Pocketful of Joules

You guys.
REALLY, you guys!

You totally brought a tear to my eye and a scream to my face.
Or wait, throat?
Um… mouth?

Whatever, I was screaming like rabid howler monkey with ants in his pants and it was totally YOUR fault!

Do you SEE that?!  Pocketful of Joules is a finalist in the category of “Best Writing of a Weblog” for the 2014 Bloggies!

Out of all of the blogs in the whole wide world, you chose this one as a top 5 finalist! I’m in the same category as The Bloggess. Are you kidding me?!

World.
Rocked.

So thank you. Thank you so much for this honor. I am SO HONORED that I made it to be a finalist. Like, I can’t even STAND how exciting this is. And I fully do not expect to win, because HELLO I’m up against The Bloggess. She’s hilarious and a best-selling author, so I’d totally vote for her!

It WOULD be pretty cool though if I won. Right?! I mean, little ol’ me… WINNING the 2014 Bloggie Award for “Best Writing” would pretty much make my year…

So, let’s see if we can make that happen! Take 3 minutes and stop by the 2014 Bloggies website and cast your vote for your favorites from each category of finalists.

Voting is open until March 23, 2014 and you can only vote one time with each email address. Once you submit your vote, you will receive a confirmation email back to your account. You click that link and BOOM you’re done. And you made my day all over again.

If I actually do win, I’ll write a ridiculous acceptance speech and upload it to Youtube for you all to laugh at. Or maybe have a giveaway of some of my favorite things to celebrate. Or both.

Thank you again. In all honestly I am blown away and so grateful!

In case you haven’t been following along with my DietBet, you can catch up here:

Post #1: Challenging Myself with a DietBet
Post #2: My DietBet: The Halfway Point
Post #3: My DietBet: The Final Countdown

For those who want the short & sweet version: I bet $30 that I could lose 4% of my weight in 4 weeks. At the end of the DietBet, the winnings in the pot would be divided between all the winners (after they take their fee out). So, in addition to losing some pounds, I had a good chance at winning some extra money too.

My personal goal was to lose 8 pounds. It’s a little more than was needed for the DietBet, but my scale wouldn’t do increments of pounds. I didn’t follow any specific diet plan, I just used the app MyFitnessPal and tracked my food intake. My calorie goal was 1,200, but I was able to earn additional calories by exercising.

I started off strong. I didn’t restrict myself from eating any of my favorite foods (there was still birthday cake and marshmallows in my diet), I just reduced my portion sizes and increased my water intake. I had gotten a bit out-of-hand with sodas, so I mostly went cold turkey for the four weeks. I did have a glass of wine here and there, as well as a couple hard ciders. Because, YUM!

For exercise, I stuck to my elliptical machine. I had planned to throw in a couple double-up days where I would do an extra work out of the Jillian Michaels Shred DVD, but after one day of that I decided that I’m just not THAT hard-core.

At my DietBet halfway check-in, I was down about 4 pounds. I kept going and made it to my goal weight of 8 pounds down the Saturday before my bet ended. Then, I had a couple bad meals that weekend and on Monday my weight was back up.

Going into the weigh-in week, I was 2 ½ pounds away from my goal and I was totally beating myself up about it.

Frankly, I was having a terrible week anyways and normally I would reward myself with food and drink and more food. Four weeks of eating well was apparently just enough to get into that new habit though. I was able to resist stuffing my face. However, I really didn’t think I was going to make my goal. I posted something whiny on my Facebook page and honestly everyone’s support was what really helped me push through.

During the last few hours before my final weigh-in, I drank a TON of water and ate light. When I approached the scale, with my phone in hand to take that final picture, I felt like I had done it.

I took a deep breath and tentatively stepped on… camera ready.
And I gained 8 pounds in one day.

WHAT THE F*&K?!

I jumped off the scale, absolutely horrified. Then, in disbelief I stepped back on and got a totally different number. And that is when I realized that my freaking scale was broken.

I cleaned the dust off the bottom of the scale, turned it off and on a couple times and stepped on again… and my weight was 8 pounds down.

I WON! I WON my DietBet!

I quickly snapped my pictures and submitted them to the DietBet app. As soon as I received my confirmation email back, I could finally relax a bit… because I was finally done. And I WON.

I can’t even tell you how good that made me feel. How much I NEEDED that win. You know what else felt good? When I got an email a day later saying that I’ll receive $49.88 for winning my DietBet!

My weigh-in was last Tuesday and I’ve relaxed my diet a little bit, but I plan to keep on with what has been working for me. Oh, and I bought a new scale, because apparently mine was a sadistic butthole.

Now that I figured out how to work exercise into my busy schedule, it’s much easier to stick with it. And I am incredibly proud to say that as of this morning I have lost 11 pounds. I am now only 3 pounds away from my pre-baby weight from THREE years ago. I’ve never lost 11 pounds in my life (besides when I popped a baby out…), so it seems almost surreal that it’s happened.

I really have all of you to thank. Your comments, emails and Facebook notes have really helped me reach my goal. Which, of course, means that I now have a new goal… and I’m only 10 pounds away.

