I guess I run now

Things are already nutty at the end of the semester with all the grading & with committees trying to get work done all at once, but my department is also searching for two new faculty & yours truly is the chair of both search committees…we’ve had more than 90 applications & will do 13 video interviews next week followed by campus interviews in January (each of these is a 2-day interview with non-stop meetings and eating, btw).

Just to give some context, the last time we did a search for 2 positions, I wasn’t the chair of the committee, but I still ended up in the doctor’s office with panic attacks & I gained about 10 pounds. It’ll be amazing to have two new colleagues, but the six-month nail-biting process that is the academic job search drives me to drink (she wrote sipping on a rum & diet pepsi).

On top of that, we’re moving offices to a new building. Every day my chair walks into my office to observe, “you’re not packed yet?” Tomorrow you will probably hear about me on the news, sad story of a junior prof who throws a lamp at her department chair’s head & goes to jail for it. Argh! Who has time to pack? I haven’t even started grading final portfolios or final projects!

So everything is happening in the same 2-3 weeks from hell. I’m sticking with bootcamp, eating at least one salad a day, watching my portions, but mostly just keeping my head down & powering through until “break” begins & I can start prepping my classes for next semester & try to get something out to a journal for review before these dern campus interviews start taking up all of my time.

So, long story now longer…I might be posting only intermittently for a bit because every time I’ve come here to write, I’ve ended up writing something very similar to the rant above…& it’s all very boring. But I’m not gone & I’m still going to read & respond to everyone else. I’ll just be a better reader than writer for a couple of weeks.

Happy Days Chicks!

Today I have a luncheon for one of the committees I’m on….fortunately this one is usually soup (vegetarian) and salad, so as long as I can avoid the giant cookies, I’ll be fine. Oh, giant cookies will undoubtedly be served at my dept. meeting in the afternoon too, so <sarcasm>goodie!</sarcasm> Two chances to test my resolve.

Obviously, December will have challenges (& this week many of those challenges will be cookie-based, apparently), but like everyone else who’s responded to brseay’s post, I’m ready to look at this month as a good thing. Josephine’s right (which is often the case, I’ve found): I have a chance to enter January not resolving to make changes, but having already made those changes…ahead of the game! That’s where I’d like to be come January 1st.

Tonight it’s boot camp (and I’m so very sore in my total body area right now, but oddly looking forward to it) & a sensible dinner with tons of veggies.

Breakfast: 1 cup nonfat vanilla yogurt, blueberries, 2 tbs kashi nuggets

Lunch: sensible & healthy

Have a happy day everyone!

How many times have I said that?

Doesn’t matter so long as each time I mean it. Right?

Brseay has an important post up today. She was thinking about how to maintain this holiday season (read: school vacation) when she realized that just thinking about maintaining was a kind of sabotage of her goals. I read this post & suddenly instead of stretching out before me as an endless month of mindless munching, big meals, party food, and disappointment, December is starting to look like a month where maybe, just maybe, I can actually move that scale in the right direction. Hell, school’s out so I’ll have time to exercise & plan meals, right? So why not look at December as an awesome month & stop fearing it? Apparently Delitagain is celebrating her second month of losses & setting some goals for December as well. Damn. Seems like being proactive, rather than failing miserably at being reactive all month may be the way to go…for me anyway.

Meantime, I see Josephine completed her half Mary on Sunday…the force was with her. It’s an awesome read, very fun, makes me wish I could run for more than a few minutes at a time. & tiny2b is training for one.

I don’t want to jinx her…although that’s probably not possible right now anyway…but getupnow is making steady progress. And eryn’s back on the wagon now that things have settled down a bit from her move.

Meanwhile, anyone hear from soclose? & I guess we’ve lost our Periwinkle?

Okay, no sadness. Maybe we can have a live chat sometime soon?

Today’s food:

Breakfast: protein shake (light OJ & vanilla protein)

Lunch: whole wheat pasta/veggie thing & salad

Snack: apple & 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Dinner:1 slice pork loin, 1 cup gold mashed potatoes, 4 tbs pork gravy, beets, & salad (w/tom, carrots, & pumpkin seeds)

Snack: tea with milk & honey

It’s more of a state of mind.

Home was tough. Barely a green veggie to be found & every fruit was baked into a delicious, delicious pie & topped with ice cream. Argh.

My family treats potatoes, stuffing, pasta, etc like they’re vegetables & they treat real vegetables like they’re made of steel & must be boiled for hours and hours on end. It’s that good Irish heritage of mine.

Hubby & I were seriously jonesing for anything green all week, so for our first dinner home, I made a whole wheat pasta with summer sausage, fresh green beans, yellow squash, broccoli, carrots, onion, tomato, & frozen peas. & planned to pair it with a lovely salad. Everything fresh & crunchy & lovely. Unfortunately, I barely had time to woof down a 1/2 cup of it before bootcamp & now, post bootcamp, I’m not hungry & thinking of running with that feeling for a while. Still, I knew I missed eating healthy foods, but it was really nice to hear my husband echo those feelings. As a family, I think we’re doing okay nutrition-wise. Even if I’m not losing weight, I feel better & healthier.

Oh, YAY BOOT CAMP! It’s the same group in boot camp again. And we’re the only one of her classes that is the same people over & over again, so she’s decided to skip the food lectures & the measuring & testing & just dive right into beating the hell out of us. So instead of our usual lovely & easy-ish first night of situps, pushups, running, etc, we did our usual warm up, a tabata, and a tabata run that nearly killed me. The upside is that she’s decided we’re ready to ramp it up a bit, but the bad news is that she’s decided we’re ready to ramp it up a bit.

Oh, funny story. With the first 20 second run for the tabata (at 6.2 and an incline of 1), I didn’t hop off the treadmill the right way, so my left leg went flying back while my right hit home on the side of the tread. So…first time I’ve done the splits in about 30 years. Must’ve been a sight to see & I fear I may feel that one in the morning, but at least I didn’t go flying off the damn thing completely. Right? I mean, I kept my dignity and all. Right?

I’m looking forward to getting back to eating right. My food has been awful & not just cause of home. Even when I’ve been in control of the menu, I’ve skipped breakfasts. Hell, today I skipped breakfast & lunch. So it’s back to protein shakes for breakfast, plenty of salads, & stable meal patterns. Some of my students who were researching the mythical Freshman fifteen found out that one of the biggest contributors to weight loss among women is an increase in the consumption of fruits & veggies. So fruits & veggies are on the menu. I’m cleaning up my act…at least until my department party on Saturday when the rule of the day will be portion control.

Okay, time to clean & do laundry…we may never dig ourselves out of the mess. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to catching up with (and giving thanks for the time to catch up with) all of you!

Cheers!