Tomorrow's dry run for going back to work!

I just got back from the best workout I've had since I broke my wrist over four weeks ago. It's partly because I took the entire weekend off from exercise. Two days and no gym and no walks. I read Jen's <a href="http://www.priorfatgirl.com/2011/09/keeping-a-break-a-break.html">post </a>about not working out for three days on Saturday, but I didn't take it seriously. I remember thinking, "I could never take off three days from working out!".<br /><br />I wound up taking Saturday and Sunday off because,  it was hot and I was tired. I couldn't remember the last time I either didn't go to the gym or go on an intense walk, trying to get in my 10,00 steps.<br /><br />The days off really really paid off because today's workout was fantastic. My new Polar heart rate monitor, a FT60, really helped too. I love this thing. It really helps keep me in my zone, plus I love the pretty magenta color. My old Polar was a pale pink and didn't have all the bells and whistles this one has on it. I'm in love!<br /><br />I'm still using my BodyMedia. I'm just as crazy about it as I was when I got it on July 27. This past weekend was the first time I took it off for most of the weekend. I've had it on all day today, and just checked the stats: 2,773 calories burned, 11, 229 steps, 1 hour 25 minutes moderate exercise and and amazing 33 minutes of vigorous exercise. I'vd only eaten 979 calories wish s a little low. I usually keep it between 1200 and 1500 caloreis. daily.<br /><br />About work, I'm heading back to work on Wednesday. I made the decision last Thursday when I was finally able to straighten my left arm, the one that had the full cast on it for three weeks. It took a couple days of stretching exercises to get it back to where I could actually straighten it out.<br /><br />I can type with my left hand now, I just can't use my left thumb since it's encased in the cast and it can't quite reach the keyboard unless I stick my elbow up in the air. It's a 100% improvement over not being able to use my left hand at all. Nine fingers beat five fingers any day.<br /><br />I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm looking forward to going back to work. It hasn't exactly been a picnic being off work the last four weeks. Especially while I was in the full cast with my arm at a 45 degree angle.<br /><br />The dry run tomorrow is that I've had an ongoing discussion with my husband about if  should keep with mornngs and do after work workouts.  With a cast it's something to think about. I notorously am bad at nighg workouts so tomorrowbefore my 8 a.m. haircolor and cut, I'm going try to make the gym before the hair apportionment. <br /><br />We'll see if I can get up early, get to the gym and come home, hook up to my Cast Cooler (and my vacuum cleaner),shower and get ready, then get to the hair salon by 8 a.m. It's going to be a challenge. I'm really going to be happy to get my old hair color back because I really hate it. now. Maybe pictures tomorrow.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

Tomorrow's dry run for going back to work!

I just got back from the best workout I've had since I broke my wrist over four weeks ago. It's partly because I took the entire wee...

