Experiment: 80 Days to Lose 180lbs

As many brides do, I am setting out to lose some weight before my wedding. My goal is pretty aggressive: Starting Wednesday May 30th, I will have 80 days to lose 180lbs. Now, if you've ever looked at me, you might be thinking "I don't mean to be that person that gives my unsolicited opinion about your weight, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't lose 180lbs." But I assure you, I can lose 180lbs in a safe and healthy way in 80 days. For, while I know my body only weighs 141lbs, I have no idea how much my life weighs. See what I did there? I totally tricked you!

So, over the course of the 80 days leading up to my wedding, I am going to donate/discard/sell 180lbs of 'stuff' that is currently weighing me down in hopes that I can enter my new marriage and life adventure less encumbered by material belongings. Why did I choose the numbers 80 and 180? Well, our wedding date is 8/18 so I thought 80/180 seemed fitting. Admittedly, looking at 180lbs is a bit intimidating, knowing that I have already purged my place of lots of clutter in the last 6 months of my minimalist journey. When I tossed the idea around of decreasing the number to 100lbs to be a bit more manageable, my roommate met me with the Norman Vincent Peale quote: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Choosing to disregard the astronomical inaccuracy of the quote, I thought, I figured a goal that is a little bit scary is the way to go. If I fail, I can always just delete all the posts and pretend like it never happened to save face. That's what mature adults do. Right?

So, here are the rules:

1. Weight will be rounded to the nearest pound.

2. For each item(s), I'll provide a brief explanation on either why I kept it for longer than necessary, why I'm getting rid of it, and/or what I plan to do with it.

3. Packaging for things like food and/or consumables doesn't count.

4. No more than 4 items can be furniture - Otherwise, I'd be done a couple days and that's no fun.

5. I'll do my personal best to weigh my items on my bathroom scale. If I can't for whatever reason, I will look up the approximate weight for similar items using the almighty Google.

6. I'll post my progress on Instagram (@ObeyTara11) at least 1/week.

I'm pretty sure no one watching me walk down the aisle will be thinking "Wow! She's lost so much weight." But, I do hope my new lightness will be palpable in my joy, my twirl, and my smile.