Hitting the resolutions

For those who were concerned that I obsess about the number of my weight, I should clarify that it's kind of a reference point for me. It's not about being super skinny (and anyone who knows me really well, knows that I'm neither built, nor that motivated to be skinny). It's about feeling healthy, strong, and energetic. Right now, I'm feeling quite soft, paunchy, jowly, tired, and weak. I also know it's easy for me to continue on slow weight gain slide, so it is important to me that by aiming to lose weight, I at least won't be gaining more weight. I remember certain active high points in my life where I was both eating well and being pretty active and felt pretty darn healthy. And I associate my general weight at that time with it: 135-140. And that was after I had a baby, so I can't rationalize any current extra pounds to "baby weight". But I do allow that I'm getting older and can't be as active (due to time, that my body aches more easily, and that I'm living in the deep-fried South now) so I gave myself a 10 pound cushion, so to speak, which brings me to about 150.

I start off with this resolution because I know how to get there. I've been there before--I'm familiar with exercise and eating better. It's the follow-through that's a bit more difficult. Especially the eating, because as my daughter grows older (so fast!), some of our closest times are spent at meal time, watching a movie, or playing games. All of which are embellished with comfort or fun food, not water and salad. But I know I can make better choices--fresh fruit over ice cream, light popcorn over chips, etc. It's about just sticking with it.

And I also believe that one good thing can motivate another. I notice as I exercise more, I want to eat better. As I treat my body better, I get motivated to do other things--like declutter. I made a long list of tasks for decluttering and organizing throughout the house. I started with the kitchen table.

Before:

After:

And the counter. Before:

After:

Sad to say, this took me all weekend. A lot of time was spent deciding what to save and keep (or throw out--which felt soooo good) and the filing or storing it in a way so I'd remember where it was or making it accessible. Another plus of this time-consuming task was I was too tired to bet on any of the playoff games--which was a good thing since I pretty much would have bet that all the four teams that lost would have won. Thank goodness my laziness won over my football gambling hubris.

Anyhoo, I'm highly motivated to maintain this and aim to attack another decluttering task. Next weekend.