*Fitness Update and a new Challenge*

Well, I think we have again switched gears and decided that Fred is going to try the gym instead of me quitting and us buying a piece of equipment. I'm spoiled regarding the equipment that is available to me at the gym...top of the line Precor ellipticals, treadmills, circuit machines, free weights, TRX, and to try and even come close to replicating that at home for ONE piece of equipment, we were looking at a miniumum of $2500 for a elliptical machine, so I'm going up to the gym Monday and talk to Chris about a trial membership for Fred. We have given ourselves this weekend to motivate ourselves into committing to a fitness routine that we both will like and continue with.

We're also going to do a little food challenge over the next few months. The first weekend it was out, I went and saw Julie & Julia (side note: I adored it, loved it, didn't want it to be over....I do not know what the critics were talking about who slammed it)...anyhoo, Julie cooked her way through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and blogged about it. Well, Fred and I have decided to do our own healthy version of that challenge....which brings me to another sub story of this post.

Neither Fred or I have ever watched the reality show The Biggest Loser, but my thinking is....{{insert evil laugh}}...that we start to watch the show (who's contestants have a hell of a lot more weight that either of us have to lose) and it may help with Fred's motivation. I know from my co-workers who do watch that some of it isn't realistic because they are at a camp where all they do is try and lose the weight, but they have also said that there are good tips and things regarding getting healthy. We like some reality TV, so this might be fun to watch for a season and see if we like it.

So how does all of my rambling tie in together? well, in anticipation of watching, I've purchased a copy of The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook and we are going to cook our way through all of the recipes in the book and I'll blog about it, or at least when I remember to...lol!

I don't know how many recipes we'll do each week, this week we're only doing one, Pineapple Teriyaki Pork Chops, but some weeks we'll try more than one. We may prepare a recipe for breakfast or lunch also. I think it will be fun!

Today I completed a MAJOR PURGE of my scraproom and did some rearranging. I was unhappy that I couldn't easily access my homemade clip it up over my workspace. I love my table, but it is wide and hard to reach across especially to the things I had clipped up above it, so I did some moving things around and I loving it....I need to clean it up some more before I'll take photos. It felt good to purge and reorganize.

Those of you that are attending the crop in Perry that Judy is hosted are going to be able to take advantage of my purge.

Have any of you did any major purging or reorganizing of any area of your home? I really feel good about what we got done this summer, from the installing of the long awaited garden shed out back, the guest room redo, Connor's headboard redo, rearranging and reorganizing the family room and cleaning out the garage (a ongoing task that will never die.)

No more projects until after the first of the year. Then I may tackle a new kitchen island.....but shhhh....I don't want to tell Fred yet, he'll just roll his eyes.

Here's the last layout that I entered in the Iowa State Fair in the two page division (I see that one of the borders is crooked, but it wasn't like that, must have happened when I pulled it out of the protector, too lazy to re-photograph):