Monthly Archives: February 2022

Back To A Regular Workout Week (or Still Being Careful, But Trying To Get Back To Normal)

After getting back to my workouts the week before, I was so happy to have a normal workout week this past week. I still am recovering and my foot is still healing, but the healing process is coming along. It’s just tough for me sometimes to be patient when it seems like I’m doing better and then realize after the fact that I might have pushed too much. So finding that balance was my big focus this past week.

Monday’s workout was a power day, but because it was a 2 group class it also felt like a bit of an endurance day for me. My foot was doing better, but there were still lots of moments I was dealing with pain. But the pain has been changing each day. This past week, it was mainly a dull pain (something I’m pretty used to with my hip) with occasional weird pulling sensations in my heel. I think that pulling feeling is just the skin being a bit tight still, so when I feel that I try to stop so I don’t pull at a scab or something like that.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and second blocks were rounds of push pace to a base pace with an all-out at the end. And the last block was all rounds of 30-second all-outs with recoveries after. The recovery started at 30-seconds and increased every round so in the last round we had 2-minutes of recovery before the last 30-second all-out. My heel was doing ok for most of the cardio work, but there were times I needed to just stretch my foot out a bit so I could feel more comfortable.

On the floor, we also had 3 blocks. The first 2 blocks were both on the floor and had 2 exercises each. The first block had squats to an upright row and tricep extensions on the straps. And the second block had single-arm clean to press and bicep curls on the straps. I didn’t have to make a ton of modifications to the exercises, I just had to try to not put as much weight as normal on my heel. And the last block was timed with cardio. When cardio had an all-out, we had an all-out on the rower. And when cardio had their recovery, we had jump squats and then any leftover time could be recovery. I did regular squats instead of jump squats and my rowing was pretty slow, but I think I did ok with this block.

Wednesday’s workout was an endurance day, and again my heel was doing a bit better but still feeling some pain and odd sensations. But I tried to push myself a bit more in this class.

For cardio, we had one long block. It started with a 3-minute push pace and then a 1-minute base pace. Each push pace went down by 30-seconds and the base pace stayed the same. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out. I tried to limit my breaks to just when we were in base pace, but for the longer push paces I ended up having to take a little break in the middle. But that was still better than what I had been able to do the past few classes.

On the rower, it was also one long block. We started with a 400-meter row and then we had bicep curls with a medicine ball. We repeated that with decreasing the row by 100-meters each time and keeping the same exercise in-between. After doing 100-meters and the bicep curls, we went back to 400-meters and were supposed to do good mornings with the medicine ball between each row. But because of how slow my rowing is and because I needed to take breaks during the longer rows, I only made it through the 4 rounds of rowing with the bicep curls and was starting the next 400-meter row when the block ended.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks. The longer block was all with the Bosu. We had pullovers, hip bridges, reverse extensions, and mountain climbers. I went lighter than normal for the weights for the pullovers and hip bridges and I had to rest during each set because I could feel that pulling sensation in my heel. And I tried to do the mountain climbers, but it was causing some real pain in my heel so I just had to skip those. And in the second block, we were supposed to do lateral lunges, regular lunges, and hammer curls. I tried the lunges, but again it was causing a lot of pain. I think I probably overdid it for the workout and that’s why things were hurting so much at the end. So instead of the lunges, I did squats. And when the workout was done, I was limping a bit but I knew I could rest the rest of the day.

Friday’s workout was a power day and it was also a 2 group workout. And because it was a 2 group workout, we had a run/row type workout. Those are pretty rare for me since most of my workouts are 3 group classes, so this was different. But rowing was still tough for me with trying to have some power in my rows while being careful with my heel.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. The first and last blocks were on the rower and the middle block was on the treadmill (or bike for me). In blocks 1 and 3, we had the same workout. We had 5 rounds of a 30-second push row with 15 seconds of recovery rowing after. 30 seconds of rowing isn’t a long time, so that was helpful for me to not go too hard with pushing down on my heel, but I still had to take breaks in some of the last rounds because I was starting to hurt. And when we were on the treadmills and bike, we had 3 rounds of a 3-minute distance challenge with 2 minutes to walk and recovery in-between. Those were a bit harder than the rowing for me because I could feel weird pain again in my heel. But I think this is just the tight skin feeling when things are healing and it might feel strange because of how my foot flexes during the workout.

