Posted onAugust 31, 2021|Comments Off on Almost The End Of Election Season (or Only A Few More Days To Go)
I’ve written about election season quite a few times on here. In the past, I don’t think I had as much to say as I did this year. And part of that is because my responsibilities and leadership role grows each election season. But the other part is that this time things were so different from what we are used to.
So often in the past, we talk about how social media isn’t everything and how important it is to be face to face or one on one with someone when discussing union politics. It’s better to have a real conversation with a friend than to blast out an impersonal message. And it’s better to have a conversation that is more than the character limit of a tweet.
But this year, in a way social media was almost everything. We were all still messaging our friends one on one and some of us had phone calls or small gatherings to talk with others about why we are running or why we are a part of Unite For Strength. But so much of campaigning this election season was on social media (mainly Twitter from what I could see). And that also meant that we had a lot more attacks on social media as well.
I know I see more than what most would see since I run the social media accounts for UFS, but I know a lot of people saw similar things to what I was seeing. And so much of it was misinformation (such as not understanding what our dues went to versus when people paid premiums for the union healthcare). Part of my job with running our social media is seeing when people have questions or they have misinformation and making sure they get the correct information. I might not always be the person who can answer it, but I can find the person who is. And it is so rewarding when I can help someone get the information they need or when something they were concerned about is either already fixed or being addressed and a fix is in the works.
And I will say, a majority of what I was seeing on social media during election season was positive, especially from the people I know. So many people were listening to each other, helping people that needed help, and just being good and kind. For all the times I was overwhelmed with seeing attacks that may have had a lot of misleading information, I’d see multiple things that made my heart happy.
And now, election season is almost done. Ballots are counted starting on Thursday morning and the results should be known by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. Then we can move to getting ready for the National Convention, which will be virtual this year. And I’ll still keep working on the UFS social media since that is something I do all year. But it’s very different during election season and I’m looking forward to when it’s a bit more calm. And before I know it, it will be time for another election season or vote of some sort and things will ramp up and be crazy again.
But for now, I’m just proud of the campaign we did for this election. I’m so proud of the work others did on social media that helped to make my work easier or better. And no matter what happens, I’m happy with the work we did as a slate and how we represented ourselves.
Posted onAugust 30, 2021|Comments Off on I Love When Things Remind Me Of The “Before Times” (or Seeing Another Workout Friend)
I’ve been back at Orangetheory for a while now. I’ve said this so often since going back but having something in my life that feels like the before times has been so good for my mental health. Obviously, working out in the studio is also great for my physical health and I work out harder in class than I do at home, but the benefit for my mental health has been amazing. This has been a steady routine for me for so long, and getting it back has helped me when there have been so many uncertain things recently. And for the most part, this past week of workouts was pretty routine and what I have come to expect out of OTF.
Monday’s workout was an endurance day, and it had a lot of tough endurance challenges for us! I think certain elements wouldn’t have been so tough if they were the main challenge of the day, but we had so many of them!
For cardio, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks were rounds of push pace to base pace and ending with an all-out. The base pace was always 1-minute, which didn’t feel too bad at first. But the more we went on, the shorter that minute felt! The push paces were between 2-minutes and 30-seconds and it changed up each time. And the end of both blocks had a 30-second all-out. Because it was an endurance day, I really tried to limit my breaks during cardio. It’s not easy because I need to drink water and sometimes I need to stretch a bit. But I’m getting better about not doing as many breaks when I’m not dealing with nausea.
On the floor, we had one floor block and one rowing block. For the floor block, we had 3 rounds of doing squats to presses, pop jacks, and Spiderman planks. Those were all supposed to be while using the Bosu, but I only used it for the squats to presses. After those 3 rounds, we had pullovers, front raises, and alternating Supermans until the end of the block. For that part, I only had to skip using the Bosu for the front raises. Then, we had a 7 1/2-minute crew row. A crew row is where everyone tries to row together at the same speed and with the same timing. So you are supposed to be very aware of the people on either side of you so you can make sure you are not out of sync. You can take breaks, but you have to be aware when you start back up so you are with the group. The biggest struggle for me with crew rows is that I know I’m a much slower rower than most people. I always find it hard to keep going that fast. But I took breaks when I needed to and then got back with the group as quickly as I could. It was still much faster than I normally would row, but it was a good challenge for me.
Wednesday’s workout was a power day, which was a nice switch from what we did on Monday.
