Well here we are another year! I can’t believe it’s already 2013! 2012 was an overall successful year, I feel like I’ve changed SO much since last January and I’m thankful that my plans and ambitions are still as strong as ever!

I’d like to list my top 10 moments/ successes in 2012:

1. Finding out I was accepted at UoA!!! (obvi #1 hehe)
2. Graduating from UoG – so happy to move on!!! yesssss success!!
3. Having my wisdom teeth taken out – not a great moment but a moment I won’t soon forget lol
4. Meeting my first new roommates in Edmonton and biking around discovering the city together (highlight of my summer)
5. Camping in Banff (and almost getting attacked by a bear – actually!!) – I had never been so close to a black BEAR in my life!
6. Weekend trip to beautiful Jasper & the Hot Springs!
7. Representing my research group at a national conference!!
8. Finally being able to hold a headstand for 60 seconds straight AND being able touch the ground with both hands flat while standing! – been working on these all year!
9. Reading more books this year then I have in the past 5 years combined lol
10. Paying back more than $10,000 in debt – there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

Overall I am proud of my 2012 year because:

 I finally got the chance to really be an adult for the first time in my life

For having the courage to live on my own and

Giving myself the chance to figure out who I am and what I really want out of life!

May the journey begin – here I come 2013!!!

School

• Get 2 additional reference letters/ contacts
• Publish 2 peer reviewed articles by March 2013.
• Be 1st author on at least 4 peer reviewed published papers on nutrition and health by December 2013.
• Give a minimum of 5 presentations on my research to a group of >20 people
• Win a minimum of 2 awards/ scholarships related to health research, knowledge translation, maternal health and/or nutrition education.
• Graduate with MSc in Nutritional Epidemiology (2015)

Money

• Earn an extra $400/month on top of work pay  (January to June 2013)
• Save %75 of tax money into RSP
• Create and review a budget every month
• Pay back Student LOC by end of January 2013
• Save $1000 into RRSP TD e-series account by December 2013
• Pay back $2400 onto OSAP by December 2013 ($200/ month)
• Have an emergency fund with 1 month savings: $2,000
• Create a travel saving fund: save $100 a month into it per year = 1 trip worth $1,200 allowed each year.

Health/ Adventures

• Workout 4 times per week – snowboarding (in winter), Biking (in summer), rock climbing, gym, yoga
• Run the warrior dash (or spartan race)
• Complete a triathlon (Summer 2013?)
• Run to the top of the CN tower
• Go white water rafting in Ottawa or Alberta
• Go ice climbing (one day?)
• Go bungee jumping
• Learn how to rock climb – rope techniques, outdoor rock climbing etc.
• Go outdoor rock climbing 
• Run 3 races this year (min. 10km per race)
• Go on a biking/camping adventure for min. 1 week (maybe along the Montreal trail?? )

Hobbies

• Complete reading 2 books a month (total 24 books by Dec2013)
• Write 4 letters home per month
• Take a stain-glass making class to potentially pick up as a hobby
• Learn to fly a small plane – take a course!

Career 

• Write once a week on Blog or Website
• Volunteer in field, find contacts & network (find 1 volunteer placement)
• Attend a minimum of 2 seminar/ webinar or networking events a month
• Do one side job working with IDRC, CIHR, OHC etc. to gain experience in policy and Canadian healthcare.
• Work to implement a policy and spread awareness of the importance of keeping medical records of prenatal care, complications and outcomes for all Canadians.

Extra / Travel

•  

  Take a French language class  in September 2013

• Go to South Africa to volunteer for min. 4 week in July/ August 2013
• Travel to Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro – maybe combine with my above plan??
• Travel to 2 countries on my bucket list (by end of 2013) – look into travel grants while in MSc for potential funding of flights, research abroad etc.

This woman is amazing

Let me introduce you to a very interested detox method used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years: Oil Pulling!

