Rawsome Healthy Day 3/5 – Healing Journey Day 54

Journal:
I wasn’t as prepared for today as I wanted to be. I was exhausted, my stomach was hurting a lot from having junk food two days in a row, I didn’t sleep very much because I had so much to do, and I didn’t even prep my grapes for today. However, after reviewing the whole diet plan again, I decided the best place to start again was with the grapes breakfast because the only two breakfasts that are left include persimmons (of which mine are not ripe yet), or a smoothie of which I had no time to blend. So I chose to do Day 1 today, packed some grapes, spinach and bananas, and went off to school.

I got to eat breakfast around 10:00 am as my students were outside at recess which gave me some time.

In the afternoon, I was not able to make my smoothie because our school kitchen is not set up for me to do so at the moment as a lot of people have been using it. So, this meant that I ate a banana instead to tide me over. It’s still on the meal plan, just whole instead of blended. It was a way better option than eating more junk again today. I am breaking away from the bad habits I’ve developed in the past few days. I hate feeling miserable. Raw foods are definitely the way to go.

After I got home, I had to quickly get set up because I had a webinar to watch. So, I took my dog outside for a bit, then came in and cut up some kiwis as that was the “pre-dinner” snack. I could have made my smoothie, but sorting through spinach would have taken way longer than just slicing up some kiwis. So that’s what I did. In fact, I didn’t make the smoothie all day.

Now, after the webinar, and perhaps even during the webinar, I fell asleep. I was so exhausted. I’m literally sleeping like 5 hours a night because I stay up working so much. I keep saying I need to balance things out, but the truth is I really do. Perhaps this weekend I’ll actually draw up a schedule for every day.

After I woke up from my nap, I immediately had a huge stomach cramp and had to run to the bathroom. Three times today this happened, and it has been painful. My stomach is finally in a full rebellion of the junk food I ate and is starting to cleanse itself. Hopefully this is short-lived and my body can do its job efficiently because I didn’t even go to the gym tonight in fear of being too far away from a bathroom for too long.

I didn’t feel like eating again for the longest time, but did end up making a salad before bed. However, the salad didn’t taste the greatest (it’s very hit and miss with the dressings), so I only ended up eating about half of it. But because my stomach was fairly empty, I was so hungry and couldn’t even go to bed without eating something else. So, off the meal plan but still predominately raw, I sliced up some banana, drizzled some apple honey (honey consistency but made from apple, no bees required), and put a few vegan chocolate chips. Now, I’m not sure what was wrong with my kiwis earlier, but they were very “zingy” and it left what almost felt like some stinging in my mouth which made the late night dessert not so good. Perhaps my kiwis were not fully ripe; I really don’t know. I don’t have any food allergies and have never reacted to kiwis before, but perhaps there is more to the story than I know.

Now, tomorrow is National Sandwich Day and it is a planned, off-course day. It will still be vegan with tons of raw veggies, but I am intrigued to see how my body reacts to bread. I do suspect that bread will help stop the immediate bathroom needs which would be nice while I’m at work since the staff only have one washroom to split amongst us all, but I’ve also heard people discover their gluten intolerance when trying gluten after so long of not eating it. So this will be an experiment to see how my body reacts. Then I’m back on course with the last two days of the Rawsome Healthy Diet Plan. I’m still trying to decide where I want to go after that, but stay tuned and you’ll find out.

Review of Symptoms:
-Stomach is in an all-out war, cleansing mode!
-Tired/exhausted
-Acne is the same.
-Hair is so soft, but still a little static-y.
-Muscles are finally less sore today. Aiming for the gym tomorrow.
-Tongue/mouth seemed to react a little to the kiwis (not swollen, just like a “sting”).
-Hungry

Weight at the end of the the day = 165.6 lbs (down 4.8 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 2087 (83% carbs, 10% fat, 7% protein… good macro ratio!)

Fruit w/Salad Supper Day 3 – Healing Journey Day 40

Journal:
I woke up so cold today. This is the coldest I have felt yet. I honestly haven’t struggled with the desire of wanting something hot to eat yet, but I’m wondering if the colder temperatures will get me yet.

I actually was on the ball this morning. I was up and ready faster than normal. It has been my week to do worships at work, so I had everything ready to go and was even at work at my earliest time yet. I was impressed with myself today!

