Art teacher looking for support
 

i am an arkansas girl looking for people who will keep me on track. i need to loose 50 pounds and don't seem to be able to keep myself on track. i have lost 16 pounds and gained 9 back all within the last 5 months. i am a teacher and i was doing great until summer break came and i found myself with WAY too much time on my hands. i would love to find another teacher to buddy up with

Hi. I am a Special Education teacher with about 120 to lose...however, 50 would be a nice start because that would get me to the 200 mark. Summer has been hard on my eating habits, too.

wow, special ed. it takes a special person to teach special ed. way to go on your 20 lb loss. i would love to hit 199, to me that would be a major accomplishment. what are you doing to loose your weight?

hi again
 

Hi. Well, I am not following a certain program. I just try to not eat junk and to not eat after supper. I find that I have the best success when I write down what I eat every day. I need to start doing that again. I also need to exercise. I am planning on buying the DDR dance game and 2 dance pads so I can work out with my 4 year old and have fun, too. I have to wait until my next paycheck to get it though.

My biggest stress right now is that I am buying a house and will be moving in hopefully in about 10 days if all goes well with our loan. So right now I am just trying to eliminate the junk and drink lots of water. I stopped drinking diet cokes and diet mountain dews this week because my doctor said that I needed to. I was quite addicted to my diet mountain dew, but I know I can quit...I quit smoking 5 years ago when I got pregnant with my son so I know I can give up cokes.

I would think that teaching art is fun. I have a friend that teaches art and she loves it. In the past I taught middle school and high school English and that was so hard! I do much better with elementary children. I think I might like to teach Kindergarten or 1st grade one day, but for now I am happy with special education.

Talk to you later...

when i was doing ww i was good about writing everything down but have not kept it up. my 10 year old daughter has the dance game and we love it. i am going to by an eplitical trainer as soon as i can make myself part with the money. i know that they work because i used one at the gym and loved it....well as much as you can love going into near cardiac arrest while sweating profusely. but i did see results.
as for stress, i know how stressful moving can be. we have moved twice in the last three years. my father died in 2002 and left my mother with a huge house so and severe depression. we decided to sell our house and move in with her in september of 2004, two weeks into the school year! we had planned on buying her house but once there realized that she was not ready to move on. so after a year living in boxes we bought a house and moved once more two weeks after the school year started. then i moved schools in august of 2005. dieting was not even a thought during most of that time. but during the summer that we lived with my mom i became obsessed with exercise. my husband was working in nebraska and my mom's depression was too much for me to handle so exercise became my escape. i would go to the gym every morning at 8 and workout for an 1 1/2 hours, then on to my sister's and do water aerobics for another hour and then i would walk 2.5 miles everynight. i didn't loose that much weight but the changes to my body were amazing.

about teaching kdg. i would think long and hard about that one. the first 10 years that i taught were great, i loved it but then our state and district standards changed and it was no longer fun. we started having reading groups about 9 years ago and at first it was no big deal because there were always some who were ready. then we moved into literacy centers for an hour while trying to have reading groups, this did not work well for most of us. next year i hear that they are going to be having a 2 hour lit. block and a 90 min. math block everyday...no rest-time and only 2 twenty minute recesses a day. i am so glad that i got out when i did. and yes, teaching art is wonderful. i feel so guilty calling it work.

good luck with kicking the mt. dew addiction....my husband has it bad. the problem with him is he won't drink diet and he needs to shed more pounds than me.

hope you have a great day.

So, I guess you taught kindergarten before you taught art. Our kids still get a nap and two breaks, but they do have to have 90 minutes for reading centers.

I will probabaly stay in special education for as long as I can, but our state dept. is trying identify fewer and fewer special educaiton children so the need for special education teachers will decrease.

I used to have a elliptical trainer, but never was comfortable with it. I only
5' and have short arms so it was hard to use. I hope DDR will work out for me. I am anxious to get started with it.

Talk to you again later...

you will love the ddr.
you have inspired me to start using it daily. i will keep you posted on my results

my goal today....30 minutes! i'll let you know if i make it.


