Fruit w/Salad Supper Day 2 – Healing Journey Day 39

Journal:
This morning I was really wishing I had time to make some homemade orange juice. However, I didn’t have ample time so I took some Fuji apples with me instead.

Throughout the day, I managed to eat four of the Mandarin oranges, and one of my Fuji apples. In total, it was less than 300 calories. This week has been insane and I literally am not even getting time to eat. Today, itself, was a day from… well, nowhere good. But, enough about my day. Tomorrow is a new day and I’m hoping for better.

So when I finally got home (after having a meeting after school), I noticed I had a letter from Animal Control that my dog’s registration expired. So, I had to go deal with that immediately. I then came home and started working on tonight’s salad.

For veggies, I chopped half of a romaine heart, two stalks of curly kale, some English cucumber, a Roma tomato, two radishes, and some white mushrooms.

I can’t remember exactly where I got this dressing recipe from, but I’m thinking it may have been from Fully Raw Kristina. Definitely check her out if you haven’t before. The recipe goes as follows:

Strawberry Vinaigrette:
1-2 Cups Fresh Strawberries
2-3 Large Navel Oranges
Half to 1 Cup Pitted Dates
Handful of Fresh Basil

I tweaked it a little bit by using about 3 cups of strawberries, only 2 large Navel oranges, 10 pitted dates, and the fresh basil. Oh my goodness. After I blended it and took off the lid to smell it and taste it, it was so heavenly. This dressing definitely won me over compared to the dressing I had yesterday. Here’s what it looked like on my salad:

You know, I think back to the days of being so careful of how much dressing you put on your salad in fear of all the fatty calories you would be consuming. To give you a comparison, most Ranch dressings are anywhere from 7-14 grams of fat per tablespoon. It’s very high. This dressing had 1 gram of fat and I had more dressing than I even needed.

Now, like yesterday, I got through about half of the salad and started losing my taste for this salad. I don’t understand what is going on exactly. I’m not eating near the calories I know I should be, and yet my body doesn’t wolf through the salad like I think it should. Perhaps it’s just the readjustment of consuming a lot of veggies again; perhaps it’s the volume and not the caloric density. I’m not really sure to be honest. But I do know that I would definitely make this dressing again; it was super tasty.

Because it took me a little over two hours to eat this salad (it seriously takes me so long to finish these salads), I didn’t end up going to the gym again. I really need to figure out how to rearrange my time again because I do want to be in the gym. The goal is to make it tomorrow. Stay tuned…

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne still bad.
-Energy good.
-Digestion starting to move.
-Hair is looking so shiny and healthy! It really struck me today.
-Muscle cramp early this morning in my calf. Ouch! Perhaps I’m missing a nutrient…
-Still not eating enough, but better than yesterday.

Weight at the end of the day = 168.4 lbs (down 0.2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1007 (89% carbs, 3% fat, 8% protein… still need to eat more)

The Flop – Healing Journey Day 19

Journal:
I don’t even really want to write this post today. I’m exhausted; drained. Not getting home before 6:30 at the earliest (8:30 at the latest) each and every work day is wearing me out. Not to mention, that does not include getting everything I need done, done. I’m behind on almost everything that I should have done by now as a teacher. But it is because I have had such a difficult start to the year… and I thought last year was bad! Oh how little did I know back then…

So in the entirety of an insane day, I ate 2 bananas. That’s it. By the time I finally got home (around 7:00 pm or shortly after), not only was I exhausted, but I was also extremely hungry. I wasn’t sure how I was feeling after today’s after-school meeting. A decision was made that I was honestly sitting on the fence about. It either meant I was going to have a much easier rest of the year, or that I had to prepare for what could be a very difficult and exhausting year in its entirety. My heart was being optimistic, but my head was being realistic. And though the decision was to press forward and though my heart was prepared, my head was left wondering what I may be preparing to put myself through. I was a slight emotional disaster. Needless to say, it was not a good situation.