So, I have been thinking about ways I can get in more calories throughout the day, and today I knew that not only did my class had Reading Buddies with another class, it was my turn to have that time off. During Reading Buddies once a week, we take turns on which classroom the students go to and it is the duty of that classroom’s teacher to supervise while the other gets a short break. It really works nicely because what teacher doesn’t like a little bit of an extra break? I know I always have a ton of things to do, so a little extra time is nice.

While they were outside at morning recess, I quickly went to the kitchen and made a smoothie from three peaches, some water, and three frozen bananas. It actually was really good and I was able to drink it while my students were with their Reading Buddies.

I honestly don’t know where these giant mugs came from, but they were in our school’s kitchen so I’ve been using them. I seriously want to invest in one because they are the perfect size to sip away on a smoothie while still looking somewhat professional.

Throughout the rest of the day, I managed to eat two Mandarin oranges. It wasn’t a lot, but I definitely felt better after having that smoothie in the morning. If I could just figure out a way to make a smoothie each day, I’d be winning!

I ended up with two impromptu meetings after school. Following those meetings, I came home and put my dog outside. The sun had come out and had raised the temperatures to a nice, snow-melting temperature. So I figured my dog better enjoy it while he can.

Once he had been outside for awhile, I brought him back in, gave him some food and a treat, and hit the mall. I was on the hunt for white slippers to go with my pyjamas for Pyjama Day tomorrow. Do you think I could find what I wanted in any store in the mall? Absolutely not. It is a 2-floor, multi-level mall, and yet had nothing that I wanted. I then drove to another store and spent forever in there trying things on to change my outfit. But honestly, it all was to little avail. I came out with a new pair of pyjama pants that were on sale and only half-heartedly looked forward to tomorrow.

So amidst the hours of stress, fast-pace walking, jumping in and out of clothes, I managed to eat the apple I had stashed in my pocket. It was another Fuji apple that thankfully was delicious, but honestly it did little to fuel the calories I was burning off throughout the evening.

I ended up stopping by Subway to pick up a pre-chopped salad. I hadn’t eaten my nightly supper yet, and it would have taken too long to make my usual dressing and chop up all of the salad ingredients. I’m already not getting enough sleep and am preparing for a long day tomorrow as we have a staff meeting after school. So, I decided that assistance would be nice on this particular day.

The Subway lady was really nice. It was a half hour before closing (to give you an idea of how long I was running around), but she brought out her freshly washed tools to chop me up some tomatoes, cucumber, bell peppers, red onion and lettuce. Instead of choosing a regular dressing, I had guacamole on top (essentially mashed up avocado). I then took it home and added some chopped up mushrooms and made my dressing. Now, I didn’t know this before, but I definitely know it now. I do NOT like rosemary. Oh my word. I almost had to choke down my dressing (hence why it is in the bowl on the side). I would have much rather enjoyed the salad with just the guacamole. And do you want to know something? I actually finished this salad in less than an hour (it went down a lot easier once the dressing was gone…) AND I could have eaten more. I actually liked it simple. My tastebuds are improving!

As you’ll notice, the dressing looks a little chunkier than normal; that’s because it was. The amount that I used, according to the recipe, was just enough to fit under and around the blades of the Vitamix . Even when I added a Roma tomato to the blender to see if that would help, it just built up along the walls of the blender. So… yes… a little chunky.

If you want the original recipe, here it is (I think this is another Fully Raw Kristina recipe.. if you like rosemary, I’m sure you’ll love it):

-2 Cups Mango
-Handful of Dates (Approx 10)
-Handful of Fresh Rosemary

So tomorrow, the plan is to try and get a smoothie made first thing in the morning again. If I don’t wake up early enough, then I won’t be having a smoothie until lunch time which could still work. I will just have to eat some Mandarin oranges in the morning and have the smoothie in the afternoon. I will also take an apple or two to have during our staff meeting so I don’t eat all the chips and snacks they usually bring out. This will be probably my first staff meeting without indulging in junk… so here we go!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne still bad… very bad…
-Hair is so soft, shiny and beautiful.
-Energy is still holding up despite everything going on.
-Eyes seem to do better when not on the computer as much.

Weight at the end of the day = I’m so sorry. I didn’t stay awake long enough to weight myself.

Total Calories = 1175 (89% carbs, 5% fat, 6% protein… still not yet enough food but slowly I’m getting there!)

