a feathered friend on one of my walks this week
Three revelations last weekend prompted me to take action on the morning of July 1st. The first “aha” moment was Jessica N. Turner’s Facebook post on Saturday morning. Jessica writes a blog called The Mom Creative. She posted a selfie of herself on her morning walk as documentation of making no more excuses about taking care of herself. I found it inspiring.
The second lightbulb moment was admitting to you, dear reader, in my second quarterly review that I had not completed any of my remaining 13 items on my 18 for 2018 list which includes losing 18 pounds. Acknowledging to you in my last post that I am failing at this task made me feel uncomfortable.
The third revelation came in the guise of a TedTalk by Laura Vanderkam who writes about time management. After telling a story about a woman dealing with a busted hot water heater and the time she spent dealing with it, Laura made a few important points in her talk that resonated with me.
- “Time is highly elastic.”
- “Time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it.”
- “The key to time management is treating our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater.”
- “I don’t have time,” often means “It’s not a priority.”
Subsequently, I dragged my booty out of bed the next morning, took a selfie of myself making the commitment, and walked for an hour. After walking, I documented my starting weight at 158 pounds. I dug in a kitchen cabinet and pulled out my “pounds to go” and “pounds lost” containers. Diligently, I counted out 18 marbles, dropped them all in the “pounds to go” container, and sat both containers on my kitchen counter. This means that by 31 December 2018, I will need to weigh at least 140 pounds. There is no more “I don’t have time” because taking care of my health is important, and it is time for me to make my health a priority.
It has been one week, and I am proud to announce that I have walked every day this week. One day I even walked twice (morning and evening). In addition to walking, Andrew and I played tennis yesterday morning with my friends Pam and Kathryn. I also weighed in this morning. I have not lost any weight (still 158 pounds) and had not anticipated losing any since I am not keeping a food journal at this time. However, I did cut back on added sugar: no sodas, no honey in my green tea, no candy, or sweets…except on Friday at lunch (a slice of strawberry pie made its way into my belly). Although I am limiting processed foods, I am still eating carbs. For now, I am focusing on moving every day and making my commitment to exercise. I MUST also increase my water intake. In a few weeks, I will set up my food journal and start tracking what I eat. Then, I’ll have to make the commitment to eating clean the majority of the time for the rest of my life. It will be incredibly hard because I enjoy food especially the foods that pack on the pounds.
Well, dear reader, it appears that you will be my accountability partner…again. I’ve successfully lost weight before; however, this time I not only need to lose the weight, but I also need to keep it off for the long term. Please feel free to “weigh in” with any words of wisdom or encouragement. Oh, and if you are struggling with making time for your priorities, check out Laura Vanderkam’s TedTalk which is less than 12 minutes. Happiness!
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” ~ Ovid
This past Thursday, Andrew and I went shopping for school uniforms for the last time. It was the first of the “lasts” that we will experience in the upcoming school year. Soon, he’ll be taking senior pictures and applying for college. While senior year is an exciting time, it will be bittersweet (for me). Andrew is the baby, so my hubby and I will be empty nesters. Thankfully, Andrew will not be going too far away for college. He has decided to attend Southeastern in Hammond to earn his undergraduate degree in Biology. While he could easily live at home, he wants the “college experience” of living on campus. After talking to parents of college-age children and to college students who live away from home, I can see the benefits for him.
I had rough drafts, lesson plans, and graduation tasks to complete. I admit, I was disappointed because of everything that I wanted to do during the break, this was on the top of my list to accomplish. This would have been possible had I been able to take care of the school stuff the week before break. Unfortunately, the week before my break was pretty hectic. You win some, and you lose some. The silver lining is that I now plan to scrapbook Andrew’s trip to Ireland, Wales, and London. Furthermore, I will start organizing the materials next weekend.
Yesterday morning, my hubby and I brought Andrew to the airport, so he could embark on his journey to Ireland, Wales, and London. I will not see my baby again until April 7th. It will be an unusual week being home alone with just my fur babies. I guess it will give me a taste of what it will be like when Andrew goes off to college.
I realize that I am probably one of the last humans on the planet that waited so long to watch Stranger Things. In my defense, I do not have much time to watch television, and there are few shows that I watch alone in real time or with Andrew. He is just as busy during the school year as I am, so coordinating our schedules to watch a couple of hours of television together can be difficult. However, we manage to squeeze in some time here and there for our favorite shows. Andrew and I had finished watching Parks and Recreation during Mardi Gras break, so we decided to start watching Stranger Things. Many of my friends, family, acquaintances, and even some of my students encouraged me to watch it since they thought it would be a show that I would really enjoy. Boy, were they right. Stranger Things is SUPER awesome! I’m obsessed with it. I absolutely LOVE that it takes place in the 1980s. The show is basically about a group of geeky kids who meet an unusual girl with special abilities around the same time that one of their friends vanishes into a mysterious place that is home to a disturbing creature. It is like the X-Files meets the Goonies. The seasons are not very long, so we blew through both of them within a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the next season does not come out until 2019. Alas, Andrew and I will just have to watch Beyond Stranger Things which delves into the secrets of the Stranger Things universe, specifically Season 2 and re-watch the two seasons prior to Season 3 premiering next year.![MC900432635[1]](https://katloyacano.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mc9004326351.png?w=500)
Three weeks ago I assigned myself some action steps for improving my health that I wanted to complete by today. Unfortunately, I did not complete them all. I have been working quite a bit at school and helping Andrew get ready for his upcoming trip to Ireland. Instead of admonishing myself, I am praising myself for the steps that I did accomplish (week 1). After all, I do have until the end of the year to complete this goal.
The Kat Files 