Throwing it against the wall to see what sticks
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I have some coping mechanisms I routinely use and I’ve been wondering if they’re common or not. I think these methods hatched themselves in my brain, but maybe I picked them up from someone else.
Technically the quirks I am about to reveal could be loosely associated with the meme that Mrs. S sent my way, but I’m going to break the rules because I can be a bad ass on the internet. Not posting the rules, not tagging people. I guess
you
could say
I’m using my
powers for
evil today. Sweet.
Many times, going back to junior high and high school I have wished I could fast forward time to get to the next two or three days. It was usually when I had to write a paper for school and the due date was looming. Let’s say the paper was due on Wednesday. On Monday night I would sit in front of a blank piece of paper with pen in hand, books strewn about — I tend to procrastinate.
I would stare at the paper and try to write something, but instead I would wish it was Thursday morning. Because by Thursday morning I would have finished the paper and could read what I had written. Because I would have handed it in on Wednesday, when it was due, but since I had jumped ahead in the future — to Thursday morning — I could read the paper I wrote after the fact. Thereby avoiding the work that was due and checking out what I had come up with.
Does anyone else feel that way?
I do the same thing, at times, with this blog. I rarely write a post the day before. I seem to wait til the last minute (clears throat) and write frantically the morning of. I’m sure that’s never reflected in the posts I write.
Sometimes I think about it the night before, usually as I’m falling asleep, and wonder what I’ll write about the next morning. And that is when I revert to my fast forward speculation. I wish it was the afternoon of the next day so I could read what I came up with that morning.
The next item has to do with diet and exercise. I’ve never been one to count calories. I do look at the information and usually shake my head at the serving size. A serving size of store brand chocolate teddy grahams is roughly nine crackers which comes to 140 calories. These crackers are a tad larger than a quarter.
They’re bite sized and made for popping into one’s mouth. I never count out nine pieces; I grab a handful. I’m sure I grab more than $2.25 worth (nine quarters — isn’t that a clever analogy [smiles broadly].)
So I’m assuming I take in at least 200 calories worth of teddy grahams each time I partake. I do the same thing with other types of food throughout the day. Then, when I am sweating it out on the elliptical machine I watch the calories burned read out. In a typical workout I burn between 550-650 calories, according to the machine.
When the read out hits 100 calories burned, I mentally check off half of the handful of teddy grahams I ate earlier in the day. At 200 calories burned I imagine I made up for that full handful of teddy grahams; I have purged the teddy grahams from my system. Then I move on to the next item of food that I ate, which I consider empty calories.
That usually means the cream I have every day in my coffee. I use a liberal amount of cream in my coffee. I’m guessing it might be upwards of (cringes) 300 calories. Don’t judge me, we all have our vices. I don’t smoke or drink, instead I swim in half and half.
So in this instance at 500 calories burned I feel as if I have rid my body of the coffee I drank that morning. Depending on the workout, I have somewhere between another 50 to 150 calories burned.
That’s when I feel I am getting to the healthy food I ate that day. I imagine that’s about two or three slices of turkey I ate on my sandwich at lunch time. So it’s a mental game I play where I feel I have justified the junk food I ate and still came out ahead. I know it doesn’t work that way, but that’s how I cope.
Surprisingly (or not) I don’t feel that way when I lift weights because I have no idea how many calories I have burned at the end of my workout.
The last item has to do with endurance, I guess. When we are driving a long distance on a road trip with the kids I break down the miles we have left to drive into ten mile increments. To visit my in-laws we have to drive roughly 250 miles (that’s about 400 kilometers, Guilty and Solomon). So after the first 100 miles or so I start to watch the mile markers and watch until ten miles have passed, then I start again. Over and over. Until we get there.
It does help pass the time and I’ve tried to explain the concept to Katie, but she’s only eight. Both she and Allison, who’s five, just really want to know, “Are we there yet?” Repeat, lather and rinse. Ad nauseam.
