Page 3 of 3

Posted on

Big Day

It was a big day in our house as Goalielocks moved out this afternoon. He’s headed to Orlando to start college and live with his buddies. He’s super excited and so are we. We’ll sort of….. It’s a little bittersweet to see our secondborn fly the coop. Nonetheless, we have been making bets about how much our electric and grocery bills will decrease now. Stay tuned. To be honest, I will be counting down the days to his coming home.

Luke and the Mayor traveled up to Orlando this evening as well. The Mayor has two games tomorrow in Orlando including an early morning game. Since our dog sitter moved to Orlando today, I am skipping tomorrow’s games in Orlando. Also, I’ll be traveling to Chicago next weekend for the Mayor’s tournament, while Luke stays home to work. Consequently, I came home after the Mayor’s two home games this afternoon to chill with my puppies and do nothing.

Since it’s just me and the dogs tonight, I ordered some good healthy food via UberEats. Now I’m not a food delivery guru, but it shouldn’t take over an hour from pick up to delivery of the food. For some reason, the drive from the restaurant which should have taken ten minutes took over an hour. Fortunately, the food still tasted pretty damn good reheated. Nonetheless, the delay was pretty aggravating. Good thing I was home alone and angry.

As for the Mayor’s games, his team tied the first one and won the second game. Both games were nail-biters and fun to watch. The Mayor spent more time than usual in the box, but he still had a great day. He’s so much fun to watch. In the first game, he had a beautiful assist on the tying goal. It was an absolute beauty of a play starting with his defensemen and ending in a goal. He just sees the ice so well. Well, this big day is going to end nice and quiet here.

Today’s accountability tracker:

Posted on

It’s Working

It’s working! I slept so well last night that I barely made it to work on time. Now, this is a feat given that I work a mere five paces from my bed. Fortunately, it appears that I won’t be stuck in this rut of insomnia anymore. Granted it’s only been two days, so I probably shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I’m sure the cooler temperatures last night and this morning helped facilitate a night of restful sleep. Although to be fair, I have been completely exhausting myself, in a good way, between running, Sweat workouts, and the yoga challenge.

The worst part of waking up super late for work is having to start the work day without coffee on board. Thank god for Uber Eats because there was no way I could work without having my Dunkin’s coffee. Fortunately, they were quite fast this morning. They delivered my coffee shortly after I had started my work day. I snuck out to walk the dogs as soon as I got clocked in and set up. The dogs were definitely wondering why I was so late this morning as they are so used to being taken out at the same time every morning. Thankfully, I work from home otherwise this morning would have been an utter hellscape.

So I’m happy it’s working, the schedule changes I made to my day, but I would love to see an uptick at work. Despite it being OEP, it’s been scarily slow. Since tech made some updates to the system last spring, the lead flow from some folks has been light. This change on top of a slowdown in overall volume has been disastrous. I hate being bored! I like to be and need to be busy. I’m really hoping volume picks up soon. Like I mentioned earlier in the week, there’s only so many times you can reach the end of the internet each day.

I just finished my two mile run and it went well. The lungs felt much better today. My lower back is still bothering me off and on, but mostly at night. We did get our spin bike yesterday. The boys are excited to get it setup in the gym upstairs. For whatever reason, it doesn’t bother me while I run. Since I’m doing the yoga challenge, I opted to not do the optional Sweat HIIT workout today. Instead, the two mile run, one mile walk and 30 minute yoga practice will suffice. I previewed today’s yoga practice earlier. Fortunately, it looks like a soothing 30 minute practice, which is exactly what my body needs today. Anway, the new routine, it’s working.

