9 Months to Tri

I’m unbelievably buried with stuff right now.

On the one hand, its wonderful that the sun is coming out, that the weather is great for going outside and running and biking.

On the other hand, I’ve got my day job, my side work, and recently, both my father’s and my mother-in-law’s businesses have taken horrible downward turns. So, both need help from me and my wife. Its a heavy burden, actually. Its very strange. It feels as though their entire businesses hang on the abilities of my wife and myself to build, market, position and reinforce their business’ websites. And not just their businesses, but everything that this provides for: homes, cars, food, bills, etc. My mother-in-law is in the worst shape right now. She’s about to lose it all, so we’re working with her first, but right on her heels will be my dad.

On top of that, I take my role as a father and husband very seriously and ALWAYS make time for my wife and daughter - every single day. Part and parcel to that, my wife and I realized that our daughter is going to sleep an hour later than she used to. This is OK, actually, since she’s older and when we put her to bed ‘on time’, she tosses and turns for an hour anyway. But I had this illusion of an extra hour per night to myself to ‘get stuff done’ and it’s pretty much been shattered. Realistically, that’s a good 7 hours a week I feel like I just lost, though in actuality they were probably never really there. But I at least thought they were and that offered a bit of a peace of mind.

Finally, my day job has changed considerably. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but there is certainly more stress than when Brett was there shielding me from it. Its not intolerable, really, but its still different. My job is evolving as well. We went from 3 multimedia designers to just me, so we’re figuring out how best to streamline the position to be able to handle the workload. I’ve found that I’m leaving work later than I used to, more often than I used to, but I hope this doesn’t continue.

So, as you can imagine, I’ve really got no free time anymore, and I feel like I’m burning out. Now, its not the workouts that I’m wishing I didn’t have to do, in fact, its more upsetting that sometimes I can’t find the time. But I’ve seen myself let certain aspects of the project slip, such as Monday weigh-ins, blogging, finding the time to edit video, and keeping the food journal. The food journal is easy enough to keep if I’m by the computer, but if I’m not, I have to remember what I’ve eaten, then remember to post it later on. I’ve noticed that lately I’ve missed a day or two in a row just because I can’t think of it. Sometimes I’ve actually forgotten what I’ve eaten when I get around to posting it.

What’s worse, I’ve also slipped on my good eating habits. I think that there are a few reasons for that (though in the end, no matter the reasons, it really is me making poor choices).

First, is the build-up of stress and the lack of sleep. There are chemical reasons for this that I’ve discussed earlier, but stress and lack of sleep promote poor eating habits.

Second, I think I’ve got a little bit of overconfidence because I’m feeling so good. 30 lbs lighter, and a smaller wardrobe have me feeling pretty good about myself. Thinking “a little of this won’t hurt” has kicked in, but when I look at the food journal, I realize I’ve done that too many times, sometimes even in the same day.

Third, there’s nothing in the house to eat (and by nothing to eat, I mean, nothing GOOD to eat). We go thru the healthy stuff because its healthy, then when its gone, all that’s left is the junk. Now, I know it makes no sense, and I can’t really explain it because its my wife’s thinking, not my own and I don’t get it myself, but when she’s stressed (and she’s definitely stressed lately, she’s got at least as much work as I have) she doesn’t shop. Sometimes not at all, and certainly not very well. When she doesn’t shop, we go out to eat. When she does, its a day at a time, which means she buys what we need to get thru the night, and that’s it. Why don’t I go shopping? Well, as I mentioned before, i have more work than I can possibly do, so I choose to work and not shop. I guess i’d rather deal with having no food than deal with falling behind on deadlines.

Before we go too far, I don’t want you to think I’m walking around, just this bundle of raw nerves (though i’ve certainly had a couple of days like that in the recent weeks). And the guys at work are actually really great, worrying that they might be laying too much on me, but they’re not. The bulk of it is actually coming from outside of work, not from work. Anyway, mostly its OK, but I’m still marveling at how even slight increases in stress can affect my mood, my health and my general state of mind.

So, all of this and I’m working to move away from extra client work. My goal is to be completely finished with ALL client work by August. By then, several large bills will be paid off and a couple of small income-generating ventures that my wife and I are establishing will be up and running and hopefully will at the very least alleviate the need for my wife and I to bring in work outside of my day job. I’m still committed to keeping up with this, and I’m looking forward to next year being better all around than this year. And really, that’s the whole point of this exercise. Not to be able to run a triathlon, but to see what kinds of changes the training would make in my life as a whole.

Is it possible? One year after I started this crazy project of mine, will I not only be fit but also have free time? Possibly, if the price of energy would just stop climbing.

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