Flybaby Reporting For Duty!

So, what are my goals for the day?

• Fold all the laundry
• Do the dishes
• Change my sheets
• Clean my room
• Clean the bathroom

Ready to F.L.Y!!!!  Yay me!!!

digging out

So, I had to go out of town unexpectedly last week, and then came home with my MSA (mysterious stomach ailment) that had me in bed another 2 days – meanwhile, my house was falling apart and it was just making me feel worse.

But then, as I was walking through the house, I realized that even with it messy, it was still 1000% better than it had been, and that even with it messy, I’d still let a friend come over.   SO maybe my concept of messy has changed.  This morning, it took me about an hour but I got my kitchen cleaned up FROM THANKSGIVING and hubby having reign over the kitchen for the duration.  It didn’t take that long, and it wasn’t as hard as I expected it would be.  The stove is shiny, the sink is shiny.  The dishes are ALL clean.

The laundry was handled with 2 loads.

My bathroom is still shiny, though it could use a sweep.

My bedroom and the living room, though, are collecting clutter and I’ll try and work on that today.

My mind is distracted so it’s hard to not see the problem areas everywhere I look – I’m so afraid that the clutter is going to take over again.  I know the slippery slope that is – getting overwhelmed and giving up. So I’m trying to fight back.  It’s just hard in the mental state I’m in.

So, my accomplishments today:

• made hubby’s lunch
• weighed in on wii.
• breakfast for the kids.
• homework for the kids.
• dishes are all washed
• kitchen is washed down
• laundry is working

next up

• lunch for kids
• dinner planned
• switching around living room and in-depth vacuuming
• vacuum hallway, crevices too.
• straighten up bags of clothes in my room, in-depth vacuuming
• swish & swipe the bathroom.

strangeness

It’s a strange feeling – pretty alien to me – that my house is now, finally, company ready.  Like, I don’t have to panic if someone rings my bell.  Seriously – it’s strange.

and nice.

No idea if I can keep it like this, but I guess if I want to continue my life with my family as it is, I have to.  Of course, it’s worth it… but can my depression allow me to see past the mess when they make a mess?  Can I make myself SEE that it can be cleaned up again? Or will old habits fall back into place? 

I’m thinking of posting a a series of pictures each week to prove my house is clean.

Then again, since I can’t really be relied upon to do anything with certainty, I don’t know that that would work either.

I *do* know that if I let things go back to the way they were, he’ll leave me – us – and we’ll be in trouble.

Today’s accomplishments:

• weighed in w/wii
• swept and washed the kitchen floor
• cleaned my bathroom from top to bottom, washed the floor
• lunch is next.

Tuesday 11/16

Well, I guess I was pretty busy yesterday.  With everything that I accoplished during the morning, and then in the afternoon - we finished up cleaning out our hallway, with the exception of the homeschool closet, which is in DESPERATE need of a good, thorough decluttering - but will have to wait for now.  The oldest 2 kids and I went to a 4-H dinner last night and then when we got home, it was time for bed, thanks to a new bedtime their father has imposed.  I went to bed at 9 and was up at 4:15a.  :/

Today, the entire day will be spent cleaning my bedroom, which is a repository for everything else in the house with nowhere to go.  A large portion of it is clothes that no longer fit my children that had originally been going into a yard sale that never happened.  But I just found out about a program called thredUP that lets you trade your kids clothes that they've grown out of for other clothes that they will fit into. So I'm hoping to make use of THAT while getting rid of some of the clutter. The link I just provided is an affiliates link, so if you sign up for your free account, I get $3. Just letting you know :)

In any case, I'm hoping my FLYBABY buddy, angel, will be online to help me fly without overdoing things.  I miss her. :(

I'll check back later when I've accomplished more than making hubby's lunch and my coffee.

monday

It's simply amazing how the simplest routies will fall to the wayside if you skip a day or two.  Just blogging my accomplishments felt like it was already a routine - and then, I didn't do it Saturday or Sunday and now, here it is, 2pm on MOnday and I still hadn't blogged.  Blah.