Today’s accountability tracker:

Posted on

Night One

So how did night one of reclaiming my sleep go? It went okay. I definitely had less trouble falling asleep than on previous nights. Last night, however, was not the perfect gauge as my lower back and sciatic nerve weren’t playing nice. I don’t think my lower back enjoyed all the work it was given during my yoga practice. It was a relatively rigorous practice for a Hatha class that featured a difficult series of transitions from standing, to warrior one, to warrior three, to revolved half-moon pose and back again. I think the movement may have irritated my sciatic nerve and the muscles around it. Fortunately, some meds and salonpas patches put paid to the pain at least temporarily. Hopefully, I will sleep well tonight because if there’s one thing that brings me joy it is a good night’s sleep.

Nonetheless, I’m going to continue blogging during the day for the foreseeable future. One it’s a much better use of my time. One can only read the internet so many times during a slow work day. Secondly, it frees up my time in the evening. Since it’s OEP (open enrollment period for Medicare folks), we’re back to working 10-11 hour days. Consequently, it is a bit more difficult to fit in all the commitments I have made for 2023. This, of course, includes daily running, yoga, blogging, reading, and regular strength workouts done through the Sweat App. Moreover, I’m doing the 21-day yoga challenge through Everyday yoga, which features a pre-selected class of varying lengths. Normally, I would choose a practice length that best suits my day.

Today’s yoga class is another Hatha practice, but it looks to be more gentle than yesterday’s practice. Gentle is exactly what my body needs today. Thankfully, today’s practice also focuses on opening the hamstrings, which will be super beneficial. My hamstrings are ridiculously tight whether I stretch, work out, or do nothing. In fact, I need to work on my hamstrings daily to keep them healthy. Otherwise, they’re a complete mess. One of my favorite ways to stretch them out is the legs up-the-wall pose, which also happens to be super relaxing.

I guess it’s going to get a bit cooler tomorrow evening, which will be nice. It won’t be cold enough for sleet or snow, but it will be fantastic sleeping weather. And we all know how I love good sleeping weather. Speaking of weather, I’m now stalking Chicago’s weather as the Mayor and I head there next week for hockey. I really hope it’s not too cold. While I do enjoy a depauperate winter wonderland as much as the next person, I don’t like driving in snow. Moreover, I hate driving in Chicago during snowfall. At least back some in Minny, a respectable effort is made to quickly clear the interstate. In Chicago, there is no such effort. It really sucks driving on 90 during a snowstorm.

Today’s accountability tracker:

Posted on

Insomnia

Insomnia has been the bane of my existence these last few weeks. Speaking of treasures that have been lost. Mine has been sleeping. Ordinarily, I have no problem falling and staying asleep. Well, that’s not true. Thanks to childbirth, I have to get up to pee several times a night. Nevertheless, the bio breaks, as one of my former VPs called them, don’t normally disrupt my sleep either. At any rate, the inability to fall asleep immediately is beyond annoying. I’ve tried using melatonin as a stop-gap measure to help me fall asleep, but it has been ineffective. My sleep hygiene is good, so this irks me to no end, but I think I found a solution.

Instead of blogging in the evening, I’m blogging in the afternoon. I’m sure you’re thinking the connection between blogging and insomnia is a bit of a reach. I, however, think it may be the reason I can’t sleep. When I blog later in the evening, it gets my mind and creative juices flowing. Unfortunately, I can’t sleep because I can’t turn off my mind. Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, work is slow enough that I can write the blog between phone calls and continuing education. Stay tuned to see if that solves my insomnia problem.

Speaking of sleep, we had some great sleeping weather over the holidays. I love going to sleep in cool weather. Honestly, it’s so much more comfortable than trying to sleep in the sticky south Florida heat. Unfortunately, the cooler nighttime temperatures were short-lived. We’re back to our normal sunny and warm weather. Our daytime weather is absolutely perfect. To be fair, I can’t really complain about the evenings either only that I like it a bit cooler at night. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of our beautiful sunny skies.

On the other hand, my folks returned to a winter wonderland of misery. Granted it is much warmer in Minny now than it was over the holidays, but the weather has been grotesque. It has snowed quite a bit since they returned to Minny on Saturday. While the snow is a pain in the ass to drive in, it’s incredibly beautiful. Thankfully, my parents are able to enjoy the snow without having to needlessly drive through it. The roads were so bad that even our old school closed down for the day. When we were in school, our school system was rarely closed due to the weather.

