The Exercise Cure

I made it through the first day of school. I had half of the kiddos today and they were okay. You can never tell much from the first day because they are mostly quiet and just shocked by the whole thing. I hate the first week or two because its a lot of me talking and pretending to be excited about REALLY boring things such as learning how to stand in a line, be a good listener, etc etc. So boring and exhausting. I did have kind of a funny experience this afternoon though when this little boy showed up at my classroom door. I recognized him as being the little brother of one of the girls I had last year. I came to the door to say hi and he said, "where is my sister?" I was confused at first but then I realized he was looking for her and didn't realize she was in a new class...haha cute. And don't worry I did bring him across the school to his sister's new class. Why a 3 year old was roaming the school himself is also beyond me but you never know with some people...

It was only a half day today (we start full days on Tuesday, oh boy!) and I was still beyond exhausted by the end of the day. It was nice to have the afternoon to get things done but I was so tired and my head was killing so I was not all that productive. I wanted nothing more than to come home and take a long nap after work but I took yesterday off from working out and I know I need exercise to stress relieve so I went for the shred instead.

It was like my body did a complete 180 during the 20 minute shred video. All of a sudden I had energy and my head ache went away completely. I was so energized I cooked dinner and cleaned the whole kitchen. I decided my new plan is going to be to do a few minutes of cleaning while cooking dinner at night so I really stay on top of it. I took on "baked tofu" for the first time ever and I have to say the results were delicious.

I started by draining and cutting up some Trader Joe's extra firm tofu. Then I quickly dipped it in some Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce (are you starting to see a trend in where I do my grocery shopping?).

I am obsessed with this sauce, it's truly delicious and such a nice change from teriyaki sauce. Anyway, I put it in the oven on 400 for about 20-25 minutes and turned it over about halfway through. Although it tasted really great, I am not sure if this sauce is really meant to be baked like that because it burned a bit. Of course I am no master cook so it's also possible I just cooked it too long or on too high of a temperature. I served it to myself with some white rice and cooked veggies. Here is my final creation:

It was a nice change from my usual meals lately and I am REALLY looking forward to one of those amazing ice cream cups I purchased at Target the other day. Thanks for all of your great stress relieving tips the other day. It's good to know other people stress without even realizing it. I think today helped me to realize how important making time (and energy) for exercise is. And then maybe it will be more okay to also relieve stress with ice cream!