Routines, schmoutines..

Okay, here I am finally. This past week was a whirlwind of activity! Monday was our first day of school in the BSD. And while it was only a half day, it still kicked my butt! At least I looked cute while my butt was being kicked..

One thing that plagues me each school year, is SWEAT. OMG. I sweat so much the first week of school. I literally drip sweat down my face, chest and back. It's humiliating! I was talking to somebody about this and they totally identified with me and said it was an anxiety reaction. I guess you could say that I'm just as anxious about the start of a new year as the students. Interesting, huh? Yes, teachers are looking for validation and approval just as much as the students!

What did the first week of school do to me, energy-wise? I was drained. When I came home each day, I collapsed. Working out and eating healthy were the last things on my mind but the first thing I thought about...does that make sense? All I wanted to do was fall asleep and not eat dinner or just drink beer or eat a huge pizza. I didn't do that. Much. I did have a beer or two in the week but I held off on the pizza and managed to rustle up some healthy food for us. I got my workouts in and I felt powerful afterwards. I loved them even though I didn't want to at first. The awesome thing about them, was the fact that they were less than 40 minutes each and I would remember that and get up, get my workout clothes on and just get it done. I loved every minute of each workout, even during the hard stuff.

Routines are so healthy for us. While I love the laziness of summer and not having to wake up to an alarm, when routines do hit in August/September, my metabolism rejoices. Since I already have a slower metabolism, being on a routine helps it even out. I actually tend to lose weight again during the first part of the school year due to eating at regular times and getting a regular workout in each day. So, while I'm nearing the end of my 4 day workout program, I'm fully planning on starting a new round! Excuse the language right now but I FUCKING LOVED LIIFT4. It's an amazing program that I felt like didn't consume my life. Unfortunately, my nutrition kinda suffered during it--I tried. Sorta. LOL. But this next round, it's go time and I'm going to rock the SHIT out of it and get even better results from it! I have some spots open for those of you who'd like to join me. Hit me up.

Almost that time of year again!

School starts Monday!! What?!?! Where did the time go? Feels like just yesterday I was sending those children out my door for a wonderful, relaxing summer... and then BOOM! August hits and it's time to prepare for teacher mode again.

I can't say I'm sad though. After last school year, I really needed this summer. Last school year really tried my patience and motivation to keep teaching. I had some tough students. However, summer came, I relaxed, filled my cup, and took time for me. Now I feel recharged and ready to go again. I'm in a new room this year, which is SO EXCITING!!! I've been decorating like crazy and it's safe to say that my room just might be a German Wonderland.. Once I get it 100% ready, I will post so many pics, you'll be sick of seeing it. HA!

Anyways, I've been so busy this week and my mind is running a million miles a minute! As teachers, we have so many to-do lists, we quickly get swallowed up in them and often forget to take time for ourselves. This afternoon, I went to get my nails done--both fingers and toes. It was glorious. I don't often get my fingernails done because in the past, I've usually done the regular nail polish. This time I went back to gel. I may keep doing it. I like how sturdy it is. My nails don't hold onto color very well so gel is well worth it right now for me. I figure I'll keep doing it, as it makes me take time for myself every couple of weeks.

Hmm.. so people ask me what my plans are this weekend before school starts.. I'm thinking an extra long bubble bath with a bath bomb to ease those aches and pains from my workouts but also to relax my mind so I can focus on what I'm doing this upcoming week! I know Sunday night will be challenging for me. I don't sleep well on Sunday nights during the school year and ESPECIALLY on the night before school starts! It's going to be a rude awakening for Dimas and me! I figure we will need to start heading to bed and ramping down for the night around 8ish, in order to quiet our minds and relax before the big day.

I'm feeling good though. I'm feeling confident. I know that this year will be an amazing one, full of laughter, fun, probably some tears...lol...but hopefully more laughter. But you just never know when you're dealing with teenagers! 😉

On that note, I better get a start on fixing some sort of healthy dinner. I've been trying to dial in my nutrition a little better this week, which has meant not going out to lunch and eating my prepared lunch from home. I feel much better when I do that, even though I know it's a lot more fun at times to go out. Tomorrow, I might actually go get a salad from the grocery store salad bar. I love doing that for sure. It'll be my treat to myself.

Prepping for school and a successful week

As school is approaching, I think I'm going to cut these posts down a little to maybe 2-3 times per week, with maybe a bonus post if something exciting happens. Does that sound good?

