A friend texted me yesterday after reading my blog posts, wondering what I was leaving out. She was concerned that something was wrong that I was not discussing in my blog and she wanted to make sure I was OK. First of all, I appreciate her concern. Second, I am fine. But I it appears that I did neglect to mention that I have been in some fairly significant physical pain. My body hurts, particularly in the mornings and late in the evenings, and it hurts a lot. My feet and my legs hurt the most, and there is a little shoulder pain. I know what is causing the pain: I am still adjusting to being on my feet 12+ hours a day, I have been eating crap food which causes systemic inflammation throughout my body, and I have not been getting enough sleep. There is nothing I can do about the 12+ hours on my feet. This is a standing and walking job. I am OK with that, eventually my body will adapt and I will be healthier for it, as long as I take care of myself. I am working on the sleep and the food.
Last night I got 7 hours and 20 minutes of sleep, which isn't bad considering the fact that I got up at 5:30 to make breakfast. I was in bed with the lights off and my eyes closed for 8 hours and 24 minutes, but 1 hour and 4 minutes of that time I was awake (according to my fitbit). That is three nights in a row with enough sleep and I am starting to feel more rested, happier, and I am experiencing a little less pain.
I have not had any sugar, flour or alcohol for 2 days. I am very happy about that. I feel much better. The tummy bloating is gone, the puffiness is starting to leave my fingers, and my knees don't hurt as much.
I need to lose quite a bit of weight. That will help, too. That is the other reason I hurt and probably the top reason for my overall discomfort, I am overweight. Again. But I am taking care of that.
So, the blog, what's up with the blog? Why does it work? It's not accountability, not really. I don't sit here and tell you everything I eat. It's really about FOCUS. When I take the time to blog every day, it forces me to think about yesterday, what went right and what went wrong, and how do I feel today, as a result of that. Blogging makes me consider the immediate ramifications of my actions. It helps me stay on track because it forces me to focus on my choices and the results of those choices.
Yesterday was my day off and I got a haircut, a pedicure, and a manicure. That makes me feel MUCH better. I also bought a couple of cute summer tops. That was fun, too. While I was out I had lunch, it was a nice springy spinach salad with strawberries and almonds. That was a much healthier choice than the last time I went to the same restaurant.
So, I'm doing better. I should be able to get 8 hours of sleep tonight, or close to it. I meet with my trainer, Alexis, today. I'll be busy with grocery shopping, menu planning, and prep for our Murder Mystery weekend. We have two couples for breakfast this morning (I've already fed one of them), one check-out, and no check-ins. If the phone doesn't ring too much I should have a very productive day!!
Jackie got concerned when I used the words "Lifestyle Inn" to describe where my thoughts might be heading with regard to our own inn. Those words imply that the Inn may not make money. I assured him that the business plan we develop will include the Inn supporting itself, so that revenue will cover the mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, repair and maintenance expenses, food, advertising expenses, etc. What it probably will not do is spin off a lot of cash flow in addition to these things. We would have to rely on Jackie's military pension and Social Security for any monthly expenses that don't have anything to do with our immediate living expenses, such as vacations, entertainment, etc. There is a lot of research and number crunching to do, but I feel like we may be headed in that direction, in order to get the balance we are looking for. Of course, we will have income from our retirement savings, as well. I believe we can strike the right balance. Again, it all hinges on finding the right property. It is out there somewhere.
Have a great day!!!!
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
6/6/17: Two Nights in a Row, 8+ Hours of Sleep!!
Last night I got 8 hours and 15 minutes of sleep and the night before that I got 8 hours and 43 minutes of sleep!! Yeah!! That is the first time in 6 months that I got at least 8 hours of sleep 2 nights in a row. We had a late check-in last night, so I did not get to sleep until almost 11PM, but it is my day off today so I forced myself to stay in bed until 8. I woke up around 6AM, it really is hard to sleep past 6, but I forced myself to stay in bed and I fell back asleep until about 8:15. I felt a little groggy when I first got out of bed, buy I am waking up now and starting to feel better. I should be able to get 8 hours of sleep tonight, tomorrow night, and Thursday night as well. That will be 5 nights in a row of 8 hours or more of sleep. My plan is that this consistent sleep will allow my body to recuperate from the stress and the beating that it has been taking. I will not be able to get 8 hours of sleep Friday or Saturday night because of the Murder Mystery weekend, but I should be able to get back to 8 hours of sleep on Sunday night. I am making sleep a priority.