So what did I do? I gave in. The thought of bananas almost sickened me and I went out. It was late; the skies were dark. I was emotional, exhausted, drained, and hungry. I was reaching for comfort which is something I rarely do. In fact, I normally don’t eat when I’m stressed or upset. So whether the chips from yesterday had something to do with the immense desire for something else or not, I’m not 100% sure but I would assume that it did. The interesting part is that I did not want my usual comfort foods. My usual Mexican place did not entice me. I didn’t want the heavy feeling of beans and rice in my stomach (something I normally would have jumped on right away before I started this journey). I didn’t want a huge, cooked, gourmet meal from a sit-down restaurant. I wanted a pita (not  even the type of bread I normally want as I usually want fluffy bread) filled with fresh veggies. What a craving. If all I had ever craved in my life was a flat, pocket pita bread with fresh veggies in it, weight would never have been an issue. But either way, I decided I needed to listen to my body today after all the punishment it’s been through and I went off.

I went to Extreme Pita and ordered a regular falafel on white. I added lightly sautéed veggies (green pepper, onions and mushrooms sautéed in water not oil), pineapple, tabouleh, pickles, lettuce, tomato, a tablespoon of beans and chickpeas (decided to see how I would react to so little), and topped it with about a tablespoon of hummus and some sweet chilli sauce.

The first few bites were pretty good. It felt so good to just get out, sit down, stop stressing about the one thing my mind has been on lately since a decision was finally made, and just enjoy some free time for the first time in weeks. I say “free time”, but even while I was eating I was responding to work e-mails and catching up on work-related things that I should have done before but never had the time to. However, if I am truly honest, about half-way through the pita, it wasn’t tasting as good as it had. It’s not that anything had changed, but I simply realized it didn’t taste as good to me as it once had. My body has changed throughout this challenge. I don’t crave the heavy feeling in my stomach anymore. Cooked food does not taste as good to me as it once did. Yes, I am realizing that I don’t crave sweetness all of the time anymore, especially since I have been craving the taste of veggies to get a break from the fruit for quite awhile. But my body is not the same as it was before. And though I had the biggest fear of starving all the time when I started this challenge, I have not experienced even close to the amount of weakness and feelings of death as I thought I would have been. It’s quite incredible to say the least.

So after eating, I drove to the gym. I had full intentions of going in and doing something. But as I paused to sit in my car for just a few moments to finish letting the day sink in, I realized that this was the furthest thing from what my body wanted today. It wasn’t a day where I had to go to something because I was so stressed. It was a day where all the stress led to this decision and now that the decision was made, that is one stress that is gone. My body wanted to rest. It didn’t want to keep giving output when it finally had a chance to take a breath. Once I realized this, I left and drove home. Three and a half weeks of stress, of never taking a break while things were happening every single day, of not sleeping enough, and of meetings every single work day, it was time to just say no. It honestly was the best thing I could have done. Sometimes we simply need to listen to our bodies.

When I got home, I noticed those oatmeal bars that I had received the other day. I decided since I had already blown my banana day by eating a pita, I might as well try the squares. Don’t let yourself get into this mindset. It’s not worth it. I ended up eating a piece of a square only to taste flour. Oh my word. It took me back to being a child when you think the flour should taste good just because cookie dough tastes good. And when you take a big bite of flour, you sadly realize how wrong you were. Though this clearly wasn’t all flour, that’s the biggest flavour I had in my mouth. Now, if I had not been doing this cleanse, I guarantee it would have tasted different to me. But because of this cleanse, because my body has changed so much and flavours are so noticeable to me, that’s what I could taste and I had no motivation to continue eating them.

I relaxed for awhile, then went to sleep. Tomorrow is hopefully a brighter day.

Review of Symptoms:
-Exhausted.
-Stressed.
-Hungry after eating only 2 bananas all day.
-Taste buds are SUPER sensitive.
-Acne is the same.
-Despite eating a little, energy is still there.

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = approx. 861 (68% carbs, 22% fat, 10% protein… a little high in fat)

Ever Feel Like There is Too Much Going On?

Do you ever feel like you are so swamped, you don’t know how in the world you are going to remember everything, let alone accomplish everything? That was me this morning.

I knew I was getting evaluated today, and I had all of my online resources researched and found, created a game for the lesson, felt awesome and prepared to go. But that all changed when I came to work this morning.