Here is how you do it…As soon as you wake up in the morning simply put a tablespoon of good quality oil in your mouth (coconut, sesame or flax) and swish around for about 10 minutes! I have been using coconut oil. The first time you do it, it taste kind of gross but you will get use to it. DO NOT SWALLOW THE OIL. Then spit out in a trash can when done, not down the drain.

Even Deepak Chopra wrote in his book Perfect Health that oil pulling is an important way to start your day!

Check out the Mama Natural blog for more info. on this detox!

This is also a great article on the topic from Earth Clinic.com

Good luck & Happy Holidays

 Ok, so here is the rough draft/ ideas of where I want to go and what I want to do:

 There is a community based nutrition research project in South Africa that I would love to go and volunteer with for a minimum of two weeks. A flight to SA would be approx. $2500-$3000 return. I would not have to pay for food or accommodation while there, but I would like to have some spending money ($400 min.)

Next, I would love to climb Mount Kilimanjaro while in Africa (this has always been a goal of mine) Flight would be approx. $500 + the costs of the tour guided climb (Rongai route, 6 Days ) ~$2500

 An agency also offers a 3 day holiday in Zanzibar after the Kilimanjaro hike I would love to do this as well but it’s an extra ~$1000 on top of everything, so I’ll have to see how much I have saved for this.

Maximum Total amount needed for trip:

Canada to SA Flight (return): $3000

Volunteering for 2 weeks: free accommodation and food + $400 spending

Mt. K flight $500 + climb $2500 tax incl.

Spending ~$300

3 day holiday after: ~$1000

TOTAL: Approx. $8,000 spending max for this trip.

 I think I’ll have to look into this more…

I have so much I want to do in the next half decade of my life and with so many areas of my life changing, I thought I better write them down and keep track!

School
Graduate with MSc in Nutrition Epi (2014)

Become a certified PMP (project management professional) (co-current with MSc – thank you advisor/boss )

Be 1st author on at least 3 peer reviewed published papers on nutrition and health

Give a minimum of 5 presentations on my research to a group of >50 people

Win min. 2 awards/ scholarships related to health research, knowledge translation, maternal health and/or nutrition education.

Learn to speak & write french (by 2015)

Money

Pay off all student debt = total of $20,000 (currently at ~$3,500 LOC + ~$6,500 OSAP) (down to <$5,000 by 2015)

Save a min. $8,000 to pay for a car in cash (by 2015)

Have an emergency fund with:

• 1 months savings: $2,000
• 3 months savings: $6,000
• 6 months savings: $12,000

Save $30,000 for house downpayment by 2017

Create a travel saving fund: save $200 a month into it per year = 1 trip worth $2,400 allowed each year.

Health/ Adventures

Become a certified yoga instructor (course in summer of 2015?)

Run min. 1 race a year:

• Run a 10 km race
• Run a 15 km race
• Run a 20 km race

Run to the top of the CN tower

Go on a biking/camping adventure for min. 1 week (maybe along the montreal trail?? )

Go white water rafting in Ottawa

Go Skydiving SOLO!! Take a progressive free fall course

Go bungee jumping (2012)

Go outdoor rock climbing

Hobbies

Complete reading 2 books a month (total ~100 books by Dec. 2017) – Check out the books I’ve read so far.

Take a stain-glass making class to potentially pick up as a hobby

Do yoga on a weekly basis & keep record of the positions I am able to do, ones i’m learning/ practicing and ones that I want to master next!

Learn to fly a small plane – take a course!

Careers

Find a career in the health field: Dream job = working as a project manager for Health Canada, Alberta Health, CIHR as lead on a nation wide maternal health study.

Work to implement a policy and spread awareness of the importance of keeping medical records of prenatal care, complications and outcomes for all Canadians.

Travel

Travel to Africa and climb Mount Kilimanjaro – maybe combine with my below wish

Volunteer travel to a country in need  – South Africa in 2013?? I’m saving!! so we’ll see!

Live in another country for min. 3 months.

Travel to 8 countries on my bucket list (by 2017) – look into travel grants while in MSc for potential funding of flights, research abroad etc.

