Kobnach

Challenge 5, Week 6 -schedule- ----vegetable/fruit--- sugary positive office late health juice banana fresh oth root fresh oth total tea choc food post fruit fruit veg veg veg veg Sat Aug 30 no 1 1 1 2 1 Sun Aug 31 no 4 1 1 Mon Sep 1 no 1 2 2 5 1 2 Tues Sep 2 no 1 1 2 2 Wed Sep 3 no 1 1 2 1 2 Thu Sep 4 no 2 1 3 1 Fri Sep 5 no 1 1 2 3 TOTAL Average prev total Ham Achilles Strauss Piriformis to bed awake naps sleep stretch stretch stretch Stretch steps miles plank bridge Sat Aug 30 1:31 7:53 6:20 6024 2 yes Sun Aug 31 1:36 8:51 2:00? 7:15 6050 2 *2 Mon Sep 1 2:30? 10:03 7:33? 6064 2 Tues Sep 2 2:00? 9:38 7:38? 3413 1 Wed Sep 3 1:31 8:03 6:32 6029 2 Thu Sep 4 0:19 8:43 8:24 7159 3 Fri Sep 5 23:52 7:53 8:01 ????? TOTAL 34,739+? Average step up lat bicep floor swim cobra dog sun WoW clutter bosu low raise curl press yoga walk shine control Sat Aug 30 yes Sun Aug 31 yes Mon Sep 1 2*15*10 lb yes Tues Sep 2 yes Wedn Sep 3 yes Thu Sep 4 2*6 yes Fri Sep 5 1*6 yes yes TOTAL Average Note: dividing basis band steps by 2254 to estimate miles. Red indicates a failure Purple indicates a value below the mandated average Orange indicates an excused failure

Today's discovery - tree pose while walking the dogs. One of my dogs loves to stop and sniff, which frustrates me, because I'm not getting exercise while he does this - and the stop-and-go confuses the Basis Band into recording even less walking than I'm actually doing. Today I tried something new - as soon as the dog began his detailed examination of a lamp post or tree, I stood on one leg, trying to emulate what I can remember of tree pose. At the next sniffing post, I stood on the other leg, and so throughout the walk. Much less frustrating - and judging by how unstable I was, very useful. Yay for exercise that just happens in daily life.

Today started off badly, to the point where I was thinking of "calling in sick" to my imaginary job ;-) I'm having trouble getting to bed at night, because that's when my mind starts suggesting nasty possibilities. And then in the morning I wake up bright and early, and can't get back to sleep. So I was tired. I'm also fretting about honesty in job applications - i.e. do I conceal my present unemployed state. Normally I'd say "of course not," but I keep hearing that the tech industry has gone a little crazy, and only wants to hire people who are already employed. So I've sent out 2 resumes that say "xxx-present" for the job I've been laid off from. (Still technically true; they are post-dating the layoff to Sep 1, to give me an extra month of health insurance. Rather nice of them.) I've told 2 potential employers that "the project I was hired to work on has been cancelled", letting them draw their own conclusions. I don't like playing silly games like this; rather just let it all hang out. Add to this that while I've been attempting to shake up my general state of boredom, e.g. by this last job, I'm really sick of working - and well into the "early retirement" age range. So trying to find a new job fast kinds of begs the question of "can I afford to retire instead?" - which is also an answer of sorts to the bedtime fears of never being hired again [which are nonsense anyway] and being "past it" as a techie [also nonsense, but that's a harder sell]. So I got up, went to the dentist, walked the dogs, sent a resume to the place with the phone interview (they'd gotten an out of date resume from a past job search, and contacted me on the strength of it), responded to an ex-coworker potentially interested in working for my no-longer-current employer (I told him "better not" ;-)) and then fell back into bed, sleeping about 3 hours. That worked. After a second cup of tea I contacted another ex-coworker about his current employer, which is an obvious place for me to work. I also did a bunch of research about retirement options - mostly life expectancy and eventual government pension. I don't think I'd have a comfortable retirement if I stopped work now, or enough of a contingency fund to cope if various reasonably likely bad things were to happen. But I'm working towards doing the numbers, and that makes me feel reassured. And who knows, maybe I *can* afford to retire. (I did figure, last year, that I was secure enough financially to risk another startup, after years of avoiding them, even though they do sometimes lay people off with no warning - and I am, even though they did precisely that. Moreover, I didn't even figure unemployment benefits into that calculation - I'll be applying for those as soon as the layoff is official, and then to my pleasant surprise there will only be a 1 week waiting period - plus presumably proving to them that I'm actively looking for work. UI won't do much more than cover the mortgage, but anything that doesn't come out of savings or severance is a win.) I feel rather better now - but exercise has been in short supply, and it's still too !@#*&*( hot in my house. I'll get another 2200 steps later, but I very much need to add a morning walk to my routine, and do some strength exercises before the heat sets in. (I'll be 1500 steps short even with my regular evening walk. *sigh*) I'd hoped to find physical work to do around the house today, but decided the top priority was incoming mail - paid some bills and updated my bookkeeping program. Not eating very well either - all I want is bland carbs, and given the IBS that may in fact be what I need at this time. Time to see if the bananas I bought are finally ripe enough to be tasty - at least that's fruit carbs ;-))

