Spring Renewal

01. April 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

Today is the last day of spring break. Tomorrow we all head back to work and school and begin the sprint until summer vacation.  We really only have about 6 weeks left.  Exams begin before memorial day and yes, there will be frantic grading, but the daily instruction ends just before memorial day.

We travelled over break, which was a good thing, though tiring.  We visited family in various parts of the country, driving 12 hours straight to get back home on Friday, a day earlier than planned.

I spent the last couple of days cleaning a bit and thinking a bit.  Now is about the time that those New Year’s resolutions start to fade.  I had resolved to keep up with our finances better.  I did well in January and February, and then March came and it all went to hell.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I had wanted to keep tabs on spending so we could control it better. My goal is to save enough money for our vacation, so we don’t resort to credit spending, which is often what happens.  I’m trying to pay off the credit debt as well, but extra medical expenses from this year’s mental health crisis have used up any extra I might have had to do that.  We’re still paying those expenses off, as well as incurring new ones.

I’m also slightly disgusted with my body right now.  I started doing yoga again, but the 10-15 lbs I’ve put on over the years that have bumped me up a couple of sizes and made me not want to wear a bathing suit are starting to really bother me.  I read two friends’ blog posts this morning about similar frustrations (and successes!) so that inspired me to think about returning to healthier habits.  One friend said she gave up processed foods and just moved more and lost a ton of weight.  I’m sure I could lose a few pounds that way, but I don’t know about 10.  If I needed to lose 50, I think that strategy alone would work.  But I do tend to sit more than I should, and I have been eating terribly lately.  So I thought it might be easy to start with the eat less, move more strategy for a couple of weeks and see where that gets me.  I’m vowing not to sit until much later in the day.  I have a tendency to come home and flop on the couch.  Instead, I’m going to tackle some projects around the house–cleaning out things, gardening, etc.  Or I’ll walk the dog.  I’m also going to eat better.  I’ve been through far too many tubs of french onion dip this year (and the bags of chips to go with them).  So I’m going to shift to fruits and vegetables and I’m going to focus on eating only when I’m hungry.  Like many people, I eat when I’m bored, or as a side activity to watching tv or something else.  If I’m not getting anywhere still, I’ll add more activity, but for now, this is a start.

I always find it slightly disappointing when I don’t stick with something I thought I really wanted to do, but I also know there have been things in my life that I’ve slacked off on and that I’ve kept starting over again that I eventually got right.  And, I never strive for perfection.  If I did that, nothing would ever get done.

So maybe I have to renew my commitments every couple of months.  Whatever works, I say.

Self improvement

07. August 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

I just finished Drop Dead Healthy, thanks to the kind recommendations of my readers. It was a good read, both informative and funny, and not too preachy. Clearly, Jacobs has a penchant for self improvement as I will admit to suffering from since I was a kid. I once walked with a book on my head. I’ve tried diets and exercise plans. I’ve tried to develop hobbies that I thought might be “good for me”.

Why do we do these things? It’s a question the book asks but doesn’t answer fully. Certainly, there’s vanity. I know that’s been a factor for me as I’ve aged. There’s also the desire to extend our lives, to spend as much time here on earth as possible. That’s certainly a factor for Jacobs. He also mentions his feeling of righteousness, something I know can be motivating. You sat around and watched TV? Well, I went for a 5 mile run!. It’s not pretty, but you know it’s true. Most importantly, I think we all want to feel better, to feel the best we possibly can. Feeling good is subjective, of course, and some of those other factors feed into feeling good. Some of us feel good when we physically look better (by losing weight, by having good skin, etc.). But ultimately, that feeling becomes more internal than external.

And so, I think it’s about finding the balance. I feel good when I do some physical activity every day. But running wasn’t quite the thing for me–too hard on my back. I don’t mind, and even prefer, eating mostly vegetarian. But I don’t want to drink my meals or never have a piece of chocolate (which has benefits in small doses anyway). But there are definitely habits I’d like to change. Inertia is a strong force, though. But it can be overcome.

Food and its (Dis)Contents

24. July 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,
First round of food

First round of food (Photo credit: lorda)

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Laura wrote today about her and her family’s struggles with food.  I feel her pain.  Mr. Geeky and I both would like to lose weight, but we are both too busy and too lazy (in many ways) to make it happen.  A while back I wrote about loving to experience my food fully.  That often involves food that’s not great for me.  Mr. Geeky is less interested in the whole food experience.  For him, food is more about fuel.  There are days he gets so involved in work, he forgets to eat.  Then some colleague will wander by, suggest they go out to eat, and next thing you know, he’s had 2000 calories.

