Jenn Unplugged

I think it's probably not a coincidence that I've had this burst of reorganization energy at the same time as I've been getting myself healthy. I have so much more energy than I did a few months ago, and it makes me want to get things done.

I've been watching what I eat and exercising at least three times a week for 6 weeks now, and I'm down 16 pounds! My fairly lofty goal was to lose 20 pounds by Halloween, and now that's looking like it will probably happen! When I started this I was a size 20 and even those were getting tight. I'm now in an 18, and those are loose. Yesterday I put on several pairs of size 16 pants just for the heck of it, and I could definitely get them all on, though they were way too tight to actually wear. But another 10 pounds and I will definitely be wearing those pants. That's exciting, and incredibly motivating. I have a long way to go, though. I want to lose a total of 60 pounds, which would get me back down to the weight I was when we started TTC. Infertility put 60 pounds on me, and I'm really ready to put that part of my life behind me! I'm 25% of the way there.

Okay, on to the garage. This was something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and when it finally got a little cooler a few weeks ago, it seemed like a good time to start this project. It took us two weekends to get it done (really two days spread over two weekends). ( Here are the before pictures. )

So we bought some shelving at Lowe's, went through boxes, threw a bunch of stuff away and hauled several carloads of stuff to Goodwill. Getting the shelves up turned out to be a harder task than we'd anticipated. Carter played while we worked and generally stayed out of the way.

( The results! )

Weight loss at eleven pounds and holding. And that's not bad at all, because I stopped being really careful in the last week. Actually, after Doug came home Wednesday, I wasn't really careful at all. :-P

Considering that my goal was to lose ten pounds before IVF, that's pretty good. I'm more interested in making sustainable changes in my diet than I am in losing another twenty pounds at this point. I'm hoping to be pregnant in June, so losing a lot of weight in the next couple of months would be a bit pointless. But if I can be a little healthier by the then, all the better, and that's definitely happening. My clothes are all looser, and I can even squeeze into jeans the next size down, which is cool. (They aren't wearable yet, but I can zip them up. ;-))

In other news (and perhaps contradictory to the above), we finally bought a BBQ grill! We haven't had one in almost five years, and spent a lot of time going back and forth on where we'd put it, how nice of one we'd get, whether we'd have it hooked up to the natural gas or just buy a propane-fueled one. We decided to just buy a medium-priced one and see how much we use it. If grilling out becomes a big part of our life, then maybe we'll save up for the awesome outdoor kitchen set-up in another five years.

We found our grill at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago. (It's amazing how much the prices on grills have come down since the last time we bought one!) It was delivered while Doug was OOT, and then this weekend it finally stopped raining long enough to move it out of the garage. We have it out on the patio by the pool in an out-of-the-way spot. So last night we grilled and ate out at the table by the pool, something I've wanted to do for almost five years. Hee! Tonight we'll grill hamburgers and watch The Game. See how my diet is about to go wrong?

( Cryptic message to a family member. )

1. The diet is going well! I have lost 4 pounds according to my scale, which is pretty amazing. I know that sort of progress won't continue, but it's great to see it working so well right away. My clothes feel a little looser than they did a week ago, and that really encourages me to keep going! I managed to eat about 1800 calories a day last week, though on the weekend it was 2100.

( More diet stuff )

( Papa update )

( Rita and Quincy )

( Movies )

( Farmer's market )

There was more (like that we went to see The Lion King Saturday night), but I need to run, so I'll stop there. It was great to have a weekend to spend together!

Since I've got a few months before IVF, I'm going to try to lose a little weight. My goal is ten pounds, which isn't a lot, but the real goal is to eat healthier and more reasonably, which I figure will really help me if I get pregnant. Doug and I eat pretty well about half the time; we eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, we cook with quality ingredients, and we use olive oil almost exclusively. Of course, we eat too large portions when we cook, and when we don't cook, we tend to eat fast food because we're busy and tired. So we have good intentions, but we don't quite get there most of the time.

( So my first goal is to try to become more conscious about the amounts of food I eat. )

( I made yogurt! )