Should You Be Eating That?

 *a little dramatic and fictionalized to make a point...no one get your boxers in a bunch*

 With a simple announcement, every bum, large and small, lifts from chairs and makes their way to what never fails to be a buffet of treats...donuts, mini candy bars, muffins, sodas and more. "Ok, people. Let's take a 10 minute break. Get up, walk around, have some of the delicious snacks Mrs. J provided us."

Ahhh, what to do, what to do.

I stand, I stretch, and I think... "I work out almost every day. I eat healthy foods as much as I can. I drink water. I'm losing these last few pounds, and I feel great. Half a donut is not going to break me. I know I can get right back on track and continue on my path to health and fitness."

And so I meander over to the buffet, tearing a donut in half and taking a few mini candy bars to snack on during the presentation. I grab another water bottle and head back to my table... But what is it that I hear from behind me???

"Oh, I can't believe she is going to eat that! After all the work she has done!" I keep moving.
"I'm pretty sure that isn't in her diet plan!" It isn't a diet, but whatever.
"Only half a donut? And water? Guess she is trying to show us up!" Eye rolling at this point, right?
"I knew that this health kick was never going to stick." Oh, what they don't know...

And then there are the comments made to my face... Which are worse? Who can tell?

"So, I see you've given up on that health thing." Noooo.... half a donut is not giving up. It is a calculated choice made amongst many more healthier choices. It isn't the end of the world. It is a fried piece of dough. Big difference.

"You know you are going to have to go back and get that other half." No, I don't know that at all. I know how to stay in control. This is a choice, not a requirement or some uncontrollable urge. Geez.

"You're going to regret eating that when you get on the scale." Really? Like you will regret the 2 donuts on your plate or like you will regret not joining me in trying to get in better health and fitness when I offered to be your accountability buddy?

The commentary could go on and on. And although this exact situation is fictional, I have experienced some of these things in different settings and situations. The point is, people sometimes try to knock you down, make you doubt yourself, weaken you with comments. It happens. If you are trying to get healthier and fit, expect it from someone., maybe even your family members. Maybe it is jealousy. Maybe they are truly concerned for you and this is how they show it. I don't know, but I do know that you have to keep your head up. Words are words. Your actions, your choices, your determination and drive...these things are what will make a difference in YOU at the end of the day. :)

Weight is Just a Number

"Weight is just a number." I bet you have heard that before! I have too, and I truly believe it deep down. But knowing this, believing it, and then pushing confidence-killing thoughts out of your head are very different things.


I really use the scale too much. I know this, and I can admit it. I've gotten better. I used to hop on that thing so often, and the numbers rarely made me feel good. My goal is to just weigh myself once a week. I weighed myself earlier this week and was super-psyched to see a 1.5 lb loss. I've been tracking everything I eat, working hard, and I saw those numbers and thought, "Wow, I am on the path to success!"

After starting my new workout routine and doing some serious weight work, my muscles have been just screaming. I don't mind the feeling...it feels like change to me! But the scale...the scale I should have avoided...was the bearer of some bad news. It told me I had gained 2 pounds! I know that I have some water retention. I'm being sensible here, and I recognize that this isn't because I'm not sticking to plan, or because I have truly gained fat.

All the same, those numbers... oh, those dirty, rotten, evil numbers are real crushers! I'm sure I had a look on my face that matched my feelings...a little broken down and frustrated.

Here's the deal. They are numbers. I'm working hard, and I'm sticking to my plan! I feel good! Can I wear those Miss Me jeans I'm dying to wear without muffin top explosion? Not yet...but I'm headed in that direction. How can some numbers ruin that? They can't!!!

If you are reading this, the chances are that you know how I feel! It sucks! Look around you. Look at your "ups" and not your downs. Look at your true value, in the eyes of God or even in the eyes of your kids and family... That value is great. Far greater than some number on a scale. :) Weight is, after all, just a number.

Define Your Goals!

