Week 7, Day 6

It's been a crazy couple of days!  Nathan woke up sick in the night on Thursday night around 3:30.  So, of course, my brain starts racing with how I'm going to get things organized for Friday.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and worked through what I needed to prepare to leave for the sub that day.  Things were made more complicated by the fact that my cooperating teacher wasn't there that day. 

While I'm doing this, I'm feeling guilty because I felt like I was more concerned about work and the inconvenience this whole thing was causing than I was about my son.  Ugh - it was awful.  When he was sick for the second time I was actually yelling at him to get to the bathroom.  The poor kid is only 5 and has only been sick a couple of times in his life.  He would just freeze when he felt like he was going to be sick.  It's not my most proud Mom moment (have you noticed most of my bad Mom moments are in the middle of the night??  I desperately need my sleep).

Anyway, I ended up staying home with the kids on Friday and got my last workout of month 1 of Insanity finished!  I can't believe I'm done the first month.  Starting tomorrow I do a recovery week and then start the max workouts.  I'm quite nervous but also excited.

I spent most of the day yesterday and today prepping for next week.  To achieve my goal of having the week ready by the night before school (Monday night this week) I have to do double duty this weekend.  If I can do it, though, I'll have all next week to prepare for the following week.  I think it's possible, but it's going to be busy this weekend.  Plus, with my university supervisor coming on Tuesday I needed to be really prepared for that lesson.

I also spent some time in the kitchen today.  I made a pumpkin pie for supper tomorrow night (we're going to a friend's house), banana-chocolate chip muffins, chicken breasts for the week, and overnight buns (which will go in the oven tomorrow morning).

I am so hungry tonight!  Yesterday I had a touch of the flu as well and ended up eating crackers all day.  I tried to eat my regular lunch but couldn't do it.  I didn't gain any weight from the day of bad eating, but I have been really hungry all day.  I've eaten well today, although I drank too much Diet Coke ... again.  *sigh* 

Tonight I restarted listening to Lysa Terkeurst's 'Made to Crave'.  I got a lot out of it when I listened to it several months ago, and I think I'll learn even more now that I'm on my own road to dealing with my food issues. 

One thing that I remember her saying is that 'If it's not on my plan, it doesn't go in my mouth.'  I need to get back to that resolve.

Well, I still have more prep to do tonight so I should get on it ...

One week sans Peter in the books!  I'm also 1/3 of the way through my internship :)

Week 7, Day 4

I had a SFL consult this afternoon.  I got to share my latest results on the scale (130.8 - yay!) and Cory went through the process of setting a SMART goal for weight loss.  As a teacher, SMART goals are what we do, so this was familiar territory.  Here's my goal:

Specific - A weight of 120 lbs

Measurable - using the scale, measurements, pictures, and the way my clothes fit (although obviously the scale is the ultimate measure based on the goal!)

Actions - journal, exercise, and good nutrition - check!

Realistic - it's definitely an achievable weight for my frame, and the time frame (see next point) is also realistic - I hope!

Timed - he suggested we shoot for 24 weeks from when I started, which would be February 3, 2013.  Truthfully I hope I can do it by January 1st - that would be awesome :)  No weight loss New Year's resolution for me this year.  I'm going to work extra hard to reach that time frame.

I did my second-last workout in month one of Insanity tonight.  I can't believe I'm at this point!  I'm a little nervous because the workouts next week are less intense.  I hope it doesn't kill my weight loss for the week.  After that they get even more intense than this past month, though, so that should more than make up for it.

Thursdays seem to be the day it hits me that another week has passed.  It's insane how quickly the time is passing.  This is good for several reasons this fall - I really can't wait to be finished my internship.  I am starting to really, really enjoy the time in the classroom, but I'm also becoming firmly convinced that this is not the season for me to be working.  I also can't wait for Peter to be home.

Ooo ... in something out of the ordinary, a friend has set up a ladies hot tub party in her back yard for next Wednesday.  I got a babysitter set up today, so I'm super excited!  Should be a nice break from responsibilities for an evening :)

Well, time to get moving ... laundry and then more prep!

