Weight Loss and Evaluation Goals

To my knowledge, as of April 14th 2022 I weighed the most I had ever weighed in my life. I tipped the scales at 218.2 pounds. I was out of shape and my knees were killing me. I looked in the mirror and didn’t recognize myself. I had gained over 40 pounds since I arrived at the Prentiss County School District. I had to do something. I had just started physical therapy for my knees and decided that since I was already working out my knees the rest of my body was gonna join the fun. My first step was to step. I started wearing my Apple Watch again to track my exercise and I started logging into my app that I used to track my calories, weight and exercise goals. I set a short term goal of 20 pounds with a long term goal of 50. I attacked it with a vengeance. Every morning I got up early and hit the treadmill that Wanda had just bought. At first I could only do 20 minutes at a slow pace. Within a month I was doing 3 miles in less than an hour and my weight was trending down. By the end of June I had lost 25 pounds but I was stuck and fluctuating up and down within a 5 pound window. I stayed in that range until I came to Kwethluk. Since I’ve been here I’ve lost an additional 25 pounds and hit my long term goal. My clothes that were bought for a 210 pound man now look like someone moved out of them. They were tight on me in April and I had Wanda bring me a smaller belt when she visited. I couldn’t wear it when she brought it. Now I only have 1 more hole left to be able to tighten it. People have asked me how I’ve done this. First, I started being purposeful in my movement. I made sure I had exercise goals and met them. Secondly, I paid more attention to my calorie intake. I still eat what I want I just eat less of it. It takes will power and it’s hard, but when you look in the mirror and don’t see anyone you know you can get motivated really fast. I was ashamed of who I had become. I was not the person I wanted to be.

The other day my principal and I had a meeting with our assistant superintendent, who is also our evaluator. We had to fill out paperwork listing our school goals, professional goals and personal goals. I, as any assistant Principal should do, used the same school and professional goals as my principal. My personal goals were a little different. He’s early in his career and gunning for a doctorate. His goals centered around that. I’m not so early in my career and couldn’t care less about getting a doctorate. And as many of you know I don’t do titles. So with that in mind I decided I would infuse a little humor into my goals. I listed three primary goals and a secondary goal.

Short term goal: Don’t commit murder or suicide during the first nine weeks.

Mid term goal: Don’t commit murder or suicide before Christmas.

Long term goal: Don’t commit murder or suicide for the school year.

Bonus goal: Chick fil A or bust by June.

Also to be honest I do have legitimate personal goals. Wanda and I know them and they are our personal business. We share a lot to include some goals both individually and as a couple.

I typed them up and submitted the goal sheet. At the appointed time my principal and I sat in the goals meeting. He knew exactly what I had submitted and he’s a veteran so he gets my sometimes grim humor. As our evaluator read down the lists we both waited for a reaction. When she got to the bottom where my goals were listed she handled it like a pro. Her only comment was  that her husband loved chick fil A and she thought I had solid goals. I couldn’t see her face but my principal could. He said her eyes grew about 4 sizes but she reeled it in and kept a straight face. Our school goals all focused on attendance. With Alaska not having a school accountability model we don’t have to focus our attention on test scores. Our attendance is at 80% so we definitely want to improve that. And we have a chronic absentee rate above 50% so we want to reduce that. We both agree that if the kids aren’t here we can’t teach them, feed them or care for them. And believe it or not a lot of them aren’t ok.

We seem to have had a big increase in students in our office crying  for reasons unknown to us for the past few days. Yesterday a student who never has issues, is always at school, and puts in great effort, was sitting in my office sobbing. I still don’t know why. They won’t tell you what’s wrong or what’s happening. They just hurt. And sometimes the reason doesn’t matter. Everyone hurts at one time or another. You just sit with them and let them get it out and be supportive.

The seasons are changing here. Leaves, rain and temperatures are falling. In two weeks the forecasted temperatures will be highs in the mid to low 30s and lows in the mid to low 20s. Not what I’m accustomed to for mid October. We’ve already had heavy frost a couple of days and some of the puddles had ice in the early morning hours. It should make for an interesting few weeks.