A Day Chocked Full of Good Stuff

Yesterday was one of those days where so much great stuff happened, I'm still sitting here absorbing the residual goodness feelings.

It started with having lunch with my two besties in the whole world:  Hope and Sanity.

For you newbies - Hope and Sanity are my two best friends I went to college with.  We developed a strong friendship in college, are now all teachers, and try to get together at least once a month or so to catch up, share our lives, and support each other.

Anywho, we opted to meet at Panera Bread for coffee, lunch, and a couple of hours of chatting.  It always amazes me how long we can sit in a coffee house and just talk.  We met at 1pm and didn't leave until almost 4pm.

It's so nice to meet with friends - especially teacher friends that work in a different school district.  It's great to see what stuff they are teaching, how it's being taught, etc.

After we said our goodbyes, I decided to make a quick run to Charming Charlie's - an amazing store that sells mostly purses and shoes and accessories.  I needed a new lanyard for school, so I figured that would be the store to find a good one.

Now, there are two things in this world that I love almost as much as my kids.  Shoes and purses.  Oh yes.  I am a severe shoe and purse collector.  I have so many pairs of shoes and purses - many that have never been worn or used - that I could open up my own shoe and purse boutique.  It's so bad that I had to bag up many of my purses just so Hubby could get in to our walk-in closet.  I have a shoe rack on my closet door and one hanging in my closet.  Both are full - and there are STILL shoes all over the floor of the closet, the floor of my bedroom, and a few pairs in my bathroom.

It's a sickness.  I just can't help myself.

So, I make my quick run in to Charming Charlies to see a sign I'm pretty sure I'll see on the gate of Heaven.  All SHOES AND PURSES BUY ONE GET TWO FREE.  What the freakin' what???  Are you kidding me?

My quick trip turned in to an hour long shopping spree while I selected three purses, three pairs of shoes, three pairs of slippers, and of course - my lanyard.

I ended up walking out of the store with three HUGE bags of stuff.  I spent a whole $45 and came home with three pairs of boots (two for me and one for Peanut, because they didn't have another pair I liked in my size), three purses, three pairs of fuzzy slippers (one for me, one for Peanut, and one for Jelly), and a purple, blingy lanyard.

The first pair of boots I bought were originally priced at $49.99 - marked down to $16.  So, I bought three pairs of boots for less than what one pair originally cost...along with everything else I snagged.  Basically, I bought a pair of boots and got the purses, slippers, and the lanyard for free.  That's the way my head does the math, anyway.

It occurred to me last night, after getting home and sharing my buys with the family, how long it had been since I felt this much excitement from shopping.  For myself.  The last time I had so much fun was back when I had lost a ton of weight, and I could actually go in to the "normal" sized areas of the store to select clothes. I forgot what that feeling felt like.  Since gaining back all of the weight, I have lost my appeal for shopping - once again.

So, yet another thing occurred to me.  If I missed the rush of going out for a shopping spree, and wanted nothing more than to feel those feelings again - more often - the weight just HAS to go.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

I can try all I want to live in this nonchalant life of not caring too much about my weight loss, making tiny adjustments here and there with the hope that eventually I'll start to lose a couple of pounds...but the harsh reality is, if I want to see the changes sooner rather than later I'm going to have to do more.

I still think that if I just make slight changes here and there to my food decisions and my exercising that eventually I'll start to see some changes.  But how long will eventually be?

Just one week in to the new year, and I'm already ready to make a change to one of my resolutions.  I say change because I'm not ditching it - I'm enhancing it.

I've decided to try Atkins.

For three hours last night, I researched, I read reviews, I read articles and studies and all kinds of stuff... because you all know how I feel about "diet plans".

When push comes to shove, I can openly admit that I'm a carb addict.  Big time.  And after reading what I read, and answering questions, and seeing what other people had to say - the best part about Atkins was the fact that so many people were able to overcome their carb addictions - which led to quick weight loss that actually stayed off.

The other part I love is the fact that Atkins provides all of their weight loss tools for free.  I've already downloaded the app that will help me keep track of my carb intake, provide me with food suggestions, and keep me on top of my progress.  I will also be receiving a welcome kit in the mail that will provide me with some samples of their meal bars, some coupons, and a couple of books that will help answer any more questions that I might have along the way.

I'll go more in to the Atkins plan tomorrow.  This is already turning in to a very long post...and my family is sitting around waiting on me to get ready to go grocery shopping.

So, yesterday was chocked full of good stuff.  And today?  A new journey begins.