This past week started and ended quickly. I spent one day completely moving myself from one end of the building to the other into a new classroom. I was super happy to do this because now I can get some work done each day and I feel I will have more productivity this year due to not having weights being slammed down every few minutes. I will be much calmer and more at ease each day. Last year was a nightmare for my productivity. Each day, I just left after school without doing much prep work for the next day, leaving me way too stressed the next morning. I will actually get to have a quiet work environment each day and can actually get some work done after school! I'm so excited for this! Can't wait for this year!

Friday started my classroom prep work. I made some good headway and will finish tomorrow--pics to come soon after the room is finished! I plan on making it as magical as I can! Haha! I've got lots of posters and I plan on filling it with student work too. I also want to have a senior wall for all the pics of my graduating and graduated seniors. I've got a small collection going already and can't wait to build on it. It's going to be a masterpiece!

Another prep I'm doing is to dial in my nutrition for the week. Since it's been summer, I've been enjoying the last few days of beer and snacks and whatnot. I need to stop that now. It's holding me back in my results and I need to refocus. Routine is happening again and so will meal prep Sunday. I just got done working on my lunches for the next 2 days. I know I will be tempted to go out to lunch with teach friends that I never get to visit with during the school year but I must hold strong. Tomorrow will be easy because it's just a work day and I have no plans to go out with anybody. I plan on just making it a working lunch.

My menu for tomorrow:

Breakfast: my Shakeology with a piece of fruit and peanut butter whole wheat wrap

Snack: Cottage cheese with grapes and almonds and Beachbar

Lunch: Mixed salad with 2 hard boiled eggs and zesty Italian dressing

Snack: Beachbar

Dinner: Veggie Stir fry with chicken (maybe with some brown rice but haven't decided yet)

**All of these things will be portioned out with my color-coded portion containers to fit my meal plan. I'm determined to crush my nutrition for the last 4 weeks of my program. By the way, I fully plan on doing another round of this program because it is THAT AWESOME. If you want in on it, let me know and I can get you in my accountability group! 

As it's getting to my bedtime now, I'll leave you with these words:

Fail to plan, plan to fail.  

Tip Tuesday and Work with Me Wednesday in ONE!

Oops! I totally forgot to leave myself some time yesterday to write! Sorry about that! So today, I will be combining yesterday and today to make up for that..

Tip Tuesday and Work with me Wednesday: 

Yesterday was moving day for me. And by moving day, I mean I had to move classrooms. I thought I was going to have to go at alone but guess what? Sweet Dimas decided to go with me and help! Such a sweetie, he is. 💝 It totally cut my moving time by a huge amount of time, probably hours. Anyway, I was freaking out about how much I had to move, but most of it was junk that had just accumulated over the 3 years I had been in that room. I ended up throwing a lot of paper away and some stuff that had just not been used. That's what I really need to do when I start putting my new room together. Throw it out. If it doesn't give me joy or it's not immediately useful, THROW IT OUT. Start fresh. 

Same thing goes for house cleaning and organization. I'm by no means an organized person, hence my past story on IG about losing a charging cord for my personal laptop, and then finding it the same day that I received the new one, which I knew that was exactly what was going to happen. If I were more organized, I'd have a specific place for all cords. But that's just not me. Yes, I need to come up with a better system but I'm just not super structured when it comes to organization.

Ugh...

Change of thought for today. I was going to babble on about organization and how much I lack at that skill and give you organization tips but I'm not that person who can give sound advice on organizing.. LOL! But the tip I DO want to give kind of goes along with organization in your life and with the work that I do every day (professionally and personally), and not with just the actual material things. I'm talking about people in our lives. Remember when I said that if it doesn't give you joy, THROW IT OUT? That's kind of what we have to do with people in our lives who don't give us joy. Right now, I'm trying to find "my tribe". I need people who I can turn to in certain times of need and in times of accountability. I'm working on it. But in this process, I've been coming across people who I thought might fit my tribe characteristics but turns out they don't. And that's okay! It's totally okay! 

Sometimes these discoveries are a little more obvious than others. Sometimes these people cause too much drama. I'm an adult. I work with teenage drama as a teacher 9 months out of the year--do I need ADULTS to cause MORE drama in my life? HELL NO. Do I need to lose sleep over some petty issues or comments? No. Do they bother me sometimes? Yes. I'm human. Sometimes people say really hurtful things and I might have a good cry. But that's when I say or somebody might say to me, "Eff them. You don't need to entertain that. Let them go." So that's what I do. These negative Nancy-type people are not a part of my tribe, and I do not need to interact with them or at least, I need to limit the types of interaction I do with them. Negative energy brings you down. Way down. Do you ever notice when you cancel your plans because you just feel too stressed to go through with them and suddenly, you feel so much lighter? Like a sudden calm comes over you and you're not sure why? That's because you got rid of something that wasn't giving you joy. That's your subconscious mind breathing a sigh of relief. It's okay to say no. It's okay to fill your cup with other positive vibes and activities. 

