Updates

So my blogger tells me I haven't posted since July. Well, I've posted on a different blog at least (sparkpeople.com). Weight loss is going well. I've lost 23 pounds since July and 31 pounds total since February. I've been feeling so much better about myself and it's so rewarding to walk into work and people telling me how great I'm looking. I've been slowly replacing my wardrobe and it's enjoyable for the first time in a long time. Today I wore a sweater dress that I found in the Junior department at Kohl's. The Junior Department! Do you know how long it's been since I could even go on that side of the store??? It's been a very exciting journey. Sometimes I have setbacks, but I try my best to get back on board right away.

Another thing I've done lately is I've joined 24 Hour Fitness. At first I thought, "Well, why would I join a gym when I can use the treadmill and some weights for free at my apartment?" Unfortunately my apartment does not offer the classes that I was wanting to try. I was getting bored with the treadmill. I haven't completely given up on running though. So I went ahead and joined, and also treated myself to 3 sessions with a personal trainer to reward myself for my successes so far and to give me a little boost. Man it was worth it! She introduced me to things that I would never have thought to try. She also gave me the confidence to try things that I wouldn't have done on my own. Anytime, I started to give her a look of "Are you kidding me???" she made me banish those thoughts right away. I left each session really fired up (and then complaining about the soreness the day after).

And of course, the classes were the main reason I wanted to join. The first one I tried was a spin class. It was challenging but a great workout and I plan on going again even though I haven't gone back yet. The next week spin was cancelled for Halloween but Zumba was during the same time so I convinced the coworker that convinced me to do spin class to come with me. I LOVED it!! I went back last night and it was just as awesome. The class I wanted to the most was the one I felt the least successful at. I stayed for 15 minutes before I gave up and left. However, I think I will try again with a different instructor. One of my coworkers at school teaches Turbo Kick at another location and she's going to get me in this weekend. So we'll see how I like it this time. I'll let you know what the verdict is.

That's about all for now!

C25K Week 2 Day 2

Well, I almost made it through today. I did about 4 1/2 out of the 6 runs before walking the rest of the way. When I stopped running was about the time that I accidentally knocked the safety clip off the magnet and reset the treadmill. My calves were totally screaming and my ankles were hurting too. I wanted to push myself but my body did not apparently because I had major cramps in my calves afterwards even after stretching. I'm still getting slight shin splints even after the new shoes but I think that's the impact of my weight. I might do Week 2 again next week depending on how Friday goes. It took me quite a while to move up to Week 2 as it was considering I avoided running at all costs before this. But it is getting easier. When I started I couldn't get through the 60 second runs and now I'm up to 90 seconds at a time.

What really helps is that I have several friends who are in the same part of the program as I am so it's like I have people to root for and people that are rooting for me even though we're on opposite sides of the state. Go Erin and Aimee! We can do it!!!!

New Shoes!

I got new running shoes today! I went to a running store and had them fit me. She said I was probably buying my shoes too small cause she noticed that I had a lot of rubbing on my heel. Which I did, because at the concert my shoes got soaked and rubbed really badly. Anyway, I got Asics Cumulus shoes and they are really comfortable. I can't wait to run in them tomorrow!

Go me!

I've had an awesome week! I mentioned on the last blog post that I joined sparkpeople.com. It's really kept me motivated. I've kept a food journal on the site and tracked my workouts all week. I worked out 209 minutes and burned 1,140 calories. And you know what? I feel great! Before I started consistently working out, I took a 2 hour nap every day cause I was bored and had no energy. Now, I have no desire to take a nap. I've tried. Can't do it. I've been eating much better, too. I don't really even want unhealthy food. I do get chocolate cravings, but I got dark chocolate Chex Mix and that is very yummy! It satisfies my cravings very well. On Monday I'll weigh in and give an official report on what I've lost so far.

Name Nominations

So I'm realizing that in less than a month I start back to school, which means I will be in my second year of teaching. Therefore, I need a new title for my blog. Any suggestions?

