Waist Removal

                                      

Yesterday was another weigh-in day for the team weight loss challenge.  Our team has come up with the name "Waist Removal", and I think it's very fitting.  I tell ya, I feel much more motivated being a part of a team challenge.  It's bringing the competitiveness out in me that I need to get stuff done.  

This week, I didn't have a great week though.  I weighed myself before leaving for work yesterday, and saw a 2lbs gain on the scale.  I put it down to not drinking enough water and not doing any form of exercise.  I lost 4.6lbs the week before, but this week the scale had barely moved and when it did, it wasn't in the direction I wanted it to.

However, when I got to work and stood on the scale I was shocked to see a LOSS of 1.6lbs.  Which is only a percentage of 0.61%, but it's sure better than the gain I was expecting.  That means that in two weeks, I've lost 6lbs!  I think that's awesome, and I'm very proud of that.  

As sad as it sounds, I'm happy that everyone had a tough week this past week.  Nobody gained, which is awesome, but I wasn't the only one to see a small loss.  In fact, our team moved from last place in to tied 2nd place.  The percentage between the first and second place is only a few tenths of a percentage, so it's a very close competition.  

As an added incentive, our coordinator decided to throw in a little individual challenge for the next week.  She gave us each a pedometer and told us that the person with the most steps by next week is going to win a prize.  As a teacher, it's amazing how many steps I take in a day.  I mean, they aren't the type of steps that help me lose any weight, but I clocked almost 7000 in a little over 4 hours.  I found myself walking a lot more and making myself go and visit people across the building so that I could log a few extra steps.  I don't know if I'll win this challenge, but I'm going to try.  I might as well, even if it's just to see how many steps I take in a week.  It should be very enlightening.  

I had planned on walking around during recess today, but that's not going to happen.  It's absolutely POURING rain right now, and has since early yesterday evening.  That's going to mean indoor recess for us, so I'll just have to make do with walking laps around my classroom all day.  

Speaking of pouring rain, I didn't get to log any steps last night because I spent the ENTIRE evening in my car, driving.  Butter had a football game in Mt. Vernon.  That's about an hour and twenty minute drive from where I work, but almost two hours from where I live.  Peanut, Jelly, and I left school around 4:30, and decided to start making the drive.  Not long in to our trip, we saw some very ominous clouds on the horizon.  As we drove in to the town where we were going to grab dinner, the rain started POURING down.  It was so hard, I could barely see in front of us.  I texted Butter to see what the weather was like in the town they were playing ball, and he told me it was raining.  Great.  

Now, football players play ball in the rain.  Rain won't stop them from playing.  The only thing that stops them is if there's lightning in the vicinity.  We didn't see any lightning until about 30 more minutes in to our trip, and it was extremely bright, close lightning.  When we finally arrived at the ball field, it was around 6:30PM.  It had poured rain on us the entire drive, causing me to drive a lot slower than I normally would.  The 7th grade boys were playing in the pouring rain, and it was nearing the end of the 3rd quarter.  The girls and I decided to stay in the car, because I wasn't going to sit in the bleachers in the pouring rain.  Well, just as the 8th grade players started warming up, and the 7th grade team had a little over a minute left of playing time, a bolt of lightning lit up the sky overhead causing the refs to call the game immediately.

The original plan was to wait 30 minutes to allow time for the storm to pass before the 8th graders played, but that decision got nixed after about 5 minutes due to the fact that the radar showed no sign of the storm stopping any time soon.  So, the 8th grade game was cancelled.  

So, we waited for Butter and began the long drive home.  It was a little after 9PM when we pulled in the driveway.  I can't even imagine what the time would have been had the game actually gone on.  That's still a pretty late night when Butter's team didn't even play.  And it rained and stormed ALL. THE. WAY. HOME.  The drive home was long, but it was pretty.  I saw some of the brightest lightning I've ever seen in my life.  At one point, a bolt of lightning hit the road just ahead of me, and it was so bright it left my vision a little blurry for a few minutes.  It hasn't stopped since, and right now you can't tell where my yard stops and my pool begins.  There's water everywhere, and it's still coming down extremely hard.  Thank goodness for covered patios.  

Jelly was supposed to go on a field trip today, but they went ahead and cancelled that yesterday and have rescheduled it for next week.  Butter's football practice has also been cancelled.  Peanut is going on a debate overnight trip tonight, so that means we get to come home early!! Woo-hoo!!  That hasn't happened since school started.

But, before I can come home early and relax, I need to get through this rainy day.  I'm going to have a great day, and end the week with a bang.  I've got some great stuff to share about what happened in our classroom yesterday, but I'll save that for tomorrow's post.

Have a great day, everyone, and try to stay dry!