How We Operate (Dec. 22, 2009)

Two years ago, life was good. My husband and I owned a small advertising agency in downtown Sacramento. Although the hours were long, it afforded us a reasonably comfortable lifestyle. We purchased a new home and a new car. We ate out pretty much all the time.
One thing about owning your own business is that you need to know what you're doing when it comes to the financial side of things. We did not. Instead of hiring someone to figure that stuff out for us, we decided to wing it. We kept telling ourselves... "Starting next month, we are going to buckle down, limit our spending and start chipping away at our business debt."
"Next month" kept getting pushed back. After about a year, we had dug ourselves into an enormous hole. Once we realized how bad it had gotten, we buckled down, limited our spending and started chipping away at our debt.
Then the housing market crashed and the economy took a huge hit. Our clients had to cut back on advertising and one by one, they all went away. In one week, we lost 3 major accounts. Since we had no money set aside for this type of thing, we had to close the doors. Our dream of business ownership was dead in the water after only 2 and a half years.
My husband was able to find a job right away, but I was not. Our income was now substantially less than it was only weeks earlier. And since so many people were having to deal with unemployment, the jobs I applied for had hundreds of people vying the same position.
Living high on the hog had come back to bite us on the butt, BIG TIME.
Our bills started falling behind. We struggled to hang on to our house but it eventually went into foreclosure. Our business and tax debt are insane.
This is not a "poor me" blog. Believe me, we deserve every bit of what we got for not planning ahead. But believe it or not, I'm happier now than I was before everything fell apart. The way we were handling our finances was the same way we were dealing with our weight and health.
"We'll start next month" Keeps playing over and over in my head. We wasted so much time! Our 20's and 30's were spent being overweight and out of shape. We will never get those years back.
Amid our world crashing down around us, we decided "Hey! Let's start a diet!" Great timing, right?
These last 4 months have been some of the most stressful of my entire life. Not working drives me absolutely insane. (I'm a stress and boredom eater by the way)
If I can devote myself to eating better, exercising, losing weight and getting fit NOW, then I believe I have a fighting chance at reaching my weight loss goal and keeping it off for good.
THERE IS NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT.
Life is good.