Friday weighday

 I was down 1.3 pounds so that feels pretty good. If I can lose at that rate I know I'll start feeling it pretty soon. I'm currently 202.9 - looking forward to crossing under that magic 200 number.

Having said that, this is a busy weekend of travel. We have an SCA holiday party, heading back to our former part of the state to cook lunch at church one final time, and getting together to celebrate Christmas with T's family. I'm trying to have a good plan in place so that I don't cave and go overboard with the food.

The holidays can be a tough time for weight loss but I'm hoping I can manage to keep my current good habits.

Take care!

Not a bad week

 Work has been super busy this week as folks try to get stuff in under the wire before people start going out on vacation. Despite that I have managed to walk the dog every day, get to the gym one day, and keep my food in check. It's not breaking any land speed records, but the scale is slowly moving down and that feels fantastic. I'm starting to feel more in control. Water is going well so I feel like next week I'll be ready to tackle a new habit: regular trips to the gym.

One change at a time.

Monday already?

 Gosh, I was busy & forgot to post Friday!

My weight was down to 204.2, but its up to 204.9 this morning. I had a crappy eating day Saturday, but I did much better yesterday. 

I'm (finally) going to the gym today after joining 2 weeks ago today! No excuses - first I didn't have any energy and then I just got busy and didn't make it a priority.

Have a good day!

Ugh

 I got on the scale Friday. I didn't cry, but it was close. 205.8

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.

Still waiting

 No news on the home sale front. I got on the scale this morning. Not happy.

Ugh

 So the buyers want a plumber to scope some of the pipes due to the inspector saying some are deteriorating? UGH

Update

Things progress. The home inspection and appraisal have taken place - the termite inspection is tomorrow. We continue to pack up. We've reserved a moving truck. It's getting real.

We continue to be impressed with Hungryroot. I can only speak to the vegan menu since that what we've been ordering, but 2 weeks in and we love it! I can send a code for $50 off if anyone is interested in trying it.

I'm tired, but I'm managing.

Take care.

Changes

Change isn't easy for me. I thrive on routine. I've just been putting my head down, focusing on the next thing and not thinking too hard about the somewhat vague future.

If you live in the U.S., then you know that the housing market has been insane. The prediction is that prices will fall into 2023, which is kind of what we are betting on. The market in our area is already slowing down - we had 6 showings in 7 days and 1 offer. That's still great, but its not the bidding war that was taking place a few months ago. I'm not complaining - just recognizing that I think we sold at the right time before missing out on a great market. I can say we sold our house for double what we paid for it 6 years ago. I can also say we put a fair amount of money and sweat equity into it!

So what's next? Our plan had been to build on land next to my bestie. We found a great builder and even put money down. But as we looked into it, we realized that land plus the house plus a garage, fence, etc. was going to be about $100k more than we wanted to spend - without any landscaping. I didn't want to spend my golden years house poor.

We're betting on the shifting market. We're already seeing houses near our target price range in the Wilmington area. So for the interim we're putting our stuff in storage and staying with my mom while we look around. I recognize we are extremely fortunate that we have a family situation that allows us to do that - my mom is excited about us staying with her for a while. We're moving our furniture into her guest room so we have our bed, her 3rd bedroom is becoming a sitting room so we can watch UFC and she can watch British mysteries. It will feel a bit cramped, but honestly? Three people in a 1800 square foot house with an outside area isn't really cramped. 

I've taken a step back from some things that matter to me (like my kettlebells) to focus on the here and now. My plan has been to focus on eating healthfully and walking the dog often. Hungryroot has been super helpful - it's been hysterical to see my husband excited about vegan food. (That's the option I chose for our boxes and so far its been amazing!). 

Friday I will climb on a scale and see where I'm at, but I'm going to try & focus on healthy mental and physical habits for now at least. If I see something too out there that plan may change.

Home inspection

 Home inspection is scheduled for Friday. Fingers crossed! We are headed back home tomorrow. Mom is going with us since she has an appointment with her surgeon. We'll likely be up there until closing, other than bringing mom back down here.

I feel like I'm in a holding pattern here - so I've bene playing solitaire and doing puzzles. :-)

Meal planning

Things have been pretty hectic. Inspection scheduled for Friday - fingers crossed! So meal planning has been ... non existent. So I decided to sign up for hungryroot. They describe themselves as being somewhere between meal kits and grocery delivery. I ordered 3 entrees, a couple of breakfasts, and we got some snacks. Overall I've been really impressed by everything we've tried!

We have a date

 We are officially under contract. Closing date is Nov 21!

Maybe baby

 We verbally accepted an offer last night. Just waiting for the paperwork. Fingers crossed!

And before

 Just for comparison, these are the pictures from the listing when we purchased the house 6 years ago.