And on the floor, we also had 3 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were timed exercises and block 2 was on our own timing. For blocks 1 and 3, we were timed with the rowers and we had an exercise for 30 seconds and then rest for 15 seconds. In the first block, the exercises were squats to shoulder presses and skater lunges. I did curtsy lunges instead of skater lunges because I couldn’t do the jumping with the skater ones. And in the third block, the exercises were neutral full thrusters and high knees. I did slow high knees without the jumping, but I was happy to see I could still do them. And in the second block, we had pull-ups on the straps (I did high rows), rollouts on the straps, push-ups, bench tap squats, sit-ups, and bear planks.

And on Saturday, the workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was another 2 group class. I was also trying a new way to bandage my heel since I need it less as a bandage and more as padding as my heel continues to heal and I’m having some odd soreness. Hopefully, it’s fully healed soon so I can stop worrying about this.

For cardio, we had 1 long block. We had a push pace to an all-out and then had a walking recovery. The all-outs were always 1-minute and the recovery was always 2-minutes. And the push pace started at 3-minutes and went down by 30-seconds each time. But the first push pace was at no incline and each one after went up by 1% as they went down in time. Because I didn’t want too much resistance on the bike as it’s still tough to put that much weight on my heel, I didn’t always increase the resistance by 1% each time. I did end up going up to 1% higher than my normal all-out, but nothing above that.

For the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block started with a 2-minute row and I surprised myself by being able to row for the first minute without needing to take a break. I think it was because I was definitely not going that hard on the rower, so I wasn’t feeling the same soreness in my heel. After the row, we had lateral hops (which I did as lateral lunges), sumo deadlifts, sumo squats, and toe reaches. In the second block, we had pop squats (which I did as regular squats), weighted squats, skier swings, and crunches with over unders. And at the end of that block, we had another 2-minute row. This row was a bit harder for me, my heel was starting to really hurt after all the lower body work. But I still tried to go as long as I could before taking a break.

Considering I’m still healing, I think I did a pretty great job this past week. I know I might still have to take it easy for another week or two, but I’m almost done recovering and then I can focus more on finding ways to improve in my workouts. But for now, I’m just glad to be back again because taking that one week off really didn’t make me happy. t

Into The Next Stage Of The Renovation (or Seeing Things Come Back Into My Place)

The renovation on the condo has only been happening for about 2 weeks, but so much has happened in that time. I’m still shocked how quickly the demolition took as well as how fast all the things they tore out were removed. And it seems like almost every single day, significant changes have been happening. For most of last week, I think most of the work was about removing the things we are not keeping and getting the condo ready to be put back together. And while this week hasn’t necessarily all been about getting the new things in, it’s starting to be like that!

Even though I have lived through renovations when I was little when my parents fixed up their house, I really don’t remember too much about how things went. My main memories of those renovations are really weird things, like when a contractor was on the roof (I’m not exactly sure what they were doing there) and they stepped in the wrong spot and fell into the bathroom and broke the toilet. It’s an interesting memory, but it doesn’t help me know what the process would be like in the condo.

I’ve been lucky that my parents have gone through renovations before so they can tell me what some of the timeline would be like or what things have to be done before other things. And the contractor we hired is also great about communicating about the process and letting me know when different things are happening. For example, the contractor let me know when the tile would be picked up so I could take another look at what we picked and I could finalize what I wanted the paint colors to be. I was pretty sure I knew what colors I wanted for each part of the condo, but I still wanted to test it against the swatches on the wall that I did a few months ago.

And as exciting as it was to see the demolition and changes being made in the past week, I think I’m even more excited to see the things coming in that will be a  part of my new home. There haven’t been too many things added yet, but the biggest change so far has been adding the lights in the ceiling. Originally, there were no ceiling lights in the living room or either bedroom. I know I could do floor lamps, and I will probably do the for the living room anyway, but having lights in the ceiling will be nice too. And for the bedrooms, I will have bedside lamps in my room and probably a desk lamp in the office, but I still like the option of having more lighting.

I’m also seeing the bathroom start to come back together. We are keeping the bathroom with the same footprint with everything, but we are freshening it up. So far, the work has mainly been things you don’t see, like the plumbing. But also my new bathtub was installed this week!

I know this isn’t a big change, but it feels like we are done with one phase of the renovation and are starting another phase. And that just brings me that much closer to being able to move in! And as more things are added or brought back in, I have a feeling I will be more and more excited about it!

