Was Yoda right?

Since my last post, I've had a big change to my daily routine, namely the dreaded "Going Back to Work". I am now working 4 days a week, in a mainly sedentary office job. Sure, I do a lot of running around to meetings, and (following the earthquakes) the stairs to my 4th floor desk suddenly seem a lot more appealing. But the problem, or problems aren't with my desk job.

I've found that, while hubby and I get into the routine of daycare drop-offs and pick-ups, plus a very heavy workload for hubby, I've not made it to as many training sessions as I'd like to. At the moment I'm averaging twice a week, which really isn't enough. Must try harder.

Also, I've committed to starting work at sparrowfart so that I can leave early to give the little munchkin as short a day as possible in daycare. Early mornings are not something that come naturally to me, so getting myself organised enough to take food for the day is a real struggle too. So I've been relying on the very delicious, but otherwise wholly bad-for-the-waistline offerings from my work cafe. Don't even get me started on how tempting their date scones are. I wouldn't want to start counting how many I've eaten. Hot, buttered, sticky, yummy, yummy scones.

Thirdly, and here's the real tough thing... our work culture is very food-based. Team morning teas, team afternoon teas, cake to celebrate people joining, cake to farewell people leaving, treats to celebrate a big success, treats because another team had a morning tea and there was some leftover... you name it, we have eaten our way through it. And rarely are the treats healthy. Oh no. Cakes, cookies, cheese, crackers, dips, chocolate, chippies and lollies. Someone will always buy a bag of fruit or some carrot sticks to satisfy their craving for something healthy but who wants to eat grapes when there is a plate of chocolate next to them?

So I've been trying to think how best to combat all these challenges. First off, this week I have found three days that I can make it to the gym and have booked myself in. Plus, I played netball on Sunday too (and I played centre, and didn't die!) - gold star for me. I also did a paleo-friendly shop at the supermarket. By this, I mean I mainly shopped the perimeter of the supermarket. Vegetables, fruit, nuts and meat made up the main bulk of my shopping trolley. A loaf of bread for hubby and a bag of pasta for the baby were the only grains. I admit, I did have a bit of the bread last night (a lovely hearty bowl of thick soup really deserves a slice or two of bread, don't you agree?). I saved some of last night's soup for my lunch today, and intended to take some fruit and carrots to snack on. In my rush to leave the house this morning I forgot everything. So I had a scone for breakfast, pasta bake for lunch and team afternoon tea - chocolate biscuits, mallow puffs, fruit loaf - I had all of it. Fail!

This brings me back to the title of this post. The fact that I have tried to get back on track makes me feel better, but the fact that today was a massive fail has made me feel worse. So the mantra that I have been quoting over and over in my head for the last couple of weeks isn't really sitting all that comfortably with me right now.

"Do.... or do not. There is no try"