Life’s ups and downs

English: Jump! Deutsch: Spring! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oh my…how in the world do you manage to face the ups and downs in your life and still maintain a positive outlook and cheerful attitude?  I know it can be done, I know people who do it.  And what?  Do they face less stress than the rest of us?  Do they not have problems?  Of course that’s not it.  We all know that’s not how it is.  Everyone has stress, everyone has problems.  Some folks simply handle those things better than others.

I’ve allowed the stress at work to affect my attitude even when I get home.  I don’t want to live like that.  One of the girls I work with (I was told, by a co-worker, that I should refer to the women I work with as “girls”, otherwise they feel as old as their mothers…hmm…) asked me if I was still walking and exercising daily.  When I told her I wasn’t, she asked me why.  When I told her I wasn’t doing anything like that because I’m depressed…well…that kind of hit me.

Do I not realize by now that daily exercise is the cure for depression?  That eating a healthy diet makes me feel better about everything else in my life?  That following my passion allows me to shake off the stress from work when I leave the building?  Uh…yeah…I do realize all of those things.  So why haven’t I been doing them?  I mean, I can only blame depression for so long…then there comes a time when I have to take responsibility for myself and do what I need to do to feel better.

I’m pretty much thinking that time is now.  Time to get back to exercising.  I’ve been eating better, more fruit and veggies, less vending machine food, less fast food, taking my lunch to work.  So I feel like I’ve taken a few steps in the right direction as far as food is concerned.  Now to add a few minutes of exercise to my daily routine.  And to spend at least some time every day doing something that I enjoy…whether that be writing, dancing, music, going for a walk in the park, hitting the farmers market…whatever…there are so many choices, I just need to convince myself to do something that makes me smile.

I want to wake up looking forward to the day ahead rather than dreading it.  And there’s no time like now to start this new way of dealing with life.  I’m going for it!

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It’s taxing

Tax Preparation (Photo credit: agrilifetoday)

Yes, we all deal with it…I’m talking about the dreaded tax return. I had planned to finish mine tomorrow.  I already had all of the receipts, W2s, etc gathered in one place (I amaze myself with my organization these days…years ago I was so disorganized and a terrible procrastinator), so it would just be a matter of sitting down to complete everything.

I ended up finishing it all early this evening!!  How about them apples???

Years ago, when I had my own business, I waited until the end of each quarter to do anything with the paperwork…talk about creating stress for myself.  I’ve finally learned to file things as they come in and it certainly makes tax preparation so much easier.  Do I like doing it?  Heck no!  But we all have to do it…well, unless we want to end up spending time with some non-friends in a small prison cell…I’d just as soon avoid that if at all possible…

How about you?  Done with your taxes?  Thinking about it?  Not going to do it?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 140

Image by meerar via Flickr

Why?  Why do I let these stressful, crazy, hectic days get to me?  I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know I allowed it to happen today.  It was just nutty from the start today, so busy, not enough people working.  And I let myself give in to the stress.  I really wish I could be more like my boss, he loves when it’s crazy…gets his adrenaline pumping…and he’s always so cheerful (well, at least where most people can see him…I’m privy to some of his not so good moods, but customers never see him like that).  I can get a little snarky at times, most of the time with the people I work with…not nice, I know.  Once the closing manager got there and the framing manager got back from lunch, I decided I was going out for lunch just to get away for a few minutes.  Not the best choice as far as the old diet goes, but it did help me with my mood.  Of course, I could have stayed at work and eaten my healthier lunch and probably would have still had my mood improve just the same…I know I went too long without eating…come on (thumps head…twice) when will you learn to eat on a regular schedule? 

No exercise today to speak of…lots of walking around at work, but that’s it.  I have tomorrow off so I’m going to get in a couple of workouts, albeit short ones.  If it’s as nice as today was, I’m going to go out for a walk.  I couldn’t believe it was in the 70s today…on Nov 8!

