I'M BAAAAACK

Woohoo what a relief to see the end of this week. Here's the low down on it.

I managed to stay off FB and Blogger for the 5 days - apart from PMing my boss about a work issue that warranted her attention. It was 2 minutes on FB and then off again.

My exam is done and dusted and I think I managed to write enough crap to get me a pass mark - which is all I'm aiming for. Now before you all go thinking 'well thats not very aspirational" let me explain my week.

We got our exam case study last Friday. I have promised myself that weekends are NOT work time so I didnt look at the case study until Monday. This has been week 2 of my Acting Director stint. Work is mega busy. Leaving at or by 5pm is a luxury and even then there are still a million things to do. On Monday I finished around 6pm but we were kid free and had a cheap and cheerful meal out locally. Tuesday was little better. Wednesday was my treat day when Peter had the day off and my boys took me out to lunch in between all the fun they were having. To compensate, I went in early and left around 5.15.

My study time has been limited to evenings after dinner AND I've taken the time to listen to my boy read on the nights he's been home. At best I've managed 2 hours study a night before I was so physically and menatlly exhausted that sleep was the only option. On the bright side, getting to bed at a reasonable hour meant that I could set my alarm to do some training - or movement - in the mornings. I actually achieved: legs and abs / core training on Monday; back / chest and tris and Tuesday; on Wednesday I walked to and from work - about 45 minutes each way; on Thursday I did shoulders and bis and this morning I managed a 55 minute walk. All of this helped to keep me in a good place both physically and mentally to better cope with the work and study pressures.

Some of my colleagues from the management training course had taken leave this week to prepare for their exams - I should be so lucky!! THEY deserve credits and distinctions, and I'll settle for a pass knowing that I still have my sanity intact and I didnt work myself into the ground for those marks. Its all about balance, priorities and apportioning time accordingly. In fact one of my colleagues said to me today that she had decided to take a leaf from MY book and make some "me time" a priority. She had realised that exercise was not something you should do IF you had time (which would be never) but to make time for it and hence score your "me time".

Finally on the food front its been interesting to observe that when there is SO much happening and the pressure is on on so many fronts, I never had time to think about binging. I made sure I had food at work so that I wouldnt get to feeling starving hungry but I ate mindfully and made pretty good, healthy choices without being obsessive about it. I drank wine every day but often only 1 or 1 1/2 glasses (except tonight, of course). I didnt have many sweets. A quick check in with MM on Wednesday was all good - in fact a little better than I thought it would be. Honestly, what more could you ask for??!!

I know in the past that times like this have sent me straight to Bingesville. I would eat, eat and eat some more to dull the pain of pressure and stress and seek out those 5 or so minutes of feeling good while your mouth is full of sweets. But I have wised up to the fact that this is not the answer nor the way to go. So I made a little pact with myself to honour myself and accept that when I was trying to achieve so much I probably wouldnt achieve greatness and to be ok with that.

And so here I am, ok with myself, with what I've achived and how I've gone about it. Now there is an awesome weekend ahead to enjoy and I'm heading off to bed so that tomorrow and the fun comes around quickly.

Cheers all

M