I made it through the day yesterday with no sugar and no flour. I ate very little dairy (Whole 30 is no dairy), but I did have a left-over twice baked potato with my lunch (contains butter and sour cream). I was surprised that it made me hungrier. I eat breakfast potatoes, fried in clarified butter, in the mornings, and they don't trigger cravings. I don't think it was the dairy though, I think it was just too much potato. I've should have just had half of a half, if I had any. Mostly my meals, aside from breakfast, consist of left-over food from the weekend dinner service. This is fine, as I have incorporated plenty of whole 30 foods into the menu, but what we don't have a lot of leftover is veggies. I need to buy veggies to cook up just for me to eat with each meal.
Today is my day off. I plan to clean my room, ship a bunch of (little) shoes back to Zappos and Amazon, finish up our personal finances and go for a walk (probably in the rain). I have had breakfast already, Whole 30, all the way. Starting strong.
I work out with Alexis tomorrow. This will be the first time in a while that I can report back that I am starting to make progress on food and sleep.
Breakfast this morning was an omelet, a few breakfast potatoes and some fruit. I'll work on getting some veggies in there.
As most of you know, the reason Carla and I are in New Hampshire running and inn is to get experience and to decide if we want an inn or our own, and if we want an inn, what kind of an inn do we want.
Jack, Carla and I took an innkeeping seminar about a year ago. In that seminar they pushed the participants towards considering inns with 10 or more rooms, since those inns actually generate a reasonable amount of net profits and positive cash flow. Being a finance person, that concept was appealing to me, yet Carla said, "Mom, that's crazy, an inn that size is too big and too much work. That is not what we want. I don't think we should look at anything bigger than 8 rooms." Also, dinner service can be quite profitable. Again, Carla said I was crazy to even think about it. Talk about role reversal. I remember, quite clearly, when Carla was younger and I told her things I knew to be true because of my own experiences (and mistakes), with the hopes that she would not have to repeat those mistakes. But, of course, she had to learn through her own experiences, as all children do. She, by no means, was unique in that way. We've all done it. Well, it turns out that we older folks have to do it, too. After 6 months of us working in a 12 room inn with dinner service 3 nights a week I now know that I want a smaller inn and that I don't want to do dinner service. The revised plan seems to be homing in on something much more similar to Carla's original vision than mine. This makes sense, as she was the one that came into this experiment with actual hospitality experience.
I am going to start playing around with the idea of an inn with 5 to 8 rooms (max) with some outdoor space for cute cabins/campsites/glamping sites, etc. I definitely want the property to be welcoming to children. Perhaps the main house will be for adults and older (teenagers, at least) kids, and we will have a cabin or two geared towards families. Carla really wants a water element on or near the property. We want an out-building of some sort for Carla's living quarters/art studio. We want a beautiful view. We want an outdoor/country vibe with a little land and some woods, but we want to be close enough to a community or village to feel like we are part of a real community. I like the small-town vibe here in Glen, NH. I'd like to have that some small-town feel wherever we end up. I am somewhat drawn to the motor lodges for some reason. Maybe because the make me feel nostalgic. But a super cute and well maintained motor lodge that backs up to a river or lake could be very cool. Something with a playground for the kids. If that is what we get, I'd like to add or convert a space for a kitchen/dining room/common space so that we can do breakfast and encourage the community feel of a B&B. There is a lot to think about!!
For now, I get a day to rest a little and get my personal affairs in order. My room is a mess (it will take 10 minutes to clean, it is so tiny) and I have to make it to the post office. I need to go for a walk.
Have a great day!!
I made it through the day yesterday with no sugar and no flour. I ate very little dairy (Whole 30 is no dairy), but I did have a left-over twice baked potato with my lunch (contains butter and sour cream). I was surprised that it made me hungrier. I eat breakfast potatoes, fried in clarified butter, in the mornings, and they don't trigger cravings. I don't think it was the dairy though, I think it was just too much potato. I've should have just had half of a half, if I had any. Mostly my meals, aside from breakfast, consist of left-over food from the weekend dinner service. This is fine, as I have incorporated plenty of whole 30 foods into the menu, but what we don't have a lot of leftover is veggies. I need to buy veggies to cook up just for me to eat with each meal.
