Round

These past few weeks I’ve posted more and more about Relaxing and Pleasures and balancing stress.  Last week I started a cool new thing to post my “100+ Things That Make Me Happy” list — and I hope many people will join me.

As some of you have guessed, it’s not just me sitting home in a bubble bath that has me thinking about relaxation and stress reduction — it’s my stressful life, which is getting a bit more stressful again.  Life is like that, things tend to come in waves, and while 2009 turned out to be very stressful because of my health, there are still big implications from that in 2010.

What’s stressing me now?

The biggest stressors for me are still around my health, and still fallout from last year’s shocking diagnosis of endometrial cancer that left me having a hysterectomy when I was hoping to have a baby.

We’re gearing up for another IVF harvest in the coming weeks.  The incredible irony of birth control pills after a hysterectomy, the joy of 50+ shots, the horror of giving myself injections in airplane bathrooms, the organization of about a million details and appointments, the crippling expense of the whole process, and of course the emotional toll of the whole process.  …and of course the Hope that this time it will result in a healthy baby.

So, weight loss is on hold for a few more weeks, as I try to have a very healthy organic diet and some regular exercise, but keep myself away from any extremes (avoiding both extreme indulgences and also dieting).  In total it will be about a 6 week break (started 2 weeks ago) because I don’t want to be depriving my eggs of any nutrients they may need.  It would be great if I can manage to keep my weight to stable within 2 pounds during this period - so I’m actively paying attention to not overdoing it, but don’t expect to lose (or want to lose) right now.

There are also other sources of stress right now (notably Job Stress) but that’s minor in the greater scheme of things.

The plan for this week

Really, even though I’m not losing, I’m someone who needs to pay attention in order to maintain.

Focus days? Monday-Thursday

Challenges : Tuesday lunch (out with colleagues), fitting in exercise

Solutions : gym tonight, gym tomorrow morning and gym either Weds morning or Thurs morning

Tuesday lunch : big salad and bring snacks with me for later

Friday flight : bring healthy snacks with me, have a bite to eat at the airport before boarding, eat at the layover, bring a good book & a fully charged iPhone

Talk to my parents about getting a gym pass for time at home…

Scale? Try to keep with the once a week check-ins

Well, it’s not Monday (yesterday we were still out of town) but I’m actually glad to be a day late on the Weekly Plan, because I’ve been a bit less motivated these past few days.

Last week exercise did not go well (I was very busy with traveling).  Eating over the weekend was on the over-doing it side (although not terrible).  The weather this weekend was yucky and we were tired and lazy and we didn’t go for long walks at all.

I did hit the gym this morning, and the day has already been much better than the past week.

I’m excited that Spring is finally here, and there is actually sunshine today in Paris.  We usually have amazing weather and glorious flowers for Spring, but this year it’s been slow to start, and today’s been the first day it’s looking like it’s coming.

Plan for the week?

Do the best I can.

That’s it.

Whew, I’ve gotten through the week without any major detours to my diet.  Food has been good, exercise has been pretty absent, but moving between cities every day I wasn’t expecting much.

I fly home to Paris this afternoon, have a ton of things to take care of at home tonight, and then we head to our summer place in the South Saturday morning.  We come back Monday, and Monday will be a challenge just because I’m working and needing to balance calls & work along with traveling via train. 

The summer place has been empty for months and since we’re just coming for the weekend we’re planning on mainly eating out - which is fine in theory except I’ll need stuff for breakfasts at home or else things will be trouble with my diet. 

I know we’re going to a traditional French place for lunch on Saturday when we first get in, then to a new Michelin-starred restaurant Saturday dinner.  Lunch I’ll find something diet-worthy without too much worry, and I’ll skip any treats to make sure I have a little wiggle room for delicious tidbits (and dessert) on Saturday night.  Sunday lunch I think is with friends (no control over the menu, so I’ll do the best I can) and Sunday dinner will likely be the local pizza place (which has really good pizza).  The last time I had pizza was the last time we were here - so in October I think, and I did fine & will again. 

Now that it’s written out, it seems pretty manageable, not a big “challenging weekend”. 

Exercise will require effort, but there are several hiking trails near our house, some of which I’ve never explored, and usually my husband is game to show me around.  I now have an old pair of sneakers I keep at the house so even if it’s muddy or rainy I’ll plan to get out there.

What is your weekend plan?

I recently made this post about creating a list of 100+ Things That Make Me Happy and why I found that to be a really helpful partner in managing my weight the low-stress way last year. 