Good news, I found the cure for my insomnia in my work inbox. Our training department sent me my continuing education information today. I’ve started the first course. The content is quite dry. To make matters worse, the voiceover guy’s voice is a less interesting version of Ben Stein’s. There is plenty of repetition in the material to make it boring even without the terrible voiceover. This will definitely put me to sleep! I have twenty hours of continuing education to complete, so that will cover plenty of formerly sleepless nights.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Week four Sweat Beginner HIIT full body workout. Ran one mile, and walked one. Day Four of the Everyday Yoga Shop/Practyce 21-day yoga challenge.
  • Book: Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones

Posted on

Back at it

Well, I’m back at it and not happy about it. This back-to-reality bullshit is for the birds. I’d like to go back on the holiday vacation with the family. Naturally, the first day back at the office after a long absence is always difficult. Today was no exception. Unfortunately, technology did not want to cooperate with any of us today. This made for a frustrating day all around.

It could be worse I guess. I could still be at my old job, which was pure misery. I remember when I left Progressive how happy my hubby was that I’d stop talking in acronyms. And then I started at Kaplan University and it was back to the alphabet soup he so hated. Fortunately, my current company doesn’t speak in acronyms, so he no longer has to worry about that frustration. Nonetheless, I’d love to see the measly lead flow improve back to 2022 levels.

Despite my frustration, I chose to move forward full of optimism today. While I may not have had the best day, it wasn’t the worst. Moreover, I’ll continue focusing on improving daily and hitting my goals. I used to meditate in the morning to a quick sales meditation I found on YouTube that was really effective for me. Unfortunately, the video has been removed. Consequently, I decided to write out my own sales mantra meditation. I’m toying with the idea of filming it, so I can listen to it while I sit in legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani.)

Today I hit all of my goals less my personal sales goal. My two-mile run went okay. My lungs are still a bit tight from the lingering head cold/sinus/allergy bullshit, so that’s fun. After work, I completed day three of the yoga challenge. Today’s practice was a sixty-minute Hatha class, which I really enjoyed. It was not overly strenuous, but it wasn’t overly chill either. Truly, the instructor struck a really good balance between building strength and relaxation.

First three days do the yoga challenge in the books and Insta official

Lastly, today’s bloganuary prompt is what is the earliest memory you have. My earliest memory is of saying goodbye to my grandma and grandpa on my mom’s side. I think it was late summer or fall as we didn’t have jackets on. I wasn’t quite two yet, which I know because my clearest early memory is of my grandfather passing away from a heart attack. He passed away eight days after my birthday on my grandma’s birthday. Forty years later I stand in awe of my grandma’s grace, resilience, and faith. When times are tough, I remind myself I’m cut from the same cloth. Anyways I’m back at it.

Today’s accountability tracker:

Posted on

Following the Path

It’s day two of following the path I’m carving out for 2023. My sinuses are still bothering me, so I called my run to a mile. Obviously, it wasn’t the best run I’ve ever done, but I still got it done. Afterward, I killed Sweat’s HIIT beginner week four leg week. Tonight, I’ll round out the workouts with day two of the Everyday Yoga 21-day yoga challenge. So far, my I’m off to a stellar start in maintaining my salubrious habits.

In keeping with my 2023 path, I finally got my closet cleaned. I still have two tubs to go through, but that can be done during the work week at my desk. While going through a couple of other tubs, I found all our relocation stuff with Progressive. Additionally, I found a bunch of Progressive paperwork, which I clearly don’t need. After all, I haven’t worked at Progressive since 2009. There were also some great books in there including mad libs and a would you rather book.

When we were at IKEA last week, I bought myself two shoe cabinets for the closet. It gives the closet a much cleaner look. Moreover, it was the perfect opportunity to go through my shoes and practice the art of letting go. Incredibly, I found a boot and a sneaker without a mate. My best guess is that I had already donated their mates. Fortunately, the hubby built both shoe cabinets yesterday. Consequently, once the closet was ready, I moved both cabinets into their respective places.

