Finally Confident

I've had this blog for awhile. I usually made one strong post about all these wonderful things - then - every time - I slip. I get busy. I get overwhelmed. I get stressed. And I EAT. When I say I eat, I mean I EAT. Everything. Constantly. A half gallon of Blue Bell, chips, chicken Alfredo, chicken and dumplings, giant cheeseburger, fruits, cookies. Yeah - in one day. It. Is. Awful. 

Thankfully, this year has started off A LOT better. Instead of the routine "I'm going to lose weight and live healthier" New Years Resolution, I sought to find the ROOT of the issue. What causes me to get stressed? What leads to over eating? What ruins my motivation? If you've never sat down with yourself to have a heart to heart about the real problem, DO IT! Do it today! It was the best thing for me.  

If you've read previous posts, you know I'm a single mom, a teacher, a grad student, and I wear several more hats with each of those titles. All of these responsibilities and my constant desire to never say no are my problems. My REAL source of the issues. 

My New Years resolution is to say no. My New Years resolution is to leave work, meetings, ETC at a decent hour. This is the end of week three. I've kept my resolution, and I'm staying on track! 

The scales are headed down. I'm feeling better. I have more energy, and I'm not stressed. 

As a teacher, I've stayed at school until 10pm. I've taken tons of paperwork home. This takes away from time with my family and time to focus on me. It isn't healthy. I love what I do, but I'm not willing to trade my entire exsistance for it. I've started leaving by 4pm. I've started leaving work at work. 

At home I cook, I excersice, I play with my son, I work on graduate school work, and I sleep! What a wonderful thing! 

Don't let one thing bog everything down. What is your root problem? 

Back in Action

Well - my last post was about not blogging, and here I am STILL NOT blogging! It really is a goal of mine, and I plan to make it a priority. On top of teaching eighth grade Language Arts, I teach and produce the school yearbook, I teach and produce the school newspaper, I am the school PR pro handling all website, news source, and social media, I am the STC (School Technology Coach) helping teachers with technology issues (we are a 1:1 school, so we have technology everywhere), I am the PTSO teacher rep, I am the Den Leader for my son's Cub Scout den, I am a 'soccer mom,' I work part time running the online end of my mom's business, and I am working on my MA in Gifted/Talented Education through a hybrid program that requires me to travel four hours away between one and two Saturdays each month plus a good chunk of online work. As you can tell, it's run-run-run! Thankfully, I enjoy every second of every thing I have the opportunity to do. 

While my holidays have not gone well, I can at least say I have not gained weight. I've stayed in the same range. Thankfully, I am motivated to lose weight and have been doing well sticking to things!

This chart is from My Fitness Pal. As you can (embarrassingly) I yo-yo between 320-325. I am ready for this number to plummet! It is hard work, and it is my hard word to do. I am posting this for accountability. 

I took my FitBit off over the holidays. We were traveling a lot, and I was enjoying some down time. Thankfully - I am back on it. Since school started, I have worn my FitBit. I do not allow my day to stop until I have reached at least 10,000 steps. 

I love the PACT app. It is wonderful for accountability! I am starting out slow as school starts back, but soon I will be back to my normal routine (4-5 workouts, 5-6 food logging days, and 25+ veggies). I'm almost to $100! That will be a nice chunk of change into my bank account when I feel I deserve it.

I am not necessarily counting calories religiously, but I am keeping track of what I eat. As you can see, I had McDonalds yesterday. While I'm not proud of that, I am proud that I tailored my dinner, snacks, and workout to compensate for that. 

Cheers to a new year with new motivation and new results!