Ah yes, work-life balance. Ironically, today I had my annual "employee wellness" visit to get a discount on my health insurance. They weigh and measure you -- fun, but at least all my lipid values were great. Blood pressure, not so much. I'm telling myself that my weight was 140 because of the heavy clothes I was wearing, versus the normal birthday suit I wear to weigh and naked-plank in
Anyway, a counselor sits down with you and asks you about stress, etc. And I said very little at first, but then they asked if you feel encouraged to have work-life balance and I starting laughing (and almost crying). I am junior faculty and we are "encouraged" to bust our butts nonstop until we get tenure years later, IF we get it at all. All of the work I do at home at night and on weekends, all of the time I'm in the lab at odd hours, etc. is considered normal work-life balance for someone in my position. Sigh.
On the plus side, I'm leaving for Scotland on Friday! We've been planning this trip for over a year. We're mountain biking across Scotland then going up to the Orkney Islands for a few days.
Ah yes, work-life balance. Ironically, today I had my annual "employee wellness" visit to get a discount on my health insurance. They weigh and measure you -- fun, but at least all my lipid values were great. Blood pressure, not so much. I'm telling myself that my weight was 140 because of the heavy clothes I was wearing, versus the normal birthday suit I wear to weigh and naked-plank in
Anyway, a counselor sits down with you and asks you about stress, etc. And I said very little at first, but then they asked if you feel encouraged to have work-life balance and I starting laughing (and almost crying). I am junior faculty and we are "encouraged" to bust our butts nonstop until we get tenure years later, IF we get it at all. All of the work I do at home at night and on weekends, all of the time I'm in the lab at odd hours, etc. is considered normal work-life balance for someone in my position. Sigh.
On the plus side, I'm leaving for Scotland on Friday! We've been planning this trip for over a year. We're mountain biking across Scotland then going up to the Orkney Islands for a few days.
Well, the "bonus" 3 are off. 153 this am. We ran for 42 minutes last night and then had our group potluck. Good grief, these folks made some awesome stuff! It was food porn all the way. I behaved myself (it's always easy on day 2) and even with the smallest brownie in the pan, I was a couple hundred calories under target.
JayZeeJay - Ditto what Dagmar said; the Scotland trip should be breathtaking! Biking and hiking are such a great way to truly see what's around you. Have a wee dram of something rare for me! We also have the wellness discounts at work, and they also "talk" about balance. What they do, especially to the middle and upper managers, is a long way from balanced. And yet they have the gall to wonder why they are having difficulty attracting young people. Methinks it's because the younger generation has watched us kill ourselves in the name of job security or retirement security, and watched it all go up in smoke. Most favorite quote of all time: "No one, on their deathbed, has ever said, "Man, I wish I'd spent more time in the office."
I don't struggle with this, and have been called lazy for it. I turned down a promotion early in my career (DS was 1 at the time), and they have not come back to offer another. It's all good. I've had some terrific lateral moves and what I consider to be a lot of freedom. Some people really do enjoy busting tail around the clock, and to them I am grateful. I find that I get the most satisfaction out of becoming reaaaaally good at what I do.
Saef, what I can offer is that you must be very, very good at what you do. Sure, there will always be "more" that you could be doing, or you could try to be very, very good for more hours a day. It would be highly unusual to be able to keep the level of quality up for a sustained period. If you dig into the work that the coworkers did late at night, you will likely find that most of it is cr@p and will need to be redone and edited so heavily that they actually have put you deeper in the hole. Sometimes, you gotta chase the geeks out into the sun (direct quote from a high school buddy who went on to found a 60-person software company).
Last edited by ICUwishing; 08-21-2013 at 08:18 AM.
Nothing much to report. No new losses, still tracking, still behaving. The 10-Miler looms on Saturday! My training buddy is picking up our race packets tonight. Good grief, I cannot believe I'm doing this again.
