fit, happy
Posts by Bethany
Sleep
0Sleep is something that is an issue these days, although I’ve never really been good at “normal” schedules. If left to my own devices my bedtime will promptly become 2am, and will creep later from there if I don’t stop it. I think I am wired to be nocturnal. However, lately my issue is that on Mondays, I don’t get off work until 11. And I can’t just come home and go to bed 10 minutes later – the brain needs time to unwind. But since I need to be at my other job in the morning, I always seem to start off my week behind on sleep. I mean, don’t feel too bad, I don’t have to be up until 8, but that’s not as much sleep if you don’t go to bed until 2. It’s a problem that is mostly of my own making, but that doesn’t mean I’m very capable of fixing it. My body seems to have a mind of its own when it comes to sleep.
Which brings me to tonight, which is a Thursday night, which means that I have my Friday 7am shift tomorrow. Which means I should really be asleep already. But I’m not…sadly not unusual. But at the moment I have an excuse, because I’m on the C and E phases of the old injury RICE acronym for tonight (that’s Compression and Elevation, if you’re keeping track – already covered Ice), and I have to wait until my 20 minute timer goes off, so I might as well do something.
Oh yeah and I may have slightly sprained my knee a few weeks ago. Right after I was getting over spraining my ankle. BECAUSE I AM AWESOME. And also apparently uncoordinated and a little dumb. The ankle wasn’t my fault so much, I was sparring and got tangled up with a spastic teenager who kindly stepped on my ankle as I was rolling it, which was pretty great.
The knee was probably my due for pushing myself too far my first couple classes back after the ankle (well, first non- teaching classes). I was sore and my foot wasn’t really responding the way it usually would, and I think I was unconsciously favoring it. At any rate, I must not have been pivoting on my round kicks. And as I always tell my students…not pivoting it bad news bears for knees. It wasn’t anything dramatic, just an exceedingly stiff and sore knee after class that stuck around for a while. Not even the first time it’s happened, but definitely the worst.
But as with all my injuries, it will heal. Being banged up is part of the game, especially when trying to recover from an injury like my foot. And the bright side is that I haven’t even thought about my foot. It’s gotten some extra rest an is doing remarkably well for once, and I’m feeling pretty good about things going forward. So onwards and upwards, broken parts and all.
Work
0Alright, the whole new job thing has taken a lot more energy than I even thought. I spent all of February running, trying to fit training in and pick up shifts when I could, while also trying to hold down my previous job, and it got a little crazy. Then March…I don’t even know what happened to March. It was less crazy in theory, but I still feel like I blinked and it was halfway over. Such is life, I guess.
On the bright side, I am getting paid, which was much-needed, and I’m starting to get back into a normal-ish schedule. As much as my schedule is ever normal. And I was forced to miss a bunch of practice…not really good per se but it did keep me off my foot and various other injuries enough to probably be good for them. Hopefully though I can get back into the swing of things at the school next week.
Oh and I really do like my new job. I can’t really discuss my day-to-day there, but it’s been good.
Resolution
0Kraaavvvv how I love you. I am so tired right now that I could pass out on my desk, but it was worth it. Life is crazysauce, but if I make it through this week it might get slightly less so.
So I am of two minds when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. On the one hand, they’re very cliche and tend to be made and abandoned. On the other hand, I think there’s a lot of value in taking time to asses where my life is, and where it’s headed, and how I feel about it. I think goals are interesting to look back at through the year, even if things end up changing and they become less relevant or not doable. And if I’m halfway through the year and I see I’ve lost track of what I wanted to be doing, I can course-correct.
So anyway, I tried to set some reasonable new habit-goals for myself this year, but as usual I slightly overestimated what was reasonable and doable. First off, doing P90x every day, all the way through the program. This was a tentative goal that was dependent on my various broken parts, and on how well I could hold up to doing that on top of everything else I’m doing workout-wise. The result was that my foot did ok, as long as I didn’t do cardio stuff, and my shoulder was ok until I stacked a chest workout onto a Krav Maga day full of pushups and holding pads for a very big guy with very little control. But if you take out that, well…there’s a stretching workout, I think? So back to the drawing board. I may still do some of the workouts when I can, but I may just kick up my Taekwondo and/or Krav classes instead…depending on my work schedule, etc. The new job didn’t help with this one either, since my schedule’s been such a mess that my sleep schedule is nonexistent and I’m running pretty ragged whether or not I work out.
