I know, I've been away for another long time. I've been super busy the last week or so at work and in the evenings/weekends. Case in point, this weekend:
Saturday:
8:30am-10:45am: WW Meeting
10:45am-11:15am: travel
11:15am-12:00pm: make and eat lunch, tidy up the kitchen
12:00pm-1:00pm: travel
1:00pm-3:30pm: Ed taught a yoga class (which I attended)
3:30pm-11pm: attended two birthday parties on opposite ends of Toronto. Seriously.
This is what my "spare time" usually ends up looking like. I'm a busy person, between working full time, working part time, training for the 10K next weekend, practicing yoga, working at the yoga studio once a week, and doing regular people things (eating/making meals, cleaning, running errands, social activities, etc). I have maybe one full hour a day of "relax" time, usually in 15 or 20 minute spurts before I have to jump back up and get moving again. I also have the new added challenge of moving, as my boyfriend will be moving into my apartment in a couple months (yay!), meaning that we both have to sell things, organize and merge our belongings (eek!).
So, how the heck do I balance this all out? The answer --- veeeerrrrryyyyy delicately.
I'm a scheduling queen. I have spreadsheets and calendars and organizational goodies everywhere to try to put my life in writing so I a) don't forget where I'm supposed to be going, and b) can make time for the important things.
Despite all my running around and frantically trying to squeeze in everything that I'd like to get done, I still make sure that I block out some time for the important people in my life. For example, Ed and I try to make sure that we set aside one full evening per week to be together, kind of like a date night. Since we're also trying to save up as much money as possible (with him moving and my impending student debt, we're trying to be very frugal!), our date nights have to be creatively cheap. We might cook together, rent a movie, go for a walk, have a picnic in the park, go out for a fancy coffee, etc.
Of course it's not as easy as just saying "write it all down" and you'll be good to go. There have been many times that I've had near breakdowns from being so busy and having no time to do everything that needs to be done. I've had numerous weekends that weren't really "weekends", because I was still at work or otherwise busy the whole time. But I try to find some sort of balance so that I don't go crazy by prioritizing things. My family and friends take priority over cleaning the bathroom - it can wait one more day if it means that I can spend time with the people I care for. It also pays to ask for help when you need it. Even though we don't yet live together, Ed and I sometimes share our chores and errands to help each other out (e.g. if I don't have time to go grocery shopping, he'll try to help me out by picking up the things I need most, and I can get the non-essentials/meals for later in the week at another time).
How do you find balance with a busy schedule?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
I've been away
Sorry I've been away for a while! I'm still revelling in the amazing news of my acceptance to Ryerson :D
To make up for it, it's time for ANOTHER RECIPE!!!!! This is one of my favourite breakfasts on earth. It sounds insane, but bear with me, it tastes amazing!
Peanut Butter and Banana Oatmeal
1/4 c steel cut oats (you can use quick oats too, but I like the steel cut kind better)
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter (either natural or non. I find that the non-natural kind makes it taste sweeter)
Cook your steel cut oats according to package directions. Usually, this will mean 1/4 c oats and 1c water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes stirring regularly.
Break up a banana in your oatmeal bowl and mash it up with a fork till it's nice and mushy (TIP: put the broken up banana in the microwave for about 15 seconds to soften it up. This will make it really easy to mash!)
When your oats are done, put them in the bowl with your mashed banana and stir it up. Add the peanut butter and stir well. You're done!
This breakfast is CRAZY filling! You even get two full servings of fruit while you're at it! It's a little heavy on the Points values, but it will keep you full till at least noon, so it's totally worth it!
What's your favourite breakfast?
To make up for it, it's time for ANOTHER RECIPE!!!!! This is one of my favourite breakfasts on earth. It sounds insane, but bear with me, it tastes amazing!
Peanut Butter and Banana Oatmeal
1/4 c steel cut oats (you can use quick oats too, but I like the steel cut kind better)
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter (either natural or non. I find that the non-natural kind makes it taste sweeter)
Cook your steel cut oats according to package directions. Usually, this will mean 1/4 c oats and 1c water. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes stirring regularly.
Break up a banana in your oatmeal bowl and mash it up with a fork till it's nice and mushy (TIP: put the broken up banana in the microwave for about 15 seconds to soften it up. This will make it really easy to mash!)
When your oats are done, put them in the bowl with your mashed banana and stir it up. Add the peanut butter and stir well. You're done!
This breakfast is CRAZY filling! You even get two full servings of fruit while you're at it! It's a little heavy on the Points values, but it will keep you full till at least noon, so it's totally worth it!
What's your favourite breakfast?
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Dreams really DO come true!
I just got the most incredible news!
Are you ready for it???????????
I GOT ACCEPTED TO RYERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In September 2010, I will be a student in the Nutrition and Food program, on my way to becoming a Registered Dietitian!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you ready for it???????????