At my mum's for a week. Today I had a massage from the UK's number 3 female hammer thrower in 50+ age-group! She only picked up a hammer just over a year ago and I haven't seen here since. She's lost 3 stone (42lbs) and dropped three dress sizes. She looks fantastic. So, ... ?
My scale surprised me utterly with a lower weight than last Friday, so my ticker and statistics are accurate. This was with me missing out on some lifting sessions this week, since the inner crook of my right elbow is really sore. After ignoring it flaring up periodically, knowing this wasn't good, I decided to rest it all week. (That's been a struggle!)
Is this related to my shutting off my laptop around 6 PM and not looking at it until the next morning, no matter how badly my colleagues made me feel? Or my driving into the office four days this week, instead of just two?
I don't know but my body signals confounded me this week because I thought my weight would be up, and I can usually tell. But I was wrong. It was down.
Birchie, you make me want to schedule a massage. But I think I'll get a spa pedicure with the works tonight after I shut down for the weekend.
Becky, good luck with 10 miles! Since I feel I've done pretty much what I can at about five miles, on a rather hilly course, I can only imagine training for the longer distance.
Saef--I was thinking about your weigh in-- I think I sent you good vibes-- Hooray!!
My scale was up a little today but tomorrow is my weigh in day at WW so I'm hoping it goes back down. I'm not sure if I'll get to yoga today due to taking Jozi to the vet this afternoon.
I'm also wanting a massage. I've been having very low back pain (sciatica?) for a couple of weeks and I'm thinking a massage (or a chiropractor) would do the trick.
Last edited by traveling michele; 08-23-2013 at 10:41 AM.
I have completely tracked everything for 4 days. I lost another 2 yesterday, so I'm down 5# in 4 days which tells an ugly story about how badly I was off the rails before Monday!
Tonight and tomorrow I expect to blow some calorie limits. I'll be eating a big carby dinner tonight and the post-race stuff tomorrow likely won't be pretty either. My friend and I have scheduled an "ultimate" pedicure for tomorrow afternoon, which includes the calf/ankle/foot massage, warm paraffin dip, a massage chair, and of course, all the rest of the pedicure stuff. She tells me that the blood-orange mimosas are to die for. Apparently the pedicure includes an adult beverage. Sounds pretty good to me!
saef, thank you. The run-walk intervals that they teach us make it surprisingly easy to go long distances. I seriously doubt that I can run a mile straight, to be honest - I've never tried. As I've mentioned before, I am really averse to pain, being out of breath, and any of the other feelings that go with extreme exertion.
silver, hammer throwing intrigues me. And to take it up later in life like that - bravo for her!
Michele, thank you! We're going to have a cool night tonight and the forecast is for 78-80 at the top tomorrow. The temperature will be wonderful and if the humidity is a bit higher, my lungs seem to like that best. I'm optimistic!
Last edited by ICUwishing; 08-23-2013 at 10:46 AM.
Good luck tomorrow, Becky! Don't worry about the calories. Enjoy the pedicure. Enjoy the run. It will be lovely.
Saef - I also highly recommend the run-walk intervals. I've trained with them all along, and I think they really do help me with stamina. Glad you had a good weigh in today, and I think it is good that you have been turning the laptop off at 6pm.
Birchie - I'm fascinated by hammer throwing. I must research it.
Michele - thinking about Josi.
JayZee is leaving for Scotland today. I'm very jealous. I had my annual gyn exam this morning, and we were discussing vacations. I haven't had one in close to two years - we are going to New Orleans in November and I'm getting pretty desperate for it to be here RIGHT NOW.
I was back at my low weight of three weeks ago today. I have one more week and some in my 9 week challenge - if I can behave and keep it in line through a week from Sunday I should come in at somewhere in the 8-9 pound down range. That would average at 1ish pounds per week. I'm over 40, eat out sometimes and refuse to give up sugar in my coffee and wine with dinner, so I'm thinking I'll be okay with that.
