More on the Inbox

I realize that this is an entirely useless thing to blog about, except anyone who has followed this blog for a long time (and I would love to know who you are and how you found this and why you keep reading, out of curiosity) knows that I like to blog about things to try to keep myself accountable. I am really trying hard to get my inbox under control (all of them, but concentrating mostly on work and gmail), and I don't know how else to make myself do it! It's so time consuming, which really means I just get too many emails (which is true), but I also need to be better about taking care of it.

So I am proud to announce that after a lot of work today, I am down to 3962 messages in the gmail inbox! I would really like to keep the inbox under 4000 (and really, I have no idea how there are that many thousand messages in the inbox still - what ARE they?), so let's see if I can do it!

In fitness news, I went running 3 of the 4 days this weekend (counting Friday), and by running I mean, alternating running with walking since I am still a beginner. It's really difficult to go during the week because of work, but hopefully I'll find some alternative during this week to keep the good progress going!

Blah

One hour after I said I was going to exercise and I'm finally going to go. Despite running out of time, I really lack motivation. Sigh. Off to Shred.

Candy Limitation

We are now less than 2 months from the wedding, and I have a confession to make. (Considering I don't really talk about personal things on this blog, this is kind of big.) I hate how I look in pictures. I really do. I am not the least bit photogenic (unlike A, who I think looks great in pictures) and that must be why I'm always behind the camera instead (not that I'm good at that either).

I was thinking about that again this evening, and in an attempt to make our wedding pictures tolerable, I am going to attempt some self-discipline. Anyone who knows me will know that, since this involves candy, this is not an easy thing for me to do at all.

So here it is. If I'm going to attempt to make a significant change in less than 60 days (seriously, running out of time) while in a high-stress and busy period, I'm going to have to have some self-control.

No chewy fruit-flavored candy until after the wedding.

Sigh. That means no Skittles, no Starbursts, no Sour Patch Kids, no Haribo gummy bears, no Swedish Fish, no Jelly Belly sours... (gah, this reads like a list of "my favorite sweet foods").

Chocolate is OK, mostly because I can't eat that much at once (other than milk chocolate covered cranberries). Dried fruit is OK, and I think I'm going to need all those Costco sized boxes of Craisins that I have to get through this. Hard candy is OK, and I think that will be the other thing that gets me through this. Need to pick up some Jolly Ranchers.

If I slip once or twice, I will deal with it. There's no point in getting depressed over it; I will just have to penalize myself with an extra workout session or something. (And by extra, I guess I mean "a" workout session, considering I have a fitting tomorrow and haven't worked out in 2 weeks because I've been so busy and sleeping so little. Sleeping so little... and it's 4:30 am, so we know what I should be doing).

I had both Sour Patch Kids and Starbursts (the fave reds!) over the weekend (and when flying, I usually need it). I wish I knew at that time that I was going to impose this restriction, so I would have savored it more, instead of it just being a plane snack. But I'm not going to allow myself one more right now, just to have my "last one." I'm just going to have to deal.

I guess it's slightly easier since I eat gummy vitamins, and those are sweet and chewy like candy, but they're good for you vitamins and I can have 2 a day. So gummy vitamins + craisins + jolly ranchers and maybe this will work. After all, it's less than 60 days. (Then again, when I tried giving up Haribo gummy bears for 40 days, it was so miserable because I couldn't think of anything else...)

That's the first limitation, and probably the most important one, since it is my weakest spot. Since I have always believed in accountability through the blog (see: bar exam), I hope this will work (unlike my new years resolutions, which I continue to blog about here). Good luck to me.

Midnight

One thing I really hate about EA Active is that they save your workout to the next day if you are even a second past midnight. I pushed hard to finish before the clock struck 12 on the cable box and I did. The workout even saved before the cable box hit 12. And then what happened? I saw that the workout was saved to Thursday. Idiotic program. I exercised on Wednesday, not Thursday. The problem is that, if I go in to exercise tomorrow, it's going to try to make me do the same exact workout. I don't want to do the same workout, dumbass. If your stupid trainer would stop telling me to "hold still" when I'm not moving, and quit wasting time between reps, there wouldn't have even been an issue! Grrr!

EA 10

Rental car done and inbox below 5175 messages (let's hope I can keep it that way). Productive night! I did my 10th EA Active workout today (and got mad at the trainer for not recognizing that the bicep curl was done considering that my "me" on the screen was done with it too), which means I'm halfway through the 30 day challenge. What do I do when it's over? Just do the 30 day challenge again? Is there a 30 day challenge II? I guess we'll see!

EA 7

Seventh workout done. Yay! Worked out two days in a row, and I didn't prolong the end date of the 30 day challenge any more. I also didn't yell at the program at all today. Progress?

However, I really suck at the volleyball exercises. They were introduced for the first time today. It's almost like I was playing real volleyball.

(And yes, I am blogging about working out to try to keep myself accountable. It worked for the bar...)

Fitness

What does it say about me that the "Fitness" label didn't exist until my last post?

Also, I'm not sure if it's "EA Active" or "EA Sports Active." I usually say the first, but if it's really the second, just know that's what I mean.

EA 6

Project Get In Shape continues. (I guess I never officially named it that, but there you go.)

I completed my sixth workout in the EA Active 30 day challenge program today. (Although I suppose it's now a 37 or 38 day challenge with all of my skipped days.) It was a hard day. Squats, followed by jump squats, followed by inline skating (which is essentially a prolonged squat followed by a jump, right back into a prolonged squat -- easily, in my opinion, the hardest exercise I've encounted in the program).

I wish there were an accurate way for me to figure out how many calories I'm burning. They give me a projected number and an "actual" number, and my goal is usually to beat the projected number. However, sometimes, the "actual" number advances when I'm not moving. It's also not entirely accurate because instead of their flimsy no-resistance band, I'm using 3 lb weights. It can't account for that. I guess I could invest in one of those armband calorie burning counters, but I don't know if I can get away with wearing that at work.

Overall, I think it's a good program. I get really frustrated with certain things, namely (a) the useless resistance band, (b) how sometimes they don't recognize that I have done the movement and keep telling me to do it, because the position is not quite right (or it is, and they're just not picking it up for some reason) -- this has prompted some angry yelling, (c) how if you start a workout too late in the day, it does not register the workout for the day you start it but instead the day you complete it, so when you log in the next day it gives you the same workout, and (d) sometimes the reps are too slow (if I'm supposed to be burning calories, why am I just standing around between reps?). But other than that, it's a good substitute for a personal trainer.

Ideally I would be doing this and the Shred, both, every day, one in the morning and one at night, but we all know that I don't have that type of time. I wish I did.