Something Clicked

March 15, 2015March 15, 2015 Nina ChapmanLeave a comment

I’m back guys!

True story…

I don’t know what happened, one minute I was dying a slow death, zombie walking my way through the work week, and the next thing I knew it was Friday. When I woke up that day my cold/flu was gone and the sun was shining.

I came home from work to a sparkling house, dinner on the table and a bouquet of flowers…

Best. Husband. Ever.

Brent was heading back to the mountains the next day and was trying to boost me up since I had been feeling so crappy.

The next day I couldn’t help but take advantage of my new-found health and the weather. So, first thing in the morning the girls and I went on our first hike of the season.

The melting snow was rushing down the mountain in rivulets and streams. It was the sound of Spring making it’s arrival known. In just a few months we’ll be sticking our toes in the water to cool off.

The hike took two hours but we still hadn’t had our fill of fresh air. So, when we got back home we continued to play outside. I ended up prodding through my dilapidated garden only to find that some of my flowers and herbs are already trying to make their appearance.

Oh yeah… and the weeds too.

I spent the rest of the afternoon pulling weeds and clearing out last year’s dead stuff while my little gardening partner kept the lady bugs and worms entertained.

“Oh! They love me!”

We were both filthy and exhausted by the time we were done.

That was supposed to be our day of relaxation since we were booked solid the next day…

We had Bridget’s swim meet to attend,

and Brent’s St. Baldrick’s fundraiser to go to.

I don’t know what it is but this spring weather has really kicked my motivation into gear. I just want to spend every moment I can playing outside and all I want to do is eat fruit and vegetables out of my garden. Spring break is only a week away and before I know it it will be Summer.

In my first year of teaching I have managed to snag another higher paying job for next year. But I’ve also managed to lose all of my muscle mass. I’ve been pinching the skin where my biceps used to be and I kind of want to cry when I look at the lumpy skin where my quads used to shine.

I’m feeling really antsy for that time of year when I can read books for fun and run when the sun rises. In the mean time, I’ve really kicked my diet into gear. When I weighed in this morning I weighed in at 198.2 four pounds lower than last week and 13.2 pounds lighter than my first weigh-in after Christmas.

I’ve decided that I am going to lose at least twenty pounds by the time school lets out at the end of May, and an additional 10 pounds for the fourth of July.

I need that internal competitive process in my life right now. It always feels exciting knowing that you are challenging yourself. I love the feeling you get when you see the changes happening before your eyes.

I hate this about me, but I’m more of an all or nothing kind of gal. I’m either all the way in or I’m half-assing it. Frankly, I’ve just gotten really bored with where I’m at so it’s time to make a change.

Something just clicked for me this week. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe I was just sick of being sick. But for some reason I woke up one day feeling more motivated than I’ve felt in a long time. I’ve got that gut feeling, the one you get when you feel like a fire has been lit from the inside. I know that feeling well, it’s the feeling I get when I’m about to conquer something. It’s not something that I can fake or summon, it’s just something that comes around every now and then like a wave. It will eventually ebb away so I have to grab onto it and take advantage of it while it’s here. And that’s what I intend to do.

Weekly Weigh-in #3

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015 Nina ChapmanLeave a comment

You know what? My blog posts lately have been super lame.

I’ve just been so busy lately, I don’t have to time to truly sit and have a conversation with you. It’s kind of like trying to talk to your friend while simultaneously yelling at your toddler to quit licking the wall. I have actually tried to sit down and write this post for the past 12 hours but I haven’t gone five minutes without being interrupted.

So here it is… the really lame blog post that just talks about my job and that one time this week I that worked out. It’ll include a revelation, self pitying venting, and some information you wish you could unread because it simply includes more information than you would prefer to receive.

So go on…

You can read it now…

Or just skip it and revert back to the days when I actually had a sense of humor because if I read this post I wouldn’t want to be my friend.

The Lame Blog Post That Took Me An Entire Day To Write.

(Please shoot me. Or give me a shot of something.)

I’m here, I’m here!

I didn’t forget weigh in day, today has just been crazy.

Let me just say… on the teacher front things are going better than I could have ever expected! My kids tell me on a daily basis how much they love me. (It makes my heart glow.) I currently have a temporary job and lately there have been talks of figuring out a way for me to keep my job for next year on a full time basis which would be awesome. But it puts a little pressure to keep going strong.

So, last night when I got home for work I looked in my massive bag full of grading that needed to be done and had an internal debate over whether to go for my planned work out or to grade.

The work out won, and I didn’t regret it one bit.

I didn’t realize just how badly I needed to have time to myself until I got lost in the music and was free to just day dream and sweat. There’s nothing quite so cleansing as sweating on purpose.

It turns out I was more stressed than I had allowed myself to believe. I have had a headache for five of the past seven days, but I just kept rolling with it. Before I knew it the week was over, and I can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

The week had started off a little rough…

I spent my Monday stranded at Target with Penelope.

