Week 9 Day 3

Today I woke up with a much better mindset. I got the sleep I needed, didn’t have to wake up to an alarm clock (the best feeling ever!) and I had no rush to go anywhere.

When I woke up, I did some school work and went to the gym for my first workout. This one was just 25 minutes of cardio but it was also my second time using my Sweet Sweat belt! I love that thing. I’ll continue to keep you updated about what I think about it.

I then came home, ate, and basically worked on school things while also taking some moments to read about the soldiers and reflect on what Remembrance Day is really all about.

My husband was not feeling good, so I ended up going with him to the doctor, then to get some winter clothing for his work, then to Wal-Mart for odds and ends, then to Shoppers for his prescription, and finally to Safeway for groceries. This took a chunk of time from my grading, but I’d rather know my husband was safe, especially since the roads are nice and icy now.

After we came home, I finished some more grading, and we got ready and went to the gym. Tonight was a heavy leg workout, but it was different than the others. Tonight, I prayed before I worked out and while I worked out, dedicating every fight I had with the weights to little Lennon’s fight for his life. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, please read yesterday’s post. With every struggle I had, I prayed it would somehow be me helping to fight his fight with him. Please continue to pray for him.

I’m now back at home and it’s past midnight, but I have still more grading to do. I haven’t even started writing my report cards yet. I’m not sure how this all added up. I’ll be so happy for sleep this coming weekend.

Hope you have a good night everyone!

Week 5 Day 5: The Revelation

Sorry guys. I realized I had made a mistake and quickly changed it! Yesterday was not the revelation day, today was and somehow I mixed up the names! Sorry about that. It’s now fixed 🙂

So every Thursday at work, instead of a normal worship, we have “Thankful Thursdays” where we go around saying the appreciations we’ve had. It’s a great thing to do, and one of the things I reflected on was my class this year. Not that they are perfect, not that they are always easy, but that I’ve seen maturity in them, even in the way they accept their consequences. I am so proud of them and look forward to helping them the rest of this year.

Following worship, we went about the usual day but I was so happy to welcome them into my classroom this morning. And when they went to gym, I sat and reflected on something that completely dawned on me: I’ve been happy, truly happy. I don’t know why, I don’t really know anything about it other than I felt completely and totally happy. Can I just say WOW? What a feeling! To be honestly happy. It’s amazing. I know my food and workouts have been going great, I’ve been taking care of all the medical issues, there have been major improvements, my husband is working and hopefully we’ll get his FBI check soon so he can have residency soon, I’m still in debt, but I’m happy. And that says something!

The day went well. We were planning a surprise wedding shower for our principal and it went amazing! We had a million laughs, and come to find out, this was their only shower, and she had never been successfully surprised before! We did awesome!

Now of course you’re probably wondering about my food choices while at this shower. So here is what I did. I ate half of one of my meals before I went. I then allowed myself a small selection on a small plate. I normally would have tried some of everything, but I limited myself. I was hungry for seconds, but I only allowed myself a plate of veggies. I did very well! Though in hind sight, I would have been alright white a lot of those things. They didn’t even seem worth it. Way too much sugar after being without refined sugars. I will know better next time.

We also had a staff meeting afterwards which of course meant that it was a late work night. But I still made it to the gym and had an awesome workout! Tonight was a circuit of shoulders, arms, chest and abs followed by 12 minutes of HIIT.

And of course, here are my meals for the day:

Meal 1

I had to cook this one a little more at home. I like my meat well done. This is a potato mash with egg whites, steak and a tomato.

Meal 2

I ate this one before I could get a picture last time. Homemade hummus with carrots, celery and rice crackers.

Meal 3

A tuna salad wrap with apples. Absolutely yummy!

Meal 4

So apparently I ate this one before a picture was taken. Sorry! It was cottage cheese with cinnamon and a very fine chop of honeydew and cantaloupe.

Meal 5

I didn’t take a picture of this one because you saw it yesterday. But since I don’t eat pork, the other option was to have the same chicken salad I had yesterday. I was so happy to eat it again. Yum!

