I imagine most people are out enjoying the new Star Wars movie that was recently released to theaters. Me? I am updating this blog. The time has come for me to get serious again about my weight. I will be updating this blog with my weight loss journey.
So, it is confession time. With my previous blog, I was always brutally honest about my shortcomings. I am finding it hard to write this though because I had lost close to one hundred pounds. Now, I have gained it all back plus some. My current weight is 356.4 pounds. When I started my previous weight loss journey I was around 350 pounds. I won't make excuses. I did this to myself.
Where do I go from here? Well, I started drinking soda again. That ends tonight. I have always loved soda and it has always been a weakness. In addition, I plan to start doing daily step counts again. To get started, I am going to set those counts very low. Not only am I heavier than when I started last time, my knees have been hurting a bit. I am getting started with just 2500 steps a day. I know that is a very low step count but I want to ease into it. I will ramp it up as I go along.
Naturally, I will be eating healthier as well. I have fallen back into eating out, eating late, and eating too much. I am not saying that I will not eat out anymore. I just need to cut back. I remember that when I first started trying to lose weight, I always felt like I was hungry. I remember going to bed many times with my stomach growling. Well, I will just say that I have not had that happen in quite awhile.
I will be weighing every fifth day of the month. I always found that if I weigh in weekly, I lived like the devil immediately after weighing in because I always felt like I could make up for it later in the week. With five days, I really don't feel like I have that temptation. So, with that said, the next weigh in will occur on December 20th. Yikes! That means I have to weigh in Christmas morning. Guess I will have to be good on Christmas Eve.
On a completely different subject, I am moving blog posts from my old gaming blog site. Feel free to check them out if you like. Some of them are a bit dated and please understand that I wrote that blog kind of tongue in cheek. I would like to think that I possess a sense of humor. You are welcome to disagree. Check back soon for new posts. Goodbye for now!
Friday, December 18, 2015
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
What Is An IRA?
With every passing year I am getting closer to retirement age. Hey, we all are. I am at an age now where it feels like I should have started setting money aside when I was younger if I want to retire a millionaire. I can dream, can't I?
Since I have had to figure some of this stuff out on my own, I thought I should share some of what I learned. I imagine everyone has a basic idea of what an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is and what it can do for you, but just in case, here is a quick overview. I will discuss in future posts the differences between the different types of IRAs. Also, please excuse the analogies that I share, I tried to make them different than the books that I have read on the subject so that I am not copying anyone (I hope).
An IRA is kind of like a grocery bag. At grocery stores, they used to ask if you wanted your groceries bagged in paper or plastic. Nowadays the options are probably more like plastic or the reusable shopping bags. Similarly, IRAs are offered with either pre-tax or after-tax benefits. As I mentioned above, I will present more on the different types of IRAs and their specific benefits in future blog posts.
Typically, grocery bags are used to store items that you have purchased. This makes them easier to transport until you reach your destination. Similarly, an IRA is used to store your investments until you reach your destination (retirement). An IRA can store many different kinds of investments. You can own stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds, and even savings accounts inside an IRA. I will most likely discuss each of those types of investments in future blog posts. For now, just know that an IRA holds the different investments that you choose to place in it until you reach retirement.
Why not own some or all of these investments outside of an IRA? You could certainly choose to do so and it might even be beneficial. The primary reason to store them inside an IRA is due to tax treatment. This is likely a gross oversimplification, but pre-tax IRAs provide a tax savings now, grow tax-deferred, then taxes are paid on the investments when they are sold and income is taken at retirement age. After-tax IRAs (taxes were already paid on this money prior to entering the IRA) provide tax-free growth and no taxes are paid when the investments are sold and income taken at retirement age.
I hope that this blog post was helpful. If you notice any mistakes or would like clarification on anything, please leave me a comment below. I may edit this post with more concise information in the future, but for now, this should suffice. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your feedback.
Since I have had to figure some of this stuff out on my own, I thought I should share some of what I learned. I imagine everyone has a basic idea of what an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is and what it can do for you, but just in case, here is a quick overview. I will discuss in future posts the differences between the different types of IRAs. Also, please excuse the analogies that I share, I tried to make them different than the books that I have read on the subject so that I am not copying anyone (I hope).
An IRA is kind of like a grocery bag. At grocery stores, they used to ask if you wanted your groceries bagged in paper or plastic. Nowadays the options are probably more like plastic or the reusable shopping bags. Similarly, IRAs are offered with either pre-tax or after-tax benefits. As I mentioned above, I will present more on the different types of IRAs and their specific benefits in future blog posts.