Week 7, Day 1 & September Workout Summary

For some reason the crummy weigh-in this morning didn't seem to get me down.  I think I really am starting to see this as more of a long term thing.  In fact, dare I use the 'p' word to describe my choices today?  So far everything has been on-plan and eaten on time (that seems to be a big part of SFL - eating the right things at the right times).

I'm scared to mention this since I'm still having an internal debate over it, but I haven't had any Diet Coke yet today, which, after my 4 cans (yikes!) yesterday, is quite an accomplishment.  I'm feeling pretty good, and since it's already after 9:30 pm I'm going to try really hard to hold out and make it a day without any.  I'm not sure if I got past the 24 hour mark back at the beginning of the program - I'll have to check!  Right now it's definitely a craving based on routine and habit ... something I have to conquer if I'm going to get rid of the addiction.

I managed to power through Insanity's Plyometric Cardio Circuit routine tonight (with the help of some chili at supper and Super Pump Max).  Hard to believe I only have to do it once more as part of my first round of the program!  It's definitely become one of my favourite workouts.  Tonight I managed to do 43 push-ups (in sets of 3 or 4 at a time) throughout the workout.  For a girl who couldn't even manage 2 last year, I consider that quite an accomplishment!

And, here's my workout calendar for the month of September :)  I'm so pleased with the consistency!  I managed to work out 24 days out of 30.

Can't wait to move on to month 2 of Insanity!

Week Six Weigh-In

It was bound to happen sometime!  The scale didn't move at all this week :(  It was probably due in part to the crazy last few days - my choices have not been ideal.  Another reason for it is probably that I had big losses (for me) the past two weeks.

Starting weight: 140.4 lbs
Current weight: 133.6 lbs
Goal weight: 120 lbs

Left to go: 13.6 lbs!  (Hopefully this will be less next week!  My interim goal is to be under 130 by the time Peter comes home for a visit in 4 weeks ...)

Week 6, Day 7

WOW!  I feel like I've been run over by a truck tonight.  I started my planned workout and had to stop.  My back is killing me and I have no energy.  Here are my thoughts about why this might be:

1) A ridiculously busy day yesterday and a husband who left for 8 weeks in the middle of last night.  As a result, I had clean-up to do today (between errands in the city yesterday and a husband who left after packing for 8 weeks ...), I had the stress of knowing it was just me and kids for the next while, and I was just generally exhausted after being on the road all day yesterday and being up in the night last night.

2) No Super Pump Max tonight.  I've been consistently taking this supplement each evening right after supper (except for rest days).  I started using it because I found I didn't have much energy for my workouts after dealing with a day of teaching and family life and Peter already had some in the house.  I wasn't sure it was doing anything, but after tonight I'm more certain it was helping!  I talked to Cory about it on Saturday morning and he wasn't happy about me taking it (his exact words started with 'you're an adult and can make your own decisions ...'  Whenever he starts that way it means he doesn't think it's a good idea), but at this time in my life I think it's going to be use it or not work out.  I'd prefer to work out :)

3) Because I missed my workout, I didn't get the energy burst that I usually get afterward.  Thus, I've been dragging all evening and feel like going to bed right now!  Still have some prepping to do, though.

Today has been pretty much a straight struggle on the whole SFL front.  I haven't eaten great (nothing crazy, but not perfect), little water, too much Diet Coke, and no workout!  Ugh ... taken together that sounds pretty awful.  The funny thing is that, prior to SFL, I would have thought today was pretty good.  I didn't eat anything too bad (had a pita with supper - carbs - and had 5 arrow root cookies with Nutella tonight), and had more veggies and water today than I ever had before I started.  So, I think I'm going to give myself a break tonight, chalk it up to one bad day, and get ready for tomorrow.  I'm hoping my back feels better by tomorrow.

Now on to prep ...

ETA: I purchased tickets today to take Hannah and Nathan to see Toopy & Binoo live later in the month.  I'm so excited - that's their favorite show right now!

Week 6, Day 5

The weeks are just flying by lately.  Each week I get to Thursday and I can't believe that much time has passed!