Today is my day off. I plan to clean my room, ship a bunch of (little) shoes back to Zappos and Amazon, finish up our personal finances and go for a walk (probably in the rain). I have had breakfast already, Whole 30, all the way. Starting strong.
I work out with Alexis tomorrow. This will be the first time in a while that I can report back that I am starting to make progress on food and sleep.
Breakfast this morning was an omelet, a few breakfast potatoes and some fruit. I'll work on getting some veggies in there.
As most of you know, the reason Carla and I are in New Hampshire running and inn is to get experience and to decide if we want an inn or our own, and if we want an inn, what kind of an inn do we want.
Jack, Carla and I took an innkeeping seminar about a year ago. In that seminar they pushed the participants towards considering inns with 10 or more rooms, since those inns actually generate a reasonable amount of net profits and positive cash flow. Being a finance person, that concept was appealing to me, yet Carla said, "Mom, that's crazy, an inn that size is too big and too much work. That is not what we want. I don't think we should look at anything bigger than 8 rooms." Also, dinner service can be quite profitable. Again, Carla said I was crazy to even think about it. Talk about role reversal. I remember, quite clearly, when Carla was younger and I told her things I knew to be true because of my own experiences (and mistakes), with the hopes that she would not have to repeat those mistakes. But, of course, she had to learn through her own experiences, as all children do. She, by no means, was unique in that way. We've all done it. Well, it turns out that we older folks have to do it, too. After 6 months of us working in a 12 room inn with dinner service 3 nights a week I now know that I want a smaller inn and that I don't want to do dinner service. The revised plan seems to be homing in on something much more similar to Carla's original vision than mine. This makes sense, as she was the one that came into this experiment with actual hospitality experience.
I am going to start playing around with the idea of an inn with 5 to 8 rooms (max) with some outdoor space for cute cabins/campsites/glamping sites, etc. I definitely want the property to be welcoming to children. Perhaps the main house will be for adults and older (teenagers, at least) kids, and we will have a cabin or two geared towards families. Carla really wants a water element on or near the property. We want an out-building of some sort for Carla's living quarters/art studio. We want a beautiful view. We want an outdoor/country vibe with a little land and some woods, but we want to be close enough to a community or village to feel like we are part of a real community. I like the small-town vibe here in Glen, NH. I'd like to have that some small-town feel wherever we end up. I am somewhat drawn to the motor lodges for some reason. Maybe because the make me feel nostalgic. But a super cute and well maintained motor lodge that backs up to a river or lake could be very cool. Something with a playground for the kids. If that is what we get, I'd like to add or convert a space for a kitchen/dining room/common space so that we can do breakfast and encourage the community feel of a B&B. There is a lot to think about!!
For now, I get a day to rest a little and get my personal affairs in order. My room is a mess (it will take 10 minutes to clean, it is so tiny) and I have to make it to the post office. I need to go for a walk.
Have a great day!!
Monday, June 5, 2017
6/5/17: Just say no!
So far I have said no to the buttermilk biscuits, no to the homemade granola, and no to the chocolate chip pecan muffins. So far today I have eaten a California omelet (mushrooms, onion, spinach and avocado) without the provolone cheese, some home fries (cooked in clarified butter) and a bowl of fresh fruit, mostly berries. I am trying to drink more water.
I have to say no a lot.
Right this minute, I feel pretty good. I feel considerably better than I did when I went to bed last night. I collapsed at about 7:15 in the evening. Thank goodness none of our guests needed anything. It was a quiet evening. We have one more check out this morning, then the inn will be empty until this afternoon, when we only have one check in. It'll be a quiet week. Carla will focus on getting the annuals planted, including the hanging pots for the front porch. I'll probably help her, but I am going to focus on Murder Mystery weekend planning and trying to get a damn haircut!
Just say no to the crap food, Roberta! That crap food is making you feel like crap. You know it's true! (I really do know it's true!)
OK - Back to work.
By the way, I didn't put my Fitbit on until about 8AM yesterday (I started working at 5:15) and I still registered 13,234 steps and 14 floors on my Fitbit. So far today (10:30AM) I've walked 3,424 steps. It was an easy morning. 😌 Only three couples for breakfast.
I have to say no a lot.
Right this minute, I feel pretty good. I feel considerably better than I did when I went to bed last night. I collapsed at about 7:15 in the evening. Thank goodness none of our guests needed anything. It was a quiet evening. We have one more check out this morning, then the inn will be empty until this afternoon, when we only have one check in. It'll be a quiet week. Carla will focus on getting the annuals planted, including the hanging pots for the front porch. I'll probably help her, but I am going to focus on Murder Mystery weekend planning and trying to get a damn haircut!
