How to Live a Healthy and Joyful Life - By Dr. Kelly Sennholz

How to Live a Healthy and Joyful Life - By Dr. Kelly Sennholz

I [Dr. Kelly Sennholz] was asked to write a list of my favorite health habits. Below is the list I created to assist you with living your healthiest and most joyful life.


Eat high fiber

A diet high in fiber provides relief or prevention of constipation, decreased risk of some types of cancer, decreased cholesterol, deduced risk of coronary disease, blood sugar control, reduced risk of type II Diabetes, and decreased risk of obesity. The varies for age and sex but in general getting 28 to 30 g of fiber a day is a good start. Take a couple of days to mentally measure the amount of fiber you're taking in.

Eat healthy fats

In general, fats from fish, flax seed oil, butter and nuts, hemp seed, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts and eggs from chickens fed a diet high in greens and insects are all good food sources of healthy fats. Healthy fats reduced inflammation in your body, improve blood clotting, create healthy cell membranes, lower bad lipids, decreased artery thickening, reduce the risk of obesity, and may inhibit cancer cell growth.

Exercise regularly

I hate going to the gym. However, I love to get my exercise by doing activities that are fun. Take a walk and look at the flowers. Join a sports team and see what you can do. Stretch yourself a little bit every day. Just move. Your body will love you and it will be fun.

Eliminate refined carbohydrates

I call these the "white foods." Most of the foods you can think of that are white (bleached flour, sugar, white pasta, candy) are not good for you. I'm not just talking about weight gain or control of calories. I'm talking about the hormonal and chemical alterations that cause in your body which lead to lifelong decreased health.

Sleep 7 to 8 hours a day

Sleep deprivation leads to decreased immunity, weight gain, depression, mood swings, vascular disease, and many more ill effects on your body. For people doing shift work, it is even a higher priority to stay in tune with your body and to listen to what it needs. Don't overdue caffeine and none after 4 p.m., bedroom for sleep and sex only, eat no later than 2 hours before bedtime, no raucous T.V. before bedtime, create a ritual that honors your life and your body (many people journal, meditate or pray right before sleep), address health issues that impede sleep (like sleep apnea, menopause, etc).

Take quality supplements

It is prudent for adults to take a multivitamin every day because of the decreased nutritional content of our food, the increased processing of our food supply, and the substitution of healthy foods with unhealthy foods. The USDA surveyed 16,000 Americans and found that not one person obtained 100% of essential nutrients such as magnesium, vitamin D, and zinc. Similarly, children and adolescents did not obtain enough essential nutrients such as folate, vitamin C, and calcium.

Reduce stress

If you have a stressful life my recommendation is insert into your day what I call "peace breaks." It can happen in your car, the bathroom, when you take a short walk around the block. Let your blood pressure fall, your mind relax, and to consciously put your attention on peacefulness and releasing any thoughts. Do this 2 to 3 times a day, especially right when you wake up and right before you go to sleep.

Be cognizant of children

Be an example of health in front of your children. Don't reward with candy. Reward with time, reading, love, and attention. Stand for healthy habits in schools. Be a mentor. So many people I know have come from hard beginnings to become truly magnificent people. The commonality in all of them is they had at least one person in their childhood who really cared.

Eat breakfast and eat a low glycemic, Mediterranean style food pattern

Eating a healthy breakfast (low glycemic, high nutrient foods) helps maintain hunger levels, sugar levels, and healthy eating throughout the day. Keeping a steady blood sugar throughout the day by eating 5 to 6 small, low glycemic, Mediterranean style meals appears to be a delicious and healthy way to maintain your physique and avoid disease.

Find passion in your life

I believe what you create with your life is your individual expression of the divine. It all counts. What matters is the love you bring to your life. Express your life with passion and know that it is received with enthusiasm. You matter more than you will ever know.

Challenge yourself

What have you wanted to do in life that you just haven't taken the time for? Is it a trip? Taking a challenge in your relationship? Reading a new book or taking a new class? Stepping just a little bit out of your comfort zone can make life exciting and full. Bring your spouse along if he/she will come. Make it a family affair. You only pass this way one time.

