Hello. My name is Tamara and I Zumba in my classroom by myself sometimes. Mostly it’s on report card writing days. You see, when I have the marvelous opportunity to assess and report on my students, I find myself getting squirrelier and squirmier by the second! By the end of the day I’m usually going stir crazy while also feeling overly tired and disinterested in working out or doing anything other than drooling mindlessly in front of the screen at Camp Netflix! Today I was determined to be a little different. Instead of just planning on sitting at my desk writing nonstop with brief breaks between 7:30-3:15 like I usually do, I decided to break my day into chunks of activity and socializing. Not, like, overly much as to be a distraction, but the right amount that would keep my brain active and my feet from bouncing out of my shoes under my desk! I started out with a morning meeting with a colleague followed by in depth report card writing. Then I hosted a Zumba class for a half hour with four other dancers before lunch, but some of us continued into the lunch hour and got all hot and sweaty. After lunch, I got back to report cards, but I punctuated my work with Zumba breaks. Yep. I’m a big dork who dances alone and takes selfies of it now. When I’d finish a section in the report cards, like reading or science or whatever, I’d reward myself with a body break! I streamed a tutorial video from shined ancestress.com and practiced a few steps for ten minutes and then I’d get back to he reports. I even picked up a few walking laps around the building as some of the Zumba crew was getting their steps in to break up report card writing as well by taking quick walks. I finished my grading and number grades today, and while I still have my comments left I had the best report card writing day ever!
Earlier this week I got home after feeling ridiculously hungry all day. After dinner I entered my day’s diet into my system and discovered that I had eaten 1400 calories. I exclaimed this to Bradley with disbelief that I was dealing with a growling stomach and still had eaten a gigantic 1400 calories! Bradley looked at me, perplexed, and commented that I certainly should be hungry! It was like a wake up call! Hello? 1400 calories is low calorie diet mode! It’s not eating a lot! I had totally lost perspective of what a normal caloric intake looks like. Sheesh. It was a good moment, though. I don’t need to be so hard on myself. I lost another pound this week… Little by little I’m edging toward my 170 pound goal!
I’m not a fan of the look on my face in either of these pictures, but I love seeing the progress! What a difference a four years and a whole lot of sweat can make!