Late Nights...

Working as much overtime as I do, I knew that I would eventually run into the challenge of time. It is not an issue much of the year, but in the winter when it gets so dark so early, it's really hard to make time to get my walk in before it gets too dark.

Lately, I've been working late a lot, and it's generally dark when I leave.  Working anywhere from two to three hours over, I'm already stretched to get home in enough time to eat dinner and prep for the next day before it's bedtime. Since I have to get up at 4:30 in the morning, my 9:00 bedtime is a necessity, but it sure cramps my style in the evenings.

Yesterday, I knew I was behind the 8 ball all day long, and my goal was to try to get in as much of my walk as possible during the day.  My lunch 45 minutes long, so I can get a good chunk of it in then....IF I take it, which is rare.  Normally, I eat all my meals sitting at my desk so I can keep working.  This is bad, since it means that I don't take the time allotted for myself....and that means that I'm once again putting my needs on the back burner.  I know how important it is to take breaks and just step away, but it's so hard to do that when you are constantly putting out fires and running under deadlines.

Unfortunately, my original plan never gelled, and once again I ate lunch at my desk while working furiously the whole time.  I kept justifying it, and changing my plans:

I will just walk a little later.
I will just walk after work before my overtime starts.
I will just walk after I leave work.

Yeah....none of that actually happened.  Consequently, by the time I left work at 6:30, it was pitch dark and cold as hell.  Not conducive to an hour's walk.

Then I started flirting with bad thoughts:

Do I really have to walk?  Maybe I can just workout tonight, instead.
 (Very bad....I knew it was too late to work out, it's against my plan, which has me working out tonight, and I'm fighting bad weather coming in this weekend, which is going to hamper all my efforts anyway. I know I need to get it in while I can.)

Maybe I'll just find a lighted spot on the way home.
(Dangerous. What if there are no lighted spots, or spots lighted enough? I know myself well enough to know that I'd just keep 'searching' until I got home, and wind up doing nothing.)

I actually started out with the latter, but thank God I realized half way home what I was doing, and made a U-turn back to Walmart, which has the largest, best lit parking lot in town. I parked at the far end and made three circles before throwing in the towel from the cold.  I did not complete my hour, but I did do half that, and got a mile and a half under my belt.  It wasn't what I'd hoped, but I'm glad I pushed myself to be like Nike, and just do it already.

Negatives:  Cold, dark, and time....all working against me.  And not taking time for myself.

Positives: Pushing through, despite it all.