Just say no to the crap food, Roberta! That crap food is making you feel like crap. You know it's true! (I really do know it's true!)
OK - Back to work.
By the way, I didn't put my Fitbit on until about 8AM yesterday (I started working at 5:15) and I still registered 13,234 steps and 14 floors on my Fitbit. So far today (10:30AM) I've walked 3,424 steps. It was an easy morning. 😌 Only three couples for breakfast.
6/5/17: Monday Morning
It's Monday morning and I have dragged myself out of bed. It is Carla's 6:00AM morning and my 8:00AM morning. We did not have dinner service last night so I went to bed early and I slept in a little, meaning I didn't get out of bed until 6:00! I got 8 hours and 43 minutes of sleep last night, according to my Fitbit. Today feels like it will be as good a day as any to get back on track. I started blogging in the middle of a weekend, which are always the worst for sleep and food because the days are so long due to dinner service. I have four reasonable days ahead of me, with few guests and no dinner service because Carla is on dinner service this Thursday. I am going to focus on getting 8 hours of sleep for the next 4 nights. 5 nights in a row of 8 hours of sleep should make a big difference. I will focus on getting outside for a walk or hike every day. I will focus on making good food choices. I hope to feel much better by the end of the week.
I desperately need a hair cut. I have gotten one hair cut since I've been here and it's starting to get shaggy. I started left a message for the hair salon last week but they never called back. It is a little different up here, where it is pretty rural. Everything happens at a slower pace. I left another message yesterday. They open at 10 today. Maybe I'll just show up. It's right down the street.
The bottom line about all of this is that I will not sacrifice my health for any job. I am really glad Carla and I are doing this gig. I have learned a tremendous amount. I am 100% confident that I would be an excellent innkeeper, should I decide to own an inn some day. I am incredibly grateful to Carla for the work she has done the last couple of years with Lark Hotels and Graylag, because that experience taught her so much and because without it, we wouldn't be here today. Carla has taught me a lot that I needed to know. It is a humbling experience when you do a job and your kid inspects your work and proceeds to tell you what you missed. That has happened more than once, by the way. Our plans for what we want in the future are slowly morphing into something different than what we had originally talked about. There is no doubt in either of our minds about dinner service, we don't want to do it. I admire those innkeepers that successfully run a dinner business. Our dinners are great and they get high marks and we could generate more dinner business in the long run if we advertised more, but man it's exhausting. It's too much to get up at 5:30 to start work at 6 to have breakfast service start at 8 and to also start prepping for dinner at 3:00 so dinner service can start at 5:30 and go to 8. The entire day is spent in the kitchen, you get no sleep, and so much other things don't get done. The answer, of course, sounds like it is to hire more staff. This would work, of course, and the successful dinner inns have head chefs that do most of the cooking and planning for dinner. But, in my opinion, the innkeeper is still present for both breakfast and dinner. Also, you have to do a pretty steady dinner business in order to afford a chef and any other help he needs. We have a chef in the evenings, and we have a bartender/server. But one of us still helps out. Given the extra work and stress of having dinner service, neither Carla nor I think it is something we need in order to achieve our goals.
Our vision is changing in other ways, too. Carla's interests lie much more in the realm of focusing on the parts of industry that she excels at and she is not too keen on the idea of owning an inn or being the general manager of an inn. I, on the other hand, very much want my own place. So it seems likely that we may focus on buying a smaller place that Jack and I will own, that I will primarily run with help from Jack and back up support and some help from Carla, and Carla will focus on areas that really interest her. This probably makes more sense in many ways, than our original plan. It is all going to hinge on finding the right property. I find myself poking around the internet at night, seeing if I can find something that appeals to me. So far, I haven't found it, but it is out there somewhere. I think we need to start putting out feelers one of these days. Before too long, we may want to hire an representative to help us with the search.
For now, I need to focus on my health. If I am not satisfied that I can run and inn and be healthy at the same time, I will give up on this idea and do something else. I have 7 months to get back in shape. I can do this. I want to own my own business and I want to be healthy. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.
Have a good day. Enjoy spring!!
