Tag Archives: holiday

Hikes at Kokanee Park

Yesterday the air in Nelson was much better. The day before, thanks to nearby forest fires, Nelson and neighbouring Castlegar had the worst air quality in Canada. With better conditions we decided to take a couple hikes in Kokanee Provincial Park.

Hike 1 was along the river, among some towering old growth trees.

Hike 2 was around a beautiful lake.

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After the previous day that took our breath away with smoke, these hikes were breathtaking in more ways than one.

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This morning we climbed Pulpit Rock. It’s smokier than yesterday, but we couldn’t even see this spot from the city across the way 2 days ago. Hopefully the worst of the smoke is over.

Routine-less holiday

It’s almost 11pm and I haven’t written my blog post or meditated yet. How strange that before I started my sticker chart tracking my habits two and a half years ago, my pattern was: Get busy and don’t do anything for myself, then go on holidays and work like mad to get fit and meet my other goals.

Now, my pattern is: When busy, start my day with writing, meditation, and exercise, and then on holidays I flounder. I used to struggle to take care of myself when I was in work mode, and thrive on holidays, and now it’s completely reversed. It’s so weird to me to see this switch. My two weeks away with my parents were my worst weeks all year for exercise, and I did my daily meditation several times after midnight.

I need to routine-ize my holidays and be more dedicated and consistent. My strategy will be to put tomorrow’s well-being schedule into my calendar for the next day. Tomorrow morning I will take my car in for servicing. Before leaving home I’ll do my exercises, and while waiting for my car I will write my post and meditate. Then I’ll schedule my next day’s activities so that this too becomes part of the routine. It has become obvious to me that I no longer thrive on holiday time, if I don’t have self-care planned into my day.

Hard to not think about it

I visited my parents for almost 2 weeks and during that time I responded to a few emails. Most of these started with some sort of, “Sorry to bother you, but…”

I responded to those because they were timely things that needed a response to move forward. But there are 70+ emails that I looked at and needed more time for me to respond and/or didn’t require immediate response. I plan on getting through these later today or tomorrow (edited, I wrote this part before I started cleaning out my garage).

It’s hard to balance truly having a holiday that feels like a holiday and also doing the work that doesn’t stop because you are on holiday. Yes, I have my ‘I’m away from the office’ auto reply on. Yes, it gives a phone number to contact for assistance. Still, I feel obligated to catch up and clear out my inbox ever since I’ve kind of let it go a bit while visiting my parents.

What’s a little unusual is how long I’ve left this over the past couple weeks. Part of it is the need to have a real holiday after the year that was. But I juggle this with wanting to deal with it before it becomes a huge task. And I’m also wanting to enjoy the holiday time ahead. That said, despite letting my email correspondence slip while away, I know the email is there. I’ve read the subject headings, and I’ve felt the pressure to get to it. It’s hard not to think about it and so it’s better to just get it done rather than let it fester in my head as something needing my attention.

Times like this, while on holiday, I sometimes wish for a 9-5 job that doesn’t require any work coming home. I’d probably have less holiday time, but that holiday time would be completely work and work email free. Then I remember the satisfaction I get at work helping students and teachers, and I know that I’d probably hate leaving this job for a 9-5’er.

By tomorrow afternoon I’ll have my un-dealt-with email count down, and I will think less about it for a while. But I don’t know how to turn it completely off, and I don’t know how to see it there and not let it bug me in some small but significant way. I think that I need to take at least a week this summer where I don’t look at email at all… but somehow although I did a couple weeks with no social media that went well, I don’t think it will be as stress free to do with email.

Happy Father’s Day

I still haven’t spoken to my father yet, but I’ve got my kids here and dinner is being picked up as I write this. Sushi. All my favourites.

I spent the morning shooting a round of arrows followed by a quick workout. While I didn’t shoot my best, it was my first round where I scored all gold.

A success even if it wasn’t a personal best. I had a few line breakers that squeaked in, but as my buddy always reminds me, a 9 is a 9 and a 10 is a 10… take them when you get them.

My afternoon was busy. I installed my water fed solar panels on my garage roof. This took longer than expected and everyone was pitching in, but the hard part is done!

And food has arrived. To all the dads out there, happy Father’s Day! It’s time to have dinner with my family.

A whole-lot-a noth’n

I didn’t think I’d spend the last days of my March break coasting, but I have. Usually a break for me is a time to refocus on fitness and really push myself. Not this break. Yesterday and today involved long naps and very little done.

I had some fun shooting arrows, and I had a lovely walk with my wife… and I did a whole lot of nothing else. It’s a bit anti-climatic, but I also realize something interesting. Usually I need to get a lot of exercise in, and push myself on my breaks, because I’ve been a sloth during the time that I’m at work. But until last week, I’ve had at least 5 workouts a week all year. I’ve been pushing myself since January 2019, and I’m in great shape. Sure the past 2 weeks have slid me off of my new fitness goal, but so what? I’ll get right on that tomorrow, or Tuesday at the latest.

I’m going to chalk this up as a needed break. I’m going to blame covid. I’m going to write it off and start anew. But for now, I’m going to squeeze this daily post in after 11pm for the second night I’m a row. I’m going to forgive myself for missing my first meditation in about 140 days, last Thursday, and I’m going to count my 5k walk with my wife as my exercise for today.

