Habits

I got some bad news today, very similar to the news I got when I wrote my Low Point post about a year and a half ago.

Someone who is very important to the work that I do in my day job has been let go.

But unlike last time, I'm much better equipped to handle news like this. Rather than fearing for my own job security, I'm checking the facts. I still have a job today. I wasn't let go when I wrote that last post, and I've actually survived many rounds of layoffs in the years I've been with my employer. I'm like the cockroach of the marketing department. I persist.

I was bummed though because I feel rather close to this person. I chalk up a lot of my successes to her. I just needed a pick-me-up, so I decided to indulge in some self-care today by going for my monthly massage.

Yup, I haven't given up the monthly massage habit. I have started seeing a regular therapist at East to West Massage in St. Petersburg, though, and can't recommend them enough. I'm relaxed, I feel great, and I always leave the massage table ready to take on whatever life throws at me. And I know exactly what I'm getting when I walk in the door, so my anxiety based on this massage experience has been eliminated.

Here are some other habits I feel good about:

• I am really getting into a groove with my workout plan. Early-morning workouts have become routinized, and I'm trading time between wogging and getting to LA Fitness for some strength training. LA Fitness is great and all, but I really wish something like the Nerdstrong Gym existed in St. Pete (they are only in southern California right now). All of their classes have a nerdy theme like "Bossfight" and "Defeating the Death Star." It's like Crossfit for geeks. I want!
• I do at least ten minutes of meditation or guided visualization every day, usually before bed. Ideally, I could take a break during the middle of the day to meditate, but it rarely works out that I have time to do it. Something is better than nothing though.
• I no longer eat anything after 6pm during a normal work week. This might change if I'm going to visit my father, or if I'm at Disney, or if something happens outside of my routine. Otherwise, I really limit eating to between the hours of 9 and 6. 
• I still volunteer every Monday night at the nursing home with Joey. I do, however, approach each night with some trepidation because I got attacked by one of the residents back in February. It was so out of the blue - this particular resident had always been very sweet to Joey - but now I know I have to keep my guard up and we keep our distance from her. She grabbed my arm as I was walking past and punched me in the chest. Fortunately, an 80-year-old isn't going to do much damage to me. It's my dog I'm worried about.

Although maybe she can do a lot of damage. It's three months after the fact and I still have scars from where she dug her nails in.

So those are my healthy habits. Exercise, meditation, intermittent fasting, and volunteering. What are some healthy habits you've cultivated this year so far? Leave a comment!

Freedom

Today I declare my independence from sugar.

Ok, it's only been a week off of the white stuff, so my declaration is a bit premature. But the urges to eat sweet, carby things have been incredibly weak over the last 7 days. I just hope to keep the momentum going.

I've also been sticking to planned workouts. Yesterday, I hit up spin class with my mom and my husband. It would have been easy to bail because I had to pick Ben up at 12:30am Sunday morning at the airport, so we certainly had a good reason to sleep in. The fact that even he got up for spin shows some dedication - he's not usually a fan. I think he just wanted to spend more "quality" time with me since he had to go back to the airport this morning for another business trip.

At least we got a day together! Something tells me he might not be joining me for spin for a while. Something was wrong with the A/C at Globo Gym, so it was like hot spin class. Gross. The mirrors fogged up really fast. It was not the most pleasurable experience.

We took Joey out to the Dog Bar to celebrate the 4th a little bit early and imbibed some much-earned adult beverages. Joey stuck with water, though. He didn't want to be hungover for today's Project Pup nursing home visit.

After driving Ben back to the airport this morning, I went to CrossFit for today's Workout of the Day. This makes two WODs in a week for me, which is a big deal - not so much for the fact that I'm experiencing movement again after two months of being sidelined due to an injury - more because I'm not letting my anxiety get in the way of showing up to social workouts by myself with a bunch of people I don't know.

So today's WOD - "Schmalls" - looked like this:
800 m run, followed by 2 rounds of:
50 burpees... yes, I did 100 burpees today, everyone. Hold your applause.
40 pullups ... or the thing I do where I stack a bunch of 25lb plates to stand on so that I can actually *reach* the bar and work on jumping pullups.
30 squats
20 kettlebell swings
10 handstand pushups... please, like that's happening for me anytime soon. I'm stoked that I can do A pushup, I don't need to prove anything with doing them upside down...

and then rinse and repeat with another 800m run.

Chase with 2 hours of yardwork that I've been meaning to catch up on in the last two weeks. Not part of the WOD, though I would have certainly welcomed participation from my fellow CrossFitters. Maybe next time.

