It's Labor Day Weekend Y'all!

Happy Labor Day Weekend! Woohoo! 3 days off. It will be my second 4 day work week as well since Isaac came to visit last weekend and closed schools down. There will be no cook-outs for me, though. Especially after getting on the scale this morning.

I gained 2.8 pounds. Ugh. I expected the weight gain though.

Since school has started I have been on a better eating schedule. You can't munch when you are teaching. There's one little set back though. Once I get home from school I am so hungry that I will eat anything and everything in front of me. Yes, I know this is not ideal or healthy. And then I fall asleep because I am beat from the day's work. I have to pull up my big  girl britches already and get over that.

Next paycheck I am going to order Monavie RVL. I need food rehab. I cannot trust myself with food portions right now and need to be reminded of that. A friend of mine is having success with it and that encourages me. She is also a very smart lady who I trust because I do not go into a food program like this without some research and thoughts from those wiser than me in the area of nutrition. So I'm a wee bit excited about it.

This Sunday I am going to start walking with my dad. He has gained some weight back during his unemployment (there should be a new job on the way late September) so I told him he needs to look sharp for his first day. Since I did not sign up for the Pilates classes at school - more to THAT story later- I can walk with my dad every evening after school. Having my dad as a walking partner will be great. I am glad that we live so close to each other.

Enjoy your Labor Day all of my hard working lovelies! Enjoy any cook-outs, but remember not to go overboard. You'll work clothes will regret it Tuesday morning.

Back to School

Well hi there! Have you missed me? It's been more than a week since my last post, and I know, shame on me; but my first week back to school as a teacher took over my life. I've never been in so many meetings before! Oh the life of a professional. I love it though. School has been in session for two days now and every moment of being in my OWN classroom has been pretty wonderful. I have an awesome group of 2nd grade kiddos. 

Oh, and the sleep has been great too. Going back to work has worn me out to the point that I've been in bed anywhere from 5pm - 7pm and have not thought about waking up until 6am the next morning. Quite frankly, I'm shocked that I'm awake right now. This has been optimal snooze time. Getting sleep has been a joy and I've been feeling better from it. 

On Friday I wanted to post and amazing special edition Friday Weigh-In where I not only revealed my weight loss (or gain for the week) but I weighed in on some awesome products see what I did there? I was able to test this summer thanks to Influenster. But, as stated earlier, the first week back to school for teachers kicked my butt so I did not post. I'm shooting for that awesome post this weekend. Some of the products I used rocked my socks off. 

Speaking of last Friday, I had a weight loss of 1.9 pounds. I'm rounding that and saying it's two pounds. I was very relieved. There's something to this not being home all the time to snack away on food because I'm bored. I'm hoping for at least half a pound this week. We'll see. 

If my team has anything to say about it, I'll be svelte once the weather cools. HA! What a joke, weather cooling in Florida. But once it does, and I'm saying it loosely here, one of the amazing 2nd grade teachers mentioned walking around campus for about 20 minutes a couple times a week. I'm all for getting some cardio in. Plus, through the wellness program my school board offers, there will be Pilates classes offered at my campus twice a week for 10 weeks starting in Sept. I'm all over that! There cannot be any excuses if I participate in that because I'll already be on campus. All I have to do is change into some comfy work out clothes which will not be hard considering my "dress clothes" are very uncomfortable come 3pm. 

The school year is looking bright. Whenever one starts I feel like I get to experience New Years Day all over again. It's a fresh start for one and all. 

Friday Weigh-In

Hello my lovelies! Friday is here and I could not be happier. My week has been full of new teacher training mixed in with setting up my classroom. I am whooped. Honestly, I am not complaining because I am happy to be busy again. It feels good.

What doesn't feel good, however, is gaining back 2 lbs. I am back at 247.2 lbs. This is not shocking news since I was a very bad girl this week. There were two Taco Bell runs, a Boston Market outing, a lunch at McDonald's, bagels for breakfast, a chocolate chip cookie, Cody's, Tarpon Pointe, Don Pabolo's, and Jersey Mikes involved. Not to mention a bag of Doritos. Oh goodness I can't wait to be totally in control of what I eat again!

This week I had to participate in 3 days of new teacher training where breakfast and lunch was graciously provided for us. Since I have this weird fruit phobia (don't ask, I'm still trying to figure it out) I went for the bagels for breakfast two days in a row. Then for lunch one day I had a beef dip sandwich with fries, another day the MEA provided yummy croissant sandwiches that weren't too bad nutritionally speaking; and yesterday I had lunch with my principal where I  ordered a blackened grouper sandwich with fries. Yesterday I had one pork and one chicken tamale with refried beans and Spanish rice for dinner. These were not smart choices and they were not taken care of with exercise. I was too darn tired, which is such a lame excuse.