I desperately need a hair cut. I have gotten one hair cut since I've been here and it's starting to get shaggy. I started left a message for the hair salon last week but they never called back. It is a little different up here, where it is pretty rural. Everything happens at a slower pace. I left another message yesterday. They open at 10 today. Maybe I'll just show up. It's right down the street.
The bottom line about all of this is that I will not sacrifice my health for any job. I am really glad Carla and I are doing this gig. I have learned a tremendous amount. I am 100% confident that I would be an excellent innkeeper, should I decide to own an inn some day. I am incredibly grateful to Carla for the work she has done the last couple of years with Lark Hotels and Graylag, because that experience taught her so much and because without it, we wouldn't be here today. Carla has taught me a lot that I needed to know. It is a humbling experience when you do a job and your kid inspects your work and proceeds to tell you what you missed. That has happened more than once, by the way. Our plans for what we want in the future are slowly morphing into something different than what we had originally talked about. There is no doubt in either of our minds about dinner service, we don't want to do it. I admire those innkeepers that successfully run a dinner business. Our dinners are great and they get high marks and we could generate more dinner business in the long run if we advertised more, but man it's exhausting. It's too much to get up at 5:30 to start work at 6 to have breakfast service start at 8 and to also start prepping for dinner at 3:00 so dinner service can start at 5:30 and go to 8. The entire day is spent in the kitchen, you get no sleep, and so much other things don't get done. The answer, of course, sounds like it is to hire more staff. This would work, of course, and the successful dinner inns have head chefs that do most of the cooking and planning for dinner. But, in my opinion, the innkeeper is still present for both breakfast and dinner. Also, you have to do a pretty steady dinner business in order to afford a chef and any other help he needs. We have a chef in the evenings, and we have a bartender/server. But one of us still helps out. Given the extra work and stress of having dinner service, neither Carla nor I think it is something we need in order to achieve our goals.
Our vision is changing in other ways, too. Carla's interests lie much more in the realm of focusing on the parts of industry that she excels at and she is not too keen on the idea of owning an inn or being the general manager of an inn. I, on the other hand, very much want my own place. So it seems likely that we may focus on buying a smaller place that Jack and I will own, that I will primarily run with help from Jack and back up support and some help from Carla, and Carla will focus on areas that really interest her. This probably makes more sense in many ways, than our original plan. It is all going to hinge on finding the right property. I find myself poking around the internet at night, seeing if I can find something that appeals to me. So far, I haven't found it, but it is out there somewhere. I think we need to start putting out feelers one of these days. Before too long, we may want to hire an representative to help us with the search.
For now, I need to focus on my health. If I am not satisfied that I can run and inn and be healthy at the same time, I will give up on this idea and do something else. I have 7 months to get back in shape. I can do this. I want to own my own business and I want to be healthy. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so.
Have a good day. Enjoy spring!!
Sunday, June 4, 2017
6/4/17: 2nd Post.
Yesterday was a long day. Up at 5:30, work started just before 6:00AM, and I worked until about 10:00PM. These are the hardest days. We have dinner service 3 days a week and Carla and I cover dinner and "closing out the register" on a 2 week rotating basis. This week, I covered Thursday and Saturday and she covered Friday. Next week, we'll reverse that. It took some negotiating and compromising, but we have come up with a schedule that is helping somewhat. We need coverage at the inn from 6:00AM (when breakfast prep starts) until 8:00PM (last check in). Also, one of us needs to be on call every night. We rotate back and forth from working 6-6 or 8-8. The person that works 8-8 is the one on call that night. We are also trying to get at least 1 day completely off per week. When one of us has a day off, the other one covers her two hours. Sometimes we are slow and have no check ins or no one in for breakfast. When that happens, we can start a little late or quit a little early. The hardest part is that there is always something to do, so sometimes it's hard to quit working, even when I know I should. I have determined that I have decided that quitting time is when I can no longer walk. That is not particularly good for me. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are our dinner service nights, so whoever is on the 8-8 shift has to work until dinner and bar service is completely over, usually around 10. Also, Saturday and Sunday mornings, and as summer comes on, many weekday mornings, we feed enough people for breakfast that we both have to get up at 6:00 to prep for breakfast. We have determined that it is fairly easy for one of us to feed four couples completely alone. More than four and the other one will help with table service. 6 or 7 or more couples, and we both need to get up early and prep.
