Back to Life

Today started out unlike most days: I woke up and wanted to run!  And not just ‘wanted to want to’ or ‘want to but can’t’, I wanted to run and could!  No barriers!  So by 8:00 this morning, Bradley and I hit the streets for an easy walk-run that turned into a just run.  You see, it’s been a while.  I let myself completely let go of my fitness in light of this wild ride called teaching that I’m on this year!  It been well-documented that I’m pretty drained, so to feel this good and this whole is such a blessing!  I fault the sunshine, largely.  Boy, I have missed her!  It’s been so nice to feel the healing rays, to squint into the blue sky, to earn an accidental sunburn on my milky skin after having it covered for six months.  It’s been one heck of a sunless winter, and saying goodbye to that old man puts me back in the mood to go outside and run with my hubs and pupper through some pink petals!


A really nice byproduct of taking time off has been a pretty close to perfect heal on my body.  My hips and knees have been hurting from the start of my running career.  When I started running I was a slow, heavy 250 and hadn’t done much of anything in a long time.  I have to imagine I went through a level of joint shock and bruising as they strengthened up and acclimated to being more active.  Taking the past six months so easy, and especially the last two months, has meant that I’m fully healed.  I feel amazing!  Today on my run, nothing hurt.  After wards, now, I’m not sore at all in my joints.  I feel so happy and great!


Lots of good things to think about:

  • Dietbet is going so well!  It’s not too late to join!  I’m about halfway to my goal already, but now is when the real work starts.  It’s funny how much it is keeping me on the straight and narrow at just the right time.
  • I got the mural going that is a legacy panel from my class to our school.  It is turning out beautifully!
  • It was teacher appreciation week and one of my kiddos kept making sure I knew he was thinking of me every day.  The kicker was when he made the chocolate bar superheroes in the likeness of Bradley and me, but also my intern and her husband!  I felt the love and it was so nice! ❤️
  • My intern is doing an amazing job.  It’s wonderful when you see someone you believe in display even more incredible virtues and skills than you even expected.  Just wow.
  • There are 37 more days of school.
  • I’m off of diet soda!  I read an article that directly linked it to strokes and dementia…  that was all I needed to hear so Bradley and I dropped it like a hot potato!  I have a crutch I use infrequently of carbonated water with a splash of real sugar Pepsi in it.  It doesn’t taste good enough to build a habit, doesn’t have enough calories to kids my diet but it fulfills the craving for a Diet Coke when I want one!
  • The garden got planted last weekend and with this crazy week of storm, thunder, lightening, pouring rain and mixed in with the beautiful, sunny, warm and lovely summery weather and I already have things bursting from the soil!  Love it!
  • My husband.  Sheesh.  I know I’m lucky, but sometimes…  boof- right in the heart.

Blasting Off


I needed DietBet!  Holy cow, people!!  It’s like, all of the sudden, paying 25 bucks makes me accountable and committed to myself and my nutrition like a boss.  Somehow it’s not hard right now.  Well, that’s not all true, but you expect it to some degree.  I suppose a lot of my success this week is owed to the fact that I spent last week prepping for this week by building better habits.  I finally signed up for Habitica.  It’s an app or online site that allows one to make todo lists, daily things one must do and habit building tasks to help build a better you:


As I check off tasks, I earn points.  What for?  Well.  I’m a ‘healer’ in a tribe with my family and I get to buy clothes and stuff for my avatar.  Ridiculous?  Yep.  Effective?  Ridiculously so!!  I find myself watching the clock every night, making sure that I can check my boxes for ‘don’t eat after 8:00’ and so on.  By doing that for one week, I accidentally lost a pound and built habits that propelled me to better success this week.  That said, I was pretty hungry on Monday night after reintroducing a diet rich in raw and plant based nutrients.  That night I was bit by the sugar bug, bad, but I made it through the night and have been pretty solid ever since.  The best part?


I went from 211 on April 29th to 207 today!!!  I am loving this trend!