Thwarted, Plus Phase 1 Wrap Up, Phase 2 Launch

My printer died, so I can't print out a new calendar to mark up with little checks. Plus, Phase 2 was going to involve printing as well. Oh, and I hurt my foot (as in, I got out of bed Monday morning and thought, "hey, that hurts." So no exercise for me.

And now we see why I need this project in the first place.

OK, so Phase 1 Wrap Up. I started to exercise quite a bit more often in weeks 3 and 4 than in the first 2 weeks. I went from 2 or 3 days a week to 5. However, 2 days of this involved walking on city streets in regular shoes for a mile or so and that may account for my foot pain. So I'll have to change into sneakers if I'm going to do that again. It's all about the arch support.

I had every intention of posting a photo of my calendar, but since the printer's broken, I can be bothered. No, I don't understand the logic of that, and yet, that is how I feel. Besides, if I touch the camera and it craps out too, it will not be good for my mental condition.

On to Phase 2! I have to work around the lack of printer and I can't let myself go another week without starting a new phase, so flossing it is! It dawned on me last week that I have no dental insurance any more and so maybe I'd better take better care of my teefers.

The Goal: to floss my teeth before bed every night. If it sounds easy to you, then you're just not appreciate the extent of my not caring about flossing. I had some really great dental tape once made by the people who make gore-tex, but I ran out and I haven't seen it anywhere since. Maybe I'll buy some fancy floss to keep myself motivated. But flossing before bed reduces morning breath (so my dentist says) and my morning breath could kill small animals, so I'd really better get on this one.

I'm not going to wrap up day 1 of phase 2 just yet because I want to have a snack and I'm not going to floss until after that. But posting has to happen! Blogging can wait for no floss! So we'll all just have to wait to see if I floss tonight or not. Can you stand the tension?

Phase 1, Day 27

Today's Roundup:
Exercise: Nope

Stay tuned for the final wrap up of Phase 1 and the start of Phase 2. For reals this time!

Phase 1, Day 26

Today's Roundup
Exercise: Check

I actually made it to the gym, even though I was exhausted all day. And now I'm even more exhausted. So much for everything else I was going to do tonight.

To the couch!

Phase 1, Day 25

Today's Roundup:
Exercise: Check!

I walked about 2 miles through the streets of Manhattan to get from work to the book signing I wanted to go to. If I had realized that this would involved going through Herald Square, past Penn Station and through Times Square, I might've taken a bus at least part of the way. That was a hell of a lot of people I had to fight my way through.

Lessons learned: Walking over a mile in shoes that are not sneakers will give you sore feet. Lugging my sneakers in to work and changing when I leave doesn't fill me with joy. Maybe I'll try the ol' wear the sneakers to commute and carry the (lighter) work shoes.

Now, Where was I?

We were without internet access for a few days. It was so traumatic, that I couldn't possibly consider blogging. Besides, we were piggybacked on a neighbor's wireless network, unbeknownst to them, so I wasn't about to do anything nonessential, which includes everything but checking e-mail.

I had planned on doing a wrap up of Phase 1 and starting Phase 2, but internet withdrawal rendered me incapable of such things. So I'm extending Phase 1 for another week. My project. I get to do that. Let me know if that seems too power mad.

Let's do a round-up of the days I didn't blog, shall we? I know we're all on the edge of our seats to see how much I was able to get off of my own seat.

Exercise:
Friday: Nope
Saturday: Check (vigorous cleaning)
Sunday: Nope (I might've given myself exercise credit for all the cleaning we did before people came over, except that I spent far more time on my butt, eating cheese.
Monday: Check (walked to class again)
Tuesday: Check (walked to writing group)

So I got 5 whole check marks last week and I already have 2 for this week. Excellent improvement over the first 2 weeks.

Phase One, Day 19

Today's Roundup
Exercise: Check

Go me. 4 whole check marks in a row! Whoop! Whoop!

Eh, whatever.

Phase 1, Day 18

Today's Roundup
Exercise: Check

Take that! 3 checkmark days in a row. Much more of this getting my act together and I may even get around to wrangling up graphics for the daily roundup. You'd think that someone compulsive enough to start a blog to manage their own self improvement projects would've taken care of that sooner. Just further proof that I really need this project.

Today's exercise was a trip to the gym and 40 whole minutes on the treadmill. Why so long? I was waiting for the latest chapter of Emma by Jane Austen to end. Librivox has really saved my ass with treadmilling. Even listening to music isn't usually enough to end the tedium of walk, walk, walking with no change in scenery. But audiobooks give me just enough stimulation to keep my mind from complaining loudly.

I'm planning on a repeat tomorrow. Go me!

Phase 1, Day 17

Today's Roundup
Exercise: Check

Thanks to good weather I was able to walk to writing group today. Go me!

And tomorrow? I am so getting my butt onto the treadmill. Interesting. It looks like Week 3 is finally the week when I'm actually able to do it. Maybe I need 4 week phases, so I can have a week of keeping it up before adding another thing. Well, I'll make sure that Phase 2 isn't something that could possibly get in the way of exercising. Because 4 weeks of me talking about whether or not I exercised is lame.

I've been avoiding talking too much about exercise issues and body issues and so on because I really just don't want to go there. I feel better when I exercise. I had barely been exercising at all. Therefore, more exercise needed to happen. And still does.

Future phases will include rambles on the tyranny of the To Do list and why the fuck does my purse weigh so much anyway?

