Rest day and the power of indulging

Today was my rest day. Not very resting though I have to tell you. I woke up at 6am because some builders were making noise outside my window... At 6am!!! I am still sleeping at that time, and they are already "noising" around!!! And I have to tell you, I went to bed only at 2... So, not much sleep.

At 9 I had to be at the university at the structural equation modelling (SEM) course - which to be honest was interesting and exciting, so I was not - thankfully - falling asleep. After that - as a normal PhD student - I got so excited, I went back home and started using SEM for my own data... By the evening I was exhausted from work, and sleepy. 

I did let myself indulge in a little bit of dinner: carrot-parsnip puree, quinoa (yes, I found it thanks to one of my readers Nina - Thank you so much!), several olives, a slice of cheese, pureed tomatoes with garlic and some weird bio-diet-ham (of only 8 cal a slice... weird! but I simply had to try it). All that with a little glass of wine, some candle light and instrumental piano music of genious Ludovico Einaudi... Perfect evening, just wish my sweetheart was here in person and not just on Skype... :)

Dinner, Week 7 with some extravagances... :)

I LOVE candles... Long time ago I used to find them a waste of time and space... Now I love the little flames...

One month with Meta and still going strong… Or?

Today is exactly a month since I started my journey. And I thought it is about time to talk a little about the journey itself, without counting kilos, calories, describing the workouts, the diet, whining how tough it all is and so on, and so forth… It is time to reflect, to think what has actually been going on in my head, to try to understand in what way has this journey changed me and my life so far. Because we are not talking only about kilos, calories, muscles and sexy butt here, are we? I mean, it might seem this way sometimes, but really – we are not. Those are just some of the visible results, some of the outcomes. Much more has been going on in the background, somewhere deep inside my head and sub-consciousness. Or not?

First and foremost, the workout has become part of my life. Even if it doesn’t fit in the schedule, even if I very often don’t start it with a smile on my face (cmon, I am just a human!), even if it intervenes with work… Yes, it has become a part of my mindset of the things to do. It is really on the way of becoming a habit, but I am not going to be risky and not remind myself: “You have to do it” every day. I think this is the longest ever commitment to workout and healthy lifestyle I ever had and managed to keep up with. I have to say, that even though I have not been able to follow the diet to the T, I still stuck with healthy eating – which is after all the most important thing. I think this is a right way for changing the mindset. I very often don’t have to tell myself “I am on diet, I should eat this”, but rather “This looks healthy and yummy”. And I guess this is really important.

This all been said, there are not just only positive things. I am still majorly struggling with the rest of my life. As I did start with putting the workouts the first thing on my daily to-do-list, it has moved my schedule at least 1.5. And I have never been good in scheduling and organizing. And instead of waking up an 1-2 earlier (which still happens sometimes), I keep waking up the same time I used to before, and then the workout takes around 1-2 hours from my work routine. You see, I am a PhD student, I have a free schedule to work whenever and wherever basically. So, it is really hard for an unorganized person like me to get into a good routine. I am still trying, and still struggling about 4 days out of 5… I have to start working on weekends too as I don’t get enough done over the workdays… The sad truths of my life. This problem sucks me into some bad moods and stress sometime, so the next thing on my monthly agenda is to GET INTO A ROUTINE. It is hard to start working out, but for me it is even harder to start doing so without hurting my other spheres of my life: professional and personal. Hence, this will be the agenda for month 2.

Day 18 of Metamorphosis

Ah, Sunday... I do find it hard to work out on Sundays. It is somehow a thought deep routed in the psyche that it is a REST day... Most of my life I have spent Sundays lazing around and not bothering much. Sometimes I did some home chores, like laundry and cleaning up, but normally I read, watched movies, surfed Internet aimlessly for hours... And now I have a workout to do AND a salsa training to go to. So, for me it is extremely hard to do either - not cos it is hard, but because my laziness tells me it wants to lie on the sofa and do nothing all day.

What do people do for lack of motivation? Honestly, I went to TAM community and read people's comments. Then looked through my blog - many many many times - saw my results from level 1, thought about the "social responsibility" I have to all of you guys, sighed and did my transform. I did not do DC, as I had two hours of salsa, so I think that is enough of dance for a Sunday, but I did get my butt off the comfy computer chair to do the MS. Level 2 is still hard for me. Now I am sitting and still feeling my abs - they do hurt and ache.

Hmmm well, as this is apparently the post of revelations, I have to be honest (to myself as well) and admit, I did not follow the diet very well for two days. On Friday I had a friend over and we went for a Mexican dinner (a nice restaurant, in Europe Mexican are almost never fast food...) - can't say it was the healthiest thing ever, but what can I do. On Saturday we went yet again to a Mexican restaurant - that was a coincidence! - as my friends from salsa were meeting there, and I simply ordered cilli con carne. Well, I know it is not the same one we have in our TA menu, but at least some sort of substitute. But to be fair - I did not eat much before that during the day, just had fruit and veg - both days. Overall, it is not so bad, and what can you do when you have social life, right? :) I am trying to keep the balance in all ways - and it means you have to keep with your normal social life too. Today I am back to the diet and eating well :) Now I am sitting with a cup of steaming herb tea and my veggie snack, and am procrastinating a little before going to bed very soon. Some results of my procrastination (and this is what gives me lots of motivation too) below.

Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful new day! :)