Continuing With My Union Committee Service (or I’m Still So Grateful These Are Done Over Zoom)

I have been lucky to be a part of different union committees over the past few years, but because of when the meetings are and my schedule, I have always felt a bit disconnected from them. It’s not easy when almost everyone is there in person and I’m listening in through a phone line. As I’ve mentioned before, now all these meetings are on Zoom, which is much better than a phone line. Even though I have to stay off-camera because I’m working, I feel much more a part of these meetings than I did before.

I’m a part of some national committees as well as a local one, and so far I’ve only had official meetings for the local one (I’m the vice-chair of a national committee and I’ve had a meeting with the chair, but not the full committee yet). And this week, I had my local communications committee.

I’m grateful to be on this committee because it involves a lot of work that I have done for years. It’s about social media, writing articles, and providing resources to my fellow union members. So much of this is stuff that I have done through day jobs before, so I do feel like I have a lot I can contribute to the committee and the membership. And after our last meeting, we had an assignment to come up with some examples of things we would like to see on social media, in articles, and as resources listed on the website. This was pretty easy for me and I submitted more than I had to so there were options. And I figured we would go over what everyone submitted at the next meeting.

But at this meeting, I discovered that my email never made it (I’m guessing it was stopped by a spam filter). If this meeting was over the phone, I might not have noticed this because I wouldn’t have been able to see all the documents. But because this was over Zoom, I was following along and noticed my submissions missing from the list. I brought it up to the chair of the committee and she let me resend my email so they could be included in our discussion. I’m glad she let me do that since most of the suggestions I had were not ones that other people brought up. In fact, it seemed like all of us had very unique ideas of what we wanted to see, and I think that diversity and variety are really going to be a benefit for us as a committee and as a union.

Because so many of us had so many ideas and suggestions, we weren’t able to go through everything in that meeting. But that’s ok since we can go over them at the next meeting. And I’m glad the chair of the committee was paying attention to the time so we didn’t go over too long so we could all continue on with our days.

I’m not sure when the next meeting will be, but even if things are back in person soon, I have a feeling they will continue to make Zoom an option for meetings instead of just having a call in-line be the alternative to going in-person. And this will allow me to feel more connected to the committees that I’m in even if I have to be at home and working while the meetings are happening.

Doing Another Podcast Interview (or I Guess People Enjoyed My Stories)

I’ve had a few opportunities in the past to be on podcasts. Most recently, I had 2 different interviews on the Secret Life Podcast. I did one episode about my eating disorder, but the most recent one was about dating. I have shared plenty of dating stories on here before, and it’s clear that I’ve had a lot of crazy stories. And I know that it probably seems like I only have negative experiences, but that’s because those are the ones that are more interesting to share. It’s not as fun to say how I dated someone for a month or two and they were a really great person but just not meant for me. I think people enjoy hearing me talk about getting ghosted or catching cheaters.

And when I went on Secret Life to talk about dating, I did share a lot of those crazy stories. I know they are funny and I know that I have had some really out there experiences. Maybe someone will feel better about their bad dating experiences after hearing my stories. But I just enjoy sharing them because I know they are entertaining and I like to entertain others.

Well, I guess quite a few people agree that they are funny and entertaining because I found out that my episode about dating ended up being a bit hit for the podcast! It’s a little hard to believe that people loved hearing what I had to say when there are interviews with some pretty big celebrities on the podcast too, but I’m so glad that what I had to say was relatable. And because it was a hit, Brianne asked me if I’d come back on the podcast for a follow-up!

I was very excited to be given that chance because quite a few things changed since we recorded that interview. We did that interview a while ago and the stories I shared were accurate at the time of the recording. But there were a few stories I shared on the episode that had some pretty big updates. I shared about a guy who had ghosted me who had come back into my life again (and I won’t say more on here because I want you to listen to the episode!). And I shared a story on the original episode about someone I was seeing non-exclusively that I learned some really big things about since then that has made me feel very differently about the situation.

And I also wanted to share about how dating during a pandemic has been a very tough experience. In a time when I was seriously lacking any physical touch, I wanted to go out and date to try to find someone. But at the same time, I had to keep my health and safety in mind and there is a lot of trust you have to put in people who you don’t know. I know this will be relatable because I don’t know anyone single during this time that hasn’t had the same struggles as I have had. And because none of us have been in a pandemic before, there aren’t rules or guidelines to follow and we are all just trying to figure it out.