I've worked pretty hard this week... and my prize for challenging myself? I've lost 2 pounds! Poof, gone, never wanna see them again! :)

I super excited about some of the challenges I have coming up, especially the Beachbody Challenge, which I will definitely be posting about Monday morning to all of you guys ready for it! Reaching our goals, whether they be weight-related or health-related or even just personal or involving work, challenges and contests alone won't help us. We need to DEFINE OUR GOALS.

I want to lose weight. Ok, so that is a goal. However, that isn't a very clear and well-defined goal. I could get sick with the flu, weigh myself 3 days later and have lost weight. It doesn't mean I've met my goal!

I want to look good. Okkk. Makeup and hair can help you "look good." What does that phrase mean to you? It isn't very specific. Define your goals!!!

Here are my goals that I hope to meet through my upcoming challenges:

1. I want to lose 10 pound by working out with Turbo Fire and Chalean Extreme 6 days a week and through healthier, cleaner eating. 
2. I want to write down every little bite, lick, and taste (BLT) I consume to become more aware of what I eat, when and even why. I will track my water and my hunger levels as well.
3. I want to fit comfortably in my Miss Me jeans... no muffin top here!

What are your goals???

Next time... Setting a time to reach your goals.

Fired Up for some Challenges!

First I gotta toot my own horn... I did my Fire 55EZ...and I worked especially hard at putting more power into my jumps and not pausing to take mini-breaks. Yes, I do that sometimes. Shame, shame on me!

Now, I have so many awesome challenges going on! I've decided to start working out after school with some peeps to hold each other accountable and not just go home and plop our hides down on the couch.

I've got a 30-Day Wellness Challenge I'm participating in. Oh, I love winning prizes and hope to win one, but even more than that, I hope that I can make some positive habits form over the next 30 days.

And I have a Turbo Fire group I've joined! And the most exciting of all: Beachbody Challenge!!! Yep, it is that time! I'll be posting lots of good info on that Sunday, so check it out! I would be cool with my fluffy self being up on a billboard if I had a rockin' "after" pic and some dinero in my pocket! Bring it on!

So why all the excitement about these challenges??? They...

1. Us the "buddy system" to help us be accountable to others. It is much more motivating when you know others are looking to you to step up and get on with it! Having others to chat with, share issues with, work out together, and motivate one another is soooo important! Find a friend!

2. Prizes! As if getting in shape and feeling fantabulous isn't enough, the truth is we like winning stuff! Who doesn't? Many challenges use prizes (money or even tiny things, like a t-shirt) to help motivate folks to get off their duffs. It works for me! I may not win money in the BB Challenge, but I will get a blingin' wristband and a t-shirt. I'm cool with that!

There are so many other reasons why you should look to others and join in on challenges, whether they are through social networks, work, or just with your group of friends. Get motivated, share, learn, experience and find success with each other...together! Brilliant! Look for more on challenges and contests to help you get fit and feeling fabulous!

The Before Pics... and an After (scary!)

Ok, guys. This is scary business... I want to post some before pics... Here are a few pics taken before I started Turbo Jam, which will always be my first ever workout program. Gee, I may have to pop it in today just to relive good memories lol!

After doing Turbo Jam for over a year I looked lots better... like this! Yes, it is cheesy but oh well!

I am having my hubby or daughter take some more recent after pics this weekend. And... I need to take some before pics for when I start my Chalean Extreme/Turbo Fire hybrid!!!

Hello My Chocolate Friend!!!

I haven't done so well on my cleanse. It is the ugly truth. I'm not going to lie and say I finished it... I didn't. *sigh*

But I'm moving on and going to keep working on forming my new habits. I have been loving Shakeology for a month now, and I've been working with the Greenberry, trying new recipes and fruit combos, but thanks to my FedEx buddy... Chocolate Shakeology is here now!

Hello, my chocolate friend!!! Dessert for breakfast?! And it will be the healthiest thing I put in my body?! Oh, yesssss.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Shake (4 WW points)

1 scoop chocolate Shakeology
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1 cup fresh strawberries
Ice

Yum!!! Great way to start my day! Workout... I'm thinking Turbo Fire 30 and Tone 30! Bring it on!

