on DIE-t Time!

I'm no special snow flake. It's a new year, so I'm going for my typical, annual resolution: Lose Weight.
Never worked before, so I'm optimistically figuring it will this year!
What's different? Not my ability to fool myself, that's for sure!
So, how am I at least going to attempt to go about succeeding this time around?
I am going to Eat Less and Exercise More.
Yes, that is my big, secret plan.
Take in fewer calories, burn more.
So today, January 3, I started the 2017 DIE-t.
I'm going to eliminate bread, and pasta is only allowed A) On cheat day or B) in a diet frozen meal.
Cheat day is Sunday. Period. Not Sunday, plus Saturday on even months, but including Friday on days ending in "Y"
And cheat day is not the day to eat 12,000 calories, thus undoing the whole week's hard work. Cause guess what? Turns out calories are cumulative!
I know, it isn't fair, but there you have it. You can eat a righteous 1200 calories a day all week, and blow it all in one hard cheat day. That is not good on Monday when you step on the scale and you've gained all the week's weight-loss back, plus a couple pounds for good measure.
Booze is out, except, again, on cheat day. Yeah,  a glass of red wine may be healthy for my heart, but it's bad for my waistline, and that's bad for my heart, so it undoes its good effects in this case.
Wine can come back in about 60 pounds.
In is one Brazil nut every day. I read in Prevention magazine it's good for me...can't remember why.
Also in are cranberries. They want you to eat them raw, but yuck! I'll go with the dried, and try to find them without added sugar.
In is one, low fat Greek yogurt every morning. No sweat, as I was already enjoying this. That 12 grams of protein kick-starts my day and holds me over til lunch.
I'm adding a hard boiled egg to this morning routine, and all the high-test coffee I can drink, all day, til 5 p.m. when I'll switch to decaff.
Permissible lunch and dinner foods include soup, salad, eggs, lean meats, veggies, fruit, nuts, grains such as brown rice.
Out is delicious stuff like butter, maple syrup, high fat salad dressing, cereal, pancakes, sweets, candy, cookies, brownies, muffins. You get it.
Then, I must consider exercise as part of this goal. And I have.
I plan to swim once a week; lift weights once a week; walk twice a week, most likely on this nasty contraption in my living room in front of a movie.
I'll also try to throw in extra stair flights daily; yoga; and walking instead of driving where feasible.
So where does all this lead me? Hopefully, to a weight that doesn't register as dangerously obese on the health charts.
Did you know obese is not hard to be? Check out your weight, height, age, sex, etc on a BMI chart, and prepare to be depressed.
I'll tell you true, I have a long way to go, but I'm over 50 and don't want to die stupid. Heart disease? Stroke? Cancer? Injury? Diabetes? Hip and knee replacements? All can be traced to obesity.
So I'm a gonna wake up and stop smelling the bacon, and start getting smart, and lean and mean! (Mean, cause I love to eat, so fair warning.)
My target weight: 145.
My time limit: One year.
Weight to lose: That would be telling! ha! suffice to say, it's more than 60 pounds. Only a little more than five pounds a month. I can DO this!
I'm hoping for 15 pounds the first month, as my body doesn't realize what's happening to it. After that, it'll slow way down.
Here. I. Go!
(Only three days until Sunday!!!)

Stink Bugs and Other Bad Things to Eat

A couple weeks ago, I was innocently digging out the last few tasty morsels from the bottom of a bag of Andy Cap Cheddar Fries; crunchy, cheesy, slightly-stale-deliciousness.
Suddenly, my enjoyment was interrupted when the cheesy taste in my mouth switched to the unmistakable flavor of . . . stink bug!
Argh!

Stink Bug

Spit spit spit. My son stood there laughing helplessly as I flushed my mouth out with handfuls of water. Which did no good.
Soon, a burning sensation filled my mouth and spread across my lips.
"Google what happens when you eat a stink bug!" I ordered my son as I brewed a strong cup of coffee.
"Hmmm...says here they release a mild toxin that irritates your mouth tissues. And if you swallow one, you could end up nauseous and vomiting!"
He looked at me hopefully. "Do you feel like vomiting?"
"I didn't swallow it! You saw me spit it out."
"Still, are you sure?"
"Do you want me to be sick?" He shrugged. "Just want to see how accurate the article is."
I shook my head and guzzled coffee. My mouth tasted like a stink bug, and before you ask how I know what a stink bug tastes . . . well, how I knew before I ate one . . . they taste just like they smell. Unmistakable!
It was not a pleasant experience. From my selfish point of view, it matters little that it was way worse for the (late) bug.
You can't avoid stink bugs in our house during the winter. They come in through microscopic cracks and fly around, sounding like bumble bees. If you squash one, it stinks. Hence the name. They can also release a stinky goo when startled, so try not to offend the little blighters.
Related to stink bugs in my mind, if not in fact, is another little beetle, the Ladybug. She's much more socially acceptable, with her pretty, red shell decorated with those iconic black polka-dots.