You do you, Boo. You deserve to be nothing but happy! Find people who celebrate you. 

Motivation for your Monday

Hey, folks!  I didn't post on the weekend because I wanted to take a break and think about what I wanted to post for today, and here it is..

                                                

I've started this new thing called listening to personal development. I'm not much of a reader, mainly because it's hard to sit still, and I definitely was NOT a personal development type of girl. I get distracted by chores that need to get done or I feel like I should be doing something else "more productive", whatever that might be. Enter Audible. I listen way better than I read. My comprehension is lacking when I read because of being distracted by other things I should be doing. These books right here, are the first two that I listened to on the way to work and on the way home. They were the two books I didn't know I needed to hear. They're both books that tell you what you need to hear about yourself. They tell you that you've got the power to change your life for the better and there are sprinkles of personal anecdotes and stories from the authors in there too. Both books are read by the actual authors--which I LOVE.

Anyway, after listening to both books within a span of a couple months, my confidence skyrocketed and I've been taking my own virtual business to higher levels and aiming for higher goals than I ever would have when I first started this journey. I highly recommend these books if you need a self-boost and a confidence burst in tough times. I know I definitely needed them this past spring with the difficulties I was having and they were my only constants that I could count on in the mornings and afternoons.

Speaking of virtual businesses and aiming high... my tribe is looking for individuals who want to take their own lives to another level and want to be held accountable for their actions in health and fitness and beyond! If you're wanting to join a group of like-minded women, who only want the best that life has to offer, who love helping others in their health and fitness journeys, as well as working on ours (hello, accountability!), then we are looking for YOU.




How do you know if you've got what it takes?

• You're on a health and fitness journey of your own.
• You like being included in a group of empowering women who are working towards the same/similar goals.
• You want to add a side hustle (like me!) with the possibility of financial freedom but want to do it in the pockets of time that you have--YOU make YOUR hours, not us! Hustle as much as you want (financial increases depend on that). 
• You like, no, LOVE discounts on health and fitness products that you'd be using anyway.

If you checked off any of those, you would fit in perfectly with us! Post a comment on here with 'ME' and I'll get back to you and we can get this started! I started in November, and I haven't looked back.

Fitness Friday

Fitness Friday

When you think of the word "fitness", what comes to mind? Think about the words or descriptions that come to mind when you think of that specific "f word". The old Jen would've thought of skinny/slender people and not eating much. Now, I think of these words/phrases:

• Can I go up the stairs without getting super winded?
• Can I bend over to tie my shoe?
• Can I pick up groceries and bring them to the house?
• Do I eat enough to fuel my day? (Today was a bad day for that and I'm paying for it tonight--yuck!)
• Can I walk around a museum or downtown without having to sit down for frequent breaks?
• Am I MENTALLY fit to get through the rough, emotional days that sometimes come at me from out of nowhere?

Guess what? Just because somebody's skinny or slender, doesn't mean they're healthy or fit. There is a lot that goes into the word 'fit' or 'fitness'. There are all types of people out there who hate the way they look, even if they're skinny. I have a friend who actually hates how thin she is because it's really hard to put on weight. I know.. "I wish I had that problem!" Did you know, just like there is such thing as fat shaming, there's also "skinny shaming"? People who can't gain weight often have problems with normal bodily function, just like people who have too much fat might struggle with normal functions as well! My friend constantly gets trash talked during lunch (mind you, these are ADULTS). She gets made fun of for how little she eats or how much she eats. She gets told that she'd "survive the Holocaust" with how little she eats--WTF???? Seriously.. she told me that a fellow teacher told her that. This is ridiculous. It has to stop.

