I kinda thought it would be cheating if I didn’t weigh on Thursday again, simply because I was out of town and wanted the extra days. So, I’m thinking Thursday just might be my weigh day.

I am glad to report that after my weekend away from home, I still had a decrease.

I’m sure it’s not as much as if I’d have stayed home, but I feel good that I didn’t go absolutely nuts. One thing that I felt was really helpful was to go to the store and stock the places I was staying with foods I’m used to eating. My goal for this was to only eat one meal out instead of all three. I should have exercised on those days, but I didn’t. That probably would’ve helped out more. I’ve also started working on the RealAge suggestions for food intake and exercise, so my hope is I’ll continue to see results.

Seriously, if you’ve not been to RealAge.com to find out your real age, you need to do it. It takes about 20 minutes to do the whole thing, but it’s well worth it. At the end, it gives you individualized suggestions to help you become healthier. This is neat because it breaks it down to nutrition, lifestyle changes, etc.

On this site, you’ll also find a 20 minute workout that you can customize. I really like this part of it. I believe that you can even watch the basic videos online if you like. You can print out sheets to go with your workouts too, in order to keep track of your reps and such. None of the exercises require equipment, so for me, I really have no excuse not to do them.

It’s been a while since I went to RealAge.com, so I was excited to see Dr. Oz is one of the co-creators behind it. If you don’t know Dr. Oz, you don’t watch Oprah. Anyway, he did a segment on Oprah talking about five ingredients to avoid:

1. Hydrogenated oil
2. Sugars
3. High fructose corn syrup
4. Enriched flour
5. Bleached flour

I went to the store and really looked at the labels and found that these are everywhere! I had a very hard time finding something other than fruits and vegetables to put in my basket (I guess that’s the point). I feel like it really will be a challenge to eliminate these and continue to shop the way we normally do.

Last week, I went back and did the finishing touches on the cabinets and cleanup on the tile. First things first, if you think you’re saving time by not putting down a drop cloth, stop now and just do it. I spent a good 30 minutes using a scraper to get paint off of the tile floor in the kitchen. It did come off, but I would have saved time in the long run making sure the floor was covered. Tip on the cabinets: the edges of the door is where most of the touch up needs to take place. If I were doing a project like this again, I think I would spend more time on this part, let it dry and then use the roller on the main part of the doors.

In September, we’ll be tiling the side of the kitchen that has the sink, and I think it will go so much better, now that this first remodel part is complete.

So when we last met, I had indeed begun to watch my food intake and set up some goals for myself.

First goal: Write here. You may be saying, big whoop, why on earth is she sharing her progress after only 4 days? Well I believe that’s part of the whole accountability of this for me. But here’s the other thing: I really would like to help others get started too. The last time I really dieted was because of the success of a good friend. Only then, did I really want to get off my behind and try something. Maybe someone will feel that way too.

Second goal: No sodas. I’ve stuck to no regular sodas, or diet soda for that matter. It’s amazing to me how this goal alone has helped me to realize how many wasted calories I was consuming. For me, it really does take a frame of mind shift to drink the eight glasses of water before anything else. One other thing I noticed with that is that if you do drink the 8 glasses, you really don’t want anything else to drink. This is also a really good one for our budget we are trying to maintain when we shop at the grocery store.

Third goal: Exercise. I’m sure for many others, this really is the hardest one too. I’ve kept with it everyday for 20 minutes. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

The big challenge now is keeping this focus away from home. We’ll be traveling and it’s always so much harder to stick to a routine. I think writing will help thought, because the last thing I want to write about next week is a 2.5 pound increase.

All right, so I was so excited that the cabinet project turned out so well, I thought hey, let’s change the countertops too. Not really, but again the project was well worth it.

So when Jimmie brought the boys back on Thursday, she was amazed at the cabinet transformation. After some discussion (not including Scott), we decided to see how easily the countertops would come up. To our astonishment, it did not take a lot of effort at all. Long story short, we updated the countertops in less than 24 hours. It actually took longer than that for the curing and sealing, but after a week, the cabinets and countertops are finally finished. Again if you’re thinking of doing a project like this yourself, here are some pointers from an amateur:

1. Rent a tile saw. We initially bought a $17 tile cutter that stunk. We were working with 12 inch tiles and almost went through a whole box before we gave up. Had we rented the saw from the get go, we would have saved a ton of time. It cost $50 bucks, but that was totally worth our sanity.

2. Make sure to clean off the tile glue REALLY well of the top of the tiles, so that it doesn’t dry on top. This was probably the worst part of the whole project because it took a lot of work to get it off the tiles.