Phase 1, Day 16

Today's Roundup
Exercise: Check

Much to my surprise. I was able to walk from work to the class I had this evening. This was somewhat negated by the McDonald's double cheeseburger I had on the way for dinner. I haven't eaten at McDo's for years, but apparently, it was exactly what the hangover gods were demanding. In my defense, I attempted to get a regular cheeseburger from the cafe downstairs from my office, but the grill was closed. However, I have yet to train my metabolism to eject the excess calories when they are justified, so I'll have to indulge less for the rest of the week.

But! Phase One is exercise more. Not burn more calories than I take in, even though that's implied. So no need to go off on a tangent driven by my food issues. I walked to class. And a little extra because I had the time. So it was definitely over a mile. Probably.

With any luck, I'll be able to walk to my writer's group tomorrow. Aw, crap. I just jinxed it.

Phase 1, Days 15

Today's Roundup
Exercise: Nope

Easter dinner with the family. No time for exercise, unless you count little kid wrangling. No? Oh, well, I didn't think so.

I have things going on after work Monday and Tuesday, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out. How do you all out there sneak in/squeeze in a little exercise when your schedule's packed?

Phase 1, Days 13 & 14

Completely forgot to post last night. I have no idea why--it was a long time ago.

Anyway, no exercising yesterday--Friday after work feels like relaxing time, not gym time. Plus, I spent the whole morning with a headache, so I feel like I deserve a medal for not having a donut just on principle. But no check mark.

Today, we cleaned the apartment like the wind. I shopped and cooked (more time on my feet), so that calls for a check mark.

So, three, count 'em three checkmarks in a week. Truly a Purim miracle.

Day 13 Roundup
Exercise: Nope

Day 14 Roundup
Exercise: Check

Aw, man, only one more week to go. I guess I should start deciding what Phase 2 will be.

Phase 1, Day 12

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Nope

Jinx!!! I jinxed it. I did wake up with my foot hurting. I once stepped wrong while walking down the street and ended up in a soft cast for a week. So I decided to wuss out and call it not pushing it. I even wore an ace bandage for most of the day.
I did spend the evening in front of my pet iMac plowing through my To Do list, but since I'm not on the Do Stuff on the To Do list phase (coming soon to a blog near you), no check mark for me today.

At least I have more vigorous cleaning planned for Saturday. If I can't manage to exercise 3 times in a week with the internets watching, then I just don't know.

Phase 1, Day 11

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Check

2 days in a row! Try not to faint from shock. Yoga class tonight. I even plan on hitting the treadmill tomorrow after work, though I fear the universe will smite me with something to keep it from happening now that I've been so bold as to declare my intentions.

I did hurt my foot an eensy bit tripping over my husband's shoe. While his foot was still in it. He didn't trip me on purpose, and even caught me as I fell, so it's all good. My foot feels OK now, but my clumsiness is such that I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up tomorrow unable to walk without an Ace bandage. I once walked around with torn cartilage in my knee for a year wondering why my bad knee (hurt when I was 12) was acting up so much.

Let's hope this isn't like that.

Phase 1, Day 10

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Check

Though I didn't make it to the gym today, my writing group was cancelled on account of hangovers (none of which were my own), so I came straight home from work and cleaned the fuck out of my kitchen. No, seriously. I was at it for 2 hours. Counters were cleaned, crumbs were vacuumed and stuff was organized. There's a lot of vigorous cleaning to do when you're a slob.

No pictures, because even clean, the counters still look kinda cluttered. That's just how I roll.

Phase 1, Day 8

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Nope

Woke up with a migraine so bad that even my miraculous new migraine pills couldn't get me up and off the couch today. I'm no longer in agony, either, so I can't really complain.

Nothing else got done today, either, which bothers me more than the lack of exercise. But I did get caught up on the DVR, so it'll be that much longer before it starts threatening to delete stuff. So there is that.

Phase 1, Day 7

Big St. Patrick's Day party at my aunt's house, which took up most of the day between the traveling and eating massive amounts of corned beef and cabbage.

And so, as I had suspected would happen:
Today's roundup:
Exercise: Nope

The weekly roundup--I exercised twice. Off to a smashing start.

Phase 1, Day 6

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Nope

Although really, my commute home involved so many stairs that my legs were exhausted by the time I got home, so that should count for something. But it doesn't, really, so tomorrow's another day, I guess. Which isn't bad. Each day is Pass/Fail and either my final grade isn't cumulative (clean slate each day), or I have nothing to beat at this point (no previous phases to compare to).

Besides, it's Friday night for crying out loud. People shouldn't exercise on Fridays. It's just not natural.

Phase 1, Day 5

Went to a book launch party after work, so no gym. How often does your chiropractor have their first book published? There were several things I wanted to do this evening, but this was the only one that wasn't going to happen again. You don't miss that.

Besides, I had every intention of sneaking in 10 minutes of yoga when I got home. That was destined not to happen as soon as I got a glass of wine at the party. I certainly didn't get drunk, but I was tired already from the daylight savings change and the wine just pushed me over into not going to get off the couch territory.

Remind me not to try to do anything at all for the first week after the Spring Ahead next year. I've been so wiped out that it took me until today to realize that I wasn't just tired from losing an hour of sleep. It's that my body thinks I woke up at 5:30 AM. For a non-morning person, that is 5 kinds of brutal.

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Nope

Phase 1, Day 4

Made it to yoga class today. Om to ya mutha.

Still sore, but much less achy than before.

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Check

Phase 1, Day 3

I briefly considered doing a few minutes of yoga when I got home tonight so that I could earn a check mark and loosen up (after yoga last night, I am much with the soreness), but it ain't gonna happen. I had my writer's group tonight after work, so there was no time to go to the gym.

And now I'm just too tired and I've felt like I'm coming down with something all day. So, to the couch!

Today's roundup:
Exercise: Nope