The Great Pack-and-Move Experiment, Part 2: Lessons Learned, and You Folks ROCK!!!

A great big THANK YOU to all of you who have stuck with me through the silence brought on by this Great Pack-and-Move. And an equally huge, special THANKS to all of you who have liked/followed me on the social media during this quiet time.  It has meant a lot to me, and has helped  me get my derriere back in the chair and write.

Hubby and the Toddler and I are in a rental house now, and we’re wrapping up getting ourselves out of the old apartment. (I finally got the last of my kitchen over here this week, but some of it is still in boxes!) I should be able to post a bit more often now, but publishing will continue to be erratic  for a few more weeks. I’ve updated the main About page to reflect this, and I’ll update it again when things change.

While I sift through boxes—and sift through notes for the more useful information from this experiment—here are two of the main lessons I’ve learned so far.

1. It’s possible to shut down the kitchen too early.

I wrote in Part 1 about the idea of shutting down one’s kitchen when it’s time to move. I had a vague idea of stocking up with some homemade frozen meals and then just living out of the freezer for a month or so. It was a great idea, but you have to know how many meals to make!

I tried to cook ahead while we were still in the “pack a little while house hunting” phase of the move. Hubby and I both got frustrated that I was cooking instead of packing, and I would get even more frustrated when a few days or a week later I would be cooking again.

It all got better after we signed a lease and I had a target move date. Then I was able to say, “Okay. I need X breakfasts and Y suppers, and I need to have food around for Z lunches and snacks.” I cooked and stored the breakfasts, planned the suppers around a combination of pre-frozen and the slow cooker, and baked up the last of my almond meal into “corn” bread and chocolate cake. Then I was finally able to take my mind off feeding us and concentrate on packing and moving us. Everything was much easier, and much less frustrating, after I had that target date and some definite numbers of meals to work with.

So I’m now thinking that I started out by misapplying my friend’s advice. Knowing you’re going to move isn’t enough. You have to know exactly when you’ll move before you can plan the details of shutting down a kitchen. (At least if you’re going to feed yourself out of said kitchen during the move.)

2. Keep your support systems in place til the last minute.

I decided I would be serving the cause wisely by staying away from my usual online haunts. Less time online = more time packing, right? Only it didn’t quite work that way.

I still gave myself “down time” from the moving drama. And in all honesty, I probably needed it. But I wasn’t giving myself this blog, or the LowCarber forums, or the other online reading and writing that keep me motivated to stick to this way of eating. In the past couple of weeks, I have found myself more likely to try and sneak a cheat.

There were a couple of isolated cheats—one was some pizza crust, and the other was a hamburger bun—but the kicker has been the coffee.

Just before this Great Experiment started, I realized that too much coffee would sabotage my weight loss. I had begun to cut back, and I had hit a new low on the scales. But I stopped bothering with that once I stopped the online support habits—and now I’ve gained back six pounds.

It’s a small gain in the greater scheme of things. I’ve still lost more than 30 pounds, even after adding those six back in. And I’m confident that I can re-lose them and continue to lose. But that gain might not have happened if I had stuck with my support systems and kept myself more motivated.

The bottom line? If you have a special diet and you’re needing to move, explain to your partner(s) in the move that you absolutely will stick with your support system for as long as possible. Sure, compromise on how often and how long if you have to, but don’t just drop it for a month like I did. You don’t need to add to your stress and frustration!

Final Notes

When all is said and done, though, my loss is your gain. (Or my gain is your gain? Or something.) Because now that I know this blog is one of my motivators, I’ll be at it more often.

In the next installment in this series, we’ll take a closer look at some of the things I got right (like those breakfasts and suppers), as well as some more things that could have been better.

Until then, Happy Eating!