The tortoise and the hare

 Well we are here and somewhat settled in. There are several boxes in the garage that need to be unpacked & sorted out, but overall we are in a good place. The weekend getaway was pretty much as fun yet tiring as I expected.

In a rather timely coincidence, I received an email/newsletter from Nerd fitness titled "Success secrets: one habit at a time" about the importance of changing and mastering habits one at a time rather than upending your whole lifestyle. Currently the husband and I are a perfect example of polar opposite plans.

T started Optavia (formerly Medifast) Yesterday. He is off soda, caffeine, sugar, and on a very low calorie, low carb diet. He is pretty much as miserable as you would expect. I will say that he has done this and been successful in the past. Successful in the sense that he lost a lot of weight on the diet, but failed to transition off appropriately or make permanent lifestyle changes, so of course he's gained nearly all of it back. I'm hoping this time it will stick. 

My "lifestyle" had devolved largely into chaos by the end of the move/ first week here. I was mentally, emotionally, and physically overwhelmed and exhausted. Not taking care of myself was only making it worse but I was stuck in a vicious cycle. I felt the move was the perfect opportunity to break that cycle. Rather than trying to do all the things all at once, I decided to make a list of goals/ habits. Some are very small and easily bundled, others will require more effort. Not necessarily in an order, but here are the things I've thought of:

• Skin & dental care. Get better about using my skin care products (done)
• Drink more water (working on, but this one is pretty easy if I do the next one)
• No alcohol (done). Now to keep it out - so not worth the calories or yucky feeling or effect on my sleep!
• Improve my diet. This one is pretty vague, but step one is cutting out a lot of the junk, mindless snacking etc. This one sets me up for the next goal - (doing this one)
• Start tracking my food. Find a plan and stick with it. To that end I will likely
• Find a nutritionist / someone to go to for info, feedback & accountability.
• Get on the scale (I will do this Friday)
• Work on my weight. I'm uncomfortable and unhappy at my current weight.
• Join a gym (done - Anytime Fitness is right across the street from the neighborhood!)
• Start going to the gym (next week I hope)
• Find a yoga studio & sign up (next week or week after?)
• Need to start doing yoga - I am so inflexible. Its not good.
• Swing my kettlebell 
• Get the garage unpacked

Yes, that's a long list. I'm giving myself until the end of January - that feels fairly reasonable. But if its 60% done it's still forward progress, and that's what I'm aiming for here. 

Two different people, two different approaches. I hope we can both be successful - permanently this time.

Here

 Well we are here. Still need to unpack a few boxes, take some stuff over to the storage unit, and unpack the pantry items once we have some shelves set up in the garage. It's been rough, but we made it.

We are completely debt free and have a significant sum in the bank to go toward the next house. Once T has a job we can start looking!

So that part is exciting!

Life at the UPS store

 Yeah, my house is still box land. Packing continues. Progress feels so slow right now. I'm down to the last bits, a lot of which needs to go to the house with us. I'm still using some of it and .. I'm tired. I just want this down. My husband and I have a trip to Asheville scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend and I just want to laze around and do nothing. Oh well. It'll be nice. Right now even a vacation sounds like work! lol. 

But I'm still here. Operation "Fresh start" begins on Friday December 2, with me getting on a scale and joining a gym. I don't know how much I'll be posting, but take care of yourselves and happy Thanksgiving if I don't write again before that.

Thank you

 Thank you for the kind comments. Yes, this is only temporary. And how blessed am I that I have family resources to gift us with the luxury of time. In the past, buying a house has meant looking at 3-4 in a day and picking one. This time we can be more intentional. 

I have been using the heck out of both my amazon kindle (thanks kindle unlimited!) as well as my bath tub. Mom's house only has a step in shower - alas I am a hard core calgon girl. Oh well.

So yes, some things I am doing well - others not so much. This is temporary and every period has its blessings and stressors. My feelings have been up and down, but I am slowly getting excited. One big plus (in addition to being close to family) is being close to my bestie. I'm not a person with a large social group - living near friends is going to be wonderful!

Take care.

Waiting for my life to start

 Things are weird. Our house is box central, a bunch of furniture is sold/ gone, and its basically chaos. We will be packed up on time. T still hasn't found a job and honestly we've been eating out a lot. I just don't feel like I have the energy or motivation to cook. I'm not exercising beyond walking the dog. I feel crappy. It's not good. 

House prices in Wilmington are coming down slightly, so we plan to stay with my mom while we take a time and find a house. I'm glad ours is sold - that's a huge weight off our mind. And I know we'll find a house, but putting my stuff into storage for an unknown period of time (again) just feels sad. My logical mind knows all the reasons this is the logical choice, but it still feels sad in a way. I don' tknow if that makes any sense. 

Anyway, just mentally struggling right now.

Take care.

The end is in sight

 Packing has slowed down this week, as we have focused on some cleaning & making it feel less crazy. And donating. This weekend we are headed out of town to go to an event and hang with some friends.So we well deserved break before we focus back down for the final dash to the finish line. Moving truck arrives morning of 19 November.

Take care.

Shifting Market

 The housing market is definitely changing. We sold our house just under asking, they came back with concessions after inspection, which we countered, which they accepted. It sold fairly quickly and painlessly, but I feel like we squeaked in under the wire. Still in packing purgatory.