We lost 76 pounds already!

That's right - 76 pounds! I decided to do the 500-lb declutter as part of my New Year's resolutions & we took 76 lbs of stuff out of the house today. One bag went into the garbage and one is in the car to go to Once Upon A Child (resale shop), but most of it was donated to Amvets today. Hmm.. maybe I'll have to do a 1000-lb declutter!

My husband, the big loser

Shockingly, I haven't haven't blogged about this yet, but it's probably just because I've been such a negligent blogger.

Over the summer John had a routine physical and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. Yikes. Pretty scary. He has to take his blood sugar twice a day, take medicine daily, & change his diet. (Side note: I always thought diabetes couldn't eat sugar, not realizing that carbohydrates are really what they have to look out for. John's diagnosis meant a crash course in nutrition for the whole family.) Also, he was told the most important thing to do was lose a ton of weight, FAST.

We've adjusted to the diabetes. John's blood sugar is well controlled, we drastically cut the carbs we eat as a family, & John lost all the weight he was told to - over 70 lbs - in less than 6 months. He calls it the "fear of God" diet. As crappy as the whole diabetes thing is, he's SO much healthier now & I think having it might have saved his life.

Drum roll please:

BEFORE
(taken in April 2010)

AFTER
(taken in December 2010)

Congratulations John! You did a fabulous job & you look great!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm generally not big on resolutions, but I LOVE the new year. It seems so refreshing. I was especially excited about this new year because 2010 was a rough year for us & I'm happy to have it done with so we can start over again. So I'm making resolutions this year. Or maybe they're just goals. Whatever. They are (in no particular order):

- Blog more often.
Because I enjoy it & maybe someone out there does too (hi John & Mom!).

- Take more pictures & write more.
John thinks my camera is permanently attached to my hand, but the boys are growing so fast & I love have pictures of as much as I can. I don't write nearly enough down (you'd think from looking at Cooper's baby book that he was the 14th child in our family instead of the first). Blogging more will help a little, but I'm going to try to write a little note about each kid every day in a planner. Just cute things they did or said, or milestones, that we can look back on when they're older.

- Appreciate my family & friends more, and let them know it.
I truly love & appreciate all my family & friends, but I don't do a great job of letting them know how much so that's a big goal for me this year (and for all the years to come!).

And, because you HAVE to have a weight loss resolution or it's just not New Year's:

- Lose 500 lbs.
Seriously. John and I actually did tremendous as far as weight loss goes in 2010. I returned to my pre-Dexter-pregnancy weight, which was significantly less than my pre-Cooper-pregnancy weight. And John lost more than 70 lbs this year. It's amazing & I'm so proud of him. He looks great & is so much healthier than before. But more on all that (with before & after pictures!) in a future post.
Our house, on the other hand, is morbidly obese. I plan to declutter (sell, donate, recyle, or throw out) 500 lbs this year. We've decluttered a lot this year, but have so much further to go. I came across this, & I love the idea. I'll keep you all updated on our progress.

Maybe I'll add a couple more goals, but I figure this is a good start.