Make a List

As I mentioned last week, I’m going to post some of my 100+ Things That Make Me Happy every week — and hope to get well beyond 100. 

1.  Cook something yummy

I spent years not cooking.  I didn’t know how and  I didn’t enjoy it.  But of course losing weight and eating out aren’t very compatible so I did the minimal amount.  Most of my food was pretty boring and for a long time that didn’t bother me.  When I met my husband, he was the cook.  But after a while it just seemed unfair that he was always having to cook when we were both tired from the day, and he is not a very healthy cook (although he is good!).  I started to cook more to balance things in our relationship than anything else, but surprised myself when I found that I actually liked the cooking.  It helped that I took some cooking classes and read a lot of cookbooks.   Several years later, cooking is something I actually ENJOY, but most especially when something turns out well and is really yummy.

2. Trimming the rosebushes

I hated yard work growing up.  It was one of my mother’s favorite ways to punish us as kids, and that’s not a great way to raise future gardeners.   Much to my surprise, I found tending to the rosebushes was a lot of fun and very satisfying.  Cut a little bit here, watch a shoot start & a new bloom a few weeks later.  We have lots of rosebushes now in our garden, and I love taking care of them.  Most of the rest of the garden work is still a drag to me, but the rosebushes make me happy.

3. Doing art projects

I’m not skilled, but I enjoy doing artisitic things.  If I had infinite time and energy I’d take a drawing class and a painting class & I’d buy tons of art supplies.  Alas, both time and energy are limited, so I don’t do much of it, but when I do I’m always pleased with the feelings of the process (even if the results are pretty lousy).

4. Taking sunbaths!

I started doing this last summer when my vitamin D levels turned out to be deficient.   I loved the process of going out in the sun with the express purpose of just lying there for 10 or 15 minutes.  Hard to do with a job, and hard to do without a private yard, but it was a really nice few minutes for several weeks, and something I am looking forward to in the coming months - at least once in a while on weekends.  For day to day vitamin D I take supplements (and periodic prescription doses) but I really loved the sunbaths.

5. Having a clean house - and sometimes the act of getting it that way

I don’t like the routine of cleaning a house, but I like the result, I like the smell of a clean house, and l like looking at something that was grungy and is now clean.  Sometimes if I can spend a short amount of time transforming grungy to clean I even like the process of cleaning, but that has to be short and show a visible difference — routine cleaning doesn’t give me that pleasure. 

6. Not having piles of clutter

Interesting that I found this on my list, because piles of clutter are again all over my house, and I forgot how much I like having them GONE.  I did make major strides last year in getting the clutter piles cut dramatically down - there is now just one main area that gets the clutter bug for me personally, but in our house my husband & stepson grow clutter in several locations, and I’ve maybe let that get out of hand.  Clear clutter-free and organized spaces are just so much more pleasant.

7. Being on top of projects and paperwork

It’s true that this is a great feeling, and it’s also true that this is an ongoing battle.  I almost always have more projects that I can reasonably manage, and that often leaves me feeling that I’m behind on something, not on top of everything.   But having systems that work really makes this run smoother, and I’ve worked those out to be pretty functional for me over the years.

8. Doing things that are supposed to be healthy for me, like taking vitamins & drinking green tea

I now get great happiness from knowing I’m doing things to take care of myself & my health.  I’ve even managed to switch my mindset to make Regular Exercise one of these things that I do to take care of my health, something that I refer to as Dieting Nirvana, because I think it’s the ultimate place to be.  Making choices that make us healthier AND happier.   For me, taking vitamins & drinking green tea are some of my daily routines that fit in this category — little acts of self-care that really matter to me on many levels.

9. Drinking good teas (black, herbal, green)

I grew up in Denver Colorado, home of Celestial Seasonings teas, and have been an avid herbal tea drinker most of my life.  I now am an avid tea drinker period, drinking black tea in the morning (usually instead of coffee, sometimes decaf, sometimes not).  I drink a big pot of green tea now usually mid-morning.  If I’m on the road I have travel sachets of green tea I take with me, and I have little packs of the powdered matcha tea that I sometimes mix into water bottles too.  I take the tea thing seriously, because I really like it and I’ve found it puts a good focus on my day — If I’m focused on drinking my various types of teas, I’m not focusing on snacks and other things.  It also means I’m drinking a lot.  After the green tea is done, I usuallly move to herbal teas in the afternoon and will drink them most of the rest of the day, ending with a hot cup as I go to bed.  I do drink water along the way too - so yes, I spend a lot of time looking for bathrooms along the way.  Green tea is interesting because last year I didn’t much care for it, and today it’s my favorite.  Our tastes definitely change with time and exposure.