In other news, I met my calorie goal today and my cardio fitness minutes. I didn't get my strength training in though due to procrastinating and then my card didn't work to get into the clubhouse. Better luck next time I guess. I did get some strength training in during EA Active, but I count those calories towards my cardio workout.

Tomorrow: C25K

Reaching for Goals

Last night I joined sparkpeople.com. It's an online weight loss program that's free to join. Thanks to Liz for recommending it! One of my goals on there for motivation is writing in a journal everyday. I'm counting this as my journal. So I guess I'll just talk about my day.

This morning when I got up I was just about to make breakfast when Chris suggested we go to Corner Cafe for breakfast. Since that's one of my favorite places for breakfast I couldn't turn it down. One problem: I knew I was going to start my food journal today. Writing down what I'm eating really makes me think about what I'm going to eat before I eat it. It's like seeing it in print makes it worth more or something. It also made me think about food almost every minute of the day. But back to breakfast. Usually when I go there I get the biscuits and gravy cause it's really good there. Instead, I went to "the lighter side" portion of the menu and had one egg, a piece of toast, and hash browns. I know the hash browns were a pretty big bomb, but I still managed to stay within my goals for the day, so I don't feel as bad. I just don't get ice cream tonight. It was well worth it though.

After breakfast and a trip I just relaxed until Chris went to work. Then I went down to the fitness center for my C25K run/walk. Finished the whole thing! It's getting easier and I think I'll finally be able to move to Week 2 next week. I also did my EA Active workout. I got the EA Active: More Workouts game and upped the intensity to medium instead of easy and it's kicking my butt but in a good way. This one doesn't have as many sports drills as the first one but it includes stretching and ab workouts so I like it better.

I think I'm going to need to invest in some good tennis shoes. My current tennis shoes are fine for walking around, but the other day after running I had some nasty shin splints. I also notice my feet hurting a lot while running in my arches. Part of that is probably excess weight but better shoes would support my feet better. Does anybody have any suggestions for shoes?

Thinking

After a week of no exercise I'm getting back on the horse. I'm doing much better with my Wii workouts than I am with the C25K program. I'm going to head down to the gym soon though. It's been difficult for me to get started. However, I have been able to get through entire workouts without deciding to just walk the rest. I messed up last time I went to the gym and dropped my key card on the way back. So then I couldn't get back in until I found it or bought a new one. Luckily, when I went down to the office the other day someone had turned it in. Thank goodness cause we had also invited Emily and her boyfriend over for dinner. It was pretty tasty. We had chicken kabobs with chicken, pineapple, onion, and broccoli, along with asparagus, corn, and fruit salad. It was a nice change on the grill from hamburgers and hot dogs.

While I'm on the subject of food, I've been trying to think of ideas of how to eat healthier. I'm toying with the idea of joining Weight Watchers. I think I'll just do the online program but maybe it will give me more recipe ideas for healthier food. I can never come up with ideas for good food and end up getting stuck in a rut cooking the same thing over and over again. I think if I'm eating better and exercising I'll have more energy to get things done. I really need to keep it up once school starts. So many times I'd come home from work and just collapse cause I was so exhausted. I didn't have any energy, so I'd end up doing a quick crappy dinner or saying "Let's just go out." I think the most difficult thing will be cutting down on ice cream. I love ice cream.

Warning...major rambling

Summer has been pretty great. I'm glad that I have this time to wind down and relax, but also to work on goals that I can't get motivated to do during the school year. I have time to do things that I enjoy, and things that I don't enjoy, but need to do anyway. I've also enjoyed getting my backpay from this past year. With the extra money I've finally been able to buy a new bed and a new TV. They are both wonderful. Last night was the first night in the new bed and it was bliss. Chris and I don't feel like we're practically on top of each other and aren't constantly waking each other up every time we move. We decided to keep the old bed though and put it in the 2nd bedroom. Which means that the couch we had in there is now in an awkward spot in the living room. Doesn't really match but we'll figure something out for it in due time. I was going to use it for my classroom but I was informed this week that the full classroom I was going to have was also going to be the classroom for the paraprofessionals, which would not be a good idea with students with hearing impairments. So now I'm back to a slightly bigger office than what I had last year, which is good, but it's right next to the problematic bathroom that I could hear all last year. Gonna have to get some accoustical tile for that and dictate a bathroom schedule if it becomes a problem.