Create habit

The opposite of new challenges is the steady hand of habit. Creating habits can open space and energy for creativity. What part of your life feels confusing and out of control right now? What habits could you install to balance this chaos? By creating a life of habits, you also make room for challenges and inventiveness.

Have a healthy social circle

The belief systems you develop are deeply influenced by the people in your life. Who in your life supports your most deeply felt beliefs? Who in your life moves you away from your emotional, financial, spiritual and physical center? How much time do you spend with these people? If your only circle of friends is the people you work with every day, it may be time to open and widen the circle a little. Make one new friend and cultivate that friendship. Choose a friend who is loving and supportive, who fills your life with positive words and be that friend to others. Studies show that lifespan is greatly influenced by the company you keep (or lack thereof).

Laugh a lot

When is the last time you belly laughed? If it has been a while, perhaps it is time to lighten up. Look for opportunities to laugh. Make your family and friends laugh. Play a gentle, loving trick. Get tickets to a comedy club where a lighthearted comic is playing. Spending the evening laughing with your friends may put a whole new veneer on your week.

Give

I am speaking specifically of volunteering -- an act or donation that is mainly anonymous and brings worth, peace and love to the world. Here is a partial list of the reasons and benefits: make new friends, build confidence, see more of your community and the world, gain important skills and experience, relieve stress, fight boredom, make a difference in the world, and just have fun. It is truly exhilarating to be surrounded by giving, loving people in the act of improving the world for those around you.

Put these concepts in practice in your life. Find one small way to make the world a little better today. If we all do that, we have created a movement of health, love and joy. Be a part of the movement today!

Looking for Inspiration

"Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourself a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles."
    - Helen Keller


Today is found myself to be impatient.  I am waiting for someone to respond to a few emails I have sent them.  They have not responded.  I would check every hour or so.  Between meetings.  During lunch.  And still no response.  It has been days since I sent my request for feedback.  I have come to the conclusion that email does not work for this person.  Now I need a new way to communicate.


Normally, this would just be a slight irritation for me.  Then I would decide to move on with what I had.  But that's me working as an individual.  This is different.  Now it is teamwork.  And the link to a team member is broken.  And I need to make the call as to what the next step is.  I guess I'll have to do it without feedback.  And I feel bad because I really wanted this to work.  Instead, as of sometime tomorrow, I might have to have to invoke Plan B.

I Took A Break

Yep, it is true.  I barely opened a book yesterday.  And I had a great time!

On Wednesday, Alan found a great deal at a downtown Toronto hotel which led to me driving to Toronto on Friday night, staying at a friend's house (no need to stay at a hotel when you have friends!), and visiting with five people in 2.5 days.  I was good on Saturday morning.  I was up just past six, like usual, and tackled my Economics reading.  Then I made some progress on some Finance and Accounting homework.  Then the socializing began and the books did not come out again until I got home last night.

I notice that in my last post I mentioned sending out an email to the other leads in the scary Annual Report Project.  Well, I heard back from one.  He indicated that my outline seemed logical, but that they were no where near that level of readiness, so he could not comment further.  The other two must not check their Queen's email in the off-school time. I am a wee bit disappointed in the lack of participation.  I guess I'll have to get over it since I'll be rolling out the assignment plan for my team on Saturday.

One of my team members might not have submitted part of an assignment that is due this week.  I am afraid that he (no need to say "they" to protect gender since I am the only female) is struggling with Accounting and is too proud to say anything.  I have followed up with the lead on the project but have not heard back from him.  I didn't want to bug the team member (ie: offer assistance) if he had submitted his part directly to the lead instead of posting it to the portal.  So, I feel pretty awkward about it all right now.  I suppose it'll all get resolved at tonight's Skype call.  And I was cautioned by our former Team Coach (yes, former, he got promoted so we have a new team coach) not to become the "team mom".  Perhaps that is what I am doing... acting like the team mom.  That or I am afraid that the guy is going to drop out of the program (or worse, get kicked out) and we'll be in a huge crunch to get some of his work done.

