Sunday, June 30, 2013

6-30-13

It is widely know that I do not merely have birthdays.  I have birthday weeks.  This is my birthday week.  I have the whole  week off to do whatever my little heart wants.  WooHoo!  This week, I'm grocery shopping (oh the excitement!), going to see a movie, taking myself out for lunch, getting a pedicure and being lazy.  I worked my ass off last week, so it's especially nice to know that I get a chance to be lazy and regroup a bit.  If I don't don't want to, I don't have to go anywhere, do anything.  All I truly have to do is just exist. 

This weekend, for my birthday, I bought myself a FitBit Flex.  It measures, steps, the calories you;ve burned, your sleep and probably other things that I haven't discovered  yet.  It's an interesting little device.  I'm looking forward to seeing my numbers as I wear it. 

Last week was fairly boring.  Super busy, but boring.  I was slack on my Zombies, Run workout.  I did my workout on Sunday, but Tuesday and Thursday just didn't happen.  The good news is that I didn't just sit on my ass and do nothing.  I had some heavy lifting and moving and stretching that I worked on every morning for work, so at least I was burning some calories.  I still did my bodyweight workout and I've been keeping up with my food and activity logging, and ta da!  Here's my weekly blog post.  I'm proud of myself for keeping up with everything, even though this past week wasn't so great for me learning how to run from zombies. 

Friday, June 21, 2013

6-21-13

I've managed to make it through another week of my six week challenge. Still doing well. I'm proud that I've stuck with it this long. As of Sunday I'll be halfway through.

Last weekend was my 20th high school reunion. It was a very small gathering. I wish more people would have come, but on the other hand I'm glad it was small. I kind of dreaded it the day of before we got there, but I recognize it was my social anxiety talking to me. I tried to at the very least say hello to all of my former classmates. It was nice to see and talk to everyone. Overall I think everyone has aged pretty gracefully. Obviously, my high school has a ton of graduates with good genes. I can truly say I'm looking forward to my 25th reunion now. I really hope more of my former classmates can join us next time. I'd really like to see if karma has kicked the people who made portions of my school life so miserable in the teeth yet.  It wasn't very many who were awful to me, but the ones who were really did a good job at making me feel like less than I was.

Last weekend was also important for another reason. On Sunday, my husband and I went to our local walking track and I ran in public for the first time since I was in elementary school and had to take part of the Presidential Fitness Test.  Even more momentous is that even when someone else showed up I didn't let my self consciousness stop me.  I hadn't even finished my ten minute warm up when they showed up, but just thought to myself, they don't know me, I don't know them, fuck it. I had zombies to out run.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

6-11-13

I wish I could talk about work. I think it would be very cathartic and stress relieving.  But because I work for "The Man" I can't.  See, the first rule about working for "The Man" is you don't talk about working for "The Man". So I will not talk about working for "The Man" except to say I enjoy my job and almost everyone I work with. It can be stressful and frustrating, but very rewarding.

Stress does horrible things to me.  It's no one's fault but my own though. When I get stressed I stop doing little things that make a huge difference, like making to do lists, taking regular breaks, simply breathing. I also start doing things like not sleep, drink too much caffeine, put an inhuman amount of pressure on myself to be perfect.  This all leads to lovely things called panic attacks for me. Not pretty. Therapy has been invaluable to me over the past few years in recognizing my triggers and knowing how to deal with them and how to treat my panic attacks. Every day I make a to do list. Sometimes I just add to the previous day's list, but the important thing is having something where I can focus on one item at a time and see progress as I mark the items off my list.  That's probably the most important thing I do that helps keep me from being overwhelmed and out of control. I also regularly meditate. I also always have to remember that I am an imperfect person living in an imperfect world and there's only so much I have in my power to do. That's what I can worry about, not what is not in my control.

Like I said above, I also take a regular break for lunch during the day. Sometimes it's only half of what I'm allowed, but I do take at least half to give me an opportunity to not have to answer the phone and to just veg out watching Netflix or Hulu, whatever strikes my fancy. Right now I'm watching Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. I clearly remember watching it with my brother when I was a little girl. It didn't last long, only 2 seasons. The first season was fun to watch. I enjoyed the lightheartedness and the hokiness.  The second season kind of sucks.  I think they tried to be too serious and they lost the fun of the first season. Buck lost his charm. I'm having a hard time making it through the end of the second season.

Anyway, that's how I handle my stress for the most part. It's all about finding what works for you like so many other things.

Week 2 of my challenge on Nerdfitness is going well.  I've completed 1of 3 Zombies, Run workout, I've logged my food and activity so far and with this post I've completed my weekly blog post. Tomorrow I have another Zombies, Run workout, thursday I have my body weight. Exercises and Friday I have my third Zombies, Run workout. 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

6-5-13

How the hell did it get to be June already?  I have had grand plans of getting back on track with my blogging ever since I got back from Boston.  I've been planning things I wanted to talk about and thinking about everything I wanted to share, creating elaborate posts in my mind just waiting on that perfect day where time and space align and allow me to think of something other than work and my next meal. As you can see, that worked out really well for me.

Boston was awesome. I fell in absolute love with Boston Common, the Public Gardens and the Duck Pond. We picked the perfect time to go there. Everything was in bloom and it wasn't horribly hot. The other place I fell in love with was Salem. I loved the mix of modern and old world quaintness. Everyone was super friendly and nice. For example, I found a yarn store, Seed Stitch Fine Yarns, and the people knitting and working were so wonderful!  They all took time to talk with me and the person working showed me some of her favorite yarns.  It was great!  I would definitely recommend them and I'd love to go back.

Things I proud of about our trip:

  • I fit in the Airplane seat without any trouble.  I was even comfortable!
  • I did not get lost or killed using public transportation.  Not getting lost was though no fault of my own because Denise and Michael were in charge of navigation. Not getting killed was touch and go. The T required balance to not topple over when the train started moving and strength to hang on. 
  • I kept up. We did a huge amount of walking while we were in Boston. When Denise has a destination in mind and is trying to find it, she moves with a purpose and a conviction and goodness help you if you can't keep up. I might not have stayed right beside her, but I was able to stay pretty darn close.  
  • I did not gain any weight while vacationing even though I ate like it was my job while we were there.  
If you want to see my picture, and I took a lot, they're on my Facebook page. Feel free to peruse at your leisure if we're friends and if we aren't friends, why the heck not?  I'm awesome and I'm pretty sure since you're reading this blog you are too.  Friend me, just please send me a message to let me know who you are and where you found me. 

In Boston, Denise and I talked about some things that we'd like to do someday.  So I started thinking about some of my goals for the future once I've lost more weight.  I'd like to go zip-lining, maybe skydiving, go horseback riding, go to an amusement park and ride rollercoasters, complete a 5k, shop in a regular sizes clothing store, just to name a few.  Most of these go hand in hand with weightloss.  Until I lose more weight I just won't be allowed to do some, like skydive, horseback ride, ride rollercoasters because from what I've seen they have weight limits.  I'm getting there though.  It won't be today and it probably won't be tomorrow, but one day it will happen.  As a positive step in accomplishing my goals I've signed up to participate in a 6 week challenge on nerdfitness.com.  Part of the challenge is to come up with 4 goals to work toward. 
 My goals:
1.      Train for a 5k using the Zombies Run app on my iPhone. 
2.      Do bodyweight exercises one day a week.
3.      Log my food and activity honestly every day.
4.      Blog once a week. 
I feel like I've got a good realistic goals and I have a good chance of accomplishing them.  I don't think they'll be too difficult, but they do still pose a challenge because I have a bad habit of getting lazy partway through.