Week 3 Day 7

This morning I made it to the gym! I hardly ever workout in the morning (I have to be at work at 7:30) so this was a treat!

I finished catching up on my workouts for the week (such a good feeling). I’m completely caught up! Yahoo!

I was so exhausted by the end though. My legs are KILLING me! That’s what you get for doing leg exercises three days in a row…

After working out, my husband and I decided to go shopping in the evening. This meant a ton of walking. Although I was sore, it actually felt good to get out and stretch.

We spent a few hours at the mall, and naturally we got hungry. So we opted for Jungle Jim’s. Fortunately, they have a “slim” menu that I was able to pick from. I had “slim” taquitos (baked, low fat cheese and chicken) with a jungle salad that consists of so many different vegetables. As a slight indulgence, we ordered some boneless wings and I had a few of those. As long as it fits my macros, I am ok with doing this once in awhile!

We ended the day well, had a lot of fun, and looked forward to rest that night. I can hardly believe it’s the end of week 3.

Week 2 Day 4

I slept straight through the night last night; a total of about 9-10 hours. I think I made the wise choice by not going to the gym last night for sure.

I went to work today. Something I debated, but it was a field trip day and I wanted to make sure my kids had the most fun they could while still learning at the same time. So it wasn’t really a debate. Feeling awful or not, I got up and got ready.

Food again was not on track. I took a fresh fruit smoothie with me, a banana, and again just simple, simple dietary foods. I just needed to make it through the day.

The field trip went really well. The students really enjoyed seeing the satellite images of the surfaces of various planets and moons. They enjoyed learning and being able to touch meteorites. And they definitely loved using light-splitting glasses to analyze various lights and gasses around them. It was such a cool experience!

But by the end of the day, I was so weak and tired. It was a lot of walking for someone that was sick. But I really, really wanted to go to the gym. I can’t even begin to explain it to you, but I will try. Because going to the gym is such a way of life for me. Mentally, I knew if I could do the field trip, then I could go to the gym. But my weak body just wanted to sleep. The thing is, mentally, I knew it wasn’t an option. I just had to convince my body of it.

I don’t think I would have been able to do it if it wasn’t for my husband. He knew I needed to go. The gym is just as important for him as it is for me. He’s the one that got me into it and it has turned into such a huge passion for me. I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without it. And so he was there, gently, kindly coaxing me to get up. It wasn’t an easy job, but props to him for getting me up.

Now to say my time at the gym that night was easy or a wonderful time would be a little exaggerating. It was hard. Being sick and coming back to the gym to do a circuit workout is not the easiest thing I’ve ever done. And I definitely didn’t do cardio. My lungs wouldn’t have handled it. But the point is that I did do what I needed to do, and I got it done, and mentally was content.

I think its needless to say, but I went straight to bed as soon as we came home.

Week 2 Day 3

Talk about sick. I honestly thought it wouldn’t get any worse. But this morning, I knew better than to go to work. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the day feeling this awful, so I called in for a sub and stayed home.

I didn’t sleep much, and I definitely didn’t eat much. Sticking to my diet plan, for the challenge I’m working so hard for, just was not foremost on my brain today. I needed to shift into the mindset of healing my body and getting better quickly. I drank fresh fruit smoothies to up my vitamin and antioxidant content in my body. I drank kombucha tea which I have found to be a good tea for any health situation. I ate soup to benefit from vegetables and the comfort of a warm broth. And I ate a small amount of bread to help me feel fuller while still being gentle on my stomach.

Simple foods.

The funny part about the whole day is I couldn’t sleep. Normally when I am sick, I sleep most of the day away. But today was different. I could barely sleep. So I instead worked on my yearly plans and professional growth plan and conquered a fair amount of teacher work.

When evening came, I battled with my brain. I wanted to go to the gym so badly. I miss the gym. It’s a way of life for me. Plus I have my challenge pushing me. I was so tempted to just “suck it up” and go to the gym regardless of how I felt.

