Workin' It

I LOVE my job. Seriously. I love the school, I love the kids in my class, and I love the people I get to work with. It all just goes to show that all the stress I went through this summer was silly and God had a plan all along. But I'll write about that another day.

Over the past few months I've gotten to be good friends with the teachers on my grade level. One day over the holidays a few of us got together to have lunch and just catch up. While we were there we started talking about how we had all gained a few pounds (even though they're still super skinny, but whatever) and decided that we wanted to start walking together after school. It's nice to listen to music or a book while you walk, but it's so much nicer when you have someone to talk to. Or it is for me, anyway.

So last Tuesday we started walking after school. The road to the school is a little over a mile long, and the school is pretty much the only thing on the road, so there's not a lot of traffic in the afternoon. We thought it was about a mile and a half, so we were a little disappointed after the first day when we realized we had only walked a little over two miles. The next day we decided to walk all the way around the school before walking up the road, and around the school again after we got back. I took my phone and used the Map My Run app that Sunny told me about, and that ended up being 3.6 miles. The time passed so quickly since we were enjoying talking. We walked four days last week!

I've really liked doing this because even though I get home a little later than I could, when I do get home I've already exercised and I can just relax. The other teachers on our grade level are planning on joining us, and we put a note in the school newsletter in case anyone else wants to join us. We figure the more people that go, the more motivation we'll have :)

Just by walking after school and not changing my eating habits much, I lost 1.5 pounds last week! Granted, I gained quite a few pounds over the holidays, so I don't expect to lose that much every week just by walking, but it was a good start. This week I want to add a little strength training to get toned up a little. I'm going to try to eat more fruit and drink more water, too. I should quit drinking carbonated drinks altogether, but I'm not ready to give up my Diet Cokes just yet :)