Typically, grocery bags are used to store items that you have purchased. This makes them easier to transport until you reach your destination. Similarly, an IRA is used to store your investments until you reach your destination (retirement). An IRA can store many different kinds of investments. You can own stocks, ETFs, Mutual Funds, and even savings accounts inside an IRA. I will most likely discuss each of those types of investments in future blog posts. For now, just know that an IRA holds the different investments that you choose to place in it until you reach retirement.
Why not own some or all of these investments outside of an IRA? You could certainly choose to do so and it might even be beneficial. The primary reason to store them inside an IRA is due to tax treatment. This is likely a gross oversimplification, but pre-tax IRAs provide a tax savings now, grow tax-deferred, then taxes are paid on the investments when they are sold and income is taken at retirement age. After-tax IRAs (taxes were already paid on this money prior to entering the IRA) provide tax-free growth and no taxes are paid when the investments are sold and income taken at retirement age.
I hope that this blog post was helpful. If you notice any mistakes or would like clarification on anything, please leave me a comment below. I may edit this post with more concise information in the future, but for now, this should suffice. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your feedback.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
The Launch
Hello and happy Thanksgiving! I hope that everyone has been able to enjoy this holiday time with friends and family. I was graciously invited to spend Thanksgiving with some friends of mine and I had a great time. We watched the Panthers destroy the Cowboys and who doesn't like to see that? (Sorry Cowboys fans). The food was fantastic! So on the whole, it has been a pretty amazing day.
I have not written any new blog posts in quite a while. It can be hard to find the time when life seems so incredibly busy. A couple of things have motivated me to start blogging again but with a few changes. The main motivation for me to start blogging again was to get back on track with my weight loss goals. I have gained back almost all of the weight that I had lost when I started back in October 2012. The blog was a great source of accountability and encouragement to me.
I was also motivated because some of you checked in with me when I stopped blogging. I was told on occasion that people found my blog inspiring. Still others enjoyed following me on my weight loss journey. That means a lot to me.
I actually have a total of three blogs. This blog makes number four. Sometimes I am not nearly as smart about things as I should be. I obviously enjoy technology, I mean, it is my livelihood after all. So I suppose I thought it was pretty cool to buy three different domain names to host three different blogs. Then I also have the domain name for my business. I have not written many posts at all on two of the blogs and yet, I am paying to keep all of these domain names active. No longer!
The first blog that I created was dedicated to trying to help people with technology. I even created quite a few YouTube videos to support the blog and inserted them into the blog posts. They mostly dealt with Windows 7 features. That pretty much gives you an idea of how recently that blog has been updated. You can find that blog here if you are interested. www.atechwizblog.com
The second blog that I created was dedicated to video gaming. Honestly, at the time, video games played a much larger role in my life than they do now. Sure, I still break out the sticks on occasion to teach the young whipper snappers a lesson, but I am just not as into it as I once was. The blog was named after a creature that a friend of mine made up (half horse, half scorpion) and securing that domain name was kind of a joke between us. That blog is still up if you want to check it out. www.horpion.com
The third blog detailed my weight loss journey. I updated that blog every five days for several years. It documents my journey from 350 pounds down to around 260 at one point. It was by far my favorite. I was able to celebrate my accomplishments and learn from my failures. It provided perspective. When I would hit a weight loss plateau and begin to become discouraged, I could always look back over the older posts and get inspired by my past success. Often this would prevent me from giving up. I want that back! Feel free to check out that blog. www.belowtwohundred.com
So what did I mean by no longer? I have created this new blog to take over all three of the old blogs. Instead of having three different blogs covering three different subjects, this blog will cover all of my interests and simply have an area where a reader can choose the subject that they would like to read about. Only want to follow my weight loss journey? Just click on weight loss and you won't have to see my posts about technology or any other subject matter. I am probably not going to write any more posts about video games. Instead, I have become very interested in personal finance and investing so I will likely write a few posts about that.
I will be phasing the other blogs out and bringing their content here once their respective domains expire. Until then, you can follow the links above to read archived posts. Any new posts, regardless of subject matter, will find a home on this new site conveniently named after myself. www.sheldonmorris.com
I will save a bit of money by not having to pay for four different domain names. Eventually I will be down to just two domains, this one, and the other would be my business domain which you can check out here if you like. www.atechwiz.com
I look forward to many more posts in the future. My goal is just to help people through writing about my own experiences. Failing that, maybe I can just make people laugh on occasion. Thanks for checking out the new site!