This is What Happens When You Don’t Plan… – Healing Journey Day 27

Journal:
I knew smoothies were going to take a little more effort than everything I had done so far. It would mean getting a blender to blend my fruit anytime I needed to consume one. This generally works out alright as I have a blender at work and at home. Although it worked well yesterday, today was a different story.

I started out well. I brought a large watermelon and two small watermelons to work with, as well as the last bottle of that pear juice that tasted like liquid honey. I figured if these watermelons were a little less sweet like the last ones, the pear juice would perk it up.

When I cut into the big watermelon, water literally started pouring out of it. In fact, it flooded the cupboard and then the sink. I had a funny feeling this wasn’t a good thing. I then discovered that I could squeeze the two halves of the watermelon and the water would just continue to pour out. So needless to say, I lost my big watermelon.

I then cut into one of the small ones and it seemed to hold up like normal. So without tasting it, I scooped it out, put it in the blender, and poured in some of the pear juice. Then I blended it up. If I could only describe the taste of this smoothie to you. It was literally the worst watermelon thing I have ever tasted. Even so, I managed to drink down half of the smoothie. But the other half, well, I just couldn’t do it anymore;  I ended up pouring it down the sink. It literally was like drinking grass with a slight taste of pear. It was terrible. The pear juice did not do its job. I was so sad because it even looked so pretty… but I guess it’s another example of how looks can be deceiving!

Now, normally, I would have enough time after school to make a smoothie before doing anything else, but because I am flying out first thing in the morning, I had to run home immediately after work to take my dog to the sitter and still make it back in time for our staff/board social tonight. I literally had to fly to get this done in time. Somehow I managed.

Because I didn’t have time to go back home to make a smoothie, and because there was nothing there to make a smoothie with, I caved and ate some food. After a rough day, stress of getting things done in time, and literally living on a couple hundred calories of food, I was hungry to say the least. And this wasn’t a night I could just go to bed hungry and be fine because I knew I still had to stay up and do laundry and pack. Oh my goodness… I would really rather go back and change what I did. But since I’m keeping you guys updated on my progress, here’s what I ate: cauliflower, broccoli, hummus, rice crackers, samosas with chutney, Tostitos with salsa, baguette with a red pepper spread, quinoa salad, and juice (all vegan of course). Even now as I’m writing this, I’m cringing. My stomach is so heavy; it right away started feeling bloated. It even went as far as making my head feel taken aback (not quite headache status, but almost like a pre-headache). Oh man. I wish I could take it all back. The food tasted decent, and I’m really loving cauliflower and broccoli on its own, but the way I feel is not worth it. And thankfully, going back on smoothies will provide my body with enough fibre that it should clean out within a day or two. But even this should be an interesting venture because I’m not sure all the airports I’m going to have only fruit smoothies. Typically there is a sorbet or ice cream that is mixed in with them, but we will see what I can do.

Anyways, I finally came home after a bit of visiting at the social and now I’m just signing off on here for the night while I wait for my laundry to finish and finish packing. I won’t be eating anymore tonight, but will be drinking water for sure! I may make an early morning mango smoothie before I leave, but I’m leaving at such an early hour that I’m not sure that will even happen. I shall keep you posted tomorrow!

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne the same.
-Noticing that my hair has grown so much in the past year since going vegan… wow! Even past students are beginning to comment.
-Cooked/high fat foods leave me feeling yucky; feeling bloated.
-Energy decent.
-Tongue actually looked like a brand new tongue this morning! So impressive!

Weight at the end of the day = 178.6 lbs (up 4 lbs from yesterday… not bad for eating a ton of cooked foods again!)

Total Calories = approx. 2213 (72% carbs, 22% fat, 6% protein… this is my best guess!)

Watermelon Island – Healing Journey Day 18 – Experiment Time!

Journal:
Wowee! What a day. Where do I even begin?

Well, let’s start with the fact I was running late this morning, so I packed 3 mini watermelons with me. I attempted to eat one before leaving on our field trip only to find out it tasted ROTTEN. Not a good start to the day.

After returning from the field trip, I attempted to eat another one for lunch. This one tasted better, but still not like the watermelons of true summer. I’m hitting the end of the season and the results are nasty. Why did I choose to eat fruit at this time of the year?