Cleanse Crazy!

So here is the deal, peeps. I screwed up my first attempt at the Shakeology 3-Day cleanse. I have since found out, after beating myself up over it, that this happens to a lot of people. Things like this take commitment and take some serious resistance to our old habits. But no sense falling off a horse and walking away forever...just get back on!

I ate a lot of junk on Sunday with my family, and Monday, when I started my cleanse again, I paid for it. I fell off that horse again...only for a day. Yesterday, I hopped back on and cruised through the day without breaking "the rules" or cheating on the plan! No tummy problems, no hunger, no fatigue... I felt high energy and just great in general. I'm considering that DAY 1 due to the Monday snafu.

Today is DAY 2 of the cleanse. I'm feeling positive and determined to make this work. I have some friends who are doing it too, and the "buddy system" really helps! I can't wait to get back to you with the results! Off to my beloved blender and bag of Shakeology!

UPDATE: I went out of town yesterday and ended up at Subway...where I enjoyed Oven-Roasted Chicken with tons of veggies. And the bread. So I messed up a bit there. Even so, that is ok. Then an upsetting event happened (lets just say I got puffy-eyed big time), and I did a bad, bad thing. I told myself I didn't care. I told myself it didn't matter. I told myself I deserved happiness in a Sonic bag. Only problem is... happiness doesn't come in a Sonic bag, folks. And I knew that!

I won't dwell on my eating catastrophe, but, rather, I will point out a positive... I didn't eat it all. I threw out half of the cream slush. I ate only 2/3 of the Chicago dog. I gingerly ate only 1/2 of the tots. The old me would have woofed it all down. I didn't. And that is still important because it shows I have grown some. I am making progress. Sometimes that is what we need to do. Look at positives even within the negatives. There is always, always something...even if it is small.

Shakeology

I have just loved experimenting with my Shakeology, creating new recipes and trying new combinations of fruits and milks. I've been using Shakeology for 2 weeks now, and I had to get used to how green the Greenberry really was. I just wasn't expecting something that tasted so natural and raw. Now that I am used to it, I love it1 There are so many ways to add flavor excitement to my Shakeology meals.

My favorite recipe by far must be for the Key Lime Dream. Basically, I add 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 a cup light vanilla yogurt, the juice of 1 lime, water and my Greenberry Shakeology. Heavenly!

Today, however, I add to my health journey with the Shakeology 3 day Cleanse. I'm nervous about it and am afraid I will end up caving and going off the plan within a day or so. I know, it isn't positive thinking. It's just 3 days, right? :)

I will update each day so you know how it goes! Time to whip up shake #1!

Too Many Teachers Left Behind?

I am about to do a bad, bad thing. But I have given this "thing" much thought, and I truly believe that when we choose to be quiet, it is like we accept an issue and, perhaps, even agree with it. For example, when a person stands by and watches as someone is mistreated or bullied and does nothing or says nothing to stop it... Is that not just as bad?
So to get to this bad, bad thing: I am tired of being too quiet in my opinions about the current status of our education system, the treatment of teachers and students, and "No Child Left Behind." As a teacher, it might just be best to shut my mouth and be grateful that I still have a job at this point, for I know many others are not so blessed. However, we in the education world are being pushed around, mistreated and bullied. Who will stand up for us if we do not?


"No Child Left Behind," more aptly named "Too Many Teachers Left Behind," is to be revamped, according to President Obama. He has been very broad in what changes are to take place, but the general push throughout the United States recently has been to HOLD TEACHERS ACCOUNTABLE. In fact, Florida has taken steps to change teacher tenure to be more performance-based rather than based on years of service. Pay raises will also be based on performance. Many other states are following suit.