I have not written any new blog posts in quite a while. It can be hard to find the time when life seems so incredibly busy. A couple of things have motivated me to start blogging again but with a few changes. The main motivation for me to start blogging again was to get back on track with my weight loss goals. I have gained back almost all of the weight that I had lost when I started back in October 2012. The blog was a great source of accountability and encouragement to me.
I was also motivated because some of you checked in with me when I stopped blogging. I was told on occasion that people found my blog inspiring. Still others enjoyed following me on my weight loss journey. That means a lot to me.
I actually have a total of three blogs. This blog makes number four. Sometimes I am not nearly as smart about things as I should be. I obviously enjoy technology, I mean, it is my livelihood after all. So I suppose I thought it was pretty cool to buy three different domain names to host three different blogs. Then I also have the domain name for my business. I have not written many posts at all on two of the blogs and yet, I am paying to keep all of these domain names active. No longer!
The first blog that I created was dedicated to trying to help people with technology. I even created quite a few YouTube videos to support the blog and inserted them into the blog posts. They mostly dealt with Windows 7 features. That pretty much gives you an idea of how recently that blog has been updated. You can find that blog here if you are interested. www.atechwizblog.com
The second blog that I created was dedicated to video gaming. Honestly, at the time, video games played a much larger role in my life than they do now. Sure, I still break out the sticks on occasion to teach the young whipper snappers a lesson, but I am just not as into it as I once was. The blog was named after a creature that a friend of mine made up (half horse, half scorpion) and securing that domain name was kind of a joke between us. That blog is still up if you want to check it out. www.horpion.com
The third blog detailed my weight loss journey. I updated that blog every five days for several years. It documents my journey from 350 pounds down to around 260 at one point. It was by far my favorite. I was able to celebrate my accomplishments and learn from my failures. It provided perspective. When I would hit a weight loss plateau and begin to become discouraged, I could always look back over the older posts and get inspired by my past success. Often this would prevent me from giving up. I want that back! Feel free to check out that blog. www.belowtwohundred.com
So what did I mean by no longer? I have created this new blog to take over all three of the old blogs. Instead of having three different blogs covering three different subjects, this blog will cover all of my interests and simply have an area where a reader can choose the subject that they would like to read about. Only want to follow my weight loss journey? Just click on weight loss and you won't have to see my posts about technology or any other subject matter. I am probably not going to write any more posts about video games. Instead, I have become very interested in personal finance and investing so I will likely write a few posts about that.
I will be phasing the other blogs out and bringing their content here once their respective domains expire. Until then, you can follow the links above to read archived posts. Any new posts, regardless of subject matter, will find a home on this new site conveniently named after myself. www.sheldonmorris.com
I will save a bit of money by not having to pay for four different domain names. Eventually I will be down to just two domains, this one, and the other would be my business domain which you can check out here if you like. www.atechwiz.com
I look forward to many more posts in the future. My goal is just to help people through writing about my own experiences. Failing that, maybe I can just make people laugh on occasion. Thanks for checking out the new site!
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Calories 3/26 - 3/30
3/26/2013: Consumed 2,990 calories. No exercise this day.
3/27/2013: Consumed 2,690 calories. No exercise this day.
3/28/2013: Consumed 2,260 calories. No exercise this day.
3/29/2013: Consumed 2,502 calories. No exercise this day.
3/30/2013: Consumed 3,013 calories. No exercise this day.
3/27/2013: Consumed 2,690 calories. No exercise this day.
3/28/2013: Consumed 2,260 calories. No exercise this day.
3/29/2013: Consumed 2,502 calories. No exercise this day.
3/30/2013: Consumed 3,013 calories. No exercise this day.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Time
Today is March 25th and it is time for my weigh in. I did not lose any weight these past five days. My current weight is holding at 333 pounds. I am running out of time to make my goal of weighing in at or below 330 pounds by the end of March.
Immediately after my last weigh in I managed to get in some good exercise. Since then, I have not done much of anything. I am certainly going to have to improve on this if I have any chance of making this goal.
I also began blogging my daily calories consumed and burned through exercise. I really felt like it held me in check a couple of times. I did switch apps that I use to track this however and I am glad that I did. My previous app had me consuming right around 2,750 calories per day in order to lose weight. My new app has me consuming 2,250 calories per day. I did some checking around at various websites such as the Mayo Clinic and it seems like this new app is more accurate.
I will continue to post my calories consumed as well as burned. I find that it helps me to stay focused and honest. Does anyone find that information interesting at all?
I did have a soda one day this past week. I am upset with myself about it. I don't think it is all that bad to drink a soda occasionally. For me it is more about controlling the urge to drink it. If I have one then I feel like I gave in. Should I feel that way?
