You turn around before the lightning strikes

TJ has decided to join the world of blogging. Check it out! (But don't believe him when he says I "vanquished" his single-guy life! I'm not that evil.)

I've been in one of those "take to my bed" sort of moods on and off for the past few months, but it's intensified since we returned from vacation. I'm sure this is in no small part to the extra 20 lbs I'm carrying around (in reality 40 more than I need total). It also doesn't help that a lot of my clothes don't fit and I'm just not that excited about the stuff that does. Part of the problem is having these clothes in plain sight, and accidentally picking them out in the morning when I'm trying to get dressed for work.

I've read some cheesy magazine and Web articles that say there's a link between getting organized and losing weight. I definitely know that since I gained all this goo, it seems like everything is disorganized: house, work, life in general.

So I'm slowly trying to regain control. (When really, all I'd rather do is curl up in my bed with the nice fluffy down comforter and take a nap.) I've probably slept an average of 10-12 hours per day for the last several weeks, and I know that's not good for me (it's a bad work avoidance trick I picked up in college). I suppose it's better than stress eating or picking up some really bad drinking or smoking habit, but when I get to that point I know it's time for me to really make some changes.

Today I went through my spring/summer clothes and hung up the ones that I can wear, and put away the winter clothes. Sadly, I have a huge bag of stuff that don't quite fit. With some work, they'll fit in a few months when the really hot weather gets here. I guess when that time comes I can go "shopping" in my closet instead of buying a whole lot of new things. So now mostly everything in my closet is something I can wear, which just makes me a feel a little bit better.

I've also figured out this week that I really just can't eat healthy when I go out to eat (unless it's something inherently healthy like sushi). While we've made some great progress in eating out less, I think I need to work a little harder and *really* cut back to 1x/week for lunch and dinner and be strict about it. I have a horrible habit of thinking "just this one time won't hurt" and before you know it, I've eaten out 5 times in a week. Or it's poor planning - I'm at work, or out running errands and I didn't bring anything healthy to snack on, so I have to go buy something, which usually ends up being crap.

On the plus side of the bitch and whine balance sheet, I did the first 3 workouts of the Couch to 5k running program and even pushed myself to extend the 8 minutes of running to 10. So far I really like it. Next week's workouts are 1.5 min running/2 min walking for 20 min, so it shouldn't be too difficult. The upside to being so out of shape is that it's really easy to make progress. I've been wearing my heart rate monitor so I can really see that I'm working hard.

I bought a few new CDs today. Queensryche recently released Operation Mindcrime II" and while it would be ridiculous to think it could be anywhere near as good as the original, it's actually not as bad as I had feared. I'm up to Track 5 so far and it's decent. I think if I listened to it more, I think I will actively like it (which is saying a lot since I haven't really liked any of their albums since Empire in 1990). I can't believe that I was 13 when I first saw them (opening for Def Leppard in Wheeling West Virginia in 1989!) and I'm going to see them again in Seattle in October (with my *husband* for crying out loud!). I just don't feel that old.

Yesterday we went to the Everett Symphony with TJ's aunt and uncle (hi Aunt Susie!). Though I don't know much about classical music it was really neat to see it live. The theater is pretty small so we had a great view. It inspired me to pick up another Bond CD (that's as close to classical as I'll get.)

I'm never sure how to end my posts. But I need to get back to my closet cleaning project. Cheerio!