Mr. Geeky doesn’t cook.  He finds it a foreign enterprise.  He will grill, but I have to plan the meal. We’ve compromised by having Mr. Geeky do the grocery shopping, though he’s not as picky about what he’s buying, organic or grass-fed beef, forget it.  We have tried this summer to cut back on carbs, especially sugar and increase our veggies.  It’s hard.  As Laura pointed out, it takes more time to prepare a meal made mostly of veggies.  We’re just not used to it.  I usually throw on some pasta and sauce and call it a day.

Right now, I have the luxury of time to shop, plan, and cook all I want, but once school starts, time will be short, and it’s likely I’ll be back to throwing around pasta.  I had managed to incorporate some exercise into my life before leaving for India, but haven’t gotten back to it.  So, I need to move more and eat less.  And do it in a limited amount of time.  Sigh.

And it sort of takes the joy out of it sometimes.  I love going to the farmer’s market, making meals, and, of course, eating.  But when I have to think about it so much, it makes it slightly less enjoyable.  So, I need to figure out things to do that will not detract from the enjoyment so much.

Sustainability

17. July 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

This is my new mantra. I mean it in terms of earth-saving but I also mean it in terms of doing things that can be sustained. On the earth-saving front, I’ve started composting and redoubling my recycling/reuse efforts. I’m trying mostly to be more conscious of using plastic bags, which seem to multiply like rabbits around my house.

On sustaining activity, I’m still trying to figure out what works best. I’m purging things, which I think is going to help. We just have too much stuff. I can’t tell you how much time and money we lose because we can’t find something. I’m also trying to think about putting habits in place that I’m likely to stick with because they’re easy. I had started running, but I’m not sure I’ll stick with it. It seriously hurt my body. I’m still figuring out what to replace it with and when. Walking is a good option, of course, and I’m contemplating some yoga again. I’ve also changed some eating habits. Mr. Geeky and I are making a concerted effort to eat less carbs and more fruits and veggies. It helps that he’s on board and not whining for pasta, and that we have one vegetarian among us. We’ve started making smoothies in addition to eating more as side dishes or main items. Right now, with so much in season, it’s easy to get great stuff. We’ll see what happens when fall and winter roll around.

I’m not trying to be perfect with any of this, which is a tendency of mine. I’m just trying to smooth out the rough edges, to try to make my life better by making some small changes that fit it on with my current lifestyle. A work in progress, as always.

RBOC: Long time no blog

16. April 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Teaching

  • My CS class is cruising right along, and have begun their final projects.  I’m quite pleased with what they’ve accomplished so far, and am looking forward to their final projects.  They’ve presented their topics, and I like them all.
  • One of the surprising things about teaching programming has been the subjectivity that goes into grading the programs.  I could grade them purely on functionality.  If it works, it gets an A.  If not, it’s a failure.  But there’s such a thing as programs that almost work and programs that work, but do so in a really wrong way.  I find myself confronting programs that are complex, but don’t work and programs that work but are too simplistic.  Not that different from grading essays really.
  • I’m becoming increasingly aware that I need to reflect a bit more on the structure of this class and make some tweaks to it for next year before I forget.

Mentoring

  • This is something I have done a lot of and continue to do, and I love this part of my job.  I’m helping some individual students, and I’m adding some extracurriculars that I hope provide some more informal opportunities for students to be involved with computing.
  • I often wonder what I’m mentoring my students into.  The field is still male-dominated, and can be hostile. Though I know they can hold their own on the programming front, I worry about all the side issues: the sexism, the lack of women in the field, etc.
Other job-related things
  • Can I just say I love the faculty I work with?  I went to a meeting the other day with other people who do my job at other schools, and so many of them complained about how no one did anything with technology, or they had to be pushed into it.  Not me.  I could tell story after story about different teachers doing some really cool things.
  • The year is winding down.  There are awards to hand out, special dances, celebratory dinners.  Light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

Health and Exercise

  • As my clothes get increasingly tighter, I’ve tried to integrate some kind of exercise into my life.  It painful to do.
  • I’ve tried to get technology to help me, but it’s imperfect at best.  It still requires me to actually enter information. And tracking calories in and calories burned is tedious.
  • What I know I need is better habits.  I’m giving the couch to 5k program a try as a kickstarter, but I’m really not a fan of running.  But if it can get me in the habit of running/walking 3 times a week, maybe it will be worth it.
  • On the diet front, I’m not perfect but better.  I find it relatively easy to stick with a decent diet.  Today, I had oatmeal, salad, some chips and guacamole, and a ham sandwich with a side of applesauce.  And water all day.  Where I fall down is chocolate and alcohol.  My hope is more exercise will allow me to have those treats and not put on a pound just for looking at them.
  • I try not to think about it, but part of me just wants to let myself go.  Which isn’t a good idea for multiple reasons.

