The B**** of moving

Having been caught up in all of the things that come with moving, I have neglected the blog over the last week. One sometimes forgets exactly how much is involved with the moving process. It becomes more so when you are combining two lives into one place. The combining of our stuff actually worked out pretty well. Martina supplied all of the furniture, the kitchen ware, and the giant television, and I supplied all of the movies and books. With two key friends helping us move, we managed to get everything over to our new place between last Thursday and this Monday. As of yesterday we are completely unpacked and totally at home in our new apartment.

Among the complications of moving is food. When you are in the middle of moving and you have not unpacked kitchen ware, or you have not had time to go shop for food, yet alone prepare it, what do you do? The old moving stand by is pizza. I can recall countless times where pizza and moving went together like hipsters and complaining. In the last 2 plus years I have lived in 2 places in Woodland, 2 places in Davis and now I am in my second place in Sacramento. That is more moves than any one person should make in that short amount of time, but I think it qualifies me to say that pizza is the absolute most common moving food. If you have people to help you move, you supply them with pizza and beer. When you are worn out from packing boxes or moving boxes or unpacking boxes, you get pizza delivered. This is very difficult when you are desperately trying to minimize your pizza intake. I am not going to lie, I struggled a bit during the packing process. Pizza is just such an easy food and it is cheap to feed a few mouths with it. Generally speaking everyone loves pizza and it can appease carnivores and vegetarians. It is just such a jolly food.

Now that we are settled though, we are trying to make a strong commitment to eating at home more and cooking more. There will always be fish and chicken in our freezer. During the moving process when we went out to eat, I got salads. We ate Subway instead of Taco Bell for quick food. They are small changes, but they are dramatic changes for me. Typically moving stresses me out so hardcore, and eating has always momentarily alleviated that. I have loved to just binge on really awful food during the most stressful of times and I am at a place in my life where I am dealing with my stress in much healthier ways. It helps with the move and it is helping with me being so unbelievably broke. In the short term I spend more money on food, but in the long term, I save money. I spend more on groceries, but less per meal. It took me a while to understand that concept, but now that I get it, it is like, well duh.

The weight loss has returned as well. Many of the t-shirts that I have had for 4 or 5 years are just giant on me now, the same with many of my undershirts and even my underwear. I can look at myself in the mirror and notice the change. For someone who has avoided looking in mirrors at all costs since I was at least 14 years old, it is quite nice to look at myself and not hate what is staring back at me. No, I am nowhere near where I want to be, but seeing progress, even small progress, fills me with such calm and a quiet drive to keep doing the work. This attitude adjustment is as much of a reason for the weight loss as the diet and exercise. It is insane what a tweak in attitude can do for a person. Over the last few months many people have commented on just how much happier I seem than I have in the past. I have no idea how people saw me in the past, but I know that just about everyone can see the positive changes and that helps. I am still doing everything I can to take steps to being a happier, stronger more fulfilled Kyle.

This week begins our first week really living in our new home. I am hoping to discover some of things surrounding us. Martina has two bikes and we are near a bike path, so maybe, just maybe, I will get on a bike for the first time in a decade. We live near gorgeous houses and I am hoping to go on walks to see some of the details you cannot see from a car. We do not have tennis rackets yet, but that will happen soon. Most importantly, I feel like I want to be surrounded by people more. I want to host game nights, and have people over for dinner and movies. I want to share this great thing that is happening to me. I want to be surrounded by other people who are positive influences in my life. I am tired of living a quiet existence. I am tried of not feeling like people would want to be around me. I am awesome and it is time to start showing the world!