10. Playing sudoku

Silly time waster, but not as dumb as some things are, I enjoy playing sudoku.  I don’t like the really hard levels, and I don’t like ANY of the variations (the counting or math ones).  But these little puzzles are a good way for me to calm an anxious mind, and can get me to relax enough to go to sleep when I’m wound up, and can also be used effectively when I have time to kill waiting somewhere.  I play on my iPhone, on the Nintendo DS & on paper.   I tend to go in cycles, not playing at all for several months, but I also like to know it’s there as a short little treat when I want it.

I’m also updating the page “Relax” with this list.

I’d love it if you play along too! 

What are some of the things that make you happy?

If you join in making this list, please let me know - I’m going to create a list of those playing along in the “Relax” page

How did the week go?

The week was okay.  The scale is not showing any change, but I’m letting the scale do it’s thing for right now while I just worry about eating well and regular exercise, and I’ll put more emphasis on the scale again in about a month.

I feel like I could have put in more effort overall during the week, but generally things were okay.  The small detours however probably did add up - chocolate that has more sugar than usual (I usually eat very very dark chocolate, and the chocolate I’ve been eating this week is 70% not my usual 85% or 99%).  I had nibbles here and there of other things, and while I exercised regularly, I felt like the intensity early in the week was lacking.  I did better about that this weekend and saw a corresponding increase in sweat.

Last week I had 3 goals :

1) Exercise 4 times this week :  DONE. My progressive goals towards becoming a regular exerciser are paying off.   I now routinely exercise at least 3 times a week, and I’m trying to make that 4 times a week when I don’t travel.  This week I had a one day trip out of town, so I was hoping to surpass the 4 times goal but I didn’t.  Still, it’s success.

2) Try a new food / something I don’t think I like. Not Done. This is one of those goals that sounds fine in theory but falls apart in real life.  I don’t actually want to eat food I don’t like, and why should I want to start to like foods?  I mean, I eat a healthy balanced diet, does it really matter if I don’t like strong fish? I take fish oil capsules to make up for it.  Maybe I’ll try this another time, but right now I have a fair amount of stress going on, I’m not going to add to it at the table.  The goal was an error of judgment.

3) Work on my 100 Things That Make Me Happy List. Underway! I got this started with this blog post last week, and did add a few items to my list.  I’m going to start to publish it in chunks here.  I do think for a weekly goal the daily Relax Report was a better option, however, so that’s what I’m picking up for this coming week.

The Coming Week : Challenges, solutions & focus opportunities :

• The coming week has plenty of challenges.  Business meetings, travels to places I don’t know (so food will be more challenging) and lots of business meals - mainly lunches. On the road 3 nights, and away for the weekend too after that.
• Biggest challenge is probably the lunches on the road.  I’ll have to play it by ear and have healthy snacks at hand.  When out at a restaurant it’s usually manageable, but sandwiches in a conference room are not very easy to navigate if you restrict carbs, so I’ll need to see how that goes.  I’ll definitely plan big breakfasts…
• Exercise this week won’t be stellar.  This is a week where just getting my minimum 3 sessions in will require effort and discipline.
• Focus opportunities?  Monday.  Everything else will be about doing the best I can.

Goals for this week :

1) Keep a Relax Report. I’m feeling tired today, so I need this goal to get past the inertia that might otherwise show up.

2) Manage the business meals well by eating beforehand, having good snacks with me, and dealing with hunger. If I eat a decent breakfast and have snacks for later, I should be able to make it through any kind of lunch without too much difficulty.

3) Do a new plan just for the weekend.  This week seems hard to me already, I feel overwhelmed when I think about a weekend away at the end of it.  So I’m only thinking through until Friday right now, and then on the flight home Friday I’ll think about the weekend.

What’s your plan for the week?  More challenges? Or more focused?

I think it’s the cold gray weather - I’m feeling kind of blah.  I’m ready for Spring.  I see ads with women wearing shorts in the metro station these days.  There are some crocuses in my front yard that seem to be optimistic, pushing their thin green stalks up.

I feel like a sunny vacation would be very welcome right now, but it’s not going to happen.  Next trips will be to Germany, surprise, surprise.

