Healthy Eating

Well it's been almost a week of close monitoring of what I'm eating.  I've been doing pretty well at keeping track of the calories I'm eating using My Fitness Pal!  And I'm doing my best to keep what I eat within my daily calorie allowance!  For the past couple days I've also been making it my goal to drink 8 cups of water a day, which is what is suggested by many nutritionists and doctors.  I've noticed this is making me have to go the bathroom A LOT!  I used to not visit the bathroom but a few times a day, but now I feel like I'm running in that direction every hour or so!  I'm hoping all this will help me look better and feel better about myself!

I've done really well at attending Jazzercise class every week, and I find myself really looking forward to going and getting in a good workout!  I'm also starting to get the hang of the routines and feel like I don't look so silly and clumsy doing the moves anymore!

After class last Saturday, I made a trip to Publix to get some good produce and healthier food.  I used to do almost all of my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart, but their produce selection doesn't seem to match up and the prices at Publix for their healthier foods are pretty good.  There aren't many choices of grocery stores really close to my house, so I'm planning to make a weekly trip to Publix after Jazzercise class, which is near a Publix store!

I have been doing a little experimenting with adding more fruits and vegetable into my diet.  I've started drinking 100% Grapefruit juice and using more fresh produce when I cook.  Here is a picture of a yummy lunch I tried out on Monday:

It's 1 cup of whole wheat rotini, a 1/2 cup each of zucchini and squash, 1/2 cup marinara/lean ground beef sauce, and 8 oz of Grapefruit juice!  It was so easy make and extremely delicious!

Here's hoping I can keep up my good work and stick to eating better!

~Emily

Getting a Feel for It

So after my last post, I found My Fitness Pal, an online food and exercise tracker.  I've been using it to track everything I eat since Monday.  I did pretty well Monday and Tuesday keeping within my allotted daily caloric intake, but I didn't do so well yesterday.  I know there are going to be days that I "fall of the wagon," but I can't let those days get me down and I'm trying harder today!  I know it's going to take some time to get myself used to not just eating anything I want.  I'm getting a feel for it though!

I don't have anything going on this afternoon until Jazzercise class, so to keep myself from digging into everything in my house, I have been finding some activities to keep myself occupied.  I clipped the dog's toenails and cleaned out her ears.  We also had a bit of play-time outside!  I've done some laundry and even vacuumed the house.  I feel good about the hard work I'm putting in to keep my mind off food!

Yesterday, I had my yearly doctor's appointment (the girly one).  Everything seemed to check out okay, but my blood pressure was a bit high.  I always get nervous when I go to the doctor, mostly because I only go once a year to this particular doctor.  This elevates my blood pressure, but I'm not sure it should be this high at my age, so I've been looking into other ways to lower it beside getting put on medication.  I'm hoping the exercise and working to eat better will help with this!

It has been great to be back at work with the students this week!  I feel like my students and I are really getting involved in what we're reading!  And the students seem to be really excelling!

We have been struggling with one teacher, whose students we work with.  She doesn't seem to see us as professionals and talks down to us, that is when we actually do communicate at all.  I know every person has their own way of doing things and as they say "march to the beat of their own drum," but the lack of collaboration and communication with us and other teachers is very frustrating.  We have tried many ways of approaching her and dealing with her with no change.  I hope things will get better for our sake as well as the sake of the students!

Hoping for a great weekend to come and more hard work ahead!

~Emily

Time to Try Harder

After struggling to put my jeans on last night to go out and not feeling very good about myself in my own clothes, I've decided that just doing the exercise is not cutting it!  I think it's time to really start focusing on all the things I'm eating!  I seem to eat much more when I'm not busy and I don't really think too much about the mindless eating.  

I think it's time for me to start keeping track of what I'm eating.  To do this I'm going to use a calorie tracker online and maybe even keep a food journal that I can write down what I eat when I'm not near a computer.  Today, I want to just keep track of how many calories I'm eating on average to see what a good daily calorie goal would be for me!

Another thing that may help with the mindless eating is for me to go out and take a walk or do something productive when I feel the urge to eat out of boredom.  I really think this will keep my mind off the food and hopefully get some productive things done as well!

I'm really hoping cutting back and keeping track of my daily calorie intake will really help me start to feel and look better!

It's definitely time to try harder!!!

~Emily

Weekend Happenings

Well the snow/ice are almost gone.  I can't believe that there is still some on the ground a week later!  That never happens around here.  Usually it disappears the next day.

Anyways...
My weekend turned out to be a bit more eventful than I originally thought it might be!  On Friday, I took Rosey down to the Riverwalk for nice long walk to get her out of the house and some exercise for us both!  I was surprised by all the snow still lingering around the path and the ice that was still on the path and bridges (Rosey almost made me slip a few times!).  That night, I went out for dinner to San Jose!  Yay for some Mexican (it was my choice)!  Can't say that was the best food choice, but it was certainly yummy!  After dinner, I started watching Modern Family from the beginning...I really enjoy this show!

Saturday started with Jazzercise class!  During class, one of my best friends Lacy asked me to grab dinner with her...Finally we could get together and celebrate her Birthday!  We had a great time and meal at Copper River!  I did pretty good by ordering a salad and soup, and it's always good to get out with a great friend!