It probably took about an hour for me to mentally battle myself into realizing that if I did go to the gym, I’d probably make myself worse. If I at least waited one more day, I could still make up my workouts this week and provide myself with more time to get better. So when my husband went to the gym, I went to bed.

Week 2 Day 7

I woke up today feeling so much better. I slept in, and didn’t even bother starting to eat until noon. I could still feel the negative effects of eating so much sugar last night, just not quite as uncomfortably full.

I had my meals way more in check today and felt so much better. I made it back to the gym and finished my workout from the day before with much better energy and also completed 25 minutes of cardio on the stationary bike.

My husband and I decided to have a date night. We decided to go to a movie. As usual, we got a #1 combo that comes with a pop choice (we got diet coke), popcorn (no butter), and two candy choices: peanut butter M&Ms for my husband, and a fat free candy that I could have some of.

Now I know diet coke is not the greatest choice. I am against aspartame. But when I know I’m in a situation where I’m bound to slip, it’s better to make a safer choice than not. I also know popcorn, even with no butter, is not a very friendly food (when it comes from the theatre). But I already knew ahead of time I could only have a little, so it is much easier to stay within range without that yummy butter. I also already know that candy, especially after yesterday’s episode, was a terrible idea. But I also knew that again, I could smell my husband eating it, and it was better to plan ahead with something I could have some of without killing my diet. And yes, above all it would have been best to not buy anything, but I refuse to force my husband into doing what I’m doing if he doesn’t want to. So did I really make the worst decisions? In my mind, no. And it’s ok if you do not agree. I may come to a point where I can watch him eat other things and not feel tempted to eat the same things, but that day was not today and so I did what I could.

I did learn something from this whole experience, and that was that watching tv with too much food on your plate is a horrible decision. Do you know how easy it would have been to mindlessly keep eating that popcorn? My husband nudged me a little to remind me of my limit. I do so appreciate he supports me. But it really did hit me how easy it would have been to be tranced by the movie and not even notice how much I was eating.

HUGE fitness tip: Portion your food and don’t eat while watching tv!

Week 2 Day 2

I woke up today still not feeling the greatest. But, it was a “Fun Day” for the students which meant we were going to a large recreational center where they could swim, play on a large indoor playground, hang out in the Youth Lounge (games), play sports in the gym, go skating, and eat at a food court. All the teachers were required to do was stay at their stations to make sure everything went well. It was an easy day to handle when you don’t feel well.

A mistake I made was that I didn’t get up early enough to finish packing my food. So I did hit a sugar low in the afternoon with nothing to make up for it. I’m not diabetic, but I’m pretty sure it was low sugar because that’s the only thing I can think of that would have made me feel like I did.

Thankfully, the food court had an Extreme Pita where you can pick what you want to fill your pita with. Easy again to fit your macros.

It was a long day at work with a very serious meeting I had to attend after school. But it wasn’t until I got home that I realized I had a headache. As usually, my husband came home and wanted to take a nap before we went to the gym. But as the time went on, I noticed my headache was pretty much like someone taking a hammer to my head.

Now, I’ve worked through headaches before. I’m used to going to the gym no matter what unless I’m on bed rest for being so sick. But this headache was quite possibly the worst headache I’ve ever had, so I knew it was probably best to stay home and try to sleep it off. No medications or liquids were helping. So I set my alarm for 4:15 a.m. and headed to bed.

Just Enough

Patience. Often something we lack. I’m not talking about the kind of patience where you take deep breaths when you’re struggling with something or waiting for someone who is running late. I’m talking patience when you’re waiting for an answer to something and it never seems to come. That’s the patience I’m talking about.

