3rd week... my update

I'm on my 3rd week of dieting. It's not going as well as I'd like. I haven't been sticking to 500 to 1000 calories. It's more like 1500+. 

Time to make new goals and re-adjust my diet! Plus, I need to get in more exercise, running or biking now that I can no longer ski! 

I did take my measurements at the start of the week, on Monday. I am down 1" on my thighs. That was the only difference for the week. Everything else held steady. Still making progress which is in the better direction. It might not be weight loss or more waist inches but it is progress! 

I still need to stay focused on the bigger picture! Not get discouraged by not losing more weight or seeing results. It's not a need to be perfect for this diet plan. It has to be maintainable and I will make adjustments here and there. Right now, just focusing on one day at a time, one meal choice etc.. Staying positive and motivated to lose the weight for summer! 

Light and airy!

 I took down the heavy dark curtains in the office and front (old dining room) now a sitting room. I took a chance and went in to shop at the Home Goods store. They didn't have a very large selection of the long curtain length I needed. I really like the white with gray pattern curtains I purchased for the front sitting room. They only had one set otherwise I would have bought the same for both front rooms. I do like the other set of white curtains with the zig zag pattern for the office! The rooms feel so much brighter and airy! 

It's a little hard to get the full effect of the new curtains since the light is coming into the room, making it look dark. The new curtains look so much better with the new couch. Now to paint that light fixture black. Its a brownish-purple and doesn't go with anything. I'll just spray paint it come spring when I can do this project outside. 

Here's the patter up close. It's a similar pattern to our front door rug. I'll need to replace that soon as its looking a little dirty or maybe get out the carpet cleaner and try to vacuum up the dirt. 

We finally took the new TV out of the box. Immediately after, Steve was wishing we had just purchased the 85" instead of a 75". It would have been double the cost and I was fine with the smaller TV. We still need to purchase a surround system and another book shelf for the other side of the TV stand. Any larger of a TV and it would have been hanging over the sides of the TV stand. I think we are good!

We moved the old TV in our basement and will eventually set that TV up for the kids to use. 

I'm off to work for an hour and then back to painting our office furniture! 

I'm more determined to finish painting the desk now that those heavy brown curtains are gone! 

A few baby photos of Logan. I had to submit a baby photo for his senior year book. It was fun looking back at him as a baby and toddler. 

Bringing in new stuff!

 Feels good to have a new front sitting room couch! I am loving the non-red color! Now to get new curtains as the ones I have up are gold and red! I wanted to wait to go shop when I am vaccinated, but I think if I go at a non busy time of day. I can just shop quick. It would be nice to replace the old curtains with white. 

I made a little side income selling our old couch and chair for $20. Plus, sold 2 pairs of Nike shoes for $10. 

We also splurged on a new larger 75" TV. Steve has yet to install it on our porch. The old TV will go in the basement. We still need to purchase a surround system. We looked at the options but couldn't make a decision. I'm sure we will be back this week making another purchase! Did we really need these items? No, but it was much needed since we had an old couch and TV. It. was time to upgrade! 

Look, Zoey already made herself comfortable on the new couch up front. 

I got back to painting the office furniture! 2 coats of primer most places and still need to paint the bottom two drawers and some shelves under the desk. I'll be working on this every day this week to get it all painted and done! I'm more motivated now that the front sitting room is done! 

I made some chicken lettuce wraps for dinner last night. I've been on an Asian food kick lately with the Thai soup and now this meal. So delicious!

I found this mud room photo idea. I had to show Steve this as I want something similar for our mud room. We have various shelves with hooks. I like the idea of extending all the hooks along the wall. More the better as we seem to have lots of jackets! 

Making money and where to go?

This new Waffle bar with ice cream looks to me like a place I must visit. Sounds like a fun combo and something new to try.  

Saturday the weather was pretty nice. I missed out when the sun was out, but we still went to the river, sat at the picnic table bundled up with blankets and had a few drinks. This was our big going out adventure, followed by more down hill ski watching while we had a few more beers. 

My old red couch/chair are officially gone! I made a whole $20 on the deal, but we didn't have to dispose of them and now they are out of here! My front room is empty and now I need to get my couch. We will wait till Monday since its snowing today. Plus, we want to wait till the stores aren't busy on a Monday afternoon. 