*phew* Today I: - Arranged for a phone interview next week - Spoke to the recruiter for another position, which looks like an excellent fit; he's now talking to the VP of engineering about an interview - Updated my resume - Walked 2 miles so far, and am now melting into a little puddle from heat. Also bought socks as part of the walk. - Had dried fruit in my overnight oatmeal, and one veggie with my lunch. (Not yet dinner time.) - Tried on both of the swimsuits and decided they are both wearable. Apparently I've lost some of the weight I'd gained since buying them, since I'm pretty sure they would not have fit last year. - Got up early, even though I'd planned to sleep in (my morning tea-with-ex-coworker was postponed till Friday, leaving the morning free, except for being "working hours") - Read a whole 100 pages of someone's memoirs, and had a good cry over the events in her childhood, which was probably very good for me Yesterday I: - Contacted the people that led to an interview being scheduled - Had an absolutely heavenly tomato sandwich for lunch. I found real rye bread (hard to get around here), and the tomato, though not homegrown, was at the perfect stage of ripeness - Organized my pantry, pitching various superannuated food. It feels like I could eat for 6 months on what's in there, just adding some fresh veggies, but that's actually a gross exaggeration. However I'm not buying any more pantry type foods until I've eaten some of what's still there - nothing like a disorganized mess to cause you to buy more of what you already have. - Got most of the empty boxes and packing peanuts out of the living room - just in time for 2 more boxes to arrive from my mom today - fortunately these are books, so no packing peanuts (I hate unpacking boxes with packing peanuts; they get all over the rug whatever I do, and then the dogs roll in them) - Walked my 6000 steps - Got up even earlier than the alarm I'd set - Did (minimal) plank and step-ups Still no swimming, and insufficient strength exercises. I've probably lost notable condition by now, though I'm not feeling it. Will try to do some dumbbell exercises and planks later this evening when things are a bit cooler. I realize it's most of the way through the 5th week of the challenge, and there are parts of it I haven't touched, yet I'm feeling good about it. Of course with the way my life has been, anything that looks like "keeping on trucking" rather than screaming hysterics, despair, catastrophizing, or weeping quietly in the corner would look pretty good ;-( I'm working on my most pressing problems, and not creating new ones. I'm trying to both enjoy and profit from my unscheduled vacation, even with stupid little things like finally finding time to buy socks. I'm half hoping that I'll be on the bench for as much as 6 weeks, which ought to be enough to re-establish a habit of cooking, even though I'm finding that surprisingly rocky. Actually today I caught myself kind of sorry that I'm managing to schedule interviews this quickly - it took me a lot longer last time I got laid off without warning, even though the economy was probably better that year, and I was half counting on having a nice little break. (Talk about mixed emotions ;-)) Now to see if I can make some inroads in the mess in my office, before the dogs start demanding to be fed. (After that I'm off "work", though can still go on doing useful things if I want to.)

Hugs and sympathy.

Well, I've only just caught back up on this thread after travelling - but it appears that, like alienjenn, I've been doing high knees all along - stepping over a puppy gate. (My housemate moves it; I step over it. Of course it helps that I'm taller.)

