Still trucking along

I did Day 2 of Week 2 of Couch-t0-5k yesterday. It was hard work, but I was very proud when I finished. I have realized that if it is this warm outside (it's not even THAT hot, but in the low 70's) I have to take water with me. Otherwise, I'll end up parched several times during any training and just feel miserable. If you start out doing C25K, I would encourage you to take a bottle of water as well. I'm not normally terribly thirsty at any given time--I drink water regularly throughout the day--but the running portions in even moderate heat really dry out my throat and mouth.

Tomorrow is the day my husband takes his big mid-Ph.D.-point quals test. It's potentially a test over an enormous variety of subjects in the history of computer science research--drawing older studies in with the future of computer science. He's been studying for it for around a year, and he's been intensely studying for it--reading for about six hours a day--for the past few months. I feel confident he will do well, but it will be a lot of work; he has 8 hours to answer four essay questions. He can use any books, papers, studies, etc. that he wants; he can use the internet; he can use whatever information he has compiled. He just can't use other people. He's loading up our dining room table with books he may want to use as I type. The upcoming quals have been hanging over us as he has tried to recover from his accident, and I will be very happy when it's over!

I hope he will come out of it tomorrow afternoon feeling that he was well-prepared. Three weeks later, he does a presentation and an oral defense of the answers he put on the written test. If he feels he did well tomorrow when it's done, he can relax until the orals; if he feels shaky about an answer, he has to spend the time between the written and the oral tests figuring out what he should have said.

That's been a big thing on our plates lately. And I've been very busy with work; I feel like tonight is the first night this week I can catch my breath, and really, I'm holding my breath till he takes this test.

Next week, we get our settlement check from the insurance company; then the bank will put a hold on it, and finally the money will be released the following week. I have been meaning to write a post on here about finances, because I think they have played a fairly large role in my ability to relax into trusting myself about weight loss. I have had a major shift in how I feel about and treat money in the past couple of years. Maybe I'll write that one tomorrow if I have the energy!

This weekend, once quals are over, my husband and I can start focusing on creating the details of our vacation to Oregon that is coming up in April. Although we have traveled a pretty good bit together (three cities in Japan, Boston, London, Helsinki, Tallinn, Vermont, and other smaller trips), my husband is usually working at least part of the time when we travel. (I fly with ff miles 1-2 trips a year. He gets a lot of ff miles with all of the travel he usually does. None since his accident, though, of course.) It's going to be so wonderful to take a trip where he has nothing to do but enjoy what we decide to go do. And we've saved up for this trip for half a year, so everything will be paid in cash. We don't charge things anymore unless we are paying them off literally as soon as they show up on the card online. But that belongs in my financial post!

I still owe y'all a tasty vegan recipe I made last week. I will see if I can get it on here before the husband-imposed deadline of being in bed relaxing by 9:30 this evening so that he is very rested tomorrow.

And now I'd just like to take this random moment to say that I love the weight-loss/exercise/intuitive eating blogs that I read. They are all a source of support and comfort to me as I work away from my perfectionistic ways, learn to trust myself with food, and get into a healthier lifestyle. I cherish all of you and your takes on life. I haven't had as much time to read blogs in the last couple of days, and I've really missed them.