The cardio blocks were all similar with a lot of 1-minute intervals. The first block had a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, 1-minute all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. We did that interval set twice. The second block had a 1-minute push pace, 90-second base pace, and 1-minute all-out. And the last block had 4 rounds of a 1-minute all-out followed by a 1-minute recovery. It was a lot of work and a lot of switching around, but it was really fun to do!
The floor also had 3 blocks. The first block had bench sit-ups to squats, deadlifts, hop overs (which I did as lunges), and lateral lunges. The second block was a mini-band core block with in and out crunches and toe reaches. And the last block had burpees to bicep curls (which I had to split into 2 moves), step-ups (which I did as squats), power sit-ups, and plank low rows. The first and third floor block felt a bit more like endurance work because it felt like we never stopped, but the number of reps we had to do were pretty low so that made it more of a power day.
Friday’s workout was an endurance day, and it was designed to keep the people who worked out on Thursday in mind. Thursday’s workout was the Everest Challenge, so they tried to make it more focused on upper body.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks. In each block, we had 3 rounds of a 90-second push pace. But the base pace between each round decreased with each block. The first block had 75-second base paces, the second block had 1-minute base paces, and the last block had 45-second base paces. The goal was to try to maintain what we did for the push paces each block, even though the base paces were decreasing.
On the floor, we did so much upper body work and my arms felt like noodles! The goal in each block was to do all the exercises before taking a break. In the first block, we had uppercuts, chest flys, and incline chest presses. And we were supposed to use the same weights for the entire thing. The second block was with the straps and we had bicep curls, y raises, and high rows. And the last block was a bit more core-focused with plank jacks and crunches. I really did try to not stop in the middle of the exercises, but for the first and second blocks my arms were getting so tired! I had to lighten the dumbells I was using and step back when using the straps to make it a bit easier on me. But it was crazy to see how even using lighter weights was so tough when you didn’t take a break during the exercises.
Even though most of the workouts this past week reminded me of what things were like before the shutdown, the workout on Saturday was even more like that. Because Saturday’s workout was a special class where you had to bring a friend with you to take class. And the friend I brought with me was one of my workout buddies from before! She and I hadn’t seen each other since things shut down a year and a half ago, so I was thrilled to get to see her and work out together again.
The workout was a strength class and the cardio section had 4 blocks with the same pattern. Every block had a push pace, base pace, base pace on an incline, and an all-out. The base pace and all-out were always 1-minute long. But the push pace and incline work changed. The push pace started at 2-minutes and went down 30-seconds each block and the incline started at 30-seconds and went up 30-seconds each block as well as go down with how high the incline should be. Because of how short each block was, it also felt a bit like a power day, but the hills got tough as they got longer!
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had bird dog low rows with weights, single-arm lunges to step-ups (I had to do these just as lunges), and double crunches. After 2 rounds of the exercises, we had a 200-meter row and then went back to the exercises. And the second block had lateral goblet lunges, hollow hold chest presses, and plank pull-throughs. And just like in the first floor block, after 2 rounds of the exercises we had a 200-meter row.
Since we were busy working out, I didn’t get to chat with my friend too much during class. But of course, we took some time to catch up after class and we had to get a photo with our coach (who was so excited to see her too)!
This past week of workouts was one of the weeks I wasn’t sure if I’d get my 4 workouts in, but I’m glad I made it work! This week is also like that. As of right now, I am scheduled for 4 workouts, but things are still in the air to see if I can make it to all of them. But if I can’t, I know I’m good for 3 of those workouts. And at least that keeps most of the routine that I love in my week.
Posted onAugust 27, 2021|Comments Off on Planning Ahead Even If It’s Stressful (or I Might Be Moving)
With all the craziness of this past year, there are a few things that have been steady and stable in my life. And I was so grateful for those few things because I needed to feel some normalcy and consistency in the world. I do like having routine and not changing too much, but I also know sometimes change is good. But when I have something that makes me happy, I stick to that as long as I can.
And one of the stable things that has made me happy for a long time is where I live. I’ve been in my house for about 11 1/2 years now. It’s not perfect and there are things that I would change if I could, but it’s pretty amazing. I have my own space, I don’t share walls with anyone, it’s safe, and even though it might not have everything I want it does have everything I need. And most importantly for me, it’s very affordable. Living somewhere this long and in a rent-stabilized building has the advantage of the price not being able to increase that much each year. And rent-stabilized buildings also have extra protections from evictions (so landlords can’t just kick you out to raise the rent for a future tenant without a lot of hurdles).