In case you are interested in what kind of homework I have going on, here's a list:

1. Q-T Exercise done
2. Twelve Angry Men paper:  I only get looped in on Thursday, due date is October 6th.
3. Paper on the ethics of buying land in other countries to grow food for your country when the country where you bought the land is full of starving people.  I need to find a better title for that!  Anyway, it's due October 8th.
4. Reading for Marketing Management: 2 articles and one chapter from the text.  done
5. Fifteen (15) Finance and Accounting problems that will take about 45mins to an hour each.  I have three done.
6. The above-mentioned Annual Report Project.  It's due November 17th, but will probably take the full remaining time to get it done.  My assignment plan is due to the team on Saturday or sooner.
7. Economics: read six chapters (four are done) and three articles

So that is what is going on in the land of school.

There are 100 days left in 2009. What are you doing TODAY to make things happen?

What an eye-opener THAT is!  What am I doing today to make things happen?  What are YOU doing?

Well, today, I contacted all the leads (there are only three others plus me) on the daunting Annual Report Project.  I thought that if we became a sub-team, we could make everyone's projects better.  What I hope to get out of it:  better ideas on how to divide the work (I shared mine with them in the introductory email); better ideas on how to establish some quality control mechanisms; better ideas on things that we want to remember to include...  I thought we'd be a good sounding board for each other if any frustrations come up, too.

I am also looking at connecting with some of my friends in the Toronto area this coming weekend.  There are so many good people that I know and I haven't been able to see many of them in the last year.  The plan is to do homework in relative peace and quiet and then have some "friends" time.  We may witness the convergence of different groups of friends if I get a good response from the email I sent out a short while ago.

Then I was reading a quote from Bruce Elkin (he's a personal coach in Victoria, BC) on flourishing and how to go about it:

Simply put, "to flourish" means "to be strong and healthy and to grow well, especially because conditions are right."  However, we don't have to wait until the "conditions are right." We can take charge and create right conditions in numerous ways.

Going outside for 30 minutes in good weather, and consciously creating a better than 3 to 1 ratio of positive to negative emotions during the day are just two of the ways we can create the right conditions under which to flourish.

So, as you go through today and the other 99 days of the year, think about what you are doing in the moment to make things happen.  I'll try to reflect on that, take action, and focus on flourishing!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to school I go

After a week of working on work and working on assignments, it is time to go back to school.  This weekend, we get to enjoy more Global Business Environment and we are starting Financial Accounting and Analysis.  And after class on Saturday, we're having lunch with the class of 2010.

We submitted two assignments this week.  On Tuesday, the winery case got handed in.  And a couple of hours ago, our Royal Dutch / Shell case was submitted.  Phew!  I still have some reading to do for the Global class.  And it isn't easy to fake it.  I guess I'll get there early and try to read on the treadmill.

I just finished working on the assignment plan for our Annual Report Project.  I want to do it on Canadian Tire and Rona, so I hope the team agrees with me!  It is only due on November 17th, but time will fly if the proposed timeline is any indication.

I wanted to make a quick entry before bed.  More tomorrow!

Two+ Weeks on a Squishy Laptop = Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Yep, it is true.  For the first time in 15 years, I am experiencing the joys of carpal tunnel syndrome.  I have since returned to my "natural" keyboard and hope that the pain subsides soon.  I need to look up the exercises that will help offset it.

Yesterday, I worked on the winery case and got my printer set up.  Alan helped with the printer issue.  As for the winery case, I spent some time looking up VRIO analysis and learned that if I hand over my credit card number, I can get lots of information.  No thanks.  In editing the document, I actually pulled "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" off my bookcase to look up the proper placement of an apostrophe.  Anyway, I got it to Sean last night.

This morning, I took Jennifer to gymnastics.  (Nicole had soccer in the summer and Jennifer didn't want to do it, so this is Jennifer's activity.)  I edited the file I had sent last night while sitting at the parents' picnic table and watching Jennifer.  When we got home, I reposted the document for Sean with my minor changes.  Then I took the girls to swimming lessons.  I read some of the Sakhalin case while they were diving and doing laps.  It's a good thing that I did.  (I did the  "indexing" that Doug taught us during our first week of Opening Session.)  After swimming, I made a batch of chocolate chip pancakes, went for a bike ride with the girls, and then headed downtown to join Sean and Dean.  Dean was having trouble getting started on the Sakhalin case.  None of the research we did led to any conclusions that would be in line with the questions for the case study.  Once I figured out what his problem was, I referenced my indexing to give him ideas.

