Why a Rummage Sale is like Weight Loss

Day 1 of our first ever rummage sale went awesome. I really had no idea what to expect as I decided to go for it this week. We've had tons of stuff accumulating in our basement. It was amazing to clean it out and actually see the basement floor once again. Our trash treasures brought in $275!

Why didn't we ever have a rummage sale before? Well, it's a lot of work! The first step was the hardest. Deciding to do it. Once I started gathering stuff and pricing it, that was easy. The sale itself has been fun. Hearing my 8 yr old announce after each sale how much we made was priceless. The kids were having a blast playing with toys we hadn't played with for years. It was a great day and we were totally exhausted. Today, has been quiet, but it's a beautiful so we are still enjoying the weather.

It's that first step that's always the toughest. Weight loss, rummage sales, whatever it may be, taking the first step is always the challenge.

Sadly, no one has wanted to buy any of my WW stuff ;)

Rummage Sale

We went through our toys again yesterday. I've got at least 8 totes full of toys that have been banished to the basement. Most are wonderful toys, just too many for four kids to play with. I'm thinking of having a rummage sale this week. Never had one before, but the kids are off Friday and I'm thinking it would be best if we did it without Mommy around. Seems she's one of "those" people that gets so attached to something for sentimental reasons that she never wants to get rid of anything. So the toys are banished to the basement. I've got so much stuff that I would love to get rid of. A guitar, a harp, knick-knacks galore, and I'd love to get rid of a few of our New York sized Christmas village that has remained banished for 8 years and will probably never make another New York size appearance. My kids helped to sort through toys yesterday and they really weren't interested in much of anything.

Makes me wonder how we got so much stuff? I'm sure it has something to do with the old dieting adage: Eat less, move more! We gain more and more stuff, but never rid ourselves of anything! I'm sure our house has gained at less 500 pounds of stuff since we've moved in 10 years ago. I'll attempt to thin it out a bit this week. I'm sure the kids would be a huge help, they're looking for some spending money for a trip to Disney around the 4th of July.

It has gotten extremely humid around here this week. I spent the early morning outside with the 1 yr old, but by 9:30 it was 85 and humid. Not sure where our Spring was this year. We've gone for having the heat on to running the air conditioner pretty quick this year.

Salad Kick

I've been on another salad kick. I definitely go in spurts. Some weeks, I don't want to look at it, some weeks it's all I eat. This is one of those, eating salad for every meal kind of weeks. Recently, I purchased some Ken's Salad Dressing. I usually never sway from Kraft Ranch or Italian, but neither were on sale and the Ken's was the cheapest. It really adds some needed kick to my salad. The Lite Sweet Vidalia Onion has been a favorite this week. I bought some mixed salad from Sam's and am surprised at how much more flavor it has than me boring old Iceberg Lettuce. Sprinkling a few Craisins for added sweetness, carrots for crunch, Parmesan cheese and Salmon and it is great.

Yesterday was a very eventful day. My FIL came over to assemble a wishing well he had designed. It turned out great, but I will not forget the fact he tried to kill me with a nail gun! I left him do all the heavy lifting on that project, because I spent the day building a new front porch. My wife had told him that I was going to build some new steps, unfortunately for me, the guys I hired to do the job showed up on the same day Grandpa came, so my professional job was outed. I did have to write the check! I should have explained to him that it was either hiring someone to build the steps, or hire someone to watch the boys and I thought would be much cheaper to hire the builders ;)

No plans for the weekend other than working a few WW meetings early tomorrow. It's supposed to be an awesome weather weekend around here.

Biggest Loser Thoughts

Daris is one of my personal favorites this season. I totally related with him last night when he was sent home for 30 days. He trained for a marathon while the other three contestants had to train too. His excuse for gaining two pounds, over training for a marathon. I think the real reason came during his late night video: 1:00am eating more food than he should in an entire day and then afterwards feeling guilty, stuffed, and frustrated.

Been there, done that. Although I would never get out of bed to eat since I'm either too lazy or value my bedtime too much, I have totally snacked on enough food to keep me alive before realizing what I had done. I have come to find that this happens if I don't eat my usual breakfast or the usual amount of points I am used to for lunch. If I skimp on my lunch, I snack WAY too much in the late afternoon.

I really feel bad for Daris. He has worked so hard to get where he is and he still hasn't learned everything he needs to learn to be successful. Same goes for Koli as he is just playing to win and not learning the balance that it will take to be successful in "real life."

I really don't care who wins the overall prize, I like all four of the finalists, just hoping a few certain people don't come back to win the at home prize.

Here's a few picks of my new, I mean the kids new swing set.

Sabor

Sabor Restaurant! Not a good place to go if you are trying to watch what you eat. 12 cuts of meat, a loaded salad bar, delicious desserts! The guys come to your table bearing meat! How can you pass that up? I went on Saturday night with my future brother-in-law for his bachelor party. My sister is getting married the second weekend in June. We had originally planned to go to the Brewer game, which would have been much easier foodwise, but they were sold out. Not sure why, seems they can't win a darn game at home.

12 cuts of meat! I sampled each one and gluttonously had more pork tenderloin than I care to admit. My plan was to eat a healthy salad and then try to eat only a few meats. Couldn't do it. Loaded me salad plate thinking I was going healthy, then turned the card to "green" to let the meat begin! They have little cards "green" for go, "red" for leave me alone I've eaten TOO MUCH! Sadly, I was not the first to go red. Not a successful evening, but it is a restaurant that I am glad I had the opportunity to try.

