Food Logs :(

Ok, here I am three days into this health thing.  Yeah, it's a thing.  Yeah, I'm struggling.

Something I love about weight watchers is how cognizant I am about what I'm eating.  What I hate about weight watchers is the food log.  I know it helps me.  However, I hate facing the cold, hard truth...the reality of what I have done. 

Today, I ate something I would normally eat on spring break.  Just a little meal deal.  I tried to search on my phone prior to the drive thru trip, but the McDonald's lady was not that helpful or patient.  So I just ordered my regular meal deal.  Nothing big, right? WRONG!  I normally eat the 2 cheeseburger meal deal with medium fries and a soft drink.  2 cheeseburgers alone are worth 16 points!  That's triple the amount of anything I eat at home or from the box (weight watchers meals).  Then the fries were worth 10 points and the drink was 8 points. 

I didn't log everything until well after my food had digested.  Ugh! I thought about how I felt afterwards.  The guilt.  The shame.  The slight fullness, but 34 points.  I wanted something a little more.  Can you imagine if I had chosen something more worthwhile?

This is the part I hate, analyzing my food.  It's easier to deal with blind hunger and just eating whatever I want.  However, that obviously is not working for me.  Right?

Well, true to my word.  I'm not making huge changes this week.  However, when I make changes next week I think I may add 2 more things.

1) I will pack my lunch for work.
2) I will make snacks for after school while I'm working.
3) I will continue drinking 3 cups of water each day (this is the old change, but I'm keeping it.)

Well, here's to the rest of the week!

Getting Started...Again!

So, here I am. Joining Weight Watchers again...let's not talk about how many times I've joined the plan. That's ancient history!

This time I will apply what I've learned from my failed attempts. I will not try to do everything in the first week. During my PowerStart meeting, my leader Reny said,"Make one small change." It was such a powerful statement. I don't have to move heaven and earth my first week, because I know I won't be able to keep up with that. Honey, heaven and earth get heavy after awhile!

So I thought about what one small change can I make this week? This is where I have a teeny, tiny confession to make. I don't drink water. The last time I drank water, by itself, was about a month ago. How unhealthy is that? I'd hate to see my insides. Seriously.

I have an addiction to PEPSI. Just writing the word, makes my mouth salivate. I love it. I'm addicted to it. If I come home and there's no Pepsi in the fridge, I panic and immediately leave the house to go get some. Ok, ok, I promised to be honest here. I immediately start demanding and pleading with my husband to go pick up Pepsi, so I can watch Glee and grade papers. He tells me I'm addicted. He doesn't call it Pepsi, he calls it my crack. I have about 10 glasses a day. One 16 ounce bottle on my desk all day long and a can before I leave work. Yeah. I'm addicted.

So my small change this week will be to drink 3 glasses of water a day. Although it sounds like a small amount, it is going to a small change I can handle.

Side note, a lady at the meeting said I didn't know anything about the 90's because I was too young. {Insert BIG smile, here} I'm 39. However, according to this kind, kind woman at the meeting, I look like I'm in my early 20's. YAY, me! This compliment will keep me going ALL DAY!

Have a great day! Drop me a comment, so I know I'm not talking into a black hole.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Family is important. However, sometimes we have conflicts with...schedules! As a teacher, I find during the school year the toughest time is parent/teacher conferences!

For the first year, I was unable to attend Alexandra's Parent/Teacher conference because our school was also doing conferences on the same day. I could have rescheduled, but Derek really wanted to go in my stead. Although Derek and I dated for a couple of years, he is now Alexandra's official Stepdad. As her Stepdad, Derek can go to conferences. My mom went along for fun and my merry, blended family walked into Alexandra's Spring Conference.

The first news I hear back from conferences is that my mom cried. Uh-oh, was something amiss? No, it was good news. Alexandra's teachers had AMAZING things to say about her, including the fact that she resists peer pressure and she has high moral fortitude. (Hey Mom and Derek, Comment below for direct quotes please.) As her parent, I beamed with pride.

