FMM: Habits

I had another very active weekend. 

Friday we went to lunch at the sculpture museum here for an alumni event for my grad school, then I had a decent afternoon of working from home (super-productive morning), and we got ready for a dinner party.  Second dinner party of the year.  We had a couple over and they brought their son who was about 10-12.  And we had a friend of mine over, though he left around 11, having just flown back from Rio yesterday and still having a lot of jet lag.  But among the 5 adults, we somehow drank 4 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of beer.  Yikes! 

That alone was enough to make me want to spend hours outside Saturday doing something active! 

Saturday we dropped off my car because my anti-lock brake light has been coming on.  From there, we headed out to suburban hell.  But there's a big lake out there with trails.  I was seriously feeling repulsed on some levels -- all these people in all these cars, parking in all these parking lots for all these chain stores.  It was kind of disgusting.  I have no idea what my problem was.  I guess I sometimes forget that Dallas has all that.  We live really close to downtown and we have a little bubble of about 10-15 miles in any direction from our house and we very rarely go outside of that unless we're going to the airport.  Heck, I tend to stay within a much smaller radius than that -- I go a couple miles south to downtown to workout, about 5 miles north from our house to go to work, a couple miles north from our house to run, and we usually go out in our neighborhood, but occasionally will head about 10-15 miles north or a couple miles south.  It was just very blah until we got to the lake.  And even at the lake, hiking on the trails.  You'd be walking and hear a car horn or a plane overhead.  Ugh.

I'll have to post later about our first day of walking on trails.  We both survived but one of us fell.  And it wasn't me.  I rolled my ankle, but not badly.  But I learned that I am a lot less balanced wearing my pack.  I'm glad I'm spending some time practicing. 

After about 10k of walking, we went out for lunch in the burbs to wait until my car was done, then came home to nap and clean.  Then yesterday I went running (wearing the vest) with my half-marathon training group.  I really should have added a few more miles on to that so I'll be ready for the marathon distance, but oh well.  But post-run, we had a running friend's belated birthday breakfast celebration, then I spent most of the day working on learning Chinese and organizing some random things in the house (bottom of the china hutch and the linens drawer).  Nice weekend.  Didn't do anything special for the superbowl -- actually watched very little of it. Usually I like the commercials, but they weren't doing anything for me, so we ended up watching a DVR'd episode of Southland.  I'm so glad hubby isn't a sports junkie -- it would work if I was too, but I'm just not. 

So, since it's Monday, figured I'd do another Friend Making Monday topic post. 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Habits

Are you proactive, or do you procrastinate?  It depends on what it is, but for something I don't want to do, I procrastinate though I'm always trying to change my ways.  One of my least favorite work-tasks is reviewing (and approving or rejecting charges on) invoices from defense counsel we hire to defend suits in various states.  I don't mind this on 99% of my cases, but exactly 3 attorneys always seem to have problems.  Bills are way too high, blowing budgets, etc.  And when I have one of those invoices where I know I'm going to have to reject a bunch of charges and send an email explaining why this isn't acceptable, I put it off as long as I can.  I'm trying to be better about just doing it, but it's hard...

Do you eat breakfast everyday? If so, what’s a typical meal like?  Yes, twice!  I eat a granola bar before I workout, then for my official breakfast (a couple hours later), I make a sandwich with a whole wheat English muffin, two veggie breakfast sausage patties and a piece of cheese, and then I drink a smoothie made of spinach, frozen fruit and soy milk -- and during the week I remember to take my vitamins with breakfast usually. 

How much time do you spend watching TV on an average day?  There's really only 1 show I'm watching right now (The Bachelor), so that's 2 hours per week, but I DVR it so it's a bit less than 2 hours.  I also usually watch about 5 minutes around 5 a.m. while trying to confirm the weather before I go exercise.  But I also usually turn the TV on in the morning as soon as I get home from working out and don't turn it off until I leave for work.  I don't really watch, but it's on in the background.  So my answer is probably that the TV is turned on for about 2.5 hours per day here on average (about 1.5 in the morning, and about 1 in the evening). 

Do you talk on the phone, or do you prefer e-mail and/or text messages?  It depends.  For work, I always prefer email -- I like having the documentation.  With hubby, we usually text during the day if we need to communicate about something.  With friends who don't live nearby, I'd say the phone.  With friends who do live nearby, I like email to set up logistics and most conversations happen in person.

Do you exercise in the morning, afternoon or evening? Morning every day (though sometimes I'll take off on Friday, Saturday or Monday) no matter what.  During a yoga challenge, evenings too.  But now that I'm on a yoga break, I'd say I work out about 2 nights per week too -- usually running with friends.  I should add in a few more walks or something too, but oh well.  Afternoon exercise is only on the weekends in the winter (and that replaces a morning workout). 

Do you take time for yourself regularly? If so, how do you spend that time?  I guess most everything I do is for me -- working, working out, socializing, cooking, reading, volunteering.  No one makes me do any of that, I like my job and want to pay bills and buy things and travel and retire.  I am pretty happy with how I spend a vast majority of my time.  I guess sometimes I'll do things that hubby wants me to do, but that's usually something I want to do too.  I'm struggling to think of something (other than maybe cleaning), that I've done lately that really wasn't something I wanted to do. 

How often do you make your bed?  The rule in our house is whoever gets up last makes the bed, so that means I make it every Sun, Mon, Tues, and sometimes on the other days, it just depends on hubby's work and workout schedule.  It usually ends up being that I'm up first on Thursdays, but I tend to sleep later most days. 

Do you plan meals? If so, how far in advance?  About once a week when I make the grocery list, I try to plan 1-2 dinners for the week (and hopefully enough to yield leftovers), and then we're fairly flexible about what night we'll eat it.  Usually my choices are 1 crockpot meal, so we eat that whatever day I have time in the morning, and sometimes I'll make 1 more elaborate weekend meal.  And Sat nights are usually pasta with red sauce -- carb-load tradition.  The exception is if we're entertaining, when I always plan the entire meal usually about 2 weeks in advance. 

Do you wake up at the same time everyday? No, but I wake up at the same time on the same day each week.  So every Tues and Thurs, I get up at 4:42.  And every Sunday I get up at 4:55.  And every Mon, Wed, Fri, I get up at 5:00.  Saturdays are the only day that vary -- around 6 if I have a race, around 5 if I'm doing a long walk, around 8 or 9 if there's nothing in particular planned. 

How often do you brush your teeth?  In the morning at some point, and then before bed sometimes depending on what I ate and how tired I am.  Once a day is a given, but beyond that, no guarantees. 

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to go to alltheweigh.com and link up in the comments!