Lady Bug

But like the stink bug, when threatened, she releases a foul smelling and tasting chemical. That's her protection against being eaten.
But it doesn't work against drowning. In Mt. Dew. MY Mt. Dew.
Tonight, I enjoyed a rare indulgence; a can of that delicious, bilious green pop chock-a-block full of calories, caffeine and sugar. I noticed the Ladybug crawling around on the table, but ignored it.
My mistake.
Awhile later, I took a swig of Dew . . . and drowned carcass of Ladybug tipped into my mouth.
Argh!
Spit spit spit. At least I didn't CHEW this one. So there was no foul taste.

Evil Bug (www.telltalegames.com)

But the Dew was probably full of chemical released during her unfortunate accident in MY POP.

So I dumped it out, sadly.

Now I'm having a cup of tea I can see into.
Two bugs in one month is a record for me. Reminds me of the time I brushed my teeth only to find a long beetle had been nestling in the bristles of the toothbrush.
What IS it with me and beetles?
 And then there was the time back in college I woke up to find a giant roach drinking my Mt. Dew. Maybe the pop is the connection? I literally heard the insect sipping my pop. That's a story for another time. Bottoms up! And eyes open!

Extreme Clean-out: Part Two -- Clothing Sortie!

Help! (from Lifeinpleasantville.com)

In French, the word "sortie" means an attack made by troops coming from a position of defense. I thought it was pretty appropriate for my campaign to rid myself of extra, unused clothing items, which is part two of my Spring/Summer Extreme Clean-out!
I kind of liked the play on words, too . . . sortie . . . sorting . . . get it?
I decided I simply couldn't face the world seeing photos of my clothes hording situation before I started sorting out, so this post will have no pics from my actual house.
Picture in your mind a pile of clothes in sizes ranging from current to five years ago all the way back to wishful thinking, overflowing the closets and dresser, piled on the chairs and heaped on the floor in my room.
Oh, the shame!
I've made a good start, creating several categories of new piles.
They are:
1. Donate

Represantational ME and my STUFF (from Susiestyles.com) 

2. Rag Bag
3. Sell? (will probably morph into donate before we're done.)
4. Maybe
5. Keep
And here and now I'll make a few pledges, to help keep my on track.
1. I will not keep mateless socks "in case" the mate turns up.
2. I will not keep clothes I wore before I turned 40.
3. I will not keep clothes I haven't worn in a year or more. (Ooooo. This is a hard one!)
One thing I can't promise is to give up all hope on a few things I've been keeping in case I get down to my goal weight again . . . a size 10.
I have to dream!
Tomorrow, photos of progress.

Extreme Clean Out! Books: Done!

The first challenge I faced in my Extreme Clean-Out Summer was books. I have hundreds of them, and that's after culling hundreds more.

Sell/Donate Pile!

I've been collecting these books since childhood. Some are my mother's and father's from their childhood. Books have always been something I excused myself for hoarding, because they were -- BOOKS! Can you ever have too many?
Well, yeah, if you're downsizing,  you can have too many.

I should disclose that I have a couple hundred on my Kindle, as well, but they don't take up any space, so they're staying right where they are!

As for the books I decided to detach from my collection:

Two boxes for kids

I gave many to my children; those cherished from their childhoods; some of those belonging to their father; classics they wanted.
My brother got age appropriate ones for his classroom.

Nonfiction

Several large bags went to an area nursing home, where they're being shared and circulated by the folks there.
Others I have put in the sell/donate pile, which has grown to a couple hundred books. A friend with a book selling business will look these over, and choose what she wants to purchase.
A few valuable ones I'll sell on eBay. What I don't sell, I'll donate.

And the ones I'm keeping, probably about twice what I'm tossing, I've carefully organized. One bookcase holds non-fiction I'm simply interested in, such as
books on travel, gardening, cooking, Bonsai, fish-keeping, along with books I need for writing, ranging from various reference volumes to dictionaries in French, Spanish, Italian and German, to books on how criminals think and various poisons and weapons, to how the Amish live, to oddities all about subjects such as witchcraft and fairies.
You never know what you'll need to know!