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Trob, that's great that you are going to try to do DDR 30 minutes today. I know it will be hard when I first start because I am so out of shape, but I am going to do it little by little. I know my son will like it, too, and I don't want him to be overweight so it will be good for him to workout, too. I can't wait to buy it. I get paid at the end of the month and my first purchase will be the game and two dance mats. Which game do you have? Is one better than the other...I know there are 3-4 different games out now.

melody, we have ddr extreme 2 and i guess it is about the same as all the rest of them. one suggestion!!! don't buy a cordless dance pad. we went through 2 of them before we finally called the company and found out that they have quit making them because they have so many problems. you will also want to buy some of that non-slip stuff to go under the pad...even on carpet it like to slide around. i made it through all 30 minutes and then my daughter did it for 30. like you i don't want my children to follow in my husband and i's footsteps when it comes to weight loss.

Thanks for the tips. I will definately get the nonslip stuff or else I may go flying across the living room. How old is your daughter? My son R.J. is 4 and will be 5 in December. I decieded to start blogging again today. You can see my blog at http://2006weightlossfix.blogspot.com/.

my daughter is 10 and thankfully she still acts like a little girl.

Hi again. 10 is a good age...I hope she will stay a little girl a while longer. These days the kids try to grow up so fast. I have had students that are 12-14 with children already....so sad.

I hope you are having a good weekend. I have been watching what I eat and drinking only water and green tea. I will get my exercise today through packing for our move to our new house in a week.

good luck with the packing, i know what a pain that can be. i finally got everything unpacked from our two moves in jan. when my mom finally sold her house. i found things that i didn't even remember having.
i have already been out for a mile walk and the heat is already a killer. take care when you start moving things, i am sure that mississippi weather is much like ours. where in miss. do you live. we go through there every summer on our way to gulf shores. i have a friend that lived/lives in jackson.
hope that you have a great day.

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Hi. I live in Laurel, MS. It's a small town south of Jackson and about 35 miles north of Hattiesburg. I just moved to Laurel last September after accepting a teaching job up here. My husband had been working in Laurel for 2 years and driving back and forth, but I knew I didn't want to drive 35 miles every day so we quickly decided to move. My parents and brothers still live in Hattiesburg. I have two sisters...one in Florida and one in New Jersey. I like it here and don't think I would ever leave the state of Mississippi unless maybe to move to Florida which is my husband's home state. His parents live rigth outside Pensacola and it is a nice area there, but since we are buying a nice house here, I think we will be staying here.

Well, I have almost accomplished packing up my closet this morning...I am going throught everything and making a trash bag, donation bag, and then packing the rest...I don't want to take any junk that I am not going to use. Plus, at our house now we have two big walk in closets and in the house we are buying we only have one big walk in closet so I need to make sure I don't overload it because I do not like clutter at all...you couldn't tell that by looking at my house right now, but really I don't like clutter and I my goal is to have a nice clutter-free house at our new house so we are taking the bare minimum with us and trashing or giving away the rest.

Great job on walking a mile already this morning! When we get moved I am planning to walk with our next door neighbor. We have know the people living next to our new house for about 10 years so it will be nice to have close neighbors. Right now we live out in the country with no close neighbor and I don't like that. The new house is in a gated community with nice sidewalks for walking and 3 ponds. My son will want to ride his electric monster truck on all the sidewalks so I will be walking with him.

Talk to you later.

Hello trob and Melody! I am also a teacher. I teach 1st grade and have for nearly half my life now! We have a thread with a few other teachers over at..
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87523
(If I haven't done that link correctly, dig around under the Support Groups heading! Dig deep....we're down there! :) )
Things are kind of slow right now there as we are in and out on vacations and busy with all that we try to cram into our summer breaks! But, I know the other girls would agree with me....come visit us! We would love to have you! .....take care, Robyn

Melody....just visted your blog link!

We need to start another group...DietDewAddicts! I easily gave up Coke/Diet Coke...I just can NOT seem to get "over" my DEW! I especially LOVE Diet Code Red Dew!

RJ (and the Easter Bunny!) is adorable! I'm mom to 2 boys... they are now 11 and 14! Your baby and the Easter Bun made me smile! I remember those days! :)

Well..... anyway.... Hope you visit us at the link I posted earlier! (Don't be alarmed....things are REALLY slow....but Gin, Kerry and I seem to continue on with or without a crowd! :) )

Trob
I teach 2nd grade in AR and have a 10 year daughter...not to mention a 16 year old! I know that to lose weight I need to exercise but have such a hard time commiting..especially in this heat!

lisa,
wow, another AR gal. where in the state are you. i live in russellville.

