laura705

Been a few days since I posted and just thought I’d pop in for a quick post. 

Pretty humdrum week.  Been getting to the office a bit earlier on an earlier train.  The first day of that made me feel like I got a good jump on things.  The last couple, not so much.  And it’s been a struggle!  Yesterday and today, I had to really hustle the last half block to make the train, which I swear is arriving early and leaving about a minute earlier than scheduled.  While I plan to give myself 15 minutes to walk leisurely  to the train and arrive at the station with time to spare, the reality is that I leave the house five minutes late and have to walk very briskly the whole way just to make the train.  So one minute is a HUGE difference, lol.  So then I arrive at the train, perspiring and needing a shower.  Ugh.  And speaking of showers - it’s so much easier to leave the house earlier on those days when I’ve showered the night before.  I need to try and change my routines if I’m going to make this early start thing work for me!  I just have to motivate myself by thinking about how much more productive I can be at work, and how I can go home feeling like I’ve actually earned my pay, lol.  And when the weather warms up or I have something to do right after work, I won’t feel guilty leaving work at the actual quitting time.  If I accomplish this, I might actually be able to get to some of the earlier classes on the fitness passport schedule.  Not this quarter - not until this big project is done.  But something to look forward to. 

Went to the movie “We Bought a Zoo” Tues night.  It was good.  I didn’t know much about it and maybe had seen the trailer once months ago…thought it would just be a feel-good family type movie, with some animal silliness thrown in.  It actually was much more substantial than that, so I was pleasantly surprised. 

Last night was Pilates class.  As I’ve said - I like the instructor.  While she sets up flameless candles, keeps the lights low, plays very serene music, and is very friendly & down to earth, she’s a good instructor and all the while we’re working our cores hard! I wish I’d been on the ball enough to register for both the Mon & Wed sessions (I’ve done that in the past), but I had already missed the first Monday one, so I didn’t.  The Monday instructor is different, but I like her almost equally well.  Very good with cueing and instruction, very professional, and I recall liking the variety of exercises she chose.  Maybe in the next session, I’ll do both Mon & Wed. 

I still haven’t bought my fitness passport yet, but I guess that’ll happen on Saturday.  Not going to any class tonight because a storm is headed our way as I speak.  Several inches of snow forecast and a significant drop in temps and of course the media is hyping it for all it’s worth.

Food hasn’t been great, but not totally out of control either.  Still not tracking my eating… need to really focus on this if this is the year I’m going to try to lose some weight  - and get off the bp med the doc put me on a few months ago.

Okay, this is not so short after all.  How typical of me to ramble on.  Time to post and get to work. 

I did a Circuit class on Saturday using the “free class” coupon in the park district program catalog.  I upped my weight 5 pounds on many of the weight stations, so it was a more challenging class.  I also took doggy for a long walk by the creek.  Sunday I took a shorter dog walk, and that was it for exercise. 

The scale showed  a 2-pound loss on Saturday morning, which was good.  Not sure what it would be today…  Not back to tracking yet. 

Brought a sandwich for lunch today and had forgotten about a business lunch I had, but I bowed out of it at the last minute - just not in the mood.  And I’m pretty busy with a major project, so it was a good decision.  I like how fast the days go when I’m super busy, but the downside of this is that I’m working against a deadline and feeling slightly overwhelmed.  And this is usually a slower time of year for us, but with this major project on top of my usual work, I’m sort of bummed that I really can’t take any more time off until it’s done, which is about about 8 weeks.  Oh well, I’ll muddle through.

Quick post.  I woke up feeling the scale might be kind - well, it was more that I just physically felt (like hand on tummy felt) that the TOM bloat was gone - so I weighed in.  I’m at what I was before Christmas, so that’s good.  Still not back to tracking my eating, but I will try to make decent eating choices today.  Someone left Subway coupons in the coffee/copy room this morning, so I grabbed one and Subway will be my lunch today. 