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Beck Diet Solution: Week 3

<span class="corners-top"></span> <br />It wasn't a great weekend..... for my sports teams!  <a href="http://www.psu.edu/">Penn State</a>, the <a href="http://www.dallascowboys.com/">Dallas Cowboys</a>, and <a href="http://www.jeffgordon.com/">Jeff Gordon</a> all lost their respective sports on Saturday/Sunday.  Even my secondary NFL team from the Motherland, the <a href="http://www.steelers.com/">Stillers</a>, took a beating to the..... ugh..... Baltimore Ravens.  I'm not sure which team has the worst fans, the Ravens or the Eagles?  At one time I even heard the Baltimore fans cheering "Steelers suck! Steelers suck!"... such poor sportsmanship.  I don't like that kind of conduct.  I wouldn't even do that to the dreadful Ohio State team! ;) <br /><br />I had a great weekend otherwise.  I learned that even though it's a Friday night, the muscle-ly men are still at the gym .  Shouldn't they be out showing off their bodies?  But, Sunday evenings are so much better.  Even though I prefer to keep Sunday as it's intended 'day of rest', Joel and I did a quick NROLFW workout after his Redskins actually won a game ;) (p.s. in the past I keep messing this acronym up and putting NROLW - whatevs :) ).   <br /><br />So on to the Beck Challenge hosted at the Priorfatgirl.com:<br /><br /><blockquote><b>Day 15 - Monitor Your Eating</b> - Every day at a time we specify, we need to be creating a food plan to follow for the next day.  Then, we check off the food as we eat it the next day.  I did good with creating the food plan on the weekdays, but failed at it on the weekends. The weekends are less structured, as is my eating - I don't always eat at the same times on the weekends as I do on the weekdays, and it's harder for me to plan what to eat ahead of time.<br /><b><br />Day 16 - Prevent Unplanned Eating</b> - Pretty self explanatory here.  You should only eat what is on your daily food plan/menu and not digress from that.  I did stray from this twice last week. I had two Pumpkin Spice Latte's on both Tuesday and Thursday when I only planned to have one.  In this case, you write down the unplanned food in your food journal and circle it.  Then at the end of the day you can easily see how you measured up. <br /><br /><b>Day 17 - End Overeating</b> - Beck suggests taking one or two meals where you over load your plate with food, and then not eat the extra.  By doing this, you are strengthening your "resistance muscle" and practicing not over eating.  I am too afraid to overload my plate. I have yet to do this experiment. I'm going to, I'm just not ready yet. I've been doing well over the last few weeks with weight loss and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.<br /><br /><b>Day 18 - Change Your Definition of Full</b> - Bascially, don't eat until you feel uncomfortably full or stuffed.  Don't eat because you don't want to waste the food, thereby wasting money.  Those are just some examples of people's definitions of feeling "full".  I try to combat feeling full by ensuring I portion out my food. Now, what I am learning is that just because I have the Points+ for the food, doesn't mean I have to eat it if I'm not actually even hungry. I do this A LOT - I eat just because I can (i.e. I have enough Points+) when I really don't need to.<br /><br /><b>Day 19 - Stop Fooling Yourself -</b> This goes hand in hand with Day 16 in my opinion. I need to ingrain in my mind/build up my resistance muscle with "If it's not on my daily eating plan, then I'm not eating it!".  This whole concept simply means to stop making excuses for yourself as to why you're over eating.  For example, "I'm going to eat these cookies because if I don't, I might make Sally feel bad."<br /><br /><b>Day 20 - Get Back on Track</b> - How many times do you eat something you didn't plan on eating, only to allow it to spiral out of control (i.e. "Well, I already blew it by having this 1 doughnut, I might as well keep going with whatever I want and then I'll start again tomorrow/next week/next month/next year")?  What I have come to find lately is that sometimes when I think I have gone "off the deep end", it's actually not as bad as I think.  When I actually track the food I ate (unplanned of course), it's really not as bad as I expected afterall. This helps me stop myself from going further down a self-sabotaging road of eating more and more. I've decided I will draw a line in my food journal at any point I go off track to serve as a visual that I will stop and eat normally my next meal - NOT the next day/week/month, etc.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.priorfatgirl.com/">Priorfatgirl Jen</a> mailed me a cool bracelet for being a Beck Challenge participant. <br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JoB8XumHjowI9qr8WFmoIesFJ5aPc6LzIODQOB4_CP-CSPpkCq8U62O3JNguE-szdPtOmaPHwy1l2qIf6XBGih6an9TUgoJcCRZdfVwruE31N0zdrI8H2-r9krtYj6UWGVzkYtoQfF4/s1600/004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JoB8XumHjowI9qr8WFmoIesFJ5aPc6LzIODQOB4_CP-CSPpkCq8U62O3JNguE-szdPtOmaPHwy1l2qIf6XBGih6an9TUgoJcCRZdfVwruE31N0zdrI8H2-r9krtYj6UWGVzkYtoQfF4/s400/004.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">don't mind the Halloween cat backdrop :)</td></tr></tbody></table>Then I proceeded to bring the kitty kitties in on the Big Weight action...<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyMxSWfP4D8w8-XfyMf3f0DXlzFqgctDz9LfOCJLbT1TK56xmfpYYBR7qeHngM4Pd3iyPXknDYnISE6W4JpKywNIqNQPZ9RVqrqw4vN8uR17qNlvO-H7G_P8T6d5d-J45BJIeIXFi9HK0/s1600/007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyMxSWfP4D8w8-XfyMf3f0DXlzFqgctDz9LfOCJLbT1TK56xmfpYYBR7qeHngM4Pd3iyPXknDYnISE6W4JpKywNIqNQPZ9RVqrqw4vN8uR17qNlvO-H7G_P8T6d5d-J45BJIeIXFi9HK0/s400/007.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles: "I hate when you take pictures of me."</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7BfszS0FTZV4_VxIDtT2tbSJRrqLjj6V5DI1fxrSVwMhW_UvPQe28FrImCyZK0bbjVJlUZcnTezFJx7Jnb1fDl-bkVR-BB96XgrLKMthcglPYIIBZAs1T3yPLv3_v5rxLjkGzzQ8xRJw/s1600/008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7BfszS0FTZV4_VxIDtT2tbSJRrqLjj6V5DI1fxrSVwMhW_UvPQe28FrImCyZK0bbjVJlUZcnTezFJx7Jnb1fDl-bkVR-BB96XgrLKMthcglPYIIBZAs1T3yPLv3_v5rxLjkGzzQ8xRJw/s400/008.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merlin: "What is this thing you are pointing at me?!"</td></tr></tbody></table>It's too bad Merlin wasn't standing up.  We took him to the groomer for a hair cut 3 weeks ago and he got the only cut they do - the lion cut.  When he stands up, he's got an all-over shaved body with the little pom-pom tail and booties for his legs.  So funny and so girly - especially on him!<br /><br />Oh wait... you're not here for the cat pics.<br /><br /><i style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://the-big-weight.blogspot.com/2011/09/starbucks-giftcard-giveaway.html">Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a $10 Starbucks giftcard!</a> </i>

