This is Why

This is why I don't bother coming up with ideas myself or trying to be a creative brainstormer. My ideas are shot down immediately with frightening regularity.

Frustrating Executives&Chambers&Second Day

I have a love/hate relationship with teams. I really do. They're frustrating and asinine and time consuming and incredibly fulfilling and relationship building and creativity enhancing and rewarding. They are made so much more difficult when they are poorly managed and there is a lack of communication flow.

I went to a local business chamber meeting today and I find it a bit fascinating. I think the opportunity to network with different business people would be extremely useful especially once I graduate and am looking for job opportunities. Only problem is Robert's Rules of Order... they are so damn time consuming!!!

Second day with slow-carb. I weighed in at 162lbs exactly, I'm not worried about weight fluctuations though, different times a day and different levels of water weight, etc... I'm really looking forward to the cheat day but I'm so frustrated by how hungry I still am! I can't force myself to eat more to the point where I don't feel well, but I also don't think I'm getting enough! Very frustrating...

Zhen

Measurements&Frustrating Management&Green Tea

First day in, lots of beans were had... I don't think I ate enough which is bad. I just couldn't figure out what to eat and when to eat it! I also don't have enough protein in the house (eg meat). Luckily I found some almonds when out shopping and didn't gorge myself on something.

I picked up a soft measuring tape and measured myself! Herein I have found my baseline! I also weighed myself but that's not really what matters to me, I'm tall and I plan to gain muscle so weight is all relative. The inches are what I'm more concerned about. We'll see how those start being affected.

So I'm on these teams for business case competitions. And this one team is just driving me NUTS. It's run by an executive of about 6 people and the lack of communication is so irritating. I have always taken care to note what managerial behaviors I find beneficial as an employee and those that irritate the snot out of me. The lack of communication on this team is becoming detrimental to my performance on it, which I find unacceptable. An email is not difficult to send, we do it all the time! It's so speedy!

I drank only water, green tea, and a diet pepsi today so I'm happy with that. The green tea actually wasn't awful. My past experiences have left me not enjoying green tea so much but I really did enjoy it this time so that's encouraging. I may also be feeling so-so today because I didn't remember to drink a ton of water. Staying hydrated is usually pretty paramount.

My muscles are unimpressed with me today, after climbing, stationary biking and kettle belling yesterday. The kettle bell swings really worked my back hard, all these weird pain spots in muscle groups I can't name is amusing.

also, I am quickly losing patience with online estimation tools! Two now that have told me that I'm obese. SO that's encouraging! One told me I have 36% body fat and the other one said my BMI is 25.1 which is above the healthy weight range. I'm leaning towards the opinion that I shouldn't put a ton of stock in the online tools because they have nothing to do with me as a person and are rather generations based on a set of numbers. At any rate, more awareness of my current status is better than none, right?

I better eat more tomorrow...

Zhen

Grocery Shopping&General Quotidien Quibbling&Nostalgia

Just completed THE healthiest grocery shopping trip I think I've ever made. Complete with beans, lentils, spinach, celery, tomatoes, turkey bacon, frozen veggies and eggs... We'll see how this goes.

I'm going to try (emphasis on the try) this different meal plan for the next week and a half or so. I'm not sure how it'll pan out, but I am interested in doing something new! Only downside is there is a tad more prep involved in the food I'm eating... so that sucks. But I have confidence in me!!

I'm trying this because (not for the first time) I am dissatisfied with my appearance. Not to the point of self hatred or anything ridiculous like that. I just have higher expectations and I know I can do better. I've read a lot of books and quotes and articles, etc lately that have made it abundantly clear to me that many people have reached middle age or even old age without getting in shape and they regretted it for a long time. I would rather learn from the mistakes of others than make redundant ones.

I mean geez. If you're going to make mistakes you might as well make vaguely original ones.

Anywho. Yeah. This is what I'm going for. I'm posting this here as a bit of an accountability tool... Hopefully it works as intended :)

In other news, school is going exceptionally well. I adore business classes and have become much closer with my classmates which is immeasurably valuable to me because I did not have as many friends in first and second year and I do feel as though I missed out.

I'm living with my best friend and two other roommates right now. The really tragic part is I actually see my best friend less now than I did when we didn't live together because this semester is just so insanely busy. Other than the lack of quality friend time; living together is actually really fantastic! Everyone said "oh noes! Living with your best friend! You're just setting yourself up for disaster!" which probably would've been more prophetic had it just been the two of us. Given that there are two others girls there though I think it really evens things out and makes it much more enjoyable. She's such a fantastic person and I love being able to just go downstairs and chat virtually whenever I want.

I remember being young(er) and thinking of my ideal future life and what I wanted it to look like. One of the big things that stuck out at me was that I really wanted to be busy, which sounds strange I know. After getting to know people and watching them live their lives and watching movies and wanting to emulate certain characteristics I realized that I wanted to be a busy person. Busy people (if they are doing things they enjoy) always seemed to be more energetic, motivated, productive, and interesting. Now this may sound ridiculous to most people, because lots of people are busy with things they don't enjoy or find stressful and think "man I could really use a vacation right now!". I, however, genuinely feel more happy and content when I have loads of shit to do! I don't like lackadaisical days filled with free time and one or two activities at all. I enjoy the days like today...

Today:
Group meeting from 9:30-11:30
Visiting with friends from 11:30-12:30
Working from 12:30-3:00
Studying with friends from 3:00-4:30
Class from 4:30-5:45
Brief group meeting from 5:45-6:15
Climbing from 6:30-8
General gym time from 8:00-8:40
Grocery shopping from 9:00-10:00
and now I'm home...

SO yeah. Good day :)

I think the intermittent friend visits make it all much better...

Alrighty, I need to study for Project Management.

Zhen

Night in with the Roomies

An evening spent painting nails and watching Gilmore Girls... a bit of an estrogen bomb I'll grant you. Sure was nice though :)

Self Diagnosis

Oh you like your things a certain way?
You MUST have OCD.

Oh you have trouble falling asleep sometimes?
You MUST have insomnia.

Oh you have trouble concentrating sometimes?
You MUST have ADHD.

STOP SELF DIAGNOSING.

Motivation

Motivating oneself to work out and eat healthier is definitely a challenge, it's one of the more common ones today as well. With obesity on the rise and our culture becoming increasingly obsessed with teeny tiny ladies as their template for beauty; women are more pressured than ever to be skinny. The neat thing is though for women who are looking to put some more muscle on their bodies (like me), and aren't just trying to starve themselves into looking like an emaciated starlet, there are LOADS of inspirational websites! Ones that talk about how important loving yourself is and that motivate you to work through the pain and sweat towards your end goal. They have motivating pictures and recipes for healthier foods and innumerable workout guides and all kinds of fun stuff. I am definitely a fan :) The internet can be used for good!

Zhen