This weekend should be pretty manageable - no major challenges, and I’d really like to get in a few good long workouts.  I’m also planning on finally getting to the market today, which means organic fresh veggies galore will be the main menu focus for the weekend, since this week has been a lot of raiding the freezer & making eggs…

A couple of years ago I stumbled upon an idea to create a list of 100 Things That Make You Happy.  I started the list, then let it languish.

Last year when I was scared to death about the endometrial cancer stuff I found it again, and this time I completed it.

Why? What’s the benefit of such a list?

The reason the list of 100+ Things That Make You Happy is a good idea is that it puts emphasis on pleasure, enjoyment & happiness in life.  Once you list things that make you happy, when you need to de-stress or recharge your batteries, you have a list of things that you can do that make you feel better.  Some things on your list might require planning and organization (climbing a mountain) but some might be just lighting a candle or making a cup of tea.

Focus on the Positive

Doing those 100+ Things That Make You Happy puts a focus on the positive aspects of your life.  Plenty of other things in your life might be tough, but there are still moments of peace and happiness that you can extract.

A great synergy for weight loss

Having this list can give you ideas of treats and rewards for yourself that you can use as you work on losing weight.  If you’re really lucky and have hit Dieting Nirvana anywhere it can even include items that are BOTH relaxing AND contributing to your weight goals (a walk in the park, a gym session, a great salad, etc).

Ok, I see the point.  How do I do it?

Getting started is easy - just you and your ideas, on the back of an envelope, or even better as a blog post.  Whatever works for you.

If you’re like me, you won’t get to 100 in one go - I think I managed about 20 ideas right away, then it slowed down a lot.

I actually found it really hard - I mean, it was easy to find about 40 things, but getting to 100 required really thinking about it and adding to that list from time to time.  I worked on it off and on for quite some time, and now that list is pretty much complete - although as I post my list here (in groups of 10) I’m challenging myself to add at least one new item for each set of 10. My personal goal is to get well above 100, and I’m actually starting from less than 100, because as I re-read my list I found 2 duplicates (tea & dark chocolate!) and a couple of other ideas that are too similar to really count as separate entries.

As I started mine, I found it helpful to think about different aspects of my life :

• Different roles I play (wife, job, friend, etc)
• Daily activities & routines (shower, lotion, etc)
• Recreational Activities
• Personal Activities
• Favorite Pastimes
• Projects

A couple of other pointers :

I exclude Money because in fact Money doesn’t buy happiness & it’s too easy for us to cop out of the things that DO make us happy by imagining money as a magical solution.

I had thought about excluding food but that’s just not realistic.  I eat 3-5 times a day, and if I don’t use some of that time to make myself happy I might as well just eat gruel.  On the other hand, I don’t believe my happiness is tied to my diet, and one of my key weight loss tips is to eat a diet that you actually enjoy, so I think happiness and food can be compatible.  The truth is dark chocolate, berries & Mexican food really DO add happiness to my life.

There is no wrong way to do this - it’s about making a list that is relevant to YOU. Here’s a blog post someone wrote recently that elaborates more on the topic.

This is an excellent exercise to remind ourselves what things in life should be valued the most, no matter how small. No matter how you start, I hope you enjoy the process!  I’ll be putting my list on a new page on my blog as I build it.

I hope you’ll join in doing this with us - I intend to post 10 items once a week, so this will go on for quite a while.  Jump in whenever you want to — on your own blog or posting in the comments!

How did the week go?

All things considered, I had a good week.  I got on the scale today showing no change in my weight, but my body is bloated from monthly hormones & I had a bit of indulgence on Saturday.  Although I suspect the scale might be kinder tomorrow, I decided to just take a flat week on the scale, since it’s just a number & I know that I’m heading in the right direction, even if it’s at a snail’s paceI

My trip to Berlin was nice - nothing spectacular, nothing disastrous.  Food wise we went to a really fabulous restaurant on Friday called Ma, and on Saturday had a “traditional German” nice restaurant (read : heavy, potatoes, pork pork pork & sauerkraut).   It was really cold so we did less walking than I’d hoped, but there was a pool at the hotel so did at least some movement each day.  More meals wer on-plan than not, and the treats were kept to a minimum. 

