Weight Loss Support Give and get support here!

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 10-10-2003, 06:49 PM   #1  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default Teachers struggling to lose weight #2

We are a group of feisty teachers juggling our fabulous careers, families, personal lives, as we attempt to get healthy and take better care of ourselves. We are at different stages of weight loss. We are very supportive of each other. Join us!

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-10-2003, 07:04 PM   #2  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Well what do you know? I finally was allowed to begin a new thread. I have been trying since last night, and the website kept stopping me.

Last night I wrote so much to all of you and it got lost in cyberspace. I am so burned out from this crazy week, I can't even remember what I posted. Sorry ladies. I'm fried.

I would just like to say one thing. I LOVE TO TEACH...and I would just like one day of being left alone to do just that.

Instead, I have to be a social worker and deal with all of these children's problems. I get called out of the classroom for emergency meetings. I have to deal with DCF. I have to take phone calls from psychologists, doctors, and other assorted professionals who need something from me. I have to write letters to help grandmothers get custody of their abused grandchildren. I have to check for lice. I have to accept new students whenever the parent decides it is time for their child to start school, even if it is April. I have to kiss everyone's a_ _ so that I get to keep my job...not only does the principal evaluate me, the parents fill out a questionnaire 3 times a year. I have to check emergency forms before releasing a student to a family member just in case there is a restraining order against that person. I have to tell a father that he can't pick up his daughter. I have to smell alcohol on a mother's breath at 8:30 in the morning.

I didn't sign up for this.

I just want to teach...even if it is just for one day.

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-11-2003, 07:30 AM   #3  
Member
 
storylady's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 71

Default

Summer, sounds like you too are going through some rough times at work lately. I'm so sorry. At my school it's the front office people who have to screen people picking up kids. A couple of years ago I worked there on and off and it was a real eye opener. People would get so pissed at me for asking to see ID, making sure that a child could be released to them. They'd be so insulted, or act like it was a huge waste of their time. Trying to explain to them that it's to protect THEIR KID from being taken by someone who shouldn't have them most of the time fell on deaf ears. I hated it. I hated coming across those notes on the emergency cards "do not release to father" or whatever. I finally got to the point that I would go to the back and get someone else, the counselor, principal, somebody to back me up if I had to tell someone they could not take a kid. I think it's so wrong to place that much responsibility on the classroom teachers. You shouldn't have to do all that. But I believe the same is true of you and Robyn, despite the frustrations of all the other crap they throw at you, you must be awesome teachers and your students are lucky to have you.

I'm glad to say that DS is better, not well yet by any means, but better. I was getting seriously worried for awhile there. The cough just lingers on and on, and nothing so far seems to touch it. The fever comes and goes, which the doc says is okay, as long as it's goes and doesn't stay. He was one sick guy for a day or two there. I've been washing my hands with a nearly obsessive regularity lately! At school I wash them at least 10 times a day, and use antibacterial hand sanitzer in between. After handling books from those little ones I feel all germy and eewwww!

My team at school decided to do a cookie swap for Christmas so I'm looking for a low cal, point friendly cookie recipe to take. I know I won't get any in return, but I can control what I contribute. I try to browse the net and look at recipes but man it makes me HUNGRY to read them! I have the same problem with cookbooks, can't peruse them either, even if I just ate. Pathetic isn't i? I've been really battling the hunger again the past couple of days. Trying to see if it's true physical hunger or mental, it's physical almost all the time. And that's what it feels like: I'M HUNGRY ALL THE TIME! I went way over my points yesterday, but I exercised extra to help out. Anyhow, I need to figure this out. I don't want to undo what I've managed to accomplish so far.

Hoping everyone has a wonderful, restful weekend.
Sunny skies here and mild, lovely. Wishing you all the same,
story
storylady is offline  
Old 10-11-2003, 08:48 AM   #4  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

I don't have too much time right now, just popping in to make sure you guys found the new thread.

Cookies are tough since the main ingredient is butter. But, what about brownies? Can you swap those? If so, try "No Pudge Brownies." They are delicious and low fat.

I'm gonna try to garden today since it isn't raining like it was supposed to. I have a bunch of perennials to plant.

Have a great day all. I will talk to you all later.

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-12-2003, 02:20 AM   #5  
MomWifeTeacherFriend
 
HatterasMermaid's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: coastal Virginia
Posts: 797

Default

Heyyyy! Just flying in...it is 2 a.m. and I've JUST finished printing my homework....and had to check in! I'll be back tomorrow...BUT, what about the FlyLady CoolWhip cookies? It is a simple recipie and I think they are not horrible for the waistline.....I'll try to find the recipie...TOMORROW...for now I'm off to bed!

