Posts by islandscribe

For this week, choose to answer one or both of the following...

Part one:

BEAT THE BUNNY CHALLENGE:

For many of us, this coming Sunday marks one of the holiday hurdles in our attempts to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Heck, even the rabbits are out spreading chocolate and jelly beans to try and derail our resolve.

So please ... before we must all tackle the temptation ... share your best Easter bunny-beating tips and techniques.

Part two:

LIGHTEN UP EASTER DINNER:

Have a great tip or recipe to counter the ham 'n scalloped potatoes 'n hot cross buns (or whatever Easter foods traditionally fill your table.) Share it here.

Thank you & Happy Easter,
Island Scribe

Have not forgotten WJ - will post new thread at noon today (pacific daylight time) which means in just over an hour from now.

I tried to log in earlier this week but only saw the introduction...no posts. Weird. I guess I logged in during a momentary glitch in the system.

So this is my post - and my post for the coming week is ...um ... coming.

Keep well,

Island Scribe

Dash by post: keeping the same goals - since I haven't managed to hit them yet.

Yeppers.

Switched to a ball about a year ago. :-)

Hi everyone,

I got back late last night and unpacked and set up my computer specifically to do the WJ thread - and then CC wouldn't let me log on. :-(   So when I woke I tried again this morning. It's lost my auto log-in but it did let me sign on this morning on my third try.

So thanks for doing the thread Lawrence... I did try to do it last night as promised. For the record, I'm on the west coast of North America, so I'm behind many of you timewise.

I'm obviously overwhelmed and NOT doing the healthy lifestyle I want to be doing and I'm feeling the results ... but neither am I getting enough sleep or enough time to even get healthy food in the house or get it cooked - or, frankly, even be in the house. And sadly, when it goes on for too long ... which it has ... my resolve melts away as well.

For a long time I did manage to pre-cook meals and freeze and/or bring with when I knew I had a challenging work period coming up. But when the challenging work periods evolved into a continuous stream, I couldn't make the time to keep that up either.

That said, once I get enough work/deadlines met ahead this week, I'm planning to take two weeks off in order to recover some order in my life. Whoo Hoo! And I'm finally home with my pups. :-)

I also have difficulty making good choices when I'm over-tired and over-stressed etc., so you're not alone, x-lawrence. I found a presentation a couple of weeks ago on the topic of overworked workers that cited a study which showed sleep deprivation was similar to being drunk and affects your judgement and ability to make decisions in the same way. 

I'll dig out the link and post it.

I did not re-join the gym program this month because I was away more than I was here but plan to re-join this Friday. I like x-lawrence's idea of leaving around work-out equipment and have tried that a couple of times ... when I had room in the car to bring it or wasn't on a plane ... but I found when I'm working from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., I have no energy or focus to do anything but fall into the hotel room bed and hope like hell I don't have insommia that night and can get some sleep.

(And yes, I've talked to my employer but as I've mentioned before, they are  slow to hire extra help although they are actually concerned about the well-being of their staff. So I think they will do something but it will take time to evolve...)

They are hiring a new person to support on-site sales which would have been a helpful extra body this past week, when I was simultaneously writing and laying out two 100-plus page proposals and trying to do the prep for a major trade show booth...which I then manned all weekend. But we don't have that extra person yet.

However some of my colleagues did a lovely thing: they all contributed to buying me a certificate for a massage as a thank you for the work on the trade show.

Keep well,
Val

I am really struggling, given my continuing work overload. I did sit down with my boss to discuss it and he saw the problem and was willing to look at it ... and then four days later he suffered an unexpected accident and is now in hospital long-term. (Last I heard he was in intensive care but had stabilized and is expected to recover but it will be some time.)

Since the company's management team is so tiny, last week was a scramble to try and gather the currently needed information that was in his head (no, he is not able to contribute) and my work load/travel back to head office has ramped up even more as a result.

I'm not getting to the workouts I was doing - mostly because I'm not even in the same town for most of this month so have not renewed my gym membership - but I am back for a few days this week...although still working ... and am going to try to do drop-in workouts or dust off the home stuff and do that.

I also need to get more healthy food in the fridge and see if I can prep better for my next 10-day stint at head office. For last week, I didn't have time to pre-make healthy food so didn't do all that well...