I’ve added this list to the bottom of my goals page too

I read a book last month called: Fight For Your Money by David Bach. In it he covers common financial book topics such as; banking, credit, home buying, taxes, investments etc. What I always find fascinating in these books is the retirement portion = start saving at 20 and you can easily save 1,000,000 before your 50! Crazyness right!? The longer I’m in school the more I realize my plan to start saving for my retirement has been getting pushed back due to my student debt payments, my hopes to potentially buying a house one day, or paying for a wedding…and heaven forbid we through the cost of children into all that! Fact is, by the time I’m done school and situated into a career I will be getting close to 30 – that means all that glamour of saving for retirement starting at 20 is far gone.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m doing what I can and try to save as much as I can, while paying for school, paying off debt along with paying for the occasional night out or dinner with friends. I’ve read so many of these finance books that focus on starting to save for retirement as early as possible, but with the average age of a university graduate being 24.8 years old http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2010005/article/11386-eng.htm)

I think it’s harder than it looks!

TD has a great calculator to see how much you need to save in order to retire when you want. My goal is to be ready retire by age 60, KEY: be ready with savings in the bank!

I would like to have 1,000,000 by age 60. Here’s the plan:

Ok, this is my TD outline to save 1 MILLION DOLLARS by the time I turn 60.

I will set up automatic biweekly payments into my RSP and TFSA for $250 and $150 as soon as my student LOC is paid off (January 2013). Eventually my TFSA savings may turn into a house savings fund but I will decide that when the time comes.

Here goes

I got a second job as a science tutor for a 10 year old boy for a few hours twice a week. I get paid a small fortune to teach him about nutrition, healthy eating and science (via fun science experiments)! All the things I love :) = this increases my monthly income by an extra ~$350 per month!

I’m working on 2 publications, planning trips to Arctic Canada in January and February & a trip to South Africa in April. I’m enrolled in a part-time project management course through the university (big thanks to my boss!) AND applying for my own grants starting December! I could not be happier. The trick now is to not slow down…working 7 days a week is taking its toll – but I have already booked my Christmas holidays and am looking forward to almost three weeks off (Thanks again to my boss, but I do agree it’s well earned).

Without further adieu, I will outline my goals for the month of November

Financial:

• Keep track of weekly spending and post on wordpress to improve accountability
• Pay ~$1500 on LOC – I have allocated some of my ‘raise’ to putting more onto my debt repayment. Also,  I’ve been doing amazing with paying down this student debt – at this rate will be LOC debt free by January 2013.
• Make my own lunch every day of the week. – looking to buy a lunch cookbook to help with lunch ideas.
• Contribute $300 to RRSP
• Contribute $100 to TFSA
• Pay $100 onto OSAP

Personal:

• Go to the gym: 3 times a week for 1 hour before work
• Wake up at 7am everyday
• Read a book not related to health nutrition or finance
• Write 2 letters home
• Blog once a week
• Follow-up on glasses prescription refund!

Career:

• Start writing review paper for journal article – review 4 SDH topics this month
• Make another major contribution to group – not sure what this will be yet…
• Attend WCHRI Research Day and receive min. 5 researcher’s collaboration info. for future networking!
• Follow up on Nutrition textbook review ‘club’ and dates of review submission for fall reviews!

So there it is! I am upping my debt repayments to $1600/month, savings to 400 (with a focus on RRSP’s), starting a gym regime and continuing to work hard as a researcher and tutor Hopefully November 2012 will be a success!!

p.s there is already snow on the ground where I live = snowboarding season is coming early this year!!!!

• 10 $0 spending days – Although I didn’t fully keep track of this, I have been pretty good this month. I would say about 8-10 days of $0 spending (thanks to: my free train pass from the school, my bike for entertainment and free camping in the overflow campground in Jasper )
• Pay ~$1000 on LOC (might be stretching it a bit for this one) – $867 paid onto LOC
• Spend only $180 on groceries – CASH (I’m going to have to get creative) – I spent about $150 on groceries!!! BUT I spent about $100 on eating out….
• Eat in 6 days/ wk. – this did not happen.
• Pay off my MasterCard (-$800 + another expenses that may be added between now and end of the month) – Done!
• Contribute $50 to RRSP – Done -I actually put $100 into my TD e-Series RRSP account this month!
• Contribute $100 to TFSA – Done!
• Pay $200 off OSAP – I only paid $100 onto OSAP this month (I realized this will be considered interest free so I continue to only pay $100 onto this loan until my LOC is paid off.