Food: I had grapes grown in my own garden again today. Woot! Woot! Body: It looks like I'm calming down beautifully. I took a nap this afternoon and slept like a baby. And before that I did a 30 second plank. Decision: Keeping to a modified "at work" schedule - no gaming from 9 or 10 to 5 or 6. It was surprisingly difficult, and I did allow myself 20 minutes of gaming during my "lunch break" but it's already paying off - the people I contacted instead of gaming are scheduling a phone interview! And I calmed down a lot after reaching out to them, even before I knew it was going to pay off. [For those reading this, but not caught up on my main thread, I've been laid off. Job hunt time!]

More upheaval in my life - I was laid off yesterday. This morning I'm beginning to plan. I figure I'll do the following: - make (at least) one professional contact per day - use the stress insomnia to get myself on a more morning person schedule - keep to an "I'm at work" schedule, with recreation excluded from "working hours". I won't spend the whole day job hunting (utterly unrealistic; there are probably only 50 or so places in commuting range that are reasonable targets), but will instead deal with the backlog of work around the house, and maybe take a course or two on Coursera or similar That's the 3 point plan. The fourth point is to get religious about fitness. No excuses not to do my routine - I'm _not_ too busy for anything until I start my new job, except conceivably days with all day interviews (and these days, interviews rarely run that long). The fifth point is to *cook* *real* *food*. Today I think I'll dig out my smaller slow cooker, wash it (it's sure to be dusty, wherever it is) and set up overnight oatmeal. Tomorrow perhaps I'll get the bread machine into the act - or simply cook a lot of vegetables. (No excuse not to shop for fresh veggies multiple times a week, either. Yay!) Points 4 & 5 have lesser priority. If the black dog starts chewing on me, I'll let them slide rather than the first three.

(For Yesterday) Food: I had a lovely crepe for lunch, instead of the creole food ordered in to the office for all of us. (Creole can be lovely too, but not when my IBS is active.) Body: I recovered from jet lag beautifully. Decision: After the latest bad news to hit my life, I decided to have a good dinner and a night's sleep before trying to deal with it. (I could also list the decision to skip the creole food, but this one was bigger.)

Challenge 5, week 5 -schedule- ----vegetable/fruit--- sugary positive office late health juice banana fresh oth root fresh oth total tea choc food post fruit fruit veg veg veg veg Sat Aug 23 no Sun Aug 24 no 1 1 2 2 1 1 Mon Aug 25 yes 1 2 3 3 1 1 Tues Aug 26 no 1 1 1 4 1 Wed Aug 27 no 1 1 2 1 5 1 1 1 1 Thu Aug 28 no 1 1 2 2 1 Fri Aug 29 no 1 TOTAL Average prev total Ham Achilles Strauss Piriformis to bed awake naps sleep stretch stretch stretch Stretch steps miles plank Sat Aug 23 4719 2 Sun Aug 24 5393 2 Mon Aug 25 1:30? 7:25 6:00 7290 3 Tues Aug 26 22:47 5:48 3:00 10:01 6049 2 30 sec Wed Aug 27 0:20 7:38 7:18 8185 3 Thu Aug 28 0:40 6:57 3:00? 9:17 2706 1 Fri Aug 29 1:05 8:06 7:01 8592 3 TOTAL 42,934 Average 6133 step up lat bicep floor swim cobra dog sun WoW clutter bosu low raise curl press yoga walk shine control Sat Aug 23 2*6 yes Sun Aug 24 yes Mon Aug 25 2*6 yes Tues Aug 26 1*6 yes Wedn Aug 27 yes Thu Aug 28 yes Fri Aug 29 TOTAL Average Note: dividing basis band steps by 2254 to estimate miles. Red indicates a failure Purple indicates a value below the mandated average Orange indicates an excused failure

