50% of the people in my department came to work sick today. Why? And of course we had a dept meeting and of course there was **hack** ** snort** **moan** all around the table. Go home people! We are not saving lives here! We do marketing! Advertising! Fundraising! It will all be here when you are healthy! But no, really, come to work and make the other 50% sick…if we all keep this up we can trade infections until June! AAAAAHHHH!
i have not been going for long walks this week, in fact I have been speeding through the shortest possible walk the dog will tolerate. Because it is -24C, which translates to about -10F. So cold that you can’t really breathe deeply, at least it makes me wheeze. Call me a wimp; I’ve been called worse…lol
I have started studying for the GMAT and I have been pleasantly surprised at how well I am doing on the practice questions. I am working through the math first; the book says it is high school math but I spent all my high school math classes figuring out how to drop them, and haven’t solved an algebraic equation since. So even the basic stuff is challenging. Quick, who remembers the rule for multiplying fractions? Still, I am working through the material carefully and so far sorta kinda good in an average way. of course I will have to up my game considerably before I write the exam in June.
I am continuing my project to both get more sleep and get up earlier. They are linked, because when I get enough sleep I have the energy to start the day. Breakfast is now a protein smoothie and either oatmeal or eggs. That gets me through the morning, but evening starvation is still a problem. I have not figured out how to work in a mid-afternoon snack. I am usually flying from meeting to meeting all day, and when I do remember to fix a snack at home in the am I often forget it. Maybe I should put it in the truck at night…until the habit sets in. The caf at work = cookies, muffins, etc so I am avoiding the place as much as I can.
I am trying to eat more at breakfast and lunch. Usually I arrive home from work SO HUNGRY I can barely manage to pull together a meal before I might faint. Then I continue eating all evening, just because I can. Maybe that’s because I am eating only about 600 calories in the day. Somehow that doesn’t make sense. So to change the pattern, I am aiming for at least 500 calories for breakfast and the same for lunch. This will give me room to add more protein too, which I feel is a bit low.
I am really having a difficult time with this coming birthday. 45. It is particularly funny because I have always played fast and loose with my age, usually making myself older, to appear more experienced and mature (hah!). My younger sisters really dislike it when they hear me ‘up’ my age; they say I am unfairly aging THEM and they don’t need the help, thank you very much.
But this year I am feeling pretty uncomfortable with that number.
Maybe it is because I am starting to feel older…not the exhausted omg how do I get through the day old…but more that I can feel things changing, physical and mental parts getting a bit creaky and not working quite the way they are supposed to. I have faith in the preservative properties of good red wine, but there may be a limit to its magic!
All my life I have always taken risks, stepped off that cliff, pushed out to see what comes next. I hate the thought that my attitude might be changing. But I can’t deny, that now and then, I catch myself thinking: but I don’t want anything to change just yet. I like it here.
I am torn sometimes between looking for the next life adventure and maybe just having a nap.
Tomorrow is weigh-in day and I am optimistic. I have found it is important for me to log my foods and really pay attention to portion sizes. I have been measuring things all week - what does a cup of cereal look like in this bowl? What does a cup of egg whites look like? How much does this slice of bread weigh? What is a serving of meat, of pasta? It has been very educational, let me tell you.
I also did not set up the goal weight calculation in the food log program, because what I was doing before was bargaining my way into food I didn’t really want or need. “Oh, it says I should have a deficit today of 350 calories to reach my goal, and look, that means I still have room for another 150 calories, what can I eat?”
Now I am working on PAYING ATTENTION instead of fitting into a formula.
The ‘get-more-sleep’ project is underway. This will be hard, but this week I did get more nights of 8 hr sleep than not, and I really noticed the change. I am much more bright-eyed during the day, and I enjoy the time in the morning.
And yesterday I did a serious attempt to get back onto the First 5k Podrunner training sessions. On showshoes. I was very cautious because I was worried about my knees, but to my surprise it is easy to maintain good running form. And it is a LOT harder work than on a track, so maybe by spring I will actually be FAST. It was humbling to find that I am truly back to where I started last June - but I know that if I stick with it I will see rapid improvement. I want to be able to say, “yes, I am a runner’.