The movie I watched last night, "Made for More" produced by Rachel Hollis (one of my favorite authors as of lately) showcased her 2 day workshop called "Rise". It's a women's conference that focused on self help and self love and goal achievement for women, specifically. Not to say that men couldn't benefit from this but it was focused on the hardships and the traumas that women face in society. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at here is that she facilitated an exercise during one of the conference days where a sheet of several sensitive statements were printed out, and everybody in the room had to check off which statement applied to them. The list contained statements such as "I was raped", "I was molested", "I lost a partner (to suicide/cancer/illness/etc)", "I've contemplated suicide", and the list goes on to touch on so many of the issues that affect us each day of our lives. When everybody was finished checking off their applicable statements, they had to fold their paper up, pass it several times to different people. Then, Rachel Hollis requested that every time a statement was read off that applied to what was checked off on their particular paper that they had in their possession, they had to stand up for that person. Can you imagine how powerful that was? And you know what the most powerful statement was that made probably 99% of the room stand up? "I hate the way I look." Rachel said that she cried on stage at that moment. She couldn't believe her eyes, just how many women stood up at that moment. How terrible is it, that we as women often HATE what they see in the mirror each day? Society has driven us to compare ourselves to other women or to hate what we see because, oh, maybe our boobs sag just a little or we have a scar on our arm or one eye might be a little droopy. Think about this. Let those statements sink in. You know what the most amazing part of that whole exercise was? It was the fact that those women, who had endured such trauma and hardship in their lives, were THERE. They survived. Rachel Hollis calls each and every one of us WARRIORS.

We struggle every day to stay fit, to get enough sleep, to get past our traumatic events or our insecurities, but we keep going. Most of us keep going because we are WARRIORS. We keep pushing, we keep forging ahead because we are STRONG. We are "Made for More" than just what we look like. We are way more than that. We must celebrate ourselves and each other and stand up for ourselves and for others.

I know that I got pretty emotional several times throughout the film. I urge you to find a location near you that is showing this movie. The next date is August 13th. If you're in the Boise area, both Edwards theaters are playing it. Go see it. You need this even if you don't think you do, you do. It's the best 90 minutes you could ever do for yourself. She even says in the movie, that if you don't have an hour for yourself, what are you doing? So true. I just can't describe how powerful her statements are to me, personally.

So, the next time you think to yourself, "I don't have time to work out" or "I don't have time to take care of myself"...what are you doing with that "time"?

Think about it Thursday

I'm sitting here, thinking about whether I wanted today's post to be a Throwback or a Think about it theme. I guess I'm going to go with both because they kind of are related today. When reflecting back on my before and after coaching life, I think about how unsure I was of myself. I think about the negative self-talk that I never realized I had toward myself and my body (and sometimes still do--I'm human and I'm not perfect). It wasn't until I became a virtual coach that I realized how low my confidence was. Enter the final decision to go all in with my health and fitness and become a virtual coach to up the ante for self-accountability...

I'm actually pretty introverted and would prefer to stay at home in my sweats or workout clothes, watching TV or surfing the internet and not really engaging with anybody except my boyfriend and my cats. I know, I know...I sound like a crazy cat lady. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer those activities over most other things but nowadays, I find myself wanting to meet people and talk to them. 

Honestly, the hardest part for me now is to find a common thread with complete strangers. So, that's where working on my health and fitness come into play--most people are wanting to become a healthier and more fit version of themselves. That's the common thread that I can find with people and then, through those conversations, we find other common threads. Health and fitness journeys help bring people together. Everybody is on a journey of some sort and some people are coming from different backgrounds and that's what makes virtual coach so much fun and challenging too! 

If you would've asked me a few years ago if I would've considered being a coach, I would've laughed because I was not confident enough in myself to even think about reaching out to others. Now, I don't know what I'd do without this coach life. 

My favorite thing to do is to look at past pictures of myself and compare them to now. I look to see what my state of happiness and confidence was back then as opposed to now.  The left picture is just that. The girl in the white blouse was just coming out of the first year of teaching, overweight and, while she's smiling on the outside, she's not very happy. The girl in the red blouse knows her worth and knows she's a powerful and confident woman, who has been through a devastating divorce. She's been through every emotion under the sun. She's lost weight, gained it back, but took control of her health and fitness and lost it again. Now she's a successful teacher and virtual health coach who is ready to help others achieve their own fitness and health goals.

Not sure if this post made much sense, hopefully it did, but I had a lot to think about and wanted to put it out there, in hopes that it would help you reflect on where you've come from and where you're going. It's important to think about these things so that we can make goals for ourselves and constantly strive to be a better version of ourselves each and every day.


Left: 2007 Right: Spring 2018                              Summer 2018

WWMW

On today's edition of Jen's Fit Journey... It's Work with Me Wednesday! (WWMW)! *applause*

Some people may want to know what I do. As stated in my short bio on the side notes, I'm a high school teacher. Not just ANY kind of teacher though. I'm a German teacher! Say what?! Yes, that's so unusual, but I love the language (as well as the food and culture)--no, I'm not German--yes, I'm fluent. Believe you me, I get asked all the time: "Are you German?" "Why German?" "Are you fluent?" The last question kind of gets me though because why would someone ask a language teacher if they were FLUENT in the target language?? What are people hoping to hear? No.. I just teach it. No idea what I'm saying but I just teach it.

