Home Sweet Home

Our house has needed some updating for quite a while.  We've lived here for over 16 years and have done very little to it.  As you might remember from my last listbliss, I completed Decorate my front room!  Other than that, pretty much everything else has stayed the same.  When I made this new listbliss I knew we had much work to do in regards to the house.  

We are having the outside of our house painted.  That is project number one!  Our house currently is white with pinkish trim.  It is time for a change.  We picked light gray for the main color and a dark gray for the trim.  Then we are going to paint our front door red!  Project number two, new flooring in the front room and living room.  So, Karl ripped up the carpet in our front room to expose the hardwood floors underneath.  There is some damage, so we have hired a gentleman to repair and refinish the floor in the front room.  While he is here, he is going to lay hardwood in my kitchen and living room.  It is going to be beautiful!  He'll be here in a few weeks.  So, that inspired us to project number three, paint the kitchen and the living room.  We thought, with such beautiful floors, we want beautiful walls to match.  We also had a friend who is an interior decorator come over and give us some help.  She suggested taking out our built-in entertainment center and also converting our front room into a dining room!  We loved both ideas.  Karl has ripped out the entertainment center and is prepping the walls.  I am stripping floral wallpaper border.  It needed to come down!  Once that's all done, we'll paint and rip up carpet.  It sounds like a lot, but it was necessary.  Summer is the perfect time for us to get these projects done.

YAY!!  I am well on my way to completing #6 Attempt home improvements! Don't you love the wishy-washy way I included the word "attempt" on my list?  When we get everything completed (goal date is the end of the summer), I will post some pictures!  

Losing weight without losing my mind

It is time to discuss the items on my list that I have been avoiding.  Namely, #1 Reach my ideal weight and maintain and #5 exercise 3-4 times a week.  These are very difficult obviously because losing weight was on my FIRST listbliss....and I didn't make it.  I know I can do it, I've done it before.  But it sure is a defeated feeling to know that I was once my ideal weight and I threw it all away.  How did it happen?  Very slowly.  An extra pound here, an extra pound there all adds up.  Now I am as heavy as I was when I was pregnant...and I'm NOT pregnant. 

However, I am not going to wallow but instead I am going to take action.  Believe it or not,  I have actually been exercising regularly for the last two weeks!  So far I work out 35 minutes on the elliptical. My goal is to get up to one hour. My sister, Diane, has really inspired me to get healthy because she is doing it too!  Way to go, girl!  Oh, thought you all might find this as funny as I did.  I took a picture while on the treadmill....watching FOOD NETWORK!!!

This takes me to my next point.  I read recently that losing weight is 90% in the kitchen and 10% in the gym.  I don't know if this is true, but I bet it is.  Here's the problem, I love food!  I love to cook and be in the kitchen!  I love to try new recipes and watch cooking shows!  If I have to go to rice cakes and celery sticks and salads I will lose my mind along with the weight. What to do??  Well, I have decided that my first step will be portion control.  Less on my plate and no second helpings.  Maybe a sweet treat only once or twice a week. 


Lastly, I need to weigh myself more regularly.  When things started going bad, I intentionally stayed off the scale.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Maybe I thought being in denial would keep the weight off.  Who knows.  So I have weighed myself and accepted the fact.  Now I must move on.

So there you have it, a plan to mark TWO things off my list!  How about you?  Do you have a goal that you are working toward? You can do it!