Surviving Busy Season: Workout in the morning

Top o’ the mornin to ya!

Sorry I’ve been slacking the past two days – I just have not felt motivated at all!  This morning though, Robert dragged us out of bed to get to the gym.  I have to say that I am SO glad he did!  I feel better than I have all week – and I owe it all to my run.

During busy season (and work in general), everyone always puts their health last.  “I don’t have time to work out,” they say.  “I don’t have time to make a good dinner.”  I say MAKE TIME!  Your body is the only thing you really have.  You spend time and money putting oil and gas in your car.  You buy food for your dog and you put effort into your work.  Why don’t you do the same for yourself?

Since I’ve started working, I’ve tried a bunch of things.  I’ve worked out in the evenings, I’ve worked out at 9pm after a long day in the office.  This past summer I decided that I was going to try to workout before work, and I’ve never looked back.  I’ve found that if you wait all day to work out, you will find a million excuses to skip your workout, and you’ll be so tired that you wont be able to work to the best of your abilities.  It also leaves you with no time to spend relaxing and eating a healthy meal with the ones you love.

Working out in the morning has solved all of these problems for me.  I wake up, sweat my butt off, and stretch out all before most of my co-workers even wake up.  I feel so accomplished by 7am, and I have a ton more energy than I used to.  I get to come home from work and not worry about anything but spending time with my fiancee… who has recently converted to being an early bird at the gym too.  It’s a QT double whammy  

I know working out in the morning might not be for everyone.  But it’s definitely a good option for those who feel too crunched for time after a grueling 14 hour day at the office… trust me on this one!

Anyway, my workout this morning consisted of a nice 2 mile run on the treadmill.  I was trying out a new knee brace, and it seemed to work pretty well.  No pain during my run, but it still hurt afterwards.  I think with a few adjustments though, the brace will work out pretty well!

I hope this helps you find time to focus on your health for a few minutes every morning.  I was never a morning person (right mom?!) but lately it’s becoming easier and easier.  Waking up early has truly changed my outlook on working out – I almost look forward to it.  Now wake up!  Go for a run!

Surviving Busy Season: Be Grateful

Good morning!

Today I woke up and was so happy it was friday.  Yes, yes, I have to come into work tomorrow.  But we will get out of work at a normal time, and it’s date night with my love! 

It will be good to catch up with him because I was feeling a little jittery last night when I got home, and to help me relax we snuggled on the couch (I know, gross!).  We ended up passing out at 9:30pm!!!  I couldn’t believe it.  We eventually dragged ourselves to our real bed, but we didn’t have much time to catch up on our day. 

To catch up with you all though, the day was good.  I had the most wonderful salad last night with roasted vegetables and goat cheese over spring mix and a red wine vinegarrette dressing – and a few mini cornbread muffins!  The engagement team had a lot of fun joking and laughing, so the night was pretty bearable.  No dessert – we passed out too early!

Anyway, I came up with this tip for surviving busy season on the ride home last night.  It is inspired by one of my favorite vegan bloggers – Val from Chicago Marathon Val!  I’ve seen her frequently include three things that she is grateful for each day on her blog posts.  I’d like to start to do this on my blog as well.  I’ve come home too many times angry over something that happened at work, or frustrated at not having enough time in my day to do certain things.  I think that it is important during busy season (and every day!) to remember and be thankful for what we have been given.  Hopefully this will help us stay level-headed and counter-balance those awful moods that take over when one has been at work for too long!  Let’s give this a try:

Gratitude Journal 1/15/10

1)  I am grateful that I have a fiancee who is so willing to snuggle and pass out with me when I’m feeling jittery from being at work too long…  who said quality time had to be spent awake?!

2)  I am grateful for the sun shining off the Philadelphia skyline this morning – it gave me such peace on my drive into work.

3)  I am grateful that it’s Friday!  (that counts, right?!)

Have a great day friends!

Surviving Busy Season: Bring Your Own Dinner

Good morning friends!

Today I wanted to kick off a series of posts that I’ve been kicking around in my head for a while now.  I could say they were even the reason I wanted to start a blog!  But first some background:  I am an auditor.  I work in Big 4 accounting, which gets a little intense.  As an auditor, we move from client to client scrutinizing their annual reporting and accounting practices to ensure that the company is not misleading their investors (or any stakeholders for that matter!)  Although companies are allowed to choose the date they use as their fiscal year-end, most companies end up choosing a December 31 year-end.  This means that although annual reports are only required to be issued once a year, most companies are issuing them at the same time every year.   This is what we refer to as busy season – when our firm decrees mandatory 55+ hour work weeks (including saturdays!  ugh!) because we need to attend to as many clients as we can fit into our schedules.

Busy season tends to get the best of a lot of people.  Many of my managers tell stories of how they used to be 20 pounds lighter, happier, and have a more organized life.  I am determined not to get to that point.  Although we are eating all of our meals at work, there is no reason that these meals need to be cheesy pizza or greasy chinese food. 

So far we are 3 full days into busy season, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a tough one.  But having survived two busy seasons already (intern and staff I year), I knew what to expect.  I could already feel that bloated feeling I had after too many slices of pizza.  And that sense of dread, knowing that my day wasn’t over at 830pm – that I still had to get a workout over with.  This year is going to be different.

My first tip for a healthier busy season is to bring your own dinner (BYOD!)  On Sunday before the madness started, I made soup.  An easy one – but it was something I knew would taste good and still be good for me too.  The recipe is below – I hope you enjoy it.  It is easy to transport, and is certainly more appetizing and healthier than the general tso’s chicken my co-worker got last night! 

Black Bean Soup

-modified from this recipe at Real Simple

Ingredients

• 1 can Rotel diced tomatoes and green chiles 
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 2 15-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cups chicken broth
• greek yogurt (1 dollop per serving)
• shredded cheddar cheese (a few pinches per serving)

Directions

1. Dice the onion into bite size pieces
2. Heat the can of Rotel (including all the juices!) and the raw onion in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes. Stir in the beans and broth, then heat to boiling. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. 
3. Cool slightly, then use immersion blender to slightly puree the soup.  Be sure to leave some beans in tact! If you are serving immediately, be sure to heat the soup to your desired temperature.  If you are bringing some to work – be sure to let it cool completely before you store it in the fridge! 
4. Serve with sour cream, and a little bit of cheese. 

Serves 4 for an appetizer, or 2 for a complete dinner.

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