It was announced that we also had to have detailed lesson plans prepared for this evaluation. I totally forgot to do that. I had to find time throughout my day to get that 4-page document done, not including the photocopying I had to do as well.

We were also reminded that this week was WISE week, and 8:30-9:30 each morning would be spent in assembly. Ok, I need to revise my schedule a little bit.

We were also reminded that we needed to review our contracts and get them sent in soon. Ok, I have everything printed to review, but need to actually sit down and do that.

That was just worship. Then I came to sit at my desk and made a list… 20 items long!

Before the principal came, I would have to clean my desk, clean the area around my desk, get those pesky smudge marks off my whiteboard, make sure the students are in perfect uniform, make sure their desks and cupboards are decently clean, make sure the homework table looks like there is a rhyme and reason to it.

Not just that, but we also have 2 trips coming up within a week and a half of each other. The money, the permission slips, the packing, everything has to be ready to go for those. I have about 3-4 hours of photocopying to do for ESL students’ folders. I have an hour of grading for ESL writing. I have approx. 5 hours of grading sitting on my grading table. I have a pastor’s appreciation card to prepare for tomorrow. I have tutoring binders to get ready for tomorrow. I have presentations that need to be done for classes this week. I just have so much stuff at work, let alone my list for home, that is insane!

Am I alone in this? Do you ever feel like this? Let me know if you have any tips on management and organization below! I’m always looking for helpful tips!

Week 9 Day 4

I am so tired. I only got a couple hours of sleep last night and I’m sad to report I’m still not done grading! Ugh. It never ends. My husband had to wake me up and basically had to force me to get up. I’m so thankful for him. I’m not sure I would have made it to work if he hadn’t.

Work was good but a little crazy today. I’m not sure what has happened to the students this week, but they are way more hyper than normal. It’s been a little insane.

After work, I did more grading. I also had to run to the post office to get errands done, and then eventually made it to the gym. Thankfully, today I did an ab exercise and 25 minutes cardio and was done to continue more grading. It seems like the grading won’t end…

I wore my Sweet Sweat belt again. I really love this thing. It does seem to be a little bulky, but I feel better with it on and feel better after I’ve worn it. Since coming home from the gym, I’m fighting sleep and trying to get grading done. I am definitely looking forward to getting sleep. I am so tired…

Week 8 Day 4

I woke up in such discomfort this morning, I actually considered calling in sick. But I sucked it up and went. Only when I got to work did I realize I forgot my bottle of painkillers at home. Ugh! Thankfully, there is a teacher’s reserve bottle in our medicinal/First Aid area at work.

I’ve been avoiding taking my tray off. My teeth hurt enough already with it on. And when I had talked to a previous student about how much it hurt (he has them too), he said the worst is when you take it off because it releases all the pressure. Then when you put it back on, the pressure goes back, and it’s all that extra movement that hurts the worst.

My plan for the day was to drink what I could. There was no way I was chewing anything. Soup was my best friend, but unfortunately even this had to be cool because Invisalign cannot handle hot things.

At lunch time, I did it. I took the tray off, went into the Staff washroom, and brushed my teeth. If only I could describe to you the pain. He was right. I honestly wondered how I was going to survive the rest of the day. But thankfully, I only talked when necessary and my kids treated me alright today. So somehow, I survived.

My meeting was very mini after school today, thankfully. I just wanted to go home and take a nap. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel hungry. But I guess the pain probably took that out of me.

I went to the gym tonight to catch up on yesterday’s workout. I honestly felt horrible, but did get an iced coffee to help. It was another three circuit workout focussing on shoulders, triceps and abs. I also finished up with HIIT cardio. But I discovered that when your teeth hurt, cardio makes them pulse. I know people keep telling me the pain will go eventually, and I’m trying to be as patient as possible. I will say that the desire to take it off has been a little less today, but it’s still driving me insane! Sleep cannot come soon enough!

Week 6 Day 1: My Sincerest Apology

Hello guys.