And while I have been in other apartments before, I think this is the first place that really felt like home to me. My first apartment was when I was in college and it never really felt like home. It felt a bit like another dorm room to me. I also lived alone then and hated it, so that didn’t help. My second apartment felt a bit more like a home to me, but I shared it with a series of roomates and whenever I had to find someone else for the other room, it made my apartment feel less like it was mine. My current place has been the place I have lived the longest (except for my childhood home) and the first place that I made decor choices that took a bit more effort like putting up shelving or curtain rods. I have made this place my home and I really am happy here.
But the other day, I got a call from my landlord seeing if I’d be home next week. They are selling and their realtor needs to come in so they can make a digital floorplan. I let my landlord know that I’d be home and ended the call. And my mind started running a million miles an hour. I know that selling a building to a new owner isn’t rare, but I think we are in a unique situation. A new owner could keep things the way they are, but I really don’t think they would. There is a lot of space that could be used to build a building with double or triple the apartments. And even if they weren’t going to build a new building, I bet a new owner would want us to leave because they could get a lot more in rent. It still wouldn’t be easy to get rid of us, but it’s possible to do if they wanted to. And I really don’t question that is what will happen.
Of course, I’m thinking way ahead right now. It’s not even listed yet. I have no clue how long it will take to sell. After it sells, we can’t be kicked out right away. There will be at least a few months before that could happen, and that is if it happens. Maybe I’m wrong and nothing will change, but I can’t just think that and hope everything will be ok. So even though it does stress me out to think about moving, I’m trying to plan ahead. I know it won’t be fun to move, but it’s not the worst thing to have to do. I think I’m more stressed about finding a new place. There are a lot of ideas I’m trying to figure out for my next place, so I don’t have a lot planned. I just know I want to stay as close to my current neighborhood as possible. And I need to make sure that I don’t offset making more money right now with a huge increase in my monthly cost.
I’m glad I am starting to plan now so I don’t have to do everything last minute. That’s what I had to do when I moved the last time and I know how lucky I am that I found my current place. But I can’t believe I will necessarily have the same luck again. I have the luxury of having time now and I’m going to take advantage of that so I make sure my next move is the right one and I don’t have to settle for a place that doesn’t feel right to me.
Posted onAugust 26, 2021|Comments Off on I Really Hate Panic Attacks (or At Least This Went Better Than Expected)
Considering my history of panic attacks, I’ve been doing much better lately than when compared to the past. I don’t medicate myself anymore for panic attacks, which is a huge thing to me. And almost all my attacks are during predictable moments. I have noticed that new things do sometimes cause them, but then those become predictable too. For example, wearing a mask makes me feel claustrophobic at times and then that brings on a panic attack. I’ve been working on figuring out a good mask that won’t cause this, but so far it’s been tough. But it won’t stop me from wearing a mask.
One of the most common reasons I have panic attacks is when I have to go to the dentist. This has been an issue for me for almost all of my adult life (maybe as a kid too, but I don’t recall having bad panic attacks as a kid). I know going into my appointments that I will likely have a panic attack, and I do what I can to prepare for them. And I do work hard with all dental stuff I can do at home to make my appointments easier. Unfortunately, since I have genetically bad teeth, doing everything right doesn’t always mean that I won’t get bad news when I go in for a cleaning. But I at least do my part to make these appointments as stress-free as possible.
But even with doing everything I can, sometimes I just have a bad panic attack. And that’s what happened this week. I wasn’t doing that bad before my appointment. I didn’t have nightmares the same way that I usually do and my heart wasn’t racing my entire drive there. But as soon as I got out of my car, the panic hit me like a wave. It was a pretty big attack and I took some time trying to calm my breathing down and stop sweating before going into my appointment. But I still wasn’t doing that great when I walked in. I’m sure I looked horrible, but fortunately, the dentist understands that I can’t control my panic attacks and she really does try to work with me.
She made the appointment as easy as she could. She immediately checked my teeth to confirm I didn’t need any fillings or any other major dental work. Knowing that normally stops my attack, but this time it only brought it down a bit. I was still shaking and struggling to breathe normally. So my dentist tried to work as quickly as she could while not rushing and missing things. And she used some topical numbing gel to make sure I don’t have any pain while she was working quickly. I don’t usually have pain at my appointments, but I’m glad she was trying to make things better. And for the most part, my appointment went quickly except when they had to fix one piece of equipment in the middle that wasn’t working the way it should.
