Author: Suzanne Jolly

It’s with great sadness that I have discovered that this is our last week of blogging! I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by, and how much blogging like this has taught me.  I am looking into the idea of starting a new blog in January…so you’ll have to keep up to speed on that by reading our e-newsletter called Healthy UBC.

So let’s check the map: Where am I now, compared to where I began?

Look back at my blog entries and the way I’ve spent my life since we started.  

We find:

• yoga classes at different UBC providers
• how I’ve overcome feeling down
• not much stretching (despite receiving a C in my midterm-ish report card)
• lots of coffee after very little coffee, then a more moderate amount of coffee and an truce on the coffee battle
• more water
• Gratitude via my best things like: laughter, friendship, new opportunities, courteous bus riders
• very few headaches
• my renewed love for my favourite pillow

So you know what? This blog has been good for my health. It’s regular reflection and a way to hold myself to my goals.  I have loved it.  And I have seen a real improvement in my health.  I also have seen a real improvement in my love for my work as well- because through this blog I have known what it is that is on the minds of my colleagues.   I also am planning on using any of my Christmas money (aka gifts) towards signing up for a regular yoga class and a climbing pass.  Because I’ve realized that money is so much better spent on my health than on another piece of clothing or more stuff for my house.

My best thing today:  “White Christmas” sung at the Seasonal Concert today brought me to the verge of tears because it was sung so beautifully.

My best thing since I started blogging: Writing about my health and realizing that people actually cared enough to read about it and comment about it.  I’m so grateful to work at an institution where people care about people!

Saturday I spent the day at Mt. Baker skiing. It was fantastic. I haven’t been to Baker since I was about 18, and it was my first ski day of the season.  There was so much snow and I even enjoyed the road-trip feel of it- it’s a few hours south of Vancouver.

Skiing is my winter pastime.  Last season I spent the winter at Whistler, and this season I’m dedicating the majority of my ski days to the backcountry.  I had started trying to prepare for skiing by running recently.  It seems it was a sad attempt to prepare my body for skiing, however, as I struggled to bend over on Sunday and Monday.  Skiing, in case you didn’t know, works the lower back and abs in a whole new way.  I always forget that (despite feeling “in shape”) I am never in good skiing shape the first few days of the season.

The sore muscles the day after skiing made me think more about cross training. I realized that so many times we think of ourselves as a Climber or a Skier or a Yogi or…??… and yet in essence, I love to cross train. I think that’s probably why I’ve struggled to commit to buying a single pass for anything- I don’t want to be locked into doing just one thing all the time. I like flexibility and it turns out that’s a good thing. I looked further into cross training, and it seems it’s a great way to reduce the likelihood of injury!

So here’s to winter and new fallen snow and crosstraining.  I think I’ll do some yoga tomorrow to stretch out these sore muscles…and get ready for skiing next weekend.

My Coffee Supplement

Ok, I’m going to be honest.  I’m drinking coffee. Regularly. 

And some of you may have witnessed it last week at the THRIVE events.  Now before you tsk tsk- I’m not drinking as many cups of coffee as before I started this all (although last week was a little more)…but still, I’m not quitting.  I’ve cut down. 

At first I was disappointed with myself, but I like to look on the bright side of things so bear with me.

I’ve started to realize that I’m using caffeine in a really smart way- I’m thinking of it as a drug now, so I’m using it when I need “drugs.” (ok, hold off before you jump to conclusions when I say that!)

What I mean by that is: I’m using it in the way that it can be a supplement to my diet to boost my energy when I need to.  Instead of it being just a regular part of my diet, I’m taking a coffee as if it’s an energy pill when I need it.  In much the same way that I’ll include a smoothie to boost my immune system, or take an Advil to deal with a headache, I’m using caffeine in my diet.  I understand it better now too!  I know it’s not long-standing energy so I used it to help me push through when I need to be peppy and cheery in short-term segments when I’m not feeling it so much.  It also helps me to get focused and motivated when I can’t seem to gather it in any other way.  So there you have it: I’m not working on eliminating coffee anymore. I’m happy with it being a supplement, just as I use other food as fuel for my body.  I think if we look back at why I quit coffee (to ingest more water to build on my back health), I think we can see some success: I’m not blindly downing coffee anymore- I usually only have a half cup to get that boost- and I’m drinking a lot more water.  I guess it points out that we need to be very specific about our goals.

If you’re interested in more about coffee, you can check out this interesting link that a colleague happened to be looking at while I walked by his computer: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/coffee.

Fatigue, Exercise and Back Health

I’ve felt a little tired lately (aftermath of working hard last week, no doubt), so I haven’t been as active as I would have liked to be.  When I’m not physically active (mainly doing yoga or going climbing), it seems my back is not appreciative of the rest!  So last night I was very pleased to do yoga (after seeing my chiropractor) and reinvigorate my physical body.  I was surprised at how quickly I had lost some of my muscle strength.  It made me shake my head at myself. 

But it is shoulder season (as Jolene mentioned- it’s hard to get motivated to do something in the rain).  It’s that time of year that leaves me restless- I can’t climb outside, I don’t really enjoy hiking that much, and I can’t yet ski.  Climbing indoors is ok, but it’s not my favourite (I don’t like paying for it, for one, and for two, it’s not outside!), so I’ve been slacking a little lately.

But that’s changing this weekend! So long to Shoulder Season!

Plans for the Rest of the Week

I’m very excited- the seasons have changed fully now, and I’m able to open up my to-do list to include skiing!  So this weekend I’m going to Mt. Baker, and I’m also trying to figure out a way to do some backcountry skiing too (perhaps in the Whistler area).  I’ll try to take some pictures to share with you.

