Not Again

I have been feeling, how you say...craptacular lately.

It's been one of those weeks, months, whatever. End of September = end of my firm's fiscal year (i.e. better get in yo' rush of billables and required non-billables, lest you miss your bonus *cough*). End of September = end of third quarter at many of my clients (i.e. better close about 39825729 deals so they're booked this quarter and not next). End of September = my pretty-much-annual change'o'seasons cold.

WOMP WOMP WOMP.

Yesterday I was frazzled and crazy all day at work, busting my butt to get some (really not interesting) stuff closed while fielding a lot of (really frustrating) pressure and demands and questions from clients. Add to that a couple of other projects that need to get done NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW, plus constant sneezing and coughing, and I was ready to kill someone.

I got home around 6:30 or so after packing up a redweld of stuff. I was miserable. If I didn't have to get home to let the dogs out, I would have probably stayed at work for a couple more hours. I was grumbling and cranky and sick and frustrated.

But I AM NOT GOING TO LET THIS TAKE OVER AGAIN.

I simply CANNOT spend another month letting my life get in the way of taking care of myself. I spent a whole lot of August feeling sorry for myself, eating like crap and not running or working out. And then work kicked up like mad in September and it was more of the same. Not surprisingly, there were consequences. I gained back a few of the pounds I worked so hard to lose over the spring. My skin is looking awful. I'm constantly crabby. I couldn't run the Rock & Roll half because I didn't train right.

NOT AGAIN. NO, NO NO.

I knew I didn't have a lot of time to work out, since I really needed to get another couple hours of work done last night. With the way I've been going recently, I would have just skipped the gym altogether. Instead, I went anyway - so what if I couldn't spare an hour. I could do a half hour. And I did. I sweated my BUTT off on the treadmill doing "speed" intervals for three miles, alternating each half-mile between 6.3mph and 7.0mph. I covered three miles in about 28 minutes, including a couple of walking breaks, because WHOO that kicked my butt.

And you know what? I felt a THOUSAND times better for it. Thanks to my cold, I wasn't at all hungry when I got back to the house around 8, but I knew I should eat. I threw together a quick salad with spinach, raspberries, feta, mushrooms and some leftover rotisserie chicken.



I topped it with a tiny bit of olive oil and some balsamic vinegar. I used the good stuff:





Thick, syrupy, aged balsamic that my mom got me for Christmas last year from Olive Oil & Co.

I settled in to watch my DVR'ed episode of Glee (woohoo, Britney! I loved having a more Brittany-centric episode. She cracks me up. And also? "How can you get lost between the moon and NYC? Aren't they like a hundred miles apart?") and grumblegrumble review more documents and do more work grumblegrumble.

I'm SO looking forward to this weekend. Fun plans with some blog friends, a "diaper BBQ" for some friends having a baby soon, and -- most importantly -- time to CHILL AND FREAKING SLEEP.