NSV - Increased strength and endurance!

Okay, I've been on MFP since January, have lost 10 pounds so far, and have been doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women for the last three weeks. The spousal unit had to go out of town this weekend to attend a conference in Montreal, and since it meant I had the house to myself for three days, I decided to tackle our upstairs craft room -- or what was supposed to be our craft room, but has been serving as a jam-packed storage space for the last three years -- and get it straightened out.

From Thursday evening until noon today, I was drenched in sweat, moved a HUGE amount of stuff up and downstairs (down: two folding tables, two large plastic chests of drawers, untold cardboard boxes, three large bags of trash, old picture frames, six cans of paint, and computer equipment to be donated to Goodwill. Up: a 72" wire storage rack, seven 56 qt plastic tubs, ten 16 qt plastic tubs, and an operator's chair), put together the wire rack and loaded the plastic tubs with supplies and tools, neatly stacked other stuff onto the storage shelving units the spousal unit put against the far wall, put up pictures, made curtains, and vacuumed the room.

And all the while, I kept expecting to collapse, to feel like I simply couldn't move another thing and just wanted to curl up into a ball and die. It never happened. I got *tired,* yeah, but it was normal tired, not the sick, aching all over feeling I used to get when I had to do a huge cleaning job. This time, when I got tired I'd take a break for an hour, drink some water, maybe have something to eat if I was hungry, then go back to work.

Spousal unit came home this afternoon, blinked at our now-usable craft room and exclaimed, "My God, you HAVE been busy!" And man, I feel like Queen of the World because I can do this sort of thing now!