I don’t want to share too much about what I said because I want you all to listen to my follow-up episode. And you won’t have to wait long because Brianne let me know that she is going to release it as the Valentine’s Day episode! So I hope you all check it out, and while you are waiting for my next episode to come out, you should check out all the other episodes and interviews because they have all been amazing!

Having Issues At Both Places (or I Know These Are Small Problems, But They Add Up)

At my current rental, I’ve had a series of issues that have come up. I think this is to be expected considering I live in a house that was built about 100 years ago and I’ve been here for almost 12 years. But I feel like I have had so many random things that have gone wrong and needed to be fixed. I’ve had multiple flood issues from my water heater, bathroom pipes, garbage disposal, and toilet. And I’ve also had a gas leak before or have had gas appliances not work. With my old landlord, things were fixed pretty quickly and they were on top of telling me the status of things being repaired.

Well, last week at my house, the gas company came out because there was a suspected gas leak on my street. They came over to let me know my gas would be off for maybe a few hours, but they would let me know when it was back on and they would relight the appliances. This was a minor inconvenience, but obviously, a gas leak needs to be fixed.

It turns out that the gas leak is in the pipe that provides gas to half the units where I live. My current place has a driveway in the middle and each side of the driveway has one main gas pipe. The pipe on my side was repaired a few years ago. This time, it’s the pipe on the other side.

Normally, this wouldn’t affect me much, but when the gas company came back to turn on my appliances, they said they could not turn on my heater. I guess it needs to have a major cleaning because it’s a carbon monoxide risk. I don’t think it was causing issues for me before because my carbon monoxide monitor is only about a foot from the heater, but the risk isn’t good so I can’t use my heater. I’m glad I have a little space heater, but it gets cold inside my house at night and it’s been tough. I’m hoping my landlord will fix this soon (and legally he has to because heat is a required thing to have in a rental), but I feel worse for my neighbors across the driveway. Not only do they not have heat, but they also don’t have hot water or gas appliances. And over the weekend, we all discovered that the dryer in our laundry room is a gas dryer. So none of us were able to dry our clothes after washing them. So I had to hang up all my clothes around my house and hope they will dry soon.

While I was dealing with the issues at my current place, I was also dealing with a minor issue at my new place. I am trying to get things set up for me so that they will be ready when I move in. And this includes making sure I will be able to set up internet when I move in. There were a lot of cables that looked like they could have been for the internet, but none of them seemed to be in the right place. So I set up an appointment this past weekend to have a technician come and help me see what I might need to do.

This should have been an easy appointment, but just like the issue with the gas leak, nothing is as simple as it appears. The first technician showed up, was looking at some of the wires in my walls (fortunately, we are in the part of the renovation where the walls have a lot of holes in them), said he was going outside to look at things, and then 5 minutes later I got a call saying my appointment was canceled. The technician just left and never told me! I called back and the customer service person I spoke with was shocked that happened and said they set up another appointment. Nobody can explain what happened, but the company canceled and reset my appointment multiple times within 6 hours. And because I was always told they were always on their way, I spent about 7 hours waiting for someone to show up.

Finally, someone showed up who was able to do the work I needed to have done. And because of all the weirdness that happened with the appointments, the supervisor for the technician and the manager for the service department also arrived to make sure everything was completed. What should have been a 1-hour thing ended up being about 7 hours, but at least it is done. There is a bit of additional work we have to do to make everything work the way we want it to, but it’s minor compared to what we thought we might have to do.

I know that having no heat in my current place could be worse (while it does get cold here, it’s nothing compared to most of the country). And I know spending 7 hours for an appointment isn’t horrible either, just annoying. But I think having everything at one time was just a bit overwhelming for me and really made me have a bad weekend. But hopefully, I will have heat again soon and this is one of the last bumps in the road for my renovation!

Getting Back To My Workouts (or Having To Go Really Easy)

I really wanted to be back to my workouts as soon as I could, but I knew over the weekend that there was no way I would be able to make it to a workout on Monday. And because of some scheduling things, my original plan for this past week of workouts was to not go on Saturday but to add in Thursday. And I knew doing more than one day in a row would probably be risking it. So I had to continue to be patient and allow my foot to heal and be ok with only having 2 workouts this past week.

My first workout back was on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, I was worried about if I could do it, but I was able to see what the workout would be from some online forums so I could plan out what I could do and what I would need to modify. And I figured doing even a fraction of my normal workout was better than nothing. It was a strength day, but I really didn’t do a lot of strength work for cardio.