So needless to say, my idea of getting in some watermelon was a disaster. So I decided to use today as a true experiment day. For the past 17 days, I have only had MINIMAL amounts of fruit. I have not had anything else. Well, today I decided to see how I would react to some vegan junk food.

First I had a slice of vegan carrot cake. I wish I would have taken a picture of this beauty, but I was so nervous to actually eat it that it didn’t cross my mind. I actually was nervous to eat this piece of cake! I think back to my childhood days where we ate sweets REGULARLY (and here I was questioning a piece of carrot cake!!). Well, my body was dying while I ate it. It was so unbelievably sweet that I honestly started not feeling well. I stopped after a couple bites. It was not “good” to me at all. Oh have my tastebuds changed! As I forced myself to eat some more, I noticed that I even could end up with a headache if I continued eating this way. Oh man. Processed sugar is clearly bad.

Then I had some Ruffles All-Dressed chips. It was a very small amount, but the salt almost felt like it was burning my mouth. Oh it was so strong I can’t even begin to describe it to you. I felt like I might even go puffy around my eyes. Thankfully I didn’t as I was in a staff meeting, but man! Once you’ve been eating clean for so long, you really notice the unhealthiness of such foods when you eat them again. The power was potent!

I didn’t leave work until around 7:30/8:00 at night. It was a long, stressful day. But after I got home, I was starving. I didn’t get around to eating the third watermelon and I was STARVING. All I could think about was going ANYWHERE to get some kind of food. Fruit was not on my mind. It took a bit of willpower to prevent myself from getting in the car and driving to a drive-thru but I knew it was the effects of the junk I had today. It’s honestly terrible. Why do we do these things to ourselves?

In the end, I cracked open the third watermelon I had. The flavour sucked. It almost tasted like the red parts were the same as the rind. I couldn’t even eat it. I maybe had 2 or 3 bites. Fruit just sucks in quality here right now so my calories are staying very low. I’m not eating what I need, especially with the long hours I’m pulling and the stress I’m going through at the moment. Tomorrow is a banana island day and I’m hoping my bananas show better results. So here’s to going to sleep hungry and awaiting to have bananas tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s a better day.

Review of Symptoms:
-Acne is bad, especially on chin and where cheeks meet neck. Hating it.
-Hungry. Fruit quality is sucking right now.
-Almost a headache from sweet vegan junk food.
-Burning mouth and feeling of swelling from chips.
-Hair is slight greasy after water washing today.

Weight at the end of the day = 174.6 (up 1.8 lbs from yesterday… salt retention much?)

Total Calories = Approx. 966 (63% carbs, 32% fat, 5% protein… way too high in fat!!)

Multi-Day Mono-Juice Feasting – Healing Journey Day 8

Journal:

I am really enjoying my mornings. I always wake up feeling so good and didn’t even wake up once last night. It’s so nice to feel “normal.”

Today is my last day to consume apple juice. Although I have found that it is much easier to survive off of juice than I thought, I am getting tired of apple juice. I’m ready to try something else. That being said, today I changed my apple juice. I officially begin my organic juices today. Here is a picture of what I drank today:

Now, let me pause and discuss my thoughts here for a moment. This juice was physically easier on my stomach than the Simply Apple. I’m telling you people, it pays to buy the organic, small-company, pressed juices. The best is to do it fresh yourself, but if you’re in a situation like I am and that just isn’t possible, then this is second best. Upon researching the full process that Simply Apple uses, they separate things in the apple juice then fuse them back together. Here is an article from the Chicagoist that explains the process they use in their orange juice for your personal consideration:

http://chicagoist.com/2013/02/10/simply_orange_is_anything_but.php

So today, I got up, got ready and went to church. Yes, the tongue needed scraped again. This is an unpleasant side effect; I’m not going to lie. Everyday having the same bad taste in your mouth is terrible. Luckily enough, it is easy to fix through scraping so I have to remember that it could be a lot worse.

Today’s church service was a dedication to our school and the staff within it; it was wonderful. It’s nice to be uplifted, prayed for, and appreciated.

After church, I knew there would be a potluck. I drove with my housemates and packed a bottle of apple juice just incase they wanted to stay. They did, which was absolutely fine (though the smell of amazing vegan meatballs and rice were tempting). I stuck with feeding the baby (he’s becoming an excellent time-filler) and drinking my apple juice. Honestly, I didn’t take enough apple juice (note that for future reference). But since hunger and I aren’t that distant of friends, I was able to hold off until we came home.