I. Am. Tired. But feeling highly productive, for sure.

As accomplished as I feel, I know I need to be a bit more selective about choosing which CF WODs I go to - perhaps need to do less of the cardio-intense WODs, and more of the Olympic weight lifting ones. I've got running down, thankyouverymuch. Don't need someone to beat me up there. But for now, I just need to get in the habit of going consistently before I become choosy.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great 4th of July. Going to take a much-needed nap so I can be ready to go for some kick ass fireworks tonight.

Impact

Geez, people. I am STILL SORE from last Saturday's crossfit WOD. I've been using my DOMS as an excuse to remain inactive this week.

But I know it's a lame excuse. I think somewhere I heard that working out again is a great way to get rid of DOMS. I don't remember it taking this long to recover when I first started CF in 2014. Maybe this is what it means to be entering my late 30's.

I've set my alarm every day this week to get up and go at 5:30. When it goes off, I check in with soreness (still there), check in with my ankle (still not 100% healed), and check in with my motivation (not present since the husband is traveling for work this week, so I'm on my own). This is not a good formula for getting back to my fitness regimen.

All of this inactivity is making my average step count suffer. My daily target used to be in the 11k range when I was training for the half. Now I struggle trying to even hit 5000:

But I did have a reason to get moving today - it was my first day volunteering at a local nursing home with Project Pup! Ben and I had our dog, Joey, certified to visit nursing homes and hospitals a few weeks ago. It wasn't too hard to find a nursing home nearby in need of a visiting dog... this is Florida. So I met with the Activities Director today, and made my first rounds.

Joey was a hit with everyone, as I knew he would be. Ok, there were a few residents who didn't want to meet him. I don't know how they could resist his big eyes and wagging tail. Just not fans of dogs, I guess.

Everyone else couldn't wait to pet him, though. The residents would tell Joey and me stories about their dogs, their kids, their lives before assisted living. Joey would sit and listen patiently in their laps if they wanted him to. Some people thought *my* name was Joey. I corrected them, but I don't expect them to remember.

So we had a good day, I'd say. Joey made a positive impact and I got a few more steps in than I usually do. I spoke with the Activities Director, and she approved of our visit today, so looks like we'll be going back every Monday evening for the foreseeable future.

Project Pup

Today I brought my dog in to have him screened to become a certified therapy dog for a local nonprofit called Project Pup. Members of this group bring well-mannered pets to visit with the sick and elderly at nursing homes and hospitals. I've really been looking forward to counting myself and my dog, Joey, among their members.

Look at me - all kinds of volunteering for things lately.

Ben, Joey, and I left bright and early for his appointment at a nursing home... a good thing too, as we missed our exit on the way there. Normally, it's not a big deal to miss an exit, but when you miss the last one in St. Petersburg, Florida, you're stuck going on a really long bridge to Tampa.

Oops.

So we went from being 15 minutes early to being 5 minutes late really quickly. My anxious self was certain the Project Pup volunteers weren't going to let us in.

But they were, of course, very nice and understanding. The volunteers reviewed his paperwork and then gave us instructions for the screening.

Joey's first test was to meet and greet one of the volunteers, who was sitting in a wheelchair. I lead him up to her and asked if she would like to pet the dog. She nodded, and I picked Joey up to her level (Joey's a little bit too small for someone in a wheelchair to reach him).

Next, Joey had to greet a volunteer using a walker. Same drill... ask the guy if he wants to pet the dog, pick up him so he can say hello, and move on our way. Only this time, the volunteer knocked the walker onto the ground with a loud crash to see if he could rattle Joey.

My dog didn't even flinch. So proud.

And then the real test began... meeting actual residents of the nursing home.

He was a huge hit.

EVERYONE wanted to meet Joey, even the nurses. We met one nice elderly lady who was confined to her bed and asked if Joey could sit on the bed with her. I asked the screener if that was acceptable, and she shared that if the residents ask for it, it is definitely ok. So I picked Joey up and placed him on the bed, and he wasted no time laying down right next to her for some snuggles.  The resident was all smiles, and her daughter took a few photos of her mom with my pup.

Needless to say, he passed his test with flying colors. I never had a doubt.

And for one hour today, I had my mind on something other than my own depressive thoughts. My dog not only helped other people smile today, he reminded me there are still things to look forward to in life.

I can't wait for our first volunteer gig together. He's going to make so many people happy.

