Like the title says, today was my last day of summer vacation. And you know what? I did basically nothing. I prepped for class, cleaned, ran some errands and watched portions of both “Mona Lisa Smile” and “Cocktail”. I enjoyed the last day where it is appropriate for me to be lazy.

Backing up to yesterday… there is nothing to blog because I didn’t eat. I was too queasy and I had no appetite at all. I ate literally a piece of toast. Not blog worthy at all.

I did, however, run into Barack…

I knew it was him the moment I was the presidential helicopters. I saw them when I was visiting in Chicago with Steve earlier this summer. People were angry because Wilshire and basically the entire west side of LA was shut down but I just chilled out and enjoyed the view…

Change I can believe in. 🙂

Today I finally regained my appetite around lunch so I made a super healthy lunch at home. Its been a while between having visitors and being sick yesterday so I was very happy to have a wholesome lunch at home.

Lunch was pita chips, a Honey Crisp apple, TJ’s fruit flakes, and a prosciutto sandwich with spinach, goat cheese, and arugula. To drink I had Pelligrino.

Toasted Ezekiel bread with my favorite lunch meat (haha, does prosciutto count as a lunch meat?) is totally to die for. Ezekiel bread is so filling and amazing.

I also braved fruit for the first time. First Honey Crisp apples of the season! It was amazing and so miniature. I cannot wait for fall. This lunch kept me satisfied all day and powered me though my first run in 1 week. I think I needed a long run break. Obviously I wasn’t going to run yesterday because I wasn’t consuming any calories. Today’s 4.1 mile run was done at a pretty fast clip and felt amazing. So glad to be back. I forgot how running helps be deal with stress.

Speaking of fall, school starts tomorrow and after reading Caitlin’s post about time management I wanted to break down my time management a bit. I tend to be a pretty good time manager with a good life-work balance but I thought that it would be a sound idea to go over my priorities a bit.

Step 1: There is limited time in the week, 168 exactly and I need a minimum of 56 hours to sleep.

Step 2: List your priorities. These are necessary and non necessary…

• Going to class, prepping for class, things related to school things
• Sleeping
• Sticking to Half Marathon Training Plan (working out, running etc)
• Cooking, eating, blogging, reading other blogs
• Being a good fur mama to Izzy Cat
• Catching up with friends both over phone and/or gchat and socializing in person
• Running errands
• Down time to read and watch some TV
• Personal time to stress management and take care of my mental health

Step 3: Identify priorities you can downgrade or drop completely.

In terms or what I can downgrade, I think I need to make sure that my TV relaxation time does not spiral into endless hours of TV enjoyment. I love my TV, but sometimes it can go from 30 mins of Barefoot to Barefoot + Rachel Maddow + E! News + Daily 10 and before you know it I’m watching Flipping Out and Rachel Zoe Project. I swear I’m intelligent I just love TV a lot. So I should keep an eye on that. I also want to make sure that I spend enough time blogging to be happy and maintaining the blog and cooking wholesome meals. While I would love to devote all my time to working out and blogging I need to make sure I don’t let it take over my life.

Step 4: Get organized and use a calander

Done and done. I have my Hermes planner which I write school assignments and day to day things. I also use a wall calender which has less detail and is more of a broad view. I also take care of priorities like free reading right before I go to bed for 30 mins, and I normally have set shows that I watch certain nights of the week. Also, I have all of my workouts planned- and I’ve been pretty good about being flexible so far. Plus, running and mental health stuff makes blends together for me.

I think its really important to write out my priorities and set written goals for achieving them successfully. Writing it down means actually thinking it out and, in my opinion, makes the changes more likely to stick. I will be vigilant about my TV time and make sure that I stay happy and focused this semester.

What are your priorities?