January went smoothly enough. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with my baby nephew and my family. I was on a roll with my capsule wardrobe and with purging. (The capsule wardrobe has now become a way of life, though I no longer count my number of items as diligently).
February and March were very challenging! We had a pipe burst and ended up having to move into a hotel for nearly three weeks while we dealt with our insurance, plumbers, etc. That was by far one of the worst experiences I've ever encountered owning a home! There's not much you can do without running water! (I did learn how to make a toilet flush by pouring gallons of water down it that I lugged back from the hotel though. Gravity is a beautiful thing sometimes). It truly tested my patience and made me thankful for the simple things in life! It also made me realize I could live in a 4 room home and be completely fine. (If only the pets could've come with us). Thus, three weeks of living between the hotel and our house with no water began. (Driving around with dirty dishes from home in your car so you can wash them at the hotel anyone)??
Towards the end of March, I saved enough $ up for a down payment on a pretty little convertible. I had been driving my Honda Civic for 11 years and had been contemplating doing so when the pipe burst. Fortunately, I found a great deal on a used car with very low miles. Her name is Peyton (after 2016 Super Bowl Champ Peyton Manning) and she's so fun!
At the beginning of April, I stumbled across this post on Facebook and it really hit home with me. The photo on the left shows a 250 lb woman and the photo on the right shows a 120 lb woman. Being able to see weight gain internally was really scary, especially seeing the fat around her heart and brain. So did the compressed knee joints!
I began thinking about eating cleaner and trying to lose weight again. Towards the end of April, I had a work meeting with someone who sells Arbonne and we happened to talk about how good her skin looked/discussing the program. On April 3, 2016, I began their 30-Day Detox Challenge. I didn't follow it perfectly, but I would say I ate clean/did the protein shakes about 80% of the time. As of today, I've lost 10 lbs and really have changed my lifestyle. I now crave slightly frozen mixed berries rather than chocolate bars and drink about 60 ounces of water at minimum a day. I make my two protein shakes the night before work usually, which gives me an easy, healthy breakfast and lunch for the next day. (Previously I would get so busy with work that I'd go through the McDonald's drive thru for breakfast and usually skip lunch or order something full of carbs that delivered for lunch). I feel better and I'm dropping lbs!
At the end of April, my best friend gave birth to her first child, which also inspired me to continue trying to get healthy. (Perhaps one day hubs and I will be blessed with a baby of our own).
May was really hectic at work, so when my scheduled PTO rolled around, my mom and I decided to take Peyton on a road trip (literally booked less than 36 hours before we left) to North Carolina and Myrtle Beach.
We did fun things like take a helicopter ride (which neither one of us had done before.
We saw a show (Pirates Voyage) and went to the Ripley's Aquarium. (Both of which were a lot of fun)!
The main thing was we got to spend time together and RELAX, which was something we both really needed!
I came home and planted my "garden" for this year. OK, so it's a hanging pot (minus the hanging part), but the flowers are pretty and it makes the deck more enjoyable. I've decided gardening just isn't for me after all.
For those of you who followed my blog last year and my process of becoming more minimalist, I've purged around 35.5% of all my belongings. I seem to be hanging around that percentage. I just started week 47 of the process. My goal was to get to 50%, but I'm quite a ways from that unfortunately. If I really put my mind to it, I might get to around 38% to 40%, but we'll see. I've been working really hard (at work), so my focus right now is to enjoy my life and my friends and family.
Hope everyone is having a blessed 2016 so far!
XOXO,
Stephanie
