Thursday's Musings...

Happy Thursday, my good people!

I'm feeling much better (and resolved of my pizza sins) after that confession yesterday. Today is a new day and I am back to feeling positive, empowered and in control. I think I simply need to accept that this kind of stuff is going to happen from time to time and getting my big ole' cotton panties all up in a massive twist isn't going to do anything but set me on a bad path (not to mention leave me with an excruciating wedgie). Staying positive and keeping my eye on the prize is key to getting past these blips on the dieting radar screen.

This morning Josh, the hounds, and I ventured out on a short 2.2 miler. The humidity was hovering at around 76%, which means I was sweating profusely and swatting gnats away from my head for a good portion of the walk. I'll be doing the elliptical or treadmill later (in a gnat free environment, thankfully) - as soon as I have access to my exercise room again. Josh is in there working while the guys who are installing the fireplace are all over the rest of the house. There is hammering and wood cutting and sawing and more hammering. Where are my earplugs when I need them?? At least they are cutting the wood in the backyard which is saving HUGE on the amount of dirt and construction mess inside. BUT our back screen door is sure taking some abuse. All day long it's in and out....in and out...in and out. I think we now have more flies in our house than can be found surrounding the asses of a zebra herd on the freakin' African Plains.

This summer has become known as "The Summer of Contractors" at our place...and frankly I am more than a little over having to work around these guys. Our house is in what seems like perpetual chaos - nothing has a "home" right now because 3 major spaces in our house (if you include the attic space) are being disrupted with the construction of the fireplace. The living room, our bedroom (the chimney is being built straight up through our bedroom closet) and our attic (where we store EVERYTHING). So the stuff that belongs in these spaces has been strewn about the rest of the house, making for a very, uh - unsettled existence at the moment.  Yes, it's all for the love of beautifying our home but damn - it's annoying as shit. We had painters here for almost a month in May/June and now we have the fireplace guys who have been here going on 2 weeks. It will be nice to get back to normal living once this is all said and done....(sigh). By that time, it might actually be time to throw a log in the fireplace. Oy vey.

In the meantime, I am working diligently on writing up my classroom observations for 2 of my field experiences. It is a long and tedious project that I won't bore you with the details about, but suffice it to say, I'd rather be doing ANYTHING else but this right now - and that even includes working out. I still have yet to post my "About Me" page (will try to get to that this weekend) but just to give you an idea of what this project is all about, I will give you this tid bit: I am 2 semesters away from getting my masters degree and teaching certificate in elementary education. It's quite the switch from my past life of working in the fashion industry for nearly 15 years - but I will get more into that on my page and you will be able to read about it there. Technically I have one more semester of classes and then I will student teach in the Spring. But I have 90 hours of field work to complete (I have already done 60) and there is a huge write up I need to do for each observation placement (each placement is 30 hours of class observation time). It is exciting and scary - especially to be on the cusp of 40 and in the midst of what seems like a 180 degree switch-a-roo of a career change. But I am ready.....I think.

There really isn't too much else to report....tomorrow is weigh day, and although 4 slices of pizza tarnished the menu this past week, the rest of my eating has been relatively "blemish-free." Tonight we are having turkey burgers (sans the bun) and corn on the cob and broccoli. I had 2 eggs, a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese and two tomato slices on high fiber, 100 calorie english muffin for breakfast and frankly I'm not even thinking about lunch. At least not yet. It could be the belly-filling 32 oz of sun tea I am drinking right now. I make it with fresh lemon juice and Splenda...it shakes things up versus drinking straight water all of the time. I have found that if I want to get in my liquid allotment (shooting for 64 oz a day at the least), chances are they need to be flavored with something to get it all down. I figure this tea isn't the worst thing I could be drinking right now (watermelon martini anyone??). Damn - now I am thinking about martinis.

Anyhoo - since tomorrow is weigh day I have been thinking about weight loss rewards for pounds lost. Based on many of the blogs I have read, people often set rewards based on 10 lb increments, which is also a good time to take update photos to show weight loss progress in the physical sense. I am always thinking of ways to reward myself (sadly in the past, rewards have revolved around food. Common story or what?) but I also have some ideas brewing about non-food rewards I'd like to earn...more on that tomorrow. Fingers crossed for another loss this week. Pizza be damned.