12 Month Money Challenge

You might be thinking, wait a 12 Month Money Challenge?! Yep, that's right! You've probably heard us talk about creating a new website for all of our finance tips and travel posts but in order to keep my sanity, we've decided to update this website to include those instead. You will find finance tips and trip/hike reviews in the coming weeks. We've also added a "money" page and "travel" page to the navigation. All of this will be continually updated as I move posts here from other websites.

You can read more here but we decided to add this section to our existing website to help individuals live an enjoyable life through health and wealth.  We share a strong passion for helping our community get better at budgeting, saving and investing, and general personal finance along with living a healthier lifestyle in regards to moving more and eating healthy.

>>>>> The Ultimate List of Ways to Save: 18 Ways to Save $15,000 in 2018!

Finance is just like Fitness - you have to STICK WITH IT to see results, sometimes they don't come as quickly as you would like but if you stick with it a year from now you will be amazed at what you accomplished!

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Interested in more money saving challenges? Try one of these:

• Save $1,000 in 3 Months
• 3 Month Money Saving Challenge
• Beginner 6 Month Money Saving Challenge
• 52-Week Money Saving Challenge
• 12 Month Money Challenge
• $300 12-Week Christmas Money Saving Challenge

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Looking for a printable version of this challenge? We've got you covered! Join our newsletter and you will be taken to a black and white printable version right away! Grab the printable challenge here.

If you have been "following" me you know that I love to save money.  My entire life I have worked and saved everything I made - it's in my blood.  I even ironed my money before putting it into my "cash box" when I was little.  You can read more about that here but I've received multiple requests to help share with you what I do to save money.  It's natural for me to save and I've actually had to work on letting loose of some of it.  I've realized that it's okay to spend money in order to create memories (for example, all the traveling we do).  I still have a hard time spending money on "things" though.  We choose to spend our money on organic food and quality supplements since those are things that really matter!

I've shared a few posts on how to save/make money but I wanted to end this year with a "12 Month Money Challenge" that you can start in the new year! If you follow my savings plan listed you will save $1,050 in one year!  The monthly amount may sound like a lot at first but there are ways that everyone can cut back!

Below are a few examples to look over when you do your budget:

• Prepare dinner at home instead of going out to eat
• Do your own nails instead of getting them done
• Watch a movie at home instead of going to the theater
• Make your own coffee at home, skip Starbucks
• Cancel your cable
• Sell things you don't use/need
• Or, find a way to make some extra money and put it away!

I challenge you, if you have more money to put away - double this.  If you REALLY can't make it work (I mean REALLY, not just that you don't want to give up your Starbucks or nails) then half the amount listed.

Healthy Is Not "One Size Fits All"

This is something that I posted a few months ago in our FREE Healthy Living Challenge group but wanted to share it here as well. Honestly this is just a few rants from me. :-)

As we've mentioned many times previously, what works for one person might not work for you. What works for you this year might not work for you next year. Our bodies are always changing and we need to be flexible and learn to listen to our bodies. For example, some people might feel better with higher carbs and less fat and some people might feel better with lower carbs and higher fat. One isn't better than the other and one isn't "wrong"! Maybe your best friend did lose 20 pounds by cutting out carbs and instead started eating coconut oil, peanut butter, and bacon with each meal but if you tried the same thing you would end up eating an entire jar of peanut butter instead of one tablespoon. What do you think would be better? That you continue to eat a balanced diet, even if it is more carbs than her, or try to force yourself to eat the same way she does, knowing that you will over-indulge in those foods? Being healthy and fit is NOT one size fits all. You have to take the time to find out what works for you (be patient, this can be a long process!).

I also see way too often that people get hung up on "being perfect" or "being holistic" that they just give up and don't do anything. How does that make sense? You wanted to be perfect and/or holistic but you couldn't so you just gave up? Make small changes that add up over time to a HEALTHY lifestyle change...notice I didn't say perfect. As we mentioned in our Getting Started with Clean Eating post, we changed everything "overnight" but if you can't do that - that's okay! Just get started!

Keep in mind that you will be able to find anything you want online...on both sides of everything. Every day something new will kill you if you eat it - according to someone. YOU must find balance and find what works for YOU. This takes TIME. If it sounds good to be true it probably is. Only eat bananas all day, no fats, no carbs, only eat grapefruit, no protein? Seriously?! Just eat a balanced diet of HEALTHY food and LIVE YOUR LIFE. Don't get so hung up on every single detail. The details will ultimately drive you crazy.