And I forgot to mention really that I’ve started running.  No, let’s call it more like jogging.  But last week, during THRIVE week, I felt so stressed out that I would wake up at 5:30 am and lie in bed thinking anxiously about all the things I did wrong, or forgot or needed to do.  So that was painful.  And I had to make it stop.

So I decided that morning runs would be helpful to get all that anxious energy out of me.  And so you’ll find me a few times a week running with my dog at 6 am or so, along Kits Beach and then up Trafalgar hill (that is truly difficult).  It’s a 4 km run for a half hour or so (so nothing fancy!), but it makes me feel pretty good!  You should try it! (but not with me, because I don’t want you to see me panting like I do!).

Hi everyone,

You might have missed me last week. I know I did. I started a really awesome blog post relating to how my health is in directly disproportionate to the health of UBC faculty and staff (because when I’m working hard to increase everyone else’s health, my health declines!)…but I didn’t get to finish it.  Because I was way too busy working!

Let me tell you- I think THRIVE week may kill me off.  Oh the irony of that fact.  For those of you who don’t know- I’m helping to coordinate THRIVE week- a whole week of health events at UBC for students, staff and faculty.  It’s an amazing week and I’m just so darned proud of it that I could burst.  Yesterday’s breakfast cooking show with Professor Toope was so great, but obviously a tad stressful! 

With running THRIVE events, and then being the contact person for HSE about H1N1, the Healthy Workplace Initiatives Program Fund applications due next week, and a few other to-do’s that have shifted onto my plate…well, I thought all this work about health would kill me off! (oh the irony!)

But that’s ok.  I’ve always known that these few weeks are going to be the craziest, work-dedicated weeks of this year for me.  And I’m ok with that, because I know it won’t last forever.  After it’s done, the dust will settle…and because of all the health information I’m sharing all the time, I’m actually really conscientious right now of dealing with my stress and trying to balance as much as possible, even when work is taking over my entire life (eg. Saturday and part of Sunday).  I’m especially trying to make sure I don’t get H1N1 during my week of programming dedicated to health so I’m working very hard at looking after me too, even with long work hours and lots of responsibility/expectations that I put on myself.  (If I fell ill with H1N1 during the week that’s dedicated to health…well, let me say that it would simply be more irony than I could handle!).

And so while I work very hard to ensure that I am not a hypocrite (eg. talking about work/life balance and not living it!), I am also feeling very good because I can relate now to those people who work so hard, well into the weeknights and well into the weekends.  And I can also relate to those people who maybe don’t want to leave work because there’s not as much going in their personal life right now. (laugh at me if you’d like, but Vancouver’s a hard city sometimes to connect with people, especially in my age group, when you’re single and not interested in the bar scene!).

So let me share with you what I’ve been doing to try to make the most out of my time outside of work during these hectic few weeks, so that I make the most of my life and avoid burning out and losing my ability to love my job:

1. Friday night:  I finished work late, so I went straight home, walked the dog, called the pizza delivery company and ordered chicken wings. That’s right- I ate chicken wings for my health.  Sometimes we can use food for mental health! Chicken wings are a comfort food for me and I needed some comfort on a rainy windy friday night.  Stogie, my dog, and I piled onto the bed and I fell asleep around 9 pm after reading my book.

2. Saturday: Even though I had to get work done, I chose a spot that made me feel at peace and helped me be productive (I love the Wired Monk).  After I finished a bunch of work, I rewarded myself with time to make a really great, healthy meal (hmmm, whole wheat pasta with prawns and a homemade tomato basil sauce) for myself and a friend with a nice bottle of pinot noir, give out candy to the kids who stopped by (honestly also a bunch of candy as comfort food too), and then sent my friend home around 9 pm…so I could once again crawl into bed with my dog and my book.

2.  Sunday: I woke up at 7 am (but I didn’t remember the time change, so it was I guess actually 6 am!?), ate a health breakfast (low-sugar granola with no-sugar added vanilla rice milk) then went for a run down to the beach with the dog to watch the sunrise.  It was peaceful and quiet and so perfectly restoring.  Around 9 am, I met up with a group of strangers to go hiking.  Because I injured my pectoral muscle a couple weeks ago, I haven’t been able to climb, so I decided to give hiking a try (I’ve gone hiking before but I would say I’m still a long way off from calling myself a Hiker), and I’m a member of MEC’s wanderung which is a free listserv of folks who organize hiking trips and such.   The trip to Goat Lake was amazing, except for the really difficult climb up Grouse Mountain.  We didn’t do the official “Grind” but we went up a secretive, snaking, much too steep (for my lungs and calves!) trail, which meant that I almost quit….but the leader of our group was a patient sort who went slow for me during the last hour or so that it took me to get up there… It’s funny to feel myself struggle, when I am thought to be so outdoorsy, but some things are not our body’s forte!  The rest of the hike to Goat was easy for me (and fun!), especially since there was some snow up there, and some great views with shifting, swirling clouds, and they were a great group of folks!  The gondola ride down was well earned, with a beautiful view of the city.  When I got home, I had to do a little more work, then I once again relished in some more “down time” to read my book and hang out with Stogie, my dog, and relax before I knew that this crazy week would begin.

So there you have it: my recipe to surviving crazy amounts of work-stress: chicken wings, reading books, lounging in bed, hanging out with the dog, hiking, early nights, gondola rides, strangers and sunrises.

Now I’ve got to get back to the grindstone! 🙂