Downsizing

It's January 2015 and 'tis the season for improvements in our lives: eat better, exercise more, stop this, start that, and so on.  While a bit cliche', jumping on the January "fresh start" bandwagon is always a great idea. While we don't have to wait until the launch of a new year to make changes, there is always something about the promise of a new year that excites us and causes us to yearn to make each passing year better than the last.  My husband and I are no different.
Before the end of the year, I began working with some friends who have begun a 'purging' business.  This process of someone else coming into my home and forcing me to take a hard look at my 'stuff' and how much of it I really needed has been so liberating.  I find myself anxious to chuck another item, donate another bag of items, and sell off items of value that, although worth money, have little actual value in my family any longer.
Along with this continued purge into the new year, I embarked today (as did my husband) on a 28-day Clean Eating/Detox Challenge.  In short, the outcome of this Challenge is to create a more alkaline state within my body (read: less illness and issues, healthier body and skin) and to remove some inches from my waistline in the process.  I am going to be adding in more physical activity to help propel this reduction in size.  I am, once again, the biggest I have ever been.  My son saw a picture of me recently from the winter of 2008 and could not identify me.  Ouch. Despite what the scale has been telling me, I somehow have kept seeing the same person that I always have in the mirror.  Upon further inspection, I can now say that I really don't know who that person is - the one in the mirror.  That woman certainly is NOT me.

I have started so many 'things' in the past.  What will make this one different?  Well, a couple of things, I hope:  the first being my commitment level to myself; to being a product of the product for my business and also to simply be the best possible me I can be.  The second is the commitment to my family; to be able to go on adventures, to have fun, to keep up as best I can, and to honestly just continue to be around: in light of my mother's early death, brought upon mainly by lifestyle choice, it has become a concern to both me and my husband that I may very well be on the same path.
This will undoubtedly be a struggle.  I will hold on to positive thoughts and develop mantras.  I have an actual emotional overeating problem and so I will be clinging desperately to any support I can get.  I am having fleeting thoughts already of 'maybe I can just go to bed and hibernate for a month or so and wake up thinner - that way I don't even have to think about food'.  Hook me up to an IV and a catheter, I suppose.  Yeah, I have a problem.
After weeks of 'pre-toxing', here we go!  I'm excited and optimistic. I will likely be making changes even in who I see and what activities I engage in just to spare myself temptation as much as possible. I am determined to find success as well as a healthier, happier me at the end of these 28-days.  I'm hoping she will be loving her new reality so much that she continues with this lifestyle.  This could be the first day of the rest of her life.