Pizza and Partini

My friends are simply the best.  On Saturday night, the Cownies invited us over for a make-your-own pizza dinner and an evening of playing games.  That combination is my ideal weekend night.  Also, the rule was that you had to wear sweatpants.  I am a big fan of not getting all done up.

So, we started with setting up the make-your-own pizza bar.

Steph prepared the crusts.  And by prepared, I mean took the Trader Joe's pre-made dough out of the package and rolled it out.

Tricia cut up a pepper:

We put all the ingredients on the table and got to work!

Amber had the brilliant idea to add cream cheese to the pizza.

She wasn't so amused by how much hamburger Adam put on his pizza.

I'm not sure what this face means, but I think he was enjoying the pizza.

After dinner, Amber took a bite out of a jumbo-sized Reeces Peanut Butter Cup.

After dinner, the ladies drove to Trader Joe's because Steph had never been there.  When we got back, this was happening:

X-Box kinect is this crazy new invention that allows you to play video games with no remote control.  Here, Steph and Adam are boxing:

Guess who won!  Hint:  It wasn't Adam.


Next, Amber and Chuck entered the ring:

Any guesses as to who won this one?  Hint:  It wasn't Chuck.


Finally, Shawn and Laci arrived.  I don't think they have appeared on the blog before.  Readers, meet Shawn and Laci:

We met Laci in one of our graduate classes and have been friends ever since.  A fun fact about Laci is that she is currently growing a baby inside of her!

Once they arrived, we decided to play this game:

I bought it for Amber for her bachelorette party, which was a game night.  It is way fun!

 Here, the boys' team (plus Steph) is trying to guess the songs that Shawn is humming:

There is also a ball and cup challenge as part of the game:

Steph struggled to keep a straight face while she tried to hum a song:

It was quite amusing to watch:

Laci made this amazing "gooey mix."  It was not a good night for my diet.

Tricia did a great job sculpting things out of clay:

Adam doing charades:

Steph about died with Adam's response to the "I am..." prompt (written about me):

This was his answer:

Another ball and cup challenge:

At the end of the night, this is what defeat looked like:

 

This was such a fun night!  My only regret is eating too much of that gooey mix.  It was most definitely not Slim-Fast approved.

I Should've Paid Attention

Well, I'm three days into the Slim-Fasting (which, during some parts of my day feels like actual fasting), and so far, things are going pretty well.  I realized today, however, that I have a problem stemming from back in middle school.

I was a bad student, you see.  I rocked my reading and writing, and I was always among the first to finish my math, but when it came to health and P.E. classes, I did absolutelynothing.

Bless my P.E. teachers for trying, but I retained absolutelynothing about health and fitness.  A part of our PE curriculum was learning about what a proper workout looks like and how to use the weight equipment.  We had to fill out logs each day telling how many sets and reps we completed or for how many minutes we ran on treadmills or rode the exercise bike.

Would you believe that I forged all of that information?

Well, I did.  And I take full responsibility for what I did (or, rather, for what I did not do).  Although, shame on my teacher for burying his head in a newspaper and putting his feet up on his desk instead of coming around and making sure we were doing our work.

 
I'm pretty sure that if I took that approach to my teaching, I wouldn't last a week.

Anyway, I graduated from high school with little to no knowledge of working out.  I was pretty confident, however, that my lack of knowledge in that area would not stop me from accomplishing my career goals.  And it did not.

Onward to college I went, where I was forced to take Nutrition 100.  I was in class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I had a one-hour lab on Thursdays where I had to meet with my personal trainer.  She did awful things like make me run around the track two times, measure my body's fat content with awful pinchers, and review my nutrition logs and tell me that I was not eating a well-balanced diet.

I.  Simply.  Did.  Not.  Care.

Not even a little bit.

Bless her heart, she took my fitness group to the campus rec center and showed us how to use each and every piece of equipment.  I stood toward the back of the group and instead of paying attention to what she was saying, I stared at all the other gym rats who were there at the time.

Why?  Because I.  Simply.  Did.  Not.  Care.

Not even a little bit.

From all the work she put in during our consultations and tour of the rec center, I remember absolutelynothing.

Just as I did in high school, I forged all of my workout and nutrition logs, and I received a B+ (totally undeserved) and graduated from college with little to no knowledge of health and fitness.  As was the case in high school, I was pretty confident that my lack of knowledge in that area would not stop me from accomplishing my career goals.  And it did not.

