The War Wages On

Happy Friday everyone! This week has been quite a challenge as the girls & I have been sick the whole time. My youngest is finally almost better, but my oldest & I still have raging runny noses and coughing spells. Yuck! But, I'm trying not to let all that gloom bring me down, so here's the positive spin.

Today was the Week 19 weigh in for my biggest loser competition and I gained a fraction of a pound, but I'm still in the lead overall. Less than .5% separates me from my 2 closest competitors, so this week is crucial. Tonight is girls night out at a friend's house and we are affectionately referring to it as "Gorge-Fest". This is because starting tomorrow, for the next 6 days, I will be living at the YMCA and enjoying all varieties of green leafy vegetables (and not much else). I'm in this to win it, so desperate times call for desperate measures! Stay tuned next Friday for the final results.

I was talking with a friend recently about my perspective on why I've been heavy for so long. I think a lot of it has to do with my house being a constant source of clutter. The clutter has gone on for years, and not surprisingly, my weight has gone up exponentially right along with it. So, in my ongoing battle with the clutter, I have some wonderful news to report.

First, here is a pic of the computer cabinet that I said I was going to clean the other day. See, I really did it! I'll try not to break my arm patting myself on the back.


The next series is of my oldest daughter's room, which we now are referring to as "Stuffed Animal Sanctuary". You see, all those plush animals that you pass at retail stores, well, they have all somehow made it into my daughter's room...to stay. We knew that the animal population was a little out of control, but last night gave us a new perspective on the madness. While I was resting, hubby and his friend, installed new shelves in my daughter's room, which was to house all of these animals. Or so we thought. Here's the before pic of the madness.

And here's the after. Amazing difference! Wow, I had forgotten that she had a rug! The sad end to this story is that there are still animals floating around this house, which hubby has already decreed "Need to go to other little girls who are starting their own zoo".

Just to give a little more perspective on the magnitude of the animal invasion, here are more pics of the full shelves. Now, keep in mind, that these shelves line all 4 walls around her room. Crazy!

And a last pic of Ashlyn being cute. She had just finished doing a forward roll and was doing her "ta-da". She's so adorable.

So, to finish up today's entry, I have to add that I attacked the laundry room also today. It's amazing to me that this week I have managed to declutter my kitchen (the biggest room in my house), my laundry room, and most of Ashlyn's room. Sadly, the master bedroom is still being neglected. I think I'm saving the best for last! Oh, and I need to send a huge shout out to Freecycle. If you aren't aware of this website, go there now. It's a wonderful place to give stuff away and feel good about decluttering! So, for today: Angie 1, Clutter 0.

Decluttering Sunday (Updated)

As I've mentioned already, one of my big goals for this year is to declutter my house. I've attempted this project so many times and just can't quite seem to get the results that I so desire. So, I'm hoping that by providing some photographic evidence to the world, it will help to inspire me to get moving a little quicker, due to my embarrassment mostly. At the moment, I'm taking a quick break from doing the spring/summer kids clothes purge. I finished Ailey's on Friday and am almost done with Ashlyn's stuff. This is the tax-free shopping weekend in Tennessee, so I'm trying to get to the stores to take advantage of this sale for anything the girls might need for warmer weather ahead. I've quickly discovered that they don't need nearly as much as I anticipated. That's good and bad. Good that my wallet won't be quite as empty later today, but bad that I had no clue that we had so much stuff packed in those closets. Yikes. Anyway, during naptime today, I'm going to start tackling the master bedroom, otherwise known as the "catch-all zone". Here are some pics to see what the mess looks like before I start working on it. I'll update this entry later this evening to show the (hopefully) amazing progress that transpires!

My bedroom as you walk in from the hallway (Before)

Looking in from the master bathroom (Before)

Another shot from the master bathroom (Before)

**UPDATE**

Ok, so things didn't quite work out today as I had hoped. It's now 7:45pm and the kids are in bed and I'm beat. The clothing purge project took way longer than I anticipated and then I got sidetracked with other things, which is the story of my life. Anyway, I plan to pick this bedroom project back up tomorrow and hopefully have a "Marvelous Monday" post to show my fab results. Stay tuned!

The Biggest Loser...Angie style

Good morning! I decided on 12/31/07 that 2008 was going to be the year of some big changes in my life. I wanted to take control of some things that I felt had really gotten out of hand. This list includes, but isn't limited to:

1. My weight, exercise and diet
2. My incredibly cluttered house
3. My inability to finish these grandiose craft projects that I begin

So, with lots of gusto, I began to tackle each of these items. I'll focus on #1 this morning because it's provided the most awesome results so far.

A friend of mine & I hatched this plan in January to start our own Biggest Loser competition. She & I are both very competitive and the smack talking began almost immediately. It grew to 6 participants pretty quickly and the only real rules were that we had to weigh in every Friday on the same scale. Whatever diet & exercise plan you wanted to engage in, was your business. It really made us accountable for our own outcomes, but we still had the support of the other participants.

I ended up becoming kind of the leader of this group, because of my natural control-freak tendencies and the fact that I had created this crazy spreadsheet to keep up with all of our progress. The other girls in the contest have made fun of it, but I know they secretly wait with bated breath each week to get the results. I also try to be a cheerleader on the weekly email to keep us motivated. Today marks the end of Week 15 and our weekly weigh in is in an hour. If my home scale is correct, I didn't lose anything this week. While disappointing, it wasn't unexpected. I've not eaten well over the last week and there's been a lot of stress in my life over the last 2 weeks. (Look for an entry about that soon)

Anyway, wish me luck this morning at the weigh in. I'm hoping to at least retain my lead position overall in the contest. Yes, I'm winning!! So far, in 15 weeks, I've lost 19.2 lbs and 3 jeans sizes. Woo hoo! Expect to see some before and after pics later this year once I've lost way more weight and get increasingly closer to my goal weight/size.