School & Weight Loss

Man, it seems like forever since I have posted here. Oh, it's been about two months... That explains it.  But with being in our last block of classes before our student teaching, things have gotten a bit hectic.  For example, yesterday I had to take the Praxis II, a standardized test that pretty much determines if you can teach or not.  It's similar to the bar in law school. You can always re-take it, but it costs $130 per test.  To top it off, the head of our department just informed us that elementary education majors have to take a second Praxis test before our internship.  She told us this last week; most of us were taking our tests yesterday.  Apparently, a neighboring college had informed their students on November 11th of last year.  As a friend said, "It's not like it's our futures or anything."  Oh well. It has to be done, right?  (At least that's what I keep telling myself.)  Just a few more hoops to jump through and I'll be done. 9 months until graduation.

As far as my weight loss is concerned, I have lost a depressing amount compared to January.  In January, I lost 10 lbs.  In February, I only lost 4 lbs.  I know that I should be proud that I've lost 14 lbs, but it's hard to be proud when it's decreased so much...  I'm still doing my Piloxing class at school, as well as 5 miles on the elliptical.  Tuesday, I swam after my Piloxing class thinking it would feel relaxing on my muscles, but still work them.  I was very sore the next day.  I've pretty much stuck to my diet; I only have one cheat day a week.  There are a few times at night where I sneak a little something, but I do that in moderation, too.  One day at school, I splurged and got a slice of pizza for lunch; my brain and body felt so guilty that I only had a granola bar for dinner.  Surprisingly, I'm not hungry any more like I was the first month.  On average, I take in less than 1,000 calories a day and I feel fine.  I'm going to start exercising more throughout the week, though. I've gotten a few workout DVDs (because Zach made fun, I won't say what they are).

That being said, I thought I might try water fasting.  I hadn't heard of it until I was looking up a yoga video on YouTube and it was in the related searches.  Unfortunately, I could not find a clear "how to" to save my life.  From what I understand of it, you determine how many days you want to fast and balance that with how many days you eat.  For example, I'm going to try a 3 day water fast.  Because I have eaten over the weekend, I am going to go Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday without eating -- only drinking water.  If I feel a little weak, I'm going to have some juice.  Then, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, I will eat again and the cycle starts over.  I'm starting small because I have to work on willpower and building myself up to an extended fast.  During this fast, you're supposed to lose half a pound to two pounds a day.  We'll see how I fare.

My goal was to lose about 80 or 90 pounds by August. 14 lbs down, 76 lbs to go. 5 months and 20 days (if I can count) to go.  I can do this.