Tonight I’ll use up my final passport class for the session.  Still not sure what I’m gonna do for the next park district session, which is 10 weeks long.   I’m thinking I’ll take a Pilates class either once or twice a week, but that still leaves a hole where cardio should be!  Also wondering what the other options might be.  There’s a tiny women’s gym (non-chain) very close to home, and I wonder what classes are offered there, and if they can be taken without having a membership there. Hmmm.

Oh, I still have two cardio dvds borrowed from the library that I need to try out. 

Back to work today. 

Just a short post.  My eating was not tracked  I did not track my eating at all over the holiday weekend and I have to say I’m not wanting to get back to it just yet.  Still a good amount of food around the house leftover from the family gathering on the 24th.  Even eating small or normal portions of them still is too much… need to get them gone or wrap and freeze them and hopefully forget them for a bit.  I have not braved the scale for at least a week, and this week is TOM, so I’m waiting a few more days.  I’d really like to end this year where I was at a couple weeks ago, so I better get my eating back on track.

For exercise, I walked the dog each day of my long 5-day holiday weekend.  I also went to an Aerobics 101 class on Monday and a Circuit class yesterday.  Not bad.  I have one class left on my punch card for this session and I can only make it on Thursday night, so that’s that.  I still haven’t made plans beyond that for another fitness passport, or taking another exercise class.  I need to focus on that.  By only buying the equivalent of a 1 class per week passport this last session, I felt like I lost momentum from the previous session, and I felt bad only doing the one class a week and not really supplementing that with at-home workouts.  I want and need to do more. 

With the new gym extremely close to home for only $10/month (well, there’s some kind of joining fee and a modest annual fee too, but it’s still reasonable), it’s very tempting to join and have that nice new facility and all the nice new equipment at my disposal.  But I know myself.  I do better with the discipline of a schedule - classes on a certain day at a certain time.  Having done this passport thing all year, I know there are classes I enjoy and ones not so much.  Then there’s all the classes I can’t do because of my work schedule, and classes I won’t do because they start too late in the day for me.  The question is, with just the ones I like that fit my schedule, am I happy enough with that?  Or should I mix it up a bit - buy another 1 class/wk passport, and also register for a Pilates class?  And I think the park district now offers a combo spinning/fitness class passport - that might be fun.  Hmmm.

Merry Christmas to you. Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Last couple days were very busy but today was blessedly quiet. Yesterday’s time w/ family was very enjoyable though I don’t like how the meal prep takes away from visiting time. Need to research make ahead meals that would minimize the kitchen time.

Two more days off. Need to do some basic shopping for sure, and I really want to get a reader for the memory card that all my vacay photos are on!

We’re giving up on the football game & will watch a DVD instead.

What a crummy day.  Boss sent an e-mail which I received after I returned from lunch wanting to discuss a couple goofs I made yesterday, one involving a meeting conflict and the other involving not distributing a schedule for same meeting.  Aaargh.  The way the e-mail read, it was just the sort of thing that reeks of CYA documentation for a bad performance review item.  And this is that time of year for performance reviews…  Anyway, the discussion was fine and went the way I expected it.   Mea culpa, blah, blah, blah.   I guess my behavior was just confusing to the boss because i don’t normally screw up like that.

And so while I was anxiously waiting to have this discussion with the boss, another crummy thing happened.  Someone from way back in my past must have gotten really bored and looked me up and then somehow obtained my phone number and then called me at home.  I’m not home, so bf got the call. The someone was an old bf and the current bf was rather ticked.  Asked how he got the number, and told him never to call there again.  Silly because the past is the past and people can buy your contact info on the internet, but still, bf apparently looked him up and e-mailed me a photo of him asking for confirmation that it was who phoned.  I replied yes, and asked if he got the photo from facebook.  No response yet.  Aaargh.  This is stupid.  Hope bf will just let this go.

Found part of the secret santa gift at lunch time and still have some $$ to spend.  Ugh.  Last minute scramble starting shortly after I leave here in a few min.  Tonight I’m going to the movie “My Week with Marilyn”.

