Back on the Bike and Gym

Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with slipped disk on my lower back (herniated disk). This event was a big downer for me. I live an active lifestyle, going to the gym, running. playing football, and biking. However, I had to let go of all of these because the doctors (YES, doctors, I consulted two of them) recommended and advised to rest and sort of protect my back from incurring further damage due to strain.

I forced myself not to do any of the activities I love, it was hard and depressing. Since I couldn't do any physical activities, I turned my gym-time into chess-time! My football weekends became family-weekends! My morning runs or rides became walking the dog trips! I had to change my ways for my own benefit. Change is hard to accept, but it is part of life and we should just keep on doing what is best for us.

Although I badly wanted to play football or ride my bike, I kept at staying at home and doing non-strenuous activities. It was okay, but I really missed sweating out and releasing my stress through exercise. However, a for a few weeks now, I have gone back to the gym, and begun riding the bike (stationary)! Since I felt that my back has become stronger from all the core and back stretching exercises I've been doing, I became confident that I could start doing some light lifting and stationary biking. I asked the doctor if I could do these stuff and he allowed me to :) Since then, I have allocated some 30 minutes or so everyday doing these endorphin releasing exercises, and I love it!

Being back on the gym and bike even for small amounts of time, gives a lot of benefits. It's a free way to release stress, recharge my focus, and basically be healthy. Physically sweating out releases all of my stress be it from work, finance, and general life, sweating out gives me the chance to exhume all the strains that I have. Exercising also recharges my focus. I like it when I start to sweat and be in the zone that I start thinking of things that I want to do and how I will do it. I get to think clearly while on the bike. Lastly, of course all the benefits of exercising and sweating out points to a healthier life. All of these benefits comes from doing something I love, and best of all, it's free!

How I Repaid My Debt

I was thinking of what to post for today, and since it's a Monday and a start of another week, I thought of sharing something a bit grand and inspirational, well for me at least :)

Let me share how I was able to payoff my debts. Earlier this year I wrote that I was in a pile of debt, amounting to around Php 400,000. This is a lot! For an average office worker, having this amount of debt is a large burden, Something like David and Goliath!

I vowed to myself that within this year, 2015, I will payoff all of these debts! These debts comprised of credit card dues, home loan amortizations overdue, and some personal loans. All of these debts came from my "not-so-failed-business". I call it not-so-failed because although I did lose money from it, I learned a lot and now a better business person. More on this on another blog post.

Let me now share some of the things I did in order to repay these debts tantamount to more than half year's cash flows in.

1. I think the most important thing in order for one to accomplish paying debts is to VOW and PROMISE to ones-self that you will pay your debt! I made a promise to myself that I will repay all of the debt I had as I was sick and tired of having to pay extra finance charges for my credit card and home loan amortization dues! That is one motivation for me to quickly repay all of my debts. From the start of the year, I made a promise that I will repay my debts within this year, and fortunately I was able to do so by the third quarter of 2015! Promise and follow-through!

2. Adjust and adapt. With the continuous charges I was receiving from the banks, and bills coming left and right, I was suffocating from all facets of my financial life. Since I vowed that I will repay my debts within this year, I had to change my lifestyle as well. One example I did and still doing is cutting down on my weekend drinking sessions with friends. Ever since I did so, I was able to not spend extra for beer and booze. I also minimized my travels to the malls. This is one tip for people who would really want to change their lifestyle and not spend. DO NOT GO TO PLACES WHERE YOU WILL SPEND MONEY ON! It's as simple as that :) 

3. Allocate and stick to it. Once you have figured out how much money you can spend to pay for your debts, allocate is strictly to that account and stick to paying it, on time! This requires a lot of discipline and reminding ones-self that you have vowed to repay your debt. There comes a time in this part of paying debt that you will get tired of repaying the debts you have because you will feel deprived of all the money you could have been spending for yourself, but instead is paying back for the debts and charges you owe. But remember that this is a part of the promise you made. NO PAIN, NO GAIN, well for this case, NO PAIN, NO ZERO BALANCES! Allocate your finances for repayment, be disciplined, and stick to paying that account.

The above are just some of the things I did for me to repay my debts. These are all of course in the broadest sense.... If you keep on your promise, adjust your lifestyle, and keep on keeping the balances to zero, sooner or later, you will be debt and interest-charges free! *Sigh of relief :)