How-To Begin Decluttering

Here is my 3-Phase plan to decluttering your cluttered stuff.

Phase 1
Box up everything messy in your house.
This includes any piles or drawers or stacks you have.
Label the boxes with where the stuff came from. Some of mine were labeled: from by the bed, from the large desk, kitchen stuff.
Do not start sorting at this stage!
You want your house to seem empty and spotless at this stage.


Phase 2
Move from Stage one to stage 2 quickly. It's okay to take a few days off to enjoy the emptiness of your house, but get started on Phase 2 quickly before your boxed stuff starts to migrate back out of the boxes!
Get 3 more boxes & label: Stuff I Want, Stuff to Sell, Stuff to Donate. Get a large, clean garbage can, as well.
Now get ready by spending a few to several minutes on the Unclutterer.com website to pump yourself up. When you've started to feel inspired or excited, start on your boxes. (Repeat this for every box sorting session!)
Take your boxes from Phase one and go through them, one at a time.
If you like TV, bring your 3 new boxes, your garbage can, and one unsorted box out to work on while you watch TV.
You want to put as little into your 'Stuff I Want' box as possible.
Keep only your favorite things! Keep in mind that anything you keep that is NOT your favorite will end up in front of/in the way of your favorite things and prevent you from enjoying your favorite things.


Phase 3
Be delighted with how much less stuff you have. Did you get rid of 80% or more of the boxes you started with? Rejoice.
Get inspired with Unclutterer.com!
Now go through the boxes labeled 'Stuff I Want'.
Repeat Phase 2 with these boxes, getting rid of even more stuff!
Start thinking about where each of these things will go and start putting them away.
If you have a lot of stuff that belongs together, for example: Art Supplies, designate a place, such as a drawer for this stuff.
Donate the space in your house appropriately, so that it represents the life that you want and the hobbies/ activities you most enjoy.


Beyond Phase 4
Hopefully this exercise has started you mentally uncluttering as well. You can repeat the above steps with your time, your brain, your energy, etc. I like to write down what's important to me, so that I can remember to focus on those things and in doing so, I must reject other things. Once the conscious decision is made, I don't need to look back at the paper, so I recycle it. My brain and house are clear!

SHED

This just came to me-

SHED the things that are getting in your way.

I am applying this:

first to my pain
second to my possessions
third to my excess weight

That car accident really laid me out! I'm still going to the chiropractor twice per week. I'm starting physical therapy, I still can't sleep at night due to the pain in my back, shoulder, elbow, & upper arm. I still can't pour a glass of water or pick up my laptop or ride my bike or run or swim. My PCP said I've lost muscle mass in my right arm (atrophy). I miss real exercise. Now all I can do is walk. And even that hurts my pelvis after an hour or so. It's been over 3 months, for goodness sake.

I'll keep working on it and I'll keep you posted. For now, let me just say that this week, I'm officially overweight, at 163.2 lbs. No more obesity for me! I've lost 54 lbs so far!

Andrea

Holiday Weight Loss- Or Lack Thereof

Okay, I've been neglecting this blog. Recovery from being hit by the car has been more difficult than I thought. I'm now seeing a chiropractor 2X per week - Dr. Charyl Silva in West Sacramento- she's positively wonderful.

I'm expecting that my Primary Doctor will soon prescribe physical therapy. By the way, my PCP is Dr. Karen Hart & she is amazing! Her office is like a spa retreat and she gives me her undivided attention and care, not rushing me in any way. I am blessed to have found her!

Perhaps part of my blog-neglect is due to my lack of weight loss. I tried a modified version of my plan, substituting foods to mimic my Subway diet... This was a waste of effort. I believe the failure is due to these things: 1. I'm cooking, so I was in the habit of being in the kitchen and thinking about food. 2. There is extra food in the house, so I occasionally talked myself into snacks. 3. Subway is magic. Even when I was careful to get the same # of calories, I still did not lose weight at all! At least I didn't gain over the holidays!

Of course, as mentioned, the lack of funds is what drove me from the Subway plan in the first place. Also, cold weather makes it hard to eat cold sandwiches at 5pm that are soggy from sitting around since breakfast.

Well, now I'm back on track. I've been selling everything I can on craigslist for Subway funds. In the last 5 days, I've lost 4 lbs.! I'm now down to 171.4 lbs.! This is great from my start weight of 217! I think I'll settle back into 2 lbs. per week if I can stay on the Subway plan. We've been splitting a toasted turkey sandwich at lunch and another at dinner in order to have fresh, hot Subway at every meal. I've also been drinking lots of water and herbal tea.


Cheers and due diligence on your New Years' Resolutions!

Andrea

Long Dry Spell

I've not been writing. I've been neglecting this blog, facebook, emails, etc.

It's been summertime! I cannot be chained to a pc when there's a bright, beautiful world out there!

I've been backpacking, and training for a triathlon.