When I left my appointment, I was a bit annoyed with myself. I hate that something that isn’t a big deal can cause such big panic attacks. I hate that this attack was so bad when it hasn’t been like this for a long time. I know it’s not my fault that this happens to me, but I still blame myself. I know that sometimes I don’t have much of an attack before or during an appointment, so maybe the next time will be better. Or it might be like this appointment or worse. I really never know until it happens and I just have to get through it. I know there’s nothing wrong with having panic attacks or anything to be embarrassed about. But it’s still something I hate about myself.
But at least even with the bad panic attack this time, my appointment went well and I was back in my car headed home in under an hour. And I don’t have to worry about going in again for another cleaning for 4 more months.
Posted onAugust 25, 2021|Comments Off on Looking Forward To Another Shot (or Ready For A Booster)
As soon as the vaccinations for Covid were announced, I know people were starting to ask if the two shots we’d be getting would be enough. Would there need to be a third shot? Would this become something similar to the flu shot where we get them each year? There were so many questions and I know that there weren’t a lot of answers right away. And I think there were a lot of other things to consider if we would need additional shots, but we were all just so happy to be able to be vaccinated. And even though I hate needles, getting my Covid vaccine was a really happy day for me.
I don’t know how to explain the relief I felt when I got my first vaccine. I knew I wasn’t 100% protected and I still needed my second shot, but just knowing that I was getting closer to the end was the most amazing feeling. And when I got my second shot and was past the 2 weeks of waiting before I was considered fully vaccinated, I was even more hopeful. Because so many people were getting vaccinated so quickly, I thought this summer would be normal. I think so many of us had that thought.
What I didn’t expect was the number of people against the vaccine. I have always known there are people who can’t or don’t vaccinate themselves or their families. But with Covid, since so many people were against masks, I thought they would want to be vaccinated so they could be done with masks. But as we all know, that is not how it went and now we are having a new surge. And even people who have been vaccinated are at risk. Fortunately, it seems like those who are vaccinated are not getting as sick as those who are not, but it doesn’t matter. Being at risk is a scary thing and I think that increased the questions about needing another shot.
And now we all know that people are getting booster shots. And I honesty am so happy to know there is a timeline for getting the next shot. I still hate shots and I know it’s not going to be a fun day for me, but I really want to make sure I stay safe and healthy. I want to feel that same feeling I had earlier this year when I was so relieved and ready to get back to my life. I’m not in the same fear that I was in before getting vaccinated, but I also am limiting what I go out to do and who I see. So I’m just waiting until I can get my next shot. Based on how it is right now, I should be getting my booster in November, so it’s still a bit away. But it’s something to look forward to and hope that maybe the time between now and then will not be as bad as they are now.
Just like how sometimes I surprise myself with how dedicated I am to working out when it was such a struggle for me, I now surprise myself with how much I’m looking forward to getting another vaccine. I don’t care if I pass out hard or just black out a bit like it has been recently. I just want to make sure I do everything I can to not get sick and make sure I can get back to a time where I don’t have to worry about this.
Posted onAugust 24, 2021|Comments Off on Dropping A Few Habits (or Still Deciding If This Is Going To Be A Good Choice)
There are a lot of habits I’ve had for a long time in my life. Some of them are necessary for my life and basically are things I do without a thought anymore. Some are things that are for my health that I do and maybe sometimes need a reminder to do (such as having an alert on my calendar each month to throw out my old contact lenses and use fresh ones). And there are some habits that I started doing because they were good for me in some sense and I’ve just kept them up because it’s routine.
But I’ve been doing some of my habits and routines for a long time just because I have been doing them for a long time and I don’t know if they still benefit me in any way. But they are things I still am aware of and track and I have to remember to do them or I feel like I forgot something. And as my schedule gets busier again and as I try to build my life again after having so little to do for so long, I have started to wonder if it’s worth it to continue doing these things just because I have been doing them for years.