On the bike, we were supposed to have push paces and base paces at incline. I just used the same resistance level for those and then had my regular base pace level. I was pedaling very slowly and I had to take a lot of breaks to relax my foot a bit. Even though I wasn’t putting pressure on my heel, the way pedaling stretches my foot was making things a bit painful for me. But I managed to do it and that’s all I cared about.

For the rower, I continued to modify things. We had 2 blocks and both blocks started with a 400-meter row. I did it, but it was very slow and with a lot of breaks. I knew rowing would be tough because you are supposed to push off with your heels. After the row, we were supposed to do ground to presses with a medicine ball. Because I was trying to keep as much weight off my heel as possible, I did just overhead presses because I could balance on my toes for that. And then we had stroke drills on the rower with medicine ball work in-between for the rest of the block. My stroke drills were not normal for me since I didn’t have my power behind them, but I tried.

And on the floor, we also had 2 blocks. In the first block, we had mini-band work. We were supposed to do suitcase squats, overhead tricep presses, front and back walks, and hip hinge reverse flies. I knew I couldn’t do the front and back walks, so I just skipped that. And for the suitcase squats, I just went really light with the weight and took my time. In the second block, we were supposed to do lateral lunges, pullovers, and leg raises. I knew lateral lunges wouldn’t be an option for me, so I just skipped those. I wish I could have thought of options for the exercises I skipped, but everything that worked the right muscles would have been too hard on my foot. But I just kept reminding myself that I was back after a week off and I was still healing. So it was ok if it wasn’t close to my best workout.

Friday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and I had to continue to go easy on things. My foot was looking much better than it had on Wednesday, but I was dealing with some new soreness as it continued to heal. I know this soreness might last a little while longer because this last part of healing can take the longest, but I’m hoping it is less and less each day.

For cardio, we had 3 blocks. Blocks 1 and 3 were both 4-minute distance challenges. I had the bike at my push pace level and just tried to keep going as long as I could without taking a break. I did better than Wednesday, but I still had to take plenty of breaks to stretch my foot and let the pain subside. Block 2 was rounds of 30-second all-outs and 45-seconds of recovery. I think I did better with this block. I did the all-outs at my normal resistance level, I just was pedaling much slower. And during the recoveries I tried to keep pedaling but I also allowed myself to rest then if I needed it.

On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. Each block had rows that were 250-meters each time. And between each row, we had a medicine ball exercise. In block 1, it was supposed to be a power jack with an overhead press but I just did overhead presses. In block 2 it was supposed to be a squat with a front press, and I just did front presses. And in block 3 it was supposed to be a power jack with a front press, and I did half overhead presses and half front presses. I might have been able to do the squats, but I was just being really cautious and didn’t want to push myself too much yet.

And on the floor, we had one long block split into 2 mini-blocks. The first mini-block had chest presses, push-ups, and hip bridge marches. And in the second mini-block we had lateral step-ups, step-ups with powers, and plank to pikes. For the hip bridge marches, I did regular hip bridges without a weight. It was tough, but I was able to put a little more weight on my toes. For the step ups, I did lunges and squats instead. And again, I tried to keep more weight to the front of my foot and because of that, I had to decrease how much I did each movement. I know that my form isn’t ideal because of these modifications, but I’m trying to do the best I can considering the circumstances.

I’m glad I was able to get back to my workouts this past week. I really did miss them a lot the week before and I do crave this routine in my life. And while I think I will still be making a lot of modifications this week because I will still be healing, I’m hoping I will see more progress and I will be able to put more weight on my heel each day.

Feeling A Bit Unsettled (or I’ve Written About This A Lot)

For about 6 months now, my living situation has felt like it was in a bit of limbo. I found out my current place was being sold which put me into a bit of a tailspin. My parents and I decided that looking for a condo was the right next move, and then it was a few months of looking at places and open houses. And each time I looked at a new place, I tried to imagine living there. There was one condo on the first day of looking that we almost put an offer on, but something just didn’t feel right. And then when I found the right place, there was the escrow period and then preparing for the renovation. So since August when I learned my current place was being sold, I felt like I was getting ready to move but also unsure of when that would be happening.

Even now, I have a better idea of when I will be moving and I’m finally starting to make preparations but I still don’t have an exact move date. I can’t hire movers yet, but I also don’t want to keep putting things away in my current house because I know they need to go into boxes soon. I also have done very little packing, but I worry that if I don’t start doing it soon, I will be packing at the very last minute and that will be stressful. And at the same time, I don’t want to live somewhere that is just filled with boxes.