Just curious, does anyone else cope this way? Anyone? Anyone?
I have always wanted to fast-forward my life when I was stressed out about something. My senior year in college was really awful, and I was always wishing I could fast-forward time so as to be past that point in my life already.
But what kind of procrastinator are you, starting a paper on Monday when it’s due on Wednesday??? Were it me, I’d be starting on Tuesday night. In fact, one time in college I had a paper due in Spanish the next day, and I didn’t start it till midnight. It’s one thing to crank out a paper in three hours when it’s in English, and quite another when it’s in Spanish. I managed to score an A on it even still, and I was quite proud of myself!
Wow blue! A paper in Spanish at midnight the night before?! I’m impressed. And an A for your efforts. Well done! I guess I’m not as much of a procrastinator as I thought. I actually feel a little better about that.
Oh, I definitely do the fast forward thing! I always have so many things on my to do list, so I just ahead a week when they all have to be done. Of course I have an entire new list at that time anyway, but those are then new evils.
Teddy grahams?! That is the only crap food you eat during the day? My jaw is on the floor. I don’t smoke, rarely drink, rarely eat fried or fatty food, but I have a HUGE sweet tooth! I eat more junk then that before breakfast!! My appetite is enormous since I have been marathon training, and I tend to fill it with junk, so I have actually managed to gain 2 lbs with all this running. I am not happy about that!
I do enjoy Cheez-Its and salty plain nacho chips and I have a crazy sweet tooth, as well. That’s why we don’t keep any of that stuff in the house. Because I cannot be trusted. I also try to imagine those Zone protein bars are a candy bar. It doesn’t work that well, but I keep trying to imagine it’s real chocolate. I’m sure you’ve gained 2 lbs. of muscle with the running. But it does suck to see the numbers on the scale go up.
I do the fast forward thing as well. I am doing it right now with work. Well, actually right now I am avoiding working all together by commenting on this lovely blog of yours but whatever.
Obviously I count everything I eat because I am doing Weight Watchers. The counting doesn’t bother me, but serving sizes piss me off. Who eats 9 Teddy Grahams? No one. Therefore I no longer eat them because I can’t just eat 9 and even 9 comes out to about 3 points. I am a quantity eater, so lately I will give up the sweets to have more of something semi-good for me, like grapes. I watch the calories on the treadmill too though!
Believe it or not, I thought about you, Mrs. S, when I wrote that. I think the point thing would not work very well for me, but maybe I wouldn’t struggle so much to lose weight if I counted points or calories.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GIRL,,, I use to go through my life that way,, I guess I AM finally getting old… I just go through my day as it comes now… and you DO know that you need to KEEP SOME of those calories to live right you can’t get rid of all of them :) I am finding that old ME that laughter is a good way to make it through life…. I lost that for a long time,,,, I like laughing and acting a fool it cleanses my heart…. Have a great day/week how ever you get through it as long as it is non-stress do it. Thanks for stopping.
Trust me, jam, I am inhaling more than enough calories, but thanks for the thoughts!
I know my favourite, a Snickers, is about 320 calories and I think about that when I feel like giving up when I’ve only burned about 200 on the treadmill.
Hmm, I want a Snickers now. And I’m not going to the gym tonight. And I had leftover curry for lunch.
Oh well.
Guess what I’m doing right now. Eating teddy grahams while I reply to comments. Not sure if I’ll make it to Y today, either.
I actually remembered that about GS. The Snickers. Heh. Those are damn good though.
CG, you really ARE a numbers person. A woman after my own mind! I am the same way when I am working out, counting calories in terms of the foods I ate. I always attributed it to me being highly analytical, and a numbers lover. I guess it never occurred to me that anyone else does that. ;)
Those Snickers *are* satisfying, aren’t they?
