Weight Watchers Round 2 (Day 1)

Well it is a new year. Happy New Year! Time for a new set of New Year's resolutions.

Weight lose goal: My goal is to loose the same 45 pounds I already lost. At 46 I had my hip replaced on October 5th of last year. Leading up to the hip replacement I got slower and less inclined to work out. So the weight that I lost on Weight Watchers over 3 years ago came back. Of course eating out in restaurants a lot did not help either. So I am going to jornal about my progress in hope to encourgage other people to loose weight. It doesn't matter what program you use however you do need a program. I am using Weight Watchers since it worked for me before. For me there are several key habits to Weight Watchers success.

1. Counting points - I am on the system from 3 years ago. Since I know that Weight Watchers points system.




2. Water: Driving lots of water.




3. Exercise: Getting the cardio work outs in. Since my hip replacement I prefer to either walk, use the Precor Eliptical, or swim. I am looking forward to bike riding in the summer.

Status: Day 1, 245 pounds, counted points, 30 minutes walking.

UGA EFT vs. US Gas Prices Charts

Gas price charts:   I have found the best location for up to date gas price charts is Gasbuddy.com.  Gasbuddy.com has some great phone apps where you can track the local gas prices and make decisions on where to buy your gas for the best price each day.  I use their app on my iphone, works great.  I use Gasbuddy.com charts in some of my work presentations.

Are you getting tired of high gas prices? Feel like there isn't anything that you can do about it. Why not buy the UGA ETF which is suppose to track US Gas Prices.  A better option might be to buy a call option on UGA. Then you would have a leverage bet against gas prices rising this summer. This is something they do every summer and they are sure to do as the economy improves as well.

Here is an updated chart of recent UGA ETF prices from 2-12-12.  This is another pretty easy compare of gas prices versus UGA ETF.  Look at gas prices on 12/19/11 compare this to the UGA ETF.  You can see that UGA tracks down and up with the gas prices.  That is what is was designed to do.  A potential easy play on this is to notice when you are getting gas are gas prices down right now?  Might be a great time to buy the UGA ETF.



UGA ETF Prices as of 2-12-12

Check out the chart below which tracks the weekly gas prices vs. UGA ETF.  As designed the UGA ETF almost tracks perfectly the price of gas.    If we look a gas prices seasonally you mighte even be able to find another trend for when to by the UGA ETF.

Saving Money - Drop the soft soap

Save money on soap. When you were a kid did you have soft soap in your house or a simple bar of soap? I used soft soap for a while a an adult, my family still uses it, unfortunately. I am a big believer in the old fashion bar of soap for several reasons.

1. Soft soap is too expense. Do a little analysis. Take a look at how many bottles of soft soap you have in your house. What is the price? How often do you have to buy it. It might be the softsoap on the sink, or the body wash in the shower. It is all over the place in your house.


2. Soft soap is not green. Think about the packaging in soft soap versus a bar of soap. Most of the time you have a jug or a bottle for the soap that you hopefully can recycle. It is a lot of waste.


3. Soft soap doesn't last as long. If you use soft soap in the shower or at the sink I am always amazed at how much of the soap doesn't really stay on your hands or body and just get washed down the drain. If you use a simple bar of soap they seem to last forever especially if you use a good old fashion soap dish to keep the bar dry between uses. We have a few bars of soap that we bought from a local shop and they smell great and seem to last forever.


4. Men's soap: I really like the smell of AXE Shower Gel my son really likes it as well. However, I have found two alternatives that smell just as good and are cheaper. The first one is the new (I think it is new) bar soap from Dove. To me the Dove Men + Care Deep Clean Body and Face Bar smells just like Axe Shower Gel and last a long time and is earth friendly. Additionally, it is a Dove product so it doesn't dry out your skin. I also like the Suave For Men Body Wash. Most of the time you can buy it for around $2 per bottle.