My next weigh in will take place on March 30th. My goal may be very difficult to attain now. I feel like I can still do it if I dedicate myself to exercise. Please feel free to check in on me from time to time and drop me a line in the comments section below. It is always great to hear from you!
Immediately after my last weigh in I managed to get in some good exercise. Since then, I have not done much of anything. I am certainly going to have to improve on this if I have any chance of making this goal.
I also began blogging my daily calories consumed and burned through exercise. I really felt like it held me in check a couple of times. I did switch apps that I use to track this however and I am glad that I did. My previous app had me consuming right around 2,750 calories per day in order to lose weight. My new app has me consuming 2,250 calories per day. I did some checking around at various websites such as the Mayo Clinic and it seems like this new app is more accurate.
I will continue to post my calories consumed as well as burned. I find that it helps me to stay focused and honest. Does anyone find that information interesting at all?
I did have a soda one day this past week. I am upset with myself about it. I don't think it is all that bad to drink a soda occasionally. For me it is more about controlling the urge to drink it. If I have one then I feel like I gave in. Should I feel that way?
My next weigh in will take place on March 30th. My goal may be very difficult to attain now. I feel like I can still do it if I dedicate myself to exercise. Please feel free to check in on me from time to time and drop me a line in the comments section below. It is always great to hear from you!
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Calories 3/21 - 3/25
3/21/2013: Consumed 2,650 calories. 172 calories burned playing Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012.
3/22/2013: Consumed 2,580 calories. 453 calories burned playing mini golf.
3/23/2013: Consumed 2,330 calories. No exercise this day.
3/24/2013: Consumed 2,820 calories. No exercise this day.
3/25/2013: Consumed 2,328 calories. No exercise this day.
3/22/2013: Consumed 2,580 calories. 453 calories burned playing mini golf.
3/23/2013: Consumed 2,330 calories. No exercise this day.
3/24/2013: Consumed 2,820 calories. No exercise this day.
3/25/2013: Consumed 2,328 calories. No exercise this day.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
On Target
Welcome to the March 20th blog post! I am pleased to report that I am on target for my goal of being at or below 330 pounds by the end of March. I have lost one pound since March 15th. I currently weigh 333 pounds.
I keep checking my weight between weigh ins and this may be a mistake. The reason I say this is because it can be depressing. At one point between the last weigh in and now I had actually gained a couple of pounds. I believe that there were a couple of reasons for this.
The first reason is related to my diet. I had pizza on Sunday and then left overs again on Monday. I also had a couple of soda's between now and the previous weigh in. I don't think I am ready to do the vegetarian diet that I had mentioned in a previous blog post. To keep myself accountable though I have decided to start counting calories and I will be posting those daily numbers on the blog. This will begin on March 21st.
The second reason is I have been exercising much more consistently. It always seems to be the case that when I first start to exercise I gain weight right away. I am not sure if this is due to the body holding onto more water or some other reason but it always seems to happen to me. To improve consistency with exercising I will also be logging my calories burned in the daily calorie post mentioned above.
My next weigh in will take place on March 25th. I need to lose another pound to stay on target with my goal of weighing in at or below 330 pounds by the end of March. I am optimistic that with these daily calorie posts I will be able to reach my goal. The exercise has me feeling great as well. I am excited to see where this takes me. Time will tell. To help me stay accountable please feel free to check in often as I will do my best to update the calorie counts multiple times throughout the day. Thanks for sharing this journey with me!
I keep checking my weight between weigh ins and this may be a mistake. The reason I say this is because it can be depressing. At one point between the last weigh in and now I had actually gained a couple of pounds. I believe that there were a couple of reasons for this.
The first reason is related to my diet. I had pizza on Sunday and then left overs again on Monday. I also had a couple of soda's between now and the previous weigh in. I don't think I am ready to do the vegetarian diet that I had mentioned in a previous blog post. To keep myself accountable though I have decided to start counting calories and I will be posting those daily numbers on the blog. This will begin on March 21st.
The second reason is I have been exercising much more consistently. It always seems to be the case that when I first start to exercise I gain weight right away. I am not sure if this is due to the body holding onto more water or some other reason but it always seems to happen to me. To improve consistency with exercising I will also be logging my calories burned in the daily calorie post mentioned above.
My next weigh in will take place on March 25th. I need to lose another pound to stay on target with my goal of weighing in at or below 330 pounds by the end of March. I am optimistic that with these daily calorie posts I will be able to reach my goal. The exercise has me feeling great as well. I am excited to see where this takes me. Time will tell. To help me stay accountable please feel free to check in often as I will do my best to update the calorie counts multiple times throughout the day. Thanks for sharing this journey with me!
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