Adios Broom!

Along with following Fly Lady to organize my life and get my house clean, I'm working on "downsizing" things. My cholesterol, my weight etc.

So, I've been taking baby steps to improve my general health. Most days I walk between 1.2 miles and 1.5 miles in my 20 minutes of exercise. I eat oatmeal most mornings for breakfast. And, I try to eat smaller portions of healthier food in general.

So, I'm excited about that . . . but I'm more excited to say Adios to my broom! Last week, I looked at the Fly Shop and couldn't resist ordering some of the tools. Of course it took me a while to decide what I wanted because I'm skeptical of new-fangled stuff and indecisive a lot of the time.

But, one of the things I DID order was the Fly Lady's Rubba Sweepa. I got my order in about a week or less even though they said to allow 2 weeks. I immediately assembled it because I was so excited. They have a video on how to assemble it on their website but I found it to be fairly intuitive.

So, today I decide to take this baby out for a spin. I sweep my kitchen, entryway and mud room floors pretty much every day. But, I could not believe the dirt that this thing pulled up! And, the cool thing was that when you "swished" it towards your pile, it didn't go flying everywhere. It was much more controlled. The only downside I saw was that it felt "weird". It felt kind of rickety but that's because of the soft rubber bristles giving way as you sweep. It wasn't anything to do with the construction of it and I'm sure I will be used to it in no time.

At the current price of $9.99 (plus s&H) it's not really that much more expensive than a decent broom. And, it works so much better.

I'm hooked now!

The Journey

Yesterday I did pretty good with my "downsizing".

I had my oatmeal for breakfast. It took a little less time to eat it. It probably took 20 minutes and didn't seem quite as bad as the day before.

For lunch I had an apple with peanut butter.

I did my 20 minute walk. I got to my goal that I had tried the day before and still made it back right at 20 minutes. On the way back from town, I clocked the distance. It was .6 miles. That means round trip I did 1.2 miles. Not bad for starting out. I really enjoyed yesterday's walk even though I almost didn't do it. I really didn't feel motivated. But, once I had done it, I felt fired up!

For dinner I had a hot dog and a little bit of cheese dip and chips. And yes, I had my 4 Oreos. That's ok though. Rome wasn't built in a day. Maybe tonight I will skip the Oreos. We'll just have to wait and see.

I also started reading the book called Body Clutter yesterday. It seems to make some sense. It approaches your weight not just from a physical point of view but from your emotional state and mental state as well.

I must really be open to life changes recently. Not only am I enjoying www.flylady.net and doing my Baby Steps, but I feel ready to start making those small changes in my diet and exercise to help my general health. I have really felt a little better the last few days.

Right now I'm having a detox smoothie to give things a jump start. I thought I would really hate it, but it's actually not too bad.

Here's the one I made:

1 banana
1 handful of frozen berries (I had some in the freezer)
1 small orange (no peel, but with the white stuff on it)
1 small apple with the peel
2 T. of ground flax seed (I obviously had to go buy this the other day)

I put all of that in the blender and added a little bit of water. Blended until it was smoothie consistency.

Then, I added a pinch of sea salt. It's supposed to help detox. You have to add the sea salt AFTER blending or the smoothie will taste really salty.

That's it. It made a nice full glass of smoothie. I think tomorrow I'll add a little baby spinach to it for some extra vitamins.

Why I Fly

In my previous post (and don't worry, I'm not going to post multiple times a day) I mentioned FlyLady. I need to explain it.

FlyLady is a system of life/home organization. The website is www.flylady.net. I looked at this (probably ran across it looking for something else and got sidetracked) several months ago. At the time, I didn't see the beauty of it. But, a few weeks ago,I went back to it prompted by a friend saying something about it on FaceBook. And, I decided to give it a try. I'm now on Day 17 of it and I'm addicted. I feel like I'm in a cult.

FlyLady starts you off with baby steps. For instance, on Day 1, the assignment is to empty your sink and clean and shine it thoroughly. I thought it was kinda dumb, but couldn't hurt anything. You know what? I LOVED my shiny sink. That made me clean the counters and backsplash. . . . and the top of my stove.

Anyway, you can see the baby steps on her website. But, here is what I like about her. She says several things that really got to me.