I didn't make it to church on Sunday morning because Mallory was taking care of her mother after her recent surgery and I don't feel very comfortable going by myself, but I did take some time to connect with God.  I decided to take Rosey down the Riverwalk again for another long walk.  There were many people out there, probably because the weather was much nicer!  I think Rosey had a good time mingling with some of the other dogs out there!  I got together with some friends for trivia late last night at Wild Wings.  We try to go whenever we have a Monday off because it doesn't start until around 11pm and goes on for a couple hours.  We really have a great time every time we go!!!

Today I'm enjoying my last day off, and plan on going to Jazzercise tonight!  I'm actually really looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow!  I've missed my students and the work we've been doing!

Here's hoping for a great week ahead!

~Emily

The Meltdown

Well after many days of snow and ice, the meltdown is almost complete!  Everything was pretty much melted on Wednesday, but after driving to Mom's house that night in Lexington, I found that many places were still dealing with much more that needed to melt!  Here are some pictures around my house on Wednesday:

Yes those are Christmas lights still hanging on my house! LOL!

They were taken down yesterday though!!!  Yay me!

Yesterday, I went back to work.  The students still have off until Tuesday, but us teachers had to go in for in-service.  We had a professional development on teaching vocabulary.  Not extremely exciting, but I learned some new things that I can try when we go back next week!  No work today because I don't usually work on Fridays, and no work Monday because of MLK day!  So I have a long weekend ahead of me and no real plans!  After getting three extra days off this week, I'm no so sure a long uneventful weekend will be that great...I may be super bored!

I finally made it back to Jazzercise after many days of it being cancelled due to the weather!  We had class last night and it felt good to sweat!  Even though I did pretty well doing two workouts at home when I couldn't go to class!  Since I was stuck at home for so many days, I didn't do so well at eating because I eat so much more when I'm just sitting around bored, but hopefully I'll do better when my schedule goes back to normal!

The temperatures are supposed to warm back up this weekend, so here's hoping everything will continue melting and all will go back to normal!

~Emily

Snow Days

Well, the snow started falling around midnight Monday morning, so this is what we woke up to:

Rosey really enjoyed running around in it and trying her best to eat it all up!

Around 4:30pm yesterday, they went ahead and cancelled school for today because the snow was going to turn to ice as the temperature dropped.  So I spent another day at home today, but the roads have started to clear up.  I enjoyed getting out a little bit ago to eat at Ruby Tuesdays!  Here's a few pics I took today of the ice:

And Rosey eating the ice:

It has started melting some, but the temperature is supposed to drop pretty low again tonight, so school has been cancelled again!  We were only supposed to have a 3 day school week as it is with Thursday and Friday as in-service days, so now the students get a whole week off!  And Monday is a holiday as well!  Won't be digging it as much when we have to make all of this up, but I've been enjoying getting to sleep in and lay around!

I did do a P90x workout last night since Jazzercise class was cancelled!  It kicked my butt...I'm so sore today!  Going to try to motivate myself to do other workout tomorrow before heading to Mom's for dinner!

Yay for snow/ice days!!!  Especially in SC!

~Emily

My Weekend

Well my weekend was a pretty busy, but definitely fun one!  I started it off with a night out on a second date!  He came to pick me up, then we went to Outback for dinner.  After dinner, he took me to his friends' house to meet them and their daughter.  They were very nice, and we had fun playing some games on their PS3!

Yesterday morning I woke up early to go to Jazzercise class, which I am very proud of myself for getting up out of bed on my usual day to sleep in!  After lunch and getting myself ready I headed to Dad's house, so we could head up to Charlotte to see my stepmom and about 300 other ladies perform a Jazzercise routine at halftime of the Charlotte Bobcats game.  We drove up and met up with some friends and family for dinner before the game. Then, we had to walk down to the arena...it was FREEZING especially with the wind!  I'm not a big basketball fan, so the game was rather boring, but I had a so much fun spending time with my dad!  He is so awesome, and we seem to always have a good time when we're together!  I was also great to spend some time with LuAnne's side of the family since they came to watch as well!

At halftime, the ladies took their positions (they filled up the entire floor) and gave a wonderful performance!  Some of the ladies I take class with said I should join in the next time they do another performance like this.  Not sure if that will actually happen...but we'll see!
Here's a picture of the side of the floor LuAnne and her group were on:

After not getting home from Charlotte until about 2am, I was happy with myself for getting up and going to church this morning!  We heard a great sermon about why Jesus was baptized, and I feel that my being baptized is what has made me always feel a relationship with God.  It hasn't always been the closest or best relationship, but a relationship none the less.  I know He has always been in my life, and I look forward to continuing to build on the relationship!

Today is one of my best friend's brithday!  Lacy turns 25 today!  I would have loved to have spent some time with her to celebrate her special day, but due to the fact that she now lives and teaches in Aiken, we didn't have a chance to get together to celebrate :(  Hopefully, we can get together soon!

The rest of my day today has involved me being very lazy!  I took a long nap and have been laying in bed for most of the afternoon!  Usually I would love to be out and about, but after a long week of work and feeling like I've been very busy, I'm really enjoying my lazy Sunday!

Looks like snow tomorrow!  Still waiting to see if school will be cancelled (I'm hoping for just a delay so no make-up day will occur), but I know Rosey and I will enjoy the snow either way!

~Emily