In other news, I have really started to work out. I have 2 programs I'm following. I do EA Active on the Wii 4-5 days a week (2 days on, 1 rest day), and I've decided to try out the C25K (Couch to 5k) program. The Wii workouts have gone better than C25K so far, but that's mostly because I tend to do my running/walking in the evening, and several times when I've gone to the apartment's fitness center I couldn't get in. I almost didn't make it in this evening but luckily somebody was leaving as I was going in. Apparently the door is sticking really badly. I guess I'll go down to the office in the morning and let them know. I practically had to throw all my weight against the door to get out when I was done. So today was the second time I did a 5k workout. The first time I did not make it all the way through all 8 intervals but today I did! Week 1 is a 5 minute brisk walk, followed by intervals of 60 seconds running and 90 seconds walking, and then a 5 minute cool-down walk. When it starts it's not so bad but at about the halfway point I'm wishing I were dead. I have a feeling I'll do week 1 a few weeks until it gets easier. I did notice that my calves were not screaming like they were the first time. However, I was wheezing a bit afterwards. I need to get my inhaler refilled. Maybe that will make things easier if I can breathe more fully. I need to keep this up. I'm tired of not fitting into clothes and hating looking at pictures of myself. Wish me luck!

Summer Vacation So Far...

Well I have 2 weeks of summer vacation down so far. Over Memorial Weekend I went with Chris to his friend's wedding, and then to Goose Creek Lake where my aunt has a house. Good times had by all. My mom came down with us, which made it a lot of fun. Most people would think, "No big deal," but this was the first time she's been down to the lake since I was probably 7 years old, since my aunt is my dad's sister. They still get along really well though and at my stepmom's birthday party (which my mom also attended), Aunt Sherry decided she needed to make a trip down this summer.

After we got back from the lake, I stayed in St. Louis for a couple of extra days. On Tuesday I went to Mimi's hearing aid appointment with her and then out to St. Charles for a yummy dinner and catch-up time with Erin. We were going to get ice cream too but decided we were too full from dinner. So instead we decided to go to a park and take a walk and then went back to her place and chatted for a while. I didn't stay too incredibly late since she had to get up for work in the morning. On Wednesday Julie and I went to get pedicures. I love pedicures. I don't get them often enough. This could be a bad thing. I left Thursday morning to get back to Lee's Summit in time for an interview for a potential new HI Specialist. It's interesting being on the other side of the table for interviews now.

The past week has been pretty laid back. Chris and I got Super Mario Galaxy 2 and we've been playing that together a lot. Yesterday I finally went to the eye doctor and got new contacts. I've been wearing my glasses since November and it's been driving me crazy. I had to take them out today though cause my left eye has been really itchy like there's something in it. Probably allergies. The doctor recommended some eye drops for that but I haven't gone to the store for them yet. I would have gone to Target while I was out today but didn't think of it until later and I didn't have the paper with me anyway. There's probably not even anything in my eye, just probably bumpy under my eyelid from allergies so my eye is getting irritated. Oh well. I'll run out tomorrow if I need to. I'm meeting with a financial planner about my retirement account tomorrow at lunch so I'll just go then.

In other exciting news, I booked a trip to New Orleans to visit Kali in September! And our friend Emma is coming in from Scotland at the same time, so it's doubly exciting. We're trying to convince Beth that she needs to come too. With the exception of Germany and my excursion during that time to Italy, this will be my first trip without family. It's the first trip I've paid for entirely on my own. It's nice to be able to finally be able to do that and it feels like a big accomplishment. Yay!

Power Up!

