I'm Heading Down the Atlanta Highway

Yep, a week from now I will be returning from a 3-day trip to Savannah, Georgia with approximately 400 8th graders. Pray for me.

We take the kids for a two-night trip ... lots of educational stuff as well as fun stuff.

This week, I gained a little. I knew I would never be able to sustain a seven pound loss. I'm up 2.8 pounds, and I'm totally okay with that.

I got my new school picture and have posted it. What do you think? The biggest difference is when you compare it to my teacher picture from 2005. I'm a little disappointed that it doesn't show a bigger difference from last year's photo, even tough I have lost about 30-35 pounds since then. I see a lot of changes in my body, so maybe that's the big difference this year.

I don't know why it's so fuzzy. It's not fuzzy on my computer. Any tips? Jodi? Any design genius help you can give me?

I'm not out of here until Tuesday morning, but I'll probably only post one more time before I go. I do plan on calling the hotel to find out what the workout situation might be. I'm also going to take a bunch of my own food and try not to go overboard on snacks.

Blogging is Hard Work!

Not only did I take a vacation from my blog, but I'd stopped reading yours as well! I'm trying to catch up and comment to lots of you, but it's a lot of work to get to all of you.

So, my blanket statements to each of you for the last month. Please choose the one(s) that apply best to your situation!
*Congrats on the loss!
*So what if you only lost .2 of a pound ... it all adds up in the end.
*Wow! Sounds like life has been rough on you recently. We all hit bumps in the road sometimes. Just make sure you get back on the right track soon.
*Yum! That sounds like an awesome recipe. Too bad I don't cook!
*You look awesome in that new picture! I can really tell the difference from your last photo.
*Exercise sucks sometimes. That's why I have a really cute trainer.
*Thanks for the comment! I missed you too.

That last one's for real. I've missed all of you. Thanks for sticking with me!

It's Not You; It's Me

Thanks for all your well-wishes. I guess I'm taking a little break from constantly thinking about food and dieting. I had a few big losses in a row, followed by a couple of little gains. I'm still going to WW, but I've had a few scheduling conflicts there as well.
I didn't realize it had been so long until I got the great comment hoping that I'd made it back from the lake trip I went on for Labor Day almost a month ago! That made me laugh and realize I needed to post something ASAP.
I've been spending a lot of time recently at Max's apartment. In fact, I feel like my apartment is just a dumping ground right now. Honestly, in the last month I've spent about two nights a week at my own home.
You might remember that I had an 'incident' with Max reading my blog about 2 months ago. It's not a trust issue exactly, but I still don't want to blog from his house and leave him the temptation of having things to click on in his online history. I feel like if I bring it up, he'll think of it as me not trusting him. I've just decided not to offer him the temptation at this point in time. As a result, I either have to blog at work (where I never have time), or I have to blog from my house when I'm rarely home.

I've missed y'all, so I'll go ahead and promise to be better in October. I think I'm going to take the rest of September off and recommit myself next week.

If I've lost 60 pounds, how can I still be so fat?

I'm having a mid-loss crisis. Okay, so crisis is a little strong in the semantics department. So, now that I've neared the half-way mark, I feel like I need some extra oomph. I know I said it didn't matter how long it took, but the 'end' is still a long time off. And yes, I know it's a lifestyle change, so by 'end' I mean maintenance. I look at a lot of your blogs and realize that you would be thrilled and close to the maintenance stage if you lost 60 pounds.

Any ideas to get past these feelings? As for my weigh-in, I have to report a slight gain of .4 of a pound. I've had several 1 pound+ losses in the past few weeks, so I knew I'd experience a small bounce at some point. According to my home scale, I've already lost that .4 plus a little more.

Have a great Labor Day weekend! We're off to the lake!

My double chin has hit the floor!

I weighed in this afternoon. I was pretty confident going in since I had hit a new stark-naked low earlier in the week. However, I did not expect a 3.2 pound loss! Especially after losing 2.2 last week, 1.0, the week before, and more than 3 the week prior to that! I'm a losing machine in August! I've already lost more than my goal of 6 pounds for the month. All I can say is GO ME!