I ended up spending about five hours circling around the store while I waited for the stoned locksmith to figure out how to do the least amount of work for the most amount of money. The fact that he was stoned didn’t bother me as much as the fact that he was a complete asshole. What was even more frustrating was that I couldn’t articulate the fact that I thought he was an asshole unless I wanted to spend another five hours at Target with an insane toddler.

After that incident I was a bit traumatized and refused to go to the grocery store for the rest of the week. Needless to say, I spent the week meal plan free. I was so preoccupied this week that I ate what I wanted, but honestly, I wasn’t really in the mood for anything too bad. If I did eat something less than healthy I didn’t eat very much of it.

I also spent my week struggling with a strong case of “my uterus hates me” which required more dark chocolate, bloating and mood swings than normal. The only workout I had all week was last night. Therefore, when the moment to step on the scale arrived I was less than excited.

I closed my eyes, stepped on the scale and was surprised to see that I had still lost a pound regardless of the fact that I had broken my no alcohol/ordering in food rule. I weighed in at 202 pounds, that is 9.4 pounds down after three weeks.

I’m not skinny by any means, but I still rocked my jeans instead of my elastic band leggings.

I think it is safe to say that the holiday cleanse is complete. I’m no longer a sugar crazed crack head jonesing for cupcakes.

How did your week go?

P.S. Just so you know I have literally been writing this post all. day. long. In the last hour alone I have had to stop in order to read three different Fancy Nancy books, eat a fake picnic, change two diapers, and have a photo shoot…

Weekly Weigh-in #2

January 16, 2015January 16, 2015 Nina Chapman6 Comments

Hi!

I missed you.

This week was crazy. As a 7th grade Language Arts teacher there are four times during the school year when I have to grade a massive project and this was one of those times. I kept taking pictures throughout the week in the hopes that I would have time to write up a quick post but it never happened. Instead, I opted for reading “If You Give a Moose a Muffin” and making greek-yogurt-blueberry-muffins with Penelope.

For the entirety of the week my friends hadn’t heard from me, my toddler cried when I went to the bathroom because she thought I was leaving for work, and most of my morning workouts had been replaced with early morning grading sessions.

That being said, I have still managed to sneak in a few workouts. One afternoon the weather was warm enough to hit the path for an afternoon run. I couldn’t go home to change because Penelope was waiting for me and would have flipped out if I left again. And I couldn’t change at school because… well, it just feels too weird changing anywhere in the vicinity of my students. So I changed in the Barnes and Noble bathroom. The problem is I forgot to take off my nerdy teacher glasses before I took off running.

The ride home was a bit hazy.

The week started off great with a nice Sunday walk to the coffee shop. (I ordered a simple non-fat latte thankyouverymuch.)

The problem is we had to pass one of my schools was on the way there. As we walked I thought about the World War II pictures I promised the kids I would bring in for the unit… and all of the grading I had to do… and all of the copies I had to make… and. Okay, I’ll stop.

So that afternoon while Penelope was taking her “rest” time I headed to work to get some stuff done.

There is something about being alone in an abandoned dark building during a cloudy yucky day that makes you glad that you brought a hammer with you.

I spent so much time planning my upcoming unit that I didn’t really have time to meal plan. I did a quick peek through the pantry and the refrigerator to make sure I had enough healthy stuff on hand and called it good. Despite the fact that I was super busy and slightly stressed out I still managed to stay on track all week long. I didn’t have one pity me sugar latte, or a I’m too busy to pack my lunch burrito… not even once.

All of my hard work for the week paid off. My students love the new unit I’m teaching, my pants don’t feel like they are slicing me in half, and I got to go on a nice walk and talk with my friend around a frozen lake while we watched the sun rise this morning.

Life is good!

Although… there was a creeper on the path with us who just stared at me when I chirped a “Good Morning!” The trail we walked on was close to a retirement community and I’ve made several senior citizen friends over the years running that trail…

That guy wasn’t one of them.

My friend Andrea and I decided that it might be best if we just walked a tad bit faster. And I plotted how I was going to escape his grasp if he just so happened to be a psycho.

FYI: My strategy is to act bat shit crazy… When I was a teenager and was paranoid about peeping toms I decided that if someone were outside my window there wouldn’t be any hiding under the covers. Instead, I would leap to the window throw up the curtains and scream like a maniac that wants to eat someone’s face.

Nobody’s gonna mess with that.

(I’m seeing a pattern of paranoia going on here, but we’re just going pretend like it’s not weird and just go with it.)

Anyway, I digress because the hammer nor my scare tactics were needed throughout the week.

But my weight loss strategies worked so that’s pretty awesome! I weighed in 3 pounds less than last week at 203 vs. the 206 from last week. That’s down 8.4 pounds after two weeks!

Yay me!

Enough about me, how did your week go? Run in to any psychos? Lose any weight?

