on the menu:

Sunday: Chicken Cordon Bleu, rice & brussel sprouts

Monday: My Chinese Chicken LoMein-style with lots of veggies

Tuesday:  Beef Fajitas with spanish rice & beans

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken and Veg

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner

Friday: Pork & Cabbage

Workout Plan:

Daily: morning walk with Lucy

Monday: Upper Body, Stretch dvds (morning)

Tuesday: week 2, day 2 #hundredpushups, crunches and stretch dvd (morning); 4 mile run (6pm); #tworkout (8:30pm)

Wednesday: sleep in; run 2-3 miles and walk for rest of q’s hour at karate (5pm)

Thursday: wee2, day 3 #hundredpushups, crunches and stretch dvd (morning); 4 mile run (4pm)

Friday: Upper Body, Stretch and cardio dvds (morning)

Saturday: REST

Sunday: 5-6 mile run

That dreadful time of year is now upon us. I must return to be “teacher lady Jen” in only a few short weeks. September 1 is my first day back and I have much to prepare. I have a to-do list a mile long to make sure I am prepared as well as my daughter. Fun stuff!! Sort of! It is a lot of work but I am going to work hard to get ahead of the game so I can stay there! HA! Every year I work hard to find my perfect organization and each year it gets better.

I need to find MY perfect balance!!

My balance requires a plan. But not a written-in-stone plan. I still need to be flexible. We shall see how the plan works this week. See ya next week.

This week: 197.2

Change this week: -0.2

Change since 11/8/08: -45.4

Change since back @ WW (10/10/09): -2.2

Summary of week: A loss is a loss is a loss!! The week started off slow. I was not feeling great most of the week! I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was wrong with me but I felt run down! A few mornings I woke up with an earache but nothing ever really came of that – thank goodness!! I didn’t workout Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday but Thursday I walked 3.25 miles using inclines with Johnny Walker.  Johnny and I are back in love!! We had a date Friday and Saturday as well! Johnny showed me how much fun inclines can be and I worked up a hella sweat using varying inclines! Thanksgiving did not defeat me! I ate well – and I did NOT eat any pie!! Does it make me horrible to be thankful that my mother in law is not the best or most creative cook? She served a kind-of dry turkey with frozen broccoli with cheese sauce, canned candied yams, and store bought pumpkin pie & coconut custard. The food was bountiful and I enjoyed spending time with family but the food made it easy to not gorge or eat too many calories. I only went 9 points over for the day! Friday was a yucky weather day – I did NOT go shopping!! I refuse to go anywhere near stores on Black Friday!! I worked Johnny Walker for 99 minutes instead! Then sometime after dinner I felt the tell-tale signs of TOM rearing its ugly head! Cramps!! The night before scale time!! SO, when I jumped on tthe scale at my WW meeting I was ecstatic to see that I was in fact down a little bit! And little bit it was!! I lost two tenths of a pound! WAHOO!!

Hot 100 Update: This is my favorite challenge to date!! It isn’t about losing a certain number of pounds or inches in a certain amount of time but it is ALL about setting goals! I have never been good at setting finite goals – but during this challenge I have learned so much about myself and my limitation and how far I can push myself! I am learning when something is not right for me that it is ok to find something else.  I have stopped being so hard on me when I am not perfect!! I stop when my body hurts more than it should – mainly this is about my knees because I do want to get sore muscles. We are almost into December and I am so looking forward to enjoying the last month of the year! I will enjoy the holidays and I will enjoy the time with my family but I willnot neglect myself or my body during the holidays this year!!

Goals for the week ahead:

• back to 5 AMish workouts during school week
• 10 miles of inclines with Johnny Walker (If you haven’t guessed Johnny is my treadmill’s name!)
• 50 squats every day
• stretch every day
• track/journal all food and activity

Thoughts for the week ahead: This is going to be a good week! I am sorry  that I did not blog a lot last week but I was lilving it up with the family!! I am still working on that balance thing but I think I am learning more and more about balance every week!

How do you find balance?