Home Stretch and the Setback

Hey everyone! It's been quite a while since the last time I wrote a post. Twenty-two days to be exact. I've been mulling over what I should post about next and nothing seemed quite right. As always, when I get going, I'll probably end up rambling.

My last post was about a Personal Development (or self-help) book called Mastering Your Mean Girl. In that post, I really talked the book up. And I still do. There were a lot of things in that book that I still use and remind myself when I see or hear my Mean Girl creeping up. After I published that post, I ended up putting the link on my Instagram and tagged Melissa Ambrosini (the author of the book) and she actually responded to my post!!

I couldn't quite explain how amazed I was that she took the time to comment let alone take the time to read my post!! Unbelievably grateful!

Since then, a lot has happened. The first thing. The Home Stretch. This referring to the end of the school year. What an unbelievably busy time. From doing assessments, to completing my final report cards, to trying to organize my classroom as best as I could, to receiving my report card corrections back and making those corrections. Not to mention that actual end of the school year and my last day with my students. AND THEN not to mention applying and interviewing for jobs for this upcoming school year. Oh yeah, I accepted a full time permanent position in a grade 3/4 classroom at the same school for the 2017-2018 school year!! The relief of receiving that phone call was indescribable. It felt like a literal 100 pounds was lifted off of me. I could finally relax knowing that I would be able to enjoy my summer break without worrying about whether or not I would have a job next year.

It's been 15 days since the last day of school and I have yet to actually relax and fully enjoy the break. Which leads me to the Setback.

Over the last couple of months I've been involved in the challenge groups that I've talked about before. But I must admit, I don't feel that I have been doing very well. I've been contributing to the group conversations (for the most part) but the working out and the proper eating parts of the challenge have taken a back seat. Since school has ended, I've been working nearly non-stop at the school to change classrooms and to get my classroom set up for September. It sounds like it shouldn't take so long. I mean, it's "just" putting stuff away and organizing things, right? Not so much..

Picture of my classroom before I was able to really tackle it..

Picture of my classroom after approximately 60 hours of shopping, organizing, labeling and setting up.. she she's still not quite done.

Pretty start to my classroom library 😀😀

Throughout the journey of setting up my very first classroom that is all my own, I caused a back injury. Again. To the point of barely being able to walk, but still pushing myself to get my room done!! The sooner I got it done the sooner I would be able to enjoy my summer! Due to this, I was unable to complete my challenge workouts. When this happens, I'm in unbelievable pain for at least a week and a half. So no Insanity workouts for me.. I tried to do a couple yoga sessions instead but even those were an extreme challenge. So I did what I could do and I made a massage appointment. Thankfully, my wonderful angel of a massage therapist was able to get me in!! The difference that 60 minutes makes is astronomical! 

Anyway, going back to my workouts, I haven't done a workout in probably about two weeks or so now.. It's extremely disheartening especially since I tend to get into a major slump when I take a break from working out. I tend to do really well when I workout, but the second I take a break, that break turns into a permanent hiatus.. I get into a mental state where I forget about how far I've come regardless of the reminders and I don't go back to them. These last couple of weeks have been even more difficult since I'm going on a trip. As a summer vacation, Mike and I have decided to go to Europe!! Of course there's the added challenges of eating properly before we go. The idea of grocery shopping before a month long trip seems counter intuitive, so unfortunately there has been a lot of take out and using up things we have had a home that isn't necessarily the most health conscious choice. Thank goodness for challenge coaches. Even though I haven't been doing very well in my challenge groups lately, the support I have received in my challenge groups reassures me that when I come back from my trip, I will have somewhere that I can go for assistance in getting back into the swing of things. 

A quick couple NSV (non-scale victories) before I sign off for today. Even though I haven't been doing very well in my health and fitness journey lately, I had 2 compliments yesterday. I saw a former colleague and "grandmother-like" figure that I hadn't seen in quite a few months. She looked at me as if she didn't quite recognize me. She said a "wow, you look fantastic" and asked how much weight I had lost so far. I took a moment and remembered that I had lost about 31 pounds since I started my fitness journey. The second was very shortly after that. I had asked my good friend, Daniel, to send me the Canadian Villan (supporters group of Aston Villa Football Club) flag so I can take it on my trip with me. Once I got home and really opened it up, I posted a picture of me holding it up on Facebook. Moments later I received a text from Daniel saying "Holy f*** your face. You look fantastic". Twice in one day I had people comment on my progress. That always feels good 😊

The second NSV I want to quickly share is about shopping.. So like I said, I've been feeling pretty crappy the last week or so because I haven't been able to do my workouts out of fear of hurting my back, leg and hip even more than it already does. I've been feeling really down and somewhat useless in that regard and because of that I've also let my nutrition slide a little too much. My bf and I booked our trip to Europe and we leave super late tomorrow night 😱 I've been needing new summer clothes and wanted some new things for the trip. Over the years I have come to hate shopping more than anything. The thought of trying on clothes turned my stomach because whatever it was I was always disappointed. Whether it was that the number or size on the tag was too high or that I couldn't find anything in the store that would fit me, I always feared shopping. On Monday I bit the bullet. I went to the new Winnipeg outlet mall. I walked into Gap (a store I haven't even stepped foot in in years) and took a couple dresses and tops off of the racks. I was ambitious. I took a Medium in everything. One of the dresses I also took in a Large just in case, and just to see how much "bigger" it would be WHEN I needed it. I walked into the change room and wouldn't you know it, all of the medium sizes fit.. I tried the large dress and it was too big.. WHAT?! I haven't fit into a medium anything since grade 8!! I haven't felt this good in a long time.. this was actually a huge kick of motivation! I don't want to go back to a larger size! Not because I think there's a problem with being larger but because of how amazing I felt. I could cry! That whole idea of planning for something that you don't know is going to happen (like taking a large off the shelf because you just know you're going to need it), that's your Mean Girl. And I let her take over in that moment. I went to a couple different stores and was feeling quite confident that I refused to let her get into my head. It's all a process.

Anyway, I'll stop there for tonight. I leave on my trip late tomorrow night and I will be blogging while I'm away 😃 There will be plenty of opportunities while I'm on trains to log my experiences. Just be warned, I may be getting quite annoying with posts 😜