Real and Achievable Goals!

Hey everyone hope all is well!


While reaching the end of my vacations and getting closer to the new school year I reflect on goals. As a teacher and well, as human beings we create goals to keep walking towards something. Of course I want my students to learn new things and to master skills and many other things. As a professional I look forward to becoming a better teacher and professional. In a personal note I working towards financial freedom and a healthier lifestyle and many others.

The trick is to establish real and honest goals and scaffold yourself to them. This is not something that happens in a day or a month, some can take years. So focus on the short term and the long term. Maybe you need to loose 10 or more lbs, maybe you need to gain X amount of muscle or resistance.

Stop and think for a minute....

Wouldn't be more accesible to divide that goal in different stages? Wouldn't it be more exciting and less frustrating to achieve little goals and work towards the big picture?

The answers is yes! We do this every day as teachers. It will be impossible and even frustrating to teach all the curriculum in just days or a few weeks. We establish the skill and scaffold their way up to mastering and acquiring other skills.

Back in June I needed to loos just 15 lbs and then when I returned from vacation it turned to 20 lbs. So I decided to make little goals of losing 5 lbs in X amount of time. Keeping in mind the once school starts it gets crazier, that I am more involved at church than before, new roles at school, plus I am starting my next Masters.

So be wise when you are setting your goals for they can help you get there or make it even harder on you. You want goals that will motivate you and keep you away from frustrations. Same principle will apply in daily life struggles like clearing your debt its easier to focus on one account at a time that to try and clear them all together. Professional areas, organize a ladder where do you want to be in the next few months? Not necessarily meaning in other position but better at what you do from knowing your work to becoming an expert on it. On your spiritual life, to be closer to God, maybe you prayed for 5 min try 6 min next time and so it goes.

Try setting reachable goals and organize and scaffold your way towards it! See the counselor in me is already popping out! Let us know if you need any help, it doesn't have to be health related, whatever we can help you out we will be happy to! You can send an email or a message at to Facebook page.

Stay healthy....

3 Day Refresh Adventure

Hi everyone hope all is well!

We have made it home safe and sound; and even though we loved being around our family, we were missing our house. So as I said in my other post we (my husband and I) purchased the 3 Day Refresh System from Beachbody and I wanted to share our experiences with you.

In case you were wondering what I am talking about
The 3 Day Refresh is a new program form Beachbody which helps you lose weight, energize your body all while you get a head start on healthy eating habits. If you need more info click on 3 Day Refresh.

What happened during the three days?
Day 1 (133.6 lbs/34 inch) was not so great and I am being totally honest with you guys. After all those weeks of vacation eating we suddenly stopped and started the program. Before vacation started I was already 10 lbs overweight and after that I had gained 10 lbs more. With that in mind I had a massive headache, felt weak and wanted to eat a lot. I always take my Shakeology with milk, but had to switch to water (I did not enjoy it as usual but it was doable). I was ok with the fruits and vegetables and actually enjoyed it more than I expected. Personally I did not enjoy the Fiber sweep because of the grainy texture that it has. Dinners were awesome! Oh and I got creative and created my own vegetable broth for dinner.

Day 2 (132.4 lbs/33.5 inch) was way better than Day 1. I had a little headache but it went away by itself. I can truly say that I did not felt as hungry as the previous day. Did not crave the coffee or any other thing, well maybe some chicken at least but any how I did survive it. I actually enjoyed being on the kitchen preparing every meal or snack it was very relaxing. I also left my comfort zone with the vegetables and started mixing them with almond butter and hummus and it was great.

Day 3 (131.5 lbs/32 inch) was excellent! Did not have any cravings or felt like I was starving at all. We even went to church and  could handle waiting a little bit longer than usual to get my snacks and lunch. My body was feeling very different at this point that how it felt on Day 1. I was very proud of myself.

Today as I went to the scale it came up to 129.6 lbs and my inches were back to 30! I was so impress and as I said before proud. I could have deviated, eaten more than what the plan had or just quit when I got the migraine but I didn't. I was very surprised and relieved to see that it did not affect my blood sugar (hypoglycemic) and that I felt like I was eaten what I really needed. It also served as a team to reflect and get more in touch with my feelings and with God almost like fasting to me because I enjoy steaks and pork a lot! Maybe you can relate to that. I was so glad I did this, cause later on today I had a reporter come and visit to do a segment on Puertorricans moving to Texas. I was so grateful I had those 4 lbs and inches our of my body...

Things that I learned during this 3 Day Journey:
1. If I made an effort and be creative I could eat more veggies!
2. I can control what I eat even when cravings are present.
3. If you put your mind, body and soul to it you can do anything in three days.
4. I still don't enjoy grainy drinks.
5. I can survive without coffee for more than one day.
6. There are different salads and dressings you can make.

So I am hoping this will help you see how my journey and experience with the 3 Day Refresh came to an end, and at that a very good end loosing 4 pounds and 4 inches in just 3 Days how amazing is that? It can be done and its simple. So what are you doing to be a healthier version of yourself lately?
Would love to hear all about it, go to my new coach page on Facebook and share it with us! Until the next time.....