Weekly Weigh-in #1

January 9, 2015January 10, 2015 Nina Chapman5 Comments

I’m gonna be honest with you guys… it took me a while to get into the groove this week. I told myself that I would be hardcore from day one (last Friday). That mentality didn’t really come to fruition until Monday. Up until that point I kind of dabbled in dieting but I wasn’t fully committed.

You know why? I hate dieting.

BUT after months and months of just doing whatever I wanted to the point of ridiculous it turns out to be absolutely necessary. If you are going to be extreme in the “I don’t give a shit department”. You better be prepared to get extreme in the other direction if you have any hopes of undoing any of the damage that has been done. So, that’s what I’m doing…

There seems to be a progression of revelations that come with dieting that seems eerily similar to the steps of grief.

Shock and Denial- I’m not that fat… Oh CRAP I am that fat! 😦 I can’t handle this right now, I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

Anger and Depression- How did it get this far? What the hell is wrong with me? Why didn’t you just start yesterday?

Release and Honor- I know what I need to do and that’s all there is to it.

Return to Love- I get more awesome day after day! Can everybody see how awesome I am?

Over the weekend I was still in shock and denial. Then Monday and Tuesday rolled around and I exercised self-discipline for the first time in a long time. This pissed me off because I don’t like being bossed around, even if I am the one doing the bossing. Then Wednesday through today I’m feeling pretty proud for accomplishing all of the little steps that I took through the week.

The counting calories part was the hardest for me. But it proved to be the best method for regaining some perspective. I would try to sneak in something not 100% healthy and I ended up hungry at the end of the day. But if I filled up on wholesome goodness within my calorie range I felt great. That prompted me to continue to make smart choices.

For instance, last night I had some calories left over after dinner. I wanted a little dessert so I contemplated eating a piece of dark chocolate and savoring it. Or eating apples and greek yogurt. I chose the apples and greek yogurt and it was awesome.

Weigh-in

When I weighed myself after the New Year I was shocked to see that I weighed 211.4 pounds. When I stepped on the scale today I weighed 206. That’s 5.4 pounds.

Honestly, I wish it were more. I wanted that 211.4 pounds to be mostly water weight from the holidays but I don’t think it is. The sobering fact is it is mostly comprised of fat.

I really am disappointed about ending up in this situation again…

I could blame it on all kinds of things: the ectopic pregnancy, PCOS hormones, new job, busy lifestyle… but none of that stuff matters. Wasting energy trying to justify how I ended up this heavy again doesn’t do anything for me in the future.

What I need to do is take this process one day at a time and pat myself on the back for each and every good decision that I make that leads me to where I want to go. In fact, that has kind of become a little nightly ritual. I track everything that I ate, contemplate on all of the exercise I did and then I just take a moment to feel proud of myself.

Yes… I realize how cheesy that sounds..

But I really think it is necessary in the early stages of a lifestyle change.

I stripped down to my little blue short shorts for a new round of before and after pics. These will be posted on Friday January 30th along with the 1 month progress.

Now there is nothing left to do but keep going and that includes lunch with middle schoolers…

Meals For Week 1 of a New Year

January 5, 2015 Nina Chapman2 Comments

Hi guys!

It’s my first day back to work and I just got done with my early morning gym session. I wanted to take the time to share the meals I’ve planned on cooking through out the week before I get engulfed in teacher stuff and forget to.

My mason jar lunch pick of the week is Kale and Wild Rice Bowls with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

I haven’t made this yet so I have a hodgepodge of healthy stuff sitting in random containers in my purse as we speak.

The dinners I plan on making through out the week are:

Chicken veggie stir fry w/ brown rice

(I don’t use a recipe for my stir fry… I just make it. But you can use this link if you want to.)

Crock Pot Sweet Potato and Quinoa Chili

(Minus the chips 😉 )

Grilled Chicken w/ Purple cauliflower rice w/ scallions and roasted asparagus

(No picture I just made that up)

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna Boats

I’ve got to hurry I have a meeting in 20 minutes BUT I have to share some good news and some bad news with you…

Good news is I’m not as fat as I thought I was because the pounds are already falling off.

The bad news is I cheated yesterday. Brent and I had money left over on a gift certificate to an awesome microbrewery near by. They have awesome Texas Brisket Tacos… the Cowboys were playing… I’m from Texas… just sayin.

The good news is that prior to the microbrewery I had gone to the gym and worked out. Plus I had gone to the movies to see Unbroken with Bridget SANS SNACKS. We didn’t even sneak anything in. (Well technically I did sneak in Kind bars because they were in my purse but we didn’t eat them so it doesn’t count.

More good news… we don’t have anymore gift cards taunting us to cheat anymore.

I just had to get that off of my chest. I did and now I feel better… Now I better hurry up and go to work!

P.S. There are probably typos because I’m in such a rush. Don’t judge me!

Have a great day everyone!!!

Nina in the Now

Category: weight loss

Something Clicked

Weekly Weigh-in #3

Weekly Weigh-in #2

Weekly Weigh-in #1

Meals For Week 1 of a New Year

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