The Beck Diet Solution Weight Loss Challenges Beck Diet Solution: Week 3

It wasn't a great weekend..... for my sports teams!  Penn State , the Dallas Cowboys , and Jeff Gordon all lost their resp...

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Are you a 21st century teacher?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The SimpleK12 Learning community put out this question not too long ago 'Are you a 21st century teacher' in their blog post: <a href="http://blog.simplek12.com/education/21-signs-youre-a-21st-century-teacher/">http://blog.simplek12.com/education/21-signs-youre-a-21st-century-teacher/</a>. They added a number of pointers to consider. This really got me thinking. Let’s be honest – our world is changing rapidly – are we as educators keeping up? What do you think about these questions? Do you think they are a fair reflection of effective 21st century teaching?  SimpleK12 has also made this information available as a PDF document. You can find it here: <a href="http://files.simplek12.com/workbooks/21Signs21stCenturyTeacher.pdf">http://files.simplek12.com/workbooks/21Signs21stCenturyTeacher.pdf</a><br />Here are the 20 points taken from their blog (but please visit their great blog to see them in the original post)<br /><br />1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interviews they've conducted via Skype.2. <br /><br />2.Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in another country.<br /><br />3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.<br /><br />4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and comments.<br /><br />5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial topic...and you grade their video submissions.<br /><br />6. You prepare substitutes with detailed directions...via Podcasts.<br /><br />7. You ask your students to do a character/historical person study...and they create mock social media profiles of their character.<br /><br />8. Your students create a study guide...working together on a group wiki.<br /><br />9. You share lesson plans with your teacher friends...from around the globe.<br /><br />10. Your classroom budget is tight...but it doesn't matter because there are so many free resources on the web you can use.<br /><br />11. You realize the importance of professional development...and you read blogs, join online communities, and tweet for self development.<br /><br />12. You take your students on a field trip to the Great Wall of China...and never leave your classroom.<br /><br />13. Your students share stories of their summer vacation...through an online photo repository.<br /><br />14. You visit the Louvre with your students by means of a virtual tour...and don't spend a cent.<br /><br />15. You teach your students not to be bullies...or cyberbullies.<br /><br />16. You make your students turn in their cell phones before class starts...because you plan on using them in class.<br /><br />17. You require your students to summarize a recent chapter...and submit it to you via a text message.<br /><br />18. You showcase your students' original work...to the world.<br /><br />19. You have your morning coffee...while checking your RSS feed.<br /><br />20. You are reading this!</div>

Teaching Are you a 21st century teacher?

The SimpleK12 Learning community put out this question not too long ago 'Are you a 21st century teacher' in their blog post:  http:/...

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