I'm Not Ready For Summer To Be Over

It's August (really???), and, for those of us who teach, that means summer is drawing to a close.

I tried something new this summer, and it (so far) hasn't worked.  I gained a few pounds from the week-lonng out of town vacation.  (Let's face it; Disney has some good food.) 

Stress has won out over diet/workout plans. 

My grandparents have required 24/7 care all summer.  We've had a day sitter during the week who can work 9-4.  We had a night sitter who was working 6-6.  That meant no one from 6-9 in the mornings, and no one from 4-6 in the evenings.  The evening bit was easier to work out.  People start getting off work around 4, so someone could be there to cover.  The mornings, though...

The only one who could be there from 6-9 was me.  So that meant waking up at 5 or earlier, getting showered and dressed and breakfasted, waking up my now 8 year old child, and getting out of the house by 5:45 or so.  I didn't get a full night's sleep for a couple of weeks, since I would have to get there and be awake until the next person came in.

Then my grandmother got violent and couldn't be calmed.  We wound up having to put her in the hospital, and my grandfather passed about 29 hours later.  With her Alzheimer's, it was determined it would be better to NOT tell her.  Or, at least, wait until she asked questions.  When she went in, we didn't know if she knew who we were or not, and she didn't necessarily know who he was.  She thought she was still a teenager, living in a place she hasn't lived since 1945 when she got married.  Every day is stressful now that she's home and you don't know what's going through her mind at any given moment and it doesn't take much to agitate her.  (Like, walk around the corner with someone else.  She'll think you're talking about her, even if you aren't.)  Should note that's not the only stresses, but that's probably the biggest.

So, yeah.  Stress.  Can you really lose weight when you are tired from stress?  Is the stress what's keeping me from losing weight?  Meh.

Would love if my partners in this would weigh in on their own stresses and successes, but they haven't made it here in a long, long time...