Being on a schedule is so much better for me than being on summer vacation. Having three meals a day ... getting back on a regular gym schedule ... sleeping more each night. What a difference a few weeks make!

Laying like Broccoli

I was so exhausted all week I asked Max by Tuesday if we could just lay around and veg this weekend. He was all over that. So, Friday night we made dinner together and fell asleep on the couch. Saturday, he came to school to help me with some last minute back-to-school things, and we went to the gym. He was a good little helper. At the gym on th weekends, he likes to 'be my trainer.' He is a certified trainer, but he doesn't work in that capacity. However, he is totally in charge of the gym on the weekends when it comes to me. He works hard, and I love that I don't have to think. Today, we woke up, layed around a few hours, went back to bed, and then finally I came home for a little while. It was a good time spent with him, and the scale showed how little we invested in the weekend. Literally, when we veg out like that, food is one of the last things on our mind. I always lose a pound or two when I do that. Well, I got home just now. At 2 in the afternoon, my stark-naked weight is down 2 1/2 pounds to 231.0. I hope I can keep that up until Wednesday's weigh-in. We'll see. I'll probably have a hard time getting away on Wednesday morning during my planning period to run over to WW to weigh-in before lunch. We'll see. Sometimes I have to weight until the 5:30 p.m. meeting, but I try not to.

Hope y'all had good weekends too!

I'm a Star!

What a crazy week. Tomorrow and Friday are Open Houses at school when the students and parents come to meet the teachers. I'm ready, but I'm exhausted. I had to move classrooms this year, and with the move I decided to purge like I'm doing to my closets at home. I've taught 3 different grade levels in 10 years (2nd, 5th, and 8th). I've taught almost every subject (math, science, history, reading, language arts, music, health, etc.). I've taught history for the last three years, so I decided to get rid of a lot of stuff that doesn't pertain to what I"m currently doing. I've given away a lot of stuff. I feel really good about it. Also, I've been organizing as I've been unpacking. Usually, there's no time for that during the preplanning week. I've taught in 9 classrooms in 10 years, so you can imagine the horror I've been dealing with.

I snuck away at lunchtime to go and weigh in since I thought I might work really late tonight. I lost 1.0 pound, which put me at exactly 35 pounds lost with WW since February 1. I really wanted to go back for my 5:30 meeting so I could get my star sticker, so I worked my tail off to make that happen.

If I haven't talked about my leader before, let me tell you how much I LOVE her! Her name is Lou, and she's awesome. What a great motivator! Her's is the most popular meeting of the week, and sometimes it's standing room only.

Not only did I get my star, but she knows I lost some weight before beginning WW. Every time I earn a star, she likes to bring that up. So, not only did we celebrate my 35 pound WW loss, but she also celebrated my 54.6 pound loss since I first started out. She even gave me an "I lost 50 pounds" magnet. I was so glad I buckled down and got my work done in time to make the meeting.

I had gotten totally sick of my size 22 jeans. They were so lose and didn't look good anymore. I have an older pair of size 20 jeans that fit me many years ago. They don't quite fit yet. I've worn them around the grocery store twice, but the camel-toe/muffin-top look isn't quite stylish enough to wear around my 8th graders.
So, I went to Lane Bryant this weekend to check out their new Right Fit jeans. I didn't really understand what I was in for, but I got fitted by one of the ladies. I thought I was looking for a 20 Petite, but instead she measured me for a 5 Yellow Petite. I have no idea what that really means, but the fit is PERFECT. I have big hips, but I have no ass. It turns out that the yellow is for people with narrow hips and larger asses, but because I'm the opposite, it worked out perfectly. I've always had to have jeans that fit my waist, but not my pretty small legs/ass. I was so excited I bought two pairs!

On another note, I got a surprise invitation at the last minute to go to the Justin Timberlake concert here in Atlanta last night (for free!). I went and had a blast! What an amazing display of showmanship. I also happened to sit, literally, right in front of two former students from three years ago. Depsite my fears, I think they actually enjoyed hanging out with my friend and me for several hours.

Hope everyone's having a good week, and that you're less frazzled than I will be in the coming back-to-school days!