Getting back on track!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I wrote so here is an update!

"Its not how many times you fail at something, its how many times you choose to get up and try again." 

That is one of my life's motto and, come to think of it it, applies to almost everything including health and exercise. Since before school was over I started gaining some weight. I was very stressed out, working overtime with little or no time to cook properly or to exercise. Plus there were too many extracurricular activities with great food, that of course needed to be eaten very cautiously which I did not do. Guilty as charged!

Well, as soon as school was over I started or tried to get back on track and it was working until we had to go. Since my husband and I are teachers we get this marvelous summer vacations. First we had a road trip to Atlanta to visit my cousin and her children. Later we hopped on an airplane and flew to see our family in Puerto Rico. If you are puertorrican or latino you know how much you eat when you are back home. Then we had a lovely boat trip to the British Virgin Islands where we kept eating and, then we returned to Atlanta. After a few day we started another road trip to Indianapolis to visit my husband's uncle. Last time we were here we ate a lot, and when I say a lot I mean a lot. So we were expecting the same thing this time around. We did warned them that we were a little bit overweight, but that we will start to work on it when we returned to Texas. Thank God they did not take it seriously, cause every since we got here (two days ago) they have helped us watch what we were eating and encourage us to get some workout done. It was a shocker! My vacation was not finish and I was already starting to get back on track, how awesome is that?

So we got serious about it, we need to loose some serious weight! I will like to share with you our marvelous plan. We will stay in Indy for a few more days so we are watching out portions, walking and doing some of the 21 Day Fix workouts. We also ordered the new 3 Day Refresh system from Beachbody which will help us cleanse and energize our body so we can have a great back to school. After that we will start the 21 Dax Fix program. I think it is a great plan don't you agree? I hope you do. Bottom line we all struggle to keep up with our health and exercises during special occasions like holidays or vacations. If you have done so, you are not alone in that road! The important thing is to get back on track as soon as you can. I know it will get to the point were this issues will minimize and we will be able to enjoy our vacations in a healthy but fun way. I will keep you posted on our progress and experience with this new 3 Day Refresh system or if you want to join us please visit my coach page so we can gets you set up. Until next time...

Remember to be a healthier version of yourself!

Why I wanted to be a healthier teacher!

I have been trying to live a healthier lifestyle for a few months now. So you have a better idea of what I am going to expose let me tell you a little bit about my health issues as a teacher.

Everyone in the World acknowledges teaching as one of the highest stress jobs. As teachers we are expected to do numerous things and on top of it attend to our students and lessons. We are constantly exposed to illnesses and stress. My health issues got worse since a started teaching. My first two years as a teacher were very hard on my health. I was constantly absent because I either had to go to a doctor (generalists, urologists, gastroenterologist, obgyn) you name it I had to go to it. After a while I got better but whenever stress raised up again I will start getting sick. I was not sleeping enough, skipping meals or eating junk. This reflected in my teaching why? I did not have enough energy, I had to be absent a lot, I was cranky and I did not have the strength to plan good lessons plus my tolerance was lower.

When I moved to Texas a few months ago a familiar illness pattern started to appear. It was a new experience all the way, new education system, alternative certification program and newly wed! Plus allergies came to a start which I never had! I used all my sick and personal day on the first semester and off course parents started to complain and I do not blame them but at the same time my health is important. In all of it I started to get a little depressed and overwhelmed, so I had to do something about it.

I went to a doctor and he explain that I was under lots of stress and my immune system was not responding well. He recommended a low dose anti depressant, workout, vitamins and healthier eating. In my head I was like what???? I do not have time for none of that! But I had to, so I accepted the anti-depressant as something short term and it actually helped. I was more focused and not so worried as I was before so I could actually started to have better night sleep. I organized my schedule so I could try and get at least a 7 to 8 hour sleep. Just by doing that I notice more energy during the day and a better mood. To that I added workouts, a very healthy shake as breakfast which I usually skipped and a healthier meal planning.
I saw the difference right away and my students and co-workers too. I only do a 30 minute (21dayfix) workout after I get home and it makes me have more energy to finish all the school work or other chores that I have left for the day. This helps me relax and throw all the frustration or stress that the day has put on me. The shakeology helps out greatly with all the vitamins, minerals that I am doing has 70 super nutrition ingredients which boost your digestive and immune system and lots of vitamins, mineral and proteins.

In conclusion what I want to stress out is that our job is very stressful and it exposes ourselves to many illnesses. Do research about it, I have and all coincide in the same things and that is that we need to take care of ourselves and look for healthy ways to deal with all that stress. As much as our students need intention teaching, aligned lesson plans and engaging lessons, they also need their teachers in the classroom, healthy teachers for that matter. We are there role models for our students and for that we need to model that being healthy is a very important part of being successful and a great person. If you need help in this area, motivation or some info please let me know. I want to help teacher become healthier teacher. I host a facebook group where we encourage and motivate each other to achieve this important goal. Hope this help and stay healthy!