Oct 16

Oct 16 Marketing...Weekly Weight Update

This week has been stressful, exciting, liberating, and frustrating all at the same time. Starting your own business is no laughing matter and the early aspects of seeking out clients makes you feel like a failure even though logically you know that you are not even close to that. It doesn’t change the fact that the work of obtaining clients is far different that the work of, you know, doing work.

The week started with a holiday which, if you are going to do it, is a great way to start off the first week of your new business. Holidays are important to keep your mind sharp and to allow time with family and friends. It is also helpful to allow you to workout all that extra food you were eating because your father-in-law was in town visiting so you made a cake (upcoming blog for making an apple cranberry cake) and ate nearly the entire thing. Holidays are also important for giving you time to clean up around the house and do all those other chores you missed out on during the week.

The majority of my week was spent doing one of the following tasks:

On the phone calling potential clients
On the computer emailing potential clients
Visiting potential clients (which isn’t a terrible thing when you are soliciting to breweries or having lunch with clients)
Doing Laundry
Washing Dishes
Mowing the Grass

It was actually very liberating to be able to work on my own schedule and it even gave me the opportunity to get in some great exercise (I did a 3.5 mile run on Tuesday during the day, walked to downtown Herndon on Wednesday to solicit potential clients, and had a kick ass Orange Theory Fitness class on Thursday). During my walk on Wednesday I came across this construction that was built in a local park by a troop of Girl Scouts. It looks like it was well built but can anyone tell me what it is supposed to be? To give some context, it was in a nature area so I’m guessing it probably has something to do with teaching about local vegetation but I couldn’t be sure.

The bad news was that all this free time pushed me in the direction of eating way too much. I’d find myself snacking on healthy foods but still eating way too much. I crunched on the trail mix in the pantry more than I should. I also went out to lunch with a potential client and consumed delicious tacos that were more than any mortal should endure. I had a flight of beers at a brewery I was trying to solicit. Then Rizzo and I went out for a massive meal on Friday night. More flexibility and free time also means more opportunity to lose focus on diet. The result was me gaining weight in spite of all the additional mileage and exercise I had this week. I ended this week weighing in at 207.6 which is 1.4 up from last week and makes the current total weight loss 60.4. I’ve been quite frustrated in this current holding pattern of not really losing any more weight. I figure I’ll need to change up something (more exercise, different diet patterns) but that will have to wait until I get settled into self-employment. Only one change at a time.

While weight loss might not have been successful this week, my mileage was thanks to the extra time available for walking and exercise. That’s right Rizzo, I finally defeated you and your sinister running regime! Your 40.2 miles were no match for my 44.0 miles. That give me a lead this month of 82.9 miles compared to your puny 79.3 miles. Look out Doctor Strange, here I come!

P.S. Here are random bonus pictures from the week.