Have you ever felt the pressure to answer the question, “How are you?” with “I’m ok”? Have you ever felt like giving any less of an answer, regardless of what you’re actually feeling, would just be a burden to society? … Continue reading
Journal:
This morning, I woke up extremely tired but excited again. I had so much good knowledge in my brain from the convention the day before, and I couldn’t wait to tell everyone about it!
I didn’t get a chance to make a smoothie first thing in the morning, but I did make a smoothie at lunch time that was simply bananas and Barlean’s strawberry-kiwi green powder. This greens powder is DELICIOUS! I highly recommend getting that brand and flavour if you’re looking for a good greens powder. I went through that smoothie fairly quickly.
School went so well! The programs I wanted to start implementing were taken on by my students and they ran with them! I was so impressed! I’ve made a pact to not yell in the classroom, and I had several students come up and tell me they didn’t want to yell anymore either. I had a student use a tool in PE class when I haven’t even a poster to show for anything in my classroom. I was being impressed left and right and am getting others in the school motivated to make changes too. I’m taking on the personal challenge of changing the way our school teaches and disciplines. Pray for me and/or wish me luck!
After school, I had a meeting for an evaluation that our school is getting done, so I didn’t get to make another smoothie until after 5:00 pm. When I finally was able to make a smoothie, I made it out of bananas, peaches, celery, and romaine lettuce. This was interesting… I don’t think celery and banana are my favourite mix. But I drank it anyway.
Now, after this smoothie was our monthly ladies’ craft night at school. I had not brought enough fruit with me because I’m still having an issue with bananas not ripening. And of course, this set me up for a bad-eating night. Mind you, my housemate who got me into crafting in the first place, made a vegetable and pasta dish with no dairy whatsoever just so I could have some. So I ended up eating some of that along with some chips and hummus and salsa. Ugh… I actually think it would have been better if I had just skipped the chips alone. But I could tell the next day was not going to be good…
After our craft night, I went to bed. We almost always stay late, talking to each other and hopefully getting some type of crafting done. Some people bring work and just enjoy the social aspect. It’s honestly a great time, but next time, I gotta fix the food situation. It can be conquered!
Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is improving!
-Stomach feels like a rock is sitting in it after cooked foods…
-Tired
-Happy and motivated.
-Hair is doing SO WELL!
Weight at the end of the day =Â 173.2 (up 2 lbs from yesterday… I thought it was going to be worse than this)
Total Calories =Â 2295 (79% carbs, 14% fat, 7% protein… honestly not bad!)
Today was primarily a cleaning day. Not of my house, but my classroom. Seriously… you’d think a teacher’s job could be easily conquered and finished right after school’s out, right? Wrong! I’m still not done.
Anyways, I was looking for some cleaning clothing to wear, and decided on jeans and this brown shirt my husband gave me awhile back. On it states, “One Classroom At A Time.” The shirt is actually from a group with a mission of building classrooms in foreign countries, particularly those that have low support of female education, as well as low education ratings overall. It got me thinking about a shirt I once had…
During Christmas Break of my grade 12 year, my sister and I, as well as our youth group went on a mission trip to Peru. We were going to complete a church project, as well as sightsee a little while we were there. We spent months packing little gifts to give to the locals, fundraising, and creating a team name/logo. We called ourselves TYMES (Today’s Youth Missionaries of Edmonton South), and we were fortunate to have a graphic designer as one of our leaders who created these fantastic shirts. It was the only time that name would be used.
Of course we were all very fond of our shirts and took them with us to Peru. We loved our time working on the church and playing with the local children. In fact, we may have gotten in trouble for playing too much… But these kids were the happiest kids. They lived in cardboard lean-tos, knowing they could be kicked off the land at any time. And for the whole community of cardboard living spaces, the children had one ball. That’s it. No extra toys, just one ball. I couldn’t believe it. Rows and rows and rows of these cardboard things, so many children, and one ball. Even the sand had garbage and feces and hair mixed in with it, but these kids still smiled. Wow… that took me a few steps back… You really have no idea how lucky you are until you see firsthand what a third world environment is truly like.
The last day came of our time in this area. The church was completed, and we were attending the very first service with the locals. Of course, our neighbourhood children were there too, sitting on our laps, and just happy for a secure shelter over their heads. Saying goodbye to them was hard. They worked with us, sang with us, played with us, and even taught us a little Spanish. Thankfully, we were able to create big smiles with stickers, pencils, notebooks, lollipops, and little toys. But what really mattered was the extra we decided to give.
I don’t remember who started it, but I’m thinking it wasn’t me. Somebody in our group gave his/her shirt to one of the kids. As I said before, a shirt we were fond of, that would never be printed again. But I knew in that moment, that as special as that shirt was to me, it would mean so much more to these children. Yes, because they were poor and a new, good quality shirt would be wonderful to them, but also because they would always be able to remember the people who came and brought them gifts, even though we had no idea who they were.