I was able to keep up with the two clean rooms during the weekend.  Although I noticed how fast the empty spaces fill up, and it's so frustrating.  My oldest son and I really worked hard on those rooms and we don't want them falling back into a shambles again.  So he purposely made sure to pick up whenever he went into the living room, and I kept the kitchen table and counters clear.  It is a struggle, to be sure.

Today, I've:

• worked for a couple of hours on a logo for a friend. Finally mailed it to her, and although it  was exactly what she wanted, she's decided to go in a slightly different direction.  But at least she liked it.
• weighed in with wii fit, but didn't work out - another thing that fell aside when I didn't do it on the weekend.
• had breakfast 
• took vitamins & st. john's wort
• called about our dead modem, something hubby's been nagging me to do for weeks.
• called about a clinic that I can go to for my depression issues
• Did school with the kids.
• Have run the washer, and already folded and put away clothes from dryer.
• made lunch
• we have 4H tonight and a special dinner with them, so I don't have to make dinner here.
• wrote a product review
• washed the walls in the hall way, and son vacuumed it.  Also cleared the clothes out from there, 
• and emptied a box of miscellaneous.
• emptied a tote bag I'd brought back from a trip IN AUGUST.
• working with the timer, 15 on, 15 off.

I REALLY need to get a handle on my emotions, as I can see it's causing unhealthy eating and destructive behavior - and if I can see it, my kids probably can too.  It is just so hard when it hurts so much.
It's 2:15.

hurt and anger

I've started out the day with both.  I think it's going to be a LONG day
So far, I've:

• made a loaf of bread in the bread machine
• mad breakfast for me& and the kids
• read a book to DD
• finally made a pediatrician appt for my oldest
• called old ped. to get records switched.
• worked out for 20 min on wii fit
• no water yet. 

it's 10:00 - been up since 4:45.  Feeling like I'm behind a bit. :/  Neck is stll kiling me. KEYbbOARD NEDS ITS ASS KICKED.

• took my vitamins & st. john's - need to remember that on a daily basis.
• cleared 2 more counters in the kitchen
• washed them down top to bottom
• cleaned my stove top and hood
• emptied the dishwasher and reloaded
• washed the dishes that wouldn't fit.
• made lunch
• blogged

It's 2:10pm and the kitchen is ALMOST done.

• washed the kitchen floor - it hadn't been done since MARCH.
• put dinner on - homemade beef stew
• put another loaf of bread in the bread machine, since the kids ate most of the 1st
• scrubbed the stove rings (those things that the burners go in)
• finally cleaned off the table  - the biggest hotspot in the kitchen.

It's 3:50. I'm feeling accomplished today.  The kitchen actually echos now, since all the junk is gone.  It's nice - it's clean.  I can HAVE MY NEIGHBOR OVER!  WOOHOO!

When ya coming for coffee, Angel?! :D

Today's Progress

So...
What did I manage today?
I cleaned my bedroom and put away laundry and folded some.  I cleaned up the front room and straightened up the master bath.

I have not yet worked out

I have not done any stupid hustling or even looked at craigslist or anything else.

I have told myself that I'm great with my son and I deserve the absolute adoration he lavishes on me.

YAY ME!

sore

woke up this morning with some serious pain in my neck and arm. I have herniated discs in my neck and one of them is definitely stressing out today.  I can't hardly pick anything up. :(

My accomplishments today:

• worked on a graphic for a friend for 2 hours - only it was totally not what she wanted. 
• made breakfast for me & the kids.
• read about Venus with them, as we're studying the planets.
• worked out on wii fit for 20 minutes.

Haven't done any housework yet, mostly because I can't raise my arm or turn my head without extreme pain. Don't know how I'm supposed to explain THAT to the hub. :/

11:30am.

Well, for the rest of the day, I did ok.  Still in lots of pain, though, so I took longer breaks than I should have. Eh.

• Made lunch for the kids and I.
• Washed the walls, counter tops and cupboard doors in the kitchen.
• Decluttered 3 of the counters, swept. 
• washed the dishes
• made dinner (2 different ones, actually) for everyone 

going now to wash the dinner dishes and SHINE MY SINK. :)

New me... new Goals

So... goals... I'm setting goals... Yippee fucking doo da...


