Hello readers! Can't believe we are into March already. The downer.............goodbye summer for another year! Luckily it will still be warm here for a while and winters here don't get really cold!

So what's been happening:

* My back is getting better. It's about 90-95% now, getting better everyday. Just still a tiny bit sore in some positions but am pretty much moving freely now and intend to start training again a bit harder this week.

* The new shop is going well, getting busier every day!!! Great people to work with though. Only thing is it's in a kinda dodgy location so I hate the trip there in the early mornings. For the earliest starts I will try to get taxis but they usually only have about a 50% reliability rate from my place and I ring/book and call them the night before and have tried all the different companies. Just hope I don't get bashed or worse while going to work but it is a concern to me.

* I definitely LUV long weekends!!! Beach, swimming, kayaking, hanging out, sleep ins etc!!! Have enjoyed watching the Olympics!

* Am up to day 16 out of 28 with drinking absolutely NO alcohol! That meant over the weekend declining a few (which was slightly tough). I am undertaking this in an attempt to drink less alcohol in general and spend less money on it. This is the longest I've gone with completely none in several years..............over the half way point! Day 29 I'm not allowed to plan on a bottle or wine or anything similar but! The idea after the 28 day ban is to only drink if I choose to in party/social occasions. One little confession I'll make though is that I have had a few drinks of full strength Coke, Solo and lemonade over the last couple of weeks! As I completely gave up diet soft drinks over 2 years ago I made sure I didn't take a step back and buy one of those...............so instead bought the full strength type which have lead to a few over the last couple of weeks.

* I got rid of one credit card and seem to be getting much tighter with how I manage my money day to day but still can do better. Just under $1000 and one credit card until I say 'good riddance current credit card debt'. A few weeks ago that figure was $1600.

* I found a cheap place to get a hair trim, ($19.50) and coloured my hair myself for $15.95. Indeed I like it! So if I do that every 3 months instead of going to hairdressers at a cost of at least $200 a pop thats a great saving!

* Am using cheaper skincare.

* I did buy and like ideas from Michelle Bridges new 'Crunch Time' cookbook! Rather economical meals! Her salmon patties and salsa rocks! She has good versions of meals most from a family would like!

* I weighed in TONIGHT on the home scales after showering with wet hair and all feeling good, not full or not hungry. Result: 73.7kg/162.4 lb. Am 1.71m high. That should be a few hundred less grams in the morning/dry hair/after loo which means I have plateaued in Feb rather than gained anything! BF's scales had me looking between 74-74.5kg (which always have me about half a kg more than mine) on his non digital scales yesterday morning which I didn't expect as I seemed to slacken off in the last few weeks. Maybe.......................if ya don't give up carbs completely in the first place one's body doesn't rebel by 5kg or more if ya have a can of soft drink and half a cup of rice and a filled bread roll in one day haha!

MISSION NOW...........

* Clean up those loose ends such as full strength soft drink, chocolate, gelato and cheese that seemed to creep back in a bit.

* No weighing now until 12 May, (day I intend to have debt shot in the head by). I want to give it my all.................aiming to read under 68kg/150 lb on that date! Will be stoked with being under 70kg though!

* That will mean discipline with training as well as watching the food thing as I'm looking to push some new fitness targets strength and tri training wise.

* New clothes and new shoes are things I want..........I want new runners as I wear my current to work as well, new fine black heels, new jeans and some nice tops, new dresses, new training clothes, a suit.............endless really. I can see that all up costing a couple of thousand almost so will need to prioritise and wait. One thing I'm aiming for is: no more clothes till under the 68kg. I can see I still have quite a bit of blubber I can still lose, (but when looking at what I had can see there is less).

* On the clothes front I like less items but quality and things I really like as opposed to more cheap stuff. So Levis jeans for me over target jeans. I'm not really fashion concious, - I like those brands that always look good but seem to look and feel trendy always such as Levis, Nike, Asics, Icebreaker, Oakley and for dressy clothes I like anything, - often Ojay however! I have black ankle boots I've worn for years and have a pair of chunky black heels I bought 10 years ago for $19.95 which are still my going out shoes, have seen thousands of kms of walking over the years but won't break! I will still keep them but want to buy some dressy black finer heels, (not too high, fine or uncomfy) over the next year! But seriously, I'm a chick who lacks shoes, mostly I'd rather spend my money on other things!

* Can't wait to start saving more for investing, holidays, overseas travel etc when debt is gone. To do this expenditure on alcohol needs to consistently be slashed the most, as do phone calls, as do things I buy cause I'm unorganised like bottles of water on the run, as does snippets of time where I spend to much on junk food, and also cheap clothes ranging in many different sizes cause of fluctating.

* 20 weeks exactly today to enjoy remainder of my 20's, then the big scary 3-0 arrives.

Talk soon all!

Pip :-)