For the past 2 days I've been in Columbia at an assistive technology conference. It was pretty interesting and I learned a lot. There were some things that were a bit over my head because many of the seminars were assistive technology for blind/low vision. However, I did go to one on captioning videos, which will really come in handy. Sometimes videos aren't captioned so I'll have to probably script them myself. The presenter showed us a free program to use to caption. You still have to type it all out, but I think it's better than just giving the student a script to follow. While I was there, I said to Michelle that I wished there was something that along with captioning could sign to the person. Well, apparently there's a thing called SigningAvatar. They weren't at the conference, but I looked it up on the internet and it is so cool. I think I'm going to sign up for a trial to try it out for one of my students, and if it's something he likes, I'll ask the district to purchase it. It wouldn't take the place of an interpreter of course, but it could be used in place of an interpreter for videos. Or maybe when he's reading, he could type in the word and get the sign, or even have a book signed to him while he follows along.

I got a few demo CDs for different programs that I might check out.

By the way, why is it so cold again? It's messing with my walks! I started to do a Wii workout the other day, but I guess I upped the intensity before I was ready and/or tried to work out too soon after eating because after 5 minutes of run/squats/run, I felt like I was going to throw up, so I stopped. I never got back to it because I was trying to get my student teaching videos to send through email. I've been having issues with it. The files are too big to email. I'm working on trying to figure out how to splice the video into 2 on iMovie so I can upload it onto YouTube. One video is around 20 minutes and it said videos should be 10 minutes or less. I've never uploaded to YouTube before. I'm hoping that it works so I don't have to make a DVD and send it. I'm not so good at the video part of computers, I guess. Well, that's about all for now. Bye!

I took a night off walking last night. I was pooped when I got home. Today we had a meeting before school about the budget cuts. Not a pretty picture. 6th grade had clubs today and I headed up the Walk and Talk group so I got to do my walking then. Granted I didn't get to really walk at the pace I would normally, but we walked for about an hour. We probably went about 1-2 miles. The school is right next to Longview Lake and there is a park around the lake so I took the girls through the park. It started raining towards the end but we made it inside before it started raining too hard.

Today was an early release day since it was Take Your Child to Work Day. I just worked on stuff and got caught up. I stayed late for the school carnival. It was supposed to be outside but with the rain they had to move it inside. I had fun being the target in the pie throw but I couldn't see most of the time from the whipped cream fogging up my goggles. Not many of the kids even know me so I never even had a line. But I was pretty covered by the end. My shower cap had slid up so I had it in my hair. I left right after that so I could get straight in the shower. Now I'm just relaxing, hoping that this headache goes away soon.

Today was day 3 of my evening walk. Chris joined me tonight since he was home. Last night my iPod kept me company. Maybe I'll keep updating like this every day to keep myself accountable for actually going out and walking. I'm trying to work on making some changes in my eating habits. For my lunches, I've been avoiding taking chips as much as possible. Instead I've been taking fruit, carrots, or cheese and crackers along with my sandwich. I've been thinking about switching to ground turkey instead of ground beef. I know Chris won't go for it for himself, but I could easily make a turkey burger instead of a regular hamburger if we have hamburgers. We have a lot of ground beef, because it's quick and easy, but I know it's not the healthiest. The other night we decided to have steak instead of burgers and it was really yummy. So we might try to do that more often.

I'm really ready for this week to be over. I'm looking forward to Emily's birthday get together on Friday evening. I need to blow off some steam. Keep me in your thoughts. I've been really frustrated lately with some things.

Weight Loss

So today was the second day in a row that I walked for 20 minutes around the lake! I've been trying the past few months to lose some weight. I joined the Biggest Loser challenge at work. I started out working out with the Wii using EA Active. I did that for about 2 weeks, and then started getting sick so I got off track. Today was the last weight in. I'm proud to report that I did not have to pay once (you pay if you gain). In fact, I lost 8 pounds!

