goodbye marathon weight!

This was the first full week of classes at the college where I teach, and since I'm not yet an old hand at teaching, I feel extremely stressed at the beginning of the term. I spend several hours preparing for a single class, rereading the books I've assigned because I can't remember their content, thinking of clever visual aids I could bring into the classroom to keep everyone awake. Our email accounts are flooded with notices about meetings, places we need to be, lectures we really should attend, committees we should consider joining. Students are dropping and adding classes like mad, and when they leave your class, it's hard not to take it personally. I'm constantly trying to strike a balance between being tough but not so tough that everyone is afraid to take my classes. All of this is very stressful, but when a class goes well, I feel great. As I was commenting on April Anne's website, it's almost like experiencing a good run. When they're bad (classes or runs), it lowers your mood for the rest of the day.

I have very little energy for running at the end of the day, so I try to run early. It's amazing how much energy that gives me to start my day. Now that school's back in session, I have access to free strength training, yoga and pilates classes again, which is a nice perk. I've managed to lose seven of the ten marathon pounds so far, and my strategy has been to find foods that will help me make it through the day without feeling too miserable and hungry. I've discovered the amazing power of oatmeal-- it doesn't have too many calories and seems to be the one thing I can eat that will keep me going for several hours without getting hungry. I like the slow-cooking oatmeal as opposed to instant.

I'm also discovering which lean cuisine-style frozen dinners I can take for lunch that have relatively few calories and don't taste like a few rubbery noodles with ketchup on top. (Favorite so far-- Healthy Choice Chicken Fettucine Alfredo-- 280 calories), or else I just eat yogurt. I've cut down somewhat on my beloved carbs, but it seems to be working. And next weekend is the Gasparilla Distance Classic in Tampa, where I'll try to run a half marathon, so that will give me the excuse to bring back the carbs for a few days. I believe a few other RBF'ers are running in one of the many Gasparilla races next weekend-- let me know if you're going to be there.