Back in the Saddle Again!

Yes, it's been almost a year since I last published here. Life has been very busy and a few things have changed. I haven't been following a vegan diet for some time now. It was a gradual change that started with including other foods back into my diet. So you won't find any new vegan info here. I won't remove my old posts because it's been part of the journey. In other news, my husband has just been diagnosed as having celiac disease, so we are diving into the whole gluten free thing. It's a lot of information to digest, but I'm so happy that he finally knows what has been causing problems for him. He's starting to feel much better after eliminating gluten. My kids and I are not completely gluten free, but we've greatly reduced our gluten intake too. It takes a lot of label reading for sure. The reason I decided to post again is that I read an email from Fly Lady last week that said "As the kitchen goes, so goes the rest of the house." And I decided it was time to get back to actually trying to get organized. So, I started tonight by shining my sink. It looks pretty good. Don't worry, I won't post a picture of it. Getting the sink shined is a small step, but it feels like I might be headed in the right direction. I'm trying not to dive in too deep because I start hard and then fizzle out. Instead, I'm just going to try to set up some habits and keep doing them over and over again. I've also been working on my fitness for awhile. I'm doing Online Boot Camp with Jonathan Roche. The biggest thing I've been learning is that fitness is a mental challenge. Being positive and having a positive mind set helps me so much. I'm feeling better and have more energy. The weight is taking a while, but I'm feeling good about it. I'm OK if the weight comes off slowly as long as it comes off and stays off. And that's my update for now. Hopefully you will hear more from me in the near future.

Just Finished Shining My Sink. Thanks, Flylady!

Clean Sink
Originally uploaded by taberandrew

Now my sink isn't quite as shiny as the one in the picture, but I suspect my sink is much older than that one. Anyway, I had a bit of a depressed meltdown this weekend. One of those ones where I felt like a fat failure. My house is in chaos, I can't lose weight, I am stressed beyond belief...you get the idea. I was ready to throw in the towel and just let the chaos drown me. I didn't of course.

A good sleep helped a lot. Then I did something I haven't done for awhile. I read my daily Flylady update. If you haven't met the Flylady, I've talked about her a few times in the past. You know what I love about her? She tells it to you like it is, but she gives you encouragement too. The message I read talked about not giving up. Do something something small, work for just two minutes. The point is that you are doing something. She even said that if you shine your sink you'll be amazed how good you feel when you're done.

Well, I did it today. I shined my sink. It's not perfect, but it's empty, dry and a little shiny. It's one bright spot in my otherwise cluttered house. And it's a start. It didn't take very long, but it makes a huge impact on my kitchen and it makes me wonder what another couple of minutes in another spot will do. A few minutes putting away laundry, a few minutes picking up paper for recycling...the possibilities are endless, but my clutter is not! I'm going to tame this clutter, one piece at a time and get it out out out of my house. I do not need all of this stuff dragging me down and making me feel bad about myself. So clutter, you are on notice! Be prepared because I am coming for you!!!

Getting Organized!

Since I post about the Wii Fit pretty much everyday, I thought I'd post a little video about it here. I wish my house looked as clean as all these other houses where they're using the Wii Fit! Anyway, I have been using the Wii Fit now for a full week--I did a minimum of 15 minutes plus the body test every day. I found it funny that my weight fluctuated quite a bit this week, but as the machine pointed out, I've been weighing in at different times each day.

Organized: I spent some time yesterday emptying out the laundry baskets. I'm really good at getting them washed, dried and folded, but then the baskets sit all week instead of being put away. Sigh. At least it's done for now. What I need to do is spend some time going through our closet and take out clothes that hubs and I are no longer wearing, are really old or just plain don't fit. The T-shirt I'm wearing now I've had since I was in university--and my 10 year anniversary is three years in the past. How sad is that? Time to thin out the closet a bit. That will be one of my focuses this week.

I also went through hubs' receipts that he finallybrought in from the car. Now I have to input them all in my spreadsheet so we can get them out to the accountant to take care of.

Today, I got all Flylady and actually shined my kitchen sink! I've had it done before, but it never lasts long. The idea is that you should start to build the habit by shining your sink every night before bed and by a month, the habit should be well, habit. So, I've got a nice clean and empty sink right now. Hopefully it will stay that way because it makes the whole kitchen look better and it makes me feel less stress. To put it simply, my shiny sink makes me smile.