Poster Child for Change

It's been a big year - and that's almost how long it's been since I posted. I keep thinking I'm going to make blogging part of my life, and I keep not making blogging a part of my life. Maybe one of these times.

In the not-quite-a-full-year since I last posted, I think the theme of our lives has been change. The season of change was kicked off, I think, with my semi-bizarre decision to leave one school for two. And so, I spent the 2009-2010 school year traveling between two schools, doing two sets of most events.... two UIL competitions, two Solo & Ensembles, two All-Regions, two of most every concert, etc. It was a very stressful job on paper, and there were certainly overwhelming moments, but in practice I really enjoyed the job and the work. The traveling nature of the job allowed me to keep any possibility of workaholism in check, since at some point I had to move on and get to the next thing. But, my six years of experience building a program really gave me a lot in terms of letting me know what would be worth my time, and what's not. So, believe it or not, I probably came home in a timely manner more often this year than in years passed.

Part of that, also, is due to one of our other big changes this year: the big move from house to apartment. For three years or so, I had a 30-40 minute one-way commute from our historic McKinney house to my school. According to mapquest, my round trip daily commute (home to middle school, to home for lunch, to high school, to home) was less than seven miles this year. In other words, 1.5 miles from home to the MS, 2 miles from home to the HS. As you may have noted, I mentioned coming home for lunch, which leads me to another change I made this year.

I joined Weight Watchers on December 28th, 2009. For once, I didn't meditate the possibility of joining WW for days, or even weeks beforehand. I didn't have the famous "last meal" - I'm betting people that have planned to start a diet know what I'm talking about - where you binge on the stuff you love because you're planning on never being allowed to eat it again. I just kind of went. And somehow, this has been my most successful weight loss endeavor in my life so far. More successful I think, although I don't know the numbers, than my Spring 2008 pre-wedding Jenny Craig stint... which was fairly successful.

I started WW on December 28th weighing in at 204 pounds even. Two days ago, I weighed in at 175.4, for a total weight loss thus far of 28.6 pounds. Not bad, eh? Now, I will say, I'm in the midst of a pretty discouraging plateau... I've been hanging out in the 175-177 range since April 26th, according to my little logbook. But, I'm greatly encouraged that I'm making better choices more frequently when it comes to food, and that despite the stressful and strange things that happen at the end of a school year, I didn't gain. And this summer has been the farthest thing from a regular schedule or any kind of routine, but I haven't gained. So, this is all good news. Progress will return soon... right?