The long and winding road to fitness, day 115

Sometimes I’m such a dork.  I woke up this morning at 3:35, looked at the clock and thought oh good, I still have another hour to sleep.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I set the alarm last night.  I had to be at work at 5 am.  I don’t know about most of you girls (most guys can just skip this), but I can’t get ready and be out the door in 15 minutes.  By the time all of those thoughts swirled through my mind a few times, I realized I needed to jump out of bed and start getting ready.  I made it to work on time, but imagine what could have happened had I not woke up at 3:35.  Well, you don’t have to imagine much, I just would have been late, that’s all.  And I really hate to be late.  I’m one of those folks who manage to be early for just about everything, not obsessively early, just a few minutes early.

I didn’t eat breakfast before I left for work, but I did do some strength training and stretching.  How about that?  Then I did around 25 minutes of walking later, plus all of the walking and lifting I did all day at work.  I have to admit, I am exhausted tonight.  This is going to be one of those nights when I really do make it to bed early.  I’m struggling to keep my eyes open right now, not especially good when you’re trying to write.

I ate my lunch in my car just to get away from everyone for a few minutes.  I had a couple of slices of that cute little loaf of multigrain bread I bought yesterday with some peanut butter and honey on it.  I also had a few PopChips and a V8.  At least I didn’t go out for a fast food meal (or fat food meal,as I originally wrote…I told you I was sleepy, although that’s a pretty apt description, isn’t it?).

Dinner tonight was a couple of bread sticks and a glass of oj (since I skipped my oj this morning). I know, I know, this is not healthy eating.  I could have, should have heated up a bowl of minestrone, but I just didn’t feel like it.  Tomorrow though, for sure.

So have you ever been late for work (or showed up on a day you weren’t scheduled) because you totally spaced what time you needed to get up to make it on time?

How do you like Jean Ann’s rooster in a pumpkin?  Nothing says fall like roosters sitting inside pumpkins, huh?

The long and winding road to fitness, day 85

Image by Nika via Flickr

Whew!!  Another exhausting day at work.  We went in at 5 am and I left at 4:30 this afternoon.  Going back in at 5 tomorrow.  I’m hoping to be out of there a little earlier tomorrow.  Maybe do a little grocery shopping so I don’t have to go out and do it on my day off… Tuesday.

I really didn’t do much exercise today.  I did do some stretching and range of motion exercises for my shoulder before work. Other than that, all of the exercise I got was at work, running around trying to get an ad set, climbing up and down a ladder, rushing from one end of the store to the other, then turning around to go back where I started.  Tomorrow will likely be filled with more of the same.

Eating?  I don’t know.  Not all that great today, not terrible as far as calories are concerned, but not the healthiest of diets either.  I drank a glass of oj and took my vitamins and supplements before heading out the door.  At some point in time, I ate a lite granola bar.  Lunch was a veggie chicken burger that I had in the freezer in the break room.  Then I ate a small piece of Greg’s peanut butter pie…have I mentioned how much I love peanut butter pie?  Does anyone know of a recipe for a lite version that still tastes good?  Mid-afternoon, I ate a bag of Doritos from the vending machine (I know, I know).  I came home from work starving.  Ended up eating a grilled cheese…haven’t had one of those in a while and it tasted pretty good.  I should have thrown some veggies in a bowl and had a salad, but I was too tired to do much of anything other than the never-ending household chores we all have to do.

Now, if only I can actually go to sleep early tonight, like in about half an hour.  That’s ridiculously early, I know.  But the alarm is set for 3:30 in the morning…or the middle of the night for all of you folks who don’t roll out of bed until 7 or 8 (or even later, Lavon…not to mention any names or anything).  One more day, I just keep telling myself I have one more day before I get a day off…a precious day off!