I believe in high teacher performance. To put it in "kid terms"...our nation's education system sucks! We are so far behind. How can we be a "world power" when we are so low in reading and mathematics? The solution to this massive problem, which is impossible to "solve" in a few short years, as NCLB specified, is what is hotly debated. There are many solutions (standardized testing cannot be one of them), but the factors that have attributed to this problem have to be properly addressed first. And they aren't.


Teacher performance. Ahhh...yes, there are some really poor teachers out there. Too many people become teachers because they feel it is noble and comes with great hours and a summer break. (Joke is on them, I suppose.) Once in the job, there is nothing better so they stay. This is an issue. The question is: how do you judge teacher performance? Test scores, yell out politicians and even parents! Test scores. The filthiest two word combination I know. So...a good teacher teaches students how to pass a test? But not the true curriculum? The love of books? How to use math "in the real world" when problems don't always come with four bubble choices? Or the nation's history? The scientific reasoning behind phenomena around us every day? We don't teach kids how to become truly successful members of society with knowledge and abilities that go beyond tearing the seal on a test, sharpening a #2 pencil and using "strategies." I get it.


What is another factor? In fact, what is the NUMBER ONE FACTOR? (Here is where the trouble starts.) PARENTS!!!! I have listened to and read numerous debates, articles and news clips about our failing education system. There is one factor never mentioned. PARENTS. I was always taught that education begins and ends in the home. School is a supplement to that education. My parents were my first teachers (and always will be). Why does my daughter know how to read? We taught her how. We were reading to her, teaching her, showing her new things, experimenting, playing, and exploring long before Kindergarten. Am I super mom? Have you met me?! I'm certainly not. And yes, I worked a full-time job and had my share of drama and issues, but it doesn't take a wonder woman or a super man to be a parent. It takes some time, patience and love. It takes saying no to "me" and yes to "us."
Too many parents live in the world of me, me, me. They can't care less about their children...where they are, who they play with, do they have homework, are they bullies, are they being bullied? They care about the club, drugs, alcohol, sex, welfare, the newest television shows, their friends, what THEY want. The children get put on the backburner. And we teachers try to pick up pieces from a damaging disaster that can only be repaired in the home. No one is calling these parents out. But they will sure as heck throw blame on "bad teachers" who can't "teach" a kiddo how to pass a test. It is a shame. No one wants to truly be responsible.


By all means, I should be considered a bad teacher. I struggle to get my students to pass the standardized test before them. I struggle to get them to do their work in class and out! I struggle to get them to write their name on their papers, bring materials to class. I struggle most of all in getting them to care. I'm just their teacher, after all. I'm not mom or dad. I'm not the one who they really need the love, attention, and committment from in order to be successful. They know this. And so do teachers everywhere who have classrooms full of kids who have potential...but no home support. If these teachers are like me, their hearts are breaking from the pain they see in these children each day, and their backs are breaking from the responsibility and stress being stacked on their shoulders more and more each year.


I'm tired of excuses...from parents, the government, from society as a whole. "It isn't their fault." Responsibility is key, but no one wants to be responsible. I AM responsible to my children and to my students. I will continue to do my part, but for those who bash teachers, know we do so much more than what teachers did when you were students. Times have changed, yet not for the better.


And I will be responsible as an American...I will stand up for what is right and the Christian values this country was founded on. That foundation is a crumbling mess, but it is not too late to repair it! Start by taking responsibility!!!

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

I've been having some fun lately coming up with new recipes and trying new things, and this morning I decided to make pancakes...a favorite. But rather than load it with butter and syrup (the old way), it decided to finally use that can of pumpkin leftover from Thanksgiving. The results were YUMMY! Even the kids loved it!

Pumpkin Pie Pancakes

I made thin wheat pancakes from a mix. I then sprinkled in some pumpkin pie spice. Adding extra water helped keep them thin. They were about 5 inches in diameter. I used spray canola oil in my skillet and had no problem flipping them. Three pancakes is approximately 4 pointsplus.

The topping:

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)

1/3 cup light brown sugar, unpacked

cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice to taste

1 Tbsp of splenda

Mix with a spoon and top each pancake with 1 T of topping. Approximately 1 point for 3 Tbsp. 