Anyway, I couldn't take photos of him at the nursing home, so here's a few of his graduation party:

Celebrating at Dog Bar St. Pete

Bart the French Bulldog. My second favorite patron after Joey.

Joey fell in love with Bertha the Japanese Chin.

Bart. I just can't take how cute he is.

Better slow down on that wine, Joe.

I told you so.

The garbage will do

Timehop reminded me that it was the 16th anniversary of the "More Cowbell" sketch on SNL:



 I think of this sketch every time I turn on my metronome app to help my cadence during a run.

Two weeks ago I deactivated Facebook because it was making me feel like garbage. I never intended to permanently say goodbye. I just planned on going back to it when I felt good about myself for a change. Like maybe after I hit that sub 2 half marathon goal.

But I learned that completely eliminating Facebook from your life is much harder to do than you think. About 3 days after declaring that I had deactivated my account, I was informed that I was actually still visible on FB. You know all of those third party apps or emails you sign up for that allow you to authenticate using Facebook? Well, I have a lot of those. It's just so easy to register for other platforms using Facebook. So whenever I wanted to use one of those other websites/apps/products/etc., it meant I'd automatically be logged back into Facebook.

What this means is that I can't completely fall off the radar. It doesn't mean I have to addictively check it every hour like I used to. I'd say my (short) FB detox has been good for me. After all, in just two weeks, I have noticed some improvement in my mood. I have definitely noticed an improvement in my focus.

But I've also missed out by not being on FB. I haven't kept up on what's going on in my friends' lives. My blog traffic has suffered since I'm not cross-posting in my FB groups. And I've missed out on social opportunities here in St. Pete.

It's been pretty difficult making new friends here in FL since my husband and I moved from NJ, partly because we both work from home and partly because we've moved around so much since we got here. Now that we're settled, we've got to start making local connections. I did get out today to my first meeting of Project Pup, a volunteer organization that certifies therapy dogs (I've got a screening appointment for my Joey next month).

Anyway, what do you think the first thing they told me to do was when I arrived at the meeting? "Like" them on Facebook.

Alright, Fakebook, you win. I'm back. But I'm going to make you work for me now.

Today's exercise: Rest.

Four Legs - Part II

Thanks for hanging in there while I wax poetic about cats. Completely understand if you didn't run right out and adopt a cat yesterday... that's what today's post is for.

I hope this is not the first time you are hearing that pet ownership is good for your health. There's tons of research out there that supports the fact that cats and dogs make your heart happy in many ways. I'm just documenting here what I've personally found to be helpful since cat ownership was forced upon me.

1. 24/7 emotional support: Something about a warm, purring kitty on my lap makes everything seem right in the world. It's comforting to know something loves me whether I can run a sub 2:00 half marathon or not.
2. Stress reduction: When they aren't waking up my house guests or scratching up the furniture, they can actually be pretty fun. Breaking out the laser pointer or a game of "Cat Fishing" on the iPad can be entertaining for them AND for me.
3. Better self-esteem: I'm proud of the work we did to solve our feral cat problem. I also feel really good about adopting unwanted pets. I just feel needed, ya know?

Of course, all of the above also applies to my dog, Joey, a 9-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel we adopted three years ago. 

And - as a self-proclaimed dog person - he kinda helps me even more than the cats do.

For one thing, he makes sure I get some extra movement daily, a must for someone with a desk job. We take ten-minute walks together four times each day. (Note I said walks... Joey was made for warming up my lap, not running laps. You might want to check out this article if you're looking for a running companion). He's also good for my social life. I've gotten to know my neighbors really quickly because they always love coming over to say hello to him.

I have an appointment in May to screen him for participation in a program called Project Pup - if he passes, I'll be able to bring him into nursing homes, children's hospitals, etc. for therapeutic puppy visits with patients. 

Cats and dogs have really added something to my life, so I'd strongly encourage you to go out and adopt.

But if you can't, there are other ways to help your local animal shelter. When my husband and I started the Dale Road Cat Project, we were flying solo - but as word got out, we got some help, even from those who couldn't adopt a kitten. People donated to the cause - money towards our spay/neuter costs, food, towels (kittens are incredibly messy), cages... there were even a few who gave their time to come sit and play with the kittens, which was incredibly important in getting them used to people (a friendly kitten gets adopted more quickly than a timid one).

So if you have even a little bit to give, consider swinging by your local shelter.

Ok, I'll step off my litter box... I mean soap box... now.

Today's exercise: Rest