Recently I've been reading a few different things that have focused on living with thankfulness and joy, regardless of your circumstances.  My sister and I have been reading 'One Thousand Gifts' by Ann Voskamp.  Some of my thoughts & quotes I liked from the first 6 chapters:

• God is ultimately good.  We can trust that, even when we don't understand our circumstances.
• Does the way I spend my time reflect my priorities?
• "Habit is overcome by habit" (p. 49) & "change takes intentionality" (p. 43).  If I want to change things in my life, I can just stop doing something, I must replace it with something else.  A life of gratitude won't happen by chance - I must be intentional about it.
•  Being thankful for the good things will help us be thankful during hard times.  It's a habit or practice to put into my life.
• I need to slow down and be in the moment.  I'm so often rushing ahead in my brain even if I'm physically present somewhere.  I've found this has made a huge difference in my life already.  I'm enjoying the kids so much more when I remember to do this.  "Life is not an emergency" (p. 73) and 'hurry always empties the soul' (p. 67).

Another thing I've been reading lately is the Finding Joy blog.  I started doing her 10 days of intentional parenting, but I'll admit I only got a few days in.  I'd like to revisit it after my internship when I have more flexibility in my day. 

As far as today went - another day, another workout.  My eating has been so-so this week - I'm interested to hear what Cory says when we have our consult in the morning!  I have been cutting down the Diet Coke, but it's not cut out completely yet.  Hopefully soon.

Tomorrow we're heading to the city to stock up on groceries.  I'm completely out of fruit and pretty much out of veggies, too!  I can't wait to fill up my fridge with healthy foods.

And, another picture of the kids for good measure:

From the first day of Kindergarten

Week 6, Day 4

Today I got some unexpected exercise in!  I knew we were doing the Terry Fox Run at school this morning, but I didn't realize it was 4 miles long.  Had I known, I would have brought my running gear.  As it is, I'm glad I at least brought my sneakers ;)  Since I had on my dress clothes I just walked, but it was a nice brisk walk.

Tonight we had a BBQ at Nathan and Hannah's school, so I had hot dogs with white buns for supper.  Definitely not on-plan and I am paying for it tonight - I'm starving.  I'm really noticing when I eat foods that make my blood sugars jump and crash.

I didn't entirely cut out Diet Coke yesterday - I had probably the equivalent of a can.  I had about half a can today, and am hoping for none tomorrow.  I only had one cup of tea this morning, but still had my 'Super Pump' drink tonight (I imagine that has a bit of caffeine in it).

Thoughts from the rest of my life the past two days:

• I think I won the worst mother award two nights ago.  Hannah and Abigail were awake from 11:30 pm - 1:30 am.  I was not pleasant or patient with them.  I really need to learn how to give them grace even when they're driving me crazy.  I've read lately how it's easy to live a thankful life when you're all by yourself and I can so see that!  It's when we have to rub up against other people's lives that the ugly starts to come out.  One tip I've read (from the book One Thousand Gifts), is to give thanks out loud in these situations.  Now if I can only remember to *do* it!
• Hannah runs to meet me each day when I get home from school and often tells me how much she misses me.  It breaks my heart and makes me even more thankful that this is a temporary season for us.
• Mom taught Hannah the song 'I love you, a bushel and a peck ...' while we were home earlier this year.  She must sing that song every night and there's nothing more special than singing it with her - her eyes dance while she sings.
• I'm more used to my classes now.  I had to teach a new one today and it was so much more stressful!  It almost felt like coming home when I had my period 5 class that I've had since the beginning of the semester.
• My students all told me that I smile a lot in class.  That made me feel great - I'm glad I come off confident and happy.  I asked them if they could tell that I was terrified the first week that I taught them and they said no way.  I was also told that I was a way too awesome teacher to fail my internship by one student today :)
• We took some family pictures this afternoon after I got home.  I love them all and will likely share more in the coming days.  Here's one to start:

It's getting late so I'd better end here for tonight!  I can't wait to post my workout calendar for September - it's very colourful :)

Week 6 (wow!), Day 2

I'm still shocked that I've been consistent with anything for 6 weeks.  To be fair, the money has probably been the strongest motivator.  If this were a free program, I probably would have tossed in the towel, or at least loosened up a bit, long ago.  As it is, I'm sitting here post-workout, eating my greek yogurt and berries.  I can't wait to pick up some new Kirkland greek yogurt this weekend.  This Superstore stuff is so gross.  But, I'm almost done the two containers that I bought - one more night should do it.

