Hearts & Darts July 20, 2012

My great friend Chelsea always posts "Hearts & Darts" for each week.  Hearts are the good things and Darts are the not so good things that happened during your week.  I am trying to get back to blogging after vacation and being pretty busy at work and I am going to try to do this weekly like she does!

Week of July 20, 2012

Hearts:

I finally upgraded from my old MacBook to a shiny, new MacBook Pro.  I love it.  And it is not held together with duck tape! Apple is awesome and they offer a teacher discount.  So with my discount, I saved $100 and get a $100 gift card.  I think I am going to buy a docking station or speakers for my classroom so I can keep all my music on iTunes instead of CDs and get rid of the huge boom box I am currently using.

I am headed to Knoxville for the weekend!  I am getting to see some really great friends and have a girls weekend before I get super busy with work, coaching cheerleading, and the GRE.

Darts:

I am in the process of studying for my GRE.  I am so nervous about taking the test two weeks from today.  I am studying vocab and math and seem like I am getting no where.  If any of you readers have any tips I would love to hear them!

Summer Goal

I have been doing WW on and off since last November.  With that (mostly) and some other diets, I am down 23 pounds. 

By the time school starts (Aug 13th) I am hoping to be down to my halfway point- 30 pounds.  Between now and then I have trip to Chattanooga to see my bff, Chelsea, a cruise, a cheerleading camp to coach, the Irish Picnic (which is a fundraiser for the school I teach at, they cook thousands and thousands of pounds of BBQ and there is a whole lot of drinking), and a cookie dough fundraiser delivery.  Just your every day obstacles to hurdle.

Here is how I am going to do it:

• Track WW Points Daily
• Zumba 2+ times a week (since it have been in the upper 90's-100's the past week or two, I have not gone running outside, I am saving that for the fall)
• Lots more fruits and veggies, which are zero points on WW
• Bigger lunches later in the day
• Smaller dinners
• Drink a whole lot of water

If I make this goal, I am going to purchase what I have in my shopping cart at Swell Caroline.  This lovely necklace and bracelet is what I currently have in it.  Pretty good incentive :)

Eat Your Heart Out Summary

So, this is truly "Satan's Diet."  It was really hard.  I followed the program for the first 3 days and never lost more than the first 4 pounds I dropped the first day when I ate only fruit.  I became totally discouraged and went back to tracking WW points.  But I can say that I have not gained any of the four pounds back.

So, I am kind of a wimp for not finishing.  Oh well.

Satan's Diet-1
Ashley-0

Day 1: Eat Your Heart Out

I finished day 1 of "Satan's Diet" or the Eat Your Heart Out Diet. Yesterday I ate nothing but fruit.  You can have as much as you want.  It was pretty easy until it got around dinner time when I wanted some hot food!  I did cheat just a little and had a few pieces of steamed broccoli when I was really craving something other than the sweet fruit. Other than that I stuck to it.  I pretty much snacked all day. 

Drum roll please ...................................

I lost 4 pounds! 

Which is really unreal.  It felt great to eat fresh all day.  

Now, today is veggie day! We have zucchini chips baking in the oven right now.  I can't wait to try them.

Eat Your Heart Out.

I am so excited that I am going to be cruising to the Bahamas in 19 days!  And to make sure I look ahhh-mazing on the boat, I have decided to try this seven day "diet" or "cleanse" that has been all over Pinterest.  After reading through it, it seems like a relatively healthy cleanse compared to some that I have seen.

If you haven't seen it, here it it is...

You can click on it to go to the original blog post about it.  This woman's blog has been blowing up since it has hit Pinterest and she has added a FAQ section that answered a lot of my questions.  Now I plan on following it pretty closely.  However, day 5- you will not see me eating tomatoes.  I have decided to go with a natural tomato soup.

This diet aka "Satan's Diet" say lose 10+ pounds in a week....Now I am a little skeptical of that.  Am I going to gain it all right back when I stop?  I think it might push me in the right direction to incorporating more fruits and veggies into my daily diet.

After all, this is honestly a healthier weeks worth of food than I have been eating.  My doctor is in the process of switching me from two different medicines and I have felt nothing but nauseous and awful.  I have had crackers and a bowl of soup about once a day for the past 3 days.  So eating fresh veggies and fruit for a couple of days seems kind of refreshing.

I will keep yall updated on my progress and what exactly I am eating each day!  

Stuck

So since my awesome 3lb weight loss two weeks ago, I feel like I have plateaued.  The numbers on the scale are not budging.  I am wondering if I should be going back to weight watchers.  Blah.  It is so frustrating. 

I have been using the Couch to 5K training app on my phone and I love it.  I am eating 1,200 calories a day and I am on the 3rd week of the 5K training which ends up to be about 2-2.5 miles/running and walking about 4 days a week.

So, what am I doing wrong!?!?

This is what I am going to try and see if it works any...

Don't eat 3 hours before bed (Something Dr. Oz said...)

Continue the Couch to 5K

Ab Ripper X Routine from P90X

Keep up the 1,200 calories

Eight glasses of water a day.

Any suggestions are welcome!!

Here is a link to the 300 Ultimate Ab Workout :)

Weigh-In Thursday

I lost 3.4 pounds since my last weigh in!  I guess the 1,200 calories and exercising daily is what my "asleep" body needed to wake up.  Here is a little motivation for the rest of the week...which is when it is the hardest for me to stay on track.

50 Shades.. love it or hate it

Life Catch Up!