I know these days you can look up anything online, but I like a book in my hands. It's simple.

Book hall

My book hall is all my fiction, arranged by author. I have a couple other book cases filled with fiction, too.

So now, this portion of my Extreme Clean-Out is finished, I have to
tackle the much harder task of thinning out my ridiculous collection of clothes.

It's not like I have couture; rather, I have quantity in a number of sizes. And that doesn't even include my accessories: Scarves, shoes, jewelry (which should have its own category, I'm thinking). And then there's the stuff I hardly use, or used to use. Or MIGHT use again. You'll see. It's a sickness.

I still haven't decided whether to show a photo of the pile in my bedroom. I'll begin that this weekend.

But for now, I'll revel in the happily reduced volume of volumes!
I hope I've inspired you a bit. Have fun culling your own collection!
Ta ta for now.

Extreme Clean-out in the Days of Sunshine and Cicadas

This Book Hall is more Extreme than ours!

I did sort through more books today; this project will take a full week. I will be putting a lot of them back into the book hall, but they'll be organized by author so if I want to read, say, a particular Nora Roberts series, I'll be able to go right to it, instead of fruitlessly searching . . . and even re-buying! . . . the same book again when you already own it! I found three copies of one book!
The sell/donate pile is growing!
When I'm done, I'll take a last photo of the sell/donate pile, and my beautifully organized book hall and bookcases.
This involves dusting and vacuuming.
The kids have been helpful.
But summer is coming, and the weather is nice outside, so outdoor activities also call me, forcing me away from my book sorting. (My legs ache after sitting Indian-style for so long anyway!)
To be useful, I pulled four or five weeds from the cracks in the driveway, and felt righteous.
In other news . . .
Molly saved a bullfrog missing the skin from one leg . . . it's temporarily living in the veterinary tank on the back porch, getting treatment as recommended by the online amphibian forum.

Extreme Bull Frog!

EVERYTHING exists online!
I bought a black, pleather futon for the girls college apartment at a barn sale . . . for $25! Score!
It has joined the masses of furniture and other debris in the garage (a part of the Extreme Clean-up coming later this summer!) That'll be after books, clothes and kitchen stuff.
Later in the day, I stood talking to a neighbor in the yard, and half a dozen cicadas attempted to climb my pants while we talked. It's crazy out there. I'm not kidding. It's literally an invasion.
But they're harmless.
They do not eat your trees, plants, grass, etc.

Extreme Cicadas! 

They DO fly down your shirt, sneak into your home on your back and zoom around while your family runs screaming and the cats chase them up walls and curtains, and glare at you with those eerie, red eyes. Their song is already filling the air, somewhere between a frog chorus and an alien spaceship landing.
They'll be gone within weeks. I remember collecting the shells as a child in a former emergence. I remember them zooming around when I was at Ohio University in the early '80s.
Last time they were here, in 1999, Cooper was a newborn and I was 37. Now he's 17. I'm 53.
When the babies of these current cicadas come up from below ground in 17 years, Cooper will be 34. I'll be 70!
Good Lord!
Time as measured in cicada generations is daunting.
So I'll stick to my Extreme Clean-up, in the time of Cicadas. I think they're neat. I just don't want them flying down my shirt. That'll freak me out!
And now, I'm going to go read a book, enjoy a glass of wine, and relax. Because that, in the end, is a big part of what it's all about, right?
Bloody-well right!

Extreme Clean-out: Books and Yoga

Totally me doing Yoga while reading!

What does Yoga have to do with an Extreme Clean-Out of my house?
It's all about attitude.
I've found that when I strive to improve one area of my life, a desire soon rises in me to try and improve others, too.
Sometimes this isn't good; bite off too much, you choke on it, right?
So keeping that in mind, I'm trying to do an overall overhaul of my lifestyle. I guess if I fall on my face, I can use the old "I tried to do too much at once!" moan as an excuse.
But here's the thing: I want to go small, right? I mean, in my next home. Should be easy, right? Just toss, dump, sell, donate, CLEAN OUT!
But who I am at 50-something has taken a long time to achieve. I didn't accumulate all these books and THINGS overnight. Remember, I'm the caretaker of the junk of many dead ancestors.
And yes, dumping 3/4 of this stuff is really, really going to help me start fresh.
But.
It isn't enough.
Besides improving the state of my house, I want to improve the state of my mind and body. If I'm not healthy, it won't matter if I achieve my goals.
So one of the areas upon which I'll focus is my physical well-being. And guess what? Going through all those books has pointed to one way to improve that.
While sorting books, I came across a book called, "A Morning Cup of Yoga."
Initially, I tossed it into a keep pile, figuring I'd look at it someday -- as I've intended for years since buying it. (Lies to herself.)
Four or five days into my Extreme Clean-Out, I found myself with a different attitude.

