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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

day in the life of teachergirl.

here at so maybe mom was right, we've been pondering a "day in the life" series that chronicles how we actually make the choices that we do. i'm not sure that we completely decided to start it this week (hi, girls! hope you don't mind!) but since i've been thinking about the choices i'm making, it makes sense for me to kick it off. look for others to continue the trend--i can't wait to see what they do with it!

(in the interest of full disclosure and background: i am 10 weeks pregnant.  that colors most everything that i choose related to what i eat and how i eat and when i eat.)

6:45 am: 15 minutes to go before we HAVE to leave the house, and i remember that i haven't packed my husband's lunch. thankfully, he's eaten the grape package down to a single serving, so i throw that and a hastily put together PB&J into a lunchbox with some chips and a granola bar and call it good. it's not great, and i think later that i should have added another piece of fruit, but i was pressed for time.

for myself, i chose a whole wheat bagel with PB&J.  i could only eat half before i got to class because i wasn't feeling great. i wrapped the rest up and stuck it in my bag. i am impressed, when i look at the nutritional facts to add them to my food diary, that it has a whopping 10 grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber.  i suddenly feel much better about my breakfast choice.

because i park where i do, i get about a half mile walk in, one way, from parking lot to class location.  today, it was difficult to do, but i managed it in ten minutes. slow, but i like having the regular source of exercise.

8:45 am: after class, i head up to my office where i meet with a few students and handle student emails. feeling strangely hungry, i finish my bagel and try to down my 24 ounce bottle of water but only make it halfway. one of my goals throughout the day is to stay hydrated, and my handy travel bottle makes that a lot easier.  i like knowing how much i'm drinking because it keeps me on target.

10:00 am: i get a bit more exercise in walking from bus stop to house, and snack on a pear when i get home to try to stem the tide of either impending nausea or ravenous hunger. i'm actually still not sure which it was.  preparing to go to the gym, i wanted to have something in my stomach.

10:30 am: i arrive at the gym feeling bad.  i begin a workout, but start feeling worse. i end up leaving after only a few minutes on the recumbent bike, but don't feel bad about it at all.

11:30 am: choose roasted chicken, black bean and corn salsa, and sour cream on a whole wheat tortilla as my lunch option.  i could just drink sour cream right now, but manage to stop myself.

1:15 pm: leave for my doctor's appointment.  see the baby on the ultrasound for the first time, see a little baby fist pump, am thrilled and excited that all is well. i ask the doctor how much i should be monitoring my weight because i am already overweight for my height. he suggests doing what i already know to do--eat right, exercise, and recognize that a lot of the weight gain in pregnancy is tied to genetics and not what you do.  i recognize that i may, in fact, need to cede control over this part of my life a bit once the 2nd and 3rd trimesters hit, but i am so proud at this point that i have not only not gained according to my scale, but have lost according to the doctor's scale.  i continue to have a personal goal to not gain much, if any, weight in the first trimester, though i obviously quite enjoy eating. :)

2:30 pm: the irony is not lost on me, but my husband and i go celebrate our awesome day (and our cute, vibrant, active fetus) with a mcflurry.  delicious. then i eat half a cookie. as i eat said cookie, i note to my dear husband how ironic it is that the doctor just told me about green vegetables and i am gravitating as far from it as possible. in my defense, i have wanted a blizzard/mcflurry/ice cream concoction for at least three or four days and i chose the smallest version.

3:30 pm: i begin to feel nauseous, which just makes me laugh. sugar in high doses does nothing but make me sick.  i love this baby and its healthy tendencies.

6:15 pm: because we have a busy evening ahead, i make pizza dough and leave it to rise while we go to our church class.  i will top it with sauce, reduced fat italian cheese, and serve it with a green salad.  if my husband inhales that pizza, i'll make myself a pita pizza.  i had thought to just pick up a cheap pizza from a local establishment, but making my own seems like a much better choice.  more labor intensive, but much healthier.  

the fact that i will work diligently to eat a salad with this pizza will be a triumph of green vegetables in my life. it has been a struggle to eat anything other than fruit that remotely resembles healthy food.

also, because if i don't eat something i will be sick before 9pm when the pizza will be done, i will eat a snack of string cheese and cantaloupe. it seems like if i say that now, it will be true.

so there you have it. my day in a nutshell. while it's not all of it, it's the substance of my eating and moving choices today. they're not great, but i think you can probably see how i try to negotiate the world of food choices with a lens toward throwing in as many healthy choices as possible.  it's all a balancing act--when you need a mcflurry, you choose the smallest size.  when you want pizza, you make it yourself.

and then you add a salad. :)

ETA: the pizza dough didn't rise, we went to get those cheap pizzas, and i ate too much of it. it was delicious and i'm still enjoying the leftovers.  but i did eat a salad. :)

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