Challenge 5, week 4 -schedule- ----vegetable/fruit--- sugary positive office late health juice banana fresh oth root fresh oth total tea choc food post fruit fruit veg veg veg veg Sat Aug 16 away Sun Aug 17 away Mon Aug 18 away Tues Aug 19 away Wed Aug 20 travel Thu Aug 21 away 1 Fri Aug 22 away 1 TOTAL Average prev total Ham Achilles Strauss Piriformis Mordor to bed awake naps sleep stretch stretch stretch Stretch steps miles climb total Sat Aug 16 12,000 5 Sun Aug 17 4069 1 Mon Aug 18 1960 0 Tues Aug 19 1308 0 Wed Aug 20 4485 1 Thu Aug 21 8597 3 Fri Aug 22 9682 4 TOTAL 42,101 14 Average 6014 2 step up lat bicep floor trainer cobra dog sun WoW clutter bosu low raise curl press yoga walk shine control Sat Aug 16 Sun Aug 17 Mon Aug 18 Tues Aug 19 Wedn Aug 20 Thu Aug 21 yes Fri Aug 22 TOTAL Average Note: dividing basis band steps by 2254 to estimate miles. Red indicates a failure Purple indicates a value below the mandated average Orange indicates an excused failure

Blank Template repost -schedule- ----vegetable/fruit--- sugary positive office late health juice banana fresh oth root fresh oth total tea choc food post fruit fruit veg veg veg veg Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri TOTAL Average prev total Ham Achilles Strauss Piriformis to bed awake naps sleep stretch stretch stretch Stretch steps miles plank bridge Sat Sun Mon Tues Wed Thu Fri TOTAL Average step up lat bicep floor swim cobra dog sun WoW clutter bosu low raise curl press yoga walk shine control Sat Sun Mon Tues Wedn Thu Fri TOTAL Average Note: dividing basis band steps by 2254 to estimate miles. Red indicates a failure Purple indicates a value below the mandated average Orange indicates an excused failure

You sound like you could use a hug or three. Not caught up on your thread yet, but hoping you're already feeling better - and also knowing these things ebb and flow, so it won't just go away and stay away. It may not look/feel that way from where you sit, but identifying problems is a step on the road to dealing with them. Even if you've got surprisingly many. And yes, reading stuff that addresses my problems can send me into a short term down, even while helping in the long term, so I wouldn't be surprised at all to find you having the same effect.

Body: I'm all recovered from the muscle strain, and my basis band thinks I've walked 9073 steps so far today. (I suspect it's a bit confused, but still a good day for walking.) Nice that it's resilient, particularly giving the ongoing effort I'm asking from it. Food: I ate a really lovely clam chowder for lunch. Yum! Decision: decided not to pick up the pieces from the week away this evening, just take care of self maintenance (food, liquid, sleep, etc.) and the dogs. Laundry, unread email, and the list-of-things-to-do can wait. And I expect I'll go to bed very early, possibly by 7 PM (it's now 5:58, and I got home half an hour ago, fed the dogs, changed to comfortable clothes, and sat down with a cold drink - hoping rehydrating will scotch the incipient headache, since I suspect I was overheating on the way home.)

It's fine now, thanks. Glad to be back from the office thing, which was a whole pile more fun than they usually are. Now I just need to finish recovering from jet lag and catching up on my sleep. (Woke up at 6 AM today, in spite of exhaustion. Jet lag FTL; my body still thought that might be 10 AM ;-))

