Groceries Galore

Hi there!  Happy Saturday yo!

Man, do I feel great!  Saturday mornings are always an early wake up at 7:40, but who are we kidding, I'm naturally up before that anyways...I think it's just mental that I don't get to 'sleep in'.  Ma had to work and Brudder is moving, so I was solo today.  I still went, had a blast, wished they were there, and burned some mega calories!  A recovery shake, which I usually share with Ma, was enjoyed after. Gotta get some protein in the bod to build some lean muscle!

The last few weeks of craziness, which I could probably write a book on, have left my cupboards, freezer, and fridge a barren wasteland.  I'm pretty sure I had to clean out some tumbleweeds yesterday... So grocery shopping was on the agenda for today.  Now here is the amazing part; our regional director wanted to thank us for working so hard before school started (we weren't getting paid and didn't have contracts yet, but if we wanted jobs we had to market for kids for enrollment) that he gave us all $100 Giant Eagle gift cards!  Sweeeeet.  Gift card and food perks united to bring my $156 total down to $42!  No extreme couponing needed :)

The Bounty

I love to grocery shop when I have no time frame.  I just cruise up and down the aisles and scope out the goods.  I usually do most of my shopping at Trader Joe's, but I had to use that gift card!  I also love to go after the gym; I always feel motivated, healthy, and just plain awesome, and in turn, I make great food choices.

PB of choice on the right, intriguing PB on the leftt.

One way I try to help myself make good choices throughout the week, is that I come home from the grocery store and immediately get to work.  I boil half of my dozen of eggs, then just pop them back in the carton in the back row (B is for back and boiled).  In addition, I almost always make some sort of meal that I can divide into containers to have quick, ready to go meals for lunches or dinners.  I just feel so inspired to cook when I get home.  Today's dish was completely from my brain, no internet recipe inspiration, nadda.  It just kind of developed.

Garlic and Herb Chicken and Cauliflower

Boy, is it delicious!  You can find the recipe over on the recipes page!

I also made some quinoa to go along with it, divided it up into a few containers (2 with chicken and cauli, 1 of just quinoa to use later with something)

Instant lunches!  Just heat and eat :)

Ok, I'm full...the only downside of grocery shopping is I tend to snack the whole time on all of the new goodies I bought to try!  But, guess that just counts as my lunch.  I think I'll try to grab a wink or two before heading into work tonight...yay retail.

Today's lesson learned:

Going to the grocery store when you're not hungry is something we've all heard; that's physical.  What about your mental state?  If you go to the grocery store when you're feeling great, confident, happy, and motivated, you'll make much better choices in every aisle.  Fo sho!

First Day of School

Well, I survived!  Day one of Kindergarten.  Complete!  It's amazing how you wait for what seems like forever to finally get 'the' job you went to school for.  I finally have it and I'm just like, huminahuminahumina...I finally have it?  What????

There were surprisingly no tears, no blood, and only a little bit of sweat...I'm OK with that!

So if you've been reading, today was a f'real back on the wagon day.  And guess what?  It happened!

Breakfast was a banana almond protein pancake (recipe to come) with some peanut butter and honey on top.  Of course it was enjoyed on the way to school, I just felt like I had a million things to do and couldn't justify sitting down to eat!

Our day was basically complete chaos when it came to anything that wasn't in my room...recess, lunch, dismissal, etc.  But, that was to be expected because not only was it the first day of school, we are a K-2 building, and we are a brand new school.  So, we didn't even have a previous year's plan to work from.  We made it though!

I was able to sneak away for about 4.68 seconds to inhale my lunch while the kids were at recess...sorry, no picture!  It was a gordita from Trader Joe's smothered in salsa.  Honestly, the picture is unimportant.  It looks like a yellow CD, but it's filled with refried beans and cheese.  YUM!  A side of corn was with it and a plum.  And maybe a snickers.  A fun size one though!  Considering the rest of the trash on the counters in the faculty room, I did preeeeetttty darn well :)

While still at school I got a text from Keefer asking me if I was going to the gym.  Yeahhhh, it's a good thing he did because I was leaning towards no.  But no!  The wagon!  By this point I was subconsciously mantra-ing myself, "I will work out. I will work out."  I fought with myself the whole way home (a whole 15 minutes) and got inside, and just went straight upstairs, got my clothes out without thinking about it, got changed and ran out the door. Literally! 

I went on a nice 2 mile run that about half of consisted running up a hill that is practically straight up.  F'reals.  It felt soooo good though!  Momasita needed me to stop by tonight so I ran in the direction of her house and ended up there at the end of my run.  

Dinner was waiting!  It was Newman's Own Margherita pizza.  I had never had it before but it was delicious, especially with some red hot, and half of the pizza was about 400 calories.  Appropriate for a good choice dinner!  I enjoyed a nice, leisurely .5 mile walk home as the sun was setting...it was so beautiful outside!

Today's lesson learned:
Even if you spend 11 hours at work with 20 Kindergarteners, you might not want to work out afterwards.  It helps to find someone to hold you accountable, to send you a text/phone call/IM asking if you're going to work out today.  It's a lot harder to not work out when you either have to lie to that person or just say no and you end up feeling guilty either way!  So find a buddy!

Look Under the Table

Tomorrow is the first day of school!!!  OMG. HOLY COW. YIKES.  I'll leave it at that.