I've been on a blueberry kick lately. Can't seem to get enough of them although I limit myself to about 1/2 a cup for breakfast with Greek yogurt. And speaking of Greek yogurt, I'll never buy Dannon Lite & Fit Greek vanilla yogurt again. It's sickly sweet.
My weight was up this morning, but that was to be expected after going out last night. Usually the dinner is a three course dinner with appetizers, this time it was a four course dinner. Yikes! Three appetizers passed during cocktail hour (a tiny tomato tart was to die for). Salad, a seared scallop on top of a bed of local corn with some other veggies thrown in, a small beef something or other served on a bed of baby spinach (just lightly wilted, perhaps the steak wilted it?) and what appeared to be a deep-fried ball of risotto (kind of odd, but good). Dessert was some super chocolaty thing (hard shell filled with mousse--the mousse was good). I didn't finish the rice thing or the dessert and I didn't go overboard with the wine. Thankfully at these things the portions are very small. I think that's why I keep going back.
I'm jealous of the Scotland trip, too. I'd really like to go do the British isles as my next trip. I know DH would love going to some Scotch breweries for tasting.
Re hammer throwing. Apparently she did it to fill a gap in an amateur athletics squad where she is a volunteer administrator, not competitor. This was after rejecting steeplechasing and pole-vaulting out of hand. That just left the hammer. Her coach has no idea how far she might be able to go. A few years ago she told me she'd taken up trampolining again ... This + ballet as a child may have given her the spatial awareness required. I think it's 4kg and 3kg for vets.
It does make you think.
I am enjoying a British Isles summer. Currently 8 miles from the south coast. I think visitors like the great variety of our landscape in such a smallish place.
I have friends in London with a house in France and friends in Germany who always wantto me to visit.
DH has worked til 9+ the last week and a half. Yesterday and today I've gotten DSS from school, gotten him home and fed and bathed and abed and still exercised both days. I feel like supermom. We only have him one day a week and every other weekend, I have nothing but respect for those folks who do it every day. I'm wiped.
So, my first weekly average comes in at 153.7. There were some confounding factors at the end that kept it higher than it might have been (big pasta dinner night before race, race, celebratory hamburger after race) - oh, and did I forget to mention that TOM decided to arrive SIX days early, and literally 1/2 hour before race time? I won't share the gory details; everything ended up being okay, but GEEZ, give me some warning, body!
I have found my perfect dose of melatonin - 10mg. I sleep like a dead thing and awaken completely refreshed in 8 hours. Never thought it would take so much. I used to only need 5mg. I guess that's another thing to chalk up to the mid-40's changes.
Shannon, I share all of your characteristics except sugar in coffee, and think a pound a week is outstanding. And yes, I agree, you qualify for Supermom status. I've thought so for a long time, for the record.
allison, blueberries, yum! They make oatmeal amazing. I like a bowl of them with a few tablespoons of vanilla ice cream melted over. Your wine dinner sounds delightful - well worth a little blip.
silver, thank you so much for the details on her accomplishments. I lovelovelove to hear about 50+ women figuring out that they're not that fragile and can still do amazing physical things.
This coming week will be a good one.
Last edited by ICUwishing; 08-25-2013 at 09:01 AM.
Great job Becky! Question for you... Do you take the melatonin each night? I take 5 mg but still wake up a lot.
I was trying to change up my exercise but my iPhone seems to be dying. We don't have a landline and with dh in China and dd's out of state I need a phone! So Zumba is off and it's AT&T instead. Going to bikram first...
If you dig into the work that the coworkers did late at night, you will likely find that most of it is cr@p and will need to be redone and edited so heavily that they actually have put you deeper in the hole. Sometimes, you gotta chase the geeks out into the sun (direct quote from a high school buddy who went on to found a 60-person software company).
Your wine dinner sounds delightful - well worth a little blip. 