Speaking of workouts, I finished the third week of Insanity tonight.  I'm kind of sad that I only have two more run-throughs of most of the workouts before I have to switch.  Weird, I know!  I'll be taking tomorrow night off and then Saturday night, as we're staying overnight in the city.

So, tomorrow is going to be the start of Diet Coke freedom.  I have my mint green tea at the ready :)  I realized today the headaches have been slowly coming back, and I'm wondering if that's related to my consumption of Diet Coke as well.  Hopefully it is, because that would be a strong motivator to stay away from it.  I hate headaches.

We celebrated Abigail's 2nd birthday tonight, complete with cake.  I did have one piece, but that's it.  I really wanted more at the time, and it's still sitting in my kitchen, but I'm oddly not tempted by it right now.  Hopefully this is the start of a new trend - one called self-control ;)

I'm actually sitting down before 8:30 tonight.  Of course, my kitchen is a disaster, but Peter's off tomorrow, so I'm hoping he can take care of that for me.  My goal for the rest of the evening is to sketch out a unit plan for the next unit in my science class.  So, I'd better get at it!

Week 5 Weigh-In

Finally a happy weigh-in day!  This morning's weigh-in was the lowest weight I've seen thus far on the scale.

So, here we go:

Starting weight: 140.4 lbs
Current weight: 133.6 lbs
Goal weight: 120 lbs

Left to go: 13.6 lbs!

I'm down 3 lbs in the last 2 weeks.  Woohoo!

Week 5, Day 7

Weigh-in day tomorrow!  I can't believe it's been 5 weeks.  In some ways it feels like it's been forever, while in other ways time is flying by.  I imagine for the remainder of my internship time will be flying, which is good.

I've decided to postpone dealing with Diet Coke at all until our company leaves.  I just can't add another thing in right now.  He leaves on Tuesday night, so it's not like it's a long time to delay.

I played around tonight and put my starting photos beside my four week photos.  I'm not brave enough to post them online but I was very pleased with the difference!  The only thing I wasn't happy with is the side view - my stomach almost seemed to stick out more in the after pictures.  I'm guessing I was just sucking it in more in the first set of pictures, because I know objectively I lost three inches in my stomach in that time frame.  Only another three weeks until more measurements. 

I'm not looking forward to another crazy week but ready or not, here it comes ... I'm going to finish up a bit more prep work and then read for a few minutes before bed.

Week 5, Day 6

I had a consult this morning, so of course I have lots to report:

1. I really need to cut back on the Diet Coke again.  I didn't go over this in my consult (was I hiding it?  Not consciously, but probably sub-consciously ;) ), but this week I've been drinking less water and more and more Diet Coke.  My goal for this week - cut it out entirely.  Yikes!  I foresee my consumption of green tea going up drastically.  I'm not saying I'll cut it out forever, but I think I need to prove to myself that I don't need it.
2. I get to have mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving!!  No gravy or dessert, though, if I can help it.  Potatoes ... I can't wait!
3. He's very pleased with my weight loss to date.  As of this morning I was at 134.0 lbs, so according to him (he has my starting weight as 141 lbs), I'm down 7 lbs in just under 5 weeks.  I'm impressed that I'm still losing at a relatively steady pace of over a pound a week.  Normally my weight loss definitely would have slowed down by this point.  However, that said ...
4. I talked a bit about my 'wall' weight of 128 lbs.  I have successfully made it there and kept my weight there many times over the past 10 years.  However, I can never seem to break that barrier.  He told me he just had a woman breeze past her 'wall' weight, so I'm hoping I'm like her :)
5. I took an extra rest day this week.  I really feel like I need to crash on Friday nights.  So, unless I have another night I have to miss, I'll probably try and take two rest nights per week, one of them on the day suggested by Insanity, and one on Friday night. 
6. He wasn't overly upset about my few deviations from plan this week - in fact he hardly even mentioned them.  He always just talks about making 'optimal choices.'  *sigh*  Sometimes I just want the 'okay' choice ;)
7. He strongly alluded to the fact that many of the foods now very limited or 'forbidden' on my plan will be added back in once I get to my goal.  I am very encouraged by this.  While he did say that this is a healthy way to eat long term, he said that once I get to goal we'll work together to figure out which foods are triggers for unhealthy eating, and which ones I can re-incorporate into my diet.  I can't wait until I get to that point!

