Making Changes

It's been two weeks since my last post, and I've made some changes. I love my graphs, and they provide both information for me to use, and motivation to make the line on the graph head in another direction. As it turns out, I've managed to up my average calories burned each day by just under 200 calories!  I don't think I'm being a total fanatic, either. It's a walk at lunch, and more active in the evenings. Oh, and the running. Did I mention I signed up for the Dead Man's Run 5K six weeks from now?

The faint green line is the daily total calories burned, the dark green line is a running weekly average, and the flat lines are the monthly averages. Last date is 9/7/2013.

Here's the graph of calories expended this year - can you pick out the moment I decided to get more active? (Note to nerds: the 200 calorie improvement is the last two weeks' average compared to the previous two weeks' average. Can't really pick that out on the graph.)

Right now it feels like I'm entering a new, good routine, but it also involves a large number of ongoing obligations. I'm not so good at the sustaining things for the longer term, I'm better at blitz approaches. But my girl and I are volunteering at an animal shelter, with a minimum number of hours for each month required. My girl has some other ongoing activities that require support and transportation - and oh yes, school has started, so time spent on the pesky homework has to happen.

In addition, I've signed up for a class that will start in October - actually, two classes, one on-line and one in person. I've finally got my boat working, and the last three weekends have included magnificent, if brief, voyages. My mother is driving less, and so I'm making the trek out to her place more often.  I have to really do some training if I'm going to run the 5K (I confess now what I don't think I admitted here before: Last year, I just picked up the Tshirt and bagged the race).

So why does this all seem so manageable now?

It must be because work has been manageable. No one has threatened to fire me for at least four months. Many wonks have been on vacation. I've got some excellent folks on my immediate team. Your federal government will swing into its dysfunctional gears starting tomorrow, and some of that nonsense will trickle down to yours truly. Hopefully, I can continue doing a decent job without having all my emotional and physical energy sucked out of me while doing it.

And more than coincidentally, I've made three magnificent voyages in the past three weeks!