Total breakfast: 3 wheat pancakes with 3 T pumpkin pie topping=5 points. Very filling!

Working PointsPlus...and My Body!

I'm so proud of me!!!! (yes, being proud of yourself sometimes is important. You should try it sometime!)

Why am I so proud? I have gone from slug to jitterbug. Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity to rhyme, but basically this is true. I stopped working out once school started this past fall, and over Christmas break I decided it was definitely time to start moving again. I miss the toned look, the feeling of strength, being in control, and the energy that came with being in shape (and not the round shape...that shape is not so fun).

This past week I worked out all but one day, and 4 of those workouts were at 6:45 before I had to go to work! I've been incorporating cardio, HIITs (high intensity interval training), abs, and general toning and sculpting. By Saturday morning I was sore from just about head to toe! But I knew the best thing was the keep working through it. That, and I longed for that euphoric "I'm tough, I'm strong" feeling! Once you really start experiencing that, working out becomes a treat rather than a chore!

Today I feel much stronger and am bursting with energy. Time for an oldie but goodie...a Turbo Jam cadio party and an ab workout! Join me! Kick some butt!

PointsPlus...a Delicious Change

I am still a fan of Weight Watchers...and I'm loving the new PointsPlus program! I knew I could handle it when most fruits and veggies are FREE (zero points, in other words). I do love some fruit and veggies! The problem for me, in the past, was that rather than make smart, healthy choices and use my points on those fruits and veggies, I would save my points to eat chocolate or something sweet. I still lost weight but wasn't gaining much in the health department.

I have spent the past few weeks losing over four pounds and gaining a nice "fat arsenal" of healthy and new recipes and ideas! It has been quite fun finding new and creative ways to eat and enjoy healthier items. Let's see...I've made butternut squash soup, turkey meatloaf, lightened smashed red potatoes, unique omelets with things like spinach and feta, breakfast couscous with cinnamon and pears, and baked bananas for dessert. Mmmm....

I continue to search for healthy recipes and alternatives. Another idea I'm anxious to try is a Crystal Light smoothie. Basically you blend water, frozen strawberries and banana with a crystal light packet. I'm thinking that strawberries, mandarin oranges and the lemon berry might be good together. So many ideas and such a small, shrinking tummy. :)

Can't Break What You Never Make

Happy New Year!!! Bet you have already been thinking of a New Year's Resolution or two. Most people have! Maybe you have even been waiting for Jan. 1 just so you can "start" working toward that resolution. Well, I have a new philosophy this year...

You can't break what you never make!

 Now, at a glance, this sounds very negative, right? It sounds like I think it isn't worth even having a goal to begin with. It isn't that. But honestly, how many people keep a resolution? How quickly do those goals (which are usually so grand and unattainable anyway) get put on the backburner or old habits take back over? I see it all of the time... And it leads then to a feeling of failure. I know! I've been there every other year! But not this year...

I knew a month or so ago what my goals for 2011 were. Most of did! I decided that anything worth doing is worth doing NOW. Waiting for some silly date makes it seem like that goal really isn't that important. "I'll start next Monday." "I'll start January 1." "I'll do that in a few years." "I'll do that someday."

Those all sound silly and shallow. Instead, if I want something (and I usually want it RIGHT NOW), the best time to start is the moment it enters my mind. So I became aware that I had packed back on 6 of those miserable pounds I had worked to get off earlier in 2010 (via the dreaded monster most of us call the scale). I immediately started making those healthier changes: smaller portions, more fruits and veggies, working out again, and less of those blasted candy cane kisses! 

Then on December 21 I went back to my old friend. Weight Watchers.

I could have waited until January 1. I'm sure my next meeting will be packed! In the meantime, those members will have been stuffing themselves silly of Christmas and the New Year as a final farewell to that "old" life. And believe me when I say I want us all to be successful. I just know the resolution route is not for me anymore.