October is in the books, and the numbers aren’t where I wanted them. Part of that I saw coming. Part of it was me adjusting to new habits. But a lot of good came out of this month too, and it’s why I’m confident November will look a lot better.
The scoreboard
Weight: 350.8 → 350.4 lbs (−0.4)
Debt: up, from car repairs and interest
Assets: up almost $90
Net worth: almost even, down just a couple of dollars
Weight: the 10-pound swing
For the first half of October, I was still fighting old habits, mainly with food. By October 17th, I’d gone up to 360.6 pounds, almost 10 pounds over where I started the month.
Then I finally got my act together. By the end of the month I was down into the mid-340s, until one last cheat day on the 31st pushed me back over 350. That’s where I finished.
Monday through Friday, I’ve got it down. The problem is football season: going out on weekends, a few beers (or a few more), and cheat meals on both Saturday and Sunday. That’s the piece I have to fix.
The $1,200 bet
My official HealthyWage start was 357.0, so technically I’m down 6.6 pounds for the bet. To be on pace, I needed to be at 345.3 by November 1st. That puts me behind, and I need to make it up in November.
Debt: the one I expected
I knew this month would be rough for debt. The car needed a lot all at once: tires, plus brakes on both axles. It was all regular maintenance, nothing broken, it just came due together. To cover it, I took a forbearance on my student loans and skipped a payment on my auto loan, and interest pushed the debt up.
I don’t like it, but I rely on that car for my income. I had to take this one on the chin and keep moving.
Assets: the bright spot
Two small habit changes grew my assets by almost $90 this month:
Round-ups. One of my checking accounts rounds up every purchase and automatically invests the change.
Lottery money goes into investing instead. I used to buy Powerball and Mega Millions tickets when the jackpots got big. Now that money goes straight into my investment account.
Those two changes, plus normal market movement, nearly cancelled out the debt increase. Net worth finished almost flat.
Back in the gym
The other big win for October was getting back into the gym. I’m building up slowly on purpose:
Hack squat: 175 → 305 lbs
Leg press: 167 → 327 lbs
Deadlift: 45 → 125 lbs
I’m taking the deadlift slowest, adding 10 to 20 pounds a week, because it’s the only lift I’ve ever hurt myself on.
Kokoro baseline
Push-ups: a few. Definitely not the 50 Kokoro requires.
Pull-ups: zero, for now.
Mile: I’m not attempting the 9:30 run until I’m under 300 pounds and can actually run.
The channel
We gained 5 subscribers this month, so thank you all. I posted 7 long videos and 21 Shorts, and for one week vidIQ ranked us in the top 25% of channels under 1,000 subscribers for views. Good to see the content getting out there, and hopefully it’s helping people.
Wins and misses
Wins:
New saving habits: round-ups, and investing instead of buying lottery tickets
The car is in good shape, and it was all regular maintenance
A consistent gym routine
Misses:
Skipped payments to fix the car, so no real debt paid down
Held on to old eating habits for more than half the month
Almost no weight movement as a result
November goals
Six days a week in the gym.
Get back on pace: 333.5 lbs or lower by December 1st.
Start Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich plan for my money.
One cheat meal a week, not two or three every weekend.
Month 1 wasn’t what I wanted, but there’s plenty to build on. Best of all, the big car repairs are behind me, so I can finally start paying debt down.
Climb with me
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I’m not a doctor or financial advisor. This is my journey, not advice.
