Okay, so let’s take you back a few years for some background
info. Two years ago, I was on track –
working out, reducing portion sizes… getting my act together and trying to
finally stop taking my able body for granted.
It worked. I dropped 42 pounds in
nine months and could run – really run – without wanting to kill over. What a wonderful feeling. I managed to keep that weight within just a
few pounds for about six months after I stopped the weight loss challenges
(about a year total). At that point, I
changed birth control. We knew we
weren’t having more kids and I felt okay going with a 5-year plan
that I didn’t have to think about at all.
Well, that backfired big time. I hadn’t changed much else about my new
eating habits, but packed on about 35 pounds in six months! Holy Hell!
I was working on portions and trying to keep up on some kind of exercise
plan, but the scale kept climbing and I was overwhelmed. I gave up. Needless to say, two years later, those 42
pounds came back and brought 5 of their friends to the party. Ugh. I
got rid of that birth control and now I’m out to try to gain back the freedom
of feeling like I look okay in my clothes and can endlessly play with my kids
without having an asthma attack. So here
I am, with a whole lot of weight to lose… and a plan set up… with you as my
accountability partners.
About two weeks ago, I was reading about and watching
YouTube videos on minimalism and I had a new spark for that. We’d worked on this before, but it was mostly
Brandon’s baby and I was just along for the ride. When I dove into what minimalism meant for a
mom… I was sold. So I spent some time
purging my closet of the clothes that didn’t make me feel pretty (ummm… I was
left with nearly nothing) and started changing up how I handled household chores. I’m not going into that all here… I’ll save
it for another day, but the feeling of having a house that’s clean enough for
surprise guests is unbelievable, y’all.
It’s still not perfect, but it’s drop-in-guest-ready, and that’s
incredible. Maybe you’re always in that
position – but that’s never been my reality – not even in college when I lived
in a 10x10 box. I suddenly had more
energy because the stress of living in a mess was gone. I had my evenings to do fun things with the
kids because I wasn’t trying to play catch-up on the house. My weekends were beautiful because I wasn’t
drowning in a week’s worth of laundry and a house that had just gotten worse
each day. And the best part about it… my
bedroom/office was finally clean enough that it didn’t stress me out being in
it all day.
See, I work from home (if you didn’t already know
this). I’ve worked from a home office
for nearly seven years now. As we’ve
moved homes, the structure of my office has changed dramatically. When we moved into the farmhouse in August
2016, I bought a standing desk. It’s
really just an Ikea desktop ($10, I think) with extendable legs ($120 for
4). It was a cheap way to get me off my
butt. It worked sometimes… but I’d end
up piling papers all over my desk and eventually, I’d move my laptop out to the
kitchen table where I’d sit for my work day.
Do you know how ergonomically awful it is to work from your kitchen
table on a laptop? Let’s just say that
my neck and shoulders were an absolute mess because of this – which lead to
severe headaches. But I could never keep
my room/office clean enough to feel refreshed in it, so the kitchen became my
office.
About this time last year, I cleaned off that desk again and
purchased a desk treadmill to go under my desk.
This made the whole set-up a lot more expensive, but doing it this way
was still at least $1,000 cheaper than buying an actual treadmill desk. I raised my desk up a few more inches to
account for the height of the treadmill, and I went to work on it… for a few
days. I’d spend a few hours a day
walking (slowly) on my treadmill while I worked, but my legs would get tired
and I’d again move out to the table – or over to Brandon’s desk to relax a
bit. Last week, after my fury of
cleaning and organizing and purging, I had a clean space again and a new found
energy. I was getting back on that
treadmill. I was challenged to a
Workweek Hustle with Fitbit friends, and I nailed that challenge with just
under 80,000 steps in five days.
My Fitbit reading as I am writing this.
This is my desk set-up. I love it. The control panel for the treadmill is the little bar on the right side of my desk. And for those of you with a keen eye, yes, those are spare G-tubes tucked in there behind the ream of paper. We have a lot of spare medical supplies, y'all.
This was a HUGE improvement from the activity level I’d had
before, and after the first 3-4 days, I wasn’t so sore. I started sleeping better and waking up
before my alarm went off (WHAT?) even if I didn’t jump out of bed right
away. When I rested, I rested well – and
again, had more energy than the week before.
I was onto something! I was
averaging about 4,500 steps/day two weeks ago (bleh) and about 15,000 steps/day
last week.
That brings me to this week:
stepping up my goal for steps… and trying to clean up my diet some (I’ll
post about that later, too). I’m also
starting a very low-end daily workout to get my muscles back into some
semblance of shape. I have a long way to
go, folks… but I am literally taking the first steps. My goal this week is to get at least 20,000
steps a day (I was inspired by a friend of mine to try this). I killed it on Monday – even after spending
some time taking Ellie to a GI appointment in the morning. Let’s see how I end up today with ½ day of
PTO to take Ellie to Genetics – appointment days always mean lots of time in
the car and sitting in waiting rooms… and we have a lot of appointment days. I’m also going grocery shopping later this
week to make sure we clean up our diet.
I’m hoping that with these changes, I can start seeing some progress…
start feeling like me again. I’m not
using any fancy supplements… no magic pills or potions… just me, some movement,
and a meal plan that is very practical and lasting for our family of five. I’m no short order cook, here, so if I’m making
something, we’re all eating the same thing.
I’m not going to sip on a special drink while my family eats. We eat together, around the table… and that’s
not changing. And a funny little
observation if you want to do a similar challenge: if you’re the owner of a negative thigh gap
(like yours truly), do yourself a favor and make sure you’re wearing comfy yoga
pants for your stepping adventures.
Jeans and shorts are not friction’s friends. On that note, wish me luck, y’all. I’ll update here and there to keep you all
posted on how things are going.
Today’s weight: X
[Yes, we’re doing it algebra style because I’m not telling a
soul what my actual weight is. As I lose
some weight, I’ll post it as “x-5” because I’m a giant nerd like that and math
is my friend (again, friction is not… I hated physics).]
So this is what Day 1 looked like for me... not too shabby.
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