Any teachers???

HS Science Research on Long Island - no pressure! And I keep hearing about the mysterious quadratic equation song and I have to admit I do not know it. And Im too embarrassed to tell my math dept friends of my ignorance!

I teach 7th grade Math in Oregon. I have 5 teaching periods, but recently handed over three of them to a student teacher. Although my student teacher is doing really well, I am missing teaching my students! Similarly to others, I pack my own lunch (Nile Spice soup and a fruit is one of my favorites) and a snack for the day that I can munch on (like a bag with a cup of dry honey cheerios). Also, I make sure I drink at least two liters of water during the day.

I was a high school English teacher for five years, and now I am an elementary school librarian. As an Englilsh teacher I had a REALLY hard time staying active because my life was consumed by the neverending piles of essays and projects that needed to be graded, and I hit my highest weight during that time. Now that I am in an elementary school, and now that I'm a librarian dealing with everyone in the building instead of just with my own classroom, it is much easier for me to stay active during the day! Elementary school kids definitely keep you on your toes.

I don't really work out, but I do make time for walks with my husband a few times a week, and I keep my activity level on MFP set to "sedentary" (which it's not) instead of "lightly active (which it is) so that I can also log things like cooking and cleaning (which I do often, but not every day). This way, if I have a really lazy day, I know I won't eat too much, but if I have a really active day, I know how many calories all my activity has burned. I don't log the walking around that I do at school, but I'm sure I would earn myself some extra calories if I did!

As far as food, I've had to do some planning ahead to keep things under control, because it is so hard for me to eat healthy if I don't!

For meetings: if I know I'm going to a meeting where there will be snacks, I will skip whatever meal would've been around that time (i.e. if the meeting's in the morning, I count those snacks as breakfast, and if the meeting's in the afternoon, I'll count the snacks as my lunch).

For breakfast: I've started doing things like making whole-wheat fruit/oat/nut muffins on the weekends so that I have something healthy that I can grab and eat in the car on the way to school. Or I'll make some whole-wheat toast or grab the biggest banana I can from the fruit basket on the counter. I'm always in such a hurry that it's rare I have time for a sit-down breakfast!

For lunch: I always bring my lunch unless there's a meeting or event at school that is feeding me. Lunch is usually leftovers from the previous night's dinner. On the days I rely on school to feed me, I do my best to pick the healthiest option I can or to limit my portion sizes as much as I can.

For dinner: My husband and I cook everything from scratch. This is time-consuming and a luxury I couldn't have indulged in when I was an English teacher! We usually try to cook enough that we have at least 1-3 meals' worth of leftovers for later in the week, and we have many meals that we can throw together quickly on the nights that we're too tired/busy for a long cooking session.

As of about two weeks ago, I am within my happy weight range! But, I am shooting for losing another ~3lbs to put me in the center of that range, so that I'll have about 5lbs leeway on either side. That way, the holidays won't kill me next year like they did this time around!