Herein lies the problem, however.  Now that I am Slim-Fasting and have made a promise to myself that I would go workout for at least 30 minutes a day, I am absolutely lost.  I worked out yesterday for 45 minutes and I stuck to the treadmill and the bike, two devices that are fairly foolproof.  Today when I went back, I did the same thing.

I have no idea how to use the weight machine contraptions, I don't know what to do with the free weights, and there are other pieces of equipment that are unrecognizable altogether.  So, today I observed.  I watched intently from my treadmill to watch how people were getting these other machines to move.  But I am frightened to try them myself.

When I got home and checked my e-mail, I received a newsletter from an organization for which I volunteer.  It opened with this quotation:

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- Eleanor Roosevelt

So, tomorrow, I am going to take this advice.  I will look the exercise machines fear in the face, and I will do the thing I think I cannot do.

Probably.

Wish me luck!

3-2-1

I have never once in my life thought twice about the food that I was eating.  I have never seen an advertisement for a diet pill and considered purchasing it.  I have never looked twice at the diet foods in the grocery store.  I have never counted calories.

I simply did not care.

But this new healthy living project at work has made me think twice about some of these things.

The fact of the matter is that I am overweight because I eat too much, I eat the wrong things, and I don't exercise.  And it is time for that to change.

Those who know me know how much of a picky eater I am.  Because of these food preferences, it is really hard for me to find a way to make this diet/exercise thing work.

After much research online, I have decided to join the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 plan.

I get three snacks, two shakes or meal bars, and one 500-calorie meal each day.  Also, I'm expected to exercise for 30 minutes each day.  Yes, I know, it is one of those fad-ish diets.  But I think it's going to work for me, and here's why:

1.  The one food that I don't know how I could live without is chocolate.
With Slim-Fast, I basically eat chocolate all day long.  I drink a chocolate shake for breakfast.  I eat a chocolatey meal bar or drink another chocolate shake for lunch.  I eat a chocolate snack bar for one of my snacks.  That's more chocolate than I normally intake on a daily basis!

2.  I don't have time to make breakfast; therefore, I don't eat it.
As mentioned above, with Slim-Fast, I just grab a ready-made shake from the fridge.  I'll drink it on my way to work.  No problem!

3.  I am not in a place where I am ready to force-feed myself vegetables and red meat or fish.
With this diet, I never have to do those things.  The shakes and meal bars are nutrient-rich, and numerous scientific studies have verified that they are an acceptable meal substitute.

4.  I don't want to make time for weekly meetings and weigh-ins.
The other diet that I researched a lot was Weight Watchers, as it is the only other diet plan that is scientifically proven to show results.  That being said, my weekly schedule of commitments is crazy, and I knew I would have a hard time making things work.

5.  I don't want to consume my life with counting.
Another con for Weight Watchers.  I don't want to spend my days looking things up in a reference book and converting that number to points and then counting those up.  With slim-fast, I only have to count once per day, and that is for my dinner.  I just have to make sure that I don't go over 500.  Because of the lack of variety of the meals that I eat currently, I have figured out what a 500-calorie portion looks like, so it's barely taking me any time at all.

6.  I don't want to spend a lot of money on food.
As it was, I spent maybe $60 per month on groceries.  Maybe.  I went out and bought a month's supply of Slim-Fast supplies and spent $60, so it seems that this plan is in line with my current grocery budget.  At Sam's Club, I can buy in bulk, so that saves me some money.


I am currently only two days in, and so far, it's going well.  There are only a few problems that I am anticipating.

• I don't feel completely full.  I'm hoping that once I have adjusted to the new portions, that this feeling will go away.
• While I did buy a variety of flavors of meal bars, snacks, and shakes, I'm wondering how long it will be before they get old.
• I spend my whole day looking forward to dinner, which is when I get to eat "normal" food.  The Slim-Fast stuff does actually taste good, but not as good as cheese pizza or pasta.

My cousin is getting married on September 17th.  In Mexico.  I would really like to be swimsuit-ready by then.  The Slim-Fast online tools told me that if I am faithful to their plan, I could lose 71 pounds by then with a healthy weight loss of 1-2 pounds per week.  71 pounds is way over my goal, and I would be more than happy by losing even half of that.