I need to do a little salad prepping tomorrow too…tear and wash some lettuce, shred some more carrots.  I’ve been thinking about making a healthier Waldorf salad…we used to eat that a lot when I was a kid…of course, with full fat mayo…

And maybe, just maybe, tomorrow will be a day that sees me taking a little nap in the afternoon…and sleeping in in the morning…at least until 6 am!!  Long gone are the days of sleeping until noon…

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 123

Oops…I skipped blogging about my journey for a few days…the truth is I haven’t been doing all I could over the past few days (weeks) to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  I’ve been eating too much, exercising too little, not getting enough sleep, not dealing well with stress.  But I’m not giving up…no siree, not me.

On that note, I did do quite a bit of walking today and I pulled out my crock pot and cooked an inexpensive cut of beef with sweet potatoes, carrots, red potatoes and onion.  Oh my, the house still smells wonderful and the meal was delish!  I think that’ll be my lunch at work for the first part of the work week.  I also bought some kale to bake up a batch of kale chips.  I think those things just might be addictive.

I guess the title is quite descriptive of this journey…the road is long, winding, lots of hills, sometimes there’s rain or snow to battle.  But through it all, I’m going to just keep putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward, slow as the pace may be.

Image via Wikipedia

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 117

Oh my goodness, was I ever glad to get out of that mad house this evening…crazy place!  It felt so good to walk through my front door and be greeted by that  silly little Spooky girl…

Now, before you go nuts thinking I left that poor sweet little kitty wearing a dress all day while I was at work, this picture was taken a while back.  No clothes on the cat today (that I know about…who knows what she gets up to while I’m gone).

Eating today?  Ooh…not so good…did a lot of eating in response to stress today…did I mention how stressful this day was?  I know eating isn’t the best way to handle that stress, but it’s what I did today.   I ended up with only 2 fruits and veggies for the day.   Tomorrow will be better…

I did do core exercises and range of motion exercises this morning before I left the house.  And I did walk for 20 minutes..so at least there was some exercise involved.

Right now a long soak in a hot tub sounds like just about the best thing in the world…and I’m going to be doing that in just a few minutes.  And then…ahh…sleep…I hope.  I woke up last night at 2 am and was awake for about an hour.  I don’t like it when that happens.  It makes it even more difficult to get up when that alarm starts blaring.  I hate my alarm…but I don’t hit the snooze button, isn’t that weird?  When that alarm goes off, I pull myself out of that cozy bed regardless of how much or how little sleep I managed to get.

How about you?  Are a snooze button pusher?

 

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 94

I think this is day 94, I’m so sleepy and tired that I’m not absolutely certain what my name is…Abigail, right?  Uhh…wait…that’s not right…Anyhow, the first day of my vacation started really early…like 2 am, how’s that for early?  We found out yesterday that we were going to have corporate visitors today.  We were the first stop on a whirlwind, two-day tour of the district.  I don’t want to say too much about it…you never know who might be reading these things…you know, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that people aren’t spying on you…suffice it to say, we got a “C” on the visit.  I’m unaccustomed to receiving a C in anything…an awful lot of work went into that C…I’ll just leave it at that and you can fill in the blanks.  But it’s over and now I really am on vacation…I am so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.  And then just spending the day doing whatever I want to do.

I didn’t do any official exercise today…but I did do a ton of running around, ladder climbing, stair climbing, lifting, etc.  Oh yeah, and stressing out, as we did our last-minute preparations for the big visit. 

I finished the day with about 1400 calories, unless I decide to eat a bowl of ice cream later…I may just be too tired to do that though.  And that wouldn’t be a bad thing.  Just go to bed and forget about the ice cream.

I did still manage to get in my 750 words today.  I’m working on my book now and making some progress.  Kind of exciting to be able to say “I’m writing a book.”  One of my friends told me about a friend of hers who has written several books, told me she was sure she’d be glad to help me out if I have any questions.  See, you just never know when a networking opportunity might show up.  Just be open to the opportunities….go for it!

So, what is everyone else doing?  I feel like I’ve kind of lost touch a little what with going to bed so early every night and working so many hours every day….what’s going on?

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