Indulgences

So last night there was supposed to be a meeting of the weight loss life group I am leading at my house. I wasn't quite prepared for it, so when everyone called and said they couldn't make it, I was actually a bit relieved! I love our meetings though. We're reading Dr. Phil's book The Ultimate Weight Solution: Seven Keys to Weight Loss Success, and the book along with the support of my girlfriends in the group (combined with the fact that I am leading the group!) has been wonderful in helping me to get to a healthy weight, which I haven't been at since I was an adolescent. I have lost 12 pounds in 4 weeks, and I have 73 more to go. I don't know what I'm going to look like at my healthy weight (which is 160 lbs. considering my height and bone structure), but I'm going to find out, and I can't wait! It is a slow process, because I didn't want to lose it all really quickly with a diet that I couldn't stick to for the rest of my life. I really think it's all about lifestyle changes, eating better and exercising regularly (I know, everyone else on planet Earth knows this, but it is an epiphany for me.) and learning how to turn off my self-talk that tells me I am constantly hungry, even an hour after I've eaten a big meal. I am drinking much more water, and when I think I'm hungry I get a big glass of water and drink that, wait twenty minutes (or longer if I get interrupted by a little boy!) and if I'm still feeling hungry I get something to eat, usually a granola bar or a piece of fruit.

I took this picture because I wanted to capture the sensation of having a pumpkin spice candle burning and cider with mulling spices bubbling away on the stove. The scent is one of my favorites on earth, and is the reason I named this blog what I did. Every time I read the name of my blog, I am reminded of one of my favorite things, and it makes me happy. This is what my stovetop looked like last night, and since no one was around to enjoy it but us, I figured I'd try to capture it for others to enjoy. Isn't it strange that when it comes to enjoying things in life, we think we can't do them just by ourselves? I always wait until a special occasion (people coming to visit, etc.) before I will use the mulling spices, or my favorite candles, or even before I'll deep clean my house (shame on me!). But seriously, shouldn't we do these things for our families every day? This is a big lesson for myself, because I am one of the worst at keeping up on laundry and dishes and controlling clutter (Flylady would be ashamed of me!). It seems I am always making a "special effort" to do these things that most everyone else just does normally.

For instance, I pulled out the sponge mop and the hardwood floor cleaner and mopped the floor yesterday (well, at least the part of the floor that is blocked from little boys by the child gates, since they were both awake when I was doing this). I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I was done, and Mike must have said 5 times how nice the floor looked! Now, I am a Swiffer girl, so for me to have put forth this much effort to clean the floor was a big step for me, but the Swiffer just doesn't seem to clean as deeply as the sponge mop does, so I decided to "go the extra mile" to get the house clean for the guests we didn't end up having over. But just knowing how much my husband appreciates a clean home makes me really want to work harder on keeping it up! I think I'll go do my 27-Fling Boogie now, and make Flylady proud (visit www.flylady.com, if you are brave).