There is a lot of gardening that needs to be done and we don't have any check-ins today, so I am going to go out and work in the garden for the rest of the afternoon. Carla is in Portland looking for a costume for our upcoming Murder Mystery weekend. It will be a slow week, but we have a big weekend coming up. The Murder Mystery weekends are a lot of fun!! We are looking forward to that.
Food was not good yesterday and has not been particularly good (or particularly bad) so far today. With the slow week coming up, this is the perfect time to hone in on my diet. For now, I am committing to the Whole 30 for the next 24 hours.
Have a great day!!
There is a lot of gardening that needs to be done and we don't have any check-ins today, so I am going to go out and work in the garden for the rest of the afternoon. Carla is in Portland looking for a costume for our upcoming Murder Mystery weekend. It will be a slow week, but we have a big weekend coming up. The Murder Mystery weekends are a lot of fun!! We are looking forward to that.
Food was not good yesterday and has not been particularly good (or particularly bad) so far today. With the slow week coming up, this is the perfect time to hone in on my diet. For now, I am committing to the Whole 30 for the next 24 hours.
Have a great day!!
Saturday, June 3, 2017
6/3/17: The Case of the Absent Blogger - This is an unedited ramble.
Post-script - It's been too long since I blogged. The following paragraphs are just a dumping of my thoughts. I don't have time to edit it. I guess if I'm going to blog it'll be messy. Read it if you want, but please forgive the poor sentence structure, any misspellings, and the lock of cohesiveness. It is what it is. I'm going to start blogging again, but I'm sure it won't be pretty. Such is life as an innkeeper. 😊
I hired a trainer, Alexis, about a month ago to help me get back on track. This whole innkeeping thing, it is not for the weak or faint at heart. It is also exceedingly difficult if you happen to have a sugar addiction. I'll get into that more in the following paragraphs, but first I am going to ask the question, "Why am I starting to blog, again?" The answer is simple, Alexis told me to.
I am struggling with food. I've gained way too much weight since I started this gig at the Bernerhof Inn Bed and Breakfast. There is food everywhere all the time. At first, there was no really good food, just crap. I have changed that by changing the menu. I know have good, healthy, Whole 30 food available to eat most of the time, right in the walk-in. But I am still eating too much sugar laden crap. Mostly I am eating it because it is right in front of me most of the time. Homemade muffins and made from scratch biscuits are available every morning at 7:00, chocolate chip, oatmeal, or peanut butter cookies every afternoon at 3:00. Strawberry rhubarb pie and brownies every weekend. You get the idea. It's just here. On top of that, a normal work day is 12 hours, 14 hour work days are common, and 16 hour workdays happen at least once a week. When you're on your feet all day, going from one thing to the next, it's way to easy to grab a leftover muffin. I eat when I'm not hungry and when I eat, 50% of the time I eat crap. That has to stop.
When Carla and I arrived on December 19th of last year, we hit the ground running. In spite of Carla's insistence that we needed to take time off each week from the beginning, I just couldn't do it. There was so much to do, there was so much I didn't know how to do; it was impossible for me to stop working until I was so tired I could no longer stand up. Then I would go to bed so that my body could recover a little bit and get up early the next morning and start over again. The impact that had on my body was predictable. With too little sleep and too much stress (mostly physical stress), I was overeating all the wrong foods and I gained weight fairly quickly. My knees and feet hurt in the mornings. I spent very little time this year outside playing. My prominent form of exercise this winter was shoveling snow. I did go downhill skiing twice. That was fun!
Alexis and I have been working on achieving balance within my life as an innkeeper. I have told Carla, Jack, and myself that if I cannot be an innkeeper and take care of myself, then I will not buy an inn. That is part of the experiment. It makes no sense to own an inn for the rest of my life if I cannot be healthy and truly enjoy growing old. That is exactly the opposite of what I want to achieve. Now, in all fairness to the noble profession of innkeeping, this is not all the fault of the profession. If you ask the people that know me, they will tell you that this has been my pattern for my entire life. Every time I make a major work/life transition, I throw myself into it completely and lose my ability to take care of myself for about a year. It seems like it takes an entire cycle (a year) for me fully learn a business, after that year, I can relax a little, work less, sleep more, and take better care of myself. I just can't afford for this to go on for a year. I need to stop the cycle, now.
