craaaazy week

sorry about the lack of posts again! this has been an insane week at school. we have a wonderful chorus parents organization, and apparently every year they host a K-7 variety show and a 8-12 variety show to raise money. i guess in the past it has brought in thousands of dollars for us. this is great except that it requires a lot of outside-school commitment. there is an audition night, a dress rehearsal night, and a show night for each variety show (6 nights total). we had the two audition nights last week, and this week was the two dress rehearsals and the K-7 show last night.

i left my house at 6:45 yesterday, and didn't get home 'til after 10 p.m.

so yes, i was a little tired after a week like that!

however, i slept in this morning, and i've been relaxing on the couch for the last couple of hours with my decaf tea.

i heart saturdays.

So....just kidding!

After I just wrote a whole post about the diet, I have decided not to continue "Flat Belly" and to continue with "Eat Great, Lose Weight" (Suzanne Somers).

I did lose FOUR POUNDS (even with pms-y bloating!) and I am now currently at my college weight!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

Which translated means that I have 9 pounds to go to reach my goal weight - not super-skinny, and not even what I weighed on my wedding day - but a weight that I feel is reasonable and healthy for my body and stage of life.

I'm so freakin' excited! :) Something about nine pounds just sounds so much nicer than ten pounds to me.

I decided not to stay with "Flat Belly" because it required constant measuring and weighing, and that is really just no way to live, in my opinion.

So, I started EGLW today, and I'll give it a try until Thanksgiving. I've already decided/know that I will eat a normal (although moderate!) Thanksgiving meal, because there's really no point in trying to be that self-controlled. And when you have a mom like mine, you just can't pass up food like that!

Anyway, I'm realistically prepared to gain a pound or so as my body re-adjusts to new foods and a new pattern, but if by next week at Thanksgiving I'm one pound less than where I am today, I will consider that a success :).

Here's to feeling healthy and thinner! :)

"Flat Belly" low-down

Since some of you asked, the "Flat Belly Diet" is for just that - eliminating belly fat. It's from the people at Prevention magazine. In a nutshell, you jumpstart the diet by a 4-day super strict diet that is supposed to banish bloat (and subsequently make you lose weight), and then you follow a pretty healthy diet afterwards. After the 4 days, you have to have a monounsaturated fat with every meal, which is either olives, olive oil, nuts, or dark chocolate. They based their research on people from Mediterranean cultures who apparently eat all of those foods and have low belly fat.

I'm sure you all know by now that they say belly fat is the worst kind to have - but even seemingly skinny people can have a different kind of belly fat underneath the skin's surface. I'm sure I have both kinds. lol

Anyways, this is my fourth and last day of the anti-bloat phase, and I've lost about 3 pounds so far, which is actually really great considering that I'm also hormonally bloated right now from pms! haha (And normally I gain 4ish pounds at this time of the month, so hopefully when I'm not extra-bloated I'll really be down around 5 pounds.)

My mom bought the book and the cookbook, which is the only way I'd ever heard about it.

I think I might try this until Thanksgiving, and see how it works. My friend Brigette told me about the Suzanne Somers diet, and since my mom said it was also working really well for John and James C., I might try that between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We'll see! I'll just be happy when today is over.....I'm dying for a cup of coffee!!!!!!!!!!

Flat Belly? Growling belly's more like it....

i am currently on the 'no-bloat' phase of the flat belly diet.

and i am STARVING, people.

thank GOD (and i really do mean that) that this only lasts four days, and this is day two.

two.more.days.

i think i can, i think i can....

Drama, Drama, Drama

A few random thoughts from my big ol' comfy armchair in my living room. That's right, people! Living room is moved in! I am SOOOOOOO pumped to have this room basically put together - now my house really, really feels like home again. I am a definite picture person, and it was so soothing to have all of my photos and frames out again yesterday. Plus, it was kinda like an early Christmas to unwrap all of my things again - I forgot I had some stuff!

This afternoon, I spent two hours searching for my keys. It was a nightmare. Not so much because of my personal keys, but because I have about 6 keys on my ring that belong to school. And one of those happens to be a master key to the high school. I was bawling like a baby, but I couldn't help myself, because all I could imagine was that I'd get fired or at the very least, fined a huge amount of money to re-key all the locks. Do you know how many doors are in an average high school building?! Anyway, praise the LORD, they were found in a box in the garage that we had already looked in twice. How we missed them the first two times, I have no idea, but I was a wreck.

I don't know if its the fact that my home feels homey again or because of all of the economic problems in the country (or a mixture of both), but I'm going to start getting into the CVS thing again. Kathy has been inspiring me to get my butt in gear again, and there are a LOT of great deals this week.

I'm going to make myself some decaf with my Vanilla Caramel creamer and cut me some coupons ;).

Thanksgiving is only 18 days away!!!!!!!!!!!!



P.S. I posted a video link on my Facebook site (99 balloons) - I found it from myheartismyhome.blogspot.com and seriously, seriously....you need to watch it.

ahhh....

just spent an amazing weekend with chris and 8 other couples at a couples' retreat up at spruce lake resort.  all of the couples were from our church, and we spent the time laughing and eating a ton, and just getting to know our spouses better.  it was such a nice change of pace from the monotony of going to work, making dinner, working on the house, and going to bed!  i loved it and i hope we can go back next year.  

just finished typing up the rest of the week's lesson plans (ugh) and now i get to help chris do the living room floor (lucky me!).  our ceiling was finally installed on thursday night, the walls have been painted, so all that's left is the floor.  then we can finally bring our sofas and chair in from the garage and have a place to relax at night that is not the dining room table or the bed.  i think i just might die of happiness when that happens.  

off to work!