I guess we'll see what happens.  But now, it is time for my snack!  I'm thinking clementines...

Resolutions of Sorts

I decided a few years ago that I would no longer declare New Year's Resolution(s).  Mainly because in my 23 years of life, I have never followed through with one.

This year, however, I did write a list of reminders for myself.  The are not resolutions.  Just things to keep in mind.  The list goes as follows:

~~~~~

1.  Your students' papers will not grade themselves.  Allowing them to sit around, untouched, for multiple days will only create more stress later on.  Turn off the TV, turn off the computer, and get them done.

2.  Your mother is a worrier.  It would not kill you to call home more than twice a week so that she doesn't have to spend the other five days wondering if you're OK.

3.  You claim that your faith is a top priority in your life.  Make sure that the way you live your life reflects that.

4.  Your weight will not go down if you continue to eat junk food and refuse to exercise.  Consider eating out less and being active more.

5.  The things that make people most happy are not things.  Reconsider how you choose to spend your money this year.

6.  Sure, friendships come and go.  But they are more likely to stick around if you take time to nurture them.  Take some time this year to re-kindle past friendships and make sure that your current friends know how much they mean to you.

7.  Five hours of sleep each night is not enough.  Get done what needs to get done, and go to bed.  Facebook status updates will still be there in the morning.

8.  Only five classes remain until you get your Masters.  Don't start slacking now.

9.  You only have one chance to make an impression on this particular group of students.  Give it your best shot each and every day.

10.  You are already very busy.  Consider saying "no" the next time someone asks you to take on something big.

~~~~~

While I had no intentions of formalizing any one of these suggestions, my team leader, Barbara, suggested that we make healthy living a team effort.  Her idea involves these steps:

1.  Set an overall goal that involves making yourself more healthy.
2.  Set a goal at the beginning of each week that contributes toward your overall goal.
3.  Weigh in on Monday mornings.  Record your net gain/loss.
4.  During the week, help encourage and keep each other accountable.

There are only these rules:

• Never, ever, tell anyone what you weigh.  It is your business and yours alone.
• You may not tell another person what an appropriate goal is for them.  They decide for themselves with no criticism from anyone else.
• A net gain in weight will be written off as gaining muscle mass. :)

So, now our plan center is adorned with these posters, made by moi:

The response to Barbara's idea has been very positive.  So far, every teacher in 6th grade has committed to it.  Except for Jerry, who just finished losing 25 pounds.   I suppose that excuses him from joining in.

I also set up a team as part of The Biggest Loser's Pound-for-Pound Challenge.  For every pound pledged, they donate 11 cents to your local food bank, which is enough money to secure one pound of food.  So, one pound of weight lost is one pound of food gained by families in need.  I'm excited to see how many people at my school will get on board and join me in this challenge.

My first weekly goal, starting today, is going to be to not eat fast food, which is something that I normally do several times a week.  It's going to be hard, but I think I can do it.  Also, I'm going to go to the gym for the first time in a long time!

Fortunately, our school district has declared a snow day for today, so I'll be snowed in and forced to cook for myself!  Also, I'll have plenty of time to make my way over to the workout facility.

Disco Pony

I am blessed to attend a church that invests so much into its youth programs.  One of my most favorite parts of my week is the time I spend volunteering as a sponsor for my church's youth group.  These kids are smart, funny, thoughtful, reflective, compassionate, and energetic, and I love working with them.

Tonight, we went to Laser Quest to play laser tag.  When you first begin, they ask you to make up a code name.  I told the employee that I couldn't think of anything good, so she suggested "Disco Pony."  It sounded good to me.

As we were waiting for our games to start, the kids enjoyed talking and hanging out.

But when it came time to play, these kids brought their A game.

In the first game we played, I came in 6th place out of about 20 people.

I needed a game to get warmed up.

During my second game, however...

Rank:  01

"The winner of this game was Disco Pony with a score of 688."

1st place out of 31 people!  Furthermore, I made the daily leaderboard, which displays the top five overall scores of the day.

And these kids thought they were the laser tag experts.  Ha!

Friday Randomness

1.  I didn't technically have to teach anything today, which was a great way to spend a Friday.  My media specialist taught the writing lesson, and during reading time, our counselor and special education teacher provided students with a simulation of what life is like for students with autism.  Both lessons were phenomenal.

