Breakfast

So if you didn't know by now, I am an elementary school teacher. When I have students who constantly repeat the same behaviors that get them into trouble, I give them this little analogy: Let's say I'm building something and I need a hammer and nails. When I go to hit the nail, I miss and hit my hand. I say, "Ouch that hurts!" And then without making any adjustments, I go to hit the nail again. BAM! Right on my hand again. "Ouch again." Do you think I would continue this on and on and on? No! I'm going to move my hand, or watch what I'm doing, or reposition myself. I am going to make some sort of change so I don't keep hurting myself over and over and over. So now when I see them doing the same naughty behavior I ask them, "Why do you keep hitting yourself in the hand?" Well I need to ask myself that same question when it comes to breakfast.

I am a HUGE believer in eating breakfast in the morning. My problem is that when I'm in a hurry I don't eat the right kind of breakfast and it's basically the same as no breakfast at all. The days I don't eat a good breakfast are the days I notice my afternoon or late night snackfests. Yesterday, I slept in because well I'm sick and on spring break so I can! Since I slept in, I didn't have much time after getting all 3 of my boys their breakfasts, and milks, and juices. I was going to the dentist and wanted to eat something before leaving so I made a quick smoothie. In the past when I've made smoothies they are amazingly filling. Yesterday, I wasn't thinking and I mixed together a WW chocolate smoothie pack, 1/2 a banana, 2 tbsp PB2, 1/2 cup ice, and a 1/2 cup water. The water was my mistake. It's more filling when I mix it with fat free milk. Needless to say, it did not take long before I felt hungry and I was kind of that way the rest of the day. I know it's important to have a good mix of protein, carbs, and fat. I think I am doing better and trying to check the amount of protein I'm eating, but I don't think I have enough fat. I've heard good fats and good for you, but they are a lot of points! I have a hard time mentally wanting to eat a handful of nuts for 3-4 points or 2 tsp. of oil for 2 points when I could eat real food for that amount! Typical breakfasts for me are:

• 2 packs of Weight Control oatmeal (6 pts)


• 2 packs of Lower sugar oatmeal + 1/2 a banana (5 pts)


• 1 1/2 cups of Protein Plus Special K w/ 1 cup milk (noticed tummy issues so I stopped but very filling) (4 pts)


• 1/2 cup Grapenuts w/ 3/4 cup FF milk and 1 cup strawberries (4 pts)


• 1 bottle of no sugar added Carnation Chocolate milk (this is questionable since it's made with Splenda and that may be another food I need to eliminate) and an oatmeal pack (5 pts)


• 1 cup frozen berries, 1/4 cup plain yogurt, 1 banana, 1/2 cup FF milk, and 1/2 cup ice (this is from week 1 Eat Wisely book from Weight Watchers) (5 pts)

All of these are quick to make and eat. For awhile when I'd been running late I'd eat a Clif Bar or Zone Bar, Luna Bar, etc. Bars for me are both not filling and usually have Chicory Root, inulin, or soy which I'm finding are all hard on my stomach. Oh which reminds me, I just found this new coffee by Folgers called Simply Smooth and it's supposed to be gentle on your stomach.

So far I notice a difference. This might be my saving grace. I love coffee but it may be another thing hurting my stomach. I did go one week without coffee to see the difference. Oh I do NOT want to do that again!! I did not notice a difference, but I was also eating other foods that upset the belly. Sorry to go off on a tangent but my tummy problems are just annoying! Anyway, today I had my Grapenuts w/ 3/4 cup FF milk and 1/2 a banana. I'm drinking my coffee so we'll see how the tummy does. As for yesterday, due to having a light breakfast I noticed a box of CheezIt's sitting next to the computer last night. Needless to say, half of them are now gone. So today my plan is to NOT HIT MYSELF IN THE HAND! How about you?

Sick not Lazy

I have not done jack diddily squat today and I feel like a bum. The funny thing is, this is how my Saturdays always used to be. Lay on the couch with my hubby and watch movies all day well eating junk food. We were literally couch potatoes. It was pretty sad when my mother had to take my son outside to play because I was too tired and needed a nap. I just need to give myself permission to chillax. I'm not being lazy, I am really sick. I can't even laugh without coughing up my lungs!

Right now, I'm doing nothing and it feels weird. I know my body needs it to get better, but it still feels weird. So my day has been like this:

• Kids woke me up so I got them their breakfast
• Read my Facebook
• Watched my kids play
• Ate breakfast
• Talked on the phone
• Laid down to watch a movie but fell asleep
• Blog, blog, blog

I ate two egg sandwiches this morning with a cup of strawberries. I forgot how much I love those. It was 8 points for 2 eggs, 4 pieces of toast, and two pieces of WW cheese. That combined with the strawberries was quite a good meal. In fact, I haven't wanted to eat anything else until about an hour ago. That could be because I was sleeping though! LOL I was told by a friend today to take Vit C and Garlic pills every hour to kill my cold. Every hour? Won't I stink? I'll try it though since my Zinc lozenges aren't helping anymore.

Any other tricks or remedies for colds and coughs? What are your go-to's for feeling better?