I GOT ACCEPTED TO RYERSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In September 2010, I will be a student in the Nutrition and Food program, on my way to becoming a Registered Dietitian!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Long Weekend Fail
I had both the Friday and Monday of this weekend off (woohoo!), but unfortunately didn't really get to enjoy much of it! I've still been sick the entire weekend, had laryngitis for most of the weekend, plus on Friday morning just as I was standing up after eating breakfast, I threw out my back. Seriously??? My back hasn't hurt at all in the last two years since I started practicing yoga. Suddenly, it just up and decided that I needed to stop moving for the next two days. Oh, did I also mention that I have managed to get an ear infection on top of all this? Awesome... so all that running, yoga, walking in the park and general gallivanting around that I'd planned for the weekend? Yeah, not so much.
Friday was spend laid out on the couch in the hopes that my back would recover quickly. Also Ed refused to let me out into the public while I was looking/feeling/sounding so sick and nasty.
Saturday I went to work at my Weight Watchers meeting, which was good times as always!!! In the afternoon, I went to ED'S FIRST HOT YOGA CLASS!!!!! My amazing boyfriend has started to teach yoga, and I'm SO proud of him!!! He did really great and led a fantastic class! He's going to be such an awesome yoga instructor, and I'm so lucky that he's going to be around when I go through this training in the summer as well! Luckily my back cooperated throughout the class, and even felt a little bit better afterward. We then left the yoga studio to head out to Easter Dinner #1: Filipino Easter. Ed's mother is the cutest person on earth, but damn. The woman cooks for 50 when there are only 5 people coming to eat. We had turkey, ham, BBQ pork chops the size of dinner plates, salad, veggie stir fry with shrimp, rice, and papayit (sp? It's a soup made of various animal organs). Oh, and dessert - apple pie, ice cream, empanadas. Ooommmmggggg.... I kept my portions reasonable and made sure to pile it HIGH with veggies. So, I had 1/2 of a pork chop, a slice or two of turkey, loads of the veggie stir fry, and some salad. I was SO full I couldn't even look at dessert!
The next day brought Easter Dinner #2: Michelle's Parents. My mom has been following the Weight Watchers plan (with my help :)!), so she always makes sure that there are good healthy options available. Just again, a LOT of them! The table contained ham, chicken in a pineapple sauce, roasted potatoes, roasted veggies (peppers, asparagus, turnips, etc), and hot cross buns. I had everything except the ham, and again, was soooo full. But I knew my mom was having carrot cake (MY FAVOURITE CAKE!!!!), so like, as if I was going to be too full to eat that...!
All in all, I was successful in finishing off my weekly points allowance and then some. Hooray..... I'm a little nervous to see what the scale says this week. But, I'm getting back on track today! I've tracked everything that I ate over the weekend, even though I went WAAAAAAY over my points, and I'm moving on. Today is a new day!
I'm so happy that I have today off as well to do all the things I didn't get to do all weekend. Today I'm cleaning, doing laundry, and went to yoga. I'm looking out the window and considering that I really, REALLY want to go for a run. I haven't run in a whole week!!! I'm super far behind my training schedule for the Sporting Life 10K :( I think I'm feeling well enough to go, except for the dry hacking cough that keeps attacking me and the occasional reminder from my back that it isn't too fond of me anymore. Bah.......!
Friday was spend laid out on the couch in the hopes that my back would recover quickly. Also Ed refused to let me out into the public while I was looking/feeling/sounding so sick and nasty.
Saturday I went to work at my Weight Watchers meeting, which was good times as always!!! In the afternoon, I went to ED'S FIRST HOT YOGA CLASS!!!!! My amazing boyfriend has started to teach yoga, and I'm SO proud of him!!! He did really great and led a fantastic class! He's going to be such an awesome yoga instructor, and I'm so lucky that he's going to be around when I go through this training in the summer as well! Luckily my back cooperated throughout the class, and even felt a little bit better afterward. We then left the yoga studio to head out to Easter Dinner #1: Filipino Easter. Ed's mother is the cutest person on earth, but damn. The woman cooks for 50 when there are only 5 people coming to eat. We had turkey, ham, BBQ pork chops the size of dinner plates, salad, veggie stir fry with shrimp, rice, and papayit (sp? It's a soup made of various animal organs). Oh, and dessert - apple pie, ice cream, empanadas. Ooommmmggggg.... I kept my portions reasonable and made sure to pile it HIGH with veggies. So, I had 1/2 of a pork chop, a slice or two of turkey, loads of the veggie stir fry, and some salad. I was SO full I couldn't even look at dessert!
