Build And Improve

[darna]

The last challenge has helped me to be consistent and accountable. I want to continue to build on these gains and improve other things that are not going well.  

 

The goals for this challenge:
1. Neck Stretches/Shoulder Mobility - In the last challenge, I have the exercises in my daily plan but I fail to do it. I tried doing it after I wake up or before going to bed but could never consistently do it. I need to improve on this. So, the plan is to do these exercises during the Daily Stand-up call at 10am.

 

2. Minimalism - Simplify. Try something every week along the concept of Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without.

3. Run/Walk - I've managed to make this consistent to the point that it feels effortless. Continue with the Monday to Thursday run/walk and Friday/Saturday/Sunday grocery run/walk. Listen to the Holy Bible audiobook on these run/walk.

4. Meal Plan/Tracking/Symptom Tracking In My Journal - Using a digital OneNote journal has become almost like a habit from the last challenge. I will continue to use this tool not just to plan my meals/food intake but also track the time/description of symptoms, then I can start to figure out some of cause of my allergies, inflammation and pain.

[darna]

Challenge#2 Week 0 has been a heck of a week. By end of Thursday, I was ready to give it up.
My last beer was last Christmas but after my 4:30pm Thursday meeting, I was so stressed I messed up my meal plan
by gorging on chocolate and mini egg pies. Opened a bottle of white wine and had a glass. Over 25+ years working in 
Information Technology (IT), I thought I had met all kinds of people. What an incredibly sad day for the company
that one of its people is a total narcissist and he is one of my customers. My first thought was - wow, what kind of 
parents raised such a person? Then, the next thought was, dang, if he has a wife, I feel totally sorry for her to live
with such a person. Third, I thought, I hope if he has children they don't grow up to be like him. I've reflected 
many times on my judgmental thoughts. I've talked to my manager and he has stated the same thing too. I know
and met this person's boss too and I don't know how he managed to weasel his way in. But, I guess there are such 
things as functioning narcissist. I have thought about this situation if this is how I want my life to be. Working for 
somebody I totally despise. Will there be a re-org in the company's future and this person will move on to another 
position? Hmmm, having a glass of wine and reflecting on these thoughts is probably not the best thing...

 

[Elastigirl]

Sorry that you have to deal with such a self absorbed person. Hopefully, your contact with him will be minimal

[Manarelle]

On 2/12/2021 at 8:47 PM, darna said:

Over 25+ years working in 
Information Technology (IT), I thought I had met all kinds of people. What an incredibly sad day for the company
that one of its people is a total narcissist and he is one of my customers. My first thought was - wow, what kind of 
parents raised such a person? Then, the next thought was, dang, if he has a wife, I feel totally sorry for her to live
with such a person. Third, I thought, I hope if he has children they don't grow up to be like him. I've reflected 
many times on my judgmental thoughts. I've talked to my manager and he has stated the same thing too.

 

Mmm... I feel like there's a difference between "judgmental thoughts" and "realizing someone is a tool." Bad judginess is when you don't know much about someone and infer awful things. Having to deal with someone and realizing they're a tool is recognizing reality so you can plan how to minimize their impact on your life. Sorry you've gotta deal with this person. Any chance you could set boundaries to minimize how MUCH you have to? 

[Xena]

Sorry you had such a negative experience with this person 😞

[darna]

On 2/12/2021 at 10:27 PM, Elastigirl said:

Sorry that you have to deal with such a self absorbed person. Hopefully, your contact with him will be minimal

 

Thanks. Appreciate your kind thoughts. The world works in mysterious ways. A new AVP joined the team. I believe we will be dealing with him in the future for most stuff.

 

On 2/14/2021 at 2:16 PM, Manarelle said:

 

Mmm... I feel like there's a difference between "judgmental thoughts" and "realizing someone is a tool." Bad judginess is when you don't know much about someone and infer awful things. Having to deal with someone and realizing they're a tool is recognizing reality so you can plan how to minimize their impact on your life. Sorry you've gotta deal with this person. Any chance you could set boundaries to minimize how MUCH you have to? 

 

Thanks for your concern. It was just the weirdest thing. We would recommend all things to help him out and automate his needs but he would always derail anything. I would setup a multi-team meeting. He is critical on this because whatever his input would be the business logic to use. He accepted but never showed up. As he keeps the process of the actual calculations to himself, nobody could really explain anything on the call. So, I told my boss, we will reply to his emails and provide any documentation but that's it. There was another call and the same item got brought up. He just says it's a separate thing and will deflect the conversation to another topic. He speaks in a very condescending manner. But, perhaps, that is just the way he is. I stay out of his way. I let my boss answer the emails. I have more than enough work with several other business users. 

