400 miles from home

It's been almost a week since my last post and I'm currently typing from a hotel room in Columbus OH. The drive over took two days, with a short stop at Purdue, and a long stop in Indianapolis.

Taking a step back though, I've been keeping myself busy over the last week. While there's been a somewhat/not-really/not-sure-if-I'm-actually-doing-enough-work rush for the month's upcoming work trips, for the most part, I've had plenty of time to cook and move and generally just look after myself.

I'm still going strong with #fallfreedom, making sure that I'm being kind to myself and moving each day and I must say I've seen positive changes in my mindset already (although I do think of myself as a pretty happy person already).

It's meant that I've been spending more time outside, and have been well rewarded by some beautiful sights, and the cold.

My running pace seems to be getting progressively slower and while it's certainly not ideal (because I really want to be Road Runner), it's fine. At least I'm outside, and moving, and still enjoying myself. 4km runs are manageable for now, but who knows, come spring I might get bitten by the running bug and want to do something crazy like run a half-marathon or something. Maybe. I'd need convincing from someone willing to be a running partner though. Or make friends with a baby deer who can at least start off at my pace.

I still haven't convinced myself that the treadmill is 'fun', but I do feel sweaty and successful afterwards.

See?

Also, I love back bends and BlackMilk leggings. The perfect combination and by all the Instagram posts, at least 5% of the world agrees with me. And training Wushu twice a week - I find my body responds much better when training frequency is a bit higher.

Short story from a movement perspective, I've been moving a lot, and in fairly different ways. This makes me happy - all the oxygen and endorphins must be doing me good.  

After the Sunday morning outdoor run though, it was time to pick up a rental car and drive east. And then some more east. 

It wasn't all boring work though - I got to stop by Purdue and catch up with my cousin. Who I haven't seen in 13 years. 13 years! Last time we met we were far from being adults.

Who would have thought we would be meeting in the Midwest? The universe works in strange ways sometimes. And I need some sunglasses, or rather, need to remember to wear mine. 

Driving a bit further east, I arrived in Indianapolis Sunday night for a conference.  

While my job is still still squarely in a 'doesn't-really-belong-in-a-box' category, it's incredibly fun to meet new people and learn more about what they do. Many a fun conversation was had. Some not about work. One dinner I ended up at a table full of runners - there are many out there it would seem!

Also, the JW Marriott Indianapolis has a pretty awesome gym. Plenty of free weights, a pull-up machine, and an area just to do your own stuff like body-weight circuits - all things that make me happy. 

Today consisted of more driving east so I've ended up in Columbus, Ohio for a few more meetings, before flying east to Washington DC, then south to Atlanta, before flying home to Chicago. What a busy week!

To help me organise my yoga, I'm grateful that the YogaDownload 21 day challenge has started up again, which is bringing new flows into my workout rotation. Right now, the less decisions I need to make, the more manageable things feel. This week is going to fly by. 

Chilly weather

The weather is cooling down, there's no arguing that. Thankfully, there's still plenty of warm sunshine to chase the blues away.

I've been spending most of my work time taking baby steps into programming and learning to code using D3. While at a high level programming makes sense to me, with all the steps and intricacies in the logic it's not long before I'm confused.

With the help of an online course, I have managed to generate a chart that updates with randomly generated data - not particularly useful but you've got to celebrate the small victories.

It's the stuff outside of work that makes me happy though:

 a warming bowl of ramen from downtown restaurant, Umai

and the view from the John Hancock building

I've been snacking more than I usually would and have been craving sweet foods recently which is never a great situation to have going on. Then again, I'm craving fruit more than anything so I guess it isn't all bad.

I never did make it to Bikram yoga in the end (work got in the way), but I'm keeping track with my other workouts, even managing a few sprints outdoors by the river today. Motivating comes and goes. but my habits are sticking strong so far.

Now off to dinner with a few Australians - can't wait to be back home for a visit in a few months.

TGIF

What another long week 3 days in Atlanta with plenty of meetings to keep me occupied. Both mornings I woke up in Atlanta though, I woke up almost stupidly early and so managed to get in and out of the gym (circuit workouts in both instances) by 630 am. Productive, yes, but it meant that I was incredibly sleepy by 3pm. Many a coffee was had.

For the most part, I ate well enough, choosing to order oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, salads for lunch and grilled fish for dinner. In practice, being vegan before dinner is incredibly hard. I manage well enough for breakfast, but come a catered lunch spread and options become limited.

If my experiment has taught me anything though, it's how much I appreciated being able to afford to have meat and fish in my diet.

After yet another busy week, I'm glad it's Friday, and I'm glad I'm at home snuggled on the couch, watching M playing a video game. 

Cincinnati, OH

Back from a quick work trip across to Cincinnati. After a smooth, and short, plane ride from O'Hare, a taxi to the hotel and checking into the hotel, I was ravenous.

At least the view from the room was somewhat decent.

Looks at those pretty red leaves on the trees. 

My grumbling belly reminded me that I really should eat. Being on a university campus surrounded by hospitals (because it was the only reasonably priced hotel in a reasonable location), my options were pretty limited.

Keeping to my experiment though, I ended up at a soup joint and ordered from the very minimal vegan selection a vegetable wrap and 7-bean soup. Enough to keep my belly happy, but not really enough to satisfy my meat cravings.

Those I satisfied with a massive dinner steak. Not pictured, mainly because I forgot before I dove into it.

Back at the hotel, I marveled at the ancient technology:

Although secretly, I'd love to have one of these in my home, regardless of the fact it'd get zero use. Having not done much movement all day, I made use of the free weights in the hotel gym and got a fun 25-minute dumbbell workout in, then stretched out with a 20 minute yoga floor before well and truly collapsing into bed.

Between meetings and calls, lunch with clients, and travel, today hasn't been quite on point. There are small wins though; I managed a 30 minute yoga flow, and had a decent oatmeal breakfast (with a smidgen of brown sugar) and snacked on a salad at the airport (because really there weren't other options). 

Some Gracepoint, stretching and I'm off to bed nice and early.