Then I quickly realized, I need to tell her more often I'm proud of her. She works hard to make good choices. :) I must say this has been the best school conferences ever! I wish I had been there to hear it face-to-face. However, I'm so ecstatic that Derek's first accompanied conference visit with his new title was such a smashing success!

Way to go, Alexandra!

Even cooler news? Alexandra was able to take her Geography OCCT on the computer so she found out her results at the conclusion of the test. She scored 85%! I can't wait to see her Reading, Writing, Science, and Math OCCT scores. I KNOW she ROCKED them out!

Another way to go, Alexandra!

And a big thank you to Derek and Mom for going to Alexandra's conferences. It's nice to know she's supported by so many people!

this is a repost from 4/29/2012

Saving Money with Laundry??

     Hello summer!  As a teacher, I look forward to this time of renewal.  As a mom, I look forward to getting my house in order.  It’s so hard to balance work, home and community obligations…so when summer comes around I try to focus on several projects to make my home, well more homey.

    With summer here, I have to be careful with projects.  They must be ECONOMICAL!  I am a teacher after all. 

     My first project this summer was to make my own detergent.  Now I’ve heard of people making tons of powdered detergent, but I’m a liquid kinda gal!  Then my friend, Danielle (see her pic below), told me she made LIQUID detergent and that it worked! 

     I used a recipe I found on Pinterest (a website recommended by Danielle).  I saw several ideas, but finally settled on this one {Source}. 

The original recipe called for:

1 bar of soap of your choice

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

Big Pot

Grater

   When I went to the neighborhood Wal-Mart, they were completely out of washing soda and Borax.  : (  Thankfully, I found some at Reasor's across the street.

   

    When I got home, I was so excited!  I started thinking of all the money I could save!  The blog author recommended using Ivory because it helps keep whites and colors bright. I wanted that attribute, but I also wanted a good scent to the soap. So spontaneously I decided to double the recipe and add a bar of Irish Spring!  I began by grating the bars of soap into my pot.  The Ivory was much easier to grate than the Irish Spring.  When it was done, the soap looked like strange grated cheese.

   

      I added 2 gallons of warm water, 2 cups of Borax, 2 cups of Washing Soda, 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar.  I boiled the concoction.  At this point my husband wandered into the kitchen and said, "I hope you're not making meth in here!"  I silently cursed my choice of documentary films on Netflix.

     As the laundry detergent began to boil, my house was filled with such a clean smell that Derek's comment was quickly disspelled.  After the detergent mixture was done boiling, I added 4 gallons of cold water.

     I immediately used the detergent, but after some volunteer work with TYPROS with Danielle...she mentioned that I should wait until the mixture coagulates.  But when I got home the load I had put in the washer smelled super clean!

     A word of advice, don't bother with pouring it into different containers.  I just left it in the pot and put it right on top of the dryer.  I also left a 1 cup measuring cup right on top of the pot to measure the detergent. 

     My final alterations of the original recipe goes like this:

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing Soda

1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

I bar Ivory Soap

1 bar Irish Spring (or your fav smelling soap)

2 gallons warm water

2 gallons cold water

1.  Grate bars of soap into pot.  Add 2 gallons warm water, 2 cups Borax, 2 cups Washing Soada and boil until bubbles form on top.  Make sure the spaghetti soap strands are all dissolved.

2.  Turn off heat.  Add 2 gallons of cold water.  Stir your soap well.

3.  Let the detergent sit for 24 hours and stir before using.

     I will definitely do this again!  If you try this, let me know how your detergent turns out!  Please leave a comment below.

~What's next here @ the Cowan lab?  Well, I did see some recipes on Pinterest for fabric softener.  I think I'll try it when my fabric softener runs out.  It's gotta be really good, because I'm obsessed with that Downy smell!