Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Sharing Rambling, Resources and Recipes for Learning in Life

Category: Education

EducationHealth

Halfway There (kind of)!

By Audrea2 Comments

I have reached the half way point of my weight loss!  I have lost 8 pounds and have 8 more to go!  I will hit the halfway mark in my 5 week exercise plan tomorrow.  This morning as I was contemplating the difficulties of this journey and hoping against hope that these last 8 pounds will come off faster than the first 8.  I realize this is a rather unrealistic hope as the closer you get to your ideal weight it is typically harder to lose weight.  However, the hunger I’ve been dealing with and the tiredness after my workouts has been wearying.  So, I am hoping to get to the end of the weight loss part of this journey sooner than later.

I remembered this morning, as I was thinking through all of these halfway points I’ve hit or am coming upon, that this is the part of the “race” that I always struggled with in the half-marathons I’ve run.  I’d try to tell myself that I’d already finished half and I had less left than I’d already accomplished.  It never worked though, and I always felt like I could not run a step further and had to take a walk break.  And, once I took the first walking break, I had to take more and would alternate between walking and running for the whole second half of the race.  I do NOT want to do that in this race.  I am trying to accelerate during the second half this time.  I DO NOT want to prolong this part of the journey!

I also added (kind of) to my title because I am working hard to keep in mind that this journey is forever. Once I reach my weight loss goal, I may or may not have reached my inches or clothing goals. Then once I’ve reached all of those goals I have to maintain them and that is the part of the journey that, for me, is uncharted! I’ve successfully lost all of this weight before! Some might even say I maintained it for a little bit. However, I don’t think I actually, truly maintained it. I was nursing my youngest when I reached my goal weight the first time and only maintained the loss as long as I nursed. Once I stopped nursing, I started gaining. That was because I wasn’t actually maintaining my health or well being and therefore wasn’t able to maintain my weight loss either.

So, now I am staying aware of my tendency to take breaks in the second half of journeys so that I do not take a break this time. And I am working to prepare myself mentally and praying for strength spiritually to maintain or even accelerate my progress in the second half of this part of the journey, and BEYOND!!

EducationHealth

This Journey… Oh This Journey

By Audrea1 Comment

So, I started this journey at 144.4 pounds.  My goal weight is 128 pounds.  My non scale goal is more muscle than fat and some definition.  I have been doing my best to be faithful to the process while still living life.  I am trying to make changes that I could do forever since I am coming to accept that this is a life long journey.  There have already been some pretty great super-highs and some pretty rough super-lows.  I have done my best to stick with the process and the point through them all.  It’s hard, it’s draining and it can be rewarding!

I have managed in the last 6 weeks to lose just under 6 pounds and 8 inches. I know that this is great and sustainable progress. And that is what I tell myself when the going gets rough! It is also feeling SOOOOO slow! My original goal was to reach my goal weight by the time I went back to school for in-service on August 7th. That doesn’t seem likely given my other and more important goal of doing this without being on a “diet”. It is WAY more important that I model healthy, balanced eating for my girls. So, we have charts for ourselves counting how many fruits and vegetables and cups of water we have each day to give them ownership of their health and good things to add to what they eat. I have one too so that I can continue to focus on what actually matters most: treating my body like a temple, not getting this temple to look like this or fit into that (those are just nice side effects, I’m hoping for!!)

So, I’ve had to extend my date goal to my 40th birthday on September 6th. I continue to tweak things like lowering my daily calorie intake a couple of times in the My Fitness Pal app that I use. I am currently at the lowest calorie amount I will allow myself since these changes need to be sustainable. And I only lowered the calories after I felt that my body had adjusted to where the previous count. When I started tracking calories this time I was starving for 3-4 days. Then things seemed manageable and my weight wasn’t going down like I wanted it to. So, my accountability friend and I decided it would be best for me to stop entering my exercise into the app. That lowered my allowable calories by 100-200 calories. I felt like I was starving for another few days. I think that was due in part to being at training for most of those hungry days. Since I am choosing to “live life” through this process I ate the food that was provided. This meant that sometimes the food had more calories than fullness in it. Then, once I felt like I got good at managing that level of allowable calories, I increased the amount of weight I wanted to lose each week within the app. That brought me to my current allowable 1200 calories a day. This seems doable most days. Life still makes it harder some days than others! Such as when we take the girls out for donuts for breakfast. However, I also want to reach my goal weight!! I hope and pray that THEN maybe I can have a meal or even a day or two when I don’t enter everything I eat and I am still where I need to be health and weight wise.