Last week I had 3 goals :

1) Keep a food journal : As is often the case when I make this goal, I start out strong & finish weak.  It was VERY helpful the first few days, then got boring, then forgotten.  I still made better choices than I would have without it, but I need to bear in mind in the future that I really only have about 3 days of attention span on this MAX, so to put those days where it counts.  I started the food journal before I even left home, and the first 2 days of my travel were pretty easy meal-wise.  I’d have been better off putting the food journal at the later part of my week.  I also maybe could find quicker and easier ways than the iPhone to do this.  I used Lose It on the iPhone but it takes so long to log everything (no way to copy a previous meal unless you set it up special).  Paper & pen is frankly the quicker solution.  Overall I give myself a weak positive because it did help me and I did do it, but definitely room to improve in the future.

2) Be Prepared.  Done! I made sure to have healthy snacks with me in my purse, hotel room, bag & focused on tea at coffee breaks.  Making choices of what a ’standard’ breakfast or lunch was before I was faced with temptation was a big help too.  Made eating healthy and for weight loss pretty easy, took a lot of temptation off the table.  One of those situations where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

3) Make a Relax Report. FUN! I did this on paper (unlike the food journal) and enjoyed noting things during boring parts of my meeting.  I brought a candle with me from home, took 2 baths, went swimming, ate chocolate, drank tea & generally just concentrated on my enjoyment and relaxation as much as possible.  Such a nice way to put some ”happiness balance” into losing weight.  I really think that linking “relaxing” and “weight loss” in my mind is a powerful trick.   

The Coming Week : Challenges, solutions & focus opportunities :

• The coming week is a pretty normal one.  Mainly at home, quite a few meetings and running around town, a one-day trip (long). 
• Biggest challenge is probably that the house is not stocked for healthy eating.  We were gone last week, and got home too late on Sunday to stock up, so going into the week with a poorly-stocked kitchen is going to be a challenge. 
• Exercise is planned for most days this week, although I’ll give myself permission to cut one of the morning sessions if I’m too tired.  I do plan a serious-exercise weekend.  I enjoyed swimming last week at the hotel, so I’d like to build on some momentum and head back to the pool in Paris, although not sure when that might happen.
• Focus opportunities?  A lot.  Most days, most meals, and that won’t be the case next week, so I want to take advantage of it.  Also since I took the flat weight for this week I should see a nice loss next week if I stay the course, so that’s the plan.   

Goals for this week :

1) Exercise 4 times this week. I’m feeling tired today, so I need this goal to get past the inertia that might otherwise show up.

2) Try a new food / something I don’t think I like.  I had a  colleague report to us last week that if you try something 14 times you grow to at least tolerate it, if not actually like it.  I don’t intend to eat eye of newt or foie gras, but there are a lot of healthy, readily-available foods that I wish I liked that I don’t.  Maybe I can get myself to like (or at least tolerate) some of them.  Will it be a bite of salmon?  Will it be a stinky cheese?  Tune in next week to find out…  I’m only promising to try something ONCE by the way, not FOURTEEN times. 

3) Work on my 100 Things That Make Me Happy List.  Details to come in a future post, but I’m going to be writing up my 100+-Things-That-Make-Me-Happy in a series of blog posts.  Iniya is going to join me on this - and we’d love others to play along too!  Having that list of things that make me happy (or that relax me) really helps me put focus on taking care of myself, pampering myself and general enjoyment of life at the same time I’m making the effort to lose weight.  Very good cycle of self-care and self-love. 

What’s your plan for the week?  More challenges? Or more focused?

Will you think about joining us in developing a list of 100+ Things That Make You Happy?

Wow, this “focus on relaxing” thing seems to be really helping me.

Focus on the Positive

Instead of just paying attention to food (it’s a food journal week) and exercise that I should do, I’m paying attention to the Relaxing and Pleasure of what I want to do too.

It makes me focus on the Positive and not feel like I’m living a life of deprivation.  (Not that I am living a life of deprivation anyway, but sometimes dieting can feel like that).

I packed a small candle in my suitcase.  I have a pillow spray from the hotel last week that is lovely and a nice little touch.  I kept the flower from the room service tray in my room to decorate and liven the place up a bit.  I have a good book and an iPhone packed with lots of podcasts to listen to as I get ready in the mornings.  There are plenty of nice things going on.

The Challenges have begun

Huge enormous hotel breakfast buffet with about 7 million kinds of cakes and pastries, tons of jams and pancakes, juices, and well, just about anything you would say wouldn’t be part of your healthy, diet-friendly breakfast was on offer.  I stuck to my guns and had roughly the same breakfast I’d have chosen at home, although I did add berries.  Wonderful deep red tangy berries.

When did coffee breaks become snack breaks?

