Thursday, April 14, 2016

Week 15 - On the Upswing

It was another interesting week at work. Between the asbestos abatement going on as part of the remodel down the hall and the repercussions from last week’s drama, it was something new every day. And I didn’t go into the week in top form, having only gotten about 4 hours of sleep. But since I’d packed for power pump before bed on Sunday I still went when the stove timer woke me up at 5:15. And of course it was the week the instructor decided to change things up and use exercise balls, which are not my forte. While I didn’t take anyone out with a flying ball like the last time I used them, I did struggle at every turn and at one point was just lying on the floor laughing hysterically. That should have been a clue to how the week would go.

And to continue my ever graceful week, I was walking down the hallway Tuesday afternoon, tripped on the hose the asbestos guys had taped across the floor and despite a comical, I’m sure, pinwheeling of arms for what seemed like ages, fell on my ass in the middle of the hallway. The “almost saved myself but no quite” pinwheeling mean that I was only a foot above the floor when I fell so I knew I was OK. My only concern was my shoulder, which I’d jammed when I instinctively put my arm out to catch myself, but after an extra meloxicam at home, I was fine. Just a bit stiff on Wednesday.

Over the course of the week, things transpired at work so that by the end of the week Randy and Josh were moving out of our office and we were posting a job for a new data analyst. So while I hated crying in front of my boss last week, it seemed to be a wake up call of sorts and things are a changin’. While change is not easy, at least it feels like progress in the right direction so I’m calling it good. 

My diet was not going in a good direction. I went to Aldi hungry one night and spent $107, which is pretty amazing for Aldi. Unfortunately I bought some things I just couldn’t resist eating and it went downhill from there. It became a battle of trying to be good but failing and so eating WAY too much. After the totally not filling 290 calorie broth bowl at Panera on Friday, I was chowing down caramel corn and chocolate covered almonds. That was followed by more than a couple jam tarts at the French Week event Cindy and I went to instead of swimming on Friday. The movie was awful (Louise l’Insoumise – a wretched 80’s movie that was 2 hours of a mother abusing one of her daughters) so I ate more jam tarts afterwards then went home to snack my way through my kitchen. I vowed to be better on the weekend but by Saturday afternoon there was no point. I was eating more while failing to be good than if I just gave up and ate like a normal person. So that’s what I did. I’ll do another rotation when I’m back from DC. 

At least I was getting things done elsewhere. On the knitting front, I’ve been rocking the sandals and socks thing so was happy to finish a pair of socks that perfectly matched a new blouse I’d bought. I wore the new combo happily on Thursday. I also fixed the socks I’d made for Shannon that were too big and dropped them at her husband’s office on Friday. With those done, I cast on some monster socks, which always make me happy. I actually got a few other things off my to do list too – taxes finally filed and finished up a few projects from the previous week. Shannon and Cody came to dig perennials on Sunday so I spent the day outside, getting most of the raking done, filling in the holes they’d left with sifted compost and prepping 1 veg bed for early planting. Now for some rain to soften up the soil.

So after a shaky start, life was looking up by the end of the week and I was heading into a short work week with my DC trip at the end. Add the gorgeous spring blooms everywhere on campus and just starting at home plus finally getting outside to start some gardening and I was a happy camper. I hope you’re enjoying your spring too.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Week 14 - A Bumpy Week

This week was all about the weekend. The work week was dragging as I plugged away at the follow up on last week’s big to do list. It was progress but plodding so the days weren’t exactly flying by. I was looking forward to Friday, which was the first of the month so would be chock full with reporting and would end with a brownie sundae mini food day at 3:00 and the Chancellor’s final Perl of Wisdom and State of the University at 4:00. So Friday was going to be a good day. Or not…. 

Without going into gory detail, let’s just say I had a super frustrating morning and ended up in tears in my boss’ office after lunch. Now I hate crying, never mind in front of my boss, so retreated to the conference room to clean before our ice cream event and things got better from there. Everyone seemed to enjoy the ice cream (yes, I ate some so blew some calories – oh well) and then rather than streaming the chancellor’s event, I grabbed Cindy and we walked over to The Lied to see it in person. It was lots of fun and got over just after 5:00. I had planned to swim but was considering skipping when Layton asked for a ride to his car, which would put me right by the pool. So despite being 15 minutes late, I swam and it was a good decision. All exercised and showered, I was ready for my weekend at home. 

Let me just say here, that adding fat to my rotations was a complete success. After a week I’d lost 8 pounds, which was right in line with my usual starving all the time 600/900 weeks. But this time I was NEVER hungry and had enjoyed snacks of pistachios, salads with olive oil dressing and olives or avocados all the time. Nice. 

On another health note, I had been feeling light headed of late so went to the doctor, who ordered blood tests. Everything came back fine so I'm chalking it up to not enough calories or sleep. The kicker is that when I asked them to run a lipid panel, all my cholesterol numbers were worse! Seriously? The last time I had my blood work done (June), my numbers were great, which made sense since I'd been rotating for 4 months at that point. But why are they up again? Not horrible mind you but clearly going in the wrong direction. Sometimes life just isn't fair. : (

Back to my weekend. I was thrilled to have absolutely no plans. I felt like I’d been doing the bare minimum since getting back from Florida and it showed. EVERYWHERE. Amanda coming to dig hostas on Sunday was the only thing on my agenda so I was free to catch up on everything. I started on the desk, which was piled with paper and crap. I actually found an unopened birthday card (that was 2 months old) and a valentine. Nuts. I also found some missing paperwork so it was all good. I went through a huge stack of newspapers, read what I needed to (not much) and added it all to the recycle bin. That felt huge and went a long way towards feeling less behind on things. I also got all my knitting (yarn and projects) photographed and updated online. Yay! 

With the paper all tackled, I had Sunday for chores and cooking. I spent a chunk of time on the phone with friends and when Amanda called to postpone, my only commitment was gone. It was actually hot outside (84 – broke another record) but I went outside and pruned all my roses and cut back the sweet autumn clematis, all of which went into the trash and to the curb. I ended the day making pork roast, curried cauliflower and a big pan of sautéd zucchini so would have food for the week. After my weekend at home, I was fully recovered and feeling back on track. Now for some spring weather at times when I can work outside please. While I wait for that (hopefully not too long), here’s a springy pic of the primroses I put in the ground last fall. Have I mentioned how much I love spring? Enjoy.