closet delight

yesterday I started working on my office / workout space again, as it was looking pretty messy.  I had (and sadly still have a lot) of papers scattered on the floor waiting to be filed.  it's been tough figuring out what to do with all the papers; bills, workouts, recipes as filing is not my strong point then pair that with being a perfectionist = not a good match.

I started with putting away my cloths and I used my new hangers from Target.  My office closet is a small coat closet, but the depth is not quite deep enough for the doors to close without hitting the hangers and frankly it's an annoyance so I picked up some lime green kids hangers which are working out fantastically!  I don't have a photo before and I wish I did so you can see what a difference it made swapping out for smaller ones.  I did have to fold my cloths differently on the hanger, but I love the look-so clean!

{POST PHOTO OF AFTER}

I then started by moving my papers to one side of the room so I could vacuum before moving in a bookshelf, that sadly was in there before and I moved it out.  We moved it to the bath on that level (#2) and it's way to big for the space so I swapped out the white plastic shelf I was using for the wooden bookshelf int eh bathroom.  They both look much better in their new homes.  Though not sure how long I will keep the bookshelf in my office and I really do want wall shelving, but for now it will keep me from wanting to build them now as I need to know what shelves / space I really do need before I can design a functional unit.

The only fault with the bookshelf is that their is a missing shelf and pegs for the bottom rack behind the doors, so I do need to make a stop at the hardware store and purchase one.

I'm trying to keep in mind as I sort through things what I need and what can go so my office will only have what it needs and nothing more.  Really trying to be minimal and purposeful in my design.

The room is still a mess, but I'm making baby steps toward an organized office and workout space, but for now at least I have designated areas 1) Desk work area to pay my bills and have room to hang some fun vintage art. 2) workout gear, dvds, weights. For now I've been working out in my bedroom, which has been working out well since I do it before getting dressed in the morning so I get it in.  It's only a short 3-minute workout, but it kicks my butt.

Fitness Morning Energizer

items still needing to be address:
* Formica Table: Wood filler + spray paint and install legs
* File: House Contract / Closing Papers 
* File: Workouts
* File: Recipes
* Sort: Workouts and purge any that I most likely wont do
* Sort: Magazines purge old ones
* Hangers: Still need 1 more set to hang the rest of my workout attire up
* DVD: need some way to sort them.  Really want an old LG floppy disk holder to put them in.
* Paint: Lemon Twist by Benjamin Moore
* Mirror: hang
* Bookshelf: Shelf and Pegs

natural health cleanse w1 - p1

Feeling pretty good today overall and loving the way I’m looking.  So far I’ve been on my cleanse for 6 days now and I’ve only slipped up for one meal.  I caved Sunday afternoon and had 12oz of orange soda and a half bag of pb  chocolate chips I had for cooking.  They were really yummy and what I needed for a quick junk rush.  I had been cleaning out the basement and I guess the fumes down there weren’t helping.  

A few of my no no’s on the list were as follows:

- lemon + chive dressing by Annies Natural’s
   (chives = onions, mustard flour); salad
- sunflower butter (cane sugar) for buckwheat pancakes
- buckwheat pancakes
   (van. Almond milk, maple syrup though only 1 tb for 6.5 cakes)
- coconut and mango chutney (sugar) used to marinate and dress 3 chicken breast
– Van Almond Milk (sugar), but I did buy at my next grocery stop.

Despite all this I’m still losing weight and seeing progress.

Since realizing that I can’t repeat these simple mistakes I’ve done the following to make sure I stay focused on 4-week cleanse.  I’ve swapped out the following –Van. Almond milk for plain – sunflower butter for almond butter with only almonds and salt – buckwheat pancakes for a df / gf version / lemon and chives dressing for a raspberry vinaigrette.

It’s not been easy as I have lactaid cottage cheese, onions, cherry tomatoes, and chobani sitting in my fridge waiting till I can eat them again.  I also had to put my blueberry muffins and bagels in the freezer   It’s a shame I just bought replenishment's of these items only two days before the doc told me I wasn’t allowed to eat them for the next 30 days.  It was tough this first week trying to figure out what to eat since my staples like oatmeal, pb coffee, and chobani are all items on the ‘not allow’ list for the next 3 weeks.  I am learning to appreciate the wonderful and even tasty flavor of buckwheat, well with almond butter on top and some fruit.  Though I’m still proud of myself for doing as well as I did, as I’m not usually this good to sticking to ‘no’ foods.

I’ll know the official weigh down tomorrow night when I have my first follow up of my 12-week program and I’ll be 3 weeks closer to finding out what foods have been not liking my system outside of dairy and hoping that eggs aren’t a part of that.  I love eggs and they are one of my favorite staples.  I could never go Vegan for that reason alone and I can’t do vegetarian since I’m lactose intolerant.  Man, guess I’m a unique type and maybe one day I’ll label myself and start a trend for every lactose egg lover!

This morning I finally went to taking my measurements and the last time I checked was in December 2011 and my weight and inches have decreased by 10lb and 8 inches.  I lost 4.5 just in my waist, which feels great since my stomach doesn’t feel like it’s bursting out of my pants.  That’s not a feeling I want to experience EVER AGAIN.

I've also been walking my dog and running with some of the guys to keep active.  I've been posting everything on runkeeper.

Daily Eats

Meal Plan Week #1 go
Eats Day #1 go
Eats Day #2 go
Eats Day #3 go 
Eats Day #4 go
Eats Day #5 go 
Meal Plan Week #2 go 

running to the beat of a healthier drum

It's been a very bland 2012 for me, but I'm slowly moving into enjoying the fresh scent of spring and still working on settling into my home.  Can you believe I've been a homeowner for 1 month and 15 days!  It's still kind of surreal to me, especially since my house looks like a tornado has hit it and I'm not sure when it will settle down so it can be presentable to have guests.

I officially started hanging art and shelving on the wall last night and I'm happy with all, but one coat hook.  I hung it a inch to high so it's looks off from the other two I have.  I'm afraid to redu it since I already goofed with the screw so now their will be two holes if I do this again.  I may just need to find another item to put their instead.  Currently, I have my running jacket / armband on one.  My purse on the other and my dog walking purse and dog walking accessories on the woof frame.  it's cute, just looks off with the middle one being to high for it's size.

My office is looking good.  Here is what I have so far:


Things that I"m planning on changing:
* kiddy pictures
* table
* shelving
* wall color (you can see my color swatch sample behind my canisters)

I would like my office to look more like this:

If I move it to the wall I want the big shelving unit I can do this exact layout.  Though I have a tall wall mirror, which I guess I can move to the area I have my desk now and just do a small shelving unit their to host all my workout gear and video as I try to keep that pretty minimal.

Fitness

For the last few weeks I've been getting back to the beat of a healthier drum by choosing better eating habits and being more active.  I have a corgi now, who I've been walking 3-5 days a week anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on my schedule.   I'm feeling food and less depressed since the sun is coming out and the weather has been so warm.  Yeah Spring!! It's so close I can smell the flowers blooming.

I've also found a running buddy, which has been so helpful in challenging me to get out their to run again.  I had seriously lost the desire to workout and it just made me feel really ugly and fat and I'm so glad to be getting back to my happy zone where I'm feeling good to be social again.  I still have a few pounds to drop to get back to where I was last August.