Resolution check-in

06. January 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

A week mostly down.  How did it go?

  • Laundry every day: check! So far, so good.
  • Meal planning: not so good.  I had my dad visiting through the beginning of my work week.  We didn’t make it to the grocery store while he was here nor after he left.  So it’s been leftovers and frozen pizza.  Which isn’t horrible, but still.
  • Decluttering: check! I missed a day because I literally wasn’t here, but other than that, I’ve made progress. I’m trying not to think about how overwhelming it is to deal with all the crap. I’ve got a pile to keep and a pile to give away–with even a pickup scheduled today! I’m also decluttering 15 minutes a day in my classroom. So yay!
  • Yoga once a week: check! I even brought a friend with me this week.  So far so good.
  • Budget stuff: sort of check! It’s too early to tell, but I am keeping a close eye on things.  I think this resolution should be changed to something like check accounts every day.  Knowing about spending leads to not over spending.
  • Walk every day: not so much.  I have walked the dog, but that doesn’t really count.  Frankly, it’s just too cold outside.  Mr. Geeky is talking about getting a treadmill, so that might help.
  • Write a program every day: check! A couple of these have been simple examples for class, but still.  And I’m writing my own version of an old game I used to play, just for fun and practice. It’s text right now, but I’m going to graphic-ize it once I have it functioning the way I want.

So not too bad.  I’m taking it a day at a time.  How are you doing?

Refining the resolutions

30. December 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

Over the last 24 hours or so, I’ve been thinking about what I really want to accomplish this year, and more importantly, why?  Here’s my list so far:

1. Keeping the house cleaner, more organized.  I find it stressful to come home to a messy kitchen with no food to prepare and piles of laundry to do.  I find the complete Flylady method a little overwhelming and too much to achieve if you work out of the home.  She does recommend a load of laundry per day, which I think I can manage.  I’d also like to get better at meal planning, recruiting the kids to do a little more in this regard.  Geeky Boy got a cookbook for Christmas, so I’ve suggested that he do the cooking on the night I have yoga.  Last year, and even the beginning of this year, I did pretty well on the meal front and had 3-4 meals scheduled each week, hoping for leftovers on at least one or two days.  Mr. Geeky does the grocery shopping, giving me some time to really think through the planning. So I think I can manage this.  I also want to really focus on decluttering.  Our house is a reasonable size, but we don’t have that much storage.  I feel that we have way too much stuff.  There are boxes of things we never use.  We have old cell phones sitting around that could be donated.  There are board games and toys that we’ve held onto for some reason. So, here’s my house cleaning resolutions in a nutshell:

  • Do a load of laundry every day. Wash, dry *and* fold.
  • Plan meals for each week and stick to the plan.  Also have easy backup meals on deck (pasta and sauce, sandwiches) for days when the plan falls apart or when the hoped-for leftovers do not appear.
  • Declutter 15 minutes/day.  At the end of the declutter session, make sure unwanted items are headed where they need to go–trash or donation pile.  I will start at the front of the house and work my way back, then move upstairs from front to back.  I think this will take the whole year.  I also think this will be the hardest plan to stick with.

2. Getting fit, developing an exercise habit.  For now, I’m not going to worry too much about eating.  Over the holidays, I’ve indulged in chips and snack food, chocolate, too much wine and beer, but during “normal” times, I’m much better and my eating habits are not that bad.  We eat mostly vegetarian and fish, not a lot of red meat and I try to incorporate vegetables as much as possible.  Though I think I should add more fruits and veggies, especially as snacks, until I’m set in my fitness routine.  Here’s my plan for that:

  • Yoga once a week, with a plan to increase to twice a week after 3 months.
  • Go for a walk every day.  I feel like I need to do something every day, and I like walking.  I don’t even need to put special clothes on.  I’m going to start with a mile, but work up to 3.  Time-wise, I’m not sure I can go further than that.