That's about it from me.  I keep logging my workouts and looking at month two of Insanity on the calendar.  In month two I will be doing the 'max' workouts.  I haven't even taken a peak at one of them, but the name alone is intimidating!!

Overall I'm feeling like this past week was probably my toughest one (for several reasons), but I'm feeling re-motivated for the upcoming week :)  I'm excited for my official weigh-in on Monday!

Oh, I'm also looking at buying some new workout clothes next weekend.  I really need some more if I'm going to be working out 5 - 6 days a week!   And I've already informed Peter that my reward for getting to my goal weight is a $500 clothes shopping spree (better make a budget category for it ;) ).   He's made me promise to buy myself a nice pair of jeans with part of that money.  Whenever he asks about buying jeans I always say I want to wait until I'm at a weight I'm happy with. 

Week 5, Day 4

I've determined that chili is the absolutely best pre-workout supper for me right now.  I've had it twice this week and each workout afterward has been amazing.  Peter did pick up some more Super Pump for me this week, which probably helped (it's basically a low-calorie energy drink to take before your workout), but I've had it other days where it didn't have that kind of effect.

I truly cannot believe tomorrow is Friday.  It feels like it was just the weekend.  I can see time speeding up as I get more comfortable with teaching.  I'm starting to worry about getting all the units into the course in the allotted time, which is a good feeling.  Last week it felt like my teaching time was stretching into eternity ;)

Today I had 5 arrow root cookies with Nutella.  I know, definitely not on plan, but I decided I was having them anyway.  They were my afternoon snack and they were delicious. 

I'm still working through the Insanity program (day 16 today).  I am really starting to see a difference in my stomach.  It's still flabby (a little less so now), but I can tell that underneath is getting more firm.  I don't think my abs have ever really recovered from the trauma of three babies in 3 1/2 years!

I am not foreseeing a good weigh-in on Monday.  I'm still showing heavier than I weighed in last week.  My weight loss seems to go in fits and starts.  It's very strange ...

Week 5, Day 3

I realized I haven't taken any pictures of my food lately, so I figured I'd better post one.  I asked Cory about sweet potatoes because they are on the list of approved vegetables but it says to ask your consultant about them. He said I can have them either at lunch or supper, and gave me specific amounts and number of times per week.  It was so good to have something similar to a potato at supper tonight!  It made for a much more satisfying meal.

I did a new part of the Insanity system tonight - Cardio Abs.  It was definitely an intense ab workout!  I couldn't do the moves for very long, but I'm sure it will be effective once I can.  I have to do it on days that I do another cardio workout, and I think next time I'll do the ab portion first, and then do the cardio part.  Tonight I was pretty tired after the cardio part and I didn't feel like I was able to give a good effort to the ab part.

My next two evenings have plans so I'm going to have to figure out a way to get my workouts in.  Tomorrow I think I'll put Abby down for a second nap when we get home from school (she's been having her naps cut short and she's exhausted).  I'll let the kids watch some tv and I'll get my workout in then.  Friday Peter will be home so it will be easier to take the hour.

I made salsa tonight.  I think I made it a bit spicy - oops!  Unfortunately I really only love salsa on nachos, and I'm not having many of those these days, so I won't be eating much of it. 

I found out what other classes I'll be teaching today, and which units in those classes, so I'm quite excited about that.  I don't deal well with uncertainty.

Peter comes home tomorrow - yay!  Unfortunately only for a week and then he's gone for 8, but we'll make it through.  I'll be leaning heavily on God and friends for those weeks.

I found this verse this morning - hadn't read it in the Message before:

"Why is everyone hungry for more? "More, More," they say. "More, more.". I have God's more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day". Psalm 4:6

Insanity Fit Test #2 (Week 5, Day 2)

Since I took my rest day a day early, I figured I should do my two-week fit test for Insanity before I started back into the week of exercising.  I did it tonight and I'm quite happy with the results:

I felt *much* better this time around doing the exercises, even though I was still exhausted at the end of each minute.  For those unfamiliar with Insanity, the fit test is basically doing each of the above exercises for a minute and trying to do as many as possible during that time.  I didn't let myself see my previous results when I was doing this fit test.  I think next time I'll let myself see before I start so I know what I'm aiming for.