I also have been looking for some new furniture I want to have in my new place and have been making choices about what I don’t want to take from my current place. But I also can’t exactly sell things now that I don’t want because I still need them. I’m trying to sell the things I can sell now, but that’s not much compared to what I will need to sell.

This feeling of being unsettled has been a way of life for me for about 6 months, and I wish I was over it already. But every time I get past one thing that makes me feel this way, another thing comes up. But I know we are getting closer to the end of this. The renovation has started and a lot of progress has been made in just the first few days. And things are continuing along at a great pace. I have been joking that once the renovation finally starts I will probably be shocked at how fast that is compared to everything else, and I think I was right. Every day so far this week, major steps have been happening. And in the next week, I know a lot of the materials are going to be picked up so that will make there be even more dramatic changes.

I know this time is temporary and I am extremely lucky that this is how I am moving. Not everyone has this opportunity and I’m extremely grateful. But even with being this grateful, it can still be stressful and I’m trying to be ok with feeling like that and not being guilty that everything doesn’t seem happy and easy for me. And accepting those feelings is important for me to work through them so I can focus on the happier and more positive feelings and try to start being even more excited about everything that is coming up for me with this move and being in a new place that I helped to design!

Taking Time To Heal Was The Right Thing (or Giving Myself A Week Helped)

It was just about a week ago that I had the unexpected in-office procedure done on my foot. And it’s been an interesting healing process for me. Because I wasn’t prepared for this, I had to figure out how to manage healing and what I would need to get. And I had to find what I could get delivered to my house since I was struggling to walk at first.

When I was at that appointment, I asked the doctor how long before I was healed. He said that it would be about a week before I felt like I could walk again with some weight on my heel and it might be another week or two before I’m fully healed. And I needed to allow myself that time so that I wouldn’t form scar tissue or a scab, which could make things harder for me.

Most of last week was spent at home going nowhere. I wasn’t using the crutches in my house since I had a soft boot from the doctor that I could wear and I just walked on my toes. It wasn’t the best thing to do because I started to get shin splints, but it was much easier than using crutches. When I had the rare errand out of my house last week, I was using crutches because I needed the support.

Then over the weekend, I started to use the cane that I already had. Again, I only used it outside of my house since I could walk on my toes while inside. And I was still limiting my errands outside my house so I could relax and not accidentally do too much.

And now that it’s been a week, it seems like my doctor was right. Monday night was the first time I was testing putting weight on my heel again. It was not easy and I do still have some pain, but it was manageable. And on Tuesday and Wednesday, most of the time I was walking pretty close to normal. I still put more weight on my toes than I do on my heel, but it’s not too uneven. And I feel like each day I can put a little more weight on my heel and it’s a little less painful.

But I know I’m not done recovering just yet. When I change the bandage, I can see that it still needs to be covered and that I need to give things a bit more time. But I think seeing how much progress I’ve made in a week is a sign that giving up my time to focus on healing was the right thing. It was frustrating and I was impatient at times, but it’s clear my body needed me to do that so I could be feeling close to normal now. It would have been more frustrating if I was still a few steps back in my healing and stuck there for longer.

Hopefully my doctor was right and it’s only another week or two before I don’t have to worry about letting my heel get better and I can be back to everything normally. But at least a week in, I’m able to start adding a few things back and I am feeling much better.

Now Things Are Feeling Real (or So Far, We Are Ahead Of Schedule)

After attending the meeting with my HOA, I knew that the renovation was going to be able to start soon. We had a few things that needed to be done, but they were much faster than the initial preparation we did for getting the approval. And because we only had to submit the last forms and not wait for anything else, once we got it all sent in over the weekend, we knew we’d be able to start this week.

My contractor wanted to start on Monday, and I’m so glad we were able to stick to that. Because the hours the HOA has set that you are allowed to work on condos are almost the same as my work hours, I won’t be able to watch the work happening. But we are very lucky that we hired a contractor who has been great at keeping us informed about things during each step. Even as we were preparing things, we were getting frequent emails and texts letting us know what they were doing and with options that we needed to approve. Since this is the first time I’ve been involved in a remodel, I appreciate this. I still don’t know a lot about the process, but I feel less lost than I did before.