Alan made a great pork roast dinner with baby potatoes, carrots and asparagus.  And gravy.  I was very happy to make it home for it.  Totally yummy!

And ever since, I have been in limbo waiting for someone to give me something to do.  Either read the winery case after Sean has made his edits or give Dean more ideas.  Oh well.  I whipped up some chocolate cupcakes and watched some TV with the kids.

What To Do, What To Do...

I was getting ready for the winery case.  Sean had sent out the bullet points (based on a team meeting we had on Tuesday night) late last night and asked for some help on a couple of questions.  On the bus to work this morning, I reviewed the case and flipped through two of our readings.  I really liked this table on Testing the Quality of Your Strategy found in Hambrick & Frederickson's "Are You Sure You Have a Strategy?" (Academy of Management Executive, 2001, Vol. 15, No. 4.).  It made you ask questions like:

1. Does your strategy fit with what's going on in the environment?
2. Does your strategy exploit your key resources?
3. Will your envisioned differentiators be sustainable?
4. Are the elements of your strategy internally consistent?
5. Do you have enough resources to pursue this strategy?
6. Is your strategy implementable?

Not all the questions were relevant to the winery case, which has many HR-related issues as well as some strategy issues.  I thought it was a good reality check-list, though.  (There are sub-questions for each of the 6 questions listed above.)

Then I went through "Looking Inside for Competitive Advantage" (Academy of Management Executive, 1995, Vol. 9. No. 4).  That's where I found the elusive VRIO framework that was mentioned in class, but it seems none of us (on the team) had taken any notes on...  So, for the record, VRIO is short for:

Value
Rareness
Imitability
Organization

This framework is actually quite useful for the winery case study.  They produce high quality wine, limited batches (just try to find the 1999 Merlot), they are hard to imitate, and their organization, to use the vernacular, sucks.

[Michael, if you are reading this, I was sorely tempted to issue a WOTD when my Global Business Environment prof actually said "... to use the vernacular, 'sucks'"... but was too busy taking notes.  It was a fast-paced class.  So, I used it here.]

I was starting my VRIO analysis on the case study and did a quick email check and found that Sean had gone ahead and put the bullet points into paragraphs.  We are now over the page limit so he doesn't need any extra input at this time.

Now I need to figure out what to do.  Obviously, I decided to do a blog entry.  For the rest of the evening, I think I'll finalize my planning on catching up on my reading.  There is so much to read that I have started an Excel spreadsheet with target dates for each one.  I figure I'll be in a good place if I can get my pre-work done for class weekend (4 hours of Financial Planning & Analysis; 8 hours of Global Business Environment) and get two readings done each day for the rest of the classes.

WOW! Did the Past Two Days Ever Fly By!

I made it to the gym for "Total Body Workout" yesterday.  I was the only one there from the class, but the regular members were there.

We had a class with Julian Barling, our Leadership prof, and watched Twelve Angry Men.  Now we have to write a paper on it.  Dan and Aaron are the leads on it.  Phew!

Then we started Global Business Environment.  What a heck of a lot of reading!  And another assignment to do for next week. I was so tired, I barely got any of the reading done.  That meant no visit to the gym this morning.  Even with spending an hour reading before class, I still didn't get it done.  I'm building my plan to get it all done.  In the meantime, I have some research to do for the paper on investing in Russia to send to Dean...

I am sure I'll get it all under control, eventually.

By the way, today was the last day of Opening Session.  I'm back at work in the morning.

I Passed My First Exam!!

You know that I have already handed in two assignments.  I haven't heard a thing about them.  Yet I wrote my Finance & Accounting exam this morning (from 10am to 1pm) and John (Moore, our program director and the prof for the course) has already corrected all of the exams and notified us that we all passed.  We'll get our official marks after the university has entered them into the system.

