One of my bigger mistakes was setting aside things like eating right and working out regularly while I worked on my dissertation.  I am INCREDIBLY lucky that at 45, despite being fat all my life (size 22), my cholesterol has been good, my blood sugar normal, my resting heart rate is very low (55-60), I breathe 2 times to my husband’s 3 breaths, and my blood pressure is normal.  I had blood drawn earlier this week and those things are still the case; normal thyroid, blood sugar, cholesterol, iron, and all that good stuff.

During the course of writing my dissertation, however, I put back the 60 lbs I had previously lost.  I had kept the weight off for 2 years before starting the dissertation but now am right back where I was before.  So I get to diet again until I lose that weight.  It was hard enough the first time.

I took my cruiser bike out on sunday for the first time in ages.  No pressure, not a speed thing, just ride for 30 minutes.  Cardio-wise, that was no problem.  But my legs started to burn before I got out of my cul-de-sac (It’s only 3 houses long).  The road bike (on which I used to go for 2 hour rides for fun, and maxed out at 5 hours) is staying in the garage for at least a couple of weeks until I can make it a bit further before the burn starts.

Working full-time while working on the dissertation made it very hard for me to keep in perspective the fact that this was a marathon and not a sprint.  I felt rushed to try to get done, and as such kept sacrificing things like exercise, cooking decent food [note: popcorn is not a meal] and paying attention to my weight.  I appear to have dodged a bullet, as the effects are primarily in terms of my clothing size and not my health, but I am likely an exception.

This is a slow, time-consuming process that will take a while.  If you keep up your exercise habits and eat well, it might take a little while longer.  That’s OK.  This is also a stressful process and keeping up your health and fitness will help reduce that stress.  If I could do it again, not only would I not have stopped those things but I would have added yoga to the mix in order to deal with stress.  Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

(Think about it this way:  if you are concerned about the extra money that additional time in grad school might cost, you can either pay that money to the school or to Old Navy for new clothing as your size changes.  Your choice.  I’m pretty sure it comes out about the same…..)

Part of the issue is unrealistic expectations about what I can really get done.  Or rather, unrealistic expectations of how much time I can spend productively on my academic work.  I am revising my graduate student work day to reflect my lack of life or rather the need for me to HAVE a life if I’m going to finish successfully.

Key features:
1 free day per week – completely free.  SUNDAY tentatively, but that can change week by week
1 hour of reading on workday evenings, Monday through Thursday.  No expectation of more
1 hour of EXERCISE 5 days per week.  Fridays and Sundays off. 

That gives me 12 hours of work on my dissertation per week – not much, but maintainable.  If I have no other plans on a Sunday, then that is a bonus.  But I need to stop requiring myself to work 7 days per week and 14 hours per day.  Hopefully this will be more sustainable over the long haul.

I also plan to talk to my adviser and give up my assistantship.  2 reasons – 1) I don’t have time to do the work and 2) he can use it for someone else.  I just would prefer not to be committed to work that I won’t have time to do and will then feel guilty about.

Here’s the revised version:

For both mine and your benefit, I want to outline the reasons why exercise is critical to being a successful scholar.

• Scholars live in our heads.  That particular muscle is working constantly.  But often it needs a break.  Doing something physical can provide that mental break wherein we sit back, let things process, listen to the music and do something else for a while.
• Scholars need time to process our thoughts.  As long as we are taking in new information or trying to force ourselves to write we can’t necessarily process what we’ve learned.  I find that long bike rides are GREAT for processing things.  No structure, no goals.  Just let the thoughts flow.
• Scholars need to periodically clear our head.  On the other hand sometimes we need to just stare at the scenery and not think about our work.  We need to be away from it for a while.  Again, for me a bike ride does the trick; I think about nothing but the scenery, my pumping legs and the music on my iPod Shuffle. 
• Scholars need a new perspective.  Looking at the world from the elliptical machine or the weight bench is different from looking at it from our desk or our favorite reading chair.  We see different things, different people, and sometimes get sparks of ideas.  It may or may not result in some deep insight, but the change is a positive thing. 
• Scholars need to give our eyes a rest.  It isn’t good to spend all your time looking at one distance, be that a monitor or a book.  Your eyes need the break as well.  Yes, you still use them while working out but you are suddenly using them differently.
• Scholars are stressed.  “Publish Publish Publish.  Oh, and maybe teach a little.  A little service would be good too.  But mostly PUBLISH!!!“   I’m still in grad school and I’m already feeling the pressure.  (I’ve been told that in my area you can’t get a decent job without several publications to your name….) For me, cardio (cycling) tends to reduce my stress, but I’ve also found Yoga very helpful.  (I really like Bikram, but just don’t have the time.  Instead I download the Yoga Today Podcast and do one of those when I have the time and need to relax.)
• Scholars sit on our butts for a substantial portion of our careers. 
  Because