There are 2 main habits I think about when debating if I should stop. First, tracking my food. I’ve been doing this for so long and have even made it a monthly challenge before. And in a way, it does keep me sane when I have a binge episode because I can have a reality check when I need it. But at the same time, unless I need that reality check I don’t always track everything I eat. Because of my schedule, I’m not always eating specific meals but instead eating small meals and snacks throughout the day. I know there is debate if having specific meals is better than grazing or snacking, but this isn’t about that. Based on what I see on the scale and how my clothes fit, I’m eating a very similar amount either way so I’m not worried about that. But on days that I graze, I rarely enter all my food. I might just add my breakfast and then nothing else. Or I’ll add one thing I ate but not the entire meal. Figuring out how much I’m eating is necessary, but the serving size from a container might not match up with the food tracking apps, so it can get frustrating.
Since I’m not usually tracking everything, I have started to question why I do it. For a long time, it was because I wanted to keep up my streak on the app in case I was going to go back to tracking everything. But I could always start back up without having a streak on the app. And maybe not focusing on tracking whatever I think of will motivate me to focus on my food in another way. I’m not sure yet.
The other thing I’ve been questioning tracking has been my daily steps. This again was a past monthly challenge that I kept up for a long time. But things came up in life and it’s been a while since I’ve had a 10,000 step day on my FitBit app. This doesn’t mean I haven’t been hitting 10,000 steps, they just aren’t always being tracked. I don’t wear my Fitbit that much during the day. I do have a clip so I can put it in a pocket or in my bra, but it’s not comfortable anymore. During my workouts, I used to keep it clipped to my pants, but that was bothering me too. My phone does track steps, but it’s not as accurate as wearing my Fitbit. And I know I could wear it as a watch, but I like my regular watch more and I don’t like the look of my Fitbit on my wrist. I do still use it every night to track my sleep because that is valuable information for me, but that’s all I’ve been able to accurately track for a long time.
So just like with the food tracking, I’m wondering what the benefit is for me to be half-tracking things. This one doesn’t concern me as much as the food tracking one goes, it’s more about me being ok not wearing my Fitbit or trying to find a random place to clip it to or put it when I go out somewhere. So accepting it as just a sleep tracker, for now, is what I think I want to do. That doesn’t mean I can’t change my mind and wear it if I’m going out somewhere and want to track my steps. But I’m not going to worry too much about it and look at what the app says each day for my total steps. I know those haven’t been accurate for a while, but I still have been looking at them and they do make me think about if a day was a good one or a not-so-good one. Having that stress off my mind might help.
Stopping these habits won’t change that much about what I’m already doing each day. I just won’t be tracking them and using them as a judgment of how I’m doing. And if I start to feel like I’m getting out of control or panicked, I can start tracking again. But since I’ve been only doing a fraction of the tracking I should be doing anyway, I don’t think this will make that much of a difference other than having a few fewer things to worry about in my daily routine.
Posted onAugust 23, 2021|Comments Off on A More Normal Workout Week (or A Bonus Friend Reunion)
After dealing with some really bad pain and nausea the week before, I was glad I was doing better this week with how I was feeling in my workouts. I still had some struggles and annoyances, but it’s always a nice thing when it’s not so bad that I’m miserable. And I had a fun surprise during the week that made my workouts even more amazing than normal.
I was still dealing with a bit of pain and nausea on Monday, but fortunately, I was over the hump and really close to feeling normal. I was still being careful with what I did and paid attention to how I was feeling so I didn’t overdo anything, but I was able to push myself more. And since it was a strength day, I’m glad I was able to push because it was a tough workout, especially the cardio!
The cardio was 3 blocks and they were all very similar. We had round of push pace and base pace using decreasing inclines and then we had an all-out at the end on an incline. The highest resistance level I used on the bike during the push and base paces was what my new all-out resistance level is now. So when we had the all-outs at the end, even though the resistance level could have been lower than my new all-out level I pushed it to be higher. Almost all the cardio was using resistance levels, but because it never got that high my legs didn’t feel as bad as they have with other strength days.
On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. And each block started with a 15 stroke row drill. Feeling off on days we have stroke drills is fine since we are supposed to go very slow to make sure the water is still on the rower between each stroke. So when I needed a break, it was between each stroke when I was pausing. After the row, each block had 1 exercise that was a drop set (doing heavy weights for low reps and then a lower weight for more reps) and one additional exercise. The drop set exercises were bicep curls, goblet squats, and shoulder presses. And the other exercises were bench push-ups, hip abduction, and running men. I tried to go heavy with the drop set weights, and I did do that for the bicep curls and goblet squats.
Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. And I still had some pain to deal with, but it was minimal and didn’t affect my workout too much. I was really grateful to be feeling almost normal.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks and the first and third blocks were distance challenges. For the first block, we had a 3-minute run for distance, 1-minute walk, 2-minute push pace, and 1-minute all out. In the third block, we switched up the order so we had the push pace, all-out, walk, and run for distance. And the goal was to get further in the third block, which I was able to do. I did use the resistance levels for the run for distance part. I started with my push pace level, but that got a bit much so I went to the level between my push and base pace. And the block between the two challenges was a progressive push pace with increases every minute for 4 minutes. For the progressive push, I increased the resistance level by 1 every minute.
On the floor, we had 1 long block that was split up into 3 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had front raises and low rows on the straps with a mini-band around our arms. We did those twice and then we had an 800-meter row. Then we had 2 rounds of uppercuts with weights and high rows with weights followed by a 400-meter row. The last mini-block had 2 rounds of clean to press with weights and push-ups with a 200-meter row. I didn’t do that great on the first 2 rows, but my coach pushed me and cheered me on for the 200-meter row and I was able to get it done in just under 40 seconds! It wasn’t a PR, but it was pretty fast considering what I’ve been able to do since returning.
Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance and strength. And it was a tough workout for me. I was feeling fine, but I think this was the first workout this week where I really pushed myself to improve. I’m not sure if it paid off, but I’m still proud of what I did.
For cardio, we had 1 long block with 5 different progressive base pace segments. We started with a 5-minute base that increased incline/resistance every 75-seconds (so there were 4 total levels). For all but the last segments, we always worked with 4 different levels. But because the segments got shorter, each time we increased faster plus we started at a higher level. So toward the end of the workout, I was at some of the highest resistance levels I’ve used on the bike. I did have to take a few breaks to drink water and stretch my hip out, but I was able to keep going for most of the block. And at the end, the last segment had 3 rounds of decreasing levels for 30-seconds each and we ended with a 1-minute all-out.
On the floor, we had 2 blocks. Both blocks started with 15 stroke row challenges. We also had triceps and front presses with the medicine ball. In the first block, we had chest presses with weights, chest presses on the straps, and bird dog planks. And the second block had weighted squats, single-leg squats (which I had to do as regular squats), and plank leg raises. For the chest presses with weights and the weighted squats, we only had 6 reps so we were told to go heavy with the weights. I did use the heaviest weights yet for my chest presses. I didn’t use the heaviest weights for my squats, but they were only 1 set lower which was still really good.
But something else happened at my Friday workout that really made my day (and honestly, my week). Before the shutdown, I had a group of workout buddies I usually would see for almost all my workouts each week. And while we have stayed in touch over text, my workout group hasn’t returned to Orangetheory. Some are at new gyms and others aren’t in LA anymore. It’s sad, but I also understand that things like that happen. But one of my workout buddies was at Orangetheory on Friday for her job, and I knew that I’d probably get to see her. I didn’t know when during my workout she’d be there, but she was there during the warm-up and I had to go say hi immediately! I jumped off the bike to run out to the lobby to say hi and hug her (thankfully it was the warm-up so I wasn’t that sweaty yet). Even though I’ve had a lot of friend reunions since the pandemic, this one hit me hard. Maybe it was because we hadn’t seen each other in a year and a half or maybe seeing her at Orangetheory gave me even more of a sense of normalcy and my old life, but I broke down in tears when hugging her. I couldn’t say hi too long because I had to get back to the workout. But I did see her again after the workout was done and seeing someone from my old life really did make me so happy!
Saturday’s workout was a power day, and I was glad to have a workout that focused on shorter efforts. I feel like we’ve had so many endurance and strength workouts lately. But power days are always fun because I can push myself really hard knowing that efforts aren’t going to last too long.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks that got a little bit longer each time. Every block had 3 rounds of a 45-second push pace followed by a base pace and ended with an all-out. But the difference was each block had longer time for the base pace. The first block had 1-minute base paces, the second block had 75-second base paces, and the last block had 90-second base paces. I kept my resistance levels the same for each block, but having the longer base paces allowed me to try to pedal faster with the same resistance level each time. The only issue I was experiencing was some hip pain, but that’s so normal to me that I’m not really worried about it and it didn’t affect my workout too much.