So, recently I've been mentioning this 'wagon.'  You know, that wagon that is exactly what you 'want' to be doing at all times.  We fall off, we get back on, we fall off, we get back on, we fall off, we get bruised and scraped, then we try to get back on again.  Today was my day to get back on.  I fell off for about 2 weeks, yikes!  From my heaviest, I had lost a nice 30ish lbs. in a good hearty streak, then student teaching and moving to the city and such actually put about 10 back on me.  But, since about March or so, I dropped that added 10, plus 30ish more; a few weeks ago I was a few pounds shy of a complete total loss of 60!  Then I hit a bump in the road (also known as life), got thrown off of the wagon, and I seriously feel like I've gained 10 lbs. in 2 weeks!  So this has been my longest off wagon time in quite a while...

There are so many people, books, magazines, articles, etc. that say, "Don't worry about the number...it's all about how you feel!"  So, putting aside any numbers the scale may say, I FEEL like I've gained 10 lbs.  Therefore, my wagon mounting was scheduled for today.  Good eats and gym time all the way.  Ready. Go.

I showed up to school with my lunch box packed full of salad, fruit, veggies, and granola.  We find out at our morning meeting that pizza will be ordered for us for lunch (since everyone was in a frenzy with last minute touches to rooms, curriculum, etc.).  Ok, I can deal with that... as much as I love pizza, I ate a reasonable amount and was proud of myself!  Then I went to see the faculty room (our whole school was remodeled so it was finally done...and beautiful!)  There was candy in 3 separate baskets, individual packages of cookies (Nutter Butters, Oreos, etc.), and butter popcorn ready to be popped on the microwave.  The ladies who decorated and left it all are amazing women from our Missouri support team, so nothing against them, but why can't the whole world just all decide to make good choices???

Now here is the kicker.  There was a staff surprise scheduled for 3pm.  We show up, and the same lovely ladies planned an ice cream bar for us.  Sheesh.  Thanks ladies, but no thanks.  I'd be happy with a high 5.

Why does it have to be this hard???

I left school ASAP to make it to the gym. YAY!  I had yoga and spin planned out and I was looking forward to them all day.  Seriously!  To my dismay, either from stress, dehydration, sugar or all of the above, I developed an intense headache that I cursed for many hours leading up to the gym.  I wanted to go so badly :(  I still went, hoping yoga would make it go away...although it helped a little, it was still pretty killer so I skipped spin.  But you know what?  I still see that as a plus, not a minus!  Yeah, I didn't take one of the classes I had planned on taking, but I did make it TO the gym (which has been hard to do these last 2 weeks) and I took a class even though I had a killer headache.

Today's Lesson Learned:
Sometimes you are so pumped to get back on the wagon, then someone screw drivers your knee and you fall flat on your face.  Tomorrow is a new day, take pride in even small accomplishments, and check under the table for any strangers with screw drivers tomorrow when you climb back on your wagon.

Back in Action

Ok, I lied.  Those who follow me on Facebook were promised a post yesterday, but it never happened.  I have an excuse though!  I was supposed to work at 5, but got called to work at 1 so I had zero time to do so.  So, you get it today.  After like 3 weeks with no posts.  Cause I'm awesome like that.  I'm going to try to not let it happen again.  Promise!

So, why the no posts for a while?  Well, this blog is new and I'm still getting into the swing of things, and after about a nice steady week of posts, the most amazing thing happened.  I was HIRED as a KINDERGARTEN teacher at a new charter school in my area!  It was a long process and I knew for months that I 'might' be hired (depending upon enrollment), but it was finally made official last week.  Therefore, life got in the way.  Working at helping set up the school during renovations, setting up my room, talking to parents, etc.

Just a warning, this post is not at all food related, more life related.

I'm a huge supporter of a 'no excuses' life style when it comes to working out.  In the words of my mother, "it's like brushing your teeth, you just do it!"  Last school year I would work three days a week from 8-4 at school, then 5-10 at the mall.  Get home, go to bed and do it all over again.  The 2 days a week where I didn't work both jobs, it was tough to get to the gym when all I wanted to do was lay on the couch and recover.  But you know what?  That doesn't get results.  I was going to the gym on those 2-3 days off a week but that wasn't enough.  I took a deep breath and made the commitment to work out 5-6 days a week, and to do that, I had to make another commitment; 6am workouts.  Once again, I can't express how great group fitness (after the mac and cheese pic) is.  It is a lot easier to get out of bed when you know you HAVE to be there because class starts at 6.  My class of choice at 6am?  SPIN!

I can hear everyone moaning now...ohhh geeze...6am???  Then work straight through til 10pm?  (don't forget the half hour drive home)  But guess what...you're not going to believe it...but it is the 100% truth..........readdddyyy?  I had MORE energy to get me through pre-school and kindergarten (aka shoppers at the mall) when I worked out at 6am than when I just did both jobs without the gym in the morning!  I promise!  I know, it sounds like, "oh, just put your hand in the lawn mower; I promise it won't hurt!"  But I'm serious.

Grand opening celebration is tomorrow night and the first day of school is on Wednesday.  Yikes!  But, that means only working ONE job 5 days a week!  Know what else that means?  I'm back on my gym schedule and I cannot wait.  I can hear it down the street calling my name.  As nice as it seems sometimes to not go, in the end, I miss it and so does my body.  My mind feels it too.  Know what else feels it?  My sleep schedule.  I sleep so much better when I'm on a good gym schedule.  Nice and sound.  Head hits the pillow and I'm O.U.T.

So Tuesday, I'm back in action.

Today's lesson learned:
It's ok to fall off the wagon.  We all do it.  You're a super hero if you never fall off the wagon; 10 points to you!  The important thing is how you get back on it.  Take a deep breath, lift those legs one at a time, and boost your bottom back on that wagon.  And keep on rollin'.  Rollin'.  Tina Turner style.