Saturday, January 7, 2012

The maintenance phase

Have you heard me comparing the spend less, craft more process to a diet?  Well if you haven't before, you will today.
A good weight loss program essentially involves consuming less calories than you use, and ideally consists of a carefully controlled intake of food (ideally a balance of healthy foods), combined with regular exercise. 
In the spend less, craft more "diet", I have limited my intake (spending) and tried to focus on healthy foods (essential items I will actually use).  My "exercise" has been pushing myself to try a range of challenges.
So far so good, but what happens to so many of us  when our "diet" finishes?  We go straight back to our old habits and the "yo-yo" cycle kicks in.
That's where the maintenance phase comes in.  That's when you gradually reintroduce extra foods, including the odd treat you've been denying yourself.  You may be able to cut down on the exercise a little too, but ideally you will have found an exercise plan that you enjoy and can stick to.  You are trying to find a balance which will maintain your weight goal.
So here's my maintenance plan for 2012:
  • Still limit spending to $5 per week, with the following additions:
  • "staple" items will be exempt from the $5 limit: staples being defined as albums, page protectors, journalling pens, replacement blades and adhesives.
  • an additional $50 "splurge" allowance will be added, which can be accessed at any time during the year
  • use what I buy!! How's that for a radical concept?  Ideally, this would mean only buying products I have an immediate use for, but we'll see how that goes . . .
  • reset the goal of one scrapbook page per week initially, to be revised depending on how busy I find myself
  • keep the goal of 2 online challenges per month
  • balance that with the goal of 2 non-challenge pages per month.  (This would include pages such as school events, birthday parties and the like where there are photos of lots of other children).  some of these I might still post snippets of, many I probably won't.
And that's about it! Wish me luck, and I wish you all the best finding balance in your life this year too

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