We also had 3 blocks on the floor and each block started with a 45-second all-out row before going to the floor. In the first block, we worked with the ab dolly and had push-ups to knee tucks and roll-outs. Those were both tough on me due to my hip pain, but I pushed through when I could. The second block had pull-ups on the straps (which I did as high rows on the straps) and single-arm chest flys. And the last block had hip hinge swings, side step-downs (I did lunges instead), and mountain climbers. And by the end of this workout, I was exhausted! I know I pushed myself extra hard because it was a power day and I felt it! But it also felt great!
For the next 2 weeks, I may have to change up my workout a bit. I’m hoping I can still get in 4 workouts each week, but it will just depend on a few things. I’m also toying with the idea of seeing if a different workout time would work, but that can cause issues with my work schedule. I know I’ll figure out the best situation for me and make sure that I don’t slack on any of my obligations. Worst case, I know I can get my 3 workouts in each week. I do love my routine and having a set plan each week, but I also know I need to be flexible when other things come up. And the reasons I may not be doing 4 workouts each of those weeks are good reasons that are worth it. I’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out for me in the next few weeks!
Posted onAugust 20, 2021|Comments Off on 2 Decades In LA (or Another LA Anniversary)
Just like so many things that happened over the past year and a half, it’s surprising when milestones or anniversaries happen because it doesn’t feel like time has really been passing. I feel so stuck in an endless cycle of a few different things and I really have trouble remembering that things are still going on and time has moved. But just because we are not living our full lives due to the pandemic doesn’t mean these things aren’t happening. And I am now celebrating 20 years of living in LA.
I’ve been a bit shocked with different LA anniversaries in the past. When I celebrated 18 years in LA, that marked when I had spent half my life in the Bay Area and half in LA. Because it always felt like I had spent so much more time in the Bay Area, it felt so weird to know I had spent half my life in each place. But all milestone anniversaries in LA have been things I have celebrated. I haven’t necessarily done anything big to celebrate, but I always think about how many years it’s been since I moved into my dorm room. Somehow, I always knew I was meant to live in LA, and it felt right to me as soon as I moved here. I didn’t always have the perfect situation in LA, but I learned how to make it my home.
And maybe one of the reasons the pandemic has been so hard on me has been how much I have made this city my home. I had things I loved to do and routines I enjoyed. And that all ended so quickly for me and most of it still hasn’t returned. I don’t really feel like I’m living in LA right now. I’m existing but not living. And I miss living in the city that has been my home for 2 decades. I also feel sad for the losses that the city has had. The loss of people and places that so many loved so much because of death and closures. Things that we all assumed would be around forever in LA are gone now. I don’t know if all of it will hit me until I’m out and about in the city more because I’m not confronting things that have changed that much. But I do notice the change and different feelings in the air when I am out and doing something.
But even if I’m not able to celebrate my LA anniversary the way I would like, I still want to celebrate. I’ve experienced so much in 20 years of living in LA. Some of it has been amazing and some of it is very sad. But I have gotten through all of my good and bad days. I have built a life here (even if I’m not really living it right now) and I have grown so much as a person because of the choices I’ve made. And I do look back occasionally with regrets of things I wish I had or hadn’t done, but every choice from my past has made me who I am now. And I am grateful for that.
20 years ago, I had no clue what this city had in store for me. I knew I was going to college and what I hoped to do. But I had no clue how it would happen. And so much hasn’t happened the way most people would accomplish different goals, but it’s ok that I’ve found my own way. And I’m sure if I had told myself 20 years ago what I’d be doing now, I’d never believed it. But I have created a life that I appreciate and am celebrating on this milestone anniversary.
Posted onAugust 19, 2021|Comments Off on A Super Fast Therapy Appointment (or Having Therapy On An Insanely Stressful Day)
My therapy appointments are usually 6 months apart, so it’s been a while since I’ve had one. I mostly have therapy as medication check-ins and not to talk things out, so there isn’t a big need to go often unless I am testing out a new medication. Even though they are only medication check-ins, I do still discuss how I’m feeling and how I’m doing, but they don’t go as in-depth as they did when I was attending therapy more often.
And I was doing video appointments before the pandemic, but I appreciate having video appointments even more now. It’s so much easier for me not to have to leave my house, especially when I have such a full work schedule. And when I booked my most recent appointment, I was basing it on the idea that my work schedule would be close to what it used to be before the pandemic. I was hopeful that things would be coming back, so I figured that was a smart decision. I didn’t consider that I’d be working more hours so the time that used to be right after work would be during work. But since it was a video appointment, I figured I could multi-task a bit for a quick appointment.