Another goal is/was blogging daily (or weekdaily, which is a term I just made up), or at least regularly. This one’s touch and go, but I’m not going to surrender just yet. This is also a new-job casualty, since I haven’t had a lot of time, and when I do I end up spending it doing something that requires less of my brain (hello, Netflix). All evidence to the contrary, I do try to write when I’m coherent enough to make SOME kind of sense.
In the end, I have a whole collection of other goals for the year, and some are going to go better than others. But whatever goals I may or may not accomplish, they give me some direction, and they make me stop and think about why I’m doing things. It’s very zen, but it’s been something that really raises my overall happiness level/sanity. I have a tendency to just keep driving ahead and forget to stop and look around and figure out what I’m doing and why. And in general, if I don’t make lists I get so much anxiety from trying to hold everything in my head that I forget half of it and don’t get the rest of it done.
So anyway, yay goals! I try not to be too philosophical, but I feel like I end up sounding very cheesy self-help-book-esque anyway, sorry. The goal thing really is helpful. It’s like gratitude journaling – it sounds like a very silly thing, but there’s research showing that it actually makes people significantly happier. Three things you’re grateful for, written down every day, equals a little happier life. So simple it shouldn’t work, but it does. Ditto for meditation – a lot of people (at least a lot of people I know) scoff at meditation, but studies show it’s ridiculously good for you – improved concentration, decreased anxiety, better memory, better health, there’s even evidence suggesting that it might extend your lifespan if done regularly, and a whole bunch of other stuff (I am going to be really lazy and not source all this, but if you are curious let me know and I can hook you up with sources. Real APA-published sources, not someguysawesomeblog.com links, I promise). And OH MY GOD DOG FINE I WILL LET YOU OUTSIDE NOW! COULDN’T YOU WAIT UNTIL I AM DONE WITH TWO MORE SENTENCES. SHEESH. PETS. Ahem. No wonder I don’t get anything done. Anyway, this last bit was mostly so I don’t feel quite so dumb writing about goals and being all “writing makes all my feels better!” Justification! Hooray!
Hope your goals are going well, and if they’re not, then join me in resolving to continue to try. If you don’t have some you should write some. And enjoy the ahh…type of precipitation or lack thereof currently at your house. If you live near me, then that means gorgeous fluffy snow which may or may not be gone by morning.
Wheeee surprises
0Titles like this are what happens when I write at 1am, and I apologize in advance for any other weirdness. The surprise was getting to Taekwondo, absolutely exhausted from work and lack of sleep, and gradually realizing that my instructor wasn’t just late, he wasn’t coming. This suspicion was confirmed by another adult black belt coming over to tell me that she was there to help me with class. My instructor had spaced and hadn’t told me he’d be gone. This is fine, really, it just threw me totally for a loop…nothing like adjusting on the spot.
So my brain did its best to shift from tired help to tired person in charge who needs to remember how class works and remember everyone’s names and run class while calming down a kid who got bonked in the head and keeping things from turning into a complete chaotic disaster thankyouverymuch. It went pretty well – I had good help. Good help cannot be underestimated… It’s the best thing in the world. We have kids who help out as “junior leaders,” but most of the time they don’t actually know how to be helpful yet. So that means teaching students while simultaneously trying to teach your helpers how to do the things you need them to do, while doing the things you need them to do. This basically means attempting to be five people at the same time. But it’s fun, in a herding-cats kind of crazy way.
And if you, perceptive reader that you are, wonder why my tired self is still awake at this hour, then feel free to blame the library for having the sequel to the book I finished last weekend. I have no book-related self control. But I finished it, so now I can sleep (also, I don’t have to work until tomorrow afternoon, so I can sleep in).