Turned over 100K miles on my car. Caught up with practical stuff. Figured out some of what has been bothering me the last 2 months.

Yay! I made it through February!!!

Kicked ass at the gym today, and I am officially able to run 8-minute intervals (on the treadmill) without stopping. This is particularly remarkable when I think back to mid-January, when I started C25K, and I barely able to run a minute. Hell, just a couple of weeks ago, I felt like I’d plateaued at the 2-minute mark.

I honestly think this is the very first Hard Thing that I’ve ever done for myself and have stuck with, at least for this long.

Quick day without alot of downtime. Kids at work and kids at home. Nothing really exciting except a long walk in the evening and some time reading before bed.

So glad to have February done. So many rules and things to track. March will be a bit easier.

Crap crap crap fucking day at work. Time for a new job. This one is unacceptable.

It is too painful for me to be this badly undervalued and under-appreciated. I need to work somewhere that wants to hire a master craftsman, and pay me accordingly. I need a job whose highest priority is that I write the right software, quickly and with consistently high quality. Because that’s what I give a damn about.

I’m officially looking to change jobs now. And that’s what I’m looking for. Anywhere in the greater Seattle area is fine, but downtown Seattle would be great and Capitol Hill would be perfect.

February 29 and a one-day Health Month week. I think I managed not to lose points… !

Well, having a 1-day week is certainly a lucky bounce. I basically didn’t have to do any of my rules, and was allowed to indulge in all my indulgences if I so chose.

Spent half the day at RSA, walking in Crowds.

Lunch in town with Debbie, walked around SF, date with Alan. Stressing over book.

Finally, finally, FINALLY broke through that next 10-pound threshold. So freaking stoked.

Last day of the month, I’m below my goal weight for the month, and I have one more day to eat lightly and exercise heavily in order to make my goal. I’m feeling pretty good about that. And I do seem to be able to lose 6 pounds per month without any great deprivation or excessive time devoted to exercise.

Admittedly, it’s not the 30 pounds per month I’ve lost in the past when I was spending my full time every day on weight loss. And I miss that — I miss being able to work out for three hours a day, I miss watching the pounds melt away like magic. But that’s not practical with my current life, and six pounds per month every month still gets me where I’m going.

I do need to add more resistance training into my life, though. I’m not maintaining and building muscle mass like I need to be.

But I’m losing the weight, and I will keep losing it until I’m down to 220. So. Patience and time.

I think I may set my goal weight for next month a little lower, though. See if I can ramp up the exercise some and get better results.

Feeling very calm this morning which is totally cool.

I didn’t find time to strength train because I had to get a head start on my Wednesday morning workload so I could take the dog to the vet, and then my “quick” weekly call to my mom took 45 minutes.

An unremarkable day really. Busy at work with no break at all in the day. Got home had a nice time with the girls, but really wasn’t feeling too motivated to get anything done. Still I managed to get some reading done on both books I am reading for book club on Goodreads. The last fish, the beta, died last night, so that was tragic.

Excuses: 1) I didn’t go to CrossFit because I hurt my back, badly, last Friday – it’s just now feeling better and I don’t want to screw it up again; 2) I just spaced my vitamins yesterday – how, I don’t know as I’ve been taking them every day for the past four? five months?; 3) I went to lunch with a colleague instead – and, I didn’t go to school Monday b/c of my back; 4) What can I say – Jennifer made popcorn and there was a little leftover. It went perfectly with “Body of Proof.”

Whoops, fell down on a lot of my rules yesterday! The new month, and spring break, are almost here – yay! I’ve got my rules set up and I’m ready to roll.

Yeah, the month is almost done. Next month – more metrics to measure by.

Meh. Tired. Kind of frustrating times in WoW, but at least I got to do stuff with friends. Mrph.

Kind of tired. Really. Hate being sick. Should maybe take a sick day later this week. Like tomorrow. Yeah.

Mrph. I wish I didn’t love my job so much. I mean, I don’t wish that, but…it would be nice to be able to stay home without missing it, you know? Especially when I’m sick. /wryface

The evening got busy and I didn’t have time to fit in strength training, so I’m going to have to plea for fruit tomorrow…sigh. So close to making it through the month!
So far, I have discovered that calling my mom more often does not allow me to have shorter conversations with her.

Frustrating. Worked out lots yesterday, didn’t eat all that much, still only lost a pound. Growf. Want to be thin, already! And if not that, then at least want to be back where I was before the spine surgery. Still 20 pounds to go, even to get to that milestone. That’s THREE MONTHS at my current rate of weight loss.

Don’t WANT to wait three months to get there. Want to be there NOW. Need to be spending more time lifting weights, if I want that outcome. Results are proportionate to effort invested. Need to invest more effort to get those results.

So, no point whining. Instead, need to modify life to shift more effort away from World of Warcraft and work, and toward cardio and resistance exercises. Can do.

The big event yesterday was that it started snowing yesterday at about 5:00 PM and has continued on and off through out the night. So the kids are all excited and want to go outside and play in it. It is Southern California so this is our once a year snow fall. I still managed to get 26,000 steps on my Fitbit.

Still horribly short on sleep. Did errands and some FOGstuff. Finally got some rest after driving home — I fell over and slept hard. Hoping for more of the same.

Kind of mellow day at work. Wrote lots of code. Pretty relaxing, pretty fun. Not really looking forward to tomorrow, though — mostly just kind of soured on the current project. It’s almost over, it’s imperfect, they’re not going to be able to maintain it once we’re gone, and they’re not giving us the time to perfect it. So it’s frustrating. I’d so much rather leave them with a perfect project, and leave it in hands that can maintain it — or leave it in hands that can improve it into perfection. And that’s not something I can do.

sad

My pretty code will be all orphaned and alone. Sad programmer is sad.

I’ve been clinging to my last life point all week, and I’m pretty confident I’m going to be ok on all my rules through tomorrow, with the exception of dreaded tasks, of which I must knock off two tomorrow!