What I wasn’t expecting was to have my therapy appointment on the most stressful day of my customer service job. Without going into too much detail about how things work at my company, it was the day that our clients were informed about the start of some things for August. And while most were happy and were messaging us a quick thank you, this also had a lot of clients who thought they had canceled or changed their service reach out questioning what happened. Most of the miscommunication was through a partner company we work with, but it still created a ton of work for me. And right now, I’m pretty much the only person doing the customer service work. So when I had to log into my video appointment, I was in the middle of the craziness of responding to people.
I’ve said this before, but I’m grateful my therapist knows me. I’m sure I looked frenzied and in a panic because I was trying to get work done. But I explained to her about the number of messages I was trying to respond to and she understood. So she helped to make the appointment go quickly. She asked if I was ready to start testing other medications, but I think she agreed with me that it’s still not the right time since I will want to know if any side effects are due to the current circumstances in the world or the medication. I do think a change might be in order, but waiting feels right to me for now.
And we did discuss my current stress levels but I explained how it was a very temporary situation and likely only for that day. In the recent past, I discussed stress related to the pandemic and not being vaccinated yet, but now that’s not as big of a concern for me. I’m still being careful and I’m glad that I will be eligible for a booster shot soon, but I think now that I know I’m at least a little protected has helped to bring down my fear a lot. And the stress being unvaccinated caused me was very different from what I was feeling due to work. My work stress wasn’t really in my control, but it felt more in control to me.
After a bit of a check-in so she knew I was doing ok, my therapist agreed that keeping my medication the same was a good plan and she set me up for another 6 months through the pharmacy and booked my next appointment in February next year. And I know that if I need to contact her for any reason before my next appointment, I can do that and get another appointment sooner. Or I can email back and forth with her if I have questions or concerns.
I have no clue what the world will be like in 6 months. Maybe I’ll finally be ready to discuss changing up my medications. Maybe it will be better in the world but I won’t be ready to change things up. I really have no clue. But at least for now, I’m sticking with the plan that has been working for me and continuing to do the other things I need to do to get into recovery with my eating disorder.
Posted onAugust 18, 2021|Comments Off on Finally Doing Some Job Training (or I’ll Find A Way To Add In More Hours)
When I signed my contract for my data entry job for the second half of this year, I knew my job was going to be changing up and I’d be doing something different. I was excited to try out something new and learn new skills. But there were a few delays in getting trained for the new responsibilities, so I’ve only been doing work with social media (which also changed from what I was doing before, but not that much). I knew I’d be trained eventually, but there were other things that I knew had to come first so I was just waiting and that was fine.
But I finally got to train on my new quality assurance check role this week. I’ve never done this type of work before, but I had an idea of what I would be doing. I knew it was mainly work looking at the website and looking for any glitches, errors, or issues. I’ve reported things like that while doing my data entry job as I saw them, but I never had to seek them out. I just reported what I saw as it happened. So I knew that having this as a regular job was going to be different since I needed to make sure I wasn’t overlooking errors.
Fortunately, when I did my training it wasn’t that different from what I was expecting. There are different ways I need to track things so that others can follow up on the errors I’m finding and I have to track what sections of the website I have checked and what still needs to be done, but the things I’m looking for are similar to what I was reporting before.
The way my hours are broken up between this work and the social media work is about 2/3rd QA work and 1/3 social media work. And I’m working on figuring out how I’m going to manage it. I’ve done this many hours for this job before, but never while working as many hours for other jobs. And my newer customer service job has significantly less downtime than my box office job. So while I can overlap work a bit, I can’t do what I was used to doing before the pandemic. I’m still so grateful to have all the work I do have because I am putting myself in a much better financial spot than before, but time management is becoming a big focus.
If I am not careful, I could see myself working close to 12 hours a day on my craziest days. I know I can have burnout if I’m not taking care of myself. And I feel like the risk of burnout is higher when I don’t have much to do outside of my house. I don’t want to be going great for a month or two and then have a huge crash. But I also know that there are plenty of people who work more than 8 hours a day, so it’s doable. And I don’t have to worry about a commute so that makes my long day shorter than what others might experience. But it’s a work in progress for sure.
I am excited to have a new adventure with my work. Having things change up helps to keep things from feeling too routine in my life. And lately, things have been very repetitive in my life, so I’ve been welcoming change. I just have to figure out how to make this change work. But I know I will because I always do.
It’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)
