-line together, but it's better than "why did you spend this?" "what's this?" "you went over budget here". Instead it's, "I went over on this budget"..."I spend this much on groceries"...and it helps because you don't feel like you're being attacked.

• Quarterly: Don't make any changes to your new budget until you've tried it for 3 months. 
• You need to give it a solid "go" for 3 months before you change anything. Sometimes getting the hang of a new budget can take some time! So give it 3 months.
• After 3 months review your notes from your previous monthly reviews. Make minor changes if necessary, then set a new 3-month goal.
• Be realistic, but make it a challenge! For example, let's say you are trying to set aside $133 each week to put toward your $6400 in debt (the example I used earlier) to pay it off in 12 months, which is $133/week. But let's say that every week you're missing that number by nearly half. It's probably safe to say that it might not be a realistic goal. Reassess your goal and make it a little more realistic. Maybe extend your 12 month goal to an 18 month goal, which would change your weekly debt payment from $133 to $89 per week. It will take you longer to achieve your goal, but it will greatly increase your changes of being able to achieve it at all!

If you keep up with tracking your goal like this, you will be able to stay on the right path for the entire year. It seems like a lot of tracking, but it gets easier. And remember...if you're going to do it, 

TAKE THE TIME TO DO IT RIGHT SO YOU ONLY HAVE TO DO IT ONCE. 

One year out of your life to pay off all your debt...save up for a car...become a stay-at-home parent or whatever it is is WELL worth your time. 

One year of hard work to enjoy it (whatever IT is) for the rest of your life? 

No brainer.

Step 3: Stay Motivated

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Now that you know how to track your goal throughout the year so you're not blind-sighted by anything and avoid falling off the wagon...

How do you STAY MOTIVATED?

Because sure, you can track all day long. But if you're not motivated - deep down - to stick with it, achieving your goal just won't happen.

Here are a few things that might help:

• Remember the WHY.
• Remember on Step 1 how you wrote out your goal in great detail? Remember step 4, the "why"? That's your big ticket. Rather than looking at the dollar amount, look at the WHY. "Man, $133 per week toward debt? That sucks..." won't get you very far. But if you remember WHY, it will change to "$133 per week is going to be tough, but it's worth it to be completely debt free in one year, and that will allow us to finally build up our savings so we can go on a family vacation..." or whatever it is.

• Remind yourself. A lot. 
• Write it on your mirror (dry-erase marker works great). Set a daily alarm in your phone. Write it on your hand. Put a note on the visor of your car. Set a graphic as your computer background. Not just the goal you're trying to accomplish, but the WHY behind it.

• Celebrate along the way - create mini-markers.

• Reward yourself for mini-achievements! You're already taking the time to track your progress weekly, monthly, and every 3 months. Choose one of those times as your mini progress marker, and if you stick with your goal until that point, celebrate! Go out for ice cream. Buy yourself a little something. Do something fun. Throw a mini party. Do it all within budget, of course, but indulge a little and it will give you the boost you need to make it to the next marker.
• For example, maybe you say "If I can stick with my budget for 2 weeks, I get $20 of my budget to go buy myself a new shirt." or "If we can hold to the budget for 1 month, we get to go to our favorite restaurant as a date" (planning ahead for it in your budget, of course).
• Make it visual. Create a thermometer, graph, or chart that shows your progress. Once you reach a certain point on the graph, celebrate. Find what works for you and do it!

• Create a support system.
• Getting your spouse involved is key. No matter what your financial goal is, you guys need to be in it together, 110%. There's no, "I'll work on my budget this year and you can work on yours next year" thing. You need to be in it - all the way - together.
• But, beyond your spouse, get others involved! Your family. Friends. Kids. Neighbors. Homies. Pals. Mailman. Anyone! Fill them in on what you're trying to do, how you're doing, and have them help you celebrate as you meet those mini-markers.
• A friend of mine has been losing weight. She is constantly posting pictures and updates on Instagram. At first I though, "wow, that's brave of her to post her weight on social media..." and I was skeptical. But honestly, she's slaughtering her goal, and that's why! Once you declare it to the world it's harder to fizzle out with it. Plus, it makes us proud and in awe of her hard work, helps us to appreciate what she's going through, makes us mindful of her situation and emotions, and now she has a great support system for when she has a "bad diet day". It helps everyone who is working at a similar goal to see how she's achieving her success, and gives her a group of people to talk to/get ideas from about what works and what doesn't. 
• Consider starting a little group with friends! You can do "weekly budget weigh-ins" where you go to lunch or dessert at someone's house, and you each review how your week went. Maybe you don't give specific numbers if you don't want people to know your budget, but you could talk percentages or whatever. (Though, being real will help you get farther, faster just FYI!) You can share ideas, motivation, tips, stories, and all celebrate together as you achieve your mini-marker goals.

Visa Prepaid is doing this really cool game on Facebook that might just help you stay motivated! 

It's called the "Build Your Best Year" instant win game, being held on their Facebook Page (HERE). You LIKE their page to play, and it takes you to this page where they give you a bunch of goals (it explains what they are as you hover your mouse over the pictures on their Page).

You click and drag the goals onto whether you would achieve them this week, month, or year. That's it! You're either an instant winner, or your'e not. You can play every day, and it's actually really fun! You can win $15 pre-paid gift cards, headphones, or a Tablet PC. 

But it also just gave me lots of ideas for new long and short-term goals to consider.

Check it out HERE.

So that's a fun way to stay motivated. Maybe if you achieve your goal for that day you can allow yourself to play and potentially win :)

• Focus on your attitude.
• Really, it's ALL about attitude.
• The only difference between FEAR and EXCITEMENT is your attitude about it. Don't be afraid or focus on what you'll be giving up in order to achieve your goal, focus on how amazing it will be when you achieve it and get excited about it!

I don't know about you, but I feel good about 2013. Keeping a positive attitude and keeping your eye on the bigger picture will take you anywhere you want to go in life.

Good luck to you this year, I hope all your dreams come true!

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Prepaid and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Discover more at http://www.VisaPrepaid.com or join the Visa Prepaid community at http://www.facebook.com/VisaPrepaid.