That’s interesting, Melissa. I never figured I was that analytical, but as time goes on I have realized that I do analyze a lot of stuff, all the time. Now a number lover I am not. I think I read at your place that you love math. Not. Me. Ugh. I don’t like anything beyond addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
OH! Do you work the numbers as you workout? For example, the elliptical machine notes every 10% of the workout. So around 30 or 40% I start to divide the total number of calories burned thus far by the percentage to find out how many calories I am burning per 10%. But sometimes I’m too tired to do that and when I get the math wrong I tell the machine (in my head) to eff itself.
But most of the time I’m right. It helps pass the time.
Well, I sort of do some of this.
For example, I see the calorie meter on the elliptical machine as a credit account that lets me know how many pints of Ben & Jerry’s “One Sweet World” I can consume. (And for me, the serving size is one whole pint, despite what the label says.)
Recently I realized why I procrastinate. It happens when I’m so unmotivated to do something that I need the extra adrenaline kick to get it done. Some people say that’s a sign of adrenal fatigue.
On long road trips, I watch both the time and the odometer. I drive at about 60mph (or one mile per minute). The trip to Grandma’s was about 150 miles, so if the odometer showed that we drove 80 miles, I’d know we’d arrive in about an hour and 15 minutes, which allows for more time to drive on the side streets). I’d do this constantly, so I always had an answer for “How much longer will it take to get there?” “About 50 minutes, Hon.” Fortunately, I never got criticized when we’d finally show up an hour and ten minutes later.
I hadn’t thought about using the calories ahead of time, as a credit account like you do. It seems I’ve already eaten half of the kitchen when I get to the Y, so I’m doing damage control.
Wow, Square Peg. I’m going to have to watch both the time and the odometer on our next trip. We do tell them four more Sponge Bob episodes to estimate an hour, but they will adjust the question to ask, how many more Sponge Bobs?
Odd form of visualization – I may have to try it on the writing thing, but the fact that I’d actually have to sit and write at some point may blow the whole deal for me.
My own form of coping seems to get a whole lot of nothing done. I dream of cleaning my Basement Loft while I’m at work… but when I get home I don’t really do it. No, at home, I read other people’s blogs instead of write my own, and get then I get ready for work…
I used to do the daydreaming at work about home thing. But when I got home I would think about all of the things I was going to do at work the next day and how, if I were at work at that moment, I would be so productive. It was that way in reverse, too. At work I was going to be so productive at home, but darnit all I was in the other place and couldn’t get to it.
Of course when I finally got to the opposite destination that burst of energy had dissipated. I guess that’s basic procrastination, eh?
I’ve reached the point of wishing I could rewind. Except for long car trips of course…
I don’t know if I’ll ever get to rewind mode. One can hope, I suppose.
I used to do the “fast-forward” thing back in school too. I’d mentally fast-forward through exams, papers, presentations, projects… anything I didn’t want to do. Sounds like it might be a lot, but I actually really liked school. I had no problem learning and studying topics I liked, but I’d procrastinate topics I hated like there was no tomorrow.
Ugh, thank god I am no longer in school! **HUGS!!**
Alright, another person to validate me! Thank you. I had the same issue in college and really fought with myself (unsuccessfully) to find something I liked in Natural Science or Economics or any of the classes I barely passed and hated.
But most of the time I’m right. It helps pass the time.
Yep.
Melissa with one word you have done wonders to validate me. Thank you!
I’m not very good about calorie counting or counting in general. I’ve been on vacation the last couple weeks and generally doing chores (or not) and just jamming everything that looks appealing (and doesn’t move) down my gullet. The weather’s been warm til the last couple days, so I actually tried to put on a pair of jeans yesterday instead of the the usual elastic banded shorts. I could barely button the damn things. So I climbed on the scale. *gasp* I’d gained 10 lbs since I’ve been on vacation. Maybe I should start counting.
I have fallen into the Elastic Band Syndrome too many times. That really sucks it, joe. TEN lbs?! I weep for you.