I'm very proud of my 17 push-up jacks :)

I spent an hour tidying up the house (yes, it was that bad!) after I got home from school today.  It made such a difference in my mood!  The good thing with Peter being away is that, since everyone leaves the house in the morning, it won't get messy during the day.  (I'm not saying it's Peter who makes the mess, but when he's around the kids stay home with him ... hence the mess.)

It was picture day for Nathan at school today, and Hannah's is tomorrow.  It will be interesting to see what kind of expressions they have on their faces!  First school pictures for both of them - fun!

I just finished my yogurt and berries (I do not like the PC brand of Greek yogurt as much as the Kirkland brand - yuck!), so I'd better go hop in the shower.  Thankfully I don't have any prep for tomorrow to do, but I want to get working on the next section (periodic table - yippee!).

Week 5, Day 1

Ugh, it's been a struggle these past few days to stay on-plan!  It all started with that weird timing of brunch on Saturday and I've basically been craving and starving ever since.  I'm not sure if it's due to what time in the month it is, but I am so hungry all the time.  I also wonder if it could be to the increase in my Diet Coke consumption and decrease in my water consumption.  I've been finding it difficult to get my water in at school and I've been really wanting a Diet Coke after school.  Then, of course, I still want one after the kids go to bed, so I've been having two most days.  I guess I'll have to be more strict with myself.

Without sounding like I've been struggling too much, I did skip my workout tonight (oops!).  Peter goes away tomorrow for a few days and not long after that he'll be away for 2 months, so I wanted to spend the evening with him.  My rest day was supposed to be tomorrow night, so I just took it a night early.

There's not too much else exciting going on here.  Just putting in one day at a time of teaching.  By the end of next week I'll be 25% done - that feels like a substantial portion behind me.

I was, of course, delighted with the weigh-in this morning!  1.8 lbs in a week is decent, if I do say so myself :)  And 3" off my stomach in 4 weeks, that was very exciting!  I had Peter take pictures of me last night.  He had done the same thing in the spring, and I can see big differences already.  I can't wait to get rid of this tummy flab! 

Week 4 Weigh-in

Finally the scale was kind to me (although I'm still almost a pound higher than I saw last week).  Here are the numbers:

Starting weight: 140.4 lbs
Current weight: 134.8 lbs
Goal weight: 120 lbs
Waist: 33.5" (3" down - yay!)
Hips: 39" (1" down)
Thigh (r): 23" (0.5" down)
Bicep (r): 11.5" (0.5" up - must be the push-ups ;) )

Left to go: 14.8 lbs!

I passed the 5 lbs lost mark this week!  It sounds much better to say I want to lose 15 lbs than 20 -  I'm not sure why.  I did see 148.0 lbs late last week, so hopefully I'll be below that by the end of this week.

Week 4, Day 6

One more day in week 4!  I had a really overwhelming day today.  I was out until mid-afternoon, and didn't have control over all my food.  We had 'brunch' around 10 and basically the options were hash brown casserole and then they had one fruit tray and one veggie tray for 40 people (I didn't feel it would be very polite to grab 2 cups of veggies ;) ).  Oh, and there were muffins.  I took a small piece of hash brown casserole and a few veggies.  As a result of the screwed up eating (or at least I imagine that's why) I have been starving all day! 

One good thing from today is that I surpassed my previous record with Insanity.  I did day 11 today.  It was the 'recovery' day, which includes squats and lunges held forever.  Some recovery!  I much prefer the high intensity cardio.

The rest of the day was chaotic because the kids were *wired*!  I don't know what was going on, but they were really hyper.  I was exhausted by the time they went to bed.  I'm still feeling really tired tonight, as you can tell from my incoherent ramblings ;)

Time for bed!  I'm praying that all my kids sleep through the night tonight.  Last night Abigail was up over half the night, which is probably why I'm so tired today.

I cannot wait to take measurements on Monday.

Week 4, Day 5

Phew!  Made it through week 2 of teaching.  It is so much more work behind-the-scenes than I ever thought possible. There is a total of 16 weeks in the internship, so I'm 12.5% done.  I do enjoy the teaching part, it just makes life very hectic right now.