I have been a really bad blogger lately but I do have an excuse! I have been so busy with end of the school year stuff including....

• Report Cards
• Assessments
• Individualized Education Plan Meetings
• Planning and putting on an end of the year program for parents
• Cleaning and organizing EVERYTHING in my classroom
• Doing inventory in my classroom

BORING, I know.

But, I have completed my first year of teaching successfully.  And sometime next week, I am going back to school to sign my contract for next year.

I have also decided that I am going to get my Masters of Science in Instruction and Curriculum.  I am getting it from the University of Tennessee at Martin that has this wonderful program for teachers who are working full time.  So I have to STUDY FOR MY GRE! DUH, DUH, DUHHHH.  I am really scared about taking it. Seriously.

With all of this not so fun stuff, I have also been busy doing fun stuff!  I was so lucky to get to go to the Miranda Lambert concert in Nashville a couple of weekends ago.  It was the best concert I have ever been to.  I love Miranda and everything she stands for.  She was amazing live.  And the best part- her super hot husband, Blake Shelton, came out and they sang Honey Bee together.

Love her!

Souvenir koozie from the concert.

My sister and I before the show.

In our seats.

Miranda!

Blake and Miranda. Presh.

Pistol Annies aka Bad Asses.

Blake taking a picture of the whole crew during the finally.

I also had an awesome Memorial Day weekend.  All of my friends and sorority sisters were able to meet up at Norris Lake at my friend Brandi's lake house. There was some amazing food, lots of drinks, and tons of time on the lake. They also surprised me and Chelsea with some belated birthday cupcakes that were DELICIOUS! I love my friends and I am so thankful we were all able to get together.

Karaoke super stars.

Why are we so pretty?

Christina, Chelsea, and I

Birthday cupcakes! Totally shocked!

Boozin and cruzin!

Epic tubing fail.

Part of the crew.

Captain Sue. Frat.

Loves.

Almost everybody!

I hope this has caught you up a little on my crazy life! Now school is out and I am back to the blogging world!  Happy summer, y'all!

Wordless Wednesday

Monet

whimsical and excessive…

“She was whimsical and excessive… but you forgave her everything, because she was generous and loyal. And above all she was alive. All that was necessary was for her to appear, or even for someone to speak of her to make everything sparkle.”

—	Napoleon Bonaparte, On His Wife, Josephine

Teacher Tuesday

This should be posted in my classroom!

Motivate Me Monday

I am in DESPERATE need of some motivation today.  I feel like I have a hangover (which I don't) and today has been rough.  Here is my motivation this Monday..

Me 5 years ago, before being diagnosed with a thyroid disease.

Weekend Catch Up

It is about time I catch yall up with what has been going on with me!  It has been a very busy past couple of days.  Good, but busy.

Well, I had 3 cousins graduate college and we all came back to my grandmother's house to celebrate!  What a party that was!  I am thinking there were about 20 people in our house on Saturday.  The more the merrier!

Here is a picture of all of my cousins (we are missing my little sister who wasn't able to make it).

Me, Jeremy, Mary, Kristen, Tanya, and Josh

Later that night, we all went out to a local bar.  My cousins, aunts, and uncles.  That was a first for me (a bar with my family) but we had a blast!  When I hear this song, I will forever think of that night...

I can't believe I graduated a year ago! And now I am almost done with my first year of teaching...if only I can survive this last week.  I'm not sure I can.

This May is Mine

I know that a lot of people are using the month of May to maybe workout more, stay motivated, etc.  Well I am too. I am calling it ME May.  But other than working out, eating healthy, I am trying to make everything in my life more positive.  I am going to surround myself with positively and reflect it to others.  This is what I am planning to do...

• Have patience!  In everything.  In God's timing, at work, in the progress I make on my goals of becoming more healthy, with other people, in traffic, basically in EVERYTHING!
• Stick to my goals.  I am trying to do an intense workout 3 days away (Zumba 2 days and a run the other).  Also stick to my lesson plans! It is really easy for me (and any teacher, I imagine) to get lazy when it comes this close to the end of the year.  I have already covered all of my standards but that does not mean that my kids can have the next two weeks off, and neither can I.
• Realize that I cannot control others but I can control how they affect me.  There will always be people in my life who annoy the crap out of me rub me the wrong way.  But I can choose to not to let their negativity affect me.  I am surrounded by so many hateful and selfish people.  But it is their choice to be like that.  I just cannot let it bother me.
• Pray about it.  "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your heart and mind as you live in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:6-7  I am searching for that peace. I am on a mission to find it.

I welcome any advice you have to make this ME May a successful one.  Also try to make your month a ME May.  I realize I will not always have just me to worry about- some day I will have a family and I will not be able to focus on me.

Wordless Wednesday

Missing Chattanooga.

Teacher Tuesday

Motivation for Monday

I am kicking it into high gear! Ready to get back to eating healthy and working out every day.  I went through my Health board on Pinterest for a little inspiration and motivation.  Here are the favorite things I found. . .

Lust List (4/26)

Here are a few things that I am dying to have...and would buy in a heartbeat if I wasn't living on a teacher salary (or had a rich doctor husband).

Monogrammed Norts... aka Nike Shorts....

Perfection.

The entire OPI NYC Ballet Soft Shades collection...

So dainty! My kind of colors!

Queen Audrey

“Some people dream of having a big swimming pool. With me, it’s closets.”

—	Audrey Hepburn