 

On 2/14/2021 at 8:43 PM, Xena said:

Sorry you had such a negative experience with this person 😞

Thanks. Appreciate your warm thoughts. Incidentally, something good did happen on that last call with him. He strongly stated that my boss should work with his IT team and that actually resolved something else. Managers can be territorial about their turf. My manager would play this cat-and-mouse game with the other IT manager. I could never understand it even when he explained it to me. I come from a place of abundance not fear. My manager, this other IT manager, and this annoying director are all Indians (from India). There must be something cultural at play here. The new AVP is thankfully 'not Indian'. There is hope after all...

[darna]

Challenge 2 - Week 0 - Feb 07-13, 2021 Update

Hmmm, I wined oops whined too much, I forgot to post my Challenge 2 - Week 0 - Feb 7-13, 2021 Update

 

Neck Stretches/Shoulder Mobility - 3 times (Tue, Thurs, Fri) out of 5

The plan to do this during my work day Daily Stand-up call at 10am didn't quite work out. I needed to pay attention to Sprint Backlog displayed on my laptop's tiny screen. I only managed to do 2-mins of neck stretches and then I get distracted by the discussion going on. 'Need to schedule this in.

 

Shoulder Mobility    - 0 out of 5
I would rate my shoulder pain as 7 out of 10 (most painful). I need to get my act together on fixing this. 

 

Minimalism - Simplify. Try something every week along the concept of Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without.    

Use It Up: Finally used up that bottle of Sandwich Spread to make the Egg Salad
Wear It Out: It's been cold lately, so I decided to use my MH down jacket. My thoughts had been for most things, if I didn’t use it in a year, I must donate it. 'Love this jacket. It is so warm. I am glad I am able to use it again.
Make It Do: I received a small Air Fryer last Christmas. After 2 weeks of using it, I have decided to probably  donate it. I already donated my microwave oven but I actually have a Toaster Oven and  will do for what I need. I have a tiny counter space this has freed up more real estate.
Do Without: I had one of those wind-up visual timer and really loved using it. But, now it is broken after a year. So, I've been looking for another one but I think I can do without it. I have tried timer apps in my phone but that takes too much time. The wind-up timer takes one twist and it is set. But, it has not been keeping the proper time. The last 30-min time I set ended up being 1 hour. And, i thought time passed by so slow. I do have another Ikea wind-up timer. I have doubts on this one as well. Not super accurate. I think it actually runs faster.

 

Run/Walk
Feb 07 (Sun) - No run/walk. Spent entire day cooking/baking.
Feb 08 (Mon) - 3.30 mi
Feb 09 (Tue) - 3.22 mi
Feb 10 (Wed) - 5.32 mi
Feb 11 (Thu) - 3.51 mi
Feb 12 (Fri) - 3.23 mi
Feb 13 (Sat) - 4.16 mi
Weekly Total  - 22.74 mi - Mostly walking than running but I'm getting outside.

 

Meal Plan/Tracking/Symptom Tracking
I usually do One Meal A Day (OMAD) with 16-8 fasting on weekdays. My feeding window is between 2pm-8pm with essentially one big meal - lunch. I usually eat around 2pm. Oftentimes, I snack late which I really try to avoid but I still crave sweets late in the evening especially on a stressful day. I consider anything > 100 calories breaks the fast. But, I don't stress about this. I have eliminated lots of food and track my intake to avoid allergies and inflammation. The last couple of weeks I have been drinking purified water instead of tap water filtered by Brita, which does not really filter out heavy metals. I've stopped taking most of my supplements except for the collagen and iodine microdrops that go with my buttered coffee. My allergies have calmed down but it acts up again if I drink soda (coke) at night. The soda removes that 'taste' in my mouth when I eat something spicy. There are so many things on my 'NO' list that it is better to just think of my 'YES' what I can eat list. So, my meal planning/prep revolves on that. I cook on week-ends for the entire next week, portion, and freeze them. Whatever is scheduled for that day, I take them out in the morning while making coffee and they get defrosted by 2pm. I don't cook on weekdays, except for the sunny-side up eggs 3x a week. 

 

I try to take a photo before I eat but sometimes I forget especially during the snacking part 😉.  Here are some from Week 0.

Spoiler

  

 

 

 

[Loveable_Bouncer]

Wow that food pics! Hope the maintaining your allergic reactions and food tracking is going well!

 

I feel yah on the neck pain, I feel I don't have it as bad but is up there to make life difficult.

[Manarelle]

Hey, how are the goals? Hope things are going well even if you don't have time to post.