The first thing Alexis and I focused on were exercise (physical activity outside of work) and sleep. I have not been getting enough sleep and the impacts everything. I was not getting any physical activity outside of work. Both of those things have improved with Alexis's coaching. I am wearing a Fitbit now. For the record, on a normal day I hit 10,000 steps at about noon. The only days that I don't hit 10,000 steps before noon are on days that I don't wear the Fitbit because I am charging the battery or on the occasional day that I have to do bookwork. I am having a hell of a time getting my targeted 8 hours of sleep. Last night I did pretty good though, I slept 7 hours and 27 minutes, plus I had 52 minutes of awake time. I consider any night that I get at least 7 hours of sleep good, though my goal is 8 hours. Yesterday was a day off and I went on a hike. According to my Fitbit, yesterday I walked 16,606 steps, went up 96 floors, walked the equivalent of 6.96 miles, burnt 2,603 calories and exercised for 103 minutes. Thursday was a normal workday. I did not exercise on Thursday but per my Fitbit I walked 15,662 steps, went up 6 flights up steps, walked an equivalent of 6.72 miles and burned 2,787 calories.
Working with Alexis has been effective in getting me more physically active. I am making the decision to exercise much more often. I am lifting weights sometimes, but I am also walking and hiking a lot more often. If I don't squeeze anything else in, I often manage to get out in our fairly extensive gardens to do some aerobic gardening. I am not kidding, either. A few evenings ago I attacked some shrubs that were blocking the view coming out of our parking lot. I worked on those shrubs for about an hour and a half and I was sweating the entire time. In addition to severely cutting back the bushes, I had to haul the branches into the woods. My heart rate, per my Fitbit, was in the "Fatburn" zone for 76 minutes and in the "Cardio" zone for 10 minutes. My average heart rate was 106 BPM during this time, and my high heart rate was 136 BPM. Taking care of this property is real work, but it is fun work. When I work in the gardens, I make a conscious effort to alternate which sides of my body that I am working with. It is natural to let my right side take over, but I go back and forth, from left to right to try to train my body more evenly. I also make an effort to work hard when I am in the garden, first to make good use of my limited amount of time, and second to get my heart rate up.
So, since I started working with Alexis I am exercising more, spending a lot more time outside, and I am sleeping more. I still don't have control over my food. I am more aware of my food, but I still am not tracking it, which she really wants me to do, and I am still overeating. Oh, and I am drinking alcohol a little, too. Not a lot, but an evening or two a week, I will have a beer or a glass of wine at the end of my workday.
The point of starting to blog again is that this tool helps me stay accountable. I am going to make an effort to blog every day. There is a lot to talk about. I need to get control of my food. I hope this helps. I think I should go 100% Whole 30. I started the day that way yesterday, and fell off the wagon around noon. I will start that way again today. My plan is that in my blog post tomorrow, I will tell you that I was successful at that.
See you tomorrow. Have fun today!
I hired a trainer, Alexis, about a month ago to help me get back on track. This whole innkeeping thing, it is not for the weak or faint at heart. It is also exceedingly difficult if you happen to have a sugar addiction. I'll get into that more in the following paragraphs, but first I am going to ask the question, "Why am I starting to blog, again?" The answer is simple, Alexis told me to.
I am struggling with food. I've gained way too much weight since I started this gig at the Bernerhof Inn Bed and Breakfast. There is food everywhere all the time. At first, there was no really good food, just crap. I have changed that by changing the menu. I know have good, healthy, Whole 30 food available to eat most of the time, right in the walk-in. But I am still eating too much sugar laden crap. Mostly I am eating it because it is right in front of me most of the time. Homemade muffins and made from scratch biscuits are available every morning at 7:00, chocolate chip, oatmeal, or peanut butter cookies every afternoon at 3:00. Strawberry rhubarb pie and brownies every weekend. You get the idea. It's just here. On top of that, a normal work day is 12 hours, 14 hour work days are common, and 16 hour workdays happen at least once a week. When you're on your feet all day, going from one thing to the next, it's way to easy to grab a leftover muffin. I eat when I'm not hungry and when I eat, 50% of the time I eat crap. That has to stop.
When Carla and I arrived on December 19th of last year, we hit the ground running. In spite of Carla's insistence that we needed to take time off each week from the beginning, I just couldn't do it. There was so much to do, there was so much I didn't know how to do; it was impossible for me to stop working until I was so tired I could no longer stand up. Then I would go to bed so that my body could recover a little bit and get up early the next morning and start over again. The impact that had on my body was predictable. With too little sleep and too much stress (mostly physical stress), I was overeating all the wrong foods and I gained weight fairly quickly. My knees and feet hurt in the mornings. I spent very little time this year outside playing. My prominent form of exercise this winter was shoveling snow. I did go downhill skiing twice. That was fun!