((hugs)) to all!
Robyn
HatterasMermaid is offline  
Old 10-12-2003, 02:31 AM   #6  
MomWifeTeacherFriend
 
HatterasMermaid's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: coastal Virginia
Posts: 797

Default

http://www.flylady.net/pages/TableOfContents.asp

I tried to find the recipie...but I'm too tired to look...it will be on the recipie pages on the link I posted above....

NOW, after looking on those pages, I'm starving! I'm going to bed instead!
HatterasMermaid is offline  
Old 10-12-2003, 01:22 PM   #7  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Robyn, 2 AM?! Good Lord Louise!!! Well, you've got me beat. I thought I stayed up late finishing school work, but I never came close to that hour! You've got to tell me what "flylady" is. I have heard some buzz about it, but nothing substantial...just curious.

I am deeply into the Dr. Phil book. It went from light reading with a few tests to take (easily doable sitting in a waiting room or before I fell asleep) to deeeeeeeeeep thinking and pondering. It will now require my full attention. I am willing to give it since everything up to this point has been extremely helpful. It is as if this book was written about me personally. I couldn't do it during the school week. I will try to carve out some time to myself late this afternoon. I need to lock the bedroom door, put on my spa relaxation tape, and really get inside my head. I HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO. I wish I could go away for a week or two alone in a controlled environment to do this. Being a busy working mother and wife doesn't allow me to have a quiet thought. But to really give this book the chance to help me, I need to do what he says. And that means really digging deeply. I've got so much to dig up that I already know about...just wait till I get to the stuff that I've been hiding in my subconscious.

Tomorrow, I have the day off. I plan to try Pilates for the first time. I bought the DVD's and have been waiting for some time when my husband isn't around to make fun of me to try it.

He has been a handful lately. He wants a perfect, thin wife. But, he won't stop buying candy, cheesecake brownies, etc... When I told him to stop buying it, his response was that I should be strong enough to resist eating them. (If that were the case, I wouldn't be 70 pounds overweight!!!)

I have such good intentions right now. I want to go to a spa and become anew. That isn't happening.

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-12-2003, 06:32 PM   #8  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Ladies, I have to tell you that I have made quite a breakthrough.

I made it through Key #2, Healing Feelings, in Dr. Phil's book. Let me tell you, this was quite a profound experience. I've been waiting for the chance to be alone to do this. It requires soul searching and dredging up some really painful stuff so that you can deal with it and purge it from your life.

I locked myself in my bedroom at 4:30 with instructions to my family that I was not to be disturbed. I played my spa relaxation tape. I lit a lavendar scented candle. I sprinkled lavendar oil on my pillow and my wrists. I turned on one low light. I got into bed and began to read. The time came to really confront some heavy emotional stuff...some of which came right to the surface...some of which required some work and was surprising. My mother was wrapped up in most of it. I don't have the time or the space here to tell you the gory details, lets just say that some things that I never realized were damaging to me came to the surface. My mother has been dead since 1986 so I can't confront her. Instead I wrote her a letter...a ten page letter. I just wrote in a stream of conscious way. I wept violently. Of course in the middle of this my DD and DH banged on the door so he could get something. I hid my face and waited for them to exit then went back to my hysterical writing and balling. At the end, I forgave her and I wrote that I deserve to be thin, beautiful, etc...

I feel so refreshed, exhausted, and really ready to move on to the next step whatever that is. I know that I have a lot more emotional work to do, but this was a great beginning.

I highly encourage you all to give this book a try. I swear to God this is not like anything else out there. I am halfway through the book, and we haven't even begun to talk about dieting yet. This is the miracle I've been waiting for. This will help me in my marriage, parenting, and probably every other area of my life. This is major life changing stuff.

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-13-2003, 08:11 AM   #9  
Member
 
storylady's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 71

Default

Happy Columbus Day Teachers! What with DS being sick last week, a 4 day weekend for us anyway, this makes day 6 of being off for me and mine. We are lazy and not ready to go back to the mines tomorrow! I got the kids up at regular schoolday time, of course DS is back to sleep already, it will be a battle to keep him up. Not sure if he's just sleepy from staying up last night or still fighting off the sickness. He still has a nasty sounding cough, worse in the evenings. Sounds like he's gonna hack up a lung sometimes. But the fever has stayed away for 3 days now, none since Friday, that's good news.