I hope you’ve all enjoyed your weekend, that your team won (mine didn’t), and that you have nothing but pleasant dreams tonight.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 70

Wow!!  Day 70!  I wish I had something really earth shattering to report about my day today, but it was just another hectic day at work.  I had oj and vitamins for breakfast, running short on time.  Then I had a peanut butter cookie for a morning snack at about 10:30ish.  My boss was supposed to bring me lunch, but he forgot, so I ended up eating a handful of potato chips while on a conference call (I had it on mute, can you imagine listening to someone crunching chips while you were trying to pay attention to the district manager?).  I had fish and Hawaiian bread for dinner.  Yikes, when I write it down it’s obvious how truly non-nutritious this day was.

I did walk for 35 minutes and did lower body strength training…and that’s it for the exercise for the day.  I woke up tired from my 11-hour day on Thursday and just got more tired as the day went on.  Thank goodness I have the weekend off.  Of course, next week will be crazy.  My boss is going to Dallas for meetings and my goal is to get everything completely done before he gets back.  So, any suggestions on how to motivate my people to work harder than they’ve ever worked?  I’m thinking of bribery…maybe a pizza party on the following truck day.  I’m also thinking about encouraging them by telling them how proud Chris would be to come back and see how hard they all worked.  What do you think?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 33

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Holy moly, what a day!  Hot, humid, oppressive.  We had a ton of fun working outside this morning unloading a truck.  I was just thankful it was there at 8 am rather than at 2 pm…As it was, we were all drenched in sweat before we came back inside.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I drank a lot of water today.

My eating was great…and I say that simply because I ate only what I planned to eat…I didn’t take even one tiny bite of Donna’s peanut butter or chocolate chip cookies (and since they are truly awesome, that’s quite an accomplishment for me) or any of Jean Ann’s lemon cake.  These girls are seriously trying to tempt me…but it’s not going to work today.

My exercise consisted of 20 minutes of walking, 8 upper body strength training exercises, 2 sets of each, and, of course, working a truck for the entire day.  Since I don’t know how to figure that in as part of my workout, you’ll just have to accept that it was a lot of walking and lifting.  I’m pretty tired tonight and plan to go to bed early.  I have to work at getting my seven to eight hours of sleep.  I’ve got another hard day ahead of me tomorrow.

So, what exercise did you manage to get in today?  Do you count your house and garden work as part of your exercise for the day?  I do, if it’s beyond what I would do in a normal day…like if I do a lot of gardening and that’s not something I would  normally do.  If it’s something I do every day, I just figure it’s part of my daily activities.  I don’t know if that’s right or wrong, or even if there is a right or wrong to it.

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 15

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What a difference a day can make…that and a little planning!  I ate so much healthier today….lots of fresh fruit and veggies, some fish and whole grains.  That’s more like it!  Planning what I’m going to eat for the day really does work for me.  I use the SparkPeople nutrition tracker and get all kinds of nifty feedback.  Today, everything was within range with the exception of calcium (please, no lectures…I do take a calcium supplement so I don’t feel too bad about not being within range every once in a while).

I made a big bowl of fresh salsa for lunch.  Then I got the wild idea to mix in one of the peaches I bought at the farmers market yesterday.  I wasn’t sure how it would taste, but it was remarkably good.

Very colorful, isn’t it?   I had this with fish for lunch today…yum!  Dinner was string cheese, fresh strawberries and some Back to Nature flaxseed crackers (my fave).  I also had a snack of a frozen banana pop…got the idea from another blogger (who got the idea from a restaurant in New York) and made up a batch…frozen bananas on a stick dipped in melted chocolate and peanut butter, then frozen until ready to eat.  Holy moly,these things are better than ice cream…and portion controlled!  One of these days, I’ll post a link to her blog…she has a lot of great food ideas and recipes (Back To Her Roots, if you can’t wait)…

As far as exercise goes today, I did some walking and gardening very early in the day, knowing it was going to be hot and humid again.  All in all, I’m feeling much happier with my efforts today, and the fact that I didn’t allow one not so good day to completely throw my off track.  YES!!  So how is everyone else coping with the holiday weekend?  Cookouts and picnics throwing you off your plan?

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