Gaining Weight

Teaching will do a lot of things to you. It give you a sense or purpose and reward. It will drain your bank account. It will make you sleep-deprived. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. And it will make you gain weight.

This past year, I gained 17 pounds from the time school began to the time it let out. Not a huge amount, but it was enough to make certain pants and shirts no longer fit and even make some buttons pop off! Before I get the lecture on body image, I do hold a belief that I'm aloud to be happy and if I can't be happy with the way I look, I should change it. And if I change within health limits and even adopt some better lifestyle choices for the coming school year, then I'm going to do it.

Once the weather became nicer more consistently, I started going for nightly walks with my dog (she also had put on some winter weight). Nothing big deal, just walk around the neighborhood for 30 minutes. This gave me a chance to unwind and vent to Janis, who is a very good and attentive listener. Then once school was out, I started doing SparkPeople (www.sparkpeople.com). Handily enough, they have an app for my phone so I can keep track of what I eat, how much water I drink, and how often I exercise. It allowed me to set some goals to lose the weight by the end of August at about 2 pounds a week. I've never counted calories before and it turns it out, it's really hard. Everything I could possibly put in my mouth took away valuable points and the thing that changed first was my all-day grazing. I realized (once I was being held accountable to my phone) that I ate all day long. Not always bad things because I love fruits and vegetables, but basically from lunch on I was tasting and nibbling on something (it turns out that gum has really helped me kick that habit). I already knew that I was a sugar baby (love, love, love the sweets) so I now instead of the King Size Snickers, I go for the fun size. How do I not eat the whole bag? Every time I eat something, I enter into my chart and make a point to think about how many more meals I have that day and how that pans out in calories.

It's really going well for me. I'm still walking (about 6 times a week right now) and even jog on some of my walks. I have more energy and am starting to see the pounds come off on the scale (but not quite around my middle yet). Hopefully by August I'll be back to my starting point (and I don't go back up again by the next June!).