Well, I'm not going to lie, friends... keeping up with a healthy lifestyle has become significantly more difficult since I found out about my job. Now it seems there are a million and one things to get done before I start (where were all of those things while I was free, unemployed, and bored to death on a daily basis?) Odds and ends to tie up are popping up in every corner of my life. I find myself grabbing granola bars as I run out of the house to run errands, which is a far cry from the delicacies (aka butternut squash soups, baked pita chips, and fancy salads) I was whipping up when I started this whole thing. This has made one thing quite clear to me: I'm going to need to plan ahead and come up with simple, easy strategies to keep healthy once I start work...because if it's too much work, it's not going to happen. I can idealize my meal and workout plan until I'm blue in the face, but it's a fail waiting to happen unless it's realistic and time-efficient. So I'll be desperately looking for a few hours over the next few days for some strategy time, when I can sit down and figure out how I'm going to be healthy on a restricted schedule.
In other news, as you all know, I googled away searching for some viable workout tips for weeks, and often came away more confused than I was when I started. Like is so often the case, I was blatantly missing the most obvious solution to my befuddlement (yes, I just said befuddlement)....which was to pick my friend Michele's brain, who also happens to be a personal trainer, about the secrets to workout success over a pint of Rickard's Red. This brilliant idea came about largely by accident (the beer came first, then the workout discussion just kinda happened), and guess what I came away with? Straight answers! Easy solutions! Usable tips! A simple conversation with a knowledgeable person proved far more effective than google ever could (take THAT google, the supposed "gold standard" answerer of all queries). Let this be a lesson to us all: humans are still way better than computers.
Anyway, I learned that I should ideally be lifting weights every other day for maximal success. I learned that I should be doing a mixture of isolated and compound exercises, particularly at first, as my body gets used to working out (since compound exercises are more effective, but more difficult). I learned that eating half an hour after a workout is important, and protein bars are a good snack idea for that. These are just some of the gems of info I gained from the expert. Now, the trick will be to make it happen. I'm considering how I can start doing more workouts at home. This might prove to be extremely important as far as time saving goes, since going to the gym four times a week while working full time seems incredibly ambitious (and quite likely impossible.)
Before I sign off, there's just one more thing I'd like to say, folks: thanks so much from the bottom of my heart for all of the well wishes and congratulations about my job. The only thing better than getting a job is being surrounded by people who are genuinely happy for you. And to those of you who are still looking, I have this to say: I know each and every one of you, and you're all brimming with your own unique talents, skills and abilities. So keep looking, keep the faith, and the rest will take care of itself! :-)
xo Janine
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