I’m at this big meeting with fixed coffee breaks twice a day.  If you’ve ever been to one of these events you’ve probably seen the same thing - a big chain hotel, a bunch of people, scheduled breaks.

But it’s not really about the coffee at these things anymore - it’s all about the snacks.  They’ll probably have different snacks out at each of the breaks (2 day meeting, so 4 breaks total).  Small squares of cakes, cookies, candy, fruit (if you’re lucky or push to the front before it’s all gone).  Often in the afternoon they’ll add some salty snacks too.  And given that I’m in Germany it’s likely to be pretzels.

What do I do?  I focus on the coffee.  Well, tea actually.  I try to drink a cup during the break and make another cup to take into the conference room with me.  Comforting, warm, soothing, tasty tea.  So far this morning, I’ve had 3 cups of a lovely flavored green tea.  And 2 cups of English Breakfast tea at breakfast.

Focusing on the tea makes me not focus on the snacks that I pass up.  Honestly it’s not that anyone is actually hungry at 10:30, nor that the snacks are ever THAT good - usually they are industrial disappointing sickly sweet things.  So I know my tea focus is a better health choice, a better mental focus, and aids me in relaxing.

What nice things are in your life today?

How did the week go?

I had a decent week.  Mid-week challenges were indeed challenging, but nothing disastrous, and I put into practice “Forgive yourself & move on” on two consecutive nights.  Let’s just say I was shaking up my metabolism to make sure I wasn’t in the deprivation zone too much.  And eating some really good food, at least on Tuesday night.

The weekend went well too - luckily I thought it through on Friday, because that made a real difference.  I made it to the gym both Saturday & Sunday, and advanced on a few projects quite nicely.

The weigh-in? Down another half a pound this morning. I’ll take it!

Last week I had 3 goals :

1) Focus on relaxing : hmmm… overall a weak positive I guess.  In the past I’ve actually written down somewhere the relaxing things and that’s helped me to SEE them.  This week thinking back on it I did in fact do a number of them, but I guess I didn’t put enough emphasis on them.  Keeping a list of the positive things I do for myself really helps, especially in heavy-stress times.

2) Go for FOUR exercise sessions this week.  I did it! It was indeed a bit of a challenge, but I did it.

3) Let go of the daily weigh-ins. Done, but it wasn’t easy. I physically removed the scale on Tuesday morning after my weigh in.  I put it under my bathroom sink, where I’d have to bend and risk spiderwebs to get at it.  I wanted to get on it several times, but each time I managed to avoid it.  I was surprised how much hold the scale had over me, as I wasn’t conscious of being so dependent on that evil little square.  I was glad I didn’t have it after the mid-week excesses, however.  I won’t keep it as a goal for this coming week simply because I’m going to be out of town and there will be no scale to stay off — I’ll have plenty of other challenges I need to manage.

The Coming Week : Challenges, solutions & focus opportunities :

• The coming week has plenty of challenges - I’m out of town for work to Berlin from Tuesday night, and my husband & stepson are joining me there for the weekend.  In addition to all the normal business travel challenges (coffee breaks, hotel breakfasts, work dinners, long days) I’ll then have my foodie husband to contend with.
• Exercise is planned for both Monday & Tuesday before I travel, and I’m assuming getting plenty of walking in on Saturday & Sunday.  I’m packing the gym gear in case I have time for the days at the meeting at the hotel.
• Focus opportunities?  I almost wrote none, but that’s not true.  Monday and most of Tuesday should be fine.  A bit more eating out than is usual because we have some starving artists making a short film in our house this week, so daytime cooking will be out.  Breakfasts in hotels aren’t a big problem for me, I just stick to basically the same things I eat at home.  Dinners of room service are usually pretty manageable, and I can do that Tuesday night, and maybe beg off work social engagements on Wednesday - that’s a bit more iffy.

Goals for this week :

1) Keep a Food Journal. It’s my go-to strategy of choice for challenging times. I can’t really fool myself when I’m writing it all down. 

2) Be prepared.  Buy snacks to keep in my suitcase before I leave.  Grab healthy options to keep in my purse at the meeting.  Actually eat that stuff :-)  Find a shop to re-stock if I need to.

3) Keep a Relax Report.  Management attention drives behavior, or so we say in my line of work.  So I’ll pay attention to Relaxing.  Looking forward to meditating, listening to music, and I think I’ll put a small travel candle in my suitcase as well.

What’s your plan for the week?  More challenges? Or more focused?