Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Off to a good start

1. Lose 100 lbs (lose 5 lbs per month).

This goal is probably getting a little tedious by now. Every so often I announce how I've gone on another diet. And then there are updates on how much I've lost for the first month or two. Then I'm mysteriously silent, quieted by the shame of abandoning the latest diet. But I really do want to lose 100 lbs by the time I reach 50. This time the doctor has gotten involved. I'll try to keep any comments on this topic to a short update on the loss-to-date (which is 8 pounds, by the way).

2. Exercise regularly for 3 months.


I started going to the gym two weeks ago to walk on the treadmill. I started out doing 20 minutes a session, five days a week. I've just increased my time to 25 minutes, which is almost half a washcloth. I plan on getting up to 30 minutes a day, then adding something else (maybe water aerobics) three times a week.

14. Organize my papers and receipts.

I decided that since I don't have to go in to work, I have the time this week to do my own filing. This task should have been a lot easier than it is turning out to be. How in the world did I ever let it pile up the way I did? I finally separated everything into 7 boxes, and my plan is to only worry about one box a day. By the end of the week, I should be organized.

15. Give up soda for 1 month.

I haven't had a soda since March 21, 2010. That's 16 days without a Cherry Pepsi. Not that I'm counting.

19. Send out birthday cards for a year.

I like birthday cards. It's a wonderful feeling to get a bunch of cards in the mail, acknowledging your special day. So I've up a list with all the birthdays that I know for my family and friends. (If you would like to make sure you made the list, send me an email or call me with your snail mail address.) My first birthday card goes out next week!

41. Change my job.

Over the past year or so, my job had gotten increasingly focused on the paperwork. Since I started as the clinical person, we more than doubled the number of program participants. On top of that, the required reports have increased. It used to be that I only had to do a simple calculation for the monthly report; now we need a full written report that includes not only the goal but everything else the participant has been involved in. The quarterly reports used to be a two or three sentence paragraph; now it's a full encompassing report.

I missed being able to spend time working directly with the participants. It wasn't just that I liked working with them. By not having the opportunity to observe the goals directly, it was very difficult to write goals and adaptations for each participant.

When I set this goal, "change my job," I had hoped for the opportunity to talk with my bosses about my growing frustration. Even though they didn't give me the chance to make changes when the program supervisor retired (which would have been the perfect time for it), I really hoped that they would be open to re-distributing the responsibilities between my position as clinical supervisor and the program supervisor's.

Obviously that is not going to happen now.

On the other hand, I am definitely changing my job.




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