My spiffy Fitbit!

It may have something to do with my new Fitbit, too. I traded in my cute little Fitbit Zip for a more advanced product, the Fitbit Charge. It tells me how many steps I've taken, as well as monitoring my heart rate and sleep habits (seriously!) and telling me how many flights of stairs I've climbed and calories I've burned daily. (No, I don't own Fitbit stock. Heh.)
With that kind of information, how can I NOT try my best to live a little better?
I'm not going to be crazy about this. I'm not swearing off snacks, wine, coffee, fat, salt, in fact, all the good stuff. But I'll try to eat a little less of that stuff, and a little more whole grain, greenery, plain water, etc. And chocolate. Because . . . just because.
And I'm trying to exercise daily. This is mostly walking -- haven't made the 10,000 steps yet, but I hit 7,000 yesterday, and I'm at 5,500 today so far.
I've got to be honest. You're probably not going to see photos of me on FB at the finish line of a race.
But today I figured I'd toss in a little living room Yoga. I just followed the pictures in the book!
It didn't hurt. Much.
So. That's a start.
I have a long, long way to go this summer if I hope to greet the fall with a cleaned-out home, organized closets, and fitter, healthier me.
Everything positive I do towards that deserves a reward. (Okay, I had a piece of cake. That's a good reward! I thank my friend, Linda, for that. But first, I made her walk with me!)

The Book Hallway

The Sell/Donate Pile is Growing!

And I've culled a couple hundred more books from tonight's target, the book hallway. That, as it turns out, is going to take more than one day. I just keep getting sucked in! (I'd forgotten I have this entire series of vampire romances by Lynsay Sands! Yummy!)
So tomorrow, book hallway again. A little more walking. And I'll feel a little bit better about me!
Of course, I haven't tackled my next project yet -- clothes! It'll make books look easy-peasey. I'm not sure I'll have the courage to post pictures of my pile of clothes, my packed closets, my disorderly drawers. We'll see. I guess if a little embarrassment helps me proceed, it'll be worth it.
(I'd love to hear your stories about your clean-out journey. If you're doing an extreme clean-out, post comments here. Pics, too! We can do it together!) 

I'd rather be reading!

Extreme Clean-Out, Part One: Books! Day Two ~ The Journey Continues

To bring you up to date, I've embarked on a journey this summer, of the soul and spirit as much as a material journey. My goal: To purge my home of all the surplus stuff accumulated over the 35 years or so of my (supposed) adulthood.

The book hallway

I decided to tackle what at first seemed to be the easiest thing; my enormous collection of books. It seemed easy because although there are too many of them, they were fairly organized and accessible, in bookcases or stacked along walls.

Can't get rid of these . . . 

But in reality it has turned out to be harder than I thought to get rid of these volumes. See, I reread my books over and over. The ones I've kept all these years, some dating to childhood, are really old friends.
I simply can't part with many of them.
Laura Ingalls Wilder is safe. Jane Austen as well. Anne McAffrey stays. I'm keeping Nora Roberts, too. And then there are the books I used to read to my kids. King Bidgood's in the Bathtub; Rainbow Fish; Slobcat; No No Nikki; Tom and Pippo; Moo, Baa, La la la; and so many others.
Likewise, I can't part with the books of my own childhood, such as Winnie the Pooh; Now we are Six, also by A.A. Milne; my collection of Anne of Green Gables, and others.
I have to keep all the books on Bonsai, even though I kill Bonsai; on growing orchids, because I have one now! And my books on salt water aquariums, because I intend to have one someday.
It adds up, you know?
But I've made good progress. I have a growing stack of around 200 books ready to sell and donate.
And still have my book hall to explore tomorrow.
Today's chore was the big bookcase in my bedroom.

It's hard not to get distracted while visiting with old friends

A new toilet is an exciting thing!

I got a little distracted from time to time, between being sucked into a book now and then, and my brother and son installing a shiny, new toilet (one that actually flushes when you push the handle -- a n
ovelty here, where we are used to standing over the toilet, plunger in hand, ready for the worst when we flush.)
But at the end of the day, I have a stack of keepers I really, really want (or at least want to reread before passing them on) and have added to the stack with which I can part.
Tomorrow I'll go after the big collection in the book hall . . . or maybe the pile behind the armchair in the living room. Almost forgot about that!

The Giveaway/Sell Pile is Growing!