We're On!

Boy am I excited about this next Friday!!! We have so many people joining us on our fitness journey next week! (Karly, have you read the comments?) To think it all started with an e-mail conversation about my ugly thoughts. :)

SOOOOOOOOOO, if you are joining in with us this week, I wanted to tell you a few things. First of all, we will be sharing our goals for the week. You can change your goals every week if you want. Just tell us what they are/were and how you did. Last week we finished this sentence: I can't wait until... So you can throw that in your post too if you want.

Now, this week's topic (in addition to anything else you want to say!) will be:

What are you doing differently at mealtimes?

Yep. That's it. You have to be doing something differently than you were or differently than your family is doing it. Let's all share our little tips and strategies with each other, OK?

Now the happy news! Julie at My Life As JulieMom (who is so awesome) voluntarily made us a Fitness Friday button! Yeah Julie! The code will be up this week Here is the code so you can put it in your sidebar to proudly let the world know you are participating in Fitness Friday!

<a href="http://familyrevised.blogspot.com/search/label/Fitness%20Friday">
<img width="210" src="http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa83/julietsoukalas/fit.gif" height="200"/></a>

You can also use the picture of the button in your posts on Fridays. Just to be pretty. Thanks Julie--you really do rock! You know, she's doubly awesome because she's adjusting her "Foodie Fridays" to fit in with our Fitness Fridays. So check her out for yummy healthy recipes on Fridays!

Now, just in case you need it, here is some information on Mr. Linky. If you don't need it, you can stop reading now.

To sign up on the Mr. Linky, you need to link to your Fitness Friday post, not just your blog. To do this on a lot of blogs, you simply write your post, then publish it, then view your blog with your new shiny post up. Then, click on the title of the post and you should notice in the address bar of your computer it will say something like, http://www.nameofyourblog.blogplace.com/fitnessfridaypost instead of just http://www.nameofyourblog.blogsplace.com/

Those aren't real links, by the way. :) If your blog won't do this by clicking on the title, then try clicking on the time stamp at the end of your post. Find it--it's somewhere there. It's called a permalink. Copy and paste that new long address line in my Mr. Linky after typing your name in the first box! Sound clear? If not, shoot me an e-mail. I did my first Mr. Linky wrong too! THAT way, people will be able to find your Fitness Friday post immediately no matter how many weeks it's been since you posted it and they won't have to search your archives.

Ladies, you will never know how much encouragement this is to me! Thanks for joining in. See you Friday!

Fitness Friday--One Week Down

Edited to add: I still haven't weighed myself, but I just measured and a few places are smaller. Looks like about a 1 1/2 inch loss total. (1/2 inch from the hips and 1 inch from the thighs. Could that be possible?) Probably, I just measured wrong. :) No matter, it's progress and I'll take it!

Last week I finally found my motivation to lose weight. I just couldn't ignore all the hints around me any longer. I've asked a few others to join me on the journey. My goals, if you remember, were to cut out cokes and bedtime snacking. Here's how my week went...

Day 1--I had to drink half a glass of Coke to wash down my Tylenol. Getting off caffeine cold turkey will do that to you.

Day 2--I cannot believe I'm doing without snacks! I actually felt hungry today before a meal. Hungry--like my stomach growled and everything.

Day 3--I had a bedtime snack because we had friends over tonight. BUT, I made sure it was fat-free popcorn and I only had a small bowl. Pretty good.

Day 4--I ate a yogurt for breakfast and stayed away from the donuts at church. Then, Sunday night our church had an ice cream supper. I had some, but not a lot and I didn't go back for seconds. I don't think my church is helping me. :)

Day 5--I'm actually going between meals without snacks. I don't miss them really, I just have to remind myself to not grab them. I heaped up on vegetables tonight at supper. I have Weight Watchers ice cream bars in the freezer and I haven't eaten any. Praise God for helping me have self-control. It's from Him I know!

Day 6--I can feel a difference in the way my jeans fit. It's every so slight, but it's there.

Day 7--The family voted on Sonic tonight for supper. There is nothing healthy at Sonic. I tried...I had a chicken strip wrap and didn't buy fries or a Coke to go with it. And I didn't feel sorry for myself. I am satisfied at the end of the meal and know that I don't need anything else. I don't just keep eating because it tastes good. This is very new!

Now. Here are my goals for the upcoming week:

1. Continue with last week's goals.

2. Increase fruit and vegetable intake.

Just a little at at time, Ladies! And now the fun part.