I'm briefly checking in before another almost 2 days away. I should be just waking up, but my body thinks it's 4 hours later than it really is, so even though I got to bed at 2:30 AM body time (10:30 PM here), it started waking me up around 4 AM local time (just in time for the B&B's excellent 8 AM breakfast, if I'd still been there). I gave up on trying to sleep shortly before 6, and I'm now just about ready to leave - 10 minutes before my alarm is due to go off. I'm tempted to go into the office mega-early, and startle all the larks. (The trip starts from the office at 9 AM.) My dog was overjoyed to see me - tempered perhaps by the fact that my housemate was oversleeping, and hadn't yet fed them ;-) She was also glad to see me, not only because I'm more effective than her 3 alarm clocks. (She's going deaf; that makes sleeping through alarm clocks even easier.) Exercise while away was mixed. My mom's town has lots of hills; mine does not. And there was a very bad mom day which led to a walk in a local park (to calm down) after I was already physically kind of exhausted. I recorded 12,000 steps that day - and the next morning I drove to a drug store and bought both an ankle support bandage and liniment patches. The next two days were under 4000 steps; one of them was under a mile. I'm still working back up. Also on the physical front - I've been in somewhat of an IBS attack since Saturday. Saturday morning was bad; then I bought gasex and it's calmed down to a dull roar. I figure this is a mix of excellent breakfasts (with more insoluble fiber than I'm used to early in the day), weird eating patterns, and lots of stress - emphasis on the stress. On the good side, I think I got my 5 fruit and veggies almost every day, and sometimes exceeded it - even the day I flew home. Much of the credit goes to the B&B, which produces a fruit plate and orange juice with the morning tea, to consume while waiting for the main breakfast to be ready, and usually had fruit or veggies in the main breakfast as well (omelets full of veggies, waffles with cooked fruit - not preserves, etc.) My eating the rest of the day often resembled grazing more than well organized meals, but my sister's theory on grazing involves such things as bowls of fruit. So all good, except for maybe shocking my poor body into IBS. I didn't do any non body weight exercises, but my sister and I found the old RCAF exercise plan booklets that our parents had gotten some time before most of us were born, and experimented with the various exercise. We also competed to see who could hold a plank longest. Of course this probably contributed to the muscle in my hip that tied itself in a knot for a few days, making it difficult to get in and out of the car, never mind such tasks as taking care of toenails. (Imagine me using my hands to pick up my left foot, because it wasn't interested in being raised very high on leg and hip muscles alone.) That muscle is still complaining, but fully functional, so I'm continuing to baby it a bit. I was afraid for a bit that when they called early boarding for people travelling with small children, needing assistance, or needing extra time, I'd have to get up and limp onto the plane, but it was fully functional even the evening before I left to come home. No swimming, but didn't expect to do any on this trip. There *is* an outside pool associated with the hotel we're staying at for this work overnight, and a gym. I'm bringing both maybe-fitting swimsuits, but may not use the pool - my doctor insists that after cataract surgery, I need to wear sunglasses whenever outdoors in daylight, and I can't imagine swimming in them. (Add to shopping list - swimming goggles ;-() I might try out the gym, but imagine it won't have any small free weights - it'll probably be targeted at enthusiasts, not middle aged newbs, and/or be entirely machine based - and I have no clue how to use any exercise machines, and little motivation to learn.) Hmmm - maybe some exercise machines - I tried out my other sister's exercise bike while I was in town, to get an idea of what it was like. Not too compelling - we rarely have bad enough weather here to keep me from exercising, except heat, and without central air conditioning, heat would affect an exercise bike too.... but great for her icy climate, and doubly so since she tends to get migraines from excessive sun (not heat), so has trouble at both ends of the year. Not going to try anything strenuous today, except getting an overnight bag to the office on the commuter train. I'd hoped to use my regular office backpack, but I was winding up with hopelessly rumpled clothes, so got out my old office overnight bag, the one that can even carry a suit without rumpling it. (No suit thought - they suggested upscale dressing, since the place is a bit fancy, but I'm not going to bother. Bet I like my gem of a B&B better too - hard to beat their breakfasts, and the rooms are lovely. And it probably charges less for a week than this place charges for 2 nights ;-()

Good morning folks, I'm briefly in my own house, and up crazy early because my body thinks it's 4 hours later. Body: I won the plank competition I had with my sister. Woohoo! Nice strong body! Food: I ate all kinds of fruit and veggies while away, partly thanks to the bed and breakfast serving 2-3 fruits per breakfast, and partly because my sister kept putting them in front of me. And I introduced her to chard, which she (at least) didn't know how to cook, probably had never knowingly eaten. Decision: When my mother got totally obnoxious on Saturday, I quietly picked up my jacket and bag and walked out. Hurrah for limits! (I came back the next morning as if nothing had happened, and she was much better for the rest of the visit.) [Oops - forgot the rules said to post things from today, i.e. the day I posted. Just consider this one to be a bit retroactive, since I couldn't get onto the site.]

Ouch! Take care of yourself. Slow progress >> injury.

Yay for vacations!

This is all great advice. Thank you. I like your idea of finding a group in the same situation to talk with. I have way too much trouble giving myself permission to be stressed and not entirely functional. I'm "supposed to" be perfect - and prop up everyone else who's getting upset about it too, such as my siblings. And that's quite simply not possible.

