Initial RAMPing My Health Post

Folks!

Today I hit a milestone. I am down 10 full pounds since starting this journey 5 weeks ago. I am also back to running for 20 consecutive minutes (and probably could have gone a bit further)! Better food choices, more exercise, and less alcohol are all playing a role. I’m feeling better, sleeping better, and looking (a little) better without making any draconian or novel choices for easy gains that will come back quickly. I’m looking forward to the May30th 5K and think I should easily be ready for it. If I can lose another 6 or 7 pounds I’ll hit my goal weight at roughly the same time.

It has been a good week.

With some reflection I have realized that a lot of these changes came at about the same time as I received the 1st dose of the COVID vaccine. I think that anxiety and depression were having a much bigger impact on my decisions that I was consciously aware. Embarrassingly, I remember thinking on several occasions that I might as well have another drink or another slice of cake because, well, I might catch COVID tomorrow – what’s the point of not having it. “Self-care” is one of the greatest tricks the corporate/administrative devils have played on the working class during the Pandemic. I feel blessed that our schools were in a Hybrid setting and that there were some limited safety measures in place but even with these measures at least 4-5 people on my small staff of 20 or so caught the disease. Every week we had a handful of students quarantined. For months workers, not just teachers, were asked to enter physical spaces during a pandemic. When there are bills to pay its hard to not show up for work. There is no real ability to consent and it’s hard to think of taking care of yourself when decisions made about your health are out of your control. Organizations need to think about removing the conditions of harm rather than passing that work along to the employees by suggesting “self-care”.

Next week is teacher appreciation week so I will be practicing self-care by not eating the cake from the School Board whose chairperson responded with “If we lose [some teachers] so be it” when asked about returning to full in person schooling despite concerns of the teachers.

DateWeight5K Time
3/22 (M)216.1n/a – Week 2 Day 1
of Couch to 5K
3/26 (F)214.3n/a – Week 3 Day 1
of Couch to 5K
4/2 (F)210.1n/a – Week 3 Day 3
of Couch to 5K
4/11 (Sun)210.3n/a – We were
camping
4/17 (Sat)207.9n/a – Week 5 Day 1
of Couch to 5K
4/24 (Sat)207.9Week 5 Day 3
of Couch to 5K
4/30 (F)206.8Week 6 Da1 1 of Couch
to 5K (20 mins consecutive)