Paint

I feel like I've been promising painting pictures for a while.

As a reminder, there are a few "befores" mixed in there too.

Please excuse the mess, but I wanted you to see the paint.  And if you know me well, you know this mess isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Family Room

Before

After

Kitchen

Before

 After

Living Room

Before

After

Dining Room

After (turns out, I don't really have a good before)

It's still a work in progress.  Next steps include new flooring, curtains, trim, and getting enough furniture to give our guests somewhere to sit when they come over.  But it actually feels like my house now, which is a really, really good feeling.

Random Things Making Me Happy

1. Mothers' Day weekend in Santa Rosa - good food and better company with my in laws.

2. Even though I was out of town, I made time for my run this morning, 5 miles around Spring Lake - great run and a nice change of scenery.

That's it.  It's a short list this weekend, but I'm feeling really good, so that feels like enough.

Shameless Bragging

Look who's collar bone decided to make an appearance...

You kind of have to squint, but I promise its there.

Matt and I got all fancified for a wedding on a cruise around the San Francisco Bay, and this was the result.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Remember when I got nervous about pruning my trees and roses a few weeks ago?  And my garden looked like this?

Well, that was then.

And this is now.

Even most of my transplanted roses have leaves, even if they're not blooming yet.

I think I've finally accepted that I probably won't get a vegetable garden in this year, so the fact my flower garden is coming along is making me feel pretty domestic.

Thursday Inspiration

A day late for my weigh in, but useful nonetheless.

May Day

I know it's not May Day.  I know it's May 8, and I'm a week late with my monthly recap.

In my defense, I've been on a wild swing between this...

and this...

But y'all don't want to hear about work.  And even if you did, I'm not about to talk about it here.  You want to see funny pictures (check) and read about my weight loss, house, and life (read on).

New Years Resolutions

1. End the year lighter than I started it.  Check.  I lost 2.4 pounds last month.  Which may not seem like a lot, but it's moving in the right direction again - I lost weight all but one week in April.

2. Run a 10k.  Again, check. I did my first 5 mile run in April, which is the longest I've ever run, ever?  At least, the longest I've run in a while.  I'm also registered for a 5k in June, and I've mapped out the other races I want to do this summer.

April Goals

1. Stay on my 1/2 marathon training program.  More or less.   I mean, I didn't do every.single.workout.  But whatever, this is a lifestyle not a diet, right?  I can't always workout 6 times a week, and I'm not going to make myself feel guilty about that.  I'm getting stronger and faster, and that's what counts.

2. Read at least 1 book.  Nope.  Still plowing my way through Gilead.

3. Go for at least one hike.  Yes, I'm going to count the team building we did at work, because it was trail maintenance   Clearing rocks off of a hiking trail counts as a hike since I had to walk the whole trail to do it.

4. Get an estimate on flooring and figure out a plan for flooring + new doors.  Not exactly, but I'm still considering this a success.  We went and talked to the flooring guy and got samples.  Next step is to get someone to come to our house and measure.  But that whole process got overtaken by the doors.  My dad came down for a weekend to do the doors.  So we created a plan, and did part of it, even if it's not exactly what I planned at the beginning of the month.

May Goals

1. Stay on my 1/2 marathon training program.
2. Keep this losing streak going, and end May lighter than I started it.
3. Finish Gilead.  I will not be defeated by a 180 page book.

No house goals this month.  We've plowed our way mostly through our house budget, so we need to regroup and save some money.  We may get the doors completely done, but May is a crazy month between weddings, parties, and Mothers' Day, so I'm not going to feel bad if it doesn't get done.

Deprivation

Matt and I enjoying dinner out

 I've mentioned before that I love food.  I love the taste, the experience, and the ritual.  Matt, my dad, and I went out to dinner a few days ago, and I mentioned that sitting on a shaded patio enjoying some sangria may be close to my definition of perfection.

I know in my head that I shouldn't equate food with happiness, but it's a great experience, and I don't want to give it up.

So any diet that requires me to give it up is destined to fail.

It's a cycle I've been through a lot.

I find a new "miracle diet".  It's easy.  All I have to do is eat lettuce and grapefruit for 3 meals a day and avoid being in the same room as carbs, and I'll be a super skinny model.  I can do this.

And I do do it, for a couple days.

But then someone brings cupcakes to work.

And my resolve cracks a little.  But whatever, I can do this.  It's just one cupcake.

And it all goes well for another few days.  But then I get hungry, and when I get hungry, I get HANGRY.  And I lose most, if not all of my self control.

I end up eating everything in sight, and then all of the sudden, I'm back where I started.

So this is a really long way of saying that deprivation diets don't work for me.  Any long term weight success is going to be something that lets me treat myself.

This really came home to me last week.  I ate a lot.  I had beer and wine and pizza and burritos and dessert and generally had a great week.  I had a lot of fun.  

In the past, if I was "cheating" on my diet-of-the-month, I would have just pretended this didn't happen.  Then I would have been embarrassed to face the scale, and it would have spiraled into 20 pounds before I got back on track.

But not this time.  This time, I watched my portion sizes, I tracked it all, and I worked my butt off in the gym.  If I knew we were going out to dinner, I had a reasonable lunch, and I didn't have chips before dinner AND dessert - I made a choice.  And at the end of the week, I still had some activity points left over - I had burned more calories than I consumed.  Still, I was pretty nervous.  Because while I had tracked and worked out, I still felt like I was eating a ton.

When I stepped on the scale this morning.

*Drumroll please...*

- 3 pounds!!!

I know I can't eat like this every week.  That's not sustainable either.  But it makes me happy that I can have weeks like this and continue my progress.  This is working.  I'm so much happier than I would be if I was only eating grapefruits.