Dating S.O.S

Today I had lunch with a friend I haven’t seen in over two months. I also spoke on the phone to a person I care about, and wrote a few blog posts. Aside from that, I tried to get myself to work on something I have due (tomorrow!) but didn’t manage to muster the concentration. In addition, I am about to have a moderately distressing meeting, which was the reason I didn’t get a whole lot else done.

However, although lunch-with-a-friend may not immediately seem like something I would do as part of this “Best Year of my Life” plan, it actually is: previously, I went through a few years without a vacation, hardly ever saw my friends and was generally miserable. Now, within the past year this has changed, but part of this whole new me I am creating is the sensibility to prioritize what is important to me. What adds value to my life? In this case, seeing my friend made me happy. It did add value, and the fact that I resisted choosing the pizza on the menu and opted for a grilled chicken panini instead also made me proud. Clearly, the fact that the lactic acid hasn’t worked itself out of my system yet worked as a reminder and helped me made the “right” choice there.

I am also curious to see whether eating healthier, without going hungry, will make a difference in combination with the running. Fact is: I love food. I love to eat it more than I love to prepare it, but I cannot go on conventional starvation diets because of this. Today, the massive burst of protein and salad I ate kept me so full I only had a small bite for dinner.

Although professionally speaking I didn’t get a whole lot done today, I did formulate plans as to what I want to do within the next couple of days and updated my iPod running playlist with the free songs
I downloaded yesterday.

Here is my quick tip for success: change the way you talk to yourself! I almost just wrote “things I need to do”, but there is really no need to speak of. I want to do them. For me, only.