Some of my food choices for this week were out of my control and I had to roll with it. Living off of free food and gift cards to certain eateries makes smart choices a little difficult. I'm dreaming of the day when I can eat celery again! I need to suck it up and work out too. I wish I was more athletic like my brother. He LOVES staying active. In fact he plays softball, tennis and football with friends and in leagues. Why did that gene skip me? When I think of having to lace up my sneakers my body just groans.

I was complaining about the fact that after work I  just want to go home and not work out. One of my colleagues said, "Well everyone does." That simple statement made a big impact on me. It's true. No one, unless they are really into fitness, wants to put in another 30 minutes to an hour sweating it out after a full day of work. What makes those people who do it different from me is that they actually do it. Last night when I came home from Don Pablo's I saw a woman in my complex running at 9:30 p.m. It was late, it was dark and she still found the time to run. She could have come up with a million excuses but instead she had a her butt out there running.

I need to stop talking and actually DO more. Yes, it is true that I cannot do too much for running until I can afford to buy proper shoes but that doesn't mean I should blow off my walking dates with Leslie from Walk Away the Pounds. I can still do that until I get some running gear.

It's a journey to a life style change and sometimes during a journey you lose your way. In my case it is a lot, but as long as I get right back on track again I am still on my way. Bring it on new week. I've got this!

Friday Weigh-In

Why yes, it is another Weigh-In, Friday Edition. I'm going to make the change to weighing myself on Fridays instead of Thursdays. 1.) I probably won't have energy during the rest of the week once school starts. 2.) Seeing weight results closer to the weekend kept me more motivated to not cheat during the weekend. 3.) I just felt like it. Oh, and I'm not doing Weight Watchers anymore so that is part of it too.

Before I go into that detail it is time to share what the scale displayed this morning. It read 245.2lbs. I was angry at first because I thought  it was a weight gain. It's not like I was a bum all week who did nothing and ate everything in sight, but when I logged it in my weight tracker I saw it was weight lost of 0.2 lbs. I was able to get on my with my day without hating the world. As long as the number keeps going down I'll be happy. As I've heard before, it took a while to put the weight on so it will take a while to get the weight off.

Now, I know you are all thinking, "What?! She stopped doing Weight Watchers?" Yes I did. No it was not a rash decision. Lets be honest about this. If I was sticking to the plan the correct way I would have been losing more weight. I wasn't following it exactly and so it was a waste of my money that I could put toward other important things. What Weight Watchers became for me was a security blanket. It made me feel like I was doing something when in reality I really wasn't.

Instead of focusing on making smart choices with my food I focused mainly on how many points something was and ultimately it led me down to a  path of food destruction. It  made me feel deprived because I'd choose food with low points that had little nutritional value just so I could have a larger quantity of food throughout the day. I'll say it - I'm a food addict. If I wasn't one I would not have gotten to this, my heaviest weight. Weight Watchers just was not doing it for me anymore.

The last huge weight loss I had, the 1.8lbs was done on good old hard work and eating small meals throughout the day. And I wasn't stressed about it either. Stress is not healthy and does not help with weight loss. This week's weight loss was based on the same concept of eating small meals and working out. However, the meals weren't as nutritional as the week before (bottom of the barrel food options because it was rent week and so it was pasta and canned soup) but I did it.

So here's to a successful weekend. I'm looking forward to tomorrow night when I get to see a friend I haven't seen in ages. Have fun ya'll!

Friday Weigh-In

Happy Friday, lovelies! Is it just me or has this week seemed kind of slow? I'm just happy that it's the weekend and I get to see my hubs. I got a few texts this week that read "Working later". I hate those texts.

Did you notice something weird about today's title? If you figured out that it did not say "Thursday Weigh-In" you are the winner of a chicken dinner. Yesterday was apartment inspection day starting at 9:00 a.m. I woke up extra early so I could do detailed cleaning because I have never experienced an inspection before. Was maintenance going to look at every little nook and cranny? Did I want the front office staff to see the dust on my nic-nacs? I didn't want to take any chances, but in getting up early and focusing on that I had forgotten to weigh myself that morning; so I decided to wait until this morning instead.

Here are today's results. The scale smiled back at me with the number 245.4. Yuppers, that is a 1.8lbs weight loss for this week. Go me!

Here's the deal though. I did not go to spin class at all this week because I was organizing classrooms on both class days. On Monday I helped my friend with hers and on Wednesday I met up with my team leader so I could start figuring out what I wanted to do with mine. This does not mean I did not work out. There was a lot of heavy lifting involved. I had to move boxes from my second floor apartment to my car and then take those boxes to my classroom. I had to move furniture around, which by the way, moving filing cabinets is not a lot of fun. I also went back to my favorite work-out DVD for some structured exercise. Walk Away the Pounds: Walk and Kicking is the best DVD I have ever purchased. I love it.

