Back From the Brink...

I have been MIA for a few reason,  busyness  is one, laziness is another and intimidation is the final explanation.  The first two are self-explanatory but let me expand on the latter.  I am intimidated by the bloging process.  I want to be at my “A Game” and write good, interesting entries.  Also, I’m dying to add a link or two of some spread sheets that spell out my plans and progress.  I’m not too computer savvy and I’m puzzled as to how to update my site to have the functionality I want.  BUT this is the Shut Up and Do It site, so I am going to write today.

Budgeting and dieting and exercising have not been going as planned but I thought I would try one proactive thing.  Over the weekend I decided to tackle the huge task of cleaning out and going through everything in our spare bedroom/office.  The room has a big closet which was piled from floor to ceiling with boxes and garbage bags of clothes and pictures and everything in between.  These are things that I didn’t go through before moving to our house last year and hid the mess in the closet until I could get around to organizing.  What a great tangible metaphor for my other goals.  Now my living room is a crowded maze of belongings accumulated over years of overspending and skinny clothes and laziness.  I look at this literal mountain of things and I am sick with dread, how can I do this?  Where do I start?  How did I let it get this bad?  My baby pictures mixed with an old coffee maker, clothes mixed with shoes and earrings.  No rhyme or reason, everything was just tossed together in the haste of moving.  A haste that was the result of procrastination.  Now, over a year later I am paying for my sloth-like ways.  What a mess!!  I’m $15,000.00 in debt, what a mess!!  I’m 100lbs overweight, what a mess!!  WHAT A MESS!!  Unlike my weight or debt I cannot pretend that I don’t have a living room full of shit.  Kind of eye opening, which is why I thought it would be a good idea to take on the challenge.  There are two key components that make organization and down sizing ones possessions helpful in other areas of ones life.  First, things are there, in front of your eyes, things that can be touched.  Second, one can see their progress.  A friend came over on Sunday and lent a hand in going though some pretty big bags of clothes.  We filled about six bags that are destined for the Goodwill, 2 bags of skinny and trendy clothes that I hope to wear again one day and about 3 bags that went straight to the garbage.  Incredibly, the living is still full and there’s much work left to do.  That said, I know that at least 4 hours of work is done.  This is no easy project, there is no easy remedy, just hard work and persistence will dwindle the crap in my living room down until it is finally clear.  The idea of finishing is still daunting, it will get worse before gets better, harder before it gets easier, but it can (and must) be done!

The Diet:

I have not been doing well, I’ve completely fallen of the wagon.  I did come to one conclusion – I have no desire to count calories.  It’s true that I would, no doubt, lose weight if I ate, say, 1500 calories per day and exercised 45 minutes per day, my body would get smaller and stronger.  My body, though, is not the problem, it is my mind.  As sure as I am that I would lose weight by counting calories I know that I would gain it back.  This would not be a sustainable lifestyle for me.  I would be trading one obsession with food for another.  I am not preaching or advocating that others do as I do, I just know that it won’t work for me.  The plan remains the same, no pop, no ice cream, no Starbucks, no smoking and walk 20 minutes per day.  I will limit my portions and use the best tools known to humankind- commonsense and moderation.  Truly I believe that this is how the changes I make in my life now (if any…) will stay with me in the long term.

The Budget:

The budget is still in swing but we need to work at it a little more.  We’ll see, the end of the month is coming up soon and I will report back how much we were able to pay over the minimum payment.