Personal:

• Yoga: 3X a week – nope, the weather has been so nice I spent as much time outside as I could.
• Meditate for 10 min. a day – need to work on this!
• Read 2 books (Magic, Driven – didn’t get a chance to read anything for myself for the past 2 months) – most of my reading has been associated with school, haven’t had much time to read any leisure books.
• Wake up at 7am everyday – done! Sometimes it’s closer to 7:30…
• go on 5 ‘adventures’ – Jasper, Shooting range, Wave pool, Banff, Festival in DT  and this weekend I’m going to Okanagan!!  
• Write 2 letters home – DONE!
• Blog once a week – I’ve done pretty good
• Get my glasses prescription filled – Doing this today!
• join a club/ team in Edmonton – Most start mid-September so this will be next month’s goal
• Look into fall activities – pottery class, sport teams etc. – done (pottery class it is!)

Career:

• Start writing review paper for journal article – review 3 SDH topics this month + complete Arc. Reviews for AC document. – DONE!
• Make 1 major contribution to group – not sure what this will be yet… – Grant review & organization, everyone loved it
• Attend 1 seminar – BOOKED! : convo cafe Aug. 23^rd – we had to skip this, but have rescheduled for September.
• Read 1 book related to nutrition/ health community-based development – check! I am currently working on a nutrition text book review! – this is now complete and I have been invited to join the Nutrition textbook review ‘club’ (where I will be responsible for reviewing 1 book every 3 months to give my advice and input!! So exciting!! I will get free books, a discount on publishing and other cool perks…one step towards my goal of publishing a nutrition/ diet related book!!

• Just Graduated
• Just moved
• Just quit your job
• Just got hired
• Just life as usual

Looks like im staring my window of opportunity in the face!

How about you?!

I thought of 3 main pieces of advice for him:

1. SAVE  & spend MONEY wisely (obviously this would be my number one recommendation lol). I was lucky enough to realize this very soon after leaving school but not soon enough, I still left my undergrad with a good debt load. Learning this early will help him not only watch his spending throughout school, it will help him realize student loans don’t come free and hopefully he will start paying them off sooner.

2.  Don’t just study, STUDY SMART. I know he hears this from everyone (especially my grandmother, every time we see her all she tells us is to “remember to study our schoolwork”). But I have something better: Don’t just study like a crazy manic student, Study smart. This means listen for when your professor repeats main topics, or slows their talk when they are explaining something – this means it’s important and will be on the exam. Ask questions. Now that I am working in the field of academia, part of my job is to mentor undergraduate students and I’ve noticed that the ones who ask questions and always look engaged are the ones are more likely to succeed (and a teacher would go easier on while marking their lab or test – I’m not saying I do it on purpose…(all the time) but those who work hard deserve a break sometimes!). ***The main thing I wish I knew during my first year was that your MIDTERMS are the EASIEST marks you will ever get. They are almost always worth close to the amount your email is worth, but you only have to memorize (“learn”) half the material = EASY. Take advantage of this, plus if you do well on your midterms you will be under a lot less stress come actual exam time.

3. TRAVEL. If there is one thing I wish I did when I was in my undergrad it would be to travel. Study abroad, volunteer in Africa, go to Peru. I don’t mean go to Mexico for spring break, do something different, go to a country that no one you know has gone. I know, I know travelling costs money – a lot. and this piece of advice conflicts with #1 but seriously. I have quite a bit of debt left from school but if I was smarter with my money and planned ahead I could have hit two birds with one stone if I looked further into studying abroad (gotten the chance to travel and get school credits at the same time). 

 Any advice you can think of?