Exercise was a part of this week's success and so was the diet. I managed to eat like a regular person. I didn't over indulge on anything (okay maybe a devil dog or two once I finished baking them) but that was it. As far as breakfast, lunch and dinner was concerned I was all about resisting the urge. I think the non-wiches helped too. We don't have bread in the King household this week but we do have meat and cheese. No bread, but meat and cheese makes a non-wich.  Life without bread has been good too.

This week's weight loss just motivates me to continue what I'm doing. I hope you are motivated this week too. Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday Weigh-In

1.6 pounds back on. How the heck did that happen? I know how it happened, it's called "the weekend". How can just two days ruin an entire week's worth of hard work? There is no one to blame but myself since I decided to let myself derail from my schedule.

My sister-in-law came to visit this past weekend. I haven't seen her since January which made me excited. When I get excited I have a difficult time sleeping. Friday night my husband's friend came over and we stayed up too late talking and catching up. Then I slept in until 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon and my sister-in-law was in town by 3:30 p.m. Needless to say I didn't get any jogging in. 

We chatted until about 6:00 and then took a ride over to her grandmother's for dinner. It was hamburgers, potato salad, home fries, and corn on the cob on the menu. I thought I did alright, but ice cream cake was involved to celebrate Gramie King's birthday. Why?? I have the biggest sweet tooth on the planet!

Well we got back home and my husband's friend came over again so he could see Jackie and once again we stayed up way too late. I always get the munchies when I stay up too late. It was chips and salsa for this girl and no way to work it off because you better believe I slept in on Sunday. 

Sunday afternoon Jackie and I met up with our friend to get lunch at Sonny's BBQ. I budgeted my points accordingly that day so Sonny's didn't break the bank, but when we got home from lunch we chatted some more until it was time for Jackie to leave and I fell asleep as the result of my nocturnal weekend. 

In the caloric area of my life I stayed on track after the weekend, however in the physical activity department I kind of slacked.Friday I jogged and Monday was spin class; that was about it for physical activity. Every day I've been staying up later and later so naturally I sleep in later and later. It's not healthy. I'm not disciplined enough to get back on my sleeping schedule knowing I have absolutely nothing to do during the day. I cannot wait to go back to work! 

Today is the start of the new Weight Watcher's week. With that said, I am going to power through and watch everything I put in my mouth, keep a watch on my sleep schedule, and get this the 1.6 pounds gone. My new favorite word is going to be "NO!" 

On the bright side, I have been drinking lots more water. I'm a soda addict but thanks to my Tervis Tumbler I find drinking water much more enjoyable. It's the little things that make me happy. 

Happy 4th of July!

Woo hoo! It's good old 4th of July in the beautiful United States. I love this holiday. The 4th meant some special family time during my childhood days. My family would go to the local fireworks show where my dad helped sell raffle tickets for the fire department he volunteered for. There was music playing by live bands and so much for us kids to do - like run around freely in the enclosed football field. That was the 3rd! On the actual 4th we started going to my Uncle's in PA and a grand old family cookout with our very own fireworks display. It was a grand time. It's a little different now in FL, especially since I'm married to a man who also hates the dreaded summer heat, so I watch the fireworks on t.v. in my air conditioned apartment. I still have those memories with me.

Sorry about that trip down memory lane, but I had to!  I am also sorry about such a late posting. I've been a whirlwind of activity since finding out that I am going to be a teacher. Sadly none of that activity actually meant work-out type activity. I'll catch you up, don't worry.

Last Thursday was my weigh-in day. I am happy to show this beautiful sight-

Why yes, I was able to add a stone into my 'Pounds Evaporated" bottle. I lost another .4 pounds last Thursday which finally put me at a one pound loss. Happy chick right here. Though I'm a little nervous about tomorrow's weigh-in because, like I mentioned, my activity did not revolve around my getting healthy. I got majorly side tracked.

I am shame faced and tell you that I did not go to either of my spin classes this week. Ugh, I feel so icky too. On Monday I had to go HR to get drug testing done. I wanted the whole deed finished as soon as possible because it was THAT kind of drug test. In order to get it finished as soon as possible I had to go to HR as soon as possible that morning which meant I was going during my class time. I still didn't feel too guilty because I knew I had Wednesday's class. Yeah...

So it's Wednesday today and I did not go to spin class. I can honestly say it's not because I'm being lazy. I hurt my back. I don't know how I hurt my back. Perhaps I sat too long in one spot while I was reading for school, or maybe I strained it when I was cleaning out the last bit of bags and boxes left in my car's trunk from the move. I have no idea, but it hurts! I didn't think it was wise to stress it any further which makes me sad face because I missed spin. I think I'll walk tonight and maybe spot some fireworks.