Summer, so glad you are finding help in the Dr Phil book. It's so hard to look inside yourself and see the hurt you've buried away for so long. On another thread about food addiction I wrote about how my father was alcoholic and how all of my brothers and sisters all ended up with varying addictions. Some of us are dealing with them, I feel like I'm winning, for now. Others of us are deeply enmeshed in whatever we are using to deal with life, be it work, food, drugs. Unlike some of my siblings I made peace with my father before he died. I forgave him for alot of what he put us/me through, and the rest, well what I could not forgive, I try not to dwell on. My husband helped me to realize that staying angry about things over and done decades ago will only hurt me, keep me angry, keep me punishing myself with food, therefore, keep me fat. When I regained weight this last time around, in the past year, it was job stress that I let overwhelm me. Now I'm struggling to overcome that, because as we all know, if you teach, you are stressed! Over the summer I asked myself just how badly do I want this job? Bad enough to say 'screw it' to my fitness goals and stay fat this time, and for good? Or was I willing to give it up and take care of myself if that's what I had to do to get my weight and health back to where I know I want and need to be? The answer was no job is worth doing this to myself. No amount of stress is worth sacrificing my sense of self worth or my health and therefore my family. So far so good, I'm dealing with it and losing weight. If there ever comes a time when I have to choose the job or staying OP for life and taking care of me, I'll walk away from the job, as much as it means to me. Philosophically, I was looking for a job when I found this one, I'll just go back to looking again!

Robyn thanks for the link to FlyLady. Such a cute site. I didn't find the recipe yet but I didn't take alot of time to browse it. I'll do that today. I'd never heard of her before. Most of my computer time is spent here or on other boards lurking and reading up on others WW success. I tried to play solitaire online the other day but my DS was having computer withdrawal so I had to let her have it. Even with 2 computers in the house we still fight over them!

I hope everyone else is off today, and if not off, taking it as easy as possible.
story
storylady is offline  
Old 10-14-2003, 07:50 PM   #10  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Just a quick check-in. I am so proud of myself. I not only began my day with exercise, I woke up 30 minutes earlier than usual. Believe me, I stayed in bed and thought about going back to sleep and blowing off exercise for just one more day. But I didn't. I got up and started Pilates this morning. It is okay. The thing I like most about the DVD is that the instructor shows modifications for every exercise...which is good, because I couldn't do any of the exercises as is. Between my bad back, knees, and neck, without modifications, I would have to give up on Pilates altogether.

I was pretty much on program. I am in the middle of Dr. Phil's book. I'm hoping that once I complete it, I will be ready to be on program most of the time. I think it will work. I feel better about losing weight than I ever have. The changes I am already going through is amazing.

Take care all!

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-15-2003, 07:54 PM   #11  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Hello all! What a hectic day today was. I just came here to vent a bit.

Right now, in my Dr. Phil book, I am working on healing feelings. I am dealing with crap from my past that has left painful emotional scars...which led to negative self-talk.

Today, I was made to feel crummy by my supervisor. I recently got my pre-K nationally accredited. It was a lot of hard work, and was a big deal, because I am only the 2nd teacher in my district to make this happen. The reason I'm feeling hurt is that my supervisor never congratulated me. I received congratulatory emails, cards, and phone calls from all over the place, and nothing from her. Then today, when we had our pre-K meeting, I thought she would finally say something. She said nothing during the meeting. Then after the meeting, she asked me how I felt about becoming accredited. I told her that I was thrilled and didn't expect to get it. She told me that she didn't think I would get it either. Maybe I shouldn't have verbalized any negativity about my ability, but I don't think it was very nice for to agree that she didn't think I would be able to do it. That really hurt me, and it added another negative thing to the pile of negative thoughts that I am trying to purge myself of! Why couldn't she just say, "I knew you could do it," or "Congratulations." But to verbalize that she didn't have confidence in my abilities makes me feel so awful...especially when I achieved something so difficult with little help from her. F_ _ K her! Sorry, I just wish this woman would believe in me. Haven't I done enough to prove that I am a good teacher? I guess I need to stop trying to please others and just do what I know is my best.

I meant to get up early to exercise this morning just like yesterday, but I couldn't do it. My body was exhausted this morning. Maybe I will be able to do it tomorrow.

Have a good week everyone!