3. Sticking to the budget.  I must admit that I often hate dealing with money.  Always have.  In times when we had no money, we checked our accounts all the time, making sure we didn’t overdraw (not that we didn’t on occasion).  Now, we’re less careful, and though we don’t often overdraw, we do end up charging things or not buying things that we wanted to because we overspent.  So here’s the plan for that:

  • Reduce spending by $100/month in each of these categories: groceries, eating out (including fast food), and shopping.  The plan is to increase the reduction if possible.
  • Put the amount saved in these categories (up to $300/month) into savings.

Well, I think that’s enough to start with.  I have at least one more that I’m contemplating.  It’s kind of work-related.  Back in September, I promised myself I’d practice programming every day.  Though I’ve come close to that, it’s not perfect.  I need to make time at work to do this.  So I’m still thinking about how this would work.

Moving forward

29. December 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

So I went to a yoga class last night run by my old friend with whom I used to do yoga 10 years ago.  It was fabulous.  I am actually sore today, but in a good way.  I think I worked every muscle in my body.  The class is offered every Wednesday, so I think I’ll start going at least to that, and then maybe add another class later.

Another area I want to work on in the coming year is money.  We suck at budgeting.  We usually manage to come out okay, but every once in a while, we find ourselves resorting to a credit card, and, in general, we’re not saving enough.  I have made a good effort to pay off our credit cards, but need to do some work in that area.  One thing I keep talking about doing is canceling cable and our land line.  That would save us over $100/month.  We subscribed to Netflix streaming, and have used it a lot.  Geeky Girl and I spent our time over the break watching How I Met Your Mother from the beginning.  Though we’d seen most of the episodes, we enjoyed watching them in order.  Mr. Geeky watches whatever movies it throws at him.  He’s on a foreign film kick at the moment.

I have no problem canceling cable.  We have TiVo and frankly, if we didn’t, this decision would be a lot easier.  We’d just figure out whether to go with Apple.tv or Google.tv or Boxee, etc.  As it is, we’re trying to figure out things that will work with our existing box.  We can access Netflix and Amazon.  We could also go with Hulu plus, which is available on TiVo as well.  But newer services like Vudu are not available and you can’t really just go to a web site like Clicker.com to connect to your shows of choice.  We could connect a computer to our tv, but then we need remote control.  We’d actually lose some of the shows we watch regularly.  At least, we’d lose the convenience of being about to watch them in one place at the click of a button. So I think we’ll keep looking and thinking about it.  And I know, we could give up tv altogether.  Not outside the realm of possibility.

Mr. Geeky and I went over our budget the other day and most of our money goes to food (both groceries and eating out) and shopping (mostly for clothes).  We’re going to try to cut back a little in those areas.  I think that will have a bigger impact than getting rid of cable.  I’ve proposed cutting those by a couple hundred each.  We may have to start slow, but maybe we’ll get there.  We definitely like our food!

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Losing weight, getting fit, again

28. December 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

For the last five or so years, I’ve wanted to lose weight.  I’ve written about it here a lot.  I’ve made it a New Year’s Resolution many times.  And many times, I’ve failed to lose weight.  I’ve fallen off the exercise/diet wagon.  I was lamenting not having time to exercise to someone last night, and they said, “You have to make time for it.”  Which I know.  And I can’t decide where to make time.  Morning seems out unless I get up 1/2 hour earlier, which I don’t see happening.  I have a hard enough time with the crack of dawn hour I get up at now.  Last year, I did get home at a semi-reasonable hour most days–by 4 or 4:30, which allowed time for a walk or something and which I honestly did every once in a while.  But now I’m running an after-school program and I sometimes don’t get home until 6.  On my best days, I’m home at 5:15.  My inclination when I get home is not to jump into an exercise routine, but have a glass of wine, chat with husband and start dinner.

My other issue is what kind of exercise to do.  Walking is fine and dandy, but it’s working the same muscle groups and probably not doing anything to work off inches where I want, namely, my butt and thighs. Also, I get wimpy about cold weather.  I’d like to do some yoga again, but feel the need to take a class, which costs money.  Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and do that.  I have a friend who runs a yoga studio and I think I should look into that.

So, I keep seeing this series of decisions I can’t seem to make and failing.  I’m inclined to at least give it a try.  Mornings are out, evenings are in, and dammit, I’m going to call my friend with the yoga place.  I’ll let you know how it works out.

 

Graph of the weight, wealth relationship over time

13. August 2009 · Write a comment · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,


Heh.

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