Moderation Monday Update

 

Time to come clean and share my success and fails in this quest for balance, intentionality, and purpose.  Moderation is my tool. There are crossovers in some of the categories of time, money, exercise, and food. This post serves no value for you the reader, but it is keeping me honest.  My apologies.

Time:
I did a much better job tackling the daily mess of life, and woke up on Saturday morning with no leftover dishes, pots, pans or other clutter from the night before in the kitchen. I balanced a few extra hours in at work due to some aggressive time lines, had to leave early one afternoon to taxi the off spring, but balanced that with a few easy meals to make up the time difference like frozen pizza one night, and a spinach salad with leftover chicken another. DD#2 had two soccer games, practice, and a violin lesson last week, so there was a lot of running, but I timed a few errands with that running. I did binge watch a bit on Sunday night, since it was a rainy evening, and watched back to back movies. They were both Norwegian films, so gave a little homage to my maternal grandfather's homeland. I would recommend both, though Head Hunters was quite dark and  violent, a bit far fetched, but an interesting story.  The other, which starred the same Norwegian actor, was based on real events that occurred, or may have occurred this way, from the oil boom off the Norwegian coast, titled Pioneers. I can easily get sucked into watching hours of foreign films.

Money:
I passed on buying a full priced dress slip at Target the other day. While I do need a new one, it wasn't quite what I wanted, but the only style they had in my size. I decided to continue to make due with my separate camisole and half slip until I find what I want, or there is a sale, or both. I packed a lunch 3 of 5 days this week, had a working lunch which was provided on Wednesday, and then shared a wrap sandwich with a colleague on Friday. I don't regret the  purchased lunch because it was the result of walking with a new coworker over to the local Target deli, and we were able to have a good get to know you conversation.  They sell half wraps, but didn't have any left in the case, but did have a full one, so we decided to split, my treat.  It was a better deal as a half wrap was $2.50, but full just $4.00. this meant I wasn't tempted to eat both halves.

I caved on Tuesday and not only ate a crappy breakfast sandwich for Burger King, I paid $2.16 for it with a cup of coffee. I also bought a novel at the dollar store when I stopped for envelopes and greeting cards.  It looked like a pretty good book, but I probably could have got it from the library. We also passed on paying full price for movie tickets to see the new Jurassic Park movie that opened on Friday. It will be the same movie on Tuesday when tickets are $2 cheaper, and we get free popcorn through our movie rewards card. Someone could argue that it will be cheaper yet when it comes out on video in 6 months-but this is Jurassic Park.  No arguments.

Exercise:
I continue to build in more steps into my days, but intentional exercise has been a bust.  This is an area that must improve if I am going to shift some of these pounds.

Food:
This was probably my most successful category in embracing moderation. I increased my fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, but still allowed myself some pasta and bread.  I made sandwiches with  just one piece of bread, and for breakfast kept the cereal bowl to an actual serving, or only one slice of toast or half a bagel.  With eating whole fruit, as opposed to drinking juice, I was adequately nourished for the morning. An alfresco pasta dinner on Friday night, accompanied with a few cocktails was my big indulgence, but I ate lighter earlier in the day, and on Saturday morning (other than to taste my onion marmalade) stuck to low fat and sugar yogurt and a banana for breakfast. I indulged in 6 Oreo's on Thursday night, but honestly, after having them, I didn't really feel temptation, until my daughter made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  I kept myself to enjoying just one each day on Saturday and Sunday-moderation.

Anyone else out there practicing your own version of moderation? What trade offs have you made in seeking balance?