First of all, I would like to send you my sincerest apologies for not keeping up with my blog the past two weeks. Things have gotten so insane with my life that I just haven’t had the energy nor the time to post. That being said, I know a lot of you have been following my fitness challenge journey, and I think it’s important for you to understand the hard work and the ups and downs that come with a fitness challenge. So I’m going to do my best (with the help of my workout journal) to update you.

This day was a pretty normal day. Trying to get some housework and some school work done while managing to get to the gym. Today’s workout consisted of three circuits, focussing on shoulders, chest, triceps and abs. I finished my workout with 25 minutes of steady state cardio.

Week 1 Day 5

What a day! Just another insane day to add to list of burdens to carry on my shoulders. Ugh.

Throughout all the stress, and changing my day plans, etc… I managed to stay proper with my nutrition. Not necessarily the times I normally would have, but no stress-eating food choices for me! My water intake was also slower today, but I’m still getting it all in regardless.

I also had a chiropractor and acupuncture appointment today. Of course your body undergoes a lot of bad changes with stress, and this week had a high dose. But she was also concerned about my embarrassing but damaging fall at Wal-Mart the weekend before. So thankfully, my acupuncturist also targeted my stress points. Funny enough, when I was done, my wrist no longer hurt, but the pain had gone into my hand which is what I’m guess the needles have done. I am kind of glad the pain has left my wrist, but the aching pain in my hand is still not great.

I want to just take a moment and fill you in on a couple goals I had for this challenge. Aside from excelling in the workouts and staying on track with diet, I also wanted to increase my water to 3L (12 cups) a day. I know I don’t get enough water, so by purposely adding it to my challenge, I have been able to do this successfully each day. As a side note, try going from little daily water to that much water, and be prepared to run to the washroom 10+ times a day. I honestly was wondering if our secretary thought I must be pregnant… Promise it was just the increase in water!

My second challenge I added on was sleep. Now this week has SUCKED for getting in sleep. But next week is always a new week, and that is another that I plan to work on.

So that’s basically it for today. The workout was awesome and again in a circuit style. I finished up with 12 minutes of HIIT on the stairs. I was a sweaty mess!

I’ve just about finished up my nutrition and I’m ready to surrender to my bed. My body needs the rest and the break from everything, so on that note, have a good night everyone!

April 3, Part 2: God is Revealed

As you’ve already seen (if you haven’t, go back to April 3, Part 1), tonight has been INSANE. But it’s the after story that gets me every time.

We have been missing one of our two sets of apartment keys for over a week. Conveniently, the keys we were missing were the ones with our gym tags that we need to use everyday. We’ve looked in all the obvious places: coats, gym bags, car, shelves, etc. We agreed that we’d need to clean out our apartment better to find them.

Now, after the apartment was cleared to enter again, we went to eat to give that little extra time for the building to air out. When we did come back, we realized that during the flurry of the moment, we did grab the car keys but not the apartment keys. I was able to buzz us in with my cell phone, but then we were stuck in the hallway wondering how we were going to get in. We had not seen our landlady at all, even during the gas situation earlier, and it was likely she wasn’t even in residence.

Standing in the hallway, I, for some reason, thought to check my coat pockets again. Right there, in my left pocket, was that missing set of keys. Coincidence? I think not.

God sees the future. God knew that the gas event would happen, and we’d leave without taking the proper keys. Although it has put us a little out of our way by managing with only one set of keys and using alternate ways to sign-in at the gym, I never needed those keys as much as I needed them tonight. God knew what would happen ahead of time and provided for my needs. Even my husband immediately said that he would not deny that God was in this. This was God. God had been revealed.

It reminds me of a song by Newsboys: “God’s not dead. He’s surely alive.” God is truly alive. He’s all around. He’s planning things ahead of time that you don’t even know about. He could be using an inconvenient situation that you’re dealing with right now to reveal Himself to you in a powerful way later. With God, you can’t be sure what He’s going to do or what He may allow to happen. What you can be sure is that God always wants what is best for you and loves you unconditionally. God is there, wanting you to always turn to Him, and leaving His arms wide open for you to rest in His safety; in His presence.

God is for you, and He’s for me. Who can really stand against you when you have God on your side?