I know there are teachers though that teach a language that don't necessarily KNOW it.

WTF? Why?? Sometimes school districts are weird like that. They'll say, "Oh, so-and-so spent some time in that country or knows about languages, so we'll make them teach such and such.." BIGGEST disservice to the kids in that school AND a disservice to the people of that language and culture and to the teachers who actually KNOW the language and are fluent in it.

I'm not a native speaker of German by any means, so I don't know everything BUT I'm able to travel there alone, get lost in a train station and find my way... I'm able to ask for directions in a town... I'm able to have an educated and casual conversation with the locals... I'm able to complain about a situation that has made me feel uncomfortable... I'm able to buy tickets, etc.. you get the idea. Anyway, teaching German is way different than actually functioning in a German-speaking country.

Here are some of the major things I have/get to do as a language teacher (I'll just list the top 5):

1. Get kids interested and wanting to learn the language (this is the hardest part). We're essentially selling the language and culture to young learners who may or may not even know some of these countries exist. This year, no joke, I had a student tell me that his mom told him that German was a dying language.... wut. I looked over at my GERMAN exchange student and asked her if she knew that her language was dying? She looked at me and said, "Not that I knew of. Nobody told me." LOL see? These are the people who are voting and making "informed" decisions in our country. **Side note: I make no political claims or statements and wish to not receive any political hatred or claims in my comments. I'm merely making an observation.**

2. I get to teach a whole slew of new and funny sounding vocabulary to my wide-eyed learners! This is the best part! The look on their faces when I teach them the word for butterfly or beef labeling law (yep, there's a word for that and I use it as a draw to the language--it definitely works! My former students STILL remember me teaching them this.) I LOVE THIS PART OF MY CAREER!!

3. I get to essentially teach kids how to read again and sound out words. I teach them the alphabet, which is not necessarily that different. Same letters, different sounds occasionally, and maybe a few special characters, but it's the same Greek alphabet. All of these letters have different sounds and when combined, make even stranger sounds sometimes! This is a fun part too! And it gives me goosebumps when a student gets the sound right when reading out loud. #proudteachermoment !

4. I get to teach them about the culture and the food. This kind of goes along with the vocabulary and alphabet parts but I felt it deserved it's own number. The German culture really isn't super out of our comfort zone but there are small aspects that, if they were to visit a German-speaking country, it might throw them off, such as: no superficial smiling and no small talk. Americans are used to smiling all the time. The smaller the city, the more we smile and talk to each other. In Germany, people may seem "cold" but they're not. They're actually quite friendly when you get to know them. When a conversation is initiated, they open up and are actually quite friendly and warm! This isn't speaking for everybody there, of course, because I've met some wackos. LOL

5. I get to share my learning experiences and ways that I picked up the language and share it and then I also get to hear them learn it for themselves! When we do partner conversations in the first couple weeks, and I have kids who have already mastered some of the main phrases--it is phenomenal to just sit back and listen! I love it!

Granted, not all parts of teaching kids are glamorous. I've definitely had struggles--some small and some really huge! But in the end, I love my kids and they are mine for 8-9 months out of the year...then I get to send them home! ha! I do miss them over the summer. I randomly laugh about things that have happened in class and it makes me feel good. Like I made a good choice.

So, I do have side hustles though because who doesn't love a good side hustle? I teach fitness classes, as I mentioned in my first post. I love that--it definitely wouldn't pay the bills but it does provide a small cushion each month for little extras. I'm also a virtual fitness coach, who helps others begin or continue their health and fitness journeys with a little more OOMPH. By virtual, I mean I can do this all online--I don't have to meet up with anybody, I'm not a personal trainer at all.  I get to help them from afar by checking in with them each week or every couple weeks to make sure they're doing okay and see how they're continuing reaching their own fitness and health goals. But I think I'll delve into this a little later because I think the main point of the this post was to talk about what I do as my "adult" job. I promise to give you a glimpse into my other side hustles later.

Until then (bis dann, in German), have a great day! Habt einen schönen Tag!


                               

                                   Hanging out in Munich this past June with some of my faves!


                                   

A small group of my kids at a German language event at Boise State way back in the day. This was probably about 5 years ago? We have fun together!