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Tuesday, January 30, 2018

And now for something entirely different

A blog that focuses on one thing can get a bit dry.  I've been purposefully absent these past three weeks for a reason.  I wanted to finish what I started and be able to post about it here!  The pics will come later.  I'm not quite done.  Still a work in progress, but I haven't posted in so long, I wanted to at least tell the story.

As you guys know one of my sons (we'll call him Smokey) has flown the nest and I've been revamping both his old room and my other sons (let's call him Einstein) room.  Once I had Smokey's room re-painted and fixed, Einstein moved in, at that point, temporarily.  Einsteins old room is the room that had the water damage to the floor that needed to be repaired.  Still, I set to work repainting and fixing up that room, while waiting on the handyman to come fix the floor.

Normally, I'm a patient woman, sorta.  I can wait a certain length of time.  Mainly until it gets to the point where I can go no further until what I'm waiting on, happens.   That was the case here.  I waited on this handyman for weeks as I repainted and repaired what I could in Einsteins old room.  Then I was stuck.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not mad at the Handyman.  Far from it.  He works by himself and is waaaay behind.  It was looking like another two weeks from now before He would be able to even work me in.  There comes a point where I ask myself "What do you have to lose".  Worse case scenario I would need a handyman to fix the floor.  I already needed a handyman to fix the floor; so it was a zero sum game in my opinion.  First I looked to see if I could remove the swiftlock flooring without damaging it.  I could, and did.  Then I assessed the damage.  I knew I needed to remove the sub-flooring back to the first undamaged stud.  Could I?  I could and I did.  Then I found scrap 2 X 4 and screwed them into the existing frame to prepare a new area for the new sub-floor patch.  My dad had wood in his workshop, so while visiting my mom, I checked to see if there was any plywood I could use.  There was and I did.  Yesterday, I added the sub-floor patch with success!  Only one minor incident in that I really whacked my finger with the hammer and it hurt...a lot...really...a lot.  The finger is grey under the nail and still hurts.  The only drawback was I couldn't re-use the swiftlock because it was more water damaged than I thought.  It was just warped enough where it wouldn't snap back together.  I did get enough of it back in place to still move my sewing room in.  We will keep our eyes peeled for a carpet remnant we can use for that room.  I installed carpet in the closet so am willing to try a room next.  Had I been able to re-use the swiftlock, This repair would have cost me nothing, but as it stands, we will have to buy carpet.  But I can put that aside for now and address more important things around the house. Best thing is, I no longer need the handyman.  Not for that anyway.  I'm sure I'll still use him in the future.

So for now Smokey's old room is now Einsteins room.  He decided he liked staying there, and Einsteins old room is now my sewing room.  It isn't finished yet.  I still have some things I need to get and put up, but it's much better than the corner of the house I had before.  Now I can get back to restocking my Etsy shop.  I began work on 5 new outfits in my sewing room last night.  We'll see what I can do.  Who knows, I may be able to turn this into a real business!

As for my eating and such, I have to say I haven' eaten very well through all this.  I can say I've held my weight.  I'm happy with that.  I feel good and am happy with my current size.  I just don't want to gain.  I may hold my weight a while.  It's slow going when you get here.  Now that everything is settled though, I'm hopeful I can focus again on my eating and such.  But, I can't say I haven't been active!


Sunday, January 7, 2018

"SNORT"

Seriously, that was the sound I made when I got on the scale this morning.  I could not believe what I saw.  NO GAIN!  No loss either, but no gain.  I was incredulous.  Mainly because since Thursday I've had access to many more dozen of my mom's cookies.  Like me, she was having a hard time staying out of them.  Actually a harder time because she's by herself.  I can at least spread the love.  My mom's cookies are one of the things I can't have in the house.  So DH is taking the rest (Which are in the freezer) to work with him tomorrow.  So all of you co-workers of my hubby be forewarned.

I think what helped me this week up until the cookies, was the fact that I was on track every day up until Thursday.  What's been a help and a hindrance this week is the fact that I was re-painting/ repairing my youngest sons former room, moving my other son into it, and beginning the process of repainting his room.  I need to get that done before the handyman comes to repair the floor in his room.  Hence the reason he had to move rooms.  Once the room is finished, I'll move him back to his old room and my other sons former room will become my new sewing room.  I do all this while everyone is at work.  So anyway, this activity has helped in that I'm moving all day, but hurt in the fact that I'm grabbing stuff for meals instead of stopping to sit down to eat.  Note to self, stop to eat please.

I can tell you this.  While I am extremely grateful that I didn't gain, I have to say I'm kinda bored with dancing around in the 160's.  It's time to make that middle number drop to a 5 at least.  It's gonna take me a while.  I was messing around on the spark people page adjusting my calories and such.  It didn't matter weather I put I wanted to lose 1 lb a week or 2.  The calories stayed the same 1200-1550.  Apparently  you can't go below that.  That means I need to either up a workout, or accept a s-l-o-w weight loss.  I'll opt for the slower loss.  I don't want to do anything to jeopardize my journey.  If I switch to longer or higher intensity workouts (which I hate), I'll stop doing them and regress.  Don't get me wrong, I'll still be doing a treadmill, step tape, and strength training, but it will be 45 minutes, and will still be mixed with other things like yard work, house cleaning, bike riding, etc.  In other words; status quo.  I'll increase what I need to in order to make it challenging, but that's about it.  I don't care if it takes me another 2  years to lose these last 20 lbs.  At least it will stay off.  The less disruption this journey makes in my life, the easier it will be for me to continue it long term.

So there it is.  No great epiphanies, but ya know..something.  Hope everyone's having a great day!