Okay, so this was a very long post but I'll call it my 4th of July Special! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and for those of you who do not celebrate Independence Day, I still hope you have a great Wednesday!

Weigh In Update

So this post should have been available for your viewing pleasure on Thursday since that is my weigh-in day. However, I had an interview for a teaching position that afternoon and I was a bundle of nerves. I couldn't type because I was literally shaking from anxiety. It was my first interview ever as a professional so hopefully you can understand where I'm coming from. Being an adult is scary. 

Then to add to the nerves I had an interview on Friday. I couldn't type that day either even though I was up at the crack of dawn with plenty of time to post. Interviews are intense. I hope to get a job soon because I don't know if I can take it anymore. I'd rather go to spin class 4 times a week then endure those interviews. I hope to get good news this week. 

Moving on... I got on the scale Thursday morning to a pleasant number. According to my scale I weighed 246.4lbs. That's a 0.6 weight loss. I'll take it! It like removing two McDonald's Quarter Pounders from your hips. To those that say, "I just lost half a pound"  here is what one pound of fat looks like and then mentally divide that in half. That's still a lot of fat that disappeared from your person. 

Also as promised, the chronicles of my summer work. On Wednesday I went to spin class for the second time. Body snatchers most likely invaded me because I actually looked forward to going. So I get in there, get my bike adjusted, and sit down on the seat to strap my feet in when the searing pain in my behind starts. Oh my goodness, but was my behind angry at me for putting right back on that bike seat. In the words of a fellow spinner, "Will you ever get used to the pain?" 

Posterior pain aside, my second spin class was successful. I did not begin to feel sick to my stomach until 40 minutes into the class. It was a smart decision to not eat just before working out. The water I sipped did not nauseate me. I got out of my saddle a lot more this time around and even made it to 103 rpms when the time came for it. Proud chick right here! Naturally I was starving after the workout so I went next door to Smoothie King and got a delicious yogurt and strawberry smoothie which was delightful and filling. By the way, eating fruit is a big deal for me since I'm freaked out by it. Don't ask because I think I need fruit therapy. 

My awesomeness ended after spin class. I did not make it to Zumba Toning because of my cat. He had a rabies shot late Tuesday evening and was lethargic from it. It was one of the common side effects that he presented, but he was still not his energetic self when I got home from class. I thought it was best if I monitored him instead of leaving him for another hour and half to make sure he was okay. He turned back into his usual playful self a bit after noon so all was good in the world with him. Zumba is canceled for Monday. This makes Wednesday's class pretty scary looking. 

That's it for me. Sorry for the HUGE post but this chick had a lot to say. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Tropical Storm Debby has made it a rainy Sunday and I like it. 

The Proof Is In the Non-fat Pudding

What a dreary Thursday it has been in the wonderful Sunshine State. From 4:00 this morning until later in the evening it has been nothing put pouring rain, thunder and lightning. It was an icky way to spend the last day of school. Eh, it probably reflected my mood too.

I weighed in today and the results were annoying as ever. I purged a lot from my diet this week and stuck to my points so I expected a result that would make me go "Wahoo!" What I saw this morning wanted to make me throw my scale off of our second floor lanai. I'm still at 247 lbs. I learned two things from this. First, eating on my points and staying on track will keep my current weight maintained. Second, I need exercise to get the fat going.

I am not going to compare my weight loss experience to this one. That would drive me nuts. I do think, however, that my metabolism was different 4 years ago and that is why I got away with a 6 pound weight loss my first week without any exercise. Man, this means I have to break out the old Walk Away the Pounds AGAIN! I'm getting so bored of that exercise routine, but since I'm unemployed as of tomorrow, I don't dare purchase a new one. Perhaps I have to do a YouTube search for some fun things to do before spin and Zumba start on the 18th.

I'm off to a bad start with this new Weight Watchers week too. I only tracked breakfast and then I stopped. After school we went to the principal's home for an end of the school year lunch. The last I had anything to eat was 7:30 this morning and I wasn't able to eat until 2:30 later that afternoon. Another colleague and I treated the pot-luck like a buffet and went up twice for food. A lot of us did though, which proves that teachers are stress eaters. My plan is to just tell myself that my 49 extra weekly points are no longer available and count like a Weight Watchers prison warden tomorrow. And exercise.

Okay so I finished all of last week's goals. I will post a picture of my "visual representation of my weight loss" tomorrow. Now for this week's goals.

1. Get 30 minutes of movement in at least three times this week.
2. Track my points.
3. Not throw my scale off of our second floor lanai.

Now it's bedtime because I have a classroom to finish cleaning up tomorrow. Thank goodness that Friday is here and I can't look forward to sleeping in on Saturday!