Stress and Life Style Changes

I have been in a funk the past few days so please excuse my absence yesterday in posting.  Work went from doing literally nothing (like one day last week I answered a few phone calls and that was it!), to getting into one of my busiest times with fall registration.  I like dealing with the students but when you bring instructors in the mix, it makes things very frustrating to say the least.  Very much looking forward to the future, which I hope to share with you later on once we start moving in that direction.

Today I would love to ramble on and tell you how much I am disliking my job, but I am not sure if anyone really cares to read all that.  So, I will just say I am bored, underpaid, surrounded by incompetent colleagues, and conflicting values that I feel like is a disadvantage to the students we are serving.  Although this might not be a very stressful job all the time, I feel stressed out.  I take pride in doing a job well done, and sometimes I feel like I can't fully do that and I am so limited.  I know I am lucky to have a job in this economic climate and others will say every place you work has people/policies you don't like, but I know this is a place that is not for me.  For now I will leave it at that.

Now for some positives in my life:

Today it has been over a week that the only liquid I consumed is water.  This is a major accomplishment for me since I was having either a Mountain Dew or Dr. Pepper every morning.  One of the reasons I have been successful in this is I have made the effort to stop grabbing breakfast on the road in the morning.  Instead I have been having my favorite Kashi cereal - Berry Blossoms, whole wheat english muffins with nutella, or scrambled eggs.  Although today I had to stop, I was running super late, I only got the Sonic Breakfast Burrito and no soda!  We have even gone out to eat a couple times and I just ordered water.  This past weekend I even treated myself to a new water bottle that has a counter to keep track of how much water you consume.

(can you see the numbers on the bottom of the cap)

I do have a specific weight loss goal but right now I am not actively losing weight.  I am trying to get a strong grasp on how to live and eat healthy one step at a time.  Maybe I will start losing weight slowly as I try to enact these changes, but I really want this to be a life-style change.  Just doing a diet to lose a bunch of weight all at once but then craving back all the food I deprived myself of is not what I am aiming for.  

So as of now these are some of the ways I am trying to live healthier:

1. No soda.  Mainly water and trying to get the recommended 8 glasses a day.

2. Taking vitamins.  I recently got these gummi vitamins for adults to help me supplement for vitamins and minerals I can not fully consume.

3. Minimize portions.  This is mostly focused on dinner.  I am trying to understand that I don't need as much food as the hubby.  So I have begun eating off our salads plates which are much smaller

4. Incorporating more vegetables into our meals.

5. Limit the amount of times I grab a quick meal through a window

6. Stopping myself before I get too full.  This is especially hard at restaurants, but I have heard that asking for a to-go box right away helps with the urge to eat everything on your plate.

7. Going to the gym 4 times a week for aerobics classes (that I get both cardio for BodyCombat and strength training in Tone It Up).  Or doing the 30 Day Shred at home when I told have time for class.

8. Keep a food and exercise diary of everything I eat and the amount of time I workout.  Also periodically recording my weight and measurements.

I know that there are other changes I need to make but I think for me it is important to slowly ease into things so that these things become long-term habits.  Hopefully later on I can challenge myself more in making new objectives.

On a different note, I have my first follower! Thanks Mal for following me!  Others feel free to follow me as well!  It is nice to know who is reading.

Sorry for the lack of pictures and all the text today.  It just a boring day!