It was then that I realized the truth: Everything in this world shall pass. God tells us so. We won’t be taking that shirt to Heaven. I won’t be taking my diamond rings to Heaven. Everything in this life will not be going to Heaven (objects… let me clarify!), but for the time we are here, we can make the most of what we have. Sometimes it will hurt out pride, absolutely. Sometimes, we may never get another chance at whatever item we give away. Sometimes, it may not even change a person’s life like we may have thought it would, but we can only do the best we can with what we have and what we know.
I don’t know if giving my shirt away made a world of difference in the child’s life. I have no idea. But I do know that at that moment, the smile and laughter and hugs I got in return were all that I needed to know for sure my shirt was going to the right place.
I did not sleep well at all last night. I don’t know what was wrong with me. I was literally paranoid about everything (didn’t help my dog barked, and the neighbour decided to turn on their tv which just happens to be on the opposite side of the same wall where my head is). It was a very, very restless night.
This morning, I had to literally drag myself out of bed, and thus was very rushed getting ready. I am also being evaluated by my principal today, so there’s just so much going through my head.
For the morning, and on into lunch, I’ve been drinking away 1.75L of pulpy orange juice. I knew today would be a rushed mess, so I planned accordingly on ease of intake. The orange juice is easy to sip away.
It was a very stressful day, not just with the lack of sleep, but also with my evaluation in the afternoon. I only snacked on one banana for the afternoon. It was really not turning out to be a good day.
My evaluation went ok, though I don’t get my results back right away. I was starving and not focussed or anything by the time the end of the day hit. I just wanted to go home. I wrapped up things as soon as I could, and I went home.
Once I got home, I took a few minutes just to chill and debrief. It was a day I didn’t really want to repeat again. After I felt a bit better, I ate two chocolate and coconut vegan granola bars, and a pot of rice that I added a spoon of vegan cream cheese and some nutritional yeast flakes to. It gave me the nutrition I needed to feel better, and to fuel up for the gym.
I had a great workout. I did a hard circuit of ISO explosive squats, lunges, planks, overhead squats and push-ups. I then did 35 minutes of hard cycling on the stationary bike. I was WIPED by the time I was done, but I was so proud I finished!
Upon coming home, I took out a huge watermelon that I had, and managed to eat a quarter of it. Watermelon fills me up so fast! I then finished the night with some more of my fresh mango cake topped with coconut yogurt.
You know, it makes a total difference in how I feel based on what I eat. When I eat cleaner, I feel better. When I eat a ton of junk, I feel like junk. After that last pizza binge, I weighed 8 pounds more the next day. It just goes to show how that much grease and slow digesting stuff really can mess with you. I gotta stay on the clean train!
My husband also had a really garlicky cheese pizza, and I was so tempted just to take one little piece or bite. But I conquered! I can do this!
It felt so good to sleep in, but my body is still so sore. And even though we spent a few hours at the mall yesterday, we decided to go back today! You see, we weren’t just walking any ol’ mall, we were walking the West Edmonton Mall, the (second?) biggest mall in the world. The evening before we conquered the bottom floor, and today we did the top floor. So a lot of walking was done again!
Today I had a “slip up” with my diet. I managed to make it fit my macros, but I completed decided it wasn’t worth it afterwards. I used to enjoy watching Cake Boss. His Italian family and him make cannoli for their shop. I LOVE cannoli but have only ever been able to find the pre-made ones, not the delicious homemade. And aside from them not being the greatest, they are particularly difficult to find around here. So when we went to an Italian caffe stand in the mall and I saw a cannoli, I bought one. All $5+ for ONE. The price alone should have told me no. But I ate it and it was… not good. It was starting to get soggy, the flavour was not bursting, the two candied orange slices at the end were definitely not my favourite… it wasn’t worth it.
You see, I follow a IIFYM (if it fits your macros) food plan (not diet!) because it is kind of like living on a budget. You have so many grams of protein, carbs, and fats that you have to use everyday. But in order to stay healthy or stay in your budget, you can’t go over any of those categories either. IIFYM is a type of budget where you need to use what you got or else it doesn’t carry over into the next day, but if you go over what you have, then you’ll get bad results. That cannoli was a terrible use of my macro budget.
Later that evening, we went to the gym. It was a gruelling workout (especially on already sore legs), but it was completed. The workouts this week seem to have gotten slightly harder, but only because of the types and amounts of exercises. We’re still in a 4-day a week, circuit weight training with 4 cardio sessions a week.
Shortly after the gym, we went home and went to bed. Nothing like allowing a sore body to get its rest!
Calm in Christ and Fitness 