2.  Today was the first day of the week that I didn't take a nap.  The first full week after Winter Break is always really hard on teachers. 

3.  The first week back from Winter Break is hard on students, too.  Which is probably why I had to write five referrals today.

4.  It started snowing for a while today, and it is expected to snow a bunch more this weekend.  Because I hate grocery shopping when there is snow/ice on the ground, I had to go to Wal-Mart during rush hour, which I normally try to avoid at all costs.

5.  My phone is not smart, but there have been lots of rumors lately that Verizon is picking up the iPhone very soon.  I want one really badly.  And I think I've made the mental commitment to go through with the purchase should one actually come out.

6.  Tonight, Ashley and Jeremy invited me over for omlettes and hash browns.  For dessert, Jeremy made brownies from scratch.

7.  Despite the fact that Jeremy made homemade brownies, Ashley, Kelli, and I decided to go get dessert from Dairy Queen.  Why?  I don't know.

8.  After eating our snacks, we decided to play some Mario Kart on the Wii.  I do not own such a device, and I don't get many opportunities to practice.

For the first two tracks, I didn't make it past the starting line, as I somehow got myself turned around so that I was driving toward myself, necessitating that I move the Wiimote in the opposite direction of the way I actually wanted to go.  My friends eventually helped me figure out my problem, but, needless to say, I spent most of the night in 12th place.

Lesson of the night:  After you have selected your character and kart of choice, do not push the "A" button.  Doing so really messes up your intentions to drive toward the finish line.

9.  The above pictures of Jeremy and Ashley were taken with my new camera.  Can you tell a difference?  So far, I definitely think that 14.2 megapixels is better than 5.  Time will tell.

10.  It is way past my bedtime, but I have an all-day meeting tomorrow for which I am ill-prepared.  Instead of figuring out what I need to do, I have chosen to write this meaningless list.

You're welcome.

Farewell to the 00s

Is this title correct?  I'm not sure.  What did people say during the first decade of the 1000s?

I digress.

But I'm still curious to know.

Anyway, starting a new year never really phases me.  It's just another day.  But it's weird to think about changing to a new decade.  Last time that happened, there was fear of computers crashing, and people were scrambling to stock up on non-perishables in case the world ended.  Ha!  As if food would be of any benefit if the world ended.  People never cease to amuse me.

As a thirteen-year-old, I wasn't too concerned about Y2K, but I do remember that I had to leave my friend T.J.'s New Year's Eve party at 11:50 so that I could be safe under the roof of my parents' home when the clock struck midnight.  I remember it being awfully embarrassing to be the only girl in the 7th grade who wasn't allowed to stay at the party to ring in the new year.

Thanks, Mom and Dad.

This New Year's Eve was nothing special.  I sat on my couch by myself and graded 100 fictional stories written by my 6th graders.  A party animal, I am!

For white noise, I listened as various television networks had their end-of-the-decade countdowns of sorts.  Top 20 celebrity mistakes of the decade, top songs of the decade, top news stories of the decade, and on, and on, and on.  It was actually kind of interesting for me, as the 00s was the first decade that I can remember entirely.  So, I could remember all of the news stories, all of the songs, and all of the celebrity mishaps.

I even stayed up long enough to watch this:


The more that I think about it, the more I realize what a big decade it was for me.

• My family hosted a foreign exchange student from France.
• I got confirmed.
• I finished middle school.
• I started high school.
• I watched as my country was attacked by terrorists.
• I flew on a plane for the first time.
• I lost a grandparent for the first time.
• I graduated from high school.
• I joined the NASC Volunteer Staff.
• I started college.
• I ended up on crutches and in physical therapy due to an ankle injury.  Three times.
• I drank coffee for the first time in my life.
• I got a credit card.
• I lost two more grandparents.
• I found a new church home.
• I mentored a TeamMate until she graduated from high school.
• I voted in my first election.  For a Black president.  And he won. 
• I got kidney stones.  Twice.
• I watched some of my best friends get married and start families.
• I graduated from college.
• I lost touch with some of my best friends.
• I met some new friends.
• I moved into my first apartment.
• I started my first big-girl job.
• I survived my first year of teaching.
• I started a blog.
• I started graduate school.
• I bought a brand-new car.

So, lots of major life events took place.  The 00s was a fun, adventurous, and challenging decade for me, and I have high hopes that the 10s will be just as great.