Goal one- Keep my three rooms clean.  Clean daily.

Goal two- Work out 5 days a week

Goal three- No stupid hustling... if you need something to do... ask somebody... somebody ALWAYS needs something

Goal four- Say something nice to myself everyday

annnnnnd we're back.

Today, I've

• vacuumed the living room - at least the parts that are now free of stuff.
• scrubbed the crayon off 2 of the walls.
• had breakfast
• drank a glass of water, am working on #2.
• helped DD read.
• played a board game that she made.
• Did 15 minutes on wii fit.

This is 11:30am.

• Continued with the living room. Just one section left!
• made lunch for the kids
• updated this blog!
• had another glass of water.
• worked in 15 minute increments!

This is 1:15.

Technorati Profile

What has worked for me

Dawn, you are so right that it's all about babysteps. After more than a year on this weight-loss journey, I've pretty much abandoned the low-carb plan because I'm just not good at doing it long-term. I also don't like to write down what I eat during the day, so have abandoned the food journals that so many diets recommend. I so enjoy making lists that I'll get sidetracked and not ever get anything else accomplished. I've found that I can still lose weight eating whatever I want (within reason, and eating reasonable portions, of course) using these few simple steps. It's not really a diet, and so much easier than most plans. I didn't start with all of this at once, it was a process of adding babysteps to my usual routine.

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Take vitamins daily.
3. Exercise of some sort most every day. I love tracking progress with stickers on my wall calendar so I can see at a glance if I've missed too many days.
4. Weigh daily, and track weight, water, vitamins, and exercise. (I have a form if you're interested--I track 6 weeks on 1 page.)
5. Eat something for breakfast soon after you get up to "break the fast" and rev up your metabolism. Consume most of your calories earlier in the day, and eat a light and/or early supper. I like to eat a light supper or substantial snack by 3:00 or 4:00 and then nothing other than water or decaf coffee with sugar-free creamer and sweet 'n low after that. If I can make myself do this, I often drop a pound or more by the next morning.

I discovered the effectiveness of skipping supper by accident in January 2006 when our pastor at church asked us to consider fasting during the evening meal during a week of prayer. I cheated and ate a little one evening that week, but still lost 7 pounds in 5 days! This method might not continue to work if you did it too long, but I've never managed to do it many days in a row. It also might quit working if total calories were too low. Another thing I've done if I get really hungry in the evening is eat a salad or other high fiber/reasonably low calorie food. Stir-fried veggies might be another good choice.

Fasting at the evening meal might not be a good idea for diabetics, and may not work for nursing moms or others with special medical concerns, either. Every person is different, so you may want to try it and see if it works for you. If you do eat supper, consider eating the smallest portion you can to keep your blood sugar level. Fiber supplements help prevent hunger and the South Beach Diet book said that they'll keep your body from absorbing as many carbs.

These ideas and FlyLady's daily encouragement these past 3 1/2 years are what I credit for the 70 pounds I've lost since September 2005, most of it since I started over in January 2006. It has been a long, slow process, but I feel so much younger and healthier than before! I'd love to know if some of these ideas work for anyone else. Hope they help!

Tentative steps... baby steps at that

Well, in case you care, I finally had the baby :) A beautiful bouncing baby boy named Zachary. He's 8 weeks old now, healthy & happy. I'm breastfeeding exclusively, so I can't really jump back on the low-carb wagon *yet*, but I am working on getting my routines back. I NEED my flylady routines back desperately - trying to keep a house in order with 3 kids is tough - especially when we homeschool, so I never get the house to myself. But I'm going to try and this is one of my steps. :)

I hope my other friends will join/rejoin me.

The Grocery Fairy

Looks like the grocery fairy visited here! We picked up our 3rd order from Angel Food Ministries this morning. http://www.angelfoodministries.com/ It's a wonderful program that's open to anyone who would like to save on groceries, not just low-income families. There are Angel Food sites all across the U.S., so there may be one or several near you. You get about $50 worth of food for $25 each month you order. There are also specials available each month. I totaled the weights of the food we picked up today, and we got 25.8 pounds of food for $25. I also ordered 10 pounds of breaded chicken tenders for $18, so our freezer is really full now!