I couldn't even pass on the "sides" that were on our table. Fried bananas are evil! Then there were some awesome bite size rolls that I'm sure were loaded with butter, fat and cheesy goodness and like chips, I couldn't stop at one!

Dessert! I didn't any room left in my already full stomach, but I managed to order dessert, flan. It was awesome!

I did make a point to exercise much longer than normal yesterday to try to make up for it, but I don't think the hour on the elliptical will even make a dent in the colossal amount of food I consumed Saturday night.

I did do a lot of physical labor Friday and Saturday, I built a new swingset for the kiddos. Enough swings for everyone to enjoy at once. Friday was the building and Saturday I dug some post holes three feet down and it's not moving now. Pictures will be coming when I get them up on the computer.

Phineas and Ferb

My kids were watching Disney Channel and an episode of "Phineas and Ferb" was on. Can't say I'm a huge fan of the show, in fact, each time I catch it, I find myself saying,"This is stupid!" This episode was no different.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz was creating a contraption (an disintegration ray) to get rid of a bridge leading to a cupcake factory. Seems he had been gaining weight and each time he was close to his goal weight, the "Fireside Girls" always came to his door selling cupcakes. If it were just so simple. Create a disintegration ray to rid the world of tempting food. His disintegration ray turned everything into broccoli, what a concept!

In the end, of course Doofenshmirtz failed, just like always. And the episode left me saying,"This is stupid!" just like always! But it did get me thinking about the ONE food that keeps me from succeeding and staying at my goal weight. You know, I can't seem to narrow it down to just one! I really have been eating clean, just too much. I continue to work at so maybe if Doofenshmirtz could work on the ultimate portion control contraption I'd be set!

525,600 Minutes

I've had this silly song from "RENT" stuck in my head for days. Unfortunately, I'm HORRIBLE at memorizing anything and the only words to the song "Seasons of Love" that I know are "525,600 Minutes!"

One year! A few weeks ago in a WW meeting, the leader divided the year up into segments: weekdays, weekends, holidays. 104 days are weekends. Not sure if anyone is like me, but the weekends are more difficult because of the lack of routine, added family gatherings and more emotional eating: boredom, stress, happy, sad, etc. Depending on how "true" holidays you celebrate there are between 6-14 holidays. I usually have a plan going into a holiday, but still these are not my best days. Weekdays make up about 250 days. That's about 2/3 of the year. Should be easy to stay honest for 2/3 of the year right?

525,600 minutes! Seems so long, yet flies by quicker than I realize. There's always the longing for Tomorrow as I'll start again, or that Monday will be the beginning of a much better week. Ah, it's the weekend, I'm not going to stress over food now! 52 days of weigh-ins and 52 days of eating whatever I want since I just weighed in and I have all week to make up for it. The birthday parties, the holidays, the extra unexpected treats...it all adds up and I'm longing for the start of the next 525,600 minutes before too long.

We're having some very cool rainy weather around here this week. Mother's Day was a nice day. I finally found a bed pillow at "Bed, Bath & Beyond" that the wife has approved. I couldn't tell you how many bed pillows I've bought for her over the years: the memory foam pillows, the neck-saver pillows, the "Big-One" pillows, the hypoallergenic, etc. Finally, she tells me: "I want a pillow like yours!" The easy thing to do would have been just to wrap mine up and give it to her, but there ain't no way I'm giving my feather down pillow up ;) It's got years of TLC left that I just can't give away. So, it was off to every store that sells pillows and finally found a winner (for now), at BBB!

Have a great Tuesday! Yesterday was a no nap day and hopefully today turns into a 3 hour nap day, 2 hours so far.

Grey's Anatomy

Not much happening around thes parts this week. It's been a rainy few days. First rainy day wasn't bad, I put the babe in his crib to play while I sorted through winter/summer clothes. Seems my 4 yr old is finally growing a bit. He finally doesn't fit into 2T clothes anymore and neither does his brother. So I've been getting all the small stuff put away and pulling out some summer clothes. Looks like our boy shorts consist of 2T and 4T, not sure why there's no 3's in there.

Last night's episode of "Grey's Anatomy" dealt with a huge guy over 600 pounds. He poked fun at himself while the doctors underwent sensitivity training, so they wouldn't be tempted to joke. By the end of the show, Dr. Karev, who happens to be one of my favorite characters, gets the patient to realize that jokes weren't funny and only covering up a very painful reality. Definitely got me thinking about self deprivation. Why is it so easy to be self critical and so hard to accept compliments?

Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy the weekend together with your family.

Star Wars Day

May the 4th be with you! Happy Star Wars Day! Today, I was supposed to present for two hours, "Integrating Music into Activities", but it has been cancelled. Not sure if I should be happy, sad, irritated, relieved or what. I was totally prepared and looking forward to it along with being totally stressed out over it. They group just got done hosting a huge national conference, I'm not taking the lack interest personally.

Today, marked the official start of "Summer." The temperature is close to 80, but the real sign of summer came rolling down the street just minutes ago. The Ice Cream Truck is back!! Again, not sure if I should be happy, sad, irritated, relieved or what. :)

Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit last weekend bearing gifts. They brought bananas, strawberries and cookies. Not sure how they're all connected other than G-pa can't pass up a good sale and the fruit was on special at Aldi's. The cookies...G-pa likes a good cookie too ;)

Today, we finished the treats. Guess what the last thing left was. Strawberries lasted a day. Bananas lasted three days. The cookies made it all week! Unforunately, there were not enough to go around, so guess who made more cookies today. I blame it all on the G-pa!!