I honestly did NOTHING the rest of the day. I stayed home, drank apple juice, rested, and at 8:00 pm (after Sabbath) watched The Olympia. It’s a tradition that my husband and I watch it every year.

So even though I did nothing, I do think I figured something important out. I think the bulk of my stomach discomfort is coming from the fact that I “think” I’m hungry and I drink more juice. I haven’t been drinking much water because I know there is water content in the juice. But I seriously think that even though I’m consuming very reasonable calories still, I need to break up my juice drinking. I don’t think my body is ready to digest all of those calories yet though I want to make sure I’m not consuming too little calories that I’m feeling weak again. The reason I am thinking this is simply because as the night went on, I had a determination to finish that jug of juice. I paid roughly $15 just for that jug and didn’t want to waste any of it. But the more I tried to finish in the evening, the more “blocked” my throat and stomach began to feel. The more I tried to finish, the more of that acid reflux/heartburn feeling I was getting. The more I tried to finish, the more unsettled my stomach was becoming. So sadly, I backed off and did not finish the whole thing. Slightly less than 2 cups of juice remained but I just wasn’t willing to suffer for it. So with my decision made, I went to bed.

Review of Symptoms:
– Tongue covered in white again; needed scraped.
– Acne slightly more subtle.
– Felt true hunger again today.
– Slept through the night last night.
– Figured out that I may be forcing myself to drink too much juice which is causing the upset in the evenings.

Weight at the end of the day = 181 lbs (up 1.2 lbs from yesterday)

Total Calories = 1856 (100% carbs, 0% fat, 0% protein)

Classroom Adventures

Every morning, a teacher comes in assuming the classroom is the way he/she left it. That is, with the exception of being cleaner because of the amazing custodians who do their part in keeping the chaos sane. If you haven’t ever thanked your janitors, thank them now! They deal with a lot of work that we often take for granted, and seldom do people remember to thank them. But what happens when you come into your room and it’s not the way you left it? Maybe something is missing or some form of destruction has taken place. Well, this is what happened to me when I came back to my classroom one Thursday morning.

As sometimes happens (less than I would like), I was early to work! I’m normally “on time” but seldom early enough to actually conquer some things before our staff worship begins. But this Thursday, I was early enough to get a few things out of the way.

As per usual, I came in the back door, walked through the Library, and opened the lock to my classroom door. But when I opened my door, I could see – even in the dark – that my carpet went darker as it proceeded to the one corner. It then hit me that I could hear water rushing. I turned on the lights, and 1/3 of my classroom floor was soaked in water (carpeted floor).

My thoughts immediately rushed to thinking that a water pipe had broke. But thankfully – though still unfortunate – the handle to the water fountain had simply been stuck on, leaving the fountain to run and overflow all night long.

Anybody could have made this mistake. Students were in my room practicing for concerts that night, the janitors may have even taken a drink and not noticed the handle had stuck on, there is nobody to really be upset at. In fact, I wasn’t really upset at all. The damage was minimal. Aside from some students’ gym shoes that were soaked, the only thing that really suffered was the carpet itself. Everything else in the area was moveable.

But of course that left us with a bit of a situation. It was still an instructional day, and I had students coming soon.

Administration got on it right away. They had a shop vac to suck up the majority of the water, they had fans and heating lamps going, but to say the room was crowded was an understatement. When you move the furniture from 1/3 of your room to the already filled other 2/3s, there literally was the most minimal of space. Not to mention the smell. Soaked, old carpet. I think it explains itself…

Instead of being upset about the situation, I completely changed my plans, and made it so that we could have class in the Library. The students actually enjoyed the change (for the most part). Our Library has couches, big, comfy chairs, and lots of tables for students to work on. There are large sections of carpet to lay down while you work. It was a shift from the normal, but it was fun.

Of course, there were some parts we had to come into the room for, like lunch. No food is allowed in the Library (for good reason) so I squished all of the desks together and sat the chairs in rows like a theatre. The students then were able to eat their lunches while watching a video for lunch. The only problem was, with the industrial fans they brought in, and the heat of two heat lamps, my room was nothing short of loud and felt like a sauna! It was a little bit ridiculous.