Any of you might think that I would be excited to know that I passed.  Certainly I am pleased.  The reality is that it was anti-climatic.  We went on to the next thing which is a case study about a winery.  No time for high fives and congratulations.  And we didn't have any wine to drink while discussing the case.  Maybe I should have a glass now?  Maybe not.  I'll have one or two on the weekend.  (That's coming up, right?  I heard it was a short week.)

One cool thing.  After the exam, we went down to Sushi Go for lunch.  It was pretty good.

And now I am preparing for tomorrow's course on The Global Environment.  Lots of stuff to read.  HBR article, 3 HBS case studies,  a Berkley case study, and a case study from Kelley School of Business.  (I have never heard of the Kelly School of Business.  It's part of Indiana University, home of the Hoosiers.  You might have seen the Gene Hackman movie.)  I hope to have two readings done before I go to sleep.

Well, Chelsea is dozing (she is on a couple of medications), so I will get her upstairs and I'll read while she keeps my feet hot.

It Was Great to Have a Day Off!

Yesterday was our day off.  I slept in.  Well, really, I woke up at 6am (which equals 5 hours of sleep if you remember that I only got home at 1am the 'night' before - and it is sleeping in when you realize I have been getting up around 5:30am) and then dozed off and on until 7:30 or so.

I made chocolate chip pancakes for the girls - our usual Sunday tradition.  I tried to do some of my readings for the Execution and Implementation class that starts on Tuesday, but wasn't very successful.  I have since figured out that I picked the wrong reading to start with.  The document that came right after the course outline was "Updating the Project Management Bodies of Knowledge".  Who the hell cares about the history behind the documentation of best practices for PM?  Jeepers!  (Insert your own expletive of choice to replace "Jeepers!"!!)  It was so dry and tedious.  I was really wondering what I was getting myself into.  What happened to the whole premise of gaining practical knowledge for the workplace??

Just after lunch, Nicole was invited to go to her friend's house, so Jennifer and I went to return library books, look for clothes for me (I don't have much in the way of "business casual" as it seems to be defined by my class), and have ice cream at Dairy Queen.  I bought a pair of jeans and a grey dress.  The jury is still out on the dress, but I am wearing the jeans right now.

After a wonderful dinner (Alan made rotisserie chicken, steamed baby potatoes, asparagus and cauliflower), the girls and I went for a bike ride.  We passed a little party going on in the little park around the corner from our house.  As it turns out, it was an annual neighbourhood labour day weekend party.  They had a badminton net set up, lots of rackets and birdies, frisbees, balls, food (pot luck - good to know for next year) and a decent crowd.  At 8pm, they projected "Bedtime Stories" on the white house that is adjacent to the park.  I knew one of the mothers there and she offered to watch the kids while I headed home to read my case study on the MS Society of Canada.  Phew!  I read the case, made a few notes (full analysis is not complete yet) and then headed back to the park.  They must have been delayed in starting the movie because I managed to watch the last half of it.  (I saw it before, at the movie theatre with the girls.)  At the end of it all, the kids were thrilled to have been able to watch a movie under the open sky and I was thrilled to have some progress on my case study and let them watch the movie.  Good memories had by all.

Today, I slept in a bit longer.  Chelsea is not feeling well so I spent some time trying to figure out what it is.  Then I hung out with the kids.  I managed to get in a game of chess with each of them (they learned how to play at Camps Canada, so let me just give that camp the accolades they deserve!) before lunch.  After lunch, we went for another bike ride.  Then I headed to school.

We have a Finance & Accounting tutorial from 6-8pm - just in time for tomorrow morning's exam.  I thought I'd come in early and get some work done on my case study and maybe a wee bit of review before the tutorial. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and there were already 3 people here!  And another guy showed up about 15 minutes after me.

Well, the tutorial starts in an hour, so I better get cracking on my review!

Our Second Assignment Is Over!

I had a private yoga lesson yesterday.  That is only because no one else showed up.  It was good.  My poses got corrected, I was able to share what was comfortable and not...  I will be making a point of going to yoga on class weekends.  Maybe I'll even go to yoga the other Saturdays, too.

We wrapped up Marketing and then all got anxious about finishing our assignment.  So it was pure pain to sit through the writing clinic and get lectured about academic integrity (the new term for academic dishonesty).  Aaron was almost lucky that he was writing the Finance & Accounting exam.