The next day brought Easter Dinner #2: Michelle's Parents. My mom has been following the Weight Watchers plan (with my help :)!), so she always makes sure that there are good healthy options available. Just again, a LOT of them! The table contained ham, chicken in a pineapple sauce, roasted potatoes, roasted veggies (peppers, asparagus, turnips, etc), and hot cross buns. I had everything except the ham, and again, was soooo full. But I knew my mom was having carrot cake (MY FAVOURITE CAKE!!!!), so like, as if I was going to be too full to eat that...!
All in all, I was successful in finishing off my weekly points allowance and then some. Hooray..... I'm a little nervous to see what the scale says this week. But, I'm getting back on track today! I've tracked everything that I ate over the weekend, even though I went WAAAAAAY over my points, and I'm moving on. Today is a new day!
I'm so happy that I have today off as well to do all the things I didn't get to do all weekend. Today I'm cleaning, doing laundry, and went to yoga. I'm looking out the window and considering that I really, REALLY want to go for a run. I haven't run in a whole week!!! I'm super far behind my training schedule for the Sporting Life 10K :( I think I'm feeling well enough to go, except for the dry hacking cough that keeps attacking me and the occasional reminder from my back that it isn't too fond of me anymore. Bah.......!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Blehhh
So I'm still sick after that run in the cold. All day at work yesterday I was feeling like a pile of garbage, but decided that darnit, I needed to exercise after my day off on Tuesday. So, feeling a little bit better in the evening, I went to a one hour yoga class.
I admit, it wasn't my best class, but I didn't really expect it to be. With my head swimming with snottiness and that general "blehhh" feeling that you get with a cold, I wasn't so much into the meditative state. I stopped paying attention to what I was doing and didn't connect at all. Basically, I was just there and moving around in some kind of funky aerobics rather than an actual yoga practice. It just didn't feel right. I made it my intention at the beginning of class to not judge what my body was capable of doing today (or any day, really, but specifically today), and to just go with what feels right in the moment. But since I stopped caring about halfway through the practice, I totally didn't go with that intention. I was definitely judgemental of my body for getting sick in the first place. "How dare you infect me with this awful disease?!", I asked myself. I later realized that the more I judged myself and the more I tried to make my body do things that it didn't want to do, the worse I felt. So, I sat out a few poses that I knew weren't going to end well (also to help avoid the snottiness from getting into my sinuses).
I left the class feeling "meh". Not nearly as great as I usually feel after an hour of yoga. I had lost that connection to my body and didn't really "get" why I was there. But at least my cold wasn't feeling as gross as before :)
But then I woke up this morning.
The cold has come back with full force. Ughhhhhhhhhh....... I woke up with sore throat, hacking chest cough and outrageous sneezing/nose blowing. I sanitized the whole apartment, hoping for the best, and went to work anyway. So far I'm feeling about the same, maybe a little less awful than before. At least I've stopped coughing up interesting colours for the time being.
Wheeee....
I'm hoping that this cold goes away by exactly 4:00pm today so that I can go off and enjoy my LONG WEEKEND!! I have a lot of great exercise planned for this weekend -- and two Easter dinners to go to (you can bet that I'll be posting about those!)
How are you planning to spend your long weekend?
I admit, it wasn't my best class, but I didn't really expect it to be. With my head swimming with snottiness and that general "blehhh" feeling that you get with a cold, I wasn't so much into the meditative state. I stopped paying attention to what I was doing and didn't connect at all. Basically, I was just there and moving around in some kind of funky aerobics rather than an actual yoga practice. It just didn't feel right. I made it my intention at the beginning of class to not judge what my body was capable of doing today (or any day, really, but specifically today), and to just go with what feels right in the moment. But since I stopped caring about halfway through the practice, I totally didn't go with that intention. I was definitely judgemental of my body for getting sick in the first place. "How dare you infect me with this awful disease?!", I asked myself. I later realized that the more I judged myself and the more I tried to make my body do things that it didn't want to do, the worse I felt. So, I sat out a few poses that I knew weren't going to end well (also to help avoid the snottiness from getting into my sinuses).
I left the class feeling "meh". Not nearly as great as I usually feel after an hour of yoga. I had lost that connection to my body and didn't really "get" why I was there. But at least my cold wasn't feeling as gross as before :)
But then I woke up this morning.
The cold has come back with full force. Ughhhhhhhhhh....... I woke up with sore throat, hacking chest cough and outrageous sneezing/nose blowing. I sanitized the whole apartment, hoping for the best, and went to work anyway. So far I'm feeling about the same, maybe a little less awful than before. At least I've stopped coughing up interesting colours for the time being.
Wheeee....
I'm hoping that this cold goes away by exactly 4:00pm today so that I can go off and enjoy my LONG WEEKEND!! I have a lot of great exercise planned for this weekend -- and two Easter dinners to go to (you can bet that I'll be posting about those!)
How are you planning to spend your long weekend?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)