6 weeks until summer!out

I can't believe my first year of teaching is almost over! It's been a whirlwind. I just found out on Friday that I will be teaching summer school. That's a relief. Granted there's still 4 weeks of the summer that I won't be working but I'm hoping that things work in my favor for my certification. I finally got everything in and submitted to the state for my certification! It took a little longer than I expected because of needing extra transcripts, and then something would get lost, and it just seemed to be never-ending. Then last weekend I went on the dept. of education website to check the status of my application and it had been accepted!! What's more, is that instead of certifying me from the date it was accepted, they certified me for the whole year!!! I'm super excited about that, in case you can't tell. Why? Well, I've been paid a teacher associate salary all year. If the state says that I've been certified for the whole year, there's a chance that I'll get back pay. So keep me in your prayers because that would help me out a whole lot. I had planned on having all this paperwork in and finished back in January and having my raise already. I should be getting the certificate in the mail this week or next week so I'll definitely be taking it to my boss as soon as I get it.

There's a lot of other stuff going on at school, but I can't really talk about it on here since it involves my kids. I do know that I'll be moving up to the middle school for a good chunk of the day next year. I also have a new room at my home school for next year. It's bigger and not next to the bathroom. It's very distracting this year. Every time anyone uses the restroom next to my room you can hear the toilet paper being rolled, the flushing, and the washer and dryer that's in there (it's a staff bathroom).

In other news, Hobbes seems to have allergies, or something. We noticed a couple of weeks ago that he was squinting his eye and it was watering. So Chris took him to the vet and they did a test to see if it was scratched. It wasn't, so they gave him some medicine for allergies, since the same thing happened last year. He had to go back for a follow-up last week and he was still squinting. So now they want to test for herpes or glaucoma, but Chris told them that we would wait and see with more medicine. I think that they are just trying to make money. So we'll see what happens. We might look for another vet for a second opinion.

Well, I think I've written a long enough book for now.

Busy busy

Okay I guess it's time for my bi-monthly blog update. I had a great birthday. Mom and Sam came in town a couple weekends before and it was so much fun. The best part was Saturday night. Mom, Sam, Chris, and I went to Holy Smoke (a really yummy bbq place), and then to a pool hall until 9, when they kicked minors out. Then Chris dropped Mom and me off at Jerry's Bait Shop (a bar in downtown Lee's Summit) for some drinks. We had a little too much fun, but it was a blast. Earlier that day, Mom and I went shopping, and then drove all around town for my birthday present...a Wii! I used birthday money from mom and family. It has definitely gotten a lot of use. I've had a Wii Fit for a while from when I lived at home and used Sam's Wii, so I've been trying to stick to some sort of an exercise routine. I'm doing the Biggest Loser thing at school. Today was our first weigh-in since the beginning and I'm happy to report that I did not have to pay. Granted, that was because I stayed the same, but it's better than gaining right? Chris and I have also been addicted to Animal Crossing. We found this forum online for other players and have been visiting other people's towns. I know, we're dorks.

Today, I started out with a cranky student. I gave him a vocab quiz, which he knew about. He pretty much bombed it, and when I told him he really needed to study his words harder, he told me that I didn't tell him to study. Umm...kid, you're in 6th grade. If a teacher tells you you have a quiz, that means study. I know kids with hearing impairments take things very literally, but he should know by now that he should study for a quiz. He continued to give me attitude the rest of the morning. When he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing, he just sat at his desk. When he couldn't find the paper with the assignment, he came back and sat some more. I was really torn on how much help I should give him. I can't hold his hand...if I do, it's a disservice because he won't advocate for himself. But then if I don't help, it's a disservice because he misses out. In the end, I did not help him and he ran out of time. He didn't seem to want much help, but that could just be the way I interpreted it, since we were both frustrated by then. I'm only there for 45 minutes in the morning. What does he do when he misses the directions the rest of the day? I can only do so much. We'll try again on Wednesday when I see him again.

Well, I should get to bed. Transition meeting tomorrow and writing an IEP that I should have worked on more tonight.

"My schema isn't working today."

That's what one of my students told me today. I almost died laughing. What a stinker!

In other news, I am clearly a space cadet. I called the library last week to schedule my final for my children's lit class for today. On my way there I realized that I totally forgot to fill out an exam request to have my test proctored so I couldn't take it. The librarian was a bit rude. When I asked if she would be there Saturday she said "Yeah you're lucky." Geez sorry I made a mistake and it's not the end of the world if I had to wait till Monday. Whatever.