Then we hunkered down and worked on our paper that was due 11:59:59 (one second before midnight).  I finished a little after 10pm and then headed down to, what looks like will be our team watering hole, the bar at Baton Rouge with Lisa.  We were later joined by Rob, Jack, and Brian.  We had a drink, some nachos with spinach dip, and some really good laughs before splitting up and heading home.  I only got home around 1am...

Yesterday's Lunch

I forgot to mention yesterday's lunch.  We had Indian food.  And it was TASTY!  Butter chicken, aloo gobi, that paneer stuff with the peas and the cheese.  Yum, yum, yum.  Sue (one of the fantastic people who keeps us fed, watered, and organized) said it came from a place in Byward Market that started with a "V".  She said the whole name.  It escapes me right now, but I am sure that I can Google it when the time comes.

My Horoscope for Today

This could certainly apply to anyone one in the world, as most horoscopes do.  I just thought this one was appropriate:


Change can be stressful, and that applies to changes for the better, too. It means leaving behind what was familiar and embarking on a new way of life. And you definitely have some changes (for the better) heading your way. So how can you minimize the stress and maximize the positive? You can acknowledge that things might be crazy for a little while. And that things will settle down soon. And, yes, that things are most definitely going to be different around here.


So...  I hereby acknowledge that things might be crazy for a little while.

Today Went Quick

Nearly everyone had a rough start today.  Many of us were beat... probably from the stress of getting the first assignment in.  Lots of yawns and I had 2 cups of coffee.

We started Marketing today.  It was part of our Role of the General Manager course, which is also the course we had our strategy assignment in yesterday.  Very interesting stuff today.  I had a brief thought that maybe I should pick Marketing as my elective.  And I HATED marketing before today.

The team met to discuss our individual assignment, which is Marketing and due tomorrow night at 11:59.  I will be doing my draft tonight and, of course, finishing it tomorrow.

Our accounting tutorial has been moved to Monday night, which is OK because it meant I could see the kids for a couple of hours before they go to bed.  We watched Material Girls and the tail end of Herbie: Fully Loaded.

Well off to work on my outline!

The First Assignment Is IN!!!!!

There used to be a day when I could whip off a 1000 word document in a few hours and do just fine.  This time around, it wasn't as easy.  First, the team started off pretty disorganized.  We all had different definitions of being prepared for it.  Then we approached it as a team instead of breaking out into sub-teams to work on the individual sections.  So a few learnings came out of yesterday.

We did this little brainstorming session about improving a tie.  One of use had to be a time-keeper/observer.  It was funny watching Aaron hold his tongue.  It was very hard for him to not jump in and participate.

After class, we had our first Administration Meeting.  As a team, we are getting better at telling each other what we think, which I think is great!  We dealt with a few irritants and got a few things decided and then everyone disbanded.  Everyone except Sean and I: the lead and second for the first team assignment.  We submitted it at around 9:45pm.  It was due at 10pm.  It was just under 1000 words, which was great.  Just about at the end, I commented that we didn't say anything about a particular item... Sean looked at the clock and we decided to let it go.  All the same, I think we did OK on our paper.  I'll get to stay in the program a little bit longer.

Oh yeah.  I made it to the gym, but a few minutes too late for "Total Body Workout", so I did 20 minutes on the treadmill.  The killer yoga / pilates lady is supposed to be back tomorrow.  That's if tomorrow is Friday.  Like I said before, I have no concept of time.

Well, I have a chapter, an HBR article, and an IBM case study to read for tomorrow and it is already past my bedtime.  I'll skim something before I fall asleep.

Catching Up!

They (whoever "they" are) say that going for an MBA makes you become more efficient.  So how's this?  I'm going to cover two days in one entry!

Julian Barling, our Leadership prof, was a hoot!  So, it wasn't so bad having class with him for 12 hours yesterday.  Yes, you read that right.  We had twelve straight hours of the same guy in the same day.  Don't ask me what I learned.  I don't remember.  I do know that he is coming back next Wednesday and that we have an assignment based on the movie The Twelve Angry Men.

