A Trip Down Atkins Lane

With only 30 days to go till I have to get my wedding dress altered and just a wee bit over 2 months till the big day, I need to drop a few pounds and tone up here and there. So, after much debating with myself, I've decided to go on Atkins again.  I've been down this road before, about 8 years ago, and I was able to lose a good deal of weight before giving up on the low-carb craze.  Now, I am ready to hit this baby again and see where it takes me.

First of all, I am not doing the 20 carbs only craze cuz I can't handle that small of an amount. I have decided to stay in the 25-60 range and hope I can see results with that.  Also, I have been and will continue to exercise on a regular basis and am trying to reduce alcohol and caffeine as well.  Those are all for the long term. Although after the wedding, I may increase my carb intake a bit, too.  We shall see.

I've been on the plan for the last week or so and it hasn't been too bad.  A couple days I went over my carb intake but then I add a little extra exercise to make up some of the difference.  The push is for the short-term wedding goals and then I will advance to a more long-term plan after the wedding....or Thanksgiving...or the New Year.

A girl's gotta start somewhere after all! What's your favorite weight loss trick?

Zen of Decluttering

So today, after enjoying my morning iced coffee and a chapter or two of reading, I decided to tackle some of my clutter.  Now, I am not what one would ever call a hoarder or even a messy person.  In fact, I don't like clutter at all and try my best to keep my house neat and clean, although sometimes a little mess tends to accumulate throughout the work week, but overall we have a tidy home.  However, there is always stuff that one has accumulated over time that amounts to a fair amount of clutter. 

So, I started attacking my master bedroom closet. I found clothes I never knew I had, stuff I knew I would never wear again, and other items I am excited to wear in the future.  It probably took me an hour, but I managed to get through my portion of the closet (my other half will have to take care of his side on his own) and then proceeded to the guest bedroom closet for clean up.  I managed to clear out 3 large garbage bags of items to go to Goodwill and two bags of garbage (stuff that wasn't fit for thrift stores).  The cleaning high continued and I cleaned out my dresser drawers, the office, my bookshelves and my end tables near my bed.  It felt wonderful!  Like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  Not only do I get to get rid of all this clutter from my life, hopefully a large portion of it will be donated to help others in need as well. 

All in all, it was a good day and I rewarded myself with some time spent floating in the pool with a good book. Clutter really does lead to chaos and disorder in life and it feels so good to get rid of it.

This is Harder than I thought

So, it appears reinventing yourself is much harder than anticipated.  I think this is the case for a couple of reasons.  First, I want to change everything at once...weight, career, attitude, hobbies, everything all at once.  Isn't that how we humans tend to be nowadays? We want everything to change right now as soon as we decide what it is we want to change in our lives.  Deep down I know everything takes time and being dedicated and pushing through the rough patches will make me a better person overall but damn it, I want it now!

Secondly, I forget how easy it is to stay exactly as I am.  It's a lot of work to change your life.  It can be messy and stressful and downright irritating, which just seems like a whole lot of stress for change.  Those bad habits are hard to break and the couch/tv combo is a tough one to beat.  Not only am I trying to create a new life for myself, I have to let go of some old habits as well.  Lots of work...

It can be done.  The best thing I think I can do is tell myself to take things one step at a time, focus on one main goal and keep pushing until I get there.  It's ok to add little mini goals and things to do to spice things up, but the main goal must always remain vigilant in my mind.

Weight loss is my main goal right now and I am going to start focusing on the exercise portion of it for the next month and make it a solid habit in my life.  That is goal one. I will try to eat healthy as well, but exercise is the main goal.  It can be done.  I just need to focus and remember that nothing worthwhile in life is easy...but the worthwhile stuff is unforgettable.

To-Do Lists: Good or Evil?

I consider myself the queen of procrastination.  I have it down to a science at this point...put off everything I possibly can until the very last minute and then stress myself out while I scramble to complete everything by its required timeline.  That is just the items that have a timeline!  As for the projects, phone calls, miscellaneous errands that can be done at any time? Forget about it....they will sit and collect dust on my poor little to do list.

So, is the to-do list good or evil?  I suppose it's a little of both.  I do get through the items that need to be done and, if nothing else, it is a good reminder list for me of the things I want to do or need to do sometime in the near or distant future.  I think it becomes a bit evil when the sheer volume of items on the list becomes so great that it creates a greater stress in my life than I would have without it.  Sometimes I will make out a list for the week and the number of items is so great that I don't want to do any of them...so they sit and collect dust until I must tackle them or else I just keep shuffling them until I feel like checking one off.  I'd say the to-do list is both friend and foe.  It just depends on what is on the list at time.

In my reinvention, I am trying to decide how I want to handle these lists.  I think I am going to start only putting 3-5 items that I need to get done per week on my list and have a "backup list" for the rest of the items.  Once the main list is cleared, others can be added.  I learned this technique from zenhabits.net. An excellent website that I've been reading for awhile now.  So, that is my goal. To make my list more good than evil...more friend than foe.

In the Beginning....

I've jumped back and forth regarding what I want this blog to be about.  I mean, I know I want it to be all about ME (as most blogs are) but I couldn't decide on a single topic.  So, I have chosen to embark on a reinvention of myself.

Why?

Well, that would be because I am absolutely miserable with the status of my life right now; and what do I do about it? So far, I have been sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself followed by bouts of energy whereby I make 10 different lists with various titles and subtitles explaining in great detail how I will change my life. 

The lists are still unchecked.  I am still a miserable person.  Don't get me wrong, I love life; however, I am not happy with the current state of my life.  I dislike my job (although I am grateful to have one), I am fat, I am frustrated, and I just paid all my bills yesterday and now I'm broke.  So, I am hoping this will be a good attempt to get my life in order, to hold myself accountable to the blog world and get my act together cuz this is getting ridiculous.

Some of my topics will include:

weight loss
frugal/simple living ideas
debt elimination
bucket list ideas and excursions
marriage (3 months from tomorrow!)
good times
bad times
and so on...

Here's hoping for a good start to the rest of the year and better things to come.