Alexis and I have been working on achieving balance within my life as an innkeeper. I have told Carla, Jack, and myself that if I cannot be an innkeeper and take care of myself, then I will not buy an inn. That is part of the experiment. It makes no sense to own an inn for the rest of my life if I cannot be healthy and truly enjoy growing old. That is exactly the opposite of what I want to achieve. Now, in all fairness to the noble profession of innkeeping, this is not all the fault of the profession. If you ask the people that know me, they will tell you that this has been my pattern for my entire life. Every time I make a major work/life transition, I throw myself into it completely and lose my ability to take care of myself for about a year. It seems like it takes an entire cycle (a year) for me fully learn a business, after that year, I can relax a little, work less, sleep more, and take better care of myself. I just can't afford for this to go on for a year. I need to stop the cycle, now.
The first thing Alexis and I focused on were exercise (physical activity outside of work) and sleep. I have not been getting enough sleep and the impacts everything. I was not getting any physical activity outside of work. Both of those things have improved with Alexis's coaching. I am wearing a Fitbit now. For the record, on a normal day I hit 10,000 steps at about noon. The only days that I don't hit 10,000 steps before noon are on days that I don't wear the Fitbit because I am charging the battery or on the occasional day that I have to do bookwork. I am having a hell of a time getting my targeted 8 hours of sleep. Last night I did pretty good though, I slept 7 hours and 27 minutes, plus I had 52 minutes of awake time. I consider any night that I get at least 7 hours of sleep good, though my goal is 8 hours. Yesterday was a day off and I went on a hike. According to my Fitbit, yesterday I walked 16,606 steps, went up 96 floors, walked the equivalent of 6.96 miles, burnt 2,603 calories and exercised for 103 minutes. Thursday was a normal workday. I did not exercise on Thursday but per my Fitbit I walked 15,662 steps, went up 6 flights up steps, walked an equivalent of 6.72 miles and burned 2,787 calories.
Working with Alexis has been effective in getting me more physically active. I am making the decision to exercise much more often. I am lifting weights sometimes, but I am also walking and hiking a lot more often. If I don't squeeze anything else in, I often manage to get out in our fairly extensive gardens to do some aerobic gardening. I am not kidding, either. A few evenings ago I attacked some shrubs that were blocking the view coming out of our parking lot. I worked on those shrubs for about an hour and a half and I was sweating the entire time. In addition to severely cutting back the bushes, I had to haul the branches into the woods. My heart rate, per my Fitbit, was in the "Fatburn" zone for 76 minutes and in the "Cardio" zone for 10 minutes. My average heart rate was 106 BPM during this time, and my high heart rate was 136 BPM. Taking care of this property is real work, but it is fun work. When I work in the gardens, I make a conscious effort to alternate which sides of my body that I am working with. It is natural to let my right side take over, but I go back and forth, from left to right to try to train my body more evenly. I also make an effort to work hard when I am in the garden, first to make good use of my limited amount of time, and second to get my heart rate up.
So, since I started working with Alexis I am exercising more, spending a lot more time outside, and I am sleeping more. I still don't have control over my food. I am more aware of my food, but I still am not tracking it, which she really wants me to do, and I am still overeating. Oh, and I am drinking alcohol a little, too. Not a lot, but an evening or two a week, I will have a beer or a glass of wine at the end of my workday.
The point of starting to blog again is that this tool helps me stay accountable. I am going to make an effort to blog every day. There is a lot to talk about. I need to get control of my food. I hope this helps. I think I should go 100% Whole 30. I started the day that way yesterday, and fell off the wagon around noon. I will start that way again today. My plan is that in my blog post tomorrow, I will tell you that I was successful at that.
See you tomorrow. Have fun today!
Thursday, March 16, 2017
3/16/17: I worked out today
The hardest part about being an innkeeper is taking care of myself. I have been eating too much and I have not been exercising.
I got up this morning at about 4:15 and worked out. That makes 3 times in 3 months.
I'm a lot weaker than I was in December, but it's a start.
I got up this morning at about 4:15 and worked out. That makes 3 times in 3 months.
I'm a lot weaker than I was in December, but it's a start.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)