A Blah Day

So most of this week I've been proud of my choices. I didn't munch like crazy, didn't bust into my cookies, also didn't binge on my sons birthday cake. Unfortunately I had been too busy to notice I didn't have many good breakfast choices. I tried to eat what I thought was a good mix of protein, fat, and carbs, but I think it must have been just heavy carbs. I was out of fruit so not much fiber either. I ate 3 more points than I normally do for breakfast yet I was so hungry by 2:00 pm! That's when I did start the munchfest. I am proud that I was at least aware and didn't let it get totally out of control. I was probably 4 points over my daily amount.

Today, still feeling sick. I was not able to run yesterday. My coughing has gotten worse and there was no physical way I could have run 7 miles with 4 of them being sprints. I start coughing just walking around trying to talk on the phone. So I'm not in the best of moods already being sick, and then I discovered something else that bummed me out today. Our school was broken into last night and I had some things taken from my room. It wasn't an of my personal property, but I still feel violated and almost targeted. No other classroom had things taken and this person obviously knew the school and just where to go. Luckily I had taken my laptop home last night so that's safe. Needless to say I was in a funk all morning and what did I walk into on my way to lunch. The smell of deliciousness...PIZZA. Oh good golly miss molly just what I needed, to be tempted my trigger food when I'm in a mood. Luckily, a cowoker turned me toward some homemade muffins that she had made that were pretty healthy and low fat. I asked her what was in them and she said things like whole wheat flour, flax seed, carrots, apples, oranges, etc. Sounded good to me. So rather than eat 8 different choices of pizzas, I ate to of the muffins. I feel like that was a NSV for me!

Now we're on spring break and I hope to rest to feel better. I just get antsy that the more I rest, I quickly am losing the endurance I've built up for my long runs. My 1/2 marathon is in a month and a half and I want to be ready. It doesn't do any good getting antsy though, there's no stinkin way I could run right now so I might as well try to rest. Again, who am I than I am dying to run? Sheesh, I still can't believe how much I've changed.

Good Golly Miss Molly

Today for conferences I had a parent bring a box of Starbucks Mocha as a gift for me. I thought it was so nice and I love coffee! Especially since I was supposed to go through ten conferences today. I was again proud of myself for not eating the cookies I bought for my families, but I did have 2 cups of the mocha. Um, I just got off the the Starbucks website, and I believe I drank a minimum of 7 points worth of coffee today! Are you kidding me???? I hate when I consume something assuming the points are reasonable and they end up being off the charts.

I was able to manage running for 3.5 miles today in about 36 minutes. Not my fastest, but pretty good considering I'm still not 100%.

I finally ordered myself a marathon stick to massage my muscles after I run. My kids are all over rubbing it up and down my back! I can't wait to try it before and after my next run.

Stress

Holy moly I love the irony of my life. Not really. Two posts ago I was asking about what makes you stick or quit. Now I haven't quit, but my weight turned to an all time high today that I haven't seen in two years! I'm quite sure it as to do with all of the stressing I've been doing over learning new report cards and getting them ready for conferences. Not only that, my tummy still has been drooping even after my tummy tuck, so my plastic doc did a whole belly button procedure. I have stitches around the entire perimeter of my belly button and it's made it really swollen. It doesn't make it impossible to run, but very uncomfortable. To top it all off, I am sick again. It never fails. Every time it's conference time I get sick. In the fall, I had a fever and they had to reschedule 15 conferences for me. Today again, sick with runny nose and cough. Hmm what's that tell you about me? I'm a freaker that's what. A panicer. A glass is half empty-er. I flip out so much that I literally make myself sick. And when I get in this funk, what is it I tend to do more of? Munchingggggggggg. I do have to say that my NSV for the day was not eating any of the cookies I had out for my families and didn't eat one of the pastel M&M's decorating the tables in the staff room. I ran for only 8 miles last week. That doesn't help things much. I am going to try to run a small 2 miles uphill tomorrow and see how I do. I know you shouldn't run with a chest cold and my cold is right inbetween my head and chest. When I can't run, I normally like to do weights but I'm nervous I'll pop a stitch out of my belly. So I'm in limbo right now. I'm crossing my fingers that the not munching today and a short job tomorrow will drop my weight a little bit back into a realistic range for me.

Oh hum. If anyone is still reading this, you are amazing and I thank you. When I get stressed in my life, I don't know how to handle it well. I either eat, drink, or make myself literally sick to my stomach. The one thing that I usually let go of to save my sanity is blogging. I know I should do it because it always makes me feel better and is a better outlet for my stress. Maybe if I had been blogging, I wouldn't have been the human snack machine this week. For some reason, Goldfish crackers has been my biggest munchy this week. It is report card and conference time and getting ready for both is always stressful for me. I tend to be high strung though.

In fact, 2 weeks ago I was so overwhelmed I literally could not stop crying for two days. Every time my husband tried to talk to me, it just wasn't right and I'd bawl. I finally felt better when he offered to help and came into my work with me for 3 hours to help me get organized. I SUCK at time management. I am always amazed at the speed he finishes my projects.

Last Saturday, I ran my first race for 2009. It was a five miler and I finished it in 40 minutes. I got 3rd in my age range. Then when I got home I ran another 2.5 miles to make it my long run day. I have done shorter runs with toning this week.

After conference this week, hopeful I will be back to read all of your fabulous blogs and blogging myself. I will be catching up on all of your blogs soon!