In the introduction to my weight gain/loss journey I explained that I have a hard time "life multi-tasking". I have a good real-time example of that. In July 2007 I started the job that I am currently at. I started going back to school in September 2006 to earn my master's in accounting. From September 2006 until July 2007 I was unemployed and strictly going to school. I enjoyed that time period. My parents agreed to help me with my bills as along as I was going to school. I soon realized that the amount they were able to help me with wasn't enough to cover all of my bills. I started looking for a job to supplement my "income". In July 2007, I found the perfect job for that. I was working about 24 hours per week. The schedule was odd (Mondays off, alternating half days on Tuesday afternoons and alternating half days on Saturday mornings), but I learned to live with it and enjoyed having the time off all day on Mondays and Tuesdays (except for the alternating half days). I had enough money to pay the bills and have some fun and the time to do it. I took care of housework, run errands, and went to any doctors appointments on Mondays. I went to water aerobics on Tuesday mornings. I was seeing significant improvements in my flexibility and my arthritis. I was also getting a lot of rest on Mondays and Tuesdays. I have sleep apnea and am unable to use my CPAP machine. So, for now, getting a lot of sleep on Mondays and Tuesdays is the only way I can make it through a week. I noticed (as well as other people) that I looked younger and happier. I was getting rest and life was good. On Monday nights I have my bowling league. On Tuesday and Thursday nights I have tax class. I was getting out, getting active, and meeting new people. I have taken some time out of school to rest, but would be resuming classes in late October and finishing up in May 2010 as scheduled. AND, let's not forget that I was going to the gym 3 days per week at 5:30AM.
This schedule went on like this until last week. Then my world came crashing down. My boss had hired a good friend of hers to work in the office and that person was now a new mother and unable to commit to the office. My boss decided that she would increase MY hours at work to make up for her friend being gone. I would be in the office Monday thru Friday from 8:30-3:30. She also said that eventually it would be a 40 hour position. I DID NOT want my schedule to change and I did not want to work more than 24 hours per week at this time. Her responce to that, basically, was that this was the way it would be and I could quit if I didn't like it because my old job was gone. No more water aerobics. No more running errands. I had decided to bowl on Mondays because I would have all day to run errands, prepare for our dinner, and then get there at night. Now I have committed to a team and I couldn't drop them. I would have to rush home after work, grab dinner, and then rush across town to bowling. I would now have to rush around on Tuesdays and Thursdays to get ready for tax class. I would have to fit in errands whenever I could.
I know some of you are reading this and thinking that I'm a whiney little spoiled brat. Yes, that is true in some cases. BUT, I have lived this type of life before. When I worked at the University of Virginia, I worked a 40- plus hour work week. I would end up working 70 hours per week sometimes. I worked at that job from 1998-2006. It CONSUMED my life. I couldn't even take a vacation day without there being some issue that I would have to attend to. I was constantly attacted to my email. I had to change my home phone number because my co-workers were calling me at 1am in the morning with problems. It was terrible and stressful. I was upset all of the time. I looked like I was 20 years older than I was. I started having problems with IBS and acid reflux. I was living off of fast food. I was tired and sleepy all of the time. I would cry in the bathroom at work and continue to cry at home. I complained all of the time too. When I my husband and I sat down to dinner each night (usually fast food that I picked up) I started the complaining which was stressing him out. I was not fun to be around and I didn't like who I had become. I put a quick stop to that. I left that job and started back to school.
The time period when I was unemployed was great. I had developed a little daily routine. I was stress free and happy. I was well rested and my husband and I were eating well. I had time to research recipes and find the best way to prepare them as well as the time to prepare them. I was getting housework done and losing some weight.
But, alas, the bad habits have started again. The first thing that has happened is that my complaining has started again. I did not like my job at 24 hours. I HATE it at 35. I do not really like the way our organization (if you can call 4 people an organization) is run and I dislike everyone there. I've been bringing my problems home to my husband. I have only made it to the gym one time this week because I have to go to bed late in order to get everything done after work each day OR because I'm just too mentally tired to get up OR because I'm so afraid that I will oversleep and not get to work on time that I'm not sleeping well at night. I have also ditched my bowling team twice and my tax class 2 times. I have not beeing eating breakfast or lunches. I have made convenient (and not so healthy) dinners each workday.
Yesterday was just the fifth day of my new schedule. Disaster is ensuing already.