I there, I just wanted to pop in and say :welcome3: to 3FC. I teach art here in Georgia at a small private school. I love it. :)

Trob! Me too!! I bet we know each other! What grade do you teach art to?

lisa, how strange is that!! 5th and then a little of everything below.

monet, what grade level do you teach? i may need to get some pointers from you. i teach 5th and started last year with nothing....not even pencils and paper. i made it through and think that i did a pretty good job. the other teachers are wanting me to incorp. more cross-curr. lessons so i am going to be starting back at square one this year, but with supplies. any suggestions that you have would be GREATLY appreciated for art and weight loss.

Trob,
That is pretty amazing that we are both from Russellville. I think I know who you are. If you have a sister named Terri, I do know you because I teach with her!! I think our daughters may even be in dance together. Mine is going into 5th grade this year. Maybe we can support each other in our weight loss journey's...goodness only knows I need all the support I can get!

TROB: I teach K-8. I can SO relate to the no supplies! My school wants a quality art program without paying much for it. They gave me $400 for the whole school (75 students) for the whole year! Then the headmistress asked me to do a clay unit with the kids! I almost laughed in her face! (clay for 75 students would cost more than $400!) I am anxiously awaiting news as to what my budget will be this year. There are SO many ways to incorporate art into the curriculum...one good way is to use the art period that goes along with their history lessons, and feature the individual artists. Then have the kids try and create art in the same style. Doing a pop up book for a report is great, illustrating reports, etc. You probably have already thought of all those though. :) On weight loss, I highly recommend Sugarbusters. Its simple, straight forward, and it works! I have metabolic syndrome, and recently was diagnosed as a diabetic, but previously, I found Sugarbusters to be the only plan I could actually lose on. Here is a link to the support forum on here for it, where you can ask questions, or check out more about the plan. This is the support board forum, where most of the group hangs out. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=86

Please feel free to send me a private message if you like. I would LOVE to exchange ideas! I have been dabbling in art education for years, but just started teaching in this school all school year last year. My degree is in art ed, so it feels good to be back into it.

lisa, yes that is my sister. small world!!

monet, i sent you a private mess. but i am not sure that i did it right. i wish that i could get you my school email address. i may have to send it to you in code or something.
lisa, i sent you an email through school mail. my sis thinks that we should get together ar her house and let out girls swim. what do you think?
melody, how is the packing going???

Hi Trob,

Packing is going fine. I packed so much yesterday and the day before that my body aches. Sunday I painted, too, because we had to paint our living room in our rental house because the wall got damaged while we were living here. We rent from one of my husband's friends and co-workers so we had to fix...really wasn't that bad but one of our recliners kept hitting the wall when it reclined and over time messed up the wall.

Today I have to work for awhile at my school district's central office. I have to finish up 24 internship hours this week so that I can become a licensed psychometrist (a person who gives IQ tests). So, I will be working 6 hours today, Thurs. and Fri.

I have lost about 5 pounds since I started watching what I eat again. I feel a lot better already. By next week I should be back down to 246 which would put me back to 20 punds lost. I would love to see 199 by New Years! That would be awesome!

Hi Lisa36 and Monet! I also wanted to invite you to visit with us.... http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87523 . If you read my earlier post.... the summer is a bit slow as we're in and out and away from our computers a bunch....but we would love to have you come meet us! We are also teachers with Gin being our resident INSANE school bus driver! Best wishes with your weight loss efforts! take care, Robyn

melody, sorry to hear that you are having to work this week. it seems that the summers get shorter and shorter. i have already had to do two days of inservice and have more to come. i am a adjunct prof. for our local college....fancy for a person who works with interns and i will have to spend a day at the college. we start back around the 14th with kids beginning around aug. 21. i would love to be at 199 by then...maybe!! i spent the day today helping my husband deliver pictures all over our town. he is a photog. and he has just finished up doing pics of every local ball team in a 40 minle radius and he had this bright idea to hand deliver each one....over 1000 orders. we were out the door at 9am and got back around 5. i am worn out!! tomorrow i get to enjoy another fun day of deliveries. i have got to run now, i am doing something REALLY bad. i am making paula deans sour cream muffins. why....i don't have a clue. talk to you later.