I eagerly anticipate Angel Food days because I know we'll have good, quick, and easy foods to cook when it comes in. Much of it is processed food, but good quality. Visit the website for the menu for next month. The next order deadline is Monday, October 9 and pickup day is Saturday, October 21. Bring a large box to put your food in. I like to use our big cooler.

Having quick and easy things to cook for my family helps me with my weight loss efforts, too. The less time I spend in the kitchen the less tempted I am. I actually have been eating mostly what I want and trying to exercise most days. I try not to eat too late in the evening or at night, and that helps, too. Leslie Sansone says in her book Walk Away the Pounds, "Breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, dinner like a pauper." She explains that the later in the day you eat, the less chance your body has to burn off the calories, so it's best to get the majority of your calories earlier in the day. Makes sense to me, and it seems to be working.

Celebrating One Year

Well, August 28 marked one year since I started trying to lose weight AGAIN. I lost 15 pounds in 10 weeks, then quit exercising and gained 8 of them back by January when I found this website and was encouraged to try again. I'm not where I had hoped by now, but I still lost 45 pounds this past year. (260 last August, 215 now) Not as quickly as I would like, but definitely a start in the right direction.

The first exercise we started with last August was swimming, but by October the water temp was down to 70 degrees and it was just too cold. So we started walking 10 minutes at a time--5 minutes away from the house, and 5 minutes back. We increased it a little at a time before we quit walking. At the end of January, we started walking again and started with 15 minutes, and added about 5 minutes to our daily walk each week until we got up to 40 or 50 minutes. It's hard to find much more time than that to exercise! Some days we do Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds: Walk & Kick DVD. Some days we don't manage to exercise at all, but we're moving much more overall. Every now and then, I even count my "weekly home blessing" or shopping and running errands as my exercise if it's been a really busy day and there wasn't time for anything else. (Have you ever stopped to think how much exercise you get rushing through the grocery store?!!) August ended with 24 exercise stickers out of 31 days.

My weight hasn't been dropping much lately, so I'm trying to watch what I eat a little more. Some days I decide not to eat past 4:00 or 5:00 in the evening, and I think that has helped the past couple of weeks. Staying busy and drinking lots of water till I go to bed helps. I've been having fun flinging clothes lately. My closet is beginning to get empty, since so many things were too big for me. When the weather begins to cool off a little more and the temp stays out of the 90's, I'll shop for some jeans and a few other things. Shopping is definitely more fun now than it used to be, though I still have far to go. Dawn and Angel, hope you are both doing well and still flying!

apologies, violet

I'm sorry we've left you hanging. We've both been going through "stuff", I guess - plus we both maintain several other blogs, so sometimes, there's just nothing left.

However, I know that angel & I both appreciate your time and effort and are happy to see you're making strides. It's not always lbs that count, but inches - do you do your measurements? Now that I'm a little bit more pregnant, I'm disconcerted to see my measurements going the other way, but only in the baby areas LOL Before baby, though, I'd lost 80 inches, so I was pretty proud of that.

Today, angel & I have been flying and we took before & after pics to show our progress. I'm gonna post the ones I've done so far, while waiting for angel to get her man off to work.

This morning, I worked on the bathroom and hallway/stairs. In just 15 minutes, both areas were literally transformed.



The hall was less challenging, but I DID also vacuum the stairs - with an upright vacuum with NO ATTACHMENTS - I think I got my cardio in for the day.



So, that's my update, and again, my apologies to violet for not posting more. I'll try to do better, and WTG on figuring out what's triggering you to stop losing, and how you plan to fix it. Thanks!

Seeing a pattern

No new low weights since 7/25, but I've been looking back over my records for the past 9 weeks. I started with FlyLady's body clutter investigator back this year, modified it, and then created a spreadsheet to track 6 weeks at a time. I record what type and how much exercise each day, pedometer steps, vitamins, water, and weight. Of course the weeks that I lost were the ones where I moved more. I did not realize how much my activity level had dropped recently until I went back and did totals for all those weeks. The junk food and sugar the past few weeks hasn't helped, either. I've printed some more exercise stickers, and hope the rest of August on my calendar will be filled with stickers.