3. Make small batches of grout. I did not need all the grout and ended up wasting a bunch that way.

4. Clean the grout off the tiles more than once. This was not nearly as bad as the glue, but it wasn’t fun either.

This part of the kitchen remodel cost about $250, bringing the total remodel cost (including cabinets) to $400. Again, it doesn’t look like a professional installed the tile, but it completely beats the harvest gold counters we used to have. I definitely would not recommend doing a project like this alone. Thankfully Jimmie did all of the tile cuts and planning. I really only glued, cleaned, grouted and sealed. I am of the opinion the cutting was the hard part.

This past week, I undertook our first major remodel on the house. After almost five years with the kitchen as is, we repainted the cabinets and installed new hardware for the cabinets and drawers. Here’s the kicker, it only cost $150! Of course, the labor was free since I did it myself. (Scott did happen to do some of the trim painting.) So my thoughts on a project like this if you’re thinking about doing it yourself:

1. It took a lot more time than I expected. Well worth it, don’t get me wrong, I just didn’t realize how many actual labor time it would take. I’m still tired to tell you the truth.

2. Make sure the kids are away. I was lucky enough to have the boys with their Grammy during the project. I could work basically all day and all night without interruptions. Not to mention we used an oil based paint that absolutely stunk up the place. Masks were definitely a necessity. Fans too.

3. Although it smelled HORRIBLE, use oil based paint. I’ve already had to wipe the cabinets down and it was amazing how easy the cleanup was. It seemed like it took a lot more time to dry.

4. Prime first. There was so much gunk and stuff, that the primer helped cover the many imperfections of the existing cabinets.

5. If you want to save time, use the existing holes for the new hardware. They look a little funky, but I can live with it. Not to mention I didn’t really want to drill new holes and wasn’t looking forward to asking Scott for help, since I got myself into this project.

6. Wait a couple of days before you fix holidays and such. They really stand out after your had some time to inspect them. It’s really hard to find a lot of that when it’s still fresh.

I won’t kid you, this was a very big project for me. But I am so thrilled with the results! It’s clearly not a professional job, but for the money I saved, it was so worth it. The kitchen was already 31 years old, so anything is going to look better.

Make sure to check out my other kitchen makeover entry about countertops.

190. I know I was shocked too. Well, you’ve seen it with your own eyes, maybe you’re not shocked, but I was. It’s amazing how easy pounds will go on, but DAMN. That number might very well put me in the morbidly obese category. I mean I think I weighed that when I was pregnant with Jake. Which by my accounts is sad, since I am pretty sure I’m not eating for two. No seriously, the tubes are tied. So what’s the deal? It took me a long time to realize that I was going to have to own up to my weight gain, and now it’s here for everyone to see. Scary? For sure, I mean what woman wants to talk about her weight gain. But it actually feels kind of good. Seeing that number makes it a lot harder to go to the fridge and pick up a snack. Hell, I made a fruit smoothie yesterday, that’s something, right? So enough complaining, what will I do now, you ask? Excellent question.

The first thing I intend to do is this. Yep, sit in front of the computer and type? Well that’s only one thing. I remember way back when I lost 40 pounds, that I would email important people in my life to kinda have more ownership and what not. Weight Watchers was helpful too, but I’m on a budget and I hope that I have enough willpower and support to do this without paying 12 bucks to go and stand on a scale in front of someone. So instead of standing on it in front of a stranger, Scott will be watching me every week instead. Kinda scary, but hey the number’s out there now, so I got nothing to hide.

Next, I’m giving up sodas, well let me take that back, I’m going to start drinking only diet sodas. This will be a good thing for me, since I don’t like Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, I won’t be tempted to get one at a restaurant and we’re certainly not going to stock them in the house. I can’t believe how many sodas I’ve consumed in the month of June alone. Along the liquid lines, 8 glasses of water a day, before I can even think of drinking anything else.

I’ve got this really cool clothes rack in my bedroom that’s taking up a god awful amount of space that I’ll start getting on. It’s actually an elliptical machine that I got for my birthday. I remember when I was convincing Scott to let me get it, that it would save us bunches of money cause I cancelled my membership to a gym. However, I think I am actually supposed to get on it and move my booty so it will help me. I mean what excuse do I have not to do it? I have a TV to watch and am in the comfort of my own home, really!

I could go on and on, but this is a good start. Oh yeah, one more thing is my checklist. I really liked to journal when I did weight watchers, so I am going to do that again. I cant believe how much it helps to write something down, which brings me back to why I am still sitting in front of the computer typing. Hello world! You see my number, now let’s watch it drop. No big TV until it’s down to 130. I am however going to have some treats (not food, stuff) at every 10 pound drop. Feel free to make some suggestions.