The scale was kind to me again this morning - hoping the trend continues over the weekend or at least that I can stay at this weight.

I checked my Garmin Connect calendar tonight and I've worked out for 12 days so far this month.   That has to be a new record for me! 

Eating has been uneventful.  I'm basically sticking to grains and fruit for breakfast, veggies and protein for lunch and supper.  Tomorrow for lunch I'm eating at the church so I'm not sure what will be available.  I'll just make do with trying to grab a veggie and protein.

I found a blog I'm really enjoy reading: http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.ca/

I am exhausted tonight - I think I'm going to take Friday nights off of pretty much everything.  A nice reward for making it through another week!  Back to work and prep tomorrow afternoon :)

This blog is getting quite boring - sorry ;)  I'm sure I'll fall off-track at some point to make it more exciting.

Week 4, Day 4

The scale was kind to me this morning :)  Now if only it can stay there until Monday!

I managed to prep quite a bit of stuff today for class and we're doing labs next week, along with a test.  Should be a relatively easy week for prep.  I should try to get ahead ;)  I'm so excited to be done my second week of teaching.  Fourteen weeks to go.

Today was a good day eating-wise.  It was my first day with no grains after breakfast and, honestly, I didn't really notice a difference.  It's so strange.  I did eat *real* peanut butter on my toast this morning, although I got a recommendation for a good natural one from a friend later in the day.  Unfortunately I think the brand she likes may only be available in the US. 

I did day 9 of Insanity tonight.  If I can finish tomorrow's workout and then one more day I'll be past my previous point in the program.  I'm really enjoying it so far and, even better, the time I've carved out seems to work really well in this crazy schedule.

I'm going to shut this down now so I can spend a bit of time with Peter before bed!  Yay for a semi-early night.

Week 4, Day 3

Week 4 - really?  Wow! 

I was grumbling to Peter just before supper because the scale still isn't moving (grrr for still being heavier now than I was last week at this time!), and he remarked that I'm quite impatient about the whole process.  I started thinking about it and he's absolutely right.  The whole reason I signed up for SFL is because it would commit me to changing my eating habits for six whole months.  In the past, I'd be really strict and exercise like a maniac for 6 weeks to lose 10 lbs.  Then, when I stopped doing those things, I would gain it back because I would swing too far in the other direction.  So far I've been treating this whole thing like a sprint - hence being super strict and stressing if I couldn't eat *perfectly* each day.  However, if this is really something I want to live with I have to give myself a bit of a break in the short term so I don't burn out.  So, if I end up going out to dinner and don't eat the perfect meal (i.e. spaghetti and cake at a friend's house last night - I did skip the bread, though!), I can't stress about it.  I can't let this process of getting to the weight I want interfere to that extent with living life.  I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's what's running through my head tonight.

As far as the nitty gritty, I did eat a piece of cake last night (and spaghetti - so yummy!), but I didn't let that throw me off-track.  Today I started off with my regular breakfast and ate fine all day.  I tried a new recipe for supper tonight that was surprisingly good (I was skeptical and in a grumpy mood - see above ;) ).  It will definitely go on the keeper list.  Tomorrow will be my first day with grains at breakfast and not at lunch.  I'm a bit nervous about that, but doing it on a work day should help.  I don't have time to think about eating as much.

The greek yogurt and berries is growing on me as an evening snack.   I'm into my second week doing Insanity and it's good.  I have two more days and then I'll be at the last day I've ever gotten to in the program. 

Next Monday is a big day for me - I'm going to do my second fit test for Insanity (you basically do 8 different exercises for a minute each and count how many times you can do them).  I'm hoping for improvement in the numbers there.  It's also weigh-in day (obviously), but also measurements day.  I'm really hoping for improvements there, too.  I noticed yesterday that my fall jacket is much looser around the stomach and hips than it was in the spring :)  Progress!

The teaching is insanely busy - I can't get over it!  We've just settled into our first unit (we started off with a week working on their term project), so I feel a bit better about that.  It's Atoms & Elements, which should be fun to teach.

I am starving tonight, but it's 10:30 - I can make it to bedtime!