I also sold one pair of Nike shoes for $5 and they will be picked up today! One less thing to have around the house! Now to find more to sell since I'm on a roll. 

I'm making chicken lettuce wraps for dinner tonight. I can't get the bib lettuce by ordering on line since they don't carry that at Target. We will just go into the stores this morning, get all needed for tonights dinner! 

Happy News!

Saying good bye to our "red" furniture! I sold the chair and couch, it will be leaving today! I think we are all excited to say good bye to the red!

  In with the new! I'm getting a new beige/grayish couch for our front sitting room. I found the couch at Sam's Club it was $500, so not a bad price. I hope this new couch is comfortable! I took my last nap on the red couch yesterday! Zoey is a bit confused on why we need new furniture! Styles change and I need an update! 

The Sunrise was amazing! Of course, the photo never really can capture how it is in real life! 

What other happy news do we have? I FINALLY convinced Steve we need a new bigger TV for our porch! We will move the 55" in the basement and will put the new TV, we are thinking 75" but did consider 85" which might be too large. I'm excited, because our TV is at least 12+ years old. We also need a TV in the basement, so I don't always have to go to my room to watch TV at night. The kids have some where (Basement) to go to watch TV! 

I'm considering the new couch and TV my dieting rewards! 

I did a little splurging on food, Wednesday for Celina's birthday with cake and wine. I also had some pizza deep dish last night and really wanting leftover pizza for lunch today. I don't think it can wait till dinner! I never said this fasting diet I had to be perfect! I'm allowed to have off days of eating more. It will slow weight loss, but I plan to take 5 months to lose 20 pounds.

The snow is melting pretty fast since we've had the sun out and temps in the upper 30's and low 40's. The last day I was able to ski, was last week on Sunday. I'm missing skiing already but am ready to start biking again! Once it reaches 60+F, I'll be out biking daily. Now to start running in the afternoons, once the ice melts from the overnight freeze! It is going to snow up to 3" Sunday, but the weather looks too nice after for it to stick around. I might get in one more day of skiing but that will be it! 

I made more of my Thai chicken soup, this time I purchased a ready made rotisserie chicken and added it in. So much easier and made soup making that much quicker! Its my new favorite soup!! I did add more garlic and Thai chili this time around to make it even more flavorful! 

Week #3 Starts on Monday. We will see if I lost any more inches or weight! 

So far week #2, I lost 4 pounds and 5" on my waist. I might not have measured correctly the first week? I was also down 1" on my hips. Making progress one day at a time!! I will post photo updates starting Monday! 

This project has kind of stalled! I don't work much this coming week, so I will start back at painting the office furniture. Now that I'll have a new couch and will be getting new curtains (week3) reward, I need to finish up this desk! 

My week 1 /2 reward was a new white printer! It was a need since the old one, didn't line up and was printing all blurry! We can't send out business Invoices looking all a mess! Not sure I love the new printer since I can't see the white buttons against the white of the printer. No clue why they made it so hard to see! Old people seeing problems! 

Happy 21st Birthday Celina!!!

 

Celina is 21! She bought her first drink at Doolittles out on the patio. They set up heaters all around us so we could enjoy a few adult beverages. 

Crab legs and beef tenderloin for dinner!

Celina wanted to make her own gluten and dairy free birthday cake. She made two! 

Food and fresh snow!

I'm all about the food these days.  Just waiting for my meal of the day. Since I've been trying to fast till dinner (not always successful), I am always planning my meals. Last night Steve made his chicken & turkey Gyros. The store only had one package of chicken so we added in turkey. The meat was a little dryer than normal, but still good. I only ate half a gyro because I had some of my Thai Chicken soup before dinner. I couldn't wait any longer to eat as I was starving! When ever I feel like that, it's just better to eat something. 

I think with skiing and dieting, I get extra hungry. Yesterday, we had a lot of snow coming down while skiing. I got hot, so I took off my hat and was pretty snow covered by the end. I should have worn some goggles since the snow kept melting and dripping in my eyes. 

It's 40 degrees today. I worked all morning and now feel soo tired. I ended up eating the rest of my soup which was just a small bowl with a little wild rice. I'm still hungry, but will wait till dinner to have half a gyro. I should go out to ski but I'm a bit exhausted from work. I'll probably end up going soon. I have a Total Wine order to pick up before I ski. I can not forget about this!!!