All in all, it was a good day. We had fun, even out of the norm. I challenge you to take the moments of adversity and change them to moments of triumph. It was a relationship-building day for my students and I as we learned to work with each other in a space that didn’t have all of the conveniences as our regularly, set-up classroom would have had. We had to run back and forth quite a bit, but we did it. It was a fun, learning experience!

Life Vs. Death: What Would You Choose?

Yesterday, at our school’s staff meeting, we had a representative from Alberta Health come in to discuss allergies and anaphylactic shock. Of course, this came with training on how to use an Epi-Pen.

Growing up, my sister had extensive allergies. She always had one Epi-Pen at school and one at home or rather near her at all times. It was a no-brainer that she needed it incase something did happen. It wasn’t even a choice. She always had 2.

You would think that all families would treat this issue the same. But unfortunately, working in a school has shown me otherwise. Some parents will not buy their sons and daughters Epi-Pens. This boggles my mind. A school is a place where so many children come from so many homes carrying so many different items. Sometimes, people will develop the allergies. So even if they had no idea they were allergic to something before, they could come into contact with something later in life that they have an anaphylactic shock to because they have developed an allergy to it. You never know.

Now, we do have a Peanut-Free environment at our school that we enforce. But we cannot control what children were in contact with before they came to school. So it’s a very hard thing to ever make 100% sure.

So, here’s the deal. For the parents who refuse to buy Epi-Pens, we aren’t supposed to give their children a generic one if they need it even if we have it. We could get in a lot of trouble. We cannot administer medication that does not have their name on it.

So let me ask you this: Do you sit by and potentially watch the child die while the paramedics are stuck in a traffic jam or somewhere further away in the city? Because you’re not supposed to drive them to the hospital yourself either. How do you do that?

The decision basically boils down to this:
#1: Do the legal thing and don’t give the child the generic Epi-Pen you have on hand. Best-case scenario, the child is able to make it long enough for the ambulance to QUICKLY get there and handle it from there. Worst-case scenario, the ambulance cannot get there quick enough and you watch the child struggle for each mini-breath and die.
#2: Risk getting fired/sued by the family, but at least know that you did what you could to save that child’s life by administering the generic Epi-Pen you have on hand. It could literally save a child’s life; that’s what they are made for.

I am really interested in hearing what you would do. It’s a tough situation. Leave your answer in the comments below!

Week 13: Day 5 Extended

As sad as this may be, I think my body is adjusting to my macros. It is getting easier and easier to stick to them each day. However, I do go through fluctuations where my body is burning! In reality, it’s not so fun. But mentally, I’m saying “Burn, baby, burn! Melt that fat away!” and I’m satisfied!

Work was so busy today, I feel like I barely had a moment to breathe. Between discipline, teaching, outlining what needs to be done before Christmas Break, grading and organizing, I was literally on-the-go all day! And when the day was finished, we had an InReach meeting to finalize the details for the Christmas Staff Party on the weekend. This time of year is crazy!

After I finally got done with all of those things, I decided I should still get some grading done before I go home. I didn’t do much though because time was going by way too quickly.

Regardless that I didn’t get much done, it was late when I got home. And as unplanned as it was, my husband and I ended up sleeping the night away.

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 7 Day 5

I could barely get out of bed this morning. I am past the point of physical exhaustion, and well into mental exhaustion. I think the flag football tournament last weekend really messed me up. I’ve had no down time with the meetings and work I’ve been trying to catch up on. Not to mention my husband’s time with me has decreased and my house, well, let’s just say there is no way I’m letting anyone come through my door. I’m embarrassed. Somehow, I have to find time.

Today was a pretty normal day at work. Although the kids still had lots of questions and conversations they wanted to talk about which is fine. After all, it is Thursday and we don’t have school on Fridays so their minds are prepping for the weekend.

After work, I had another long meeting. I am also on the Social Committee which we’ve renamed InReach. We’re in  charge of planning staff retreats, monthly staff encouragement activities, spiritual growths, as well as any staff parties. Oh my goodness… and I thought my plate was full already. I’m starting to get scared of the workload, I really am. But it will be through God’s strength that these things get done, not my own. I know that for a fact.

This evening, somehow, we made it to the gym. It was my second leg workout of the week completed in three circuits. Legs kill me every time; every time. So I was more than happy when it was time to come home and go to bed.