Since I failed to mention anything about eating in my last post, I will say that the tracking fell to the wayside this past weekend, and I did overindulge a bit.  Saturday I had a big burger for a late lunch, so I made up by not eating dinner.  Sunday was a big meal at lunch and I did NOT compensate by having a lighter dinner, and both were pasta, now that I think about it.  Hah.  Got back to tracking yesterday but calories were high.  I braved the scale this morning and it was up a pound, but I’m determined to not re-enter the next “decade”!!!  So there!  I’m trying to drink more water during the day. 

I have three classes left on my fitness passport to take before the 31st.  No problem.  Having gotten “caught up” on my passport, I’m not very happy only taking one class per week.  And I haven’t been making it up with at-home workouts, shame on me.  I need to get back into the groove with those or be ready to commit to more classes on the next passport I purchase.  

Weekend recap:

I had a nice enough day off on Friday.  Doc appoint was alright. Afterwards, I picked up the last few items needed to ship a gift package to my mother & brother out of state. Wrapped, packed, and off to the post office I went. Nice lunch w/ bf (Mexican food), then a dog walk, then back to the antiques mall for more browsing but no purchases. No specific items in mind, so no buying. I am, however, amazed at how many pins they have there  (the sparkly decorative jewelry kind that must have been very popular many years ago)! My mother once mentioned making a little christmas tree covered in green felt and covering it with pretty pins. I think that would be a fun project to collect for, or maybe a non-holiday theme of certain pins artfully arranged and framed - animals or flowers, etc. Course I didn’t take note how much they were selling the pins for -but they couldn’t be too much, as they are so plentiful.

Saturday I did a Circuit class first thing. Bf and I finally put out some outdoor Christmas decorations - a few that sit on the lawn, including our penguin, and a couple that hang from the house. Looks nice, even without icicle lights hanging from the gutters. After that, my friend picked me up and five of us went to the botanic garden for an indoor holiday exhibit. Trains running all over and all kinds of local landmarks done in miniature and made out plant materials.  My friend and I decided we may go in together on the purchase of a household membership to the garden that lets us have free parking for two cars -  if the fact that we really don’t share a household isn’t an issue… Anyway, we also toured some of the greenhouses - topiary, tropical, cactus/succulent. Lovely. I wish we’d gotten there maybe a couple hours later, because they had some nice outdoor lighting that would have been very pretty to see once it got dark. Oh well. Next year.

Sunday was the Christmas gathering on bf’s side of the family. It was at the idiot brother/witchy SIL’s place, but it was actually a nice time. The bonus is that they now live in a spot that’s much easier & quicker to get to than their previous home.

The boss is back from vacay. This week should be quiet. I’m taking Friday off - woohoo, another short week, and then five days off cuz Monday is our work holiday and then I’m taking Tuesday off too.  This Thursday is the secret santa gift exchange as well as the departmental holiday gathering.  Still have to shop for my pick.  Maybe tonight?

I came home to a styrofoam cooler by the front door yesterday. Bf and doggie were out for a walk, so I hauled it in. It was a Christmas gift from someone’s mom (all it said was “Love, Mom”).   Wow, all kinds of frozen good stuff - steaks, chicken breasts, hot dogs, some kind of stuffed seafood dish, potatoes, and I don’t know recall else. What was funny was that we weren’t quite sure which mom sent it. I said it was bf’s mom because it was addressed with bf’s name first and mine second. Bf said it was too pricey of a gift to be from his mom. So I phoned my mother (since I owed her a call anyway) and asked if she’d sent something and she said “no, but let me look around here for something to send you” haha. So I was right, it was from bf’s mother. We’ll certainly enjoy that gift.

Other than that, nothing much else to report. I did part of one of the exercise dvds I borrowed from the library. This was a stretching dvd. It began with a warmup segment and one of the very first moves told me I wouldn’t like the dvd - it showed neck rolls being done all the way around, when all I’ve ever heard for years and years is to NOT roll your head to the back - not good for the spine. I made it through the warmup but found it very off-putting that the person on-screen was not talking - it was narrated by someone else. And many of the stretches were sort of odd. Just not my thing. I stopped about midway through the stretching portion. Back to the library it goes, and then on to the other three dvds!