With the official start being on Monday, I knew things would be happening but I didn’t know how much would be done on day 1. So while I worked, I was getting emails to confirm things but I was curious to see what work would be done at the end of the day. So once I was done with work, I headed over to the condo to take a look.

I figured the demolition would have pulled up the floors and maybe some of the kitchen cabinets. I’m really glad I took some photos over the weekend because now I have some good before and during renovation pictures.

We had been told demolition would be done within a few days, but they got it all done in a single day! I think it looks like a lot more work than we are doing. We are putting in new floors, painting all the walls, and redoing the kitchen and one bathroom. This is more work than we originally planned, but this is getting everything on our list done before I move in instead of doing some of them later while I live there. It is much easier to redo a kitchen when I don’t have to live in the same space.

The entire process of finding and buying a condo has had different moments when it has felt real. And I have been trying to not get my hopes up about things until they are done and approved. So there were some things in the renovation that I was worried we would be told we couldn’t do (even though it looks like all the work I am doing has been done in other units). And I was trying to not be too hopeful about when we would start or what we could do. But when I walked into the condo on Monday evening and saw everything in progress, it really sunk in. This was happening. We are turning this condo into something that is really going to feel like it’s mine.

I still don’t know exactly when it will be done and when I can move in, but it’s going to be soon. Because we have been preparing for this renovation for a few months, everything we need is already ordered and waiting to be picked up. And while it looks like a ton of work, it’s considered a small job. I know there can still be random delays and setbacks, but the contractor feels good that things were prepared and it shouldn’t be too long of a process.

I guess now that things have started, I really need to start looking into moving. I haven’t looked at moving companies yet and I really haven’t packed up much. But I also have the luxury of taking my time when I move in. I should have at least 2 weeks where I can move in while I’m still paying rent. It might be closer to a month depending on the timing of when things are done. And because I can move a lot of my stuff in my car and it’s a quick trip back and forth, I should be able to do a lot on my own. I just need a moving company for the big and heavy stuff, but fortunately, I don’t have a lot that fits into that category.

I don’t know what will be the next moment this feels real to me. Maybe when I move in and am finally sleeping in there. And I have a feeling that will be happening before I know it!

Unexpected Challenges To My Monthly Challenge (or I’ll Be Planning More This Month)

Happy February! I feel like January took a very long time and it was an overwhelming month. But I’m glad to be on to a fresh month with what feels like a fresh start! And that also means time for a new monthly challenge.

In January, I challenged myself to limit how often I ordered delivery food. I knew I was getting back into bad habits and wanted to break them before things got more out of control for me. I really hoped I would only order food maybe once a week if that. I would have loved to have had a month with no delivery food and I had tried to plan my grocery shopping around this idea.

And for a good portion of the month, I was doing ok with this challenge. I was ordering in once a week but I had planned for that. And I was really working on focusing on what I got at the grocery store so I felt like I had more than enough options at home. But this planning came to a halt after my recent doctor appointment. I had planned on going to the grocery store after that appointment, and because I was leaving the appointment on crutches that didn’t happen. I ordered in delivery food that night and I felt like I had earned it. But then the next day I forgot to order groceries to be delivered so I ordered in again. I finally got back on track over the weekend, but I hate that I ended the month having the worst time with my challenge. But I guess that is life, especially when you have unexpected things come up.

For this month, I want to try to plan for the unexpected a bit more. I want to work on task lists and to-do lists. I have done a similar challenge before, but the main idea is to have a running list of things I need to make sure I get done. If I need to reach out to someone or I need to remember to get something at the store, I want to have a list going so I don’t forget about it until it’s too late in the day. For example, right now I have to call some utility companies about setting things up in my condo. I have to work around certain business hours so I don’t want to forget to do that. I also know later this week I have to order something so it arrives on time. Again, I want this list next to me during the day so I see it and can do things when I have a break in my day.

I think besides making sure I don’t forget to do things, this list will help me feel like I have more free time in my day. Instead of remembering I need to do something in my free time so it is split up and not as relaxing, I will get the things done from my list before I get into a free time mindset. I know this won’t be perfect and there will still be things I forget, but this will hopefully help.

And I’m going pretty low-tech with my challenge. I know I could do a list on my phone or computer, but I just put scrap paper next to my computer (since most things involve being online at some point) so I can add things as I remember them and cross them off as I get them done.

Hopefully, doing this will help me be as productive as possible in February. It has the potential to be a crazy month with a lot of things happening, so I want to make sure I stay on top of as much as I can.