The sad thing that happened is that someone decided to withdraw from the program.  Believe me, the thought has crossed my mind a couple of times, so I certainly empathized with him.  Queen's handled it all very discreetly.

I got home around 9pm and had a chance to say goodnight to my girls.  They were still sort of awake when I crept in to give them kisses.  It had been their first day of school, so we talked about their teachers and what they did and who was in their classes.  And then they asked me if I liked my teacher.  (It's like they just realized what "Mommy is in school" means.)  I explained that I have had five teachers so far (six as of today) and that they all seemed nice.

I tried to read the cases that I needed done for today before I went to bed last night.  My eyes started closing about half-way through the Microsoft case, so I called it a day.  You know what that means, though.  I woke up and had it on my mind.  I skipped the gym and found a quiet place to sit and read and take notes.  I was the most prepared person on the team for our meeting about the assignment tonight.  Not so sure it was worth missing the gym though.

I cried at school today.  Someone asked me how my girls' first day went and I started to answer and my eyes welled up (is that the right term Michael?).  She gave me a hug, and I was on the verge of tears all day.

Today we started our work on the Role of the General Manager.  It's a junior strategy course.  Porter's 5 Forces model and stuff.  (We do Porter tomorrow.)  Today, we covered some sort of congruency theory.  It's supposed to be a model to help you make sense of things.  Well, as we worked on our Microsoft case (which required referencing the Congruency Model), I think we got it all confused.  By "we", I mean my whole team.

Anyway, Sean was the Lead and I was the Second and it was tough.  The two quietest people in the team were leading.  It was challenging.  The more senior (in job level) people were biting their tongues and trying to diplomatically help the others improve.  I don't think it was taken that way.  I might have kicked in and tried to facilitate, but the reality is that I was too busy trying to make sense of what everyone was saying and incorporating it into our report.  (The Second does the initial typing at the team meeting and the Lead is supposed to take the document and clean it up and make sure all the salient points are addressed.  There is usually a back & forth between the Lead and the Second and when the document is nearly done, it goes to the team.  We aren't going to follow that on this one.)

We didn't finish so we invoked our team norm of work-life balance and packed up.  We'll finish it tomorrow. (It's due at 10pm.)

Well, that's it for now.  I have another case and some Harvard Business Review articles to read.  I hope to read at least one thing before I fall asleep.  I want to go to the gym in the morning.

I Was Wrong

It wasn't our last Finance & Accounting class before the exam.  We had 8 more hours with a different teacher today.  I think THAT is the last Finance & Accounting before the exam.  Except for the tutorial, which I think is later on this week, but I don't remember.  I have no concept of time.

Pilates was tough.  I felt kind of silly, but I wasn't the only one feeling silly.  I could feel the pain of yesterday's yoga while I was engaging different muscles with Pilates and then felt everything tightening up over the course of the morning.  "Try something new" is our motto and I certainly have done so.

We had salmon for lunch.  I guess we needed the brain food to get through the classes!  It was tasty.  It's hard not to eat when they give us such good food.

After class, we (four of us) went for a walk along Bank Street, looking for something for dinner.  We were picking up for two others, and Abdul is observing Ramadan, so he went home.  We went into this deli type place and ordered simple food.  I had a tuna sandwich with pickles.  Tasty.  Especially since I didn't get around to eating it until after my Fitness Assessment.  (I should get a workout plan sometime in the future.)

I joined the guys in the room we booked and did a practice case as my study effort for F&A.  I kind of whipped through it rather quickly, but did fine except for a minor adding error.  I think I got the hang of T accounts.  (Or "Q-T" accounts, since it is Queen's.)  Then Vicki (classmate who did her fitness assessment at the same time as me) and I went and had a beer down at Baton Rouge and ran into a couple of the guys from class.

Well, tomorrow is a LONG day.  It's 12 hours of Executive Leadership.  And all I have done for it was read "The No Asshole Rule".  I had a quick peek at the binder and it looks like there was 50-100 pages of cases and articles to read...  I think I might have to skip "Total Body Workout".  Of course, I will probably be unable to walk after yoga, Pilates, and the fitness assessment anyway.