I am a Sea Monster.

So exercise has been difficult since I got back from Disney. Last Friday Dan and I went for a 40 minute walk and then on Saturday we went for an hour walk. But that's all she wrote, folks.

Sunday there was just too much going on in prep for the workshop. Monday I was having a very hard personal day and I was also very busy with Blackbird stuff. I have been trying to wake up at 6:15 now to work out in the morning, but have discovered every morning that it is A. Too Dark for me to want to get up and B. Too cold for me to want to get up. So that killed exercise on Tuesday for me and this morning, too.

I need to figure something out that works for me, folks. It needs to work within my schedule and it needs to work with the cold early morning hours AND it needs to work with the eventual reherasals I'll be having three nights a week. So here is what I'm going to try...

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have the morning off from work. So sometime between 9am and 12pm I need to muster up the courage to go outside when it's cold and walk for 30 minutes.

On Saturdays and Sundays there is plenty of time when I am not busy - but would rather be curled up on the couch doing nothing. I can find time in between weekend craziness to walk for 30 minutes, especially since Dan is willing to go with me on the weekends.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work a full day - and starting in Dec. I will have rehearsal every Tuesday night. I also have been going to Weight Watchers on Thursdays after work. So on these days I need to wake up early and lift weights in the house. It will be less chilly than the early AM jaunt outside and it will be lighter in the house too. So there.

And finally - on Fridays I can just stick with what I'm doing now! Dan and I have made quite a lovely habit of walking to Hollywood Video and back every Friday night. It takes 20 minutes each way (and we keep the pace up by power walking) plus it helps us save money on the weekends!

Okay. I like this plan. It varies what I'm doing during the weekdays, but it does so in order to work with my schedule. I am normally the kind of person that likes to have the same plan for every day, but clearly life is busy and I can't have everything I want all the time.

And now - onto the title of this blog. To keep discipline in my classroom, my students can "earn" minutes for the playground (which I can constantly threaten to take away if they are being bad). Wednesday's class had a Halloween theme and they wanted to take it with them on the playground too. So they deemed me the "sea monster." The blue area of the playground floor was my swamp and the playground was the boat. And if they got off the boat into the swamp, then I could chase them. At first I was hesitant to be the monster, mostly because I haven't done a lot of running since last fall (when I taught the sports and rec class) and I could barely keep up with the kids then. But they wanted me to be the monster (and I wanted to do it too), so I agreed to play along with the thought that I could always tag a kid and make them the monster when I got tired. So I started to run all around the playground, chasing kids and tickling them. The kids got a huge kick out of it, they would all jump down and taunt me and then run away screaming as I would roar and give chase. And, to my surprise, for the full fifteen minutes I didn't get winded! I ran all up and down the playground, screaming, jumping, picking up kids and throwing them in the air...and it felt really good! I was a little sweaty by the end of it, but I could breathe easily and I probably could have played a little longer!

And so I say this. Even when I have a hard week of exercise or a hard week of eating, I have lost almost 30 pounds and I FEEL HEALTHIER. My body is lighter and my muscles are starting to take shape. The only cravings I get now are for big bowls of vegetables, a honey crisp apple, or maybe a baked potato. I am walking at a faster pace and I am less hungry through out the day. By no means have I perfected my diet and I know I will have more slip ups as I continue forward, but I am past the starting point now and well into the journey. And things are looking different for me. I like that.

I hate my Period, I eat Pizza

So I felt like I had almost a perfect week. I ate fruits and veggies every day, I made smart choices, and I only used 12 of my 35 anytime points. I also got in a pretty decent amount of exercise on 4 days. AND I was really able to start feeling where I had lost weight this weekend. There was a point on Saturday when I looked in the mirror and could see all these tiny changes that are starting to have an effect.

But Tuesday night I ate sea salt soaked edamame, which I've done the day before a weigh in and been perfectly fine! But I guess it's not smart to suck down a lot of sodium the day before your PERIOD and then jump on a scale and expect to see happiness.

I only gained .6, which is NOT BAD. But I had SUCH a good week. And I felt really bloated in the morning when I woke up, which is the worst feeling ever on a weigh in day. Sigh. Maggie said that weight gain during your period is not a myth and that if affects everyone differently, even a guy at the meeting chimed in and said his wife always gains the week of her period (his wife would have been THRILLED if she'd been in the room). So I'm not going to beat myself up about it. But I was already having a super bad day at work and I was crabby and tired, so it didn't help matters.

To top it off, Dan had a horrible day at work and was also in a bad mood when he got home. It was no good. We've both been craving Dominoes pizza for weeks, so we decided to pull out the old Dining Out Companion to see what kind of damage it'd do. It turns out that 1 slice of pepperoni pizza is 6 points, and I had 19 points left, so we ordered a medium pizza immediately. And I think it genuinely did make us both feel better, which is a little ridiculous. I also gave Dan a really long back rub, which I think much have helped him too. Anyway, I was still hungry after the pizza, so I used 10 of this week's anytime points. The depressing thing is that even after I ate the 10 I was still hungry (and not in the, "I'm stuffed but I still want to eat way. My stomach still had room in it). But I stopped at 10 and I feel good about that.

But this morning I had a grease stomach ache, which I haven't had in almost three months now. So that was a little depressing. I don't regret eating the pizza though, I had the points for it and I didn't go overboard (and I certainly could have). Plus I am of the mindset that you shouldn't deprive yourself when you have been craving something and pizza has been on the brain for the longest time.

So I had a Jamba Juice this morning so that I could fill up on some good fiber and I have both a reasonable lunch and dinner packed for myself, along with some snacks (I'm staying late to see Edward for the second time). I'm also going to take a 30 minute walk on the pier after work today, since I wasn't in the mood this morning. Cold weather totally sucks.

I think my goal for this week will be to exercise every day since I have Disney coming in 1 week! The goal will also be to try hard to not use the rest of my anytime points (I still have 25, but I want to try and ignore them). And just in general to really try and get in at least 4 servings of fruits or veggies every day this week. I want to have a good week before Disney, so I can try to use that motivation towards not blowing the whole week while I'm dancing with Minnie Mouse.

The cool thing is that the week I get back from Disney will be my "16 week" celebration! 16 weeks from the week you sign up they give you a little gift to remind you that you've made a big commitment to yourself. I think it's good that the week I receive mine will be the day after the trip. If I can keep in mind that I'm getting a reward for being awesome when I get home, maybe that will help me choose lite drinks and pasta with tomato sauce instead of all the unhealthy "Goofy" side dishes. Man. I wish they really called them Goofy Side Dishes. That would make everything taste better.