Like I said earlier, I am coming to accept the truth that I know. There is no finish line and this is a forever journey (at least until my “new” body in heaven!!). Still, I do think it is a legitimate expectation that when I am maintaining there will be more wiggle room. However, for right now I try to keep everything pretty tied down. I do know I cannot handle going lower with my calories. So, if I plateau than I will have to pay closer attention to my macro counts to try to keep moving forward. I may add exercise if I find myself truly stuck, but that I also have to monitor that closely because I can only handle so much time commitment with my family’s schedules. Because I only have so few things left that I can change or moderate AND more importantly and wisely because slow weight loss is the longest lasting weight loss, I will continue to work to be content with my slow progress. I will also remind myself to thank God and rejoice because it is progress! I just read today from Kelsey at Hiitburn that we should focus on “progress not perfection”. I think that mentality matches up very well with this journey toward Jesus in this temple of His that He’s loaned me!

Thanks for reading! It helps me to type about it!!

EducationFaithHealth

The Key to this Journey is the Definition!

By Audrea2 Comments

I have not written for a while before today because when my weight went up during my weigh in and a LOT of stressors came into play with work, I just wanted to stop. I continued working on this journey. I prayed for dedication, direction, peace and strength and I continued. That alone is a huge victory even though I couldn’t and still don’t really feel it! Sometimes, simply NOT stopping is a HUGE step forward.

It has been in this time of stress, feeling like a failure and battling discouragement that I have come to realize, through God’s direction no doubt, that I must understand that this is a JOURNEY. And guess what journeys can be fun and light and spectacular! AND they can be hard and dark, uphill and tough. BUT they are never short.

I may not get to my goal weight before I go back to school in the fall! That’s a huge bummer to me. I really wanted to check this off my list before the additional time constraints and stress of the beginning of the year. However, school will always start again. Life will always bring stress and hard and mess. It will also always bring joy and light and refreshment. And, I have to learn to journey through it all. So, whether my path is uphill or down, lighted or dark, I just have to keep walking and praying and choosing the joy and peace of Jesus! This journey will likely always seem long until I get to heaven and realize that it was short compared to eternity. That can be a comfort, but even that cannot be my sole focus. Because God has placed me here and told me to live today and then He will give me an easy yoke and light burden.

EducationParenting

Education: What’s the Point?

By Audrea1 Comment

There have been some questions swirling around in our school district this year that have elicited some very strong feelings and opinions on my part. As I have been trying to get and then maintain a quiet heart and mind and seek a balanced perspective, I have been contemplating what the actual purpose of education is.

At first glance or thought it seems rather easy to identify this purpose, it’s to educate right? But, then ALL of the questions come into play about what educating means? Educating is just adding knowledge, right? But, if we’re to educate the WHOLE child then doesn’t it include feelings, self-esteem and mental well being? Once all of these layers and myriad of focuses come to mind then everything can get very murky, very quickly! So, I had to try to clear all of this out and I gained traction when I considered one of the my few solid take aways from my Educational Education!!

Education as a profession is known to jump from theory or bandwagon or school of thought to the opposite and back again, the whole pendulum analogy! In the midst of all of this it can be hard to gain any real bearings as an educator, and that is compounded when you also become a parent. However, especially once you become a parent, bearing must be sought, found, and clung to based on faith and the responsibility to God and the children He’s entrusted you with. So, my bearings and compass currently come from the idea of “begin with the end in mind”. This idea, that I first learned about in conjunction with lesson planning and assessment creation, is one that seems to stand through every tide and theory and cultural shift. I think the reason it stands up so well is because it lines up with Biblical thinking and teaching. We are commanded as Christians to test everything against God’s word, which will stand unchanged throughout all time. We are to measure everything we do and think and say against the example of Christ, our eternal high priest. We are to lay up treasures in heaven, our everlasting home. We are always to look to the end to decide what we need to do, think, learn or focus on now.

So, what does it mean that the reason for education is defined by “begin with the end in mind”? To me it means that we should always look at the end of what and where the children we are educating need and are going. They need to be able to be solid, contributing members of society and they are going out into the “real” world. So, the purpose of education is to equip them with whatever knowledge, information and life skills they need to be an exceptional employee as well as a thoughtful and active citizen locally and nationally.

So, anytime we are evaluating a new curriculum, initiative, school of thought, whole child view or discipline change, we must ask ourselves whether or not this will better equip our children for success in life. And if there is even a chance that it might weaken instead of strengthen them, simplify rather than educate them, we MUST step back and reevaluate. Our children are already strong and powerful! They are resilient and forgiving! We do them a disservice if we water down any information or shield from any situation that would actually teach them more, raise the bar or strengthen their ability to do hard things. We are not called to coddle our children, but to help them grow. Growth is hard, but it is also necessary and rewarding!