At RealAge.com you log on and take a test about your exercise, eating habits, vitamins and supplements, social habits, diseases or illnesses and vices like smoking and drinking.

I updated my Real Age this week and I’ve gotten SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER as a result of my lifestyle changes in the last two years. Since last year I’ve reduced my Real Age by nearly THREE years.

Chronologically I am 35.4 years old, yet my Real Age is only 32.5.

When I began my dramatic lifestyle change two years ago, I took the Real Age test. I was 33 at the time, but because of my lazy-ass lifestyle, my pack a day smoking habit for 20 years, and the demon of anxiety and depression that controlled my life, not to mention living in a horrendous environment that made me sick with allergies all the time – I was 38.5 years.

Screw That.

In 2009 I’m upping the ante again. I never want to make any changes I can’t consistently do for the rest of my life. Last year I maintained my weight at 166. Being able to maintain for one year has given me more confidence because I know I made a true lifestyle change that will last. Now, I’m ready to step it up and make more – as I wrote last week in The Secret to Weighty Resolutions.

I started on Christmas Day so it’s been 14 days. I’ve been dedicated to running before the family starts their day. And I’m doing it. Few logistical issues I’m working out, but overall I’m loving it.

It’s dark when I head out to the 1 mile track at the park, so I get to see the sunrise during my run. Awesome. That scary looking guy – the only other person out there at that hour – was sent by God to protect me. He’s getting in his morning run in, the same as I am.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I follow my run with an hour of yoga. It’s still the kindest thing I do for myself.

I’ve lost 2 pounds. I’m logging my calories and educating myself about what I’m eating. In turn, I’m making better choices based on actual facts and not just my own theories about how many calories might be or probably are in foods I eat. It’s impossible to eat consciously if you don’t even know what’s in your food.

Go take the Real Age test and come back and tell me how old you really are. Are you happy with the results? What are you going to do about it?

Oh, and check out Weighting Line if you started the year with a weight loss goal in mind.

Post from: Blisstree

I Keep Getting Younger Every Year

I was checking my statistics for Blog Fabulous when I noticed my story Anal Retentive Compulsions in 2008 was still being read. How’s that for accountability?

That was my story where I declared my New Year’s Resolution to get be so organized I could be classified as anal retentive compulsive, you know like Kate Gosselin and my mother.

It’s July. I looked around my office and the exact same pile of clutter was shoved in my drawer. The same exact pile of “get to this later” was in the same basket it’s been in for literally YEARS. Still no filing system.

In fact, the top of my desk had become – things I haven’t yet hung up in here and things I wanted to write about but hadn’t had time.

Is it any wonder my daughter’s room periodically needs to be excavated? <

Here’s one thing I know for sure – if you continually feel bad about something one thing you can do to stop feeling bad is to “just do it.”

Examples: Feel bad every time you smoke – Quit. Feel guilty when you don’t work out – Work Out.

Feel like working somewhere else when all I wanted was an office space of your own? Organize It.

I did. It took me 8 hours. No joke. It’s got files. It’s not cluttered. The stuff is hung on the walls. There’s a system. The “stuff to do later” got done – even if it cost money.

Here’s what I noticed about my messes:

The reason I didn’t do it before amounts to $8. I had attempted to buy an $8 file hanger thing for my desk drawer numerous times, but it always put me over my budget. It’s been in the cart 5 times, I put it back. Stupid isn’t it? For 7 months I couldn’t make spending that $8 important enough.

Then when I discovered the file hanger wouldn’t fit that drawer anyway and had to use the other filing cabinet.

How minor are the things I allow to distract me.

The other thing I’ve noticed is a genetic/generational tendency to believe I have to keep things or I’m wasting them and I might never get anything to replace it. I think this is about my grandparent’s depression-era anxiety and my “always be prepared” Mormon upbringing. I come by it honestly. During my grandfather’s eulogy they said, Viola you’ve inherited the biggest scrap yard in all of East Texas. And their children, my parents and aunts and uncles, are overflowing with stored crap from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Remember Suze Orman says you can not have room for new things in your life if there is so much cluttering it up.

I have everything I need. I have enough. I can get more things, even if I no longer have a use for this. I told myself as I threw stuff, basically garbage, away I’d been keeping “just in case.”

(Okay, don’t tell anyone – this is my dirty little secret – I didn’t actually throw most of it away – I stuck it in bags where it will stay for several months, just in case my need for it returns, or until I find it a good home with a needy family – baby steps. That’s in line with reduce, reuse, recycle though – right?)

It’s July. It was a New YEARs Resolution. That means I accomplished my goal a full 5 months ahead of my deadline. (Still to go a more efficient electronic organization system for emails, passwords, receipts, etc. I don’t delete most of my email either, “just in case”. )

Do you remember what YOUR New Year’s Resolution was?

Don’t feel bad – there’s still plenty of time.

Source of Images: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me

Post from: Blisstree

Resolutions Revisited

She writes about our never-ending time problem as women. We’re trying to do it all and frankly, it’s killing us. We all want to slow down. We’re tired and getting cranky.

I think she’s hit on the answer too. It’s the same answer I’ve been reading and seeing everywhere from Christine Northrup, to Suze Orman to Eat, Pray, Love to Oprah to Kate from Babylune.

We, women, must learn to say NO. Every woman I’ve been taking notes from in 2007 has told us that we must build a wall of NOs around us.

This last part of the year I’ve tried it. I quit a volunteer thing on Wedsnesday nights volunteering with teenagers. I truly believed in the cause and felt I was well-suited for it.

But, it was one less night at home with the family and it was one more thing I had to rush for and it was one more cause of friction between my husband and I.

 I sobbed while telling the leader that I was unvolunteering – I truly did feel that terrible about it. But, in the ensuing weeks, I found a level of peace by being at home on Weds that I hadn’t experienced in a while. It hurt to say no to a good thing, but the peace bought by it has been treasured.

New Years Resolution for women in 2008 – Find something to say no to.

But, do stop by and vote for Kate.

Post from: Blisstree

Say No in 2008

New York Times style writer Bog Morris has perfectly captured exactly how I feel about the world right now.

If it isn’t 2007 in your neck of the world at the moment, do check out Morris’ hilarious list of what OTHER people might start thinking about in the new year.

I would add…celebrities think about shopping for some Hanes…and tv chefs get some manners and stop chewing with your mouth full on camera…it’s not appetizing looking, it’s gross.

p.s. Mr. Morris’ thoughts about blogging are just harsh. .

Happy New Year To All.

Post from: Blisstree

New Year’s Resolutions, Anyone?