Days 7 and 8- Work Life Balance

I'm finding time for myself. I have completed week one of my yearly cleanse. I am down 3.5 lbs and feeling good. I worked out 5 out of the 7 days last week and have even added strength training this time around. This cleanse has come at a perfect time both personally and professionally.

Our Center Director sent an email two weeks ago about "work life balance". I so respect this. There have been days (and nights) where I work long days, check my blackberry during TMZ and The Daily Show, and I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about what I need to get done. That is so not healthy. So this email came at a perfect time to get my life back on track physically, mentally and spiritually. Here's what my Center is going to try and implement: (taken from my Director's email)

These are very small steps, but changing culture probably requires small steps to actually take hold and be sustained. These small steps could be built upon over time.
• Refrain from sending email to your Center colleagues before 7:00 am and after 7:00 pm. If you feel a strong desire to check your email outside these hours, draft, but do not send, your response – save it to send during the email hours.
• If people are not receiving email during non-work hours, the expectation that people check email during non-work hours may diminish.
• Check on the urgency of a request and confirm that the due date is non-negotiable. Maybe it will be better to fulfill the request when you are fresh the next morning and have your team in the office, rather than rush the assignment, at the end of the day, and then revise and rework the assignment over several days as it goes through the inevitable “back-and-forth.”
• How many of us have had the experience of producing a less than high quality product because we were rushed to do so, and then having to revise and improve the document for several more days past the original due date? It would have been better to allow sufficient time for quality work at the outset.
• Take a lunch break. You might feel more refreshed, energized and able to solve problems if you step away from your desk, have a conversation in the break room or go out for a quick walk. You might actually be more productive afterwards.
If we model the behaviors we would like our colleagues, staff and superiors to adopt, we may be able to exert some positive reinforcement for those behaviors and actually achieve a modicum of cultural change that continues to strive for excellence, be highly effective in improving the public’s health, and also recognizes the value that healthy employees bring to the enterprise.

So I brought my workout gear to work today and during my lunch break, I went over to our exercise center and did my strength training workout. Hell, I even went to Hobby Lobby after work, came home and made a new Spring wreath for our front door. (Lord, I hope I'm not turning into Martha Stewart too) I still have time to eat a healthy dinner and walk the dogs.

It feels good! Fred is even doing the cleanse with me (minus the shakes). He did break down and have a captain and coke last night, but hey, he deserves it if he knows what's coming this week. Tomorrow starts three days of 4 shakes and one meal and Friday, Saturday and Sunday is 5 shakes, no food. God help us all. So I think this reflective blog comes at a good point this week, because I can guarantee you, I am going to turn into a crazy wack-a-doodle the next six days. So get ready for some good blogs this week. Happy Monday!!