One thing that occurred to me is that almost anyone can do those things that helped me lose weight. Though there are diabetics and others who are not supposed to "diet" and some people are not physically able to move lots, most people could do a little and slowly build up. Wearing the pedometer has helped me to be aware of how much moving I'm doing. I check it soon after I put it on, to make sure it is measuring accurately. It doesn't work well if I'm barefoot or in sandals. It does so much better with my lace-up shoes! There are also a few pairs of pants or shorts that it doesn't register well with, so I don't often wear them. Must be something about the angle of the pocket.

These are the things that have made such a big difference for me:

1) Drinking plenty of water
2) Taking vitamins
3) Wearing a pedometer
4) Weighing daily
5) Exercising regularly
6) Keeping daily records

These are all simple things. Hope they will help someone else!

Miss you

Finally hit 215 on July 25, but haven't done especially well with exercising the last 2 weeks, so it hasn't dropped any more. My walking buddy is on vacation this week, and we've been busy starting school this week. It has still been very hot, but I know all those things are just excuses. I know FlyLady would say, "You can do anything for 15 minutes . . . except WHINE!" Help! Anyone feeling motivated to exercise these days? I'd love someone to challenge me. Dawn & Angel, hope you're both doing well!

Success . . .

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you've fallen down.

Saw this quote the other day. It is so true, and could also be worded "Success consists up getting up just one more time . . . and one more time . . . and one more time." Exercise still isn't my favorite thing, but it sure is fun to see stickers filling my calendar and see the pounds slowly coming off. Dawn and Angel, hope you are both having a wonderful week!

Reclaiming lost ground

I am so frustrated with this computer! We keep losing the connection, and it's super-slow to start with (usu. 24 kbps). I actually started working on this last night, but lost the connection. Today the computer is giving me problems as I'm trying to pay bills, so I thought I'd try to post this while it's still working at all.

Dawn, I didn't receive an add in my Yahoo e-mail yet. It has been so long since I've used the Yahoo IM, I can't remember if those come in e-mail or in an IM message when you log on. I'm not even sure that we can use IM with our slow connection, but I'll keep checking my e-mail and will try to get around to downloading the Yahoo Messenger program again and trying it out soon.

Angel, it's fine if you e-mail me. At least I can get e-mails most of the time!

Went shopping yesterday for more shorts, but the store I went to was nearly out of shorts and didn't find the size and brand I wanted. The 18W denim shorts I had been wearing had gotten a little baggy and I had thought maybe I could fit into 16W's. Was disppointed that the 16W jeans and capris I tried did not fit, except one pair that fit very snugly. Decided not to buy the jeans since it is still be too hot for jeans most days. Jeans are for wearing somewhere at night or where there's REALLY good air conditioning! I feel strange in shorts sometimes, but wear them in self-defense to avoid having a heat stroke. Oh well, guess it's the 18 for now. And that 16W dress fits so well! Maybe the problem is that my hips and thighs haven't lost enough for the 16W yet. If only they still had a good inventory of shorts! WHY do stores around here quit selling shorts in July when we'll need them at least till October or November?!!

I've been playing with numbers and looking back to see how many years it's been since I've weighed this little. I think it's been about 7 years. When I reach 215, that will be the first time at that weight since around November 1997--almost 9 years. The lowest adult weight I have recorded was 144 in April & May 1995, except for 128 around Christmas 1989 when I was barely 20 and working 50+ hours a week at a stressful job. I'm 5' 6" or 5' 7" and had a few people say that was a little too thin for me. My weight was 148 in December 1995, but I hit 180 at the end of June 1996 and continued climbing for several years. I think maybe it was stress that caused me to gain so much. Have you read FLYLady & Leanne's Body Clutter book? They both mentioned similar situations.

My life is certainly less stressful today than it used to be, but the weight isn't falling off. It has been a fight, but I'm slowly winning! I feel like I'm reclaiming previously lost territory as the pounds decrease toward what my weight used to be. Wonder how much longer till the whole 10+ years that I've been dragging this body clutter around can be reclaimed?