Okay... a lot of catching up

I've been writing a lot of blog posts since Tuesday... in my mind... <shame>

Ad-hoc meditation
Tuesday afternoon was a delightful day, albeit chilly, and I went for a walk around the office building with my headphones.  I made it halfway through the circuit and decided to take a seat in the grass on a little hill so I could bask in the sunlight.  With the sun warming me gently, I sat back and looked up at the big puffy clouds that were passing overhead.  I examined the various shades of light reflecting on them, and their slow movement with the wind that was, most of the time, imperceptible.

As I sat there pondering these clouds a thought crossed my mind: "What do I need to get rid of to do this more often?"

I carried that thought into my Tuesday afternoon / evening activities (individual, then group therapy) and it grew some legs.  I turned into things like reducing our house 'requirements' to something smaller, perhaps not even owning any longer.  It turned into really travelling more instead of talking about it.  It made me consider how I want to approach my job, how I'd like to make my job (even) more flexible so as to allow for more time with puffy clouds or starry skies.

The idea took me to a point where I, for the first time in my life, laid out some personal goals.  Things like making sure Olivia travels out of the country before her passport expires.  (Side story - Olivia, our near 3 year old, has had a passport since she was 6 months old because there was a small chance I might travel to Japan for business and I wouldn't have left them behind for that!  The trip didn't happen so she hasn't 'used' it yet.)  Now we're talking about places like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and England.

Other goals have me learning new sports (skiing and cricket), spending more time with on my bonsai trees (I got 3 this past spring), and getting outdoors more with my family.  (Car camping, backpacking, introducing Olivia to all these things)  I have to think that all this proper eating and exercise has helped play a part in this newfound clarity.  Now to control my 'goal-oriented' tendencies and take my time enjoying these things instead of just trying to mark them off...

Sleep, interrupted
So on Thursday night (into Friday morning) I got called at 1am for work.  It's a occupational hazard, being a manager of an IT team that supports 24x7 global ops... sometimes I have to manage an 'incident' in the middle of the night.  That particular incident lasted until about 3a, at which point I settled back into the bed... and didn't settle my brain for at least 30 minutes more.  Of course Olivia was kind enough to wake me at 5:30a like normal.

I thought everything was going to be okay with the day - I got my food ready, etc, etc and the day went by just fine.  I got home around 5p and set myself to do the exercise routine for the day.  I stepped outside for the rope and discovered I couldn't string together more than 5 jumps for most of the time.  I got to 600 or so miserable (and painful, thanks to the whipping action) jumps and called it quits.  I was frustrated, in pain and extremely tired.  On top of that, my throat was getting rougher and rougher from previous days, an indication to me that the cold I've been flirting with was starting to find a good home.

Susan pressed me to take this as a sick-avoidance rest day, and I did... with great protest.  I really wanted to do the workout.  For one thing, it feels good to do it and the other is that I like the development in my body these exercises are bringing.  However, I listened - to Susan and my body - and called it done there.

Jump Rope - I'm falling out of love...
Saturday continued my absolute frustration on the jump rope.  I've adjusted the rope both shorter and longer. I've critiqued my hand and arm positioning.  I've faced different directions, I've tried to clear my mind, I've tried to think about stuff.  Nothing.  I get a couple of 50 - 75 stretches, but generally it's 20 or less between trips.  I did, however, begin taking slightly longer breaks after trips, giving my body a little more recovery.  Part of this is likely mental, whereas I'm thinking ahead to the rest of the workout that I'm a little more excited about.  I moved my weekday workout time from the morning to the afternoon just to avoid time pressure.

Weekends... sort of painful for some reason
This weekend has been similar to last weekend in that I'm really pretty much a giant pain in everyone's back-side being really cranky and short.  I purposefully moved the workout to right after waking up to get that rush at the start of the day - and it was a reasonable push, but because of the above mentioned jumping problem, it put a bad color on the day.

I also didn't eat breakfast at my normal time, putting my body into a crash that dragged me down... I didn't end up eating until about 3 hours after normal.

Speaking of eating this morning, I prepared the turkey sausage that Sara had suggested.  They looked great as I prepared them, and I thought that I'd do a one step better than the recipe and bake them.  I figured it works for bacon, so it should work for this right?  It may have, except I had no reference for how long I should bake them, so they dried out.  Nice taste... if you have any saliva left.  I'm going to toy with how to 'rehydrate' them in the morning so I can enjoy something different at breakfast.

