It's over!

The holiday madness is over and I'm glad. The last couple of Christmas cards arrived in the mail today and I'll leave them on the mantle till New Year's Eve.

I haven't dared to step on the scales and check my weight. Although I tried to eat moderately, tracking my calory intake on My Fitness Pal (add me as a friend, I love extra motivation) told me that I still ate too much. Grrrr.

I'm still not quite myself. Yesterday, I started crying in front of the tv and today I still don't have my act together, or so it seems. I'm teary-eyed all the time and try to keep my distance to all things that could touch me emotionally. I can't even watch the news.

I haven't been running today, but I took Flo for a longer walk than usual. I ordered some new running shirts, too, not only for me, but for D as well! He even asked me to! Wow.

Post written by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Christmas Lazyness

How is everybody doing? Hope you all got nice presents and enjoyed great food.

Personally, I didn't feel christmas-y this year and I'm glad the holiday insanity is over soon. I usually love this season, but I'm still suffering from this depressive episode and couldn't care less right now. :(

Pretending to be happy and normal all the time is so exhausting but I can't afford to let anybody at work know. In my job, admitting to having a mental illness always means "EoC" - end of career. 

Today, D's picked up his mother and we went to our favorite Greek restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, we had the traditional German "Kaffee" at our house. 

"Kaffee" or "Kaffeetrinken" is not limited to drinking a cup of coffee, it often includes enjoying a piece of cake, too. Since I don't drink coffee (I'm not an easy guest if invited for "Kaffee"), I always include tea and/or cappucino. 

In northern Germany, coffee is usually substituted by tea. If you're interested in German (especially Frisian) tea culture, I wrote an article about it here: On Drinking Tea.

While D is taking his mom home, I enjoy playing on my new 3DS (which I can't stop calling "Gameboy"). I'm aware of the fact that I'm probably too old to be having so much fun with a device like that but I promised D and myself I'd do anything for my health and happiness. And this makes me happy because it reminds me so much of my childhood (I grew up with Super Mario).

I already changed from my festive dress into a comfy pair of jeans and a hoody bought in New Jersey two months ago. I like dressing up every once in a while, but lazy evenings call for different clothes.

So tell me, how did you celebrate Christmas (if you celebrated)? What did you have for supper and dinner? What presents did you get? 

This is a post by "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays!

Hope you all have a couple of days off work? It's a two-week vacation for me, yeehaw! :)

D and I went grocery shopping at 7:15 this morning. Gosh, I hate getting up that early on days I don't have to work! Afterwards, I went back to bed for another hour, hehe.

We had a late breakfast at ten, before we headed out downtown for a little pre-Christmas celebration. In Germany, we celebrate on Christmas Eve. The 25th and 26th are traditionally reserved for visiting family and friends.

D and I will have cake, coffee, and hot chocolate in a little while. In the early evening, we'll exchange presents (a jacket, a book, and the new AC/DC album for D, the Nintendo 3DS XL, Tetris, and perfume for me. - Why a 3DS XL? Well, it's easier to handle for people age 30+, you see?).

For dinner, we'll have salmon and spinach. D wants to watch a concert by Helene Fischer on tv later tonight and I plan on playing Tetris. 

D's mom will visit tomorrow and on Wednesday we'll visit my parents. 

What's your Christmas schedule?

Merry Christmas to all of you! 

Fröhliche Weihnachten!

Bento Lunch & X-Mas Chaos

Okay, this doesn't deserve to be called "bento" but it's a start, isn't it?

What's in this lunch box?

• pretzels
• pumpernickel 
• three different kinds of cheese

It was fun to have unpack my own little lunch box at work.

My life is pretty busy at the moment. I'm totally exhausted from the chaos at work, at home, at the stores... My family is quite exhausting, too. My parents and mother-in-law are always pretty demanding around Christmas. They all expect D & me to please them. I'm really angry about their behavior at the moment. Wish I could cancel all the Christmas visits and just stay at home.

It has been raining for days again and I didn't run a single mile. Not even Flo wants to go outside and sniff.

How are you doing? What are your plans for the holidays? Do you stay calm around your family during Christmas?

This is a post of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".