I can't wait until...

...I can wear my wedding ring again. I know that sounds horrible but here's the story. I get eczema on my hands and I finally just had to take off my wedding ring to get it to clear up. It was months before I tried it back on and by then it didn't fit so well. Then my hand broke out again. Then I stopped wearing my ring. Now it doesn't fit at all. I know I could get it re-sized but I'm going to be skinny just any minute now! :)

...I can't wear some of my current clothes anymore. I absolutely cannot wait until the day I put something on and realize I can't wear it because it's just too big and baggy. Won't that be wonderful?

OK friends, it's your turn! Make sure you link to your direct Fitness Friday post and not just your blog address! I can't wait to hear how everyone is doing!

Fitness Friday is Tomorrow!

Don't forget, if you are participating in Fitness Friday with us....it's tomorrow! I will have a Mr. Linky up late tonight or first thing in the morning.

This week, in addition to sharing our goal for the week and how our goal for last week went, we will be completing the following sentence:

I can't wait until...

You can finish that any way you want. So join in and let us know how you are doing on your journey!

See you tomorrow!

Plate Spinning

Have you ever seen those guys who spin plates for an act? You know, they get one plate spinning and then set it up on a little stick. Then they get a few more plates spinning and have to keep running back over to the first plates to get them spinning again before they fall and break.

Yeah. I'm that guy. Or girl. Whatever.

I feel like I have a lot of plates spinning and it's hard to keep them all going at once.

I'm still working on decluttering....sometimes.
I'm still trying to transform our budget...once in a while.
I'm still trying to sew Christmas presents...when I can find time.
I'm still trying to lose weight...everyday.
Then there's the homeschooling, the regular housework, my marriage, reading to my kids, Bible study, etc. etc. etc.

There are so many things I need to do and am trying to do that I feel a lot like those plate spinners. What always takes precedence are the squeaky wheels. That sewing sits undone because S needs clothes to wear to work. The budget doesn't get worked on because the school needs to get done. The decluttering is halted because I'm so busy just trying to keep up with the everyday clutter around here.

Are these excuses? A little, I guess. I KNOW it was more important for me to go to the driving range with my family the other night rather than work on stuff around here. LOTS of things are more important than having a perfect house. And yet, things need to get done.

But I know I have not been given more than I can bear. God is able to help me with all things that I need to do.

So why is it I forget to ask Him for help?

Passing On a Problem

I might be doing just that to my daughters.

See, I'm a bit of a rearranger. It's kind of an addiction. It's a complete mystery to me how I lived with our bedroom in the same arrangement for nearly 2 years. I guess I thought there wasn't any other way things would fit. But I am oh so happy I found a way.

In college, my high school friend and I decided to have bunk beds in our dorm so we could have more floor space to live in. We found some used ones and hauled them up to college with us. Well, they were rotten and when my dad and S tried to screw them together they splintered into pieces. SO, my sweet parents went out and bought new beds that week. They were really solid, dark wood, varnished to a shine bunk beds with a shelf in the headboard. Perfect.

My eventual roommate for the rest of college (3 years) and I bunked and unbunked those beds tons of times. I really can't tell you how many times...10? 20? A lot! We couldn't do it ourselves either so we would call Mike (her eventual husband) and he would just shake his head at us. "Didn't we just bunk these last month?" Shut-up and move the bed muscle man! :)

My daughters now sleep in those same bunk beds (now painted). I really love it when I haul myself onto the top bunk to put a clean fitted sheet on the bed and Sweetheart says, "Mommy, be careful! You're going to break my bed!" "I slept in these beds all through college!" I tell her. How I used to haul myself up there I don't know.

So, in July we put the girls in the same room because they wanted bunk beds again. This weekend, we will be moving them back to their own rooms. We just rearranged their shared room last month. We do this all. the. time. And guess what? We love it. They love to rearrange as much as I do. Little Bit is especially fond of it. If she comes in the living room while I'm shoving the couch across the floor, she'll drop whatever she has in her hand and yell, "MOMMY! WE'RE RANGIN'?" She begs me to "range" things all the time. She would rearrange the bathroom if she could figure out a way.

And it's a good thing to do. Because when you move the bed, sometimes you see this. Even if it's only been a few months.

And since we got rid of cable, I'm thinking about what I can do to the living room now that we don't HAVE to have the TV on a certain wall. Hmmm.

Passing the insanity down to the next generation...one room at a time!