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-15-2003, 09:14 PM   #12  
Member
 
storylady's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 71

Default

Summer, don't let her rain on your parade! You know what you accomplished and how hard you worked, screw her. Heck, she's probably jealous of you! Feel sorry for her, but don't waste such a strong emotion as anger, and don't let her attitude take away from your pride in yourself.

Back at school and running myself to death! Feels like I've been gone a month! I had 33 e-mails this morning to weed through and 7 phone messages. Geez. No time for lunch today but I didn't really get hungry until I picked up my kids at 4. Ran some errands and ate at the mall, tried to be good, but man it's hard when you're HUNGRY! And what is it about having skipped lunch that makes me feel entitled to 'treat' myself to something I know I shouldn't have?

DS is finally better, DH is trying to get sick now. Figures. I've been having strange, scary dreams lately. Don't know why.

I need to stop and figure my mall points, update my journal and see what I did today. Happy almost-Thursday!
story
storylady is offline  
Old 10-16-2003, 08:10 PM   #13  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Story, thanks so much for the support. I am such a people pleaser, and when someone doesn't think I'm just wonderful, it really hurts. When someone as important as this woman is (she is the superintendent's right hand) I become obsessed with getting their approval. I know that you are absolutely right, and I should just focus on what I did achieve and be proud of it instead of worrying about being validated by her. This goes back to my childhood when my mother only approved of straight A's and B's weren't good enough. I think I got a C once, and it was a devastating experience. If I wasn't perfect in my mother's eyes, she would withdraw her love. I was never spanked as a kid, but feeling like I was no longer loved by the most important person in my world was horrible. So, now, I strive to be the best and I just thrive on those "pats on the back." I don't get them in my marriage. I do get them at school, except for this woman. Okay, enough rambling on and on and on.....sorry about that!

Dr. Phil has me analyzing all of my emotions these days, so I am quite long-winded!

I was on program until dinner...4 slices of pizza! But, it was good!

Thanks again Story.

Hi Robyn & 3mom!

Summer ALMOST TGIF!!!!!!!!
Summerlover is offline  
Old 10-16-2003, 11:51 PM   #14  
MomWifeTeacherFriend
 
HatterasMermaid's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: coastal Virginia
Posts: 797

Default

Hey ya'll! Another quick check in for me! I've not had time to read what you guys are up to or how you're doing! Hope all is well with everyone! What a week this has been for me! I will spare you the usual RobynRanting! Sooooo MUCH stuff....from all directions! However....I will survive...AND I'm doing great being OP! Still can't seem to find time to exercise.........arghhh!

Will try to check in tomorrow .......Hope every one is well and having a great week!

(((hugs)))
Robyn
HatterasMermaid is offline  
Old 10-17-2003, 06:31 PM   #15  
Mommy, wife, teacher
Thread Starter
 
Summerlover's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: New England
Posts: 677

Default

Something just occurred to me. Most jobs are finished when people leave their workplace. But teachers' work is never done. And, if you have a family, there is very little time to do anything for yourself. No wonder we can't find time to exercise. There are meetings, lesson plans to write, lessons to prepare for, papers to grade...the list goes on and on. Children's needs are endless, and you never know what is gonna hit the fan when you arrive home from school. I even thought I could exercise before school just by waking up 30 minutes earlier. I did it once on Tuesday morning. I had to stay late to do the after school program, helped my DD with homework, made dinner, and did some school work. I was sooooo exhausted. The next morning, there was no way I was gonna get up early to exercise. My body was so worn out from the day before. And with a few meetings thrown in, the rest of my week went the same way. I just wanted to stay in bed and crash. I have such good intentions, but my life is so freakin' hectic, I just do what I absolutely have to. What really worries me is that I will be starting my Masters degree in January. How the h_ll am I gonna do it?!

My ideal week would include 2 trips to the gym, walks to and from my DD's school on the 2 days I pick her up, and Pilates every morning before school. So far all I've managed to do is one morning of learning Pilates.

If anyone has any advice, I am open to it.

I was partially on program today. Right now, all I want is chocolate, and lots of it!

Summer
Summerlover is offline  
Closed Thread

Related Topics
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
1lb. Down And Plenty More To Go! LadyLai Support Groups 568 01-02-2007 12:12 PM
Teachers struggling to lose weight #5 Summerlover Support Groups 184 06-20-2004 09:12 PM
Teachers Struggling To Lose Weight #4 Summerlover Support Groups 182 03-22-2004 08:49 PM
Teachers struggling to lose weight Summerlover Weight Loss Support 115 10-09-2003 08:56 PM


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:41 AM.


We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.