This whole immigration thing with my husband frustrates me to no end. Now they’ve lost his FBI record that took us almost 3 months to get. I know they had it because I sent it in the same envelope as the Work Permit application. He got his work permit, meaning they got the FBI record. Yet they don’t have any record of it? I have a funny feeling I’m going to be waiting more than another 3 months… 

But this whole situation really got me thinking. What if for right now, the work permit is enough? What about those nasty snow storms we had last winter, and yet we had a vehicle that sporadically ran. But wasn’t that enough to get us through all the days we desperately needed a car? It was a pain to have my basement flood and the endless disgust that came with the duties of pumping it all out, but wasn’t it contained just enough to not destroy many expensive things? I hate my washer and dryer. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the washer blows up one day. But isn’t it just enough that I have a washer and dryer that I didn’t have to pay for and that get the job done for now? My husband may not have his residency yet which does put some of our plans and decisions on hold. But isn’t it just enough that he does get to be here with me and can legally work? And maybe the time they told him to leave the country and then said he shouldn’t have left the country, and then got stopped at the border for two hours almost to not be let in the country, wasn’t that enough that they at least let him through the border with a visitor visa? 

Funny enough, as coincidental as this is, I’m currently sitting in the car, my husband has just come out from looking at other vehicle options, and our car won’t start. And I’m not quite frankly sure how this is going to end. But the one thing I do know is that it is just enough that I have options.

It is just enough that we can ask someone to boost us and hopefully that will work. It is just enough that if necessary, I pay yearly for AMA coverage which includes a few tows if I need them. It is just enough that I even have a car that has gotten me around this long. It is just enough that although we couldn’t do it for long, we do have the money to pay for a taxi to go home. And it is just enough to know that we were already planning on another vehicle – although we were hoping for it to be a second vehicle – so that if need be, we can get another vehicle fast. 

Praise God that He knows what we need and gives us JUST ENOUGH ❤

I’m not going to stay long because I do need to be with my husband at this frustrating moment. But I write to you so that you know, even if things don’t quite turn out the way you want or the way you expect, God will provide you with just enough to get through whatever it is, and just enough to keep you going. 

Sometimes everything we think we need is so far from what we actually need, and that’s where trusting in God and being patient upon His answers can be so hard. But I challenge you today. Look at the things He’s given you that are just enough, and go from there.

Save Yourself From Junk: A Shopping Tip

Here is two of the most important tips I have ever learned when grocery shopping or shopping in general:

#1: NEVER go grocery shopping hungry. Eat before you go. Hunger initiates wanting something quick. And when you’re surrounded by food when you’re hungry, chances are you will not make the best choices. Don’t allow the junk to take you over when you’re hungry. Eat before you go!

I’m sure you all know the feeling…

#2: PREPARE! If you know you’re going to be out for the day running errands or running to appointments, then pack some things to take with you. Pack water, nuts, trail mix, protein bars, protein mixes with a cup, veggies, fruit, dried fruit, things that are healthy but won’t go bad on you. There are so many options, and if you have prepared, they will be an easy thing to grab out of your purse or out of your car and eat right away. You can take off that starving feeling and feel better at the end of the day knowing you made good choices. 

Load up with HEALTHY on-the-go foods so that you can make great choices instead of bad ones.

These are the tips I’ve found help me the most, otherwise I am PRONE with a capital P to go somewhere quick and easy to get food costing more money than necessary and usually adding on way more calories than I need or want. 

Do you have any tips that you’ve found helped? Hunger is definitely a force to be reckoned with!

3-Day Refresh: Day 2 Review

Well, day 2 was hard. It’s hard to watch the people you live with eat things that you crave… ugh.

However, there is no denying the amazing feeling your body has. It’s so difficult to describe other than it just feels right! Like there are no digestion problems, your body is acting properly, my workouts were still solid, and veggies are super appreciated. 

I still haven’t come up with that magical flavouring to make the Vanilla Fresh taste good, so I’m just chugging to get it down. (Can’t wait to be done drinking those!!)

At this point, my biggest advice is to get your mind set right! If you’re not holding yourself accountable, you won’t make it. Get that brain out of your tastebuds and into your body’s feelings. You’ll feel amazing, but those tastebuds will scream. So tell them to back off, and drink tonnes of water.

Fight those bad cravings!

Day 3, here I go!