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Budget Everything

WLC Day 5

There are 7 daily habits to work on in the Whole Life Challenge: nutrition, exercise, mobility, sleep, hydration, lifestyle, and reflection. Each thing only takes about 10 minutes a day to accomplish, but spread out over several things, that time adds up pretty quickly. I am discovering that if I don't determine when I am going to do each thing beforehand, I quickly run out of time to do them at all. I have to budget my time and stick to it. 

Everyone has heard of keeping a "balanced budget" for finances. I used to think this just meant "don't overspend what you take in," but recently I have learned what it actually means. It means that I tell my money--every dollar--where and how it is going to be spent or saved or given. If I don't specify where I want a dollar to go it quickly gets spent on the next food item or flashy gadget that I wanted to buy. I have to make up my mind what I plan to do with my money before the chance to spend it occurs.

Likewise, I have to budget my time well. Before the day starts, I need to have a plan on where and how I will spend every minute. I need to make sure that I have enough time in my bank account to accomplish all the things I want to do each day.

And wouldn't you know the same is true with eating! Before each day begins I tell myself what I am going to eat the next day, and I stick to that plan. Before participating in the WLC, I found myself snacking on anything I darn well chose to at any time (thanks #murica). Now that I have such a restricted diet, I have to be very careful about what I eat and when I eat it. Not that I am budgeting how many calories I am allowed to consume, but I am budgeting for what type of calories I am consuming, and sticking to the plan.

This whole budget this is still kind of a wreck, but I'm pretty sure I'll get gradually better at it.

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