And I got a new bike! The 2008 Jamis Quest Femme, that I've been pining over, is here with me now. Bobby and I drove to Calistoga to get it just a few weeks ago.

Unfortunately, the bike and I were hit by a car after I'd only ridden it a few times. Fortunately, the bike is fine (what craftsmanship!). I am not broken either, meaning I will heal with some physical therapy and patience.

I hope to write more soon,

Andrea

Where've I been?

August is prime birthday season in Bobby's family - his mom, niece, himself, etc. My sister, Beck, is also in August.

With extremely low funds, I've been eating whatever gets thrown my way for the last month, so I've lost only 3 lbs over the last month, instead of my planned 3 lbs per week. Ahhh!

I've been reading a lot in preparation of the 6 weeks of triathlon training Bobby and I are starting TODAY!

I came up with an alternative to the Subway plan that costs much less. It still has the same grams of protein and calories at each meal, while continuing to avoid sugars. I'll start testing it this week. I'm also adding a recovery drink after workouts - 1c chocolate milk per hour of exercise. (I'll be using Nesquik to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup.)

Bobby and I've gotten a bit depressed an frustrated lately because of our lack of funds. We get along fine without money, but it's hard to feel like we're always behind. We don't usually spend much extra money on entertainment, etc., but lately we've had a rough time even coming up with gas money to get us to the lake.

We've been getting over this depression by watching "Lost" and "The Closer." And we've been either running or walking almost every morning.

And perhaps most exciting, we got bikes! Admittedly, these are not our dream bikes- I still lust after the 2008 Jamis Quest Daily. However, we each got a bike at the Davis Bike Collective. Well, perhaps I'm being hasty. Bobby got an in-tact bike with severely chipped paint. I got a rusty frame and a bag of parts. I couldn't find a frame in my size, so I'm using a mountain bike frame and converting it to be a road bike.

We've both sanded our frames down and begun re-painting them. I'm very excited to be building my bike completely from scratch, but it's an elaborate task. And I need to finish this week, so I can do my first ride this weekend... I'd better get back to it!

I hope you're all out enjoying the sunshine.

Just Because I Don't, Doesn't Mean I Can't

Lately I've been pondering the instances where people assume that others can't do something just because they aren't doing it. Here's a few examples:

When a couple doesn't have children, traditionally they were believed to have a biological reason that they couldn't.

When people don't have sex, others assume they can't- whether they can't find a willing partner or they have some sort of sexual disfunction, etc.

When a person isn't in a romantic relationship (or married) over a long period of time, people assume they are embarrassed by their sexual orientation or unable to find anyone willing to partner with them.

When a person doesn't own a new car, large house, etc. others assume they aren't capable of obtaining such things. Others think either don't they have enough money or couldn't they get a job that earns them enough money to buy all of those things?


I think it's wrong to assume that people want OR SHOULD WANT these things. What makes society think it's okay to judge people this way?

It's okay to NOT want kids or a large house. As much as it's against my nature, I'll even admit that not wanting sex is okay.

I've seen people flabbergasted when they hear that a couple doesn't wank kids. I've seen utter disbelief and confusion when a person says they don't want a large house full of expensive furniture.

There is an increasing number of people making the decision not to have children. The few authors who have voiced this decision have been attacked as being unnatural, un-Christian, and immoral. That disturbs me.

Not only because I feel similarly, but also because society is pressuring against a choice that was just won in recent history. Am I the only one who remembers Women's Lib, the recent acceptance of birth control, and the highly contested right to an abortion. (That's right- I said abortion, instead of 'choice'- I'm a realist.) Women have the right to choose against children, marriage, huge mortgages, etc. So do men.

These choices are all closely tied to environmentalism. These against-the-grain choices all can have huge positive effects on the planet. Having children and building a home are the two biggest ways people negatively affect the environment. Perhaps we should be applauding people who stand up and make these changes.

I'm not arguing that everyone has to make these decisions - I'm arguing for the choice.

Excuses, Excuses

OK, I've been missing-in-action for a while. I was sick, then Bobby was sick, then we went backpacking while he was still sick, then we got sunburns and mosquito bites that made us both feel sick for another week or so. That catches you up to last week. Then I just took a week to get into my old habits, such as contributing to this blog.

I still need to update you on our weight loss: Bobby has been sticking to losing 2-3 lbs/ week, but I've been failing miserably. We've been out of money and eating whatever we can find, which often turns out to be junk food. My losses have been hovering at or below 1 lb/ week. I also haven't been drinking much water.

This past week I've gotten back on track with exercise and water, but we still don't have money for Subway. We took a gift certificate to Target, where I got Cliff Builder Bars and Top Ramen. At least I'll be back to my Subway targets for protein and calories.

I've been jogging a little more each time, every other day, to get ready to start the triathlon training. My last "practice jog" before the real training is on August 15th. I'm hoping we'll start back on the Subway at that time, too. If I don't step it up, I'm not going to make it to 155 lbs by triathlon day, September 27th.

Wish me strength!