I’m also going to shoot some more arrows tomorrow, and skip the email catchup until I get to work on Tuesday. I’m going to ride out tomorrow as my last lazy day of holidays, and hopefully hit Tuesday morning with a whole lot more energy. But tomorrow, I’m giving myself full permission to do a whole lot of not much, and feel good about this as a choice I’m making to end my break.

Work on the brain

Got an email from the district to send to parents about the new Covid-19 rules in effect when we return to school on Tuesday.

The big changes for our school bolded:

o All students Grades 4-12 are required to wear a mask inside schools both within and outside their learning group.

o All staff K-12 are required to wear a mask inside schools both within and outside their learning group.

Essentially, students and staff will be wearing masks all day, as opposed to having the option of removing them when at their own desks. This is important information, and as instructed, I’ll send it off to parents (and students and staff) tomorrow.

Since reading that email, my brain has been on work, and on the pandemic. Things to do, and things to be concerned about. Sometimes I can’t let things go. I can’t relax. Today feels like it was a work day, even though I didn’t go to work. It’s going to take a bit to get back into holiday mode. I want a few more days of holiday brain before work brain fully takes over.

Taking a real break

There’s always more to do.

Always.

But sometimes you just need a break. Or rather, I do.

Spring break is here and I’ve got a two week break. Shortly after I return I’ll have an opportunity to book my vaccine. I’m heading into a break with optimism and hope… and I’m letting go of work for a good part of this time.

I’ll spend time with family, shoot a lot of arrows, workout (hard), binge watch some shows, listen to a fictional book… and do a little bit of nothing without feeling like I’m procrastinating.

There’s always more to do, but now is a time to do things for me.

TGIF

In BC, Canada we have a Family Day holiday on Monday. It’s a long weekend. I am not someone who counts down to the weekend or to the next long holiday. I don’t begrudge workday Monday mornings. But right now I’m looking forward to having the extra day off next week.

No, I don’t have any plans. Pretty sure it’s going to be a catch-up-on-the-cleaning weekend at home. But it’s going to be nice and relaxing too. It’s going to be at least 2 days not thinking about work. It’s going to include walks, and maybe some fun shooting arrows.

Sometimes, it just feels wonderful knowing that it’s the Friday before a long weekend. I’m going to take that feeling with me to work today, and as busy at it might get… it’s going to be a great day.

TGIF!

Getting back in gear

We had an incredible holiday planned this summer before COVID-19 hit the world. A trip to Barcelona, a cruise with stops in Spain and Italy, and a week in Portugal. This didn’t happen, but we still had a wonderful summer with BC based destinations. I had my email vacation auto reply set up, and for the first time in years I really ‘let go’ of work.

This week we’ve already had a few virtual meetings and I have one more today and tomorrow, before kicking it into high gear next week. But I have to admit that these meetings, where we are planning for September, have my mind racing as I think about the new school year.

The biggest things in my mind are:

1. For Coquitlam Open Learning – how do we maximize support and appropriately staff for an unknown influx of students?

2. For Inquiry Hub Secondary – how do we maximize the learning experience while focusing on safety, and also considering possible changes in phases?

In the end, much decision-making is out of individual control as our district makes a concerted effort to meet the needs of all learners. But unlike other schools, COL and iHub are different, and need special attention and considerations.

I don’t have answers to many questions yet, but I’m getting more comfortable in not having immediate answers, in living with ambiguity. But as High MacLeod says, “‘Learn to live with ambiguity’, but do not live in it.”

As we get into gear planning the new school year, I’m sure we are bound to find ourselves with more questions than answers. Patience, thoughtful questions, and priorities around care and safety of our students will help us find a good, supportive path for our schools and our learning communities.

Back to time restricted eating

Other than about 6 weeks of Keto a couple years ago, and a few training diets more than half a life ago, I’ve never really dieted. That said, for over a year and a half now, I’ve tried to practice time restricted eating (also called Intermittent Fasting) five days a week – Sunday to Thursday night.

I have only been doing 14 hours fasting and much of that was sleeping. What it primarily does is restrict my unhealthy snacking after dinner, and delays breakfast, which I’ve never enjoyed preparing and eating.

Covid has messed up my schedule, summer made it worse. My good eating habits that I developed with restricting my eating window have all disappeared. So, along with my wife, we’ve decided to set a strict 5-hour window for eating for the next few weeks. We have only water, and a morning black coffee during our 19 hour no-eating restriction. When school starts I will move to 16-8, increasing my eating window to 8 hours.

It was weird to start this on a holiday to Kelowna. It limited our schedule of wine and cider tasting tours, but we filled our days with hikes and visits to the beach, and neither of us struggled with hunger after day 2. The only oddity was doing a long drive with no snacks.

There is a lot of research being done on the benefits of time restricted eating. I won’t go into it now, but I will say that it has three really positive affects for me:

1. It cuts out unhealthy snacking.

2. It stops me from getting ‘hangry’ – angry when I’m hungry. My sugar levels seem to stay in check and food (or lack of it) doesn’t come with mood swings.

3. It eliminates breakfast, which I don’t enjoy eating. (Breakfast is breaking the night’s fast, it’s not a morning meal time… technically I’m having breakfast whenever I choose to start eating after sleeping.)

I’m less than a week in, and I’m not sure this 5-hour eating window will be enough when I start pushing myself on my morning workouts again… but I’m really happy to have restarted my time restricted eating.