Yeah well I spoke too soon didn’t I…trust me to bang on about what a lovely weekend I’d had and how great I was feeling, and what a turbo-charged week I was going to have. Clearly my sunny mood pissed off somebody somewhere, and the law of sod yesterday delivered a chunk of frustration and stress just to counter-balance all the joy and loveliness I wrapped myself up in this weekend. Talk about degrees of light and shade…next time I feel really happy I’ll mime it, right? Keep my big mouth shut!
So the plan yesterday was that I’d work from home until mid-afternoon, and then head out – I’ve been involved in a big off-site meeting for our retail team today, at a venue around three hours’ drive away from home, so I’d arranged to travel and stay overnight last night at a nearby hotel so I was refreshed and ready for today’s session.
As things turned out I was up against the clock on a piece of work that just kept on growing arms and legs as I was doing it, it turned into a proper monster. It was pretty much 11pm last night before I finally got it done, by which time I’d been sitting sat my desk for around fifteen hours. Want to know how many steps I did yesterday? Two hundred and ninety nine. Point one four of a mile. My brain on the other hand felt like it’d run a marathon, I was mentally mashed.
It just wouldn’t go right, you know? I kept getting bogged down in details that didn’t seem to add up. Woman versus spreadsheet and after a couple of hours I’m here to tell you the spreadsheet was not the one on the ropes. What I came to realise as the day went on, was that changing and tweaking stuff on the master document is all very well, but if you then imagine some kind of spreadsheet fairy is going to fly in and update any corresponding affiliated documents you tend to come a bit unstuck.
When I compared them all as a final cross-check, nothing made sense. I wish I’d counted the number of blind alleys I turned down, good grief I ought to be awarded some kind of medal for sheer determination in getting the dratted thing finished. Or the grand muppetry medal for getting myself in such a pickle to begin with.
The thing is, my boss needed to go through the detail with his boss today, who happens to be the Chief Exec, and both of them are as sharp as a blade you know? Mistakes would’ve jumped off the page, smacked them on the nose, and then returned to sender to bite me in the ass so I needed it to be perfect.
Consequently, I was so absorbed in what I was doing, not only did I hardly move, my eating was also meh. I stayed within points, but I can’t say I really enjoyed my food yesterday which infuriates me, since every mouthful should be precious. I pretty much just grazed at my desk all day. And, it got too late to drive south, so whilst it was great going to sleep in my own bed, it effectively meant I had to be up with the larks for a three hour drive this morning, and shortly I’ll need to do the same in reverse at the end of what has been another really tiring day. Beautiful!
It’s interesting how much easier clean eating and exercise are when you’re not up against a whole pile of pressure you know? I felt it a bit yesterday, I’m not going to lie. My mum picked out a pack of all-butter shortbread at the supermarket on Sunday, and when my boy unpacked the shopping he assumed they were for us. I spied them in the cupboard first thing yesterday – of course I did, it’s like sugar telepathy – and intermittently throughout the day my mind poked around the possibility of opening the pack. I could almost taste them.
I didn’t though, I resisted. Me 1: Asshole Nil. However, as I wearily climbed the stairs last night he equalised…despite the fact that I’d been sat on my arse all day I point blank ignored the hurt machine and launched myself straight into bed. We ended the day with scores on the door of 1:1.
Today, has been better. Tiring but not a spreadsheet in sight, and that in itself is a cause for celebration. Oh, and I won’t tell anybody about the piece of coffee cake at lunchtime if you don’t…it was worth a chunk of points even if it was a bit naughty ?