The first is that we often don't clean or get organized because we feel we don't have enough time to do it "right". So, we do nothing. Her answer for this? It doesn't have to be perfect, just do SOMETHING. And, 15 minutes of cleaning or organization is better than nothing. Right? RIGHT!

The other thing she reminds us is that our house/car/office/life didn't get this way in a day or a week, why should we expect to get it back to perfect in that amount of time?

She also points out how much time we lose in life by being disorganized or worrying about the state of things. It's amazing.

One of the other first suggestions she made was to establish an evening routine that included laying out your clothes the night before and organizing the things you need to get out the door in the morning. She calls the place you put your stuff your "launch pad".

I can tell you that I'm not a morning person. But, since I started following this routine, getting ready in the morning and out the door is a breeze. Everything is where it's supposed to be and I know my clothes (and Wyatt's) are clean, matched and ready to go. and I know where my purse and keys are. That's pretty amazing considering my lack of observation and my short attention span.

So, this lady's attitude is why I FLY. I finally found an organization system that I can follow and that I actually enjoy. It's basic ideas really touch home with me. Maybe it's not for everybody, but I think everybody could take a little something away from it if they tried it. Each morning, I get an email with reminders about where I should be in the routine, what I should be getting done that day and then I go to the website and check to see what "Baby Step" I'm on. She makes it so easy. She just adds a little more each day and so many of the assignments are 15 minutes or less. Sounds too simple, but it REALLY works.

Resolutions

Ok, it's been almost a year since I posted. It's been a hectic year actually.

But, forget that, let's start with now.

So, I went to the "woman" doc earlier this week. I was expecting the normal check under the hood but got SO much more. Apparently, I am completely abusing and neglecting my health. I'm not sure why that's a shock. But, when she listed all the issues, I felt like someone who had taken their car in for a tuneup and found out that $2k worth of repairs needed done.

The first issue is my weight. Yeah, I know. I've put on some weight this year, not counting the weight that I didn't lose after Wyatt came along. So, here I am, just this side of the "normal" weight range. I will admit I am "curvy" in all the right and wrong places right now. We discussed that I have no diet or exercise plan other than planning to have 4 Oreos every night after Wyatt goes to bed. I was aware of this and had done some thinking. But, being a fantastic procrastinator, had put the issue on the back burner.

Yesterday morning began the diet modification. I prefer to call it the downsizing plan. I went to the store (because it was errand day according to FlyLady) and bought some instant oatmeal, Banana Nut Cheerios and some apples along with the other regular groceries. When I got home from the store (I managed to skip my beloved Square Donut from the gas station) I made myself a bowl of the instant oatmeal. I tried blueberry first since it seemed the flavor I would like best. I made it with water, not milk and didn't add anything to it. It took me at least half an hour to eat. I hate oatmeal.

For lunch, I had a handful of baby carrots (nothing to dip them in) and a small apple. I cannot say the last time a raw carrot (or maybe any carrot) passed thru my lips because I hate them. But, I ate them and didn't disguise the taste with anything yummy like ranch dressing. Right before the last few bites of apple, I was craving something sweet. So, I put peanut butter on the last two pieces and it was yummy. It seemed like dessert. I had a brat for dinner, no side dishes and I wasn't hungry afterwards. Oh, but I had my Oreos after Wyatt went to bed. It was my first day and I did good so I gave myself a little treat.

I starting off with a very minor and simple plan for getting a little exercise into my life. I know not to go overboard and to start gradually. Yesterday, I started off with a 20 minute walk. I figured I'd walk 10 minutes down the road and 10 minutes back. I did. And, I got further than I thought I would, but not quite as far as I really wanted to.

I even (gasp!) drank a bottle of water after my walk. I wanted to drink more water but couldn't really get around to it. Besides, I had made some positive steps in my life and didn't want to throw my body into shock.

I have to admit, I sat and stood up straighter after my walk and felt better in general. The exercise, sunshine and fresh air did me some good.

Now I have to continue on with my water drinking, lowering of the cholesterol and exercise as well as taking vitamins. She gave me the things to look for in a vitamin and I bought them. Didn't take one yesterday, but I bought them. Baby steps, right?