Today will mark Four weeks since we settled on our new house…and this upcoming Friday will mark 4 weeks since we have been living in this house. What a crazy four weeks it has been! There have been tears. There has been lots of hard work. There has been lots of happiness. And let’s not forget lots and lots of moving!
Exhaustion
I have spent most of the last four weeks in a state of pure and utter exhaustion. Most of the time I have been physically and/or mentally exhausted. Our moving plan (based on necessity as it has just been the two of us) has been amazingly long and utterly draining. The last time I wrote (two weeks ago) I wrote about this. Luckily at that point ‘most’ of the big stuff was moved and we only had one more big load. I had been optimistically hoping to get a lot of our boxes in there during that load. But my grand plans were not to be. We had some bulky odd shaped items that took up lots of room. (Portable quilting frame…big perch/playground for our bird….just to name two).
Every night after work, Jason stops by the apartment and fills up his car with boxes and ‘goodies’ from the apartment. (I had everything packed and in the living room). We unload his car and the next day I spend my spare time (before and after work, breaks and my lunch time) to unpack those boxes…or to move the storage items to the basement. The apartment is mostly empty and devoid of boxes…there are some things left…but not much. (This week will finish that up). The plan is to next week go and clean that place so that we can turn our key in and be totally done.
On top of the move, we have had yard work. We are adjusting to the yard work and never have enough time in the weekend to get things done. The property was rented for years and the yard shows the disinterest of renters. Flower beds are overgrown. The garden path is in disarray. This will definitely be the year of reclaiming. So we have spent hours upon hours doing yard work.
So to boil this all down. There has been more than day when the utter exhaustion breaks me down. Some days I’m in tears from the physical exhaustion. But I have had days when I’ve been overwhelmed mentally as I’m trying to shuffle it all and I just want to cry. (Ha..ok I admit…I have cried.). Right now it is a thing of just trying to keep our heads above the water. And luckily, this never ending move is ALMOST behind us. Also almost behind us (hopefully) is the need to push mow this property….which with two mowers running at the same time takes us about 3.5 hours. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Weight Loss Efforts
So what about my weight loss efforts? I just laugh and say, “What efforts!” I didn’t get my scale until last weekend and my years long habit of weighing myself every morning was broken…and most mornings I don’t even think about it. I have tried to curb the desserts…I vowed last week this time to get serious and track food and make healthy choices. But, let’s admit, I haven’t tried very hard!
Let’s however give credit where credit is due. We are back to eating at home…and that includes healthy servings of vegetables.
So, after a few weeks of moving and ‘hard labor’ but crazy eating what happened on the scales? I brought them home a week ago. I was fearful when I stepped on. But, I dropped 5 pounds. All I’m going to say is that is a true testament as to how hard I have been working because I have been eating ‘vacation levels’ of food and I have gained 5-10 pounds on those weeks….and here I just ate like that for a month but actually lost weight.
I am not a fool though. I know that if I don’t curb the eating…like NOW, that I will start to gain weight sooner or later as things start to settle down. So I am vowing that today is the day. I’m done with the constant barrage of desserts that pass my list. I am done with the plethora of snacks that find their way into my hands. I am vowing to clean up my eating starting here and now (it’s Monday morning as I wrote this).
My body has felt like death much of this experience. I have been in pain. It’s been really difficult. And the worst part about it is that I know that I feel horrible because I let myself go! I gained weight over the last 10 years. I have let my fitness level slip away. And I am paying the price right now.
So I know that it has to change! And I’m vowing to start that change today. My body is still being abused with moving (almost done) so I’m not planning on diving into heavy exercise yet…but cleaning up my eating….game on!!!