Am I as lean as I once was? Nope. My priorities have changed - I now spend more time coaching others and I'm being pulled in a million different directions all the time. Is this an excuse? Not in my mind because I'm still in the gym 4-6 days a week and I still eat healthy and I AM STILL HEALTHY. Being lean doesn't equal being healthy. It takes A LOT of focus, time, and energy to be super lean. Honestly, I think the reason I've been successful is because I've been on this "fitness journey" for almost 4 years now and I've never tried to get a "bikini body". I did do a photo shoot but that wasn't my main motivator, I just wanted a healthy lifestyle - one where I could travel and hike and do all the things I love to the best of my ability. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with a "bikini body" or whatever your goal is but there HAS TO BE SOMETHING MORE! There has to be something else driving you. What happens after you work for 3 months just to walk around in a bikini during the summer? What happens in the fall? You just go back to your old habits until March rolls around again? Is this the position you are in right now?

Interested in more? These posts may interest you:

Cheating on Your Clean Diet?

CHEATING.

That word brings all kinds of negative thoughts to mind - cheating on a spouse, cheating on a test, etc. However, these are a few questions we are asked all the time: "Do you ever cheat?" "How often do you cheat?" "What do you eat when you cheat?"...

This post has been in "draft" status for over a year (no joke) but I decided to finish and post it after hearing from some of you about the photo we posted on Instagram. These are hard questions to answer because everyones version of "cheating" is different.  Just like I mentioned in our "Getting Started with Clean Eating" post, everyone has a different view on what exactly constitutes "clean eating"...same goes for "cheating".  We even get emails from readers that some of our ingredients are not clean enough!

So, I will say we don't "cheat".  Let's use the word treat instead of cheat anyway. We eat clean meals 5-6 times per day, every 2-3 hours.  We drink water.  We workout 4-6 days per week.  We do allow ourselves a few "treats" but normally save those for special events or vacations.  Notice that I said "few", we don't let our treats turn into a week of fried chicken, cheeseburgers, french fries, and milkshakes.  We just feel better when we eat clean food.  Our body functions better.  Our skin looks better.

We eat clean because it is good for our bodies.  We also love the way we feel because of clean eating (along with weight lifting).

We don't keep "treats" (candy, chips, etc.) in our house.  However, we also do not deprive ourselves, if we want a treat we eat one. Sometimes we eat the real thing (ice cream, pizza, etc) but still try to find the better alternative such as pizza from Whole Foods or Mellow Mushroom and ice cream made with real ingredients. Sometimes we even try to make the treat on our own (which is where many of our dessert/treat recipes came from). We have come up with some amazing clean(er) recipes that I actually prefer over the original!  When we make clean treats I do not even consider those cheats but some people would.  How can you go wrong with our cookie dough, oatmeal cinnamon raisin cookies, or our cinnamon rolls?

If we are on vacation or out to dinner and want something special we normally split whatever it is (cake, brownie, etc.) because restaurant dessert portions are huge (plus you save money)! We do not just eat a donut, ice cream, chips, etc. every time they are placed in front of us (which is pretty often in an office environment, unfortunately). We choose our treats wisely. It's easy to feel pressured into eating a treat just because co-workers or family members are giving you a hard time. If you want the treat that is fine but don't eat something just because someone else is pressuring you. We want to make sure that when we do treat ourselves that it's worth it! We aren't going to eat a piece of strawberry pie (which we don't even like) just because our great aunt made it or because it's sitting in front of us. We choose our treats and when we eat them.

I posted the picture above on our Instagram and Facebook but we don't always post pictures of our treat meals because we don't want people to think we eat that way all the time. There's a lot of "fitness accounts" out there that only post pictures of ice cream, pizza, and then their abs. We don't think that is realistic. We also don't want to trigger anyone who is just starting out. We still believe that it is important to refrain from too many treats when first starting just so that you can re-train your tastebuds and build up your willpower. How often we treat ourselves just depends on what is going on in our lives. Every single person will be different because of how our bodies react, our goals, etc. There is no right or wrong answer, you will just have to take time to find out what works for you!

This is our lifestyle.  This is how we choose to live.  This is how we choose to eat.  We are not fitness models or fitness competitors.  We do have a life.  We do know balance.  We hope you find it too.