Don’t mind the excessive number of leggings in the background….

The question asked on the bloganuary challenge today was how are you brave. So how am I brave? I willingly ride in a car with stinky teenage hockey players that just finished playing their game after a Chipotle burrito lunch. Seriously though over the past year, I haven’t shrunk from the responsibility of protecting my children. I’ve faced tremendous adversity quietly while maintaining appearances for the betterment of my family. I don’t know what 2023 will bring, but no matter what it throws at me I’m ready.

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Week four Sweat Beginner HIIT leg day. Ran one mile, and walked one. Day Two of the Everyday Yoga Shop/Practyce 21-day yoga challenge.
  • Book: Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
  • Blog: done
  • Today’s song: Let It Go from Disney’s Frozen

Posted on

Intentions

Intentions sometimes get a bad rap i.e. he had the best of intentions, but….. Nevertheless, intentions are a powerful tool for creating the life you want. It can start small like setting an intention for your yoga practice or workout. Or it can be as large as setting intentions for the new year. As we start 2023, I looked back at the intentions I set for last year as inspiration for this year’s focus.

Last year the biggest intention I set was to reclaim my health by losing the thyroid weight. As I approached the ebbing months of my 42nd year, I felt a new sense of urgency regarding my health. While my family has been blessed with longevity on some sides, it’s been cursed with premature cardiac issues (plumbing not electricity). Consequently, I sat on the doorstep of high cholesterol and pre-diabetes, I knew a big change was in order.

In late January, I joined Calibrate after reviewing my options with my endocrinologist and primary care physician. Calibrate is a bit different than other weight loss programs in that it’s medically supervised and a full-year program. The first step is completing the lab work and establishing a baseline. It’s during this phase they also qualify patients for GLP-1 usage. Due to my family history in combination with thyroid disease and troubling blood sugar and cholesterol trends, I qualified for the medication.

In the last four years, I’ve gone from Hyperthyroidism (Graves) to Hypothyroidism (thank you RAI.)

Calibrate is great because it focuses on reclaiming your health by using resetting your metabolism through behavioral and dietary changes. Over the last year, I’ve made major improvements to my sleep hygiene. Additionally, I’ve made major shifts in my diet. Thankfully, the Calibrate program was the kick I needed to stop using poisonous artificial sweeteners. Moreover, I’ve hit become more intentional about what I eat and when. For example, I’ve started eating fruit seasonally. This also brings a nice variety to my diet. Lastly, the program reinforced that my workout routine was a point.

So what do I want to achieve this year?

I want to maintain my weight and health as I taper off the medication. Thankfully, the doctors designed the Calibrate program, so that their patients to come off the medication. By sticking to the programs, the changes in our biology should help us maintain the lower set point (aka our new weight). Naturally, I’ll need to maintain the healthy habits I created in order to maintain the weight loss.

Now that the enchanting holiday season is over, it’s almost time to go back to work and school. This, of course, is the lamest part of the holiday season. Nonetheless, I find myself excited to embark on my goals and intentions for 2023. 2022 blew chunks in so many ways. For me, 2023 will be a year of redemption and reclaiming the life I want to live. To that note, I’ve listed my goals below.

Goals for 2023

  • Maintain thyroid weight
  • Get back to top 10% at work
  • Run 5k
  • Run 10k
  • Blog regularly i.e 6 out of 7 days per week
  • Organize and de-clutter my closets
  • Practice yoga daily
  • Read daily
  • Complete Sweat HIIT programs
  • Complete Every Day Yoga Shop 21 Day yoga challenge

Today’s accountability tracker:

  • Workout: Ran 2 miles and completed day 1 of the yoga challenge
  • Book: Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
  • Blog: almost done
  • Today’s song: Metallica’s Until It Sleeps performed by Apocalyptica