Also, something different at breakfast today was some couscous - apple, cinnamon, raisin couscous to be exact.  That's a nice naturally sweet way to start the morning carbs, so I'm looking forward to packing that guy up over the coming days.  We've found couscous to be an amazingly flexible carb that is equally delightful in the simple preparation methods.  To that end, we discovered a huge list of couscous recipes!

Various other things...
We've been in the midst of preparing to sell our house and we had initially loosely planned to list it as soon as next weekend.  However, we came to a few realizations within the last couple of days - A) we don't have the energy to get everything put together the way we'd like in the time we have B) we'd only have the house on the market for 30 days until the holidays come along when no one is really looking.  So now we've decided to take a slower pace and aim for a February listing date.

I finally got back on my motorcycle today... I haven't spent much time with it for various reasons, the largest being the time available to me amidst all this exercise, eating and preparing to eat.  It's also been pretty cold here and I don't have proper cold weather gear given that this is my first bike.  It was a great rush to get out on the interstate and pull on the throttle... it was a reasonably quiet Saturday afternoon / evening, so traffic was just right where there weren't too many semis nor were the cars packed together.

I have a hockey game on Sunday night, the first since I've started PCP.  The first game of the 'season' was prior to PCP, but I'd been getting into a little bit of an exercise routine by that time, so I could already feel a difference in my game over the one previous.  I'm fairly excited about going out to this one in the hopes that I'll have a pretty significant improvement.

Exercise...
I've been pretty happy with our routine lately.  The floor jumps were as advertised - left quivering on the floor at the end.  The pull-downs feel good, but I've gone ahead and invested in the next level of resistance band because I'm not sure it's completely effective with my current level.  The pull-ups are great now we're onto the 'real' ones - the inclines were bothersome to me.  Of course I've been on the straight-leg push-ups and dips from the beginning... meaning I've been murdering myself unnecessarily for a few weeks! :P  The ab exercises continue to be my second most hated activity of the moment as apparently I have no core muscles.

Preparing for the end
I decided at the start of PCP that when I make it to the end, I was going to do something significant for myself.  That something significant is to get the tattoo I've been considering for the past year, as I think it would be an appropriate moment to associate it with.

It's pretty simple, actually - "Know Thyself" in Greek lettering across my chest.  I had considered placing it on my forearm where I'd see it all the time, but after several conversations with well-inked friends I found that unless I'm going to commit to long-sleeves at work, don't do it.  I'm not into long sleeves so I considered alternatives and finally landed on my chest.  Those friends have also informed me that it won't be a comfortable process (not that it ever is I suppose) given my chosen location, but I figure it's the next most visible place for me.  I'll wake up each more to see the reminder to be mindful of my self.

I know the idea of tattoos can be divisive, but it's something that will generally only be shared when I want to, save for the occasions at a water park or a swimming pool. (Oh, and I guess the locker room at hockey...)  The majority of people around me won't know it is there, but for me it'll mean plenty.  Given that my plan is to have it done right at the end of PCP, it'll mark a significant undertaking for me, something that I expect will show me what I can be from a health / physique perspective.  The pain of the inking will mirror, in a manner, the pain of the PCP process - it'll feel like hell in the midst of it, but that will pass and there will be something beautiful to show for it.

So the preparation was to go along with one of the guys from work (actually one of the Senior Directors, someone I respect a great deal in the office) to meet with 'his' artist.  This guy from work has tons of art on him, but he's placed it all such that basically no one knows just how much is there.  This was an unusual opportunity for me to get a glimpse of it.  Further, it gave me the chance to meet the artist that's been recommended by plenty of people around me while going along with someone that knew the person / ropes.

I'll be going back in November to finalize what this will piece look like and set the date / time I'll be getting it done.  It will be as close to December 15th as I can land it...

Empty brain?
Okay... I think I've gotten it all out there... sorry for the massive length of the post.  All the time exercising, eating and prepping food has just kept me away from the blog... I'll try to do better in the coming week.

Keep up the great work Team Cookie Monster... go out there a JFD!