Tis the Season for the Loss of Reason

As much as I love the holidays I really dislike the time leading up to them.  Christmas is always such a panicked time of year, especially in my line of work.  I work in advertising and December is traditionally the "use it or lose it" month when it comes to budgets.   Throw in the fact that most ad agencies close for a week between Christmas and New Year's and that equals 3 weeks of insanity.  Mix that in with an already hectic schedule and you have a recipe for a Stressball Cocktail.  Some days it's so busy I don't stop from the time I get in until after I get home (answering emails etc).  Everyone needs everything asap and usually at the same time and some of the requests are just plain crazy.  It is both mentally and physically exhausting.  I like to think of it as the Season for the Loss of Reason. 

Normally I'd lace up my shoes and go for a run, or hop on my bike and go for a ride.  But I can't.  Well, I can but it's more than likely going to be painful.  I'm having knee problems again and obviously this is the source of much stress because I can't seem to figure out what is causing it this time around.   So I've opted to take things easy, which essentially means I'm getting cranky faster because my normal stress release outlet isn't available to me right now.  What's really stressing me out about this is the uncertainty as to when I'll be better (I'm saying when vs. if because I'm trying to remain as positive as possible!)

So I'm trying my best to grin and bear it.  If there's one thing I've learned in my 15+ years of producing, it's that everything always seems to work out.  So I should know by now that all that stress is unnecessary.  One day perhaps I'll learn but for now, I'll just bust out my stretchy pants and make sure the beer fridge is fully stocked.

What part of the holidays do you find stressful?  How do you deal with your stress?

Thanks to Deb Runs for hosting Wednesday Word!

 

The Longest Short Week Ever

I feel like I have been out of the blogisphere loop forever, but really it's only been 5 days since my last post.  Where have I been hiding you ask?

Under a large pile of CHAOS, that's where.  2 photographers, 4 different projects, all happening consecutively.  Kill me now.

And you wonder why I have this sign outside my office door?

It seems that the advertising world has finally gotten back from their summer siesta and realized that HOLY CRAP, there's work to be done and it all needs to be done NOW.  Of course.  Not that I'm complaining because truthfully I'd rather be busy than bored, but, it would be nice it if was a steady stream of work versus an avalanche of insanity.   This always seems to happen when it's a short week.  I feel like I've put in 6 days of work in 4.  Ugh.  It certainly makes for the longest short week ever.

It's times like this that I am so happy to have an outlet like running.  I could be massive ball of stress when I finally leave the studio, but if I manage to get out for a run, by the time I get home, I'm back to my version of normal.   It's a sanity saver for sure.  And, it generally makes me a less cranky person to be around when things get crazy. 

While I find that running helps me deal with the stress of my job, I do find it harder to recover when I'm stressed out.  I know I don't sleep as well when I'm stressed either and that could be part of why I'm not recovering well.  I'll wake up at 2:00 am and think "Oh crap did I book the bug wrangler?"   Apparently stress plays an active part in how well you recover.    I never really thought about it until this week.  I wondered why I was dragging my butt through my workouts and just feeling crappier and crappier as the week went on.  My swim yesterday morning was horrible.  I had zero energy.  None.  Nada.  Zilch.  Probably because my stress level went from 10 to about 110 as the week progressed.  Granted I don't suffer from chronic stress as is mentioned in the article but it's pretty darn intense.  And to be stressed to the max for 4 days straight has to take a toll on you somehow. 

I know I was super stressed because last night I actually slept like a baby.  Didn't wake up once and I slept for 9 glorious hours.  NINE.  Oh yes.  I think I might have actually been in a coma.  It could have also been the 7.4% beer that I had with dinner.  I suppose if you're only going to have one, you've got to make it count!

At least the weekend is here and I have a couple of days to decompress and not think about what next week will bring.   In fact, we're finally having our open house / housewarming party that I've only been talking about since we moved back in to the house last Christmas.  We did a tear down and complete re-build last year, all in the span of 3 months.  Because I am a bit of sentimental fool, I documented the entire process.  If you're like me and enjoy poking through people's pictures on Facebook, you can check it out here.  Anyway,  I need to get my butt in gear to pick up the important things required for entertaining, like more 7.4% beer. I suspect that I will be running off a wee bit of hangover tomorrow and you know what, I'm ok with that. 

 What are your plans for this weekend?

Whatever you get up to, have fun and make it great!

Old Habits Die Hard

Whole Food Fuel from the Farmer's Market.

This past week has been hell.  I haven't been this busy in a very long time.  3 jobs in 4 days, 2 of which are big.  That means long hours at the studio and very little time to myself.  That also means I need to plan ahead if I want to stay on track with my meals.  I had every intention of doing just that for most of the week.  In fact, for the first few days of the week, I was quite good.  Then the stress started to take over.  I started to function on auto-pilot.  I started to get too tired to care.  That combined with lack of workouts is a dangerous place to be for me.  I didn't workout Thursday, Friday or Saturday.   Friday at 5:00 pm I was sitting in the middle of a casting, stressed to the gills, stuffing pink candy popcorn into my face.  About 3 big handfuls.  It tasted gross and gave me a pink tongue. I didn't really want it, it just happened to be there so I ate it.   I suppose I thought somewhere in the back of my mind that it would help calm me down or distract me from all the stress I was dealing with.  It didn't.  It just gave me gut rot.  

This is an old habit of mine that I thought I had conquered.  Mindless eating.  People always say "oh you train all the time you can have that piece of.....or that handful of.....".   Maybe.   But I didn't lose almost 20lbs and lean out by eating crap.  I make a conscious decision about what I put in my body.  Once and a while I'll indulge in some chips or ice cream and I won't feel bad about it.    Because I don't think that one should go through life in food denial, unless of course you're training for a figure competition.  But the majority of us aren't that extreme.  A little "bad for you" can be good for you as long as you don't make it a regular occurrence.   I aim to eat healthy 80%-90% of the time.  That means that 5-6 days a week, I'm eating healthy, mainly whole foods.   1-2 days a week I "slack off" a bit.    That seems to work for me under "normal" circumstances.  This past week has been anything but normal and I know this coming week is going to be just as challenging.   The big question is, now that I've identified the issue, how am I going to deal with it.

That remains to be seen.