Have you tried a DietBet? What works best to keep you motivated to eat healthy and exercise? When you’re having a crappy week do you want to eat EVERYTHING in the world?

Are you singing a convoluted version of My Humps now?
Good, we’re all on the same page then!

Today was going to be the last Before/After Update with a look at our upstairs bedrooms. However, I realized that there have been pretty much NO changes to the rooms since my last two updates (here is the master bedroom and here is Jack’s room).

The only small update that has been made to Jack’s room is that I finally purchased the toddler duvet cover and sheets set that I’ve been wanting from Land of Nod.

Since Jack just turned two and probably won’t be in his crib too much longer, I hesitated on ordering the crib-sized bedding set. But then I realized that he’ll probably be in the toddler version of his bed (the front crib slats come off) for a year or more before transitioning to a full bed so I decided to pull the trigger. It certainly helped that Land of Nod had a 10% off discount for new customers who sign up for their emails AND were running a free shipping sale!

I’m in love with the thicker stripes on the duvet cover next to the thin stripes on the crib sheets! At this point, I didn’t bother putting the flat sheet on and will add that in once we make the transition… probably in a few months. I also really like the way that the stripes play off of the checkered pattern on the little stool next to his bed. You KNOW how much I love mixing patterns!

Since you’re not getting a full update, I thought I’d give you a look at the room that drives me crazy. It started out as our old office and the 10 year old desktop computer still lives there, even though I stole the desk it was on. Then, when we got our elliptical we figured that would be a good place to keep it. I added my toolbox for easy access. Then, I stored some of Jack’s outgrown toys before I donated them.

That is when Jack found the room and decided that the outgrown toys were THE  BEST TOYS IN THE WORLD and he wanted to play in there.

Now, I block off my elliptical with a couple of those big green bins and use it while Jack makes the biggest mess he can out of all the toys.

This is the ‘cleaned up’ version of the room…

This is the “office corner” which stores our old computer, a temporary folding table to hold it and all of the office stuff is shoved in those plastic containers. So classy, right?!

Next we have the “exercise/tools corner,” which is also joined by a bookcase of old textbooks, magazines and more tools.

We can’t forget about the “toy corner” which not only has outgrown toys, but Jack’s old highchair and a filing cabinet that needs to move into my new office.

Here is a close up of the wallpaper border. I hate it and I’m really dreading the removal process.

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was thinking about converting a room into a playroom and this is the room I’m thinking of changing. However, it won’t be able to be ONLY a playroom… and will still have to function as a mini office AND exercise room too.

It should work though, with a few inexpensive tweaks.

Here are my initial thoughts:

In the office area, I’m going to switch out the folding table with this minimalistic desk and mini filing cabinet (to hold everything currently in bins). I probably won’t buy this exact chair, but scoop one up at a thrift store and paint it a bright green. For the playroom area, I’m in love with this tent! We already have a similar car rug and kiddie grill, so I can’t wait to set them up in the space. For toy corralling, I like this organizer from Target that is only $40. I have all the store and pricing information on my Pinterest page here if you are interested in checking anything out.

Once I remove the wallpaper border and fill all the wall holes left over from the last owners, I’ll probably paint the whole room a light shade of blue. Or green. Or greenish grey. I’m not quite sure yet, but will keep you posted!

Tell me, do you have rooms in your house that serve multiple functions? How do you keep the room from becoming a mess of EVERYTHING?

You guys know how I’m kind of a softy for subscription boxes, right? Well, I recently saw one from a company called Fair Ivy that I just had to try.

For $25 each month, you can receive one handmade jewelry gift. You can also upgrade to the “Duet” box for $35 each month and receive a variable item in addition to your jewelry item.

After checking out their Past Surprises link I decided to go with just the jewelry item and was looking forward to something handmade and original to add to my collection.

Only a week or so later, this cute little box showed up at my house.

Inside the box was this:

A little hammered metal charm on a delicate necklace by Grey Goose Gifts (you can check out their etsy shop here).

The necklace is quite pretty, however it is really very tiny. I probably wouldn’t wear it alone, but would layer it with one or two simple necklaces I already own.

It seems as if most of the necklaces sent as a Fair Ivy surprise are delicate and simple, like the one I received. I liked many of the ones on the Past Specials section a bit better though — they just seemed more… I don’t know… special? A lot of them had mixed metals with a homemade imperfect feel. Maybe I’ve just grown used to the clunky statement necklaces I’ve been wearing lately, but I’m not sure I would have wanted to pay $25 for the necklace I received (as it was, I received a special blogger discount to review the service).

I really like the concept behind Fair Ivy though and have signed up to receive one more box next month (and I’m paying full price).

What do you think? Do you love the simplicity of the necklace or would you have been disappointed with the surprise?

If this is something that you would like to try for yourself, you can use the code FAIRIVYFRIEND to get $5 off the first month of any of their subscriptions.

Disclosure: I received my first Fair Ivy box at-cost and paid less than the $25 subscription fee in order to review the service. However, I will be paying for the second month at the full price.