I'm about to go off the air for a week. I'll be visiting my mother, and there's something messed up with my nerdfitness forum account, such that I can only access it from one browser. I've tried asking the browser to show me my passwords and typing what I see into another browser - no luck. Eventually the site locked me out for a while due to too many failures. I'll be home late Wed 20 Aug - and the next morning it's off to a 2 day work thing. So I may be gone from now till Saturday 23 Aug - or on the other hand, I may manage to post as late as Tues 12 Aug, and as soon afterwards as Wed 20 Aug; much depends on how tired I am.

I'm about to go off the air for a week. I'll be visiting my mother, and there's something messed up with my nerdfitness forum account, such that I can only access it from one browser. I've tried asking the browser to show me my passwords and typing what I see into another browser - no luck. Eventually the site locked me out for a while due to too many failures. I'll be home late Wed 20 Aug - and the next morning it's off to a 2 day work thing. So I may be gone from now till Saturday 23 Aug - or on the other hand, I may manage to post as late as Tues 12 Aug, and as soon afterwards as Wed 20 Aug; much depends on how tired I am.

Hmm, I had answers in my head as I read along; not sure I still have them ;-) 1) a) Radio dispatch that you are on scene and will be scouting the fire. why? more information is better than less information. so why wait until you have info to at least let them know you are there. 2) c) assign a crew member to do a spot weather check, record it, and tell you the results. why? you need to know, and you've got enough to do personally. 3) c) The safety of your firefighters That's *always* the primary concern. But "letting dispatch know" seems like a close second 4) But of these choices for why ... c) you are about to crest a hill ... you cannot see it an fire moves more quickly ... 5) Steps to mitigate the risk c) a and b - emphasis on (a) because that focusses on the risk to your crew, whereas ( b ) focusses more on the risk to the neighbourhood 6) what do I do next? definitely c) - update despatch, confirm need for helicopter not a - taking down a smouldering tree seems like a great way to get hurt, and unlikely to help keep the fire from spreading. You just want people to stay away from it... maybe b - flag the area as hazardous. so my answer is either c) (update dispatch) or e) (b [flagging] and c [dispatch]) By the way, this is wonderful. I'm really enjoying this. Learning a lot too; my experience with wildfire is quite limited. (I did once personally extinguish potential wildfire, when canoe camping in Canada - the morons in a campsite partway across the lake hadn't put out their campfire properly before leaving the site, and the campfire had gotten into the layer of organic material in the top soil, where it was smouldering. We noticed a small amount of smoke, canoed over and determined what was going on, then drenched everything with water from the lake using extremely improvised containers. Fortunately the whole mess was small enough that two untrained people could handle it...)

Challenge 5, week 3 -schedule- ----vegetable/fruit--- sugary positive office late health juice banana fresh oth root fresh oth total tea choc food post fruit fruit veg veg veg veg Sat Aug 9 no tired 2 Sun Aug 10 no 2 Mon Aug 11 yes Tues Aug 12 yes Wed Aug 13 travelling Thu Aug 14 away Fri Aug 15 away TOTAL Average prev total Ham Achilles Strauss Piriformis Mordor to bed awake naps sleep stretch stretch stretch Stretch steps miles climb total Sat Aug 9 0:01 8:32 3:00 11:32 5242 2 339 Sun Aug 10 1:30? 9:31 8:01 6995 3 342 Mon Aug 11 0:58 7:38 6:30 6103 2 344 Tues Aug 12 23:41 7:43 8:02 7991 3 Wed Aug 13 6654 2 Thu Aug 14 5663 2 Fri Aug 15 7699 3 TOTAL 46,347 17 Average 6621 5.67 step up lat bicep floor trainer cobra dog sun WoW clutter bosu low raise curl press yoga walk shine control Sat Aug 9 Sun Aug 10 Mon Aug 11 Tues Aug 12 Wedn Aug 13 Thu Aug 14 Fri Aug 15 TOTAL Average Note: dividing basis band steps by 2254 to estimate miles. Red indicates a failure Purple indicates a value below the mandated average Orange indicates an excused failure

I just have trouble adjusting to not being my normal self ;-) For today, my awesome decision is: **drumroll** Getting out of bed! In particular, getting up at 8:30, so I have a bit of time to spare before Saturday morning errands. Lots of stuff needs doing this weekend. Given how non-functional I was last week, I can't count on being fit to pack on Monday, so by Sunday bedtime I need to be all ready to hop on the plane Tuesday, and also organized for an office overnight which starts the day after I get back.