I think I just need to get through this set of projects and the upcoming major trade show - then hope I will finally get some promised and much-delayed time off so I can regroup and try again.

And yes - I know the weight is coming back due to the combination of stress, cut sleep, long work hours, less gym time, less healthy food - which ... BTW ... does not mean I'm eating fast food all the time but does mean I'm not logging and sticking to the carefully managed 1400 - 1500 calories a day I need to maintain the weight loss.

I'm also sick with a low-grade chest cold that has hung on for two months and I can't seem to shake it. I guess that's not a surprise, is it?

*sigh!*

THIS THREAD IS NOW CLOSED.

Please click here for the new thread.

GREAT topic.

I'm trying to get back on the path by ensuring I have the stuff in place to do this - which includes the right food in the fridge, the gear to hit the gym, and enough sleep so I can get to the gym at 6 a.m. before work. Post-work never works for me...

One of my ongoing frustrations is that the pace of my job has been steadily accelerating over the past two years, so it seems I get on track and then - wham! I'm required to go out of town and/or do marathon work sessions, with the result that when I get home:

1. The once healthy food in the fridge has turned into science projects;
2. My life is thoroughly derailed with unmet committments that I have to catch up on - and no, I am never able to take equivilent time off because more work is always coming down the chute;
3. I'm exhausted and often sick, so it is a real struggle to cut yet more sleep to hit the gym; and
4. Stupid as it sounds ... stuff like piled up laundry or dishes needs to be done and put in order before I have the clothes available for work-outs or the cookware ready for a healthy meal.

I love my job but I don't know what to do about this. It's gone from occassional hair-on-fire emergencies - which was okay - to essentially a way-of-life.

Having done the impossible projects-from-hell successfully a few times, I'm now asked to do it over and over and over again.... Nor have I been able to recharge. I currently have over 300 hours of accumulated, unused vacation time - and that's not including all the unpaid "voluntary" overtime I put in and that everyone pretends is compensated with equivilent time off...

That said - the plan is that I WILL get to the boot camp at crack of dawn tomorrow.

Keep well,
Val

Gifts...not much to date. So far, I've received a few things from friends, which are at the stocking stuffer level. My favourite is a box of bath bombs that look like fancy chocolates - I renovated my bathroom in brown & white, so joking call it the chocolate spa, making that gift a great match. I also received some funny stickers for work projects and a mini-calendar with photos of Sheltie puppies.

The strangest gift was from my tenant, who is admittedly on a limited income. However, he gets super-low rent ($400 inclusive for a one bedroom suite, which is $250 below market) and I gave him a $100 rebate on that earlier this month. I also provided some items he could use as gifts for his friends, including some new angel wind chimes. On Sunday he asked for two more for some friends he'd missed. He wrapped them and gave them to me yesterday.

Wanted gifts? I have low expectations so I don't tend to impose my wants on others. If I want something and can afford it, I usually buy it. My current wants are the Awesome Paws agility training book and video. I'd also love some form of makerbot, provided it also came with the free time to play with it. Mostly, I just want time off work and I'm getting some of that this week.

Goals? Diet? What diet? ;-) Not worrying about gym until tomorrow.

Lawrence: Rebuke noted...is that a little sarcasm inserted or am I mis-reading? I'm sorry-like many folks I was flying to finish work and then dive into Christmas prep and didn't even remember I had to do WJ until I got home from the nursing home Tuesday.

Thank you Dragon for the nudge and to Sarah Ann for the nudge the week before that. I believe I'm also setting up the thread on Monday, correct?

At least my deadlines have cleared - mostly - so I anticipate being off!!

Welcome Katressa!

Like many folks, I'm sliding down the slipperly slope paved by Christmas festivities. On the plus side, I haven't let my gym membership lapse but I also haven't visited for the last week as I try to catch up with my life in time for Christmas.

As far as feast strategies ... I am a contributor to but not originator of a variety of celebatory gatherings. My usual strategy is pretty simple: fill the plate with lotsa veggies, smaller amounts of the stuff I love but I know is not good for me, and re-cut desert portions so I still get a taste to enjoy but don't eat the whole slice.

And before I sound too virtuous ... breakfast this morning included a little chocolate ball just 'cause it was there... *sigh!*

Keep well,
Val