Week #1: A New Beginning

Once again I am late on my blog post due to the craziness of the week before. Even with the rest day on Tuesday, the remainder of the week still turned kind of insane. Wednesday through Saturday looked a whole lot like the picture above, except that there were usually other people in the room. It was just many, many hours of waiting for data to be imported into the new system, then a rush to validate it so that we could get the next import going. For those of us on the less-technical side of the project, there wasn't a lot we could do to speed things along, so we just waited for news and did what we could. This involved a lot of sitting around in a room full of computers and junk food.

In more resilient times I might have made it through the whole day without that first cookie, but most of my resilience has been chipped away in the past few months. To paraphrase the alcoholic saying, one cookie is too much, and a thousand aren't enough. The binge eater in me took over and let the sugar cut the tension, only feel terrible when I got home. At least I came home to an understanding partner who didn't get too judgy face about my lapse in willpower, and I was able to still enjoy my time at home with him in the evenings instead of sneaking more junk food.

My part was finally done on Saturday afternoon, so Frank and I took the opportunity to drive out to a farm about a half-hour away to pick up the first grass-fed quarter beef for our newly-established household. A new freezer of meat is always good inspiration to get on the right track with eating again. Of course, before heading home we did stop by a restaurant and brewery that he likes out that direction and had some beer and a definitely not-paleo late lunch, but it was a nice way to chill out a bit after the crazy few days of work.

On Sunday morning, I was finally able to sleep in and wake up to a fresh start. While I didn't feel up to the next long ride on my previously-planned schedule, we did get a nice ride in at Cooper's Gap, where we finally completed the "Cooper's Gap Highlight's" ride successfully.

So I've decided that instead of Week #71, that this will be the new Week #1. It's been a long journey getting to where I want to be in life (way more than the 10 weeks I originally planned), but I'm finally here. The cost has been that the last two to three months have really took their toll on my body and my fitness, especially the move, the conference, and the software upgrade. I'm afraid to look at the scale, but I've got to be at least ten pounds heavier than I was a year ago. However, things are finally back to where I don't see any big obstacles standing in my way. Now there's just the task of getting myself back into good habits so that little things don't throw me off so much.

So I am officially calling myself 2.5 days "clean" as far as eating, training, and sleep are concerned. I'm focusing on getting back to the basics again putting enough good days together until I start feeling like the healthy, resilient person that I was a year ago. It's going to be a tough first week, but I know that I've done it once, so I can do it again. Wish me luck!

It is also the anniversary of the day that Frank and I both had asparagus for dinner and I thought it was as good of a conversation starter as any.
Definitely glad I left that awkward comment.