Eating has not been good this week.  Been tracking, though, but it’s not pretty. That said, going out to lunch w/ a work buddy today. Need to make some wise choices. Tonight’s dinner will be a big bowl of bf’s navy bean soup!
We’re getting a lot of rain, starting with last night. It rained all night and is continuing all day today. I suppose that’s a good thing - I like the idea of all the trees and shrubs getting a good drink of water before winter really sets in and the ground gets too hard. And it sure beats snow! For now, I can do without it.

Very uneventful weekend. I did virtually nothing that I intended to do, so I soon will be scrambling around like a nut to do holiday shopping, etc. Rather annoyed with myself about that.

Saturday morning I went to a Zumba class. Dog walk, couple loads of laundry, not sure what else. Oh, now I remember - went through the pile in my basket on the “mail cart”. Still a lot of reading material, including several months of two magazine subscriptions (purchased against my better judgment only to use up the last of some expiring frequent flyer miles). I moved most of that pile to the front bedroom where I have my bp monitor set up. While I sit quietly for a few minutes before taking my bp, I usually read a little bit, so that’ll be perfect. In the evening, bf and I watched an older movie, “The Deep End”. It was alright.

Sunday I lazed away some of the morning w/ the paper and some tea, then I raked & bagged leaves in the backyard. There wasn’t all that much, but I still came away with three bags full. There’s a spot way in back where we’ve piled a bunch of tree limbs, branches, and brush where leaves have settled and I have a feeling they’ll be blowing out of there all winter. Short of dismantling the piles, the leaves would be difficult to remove. Oh well. Bf may try to find a landscape crew working in the area to see if he can get them to haul away those piles. After the skunking incident, we don’t want any critters making that their home! I also raked out the area next to the garage where I have hosta planted – ugh. The hosta leaves were semi-rotted, and so were the fallen leaves that had settled there. Bf agreed that next year he would take a weed wacker to it so cleanup is easier. I also pruned down the shrubs that still grow back there every year because they are too close to the fence to properly/easily dig out. It was sunny and relatively mild yesterday (around 40-ish for December!) and doggy and I enjoyed being outside. I didn’t do anything out front, but that’s okay because there are no leaves to speak of on the lawn, just some stuck in the shrubs.

What else for Sunday? Another long dog walk, three more loads of laundry, and a visit to a nearby antiques mall. I can’t believe we’ve been here almost 12 years and never checked it out! Unfortunately, it was mid-afternoon when we arrived, and if I wanted to get home to get the dog walked before dark, that didn’t leave much time to fully explore this place, so we only spent 45 minutes there, barely scratching the surface. We’ve decided to return another day, much earlier.

After the dog walk, we watched our team lose another football game. Sigh. That was about it for the weekend. No decorating…Boo on me. I’ll probably do little bits in the evenings this week, i.e, everything but the tree.

Nothing special going on this week, except for a doctor appointment on Friday morning. I’m almost positive that I’m going to take that entire day off. It’ll be good to get a jump on the weekend.

Food got off kilter Saturday and Sunday – no tracking either. I didn’t go hog wild or anything, but I still didn’t want to step on the scale this morning…

I think that’s about it.  I did my list for the secret santa thing we’re doing at work - three things we’d like to receive, three things we wouldn’t.   People handed them to the admin, and she would laugh.  I think we’ll draw names in the next day or two. 

Forgot my phone at home today.  Bah. I hate when I put something in my jacket pocket (like when I walk the dog) and then forget to put it back in my purse.  One day last week it was my house keys, today my phone.  I can wear 2-3 different coats/jackets in a single day depending on what I’m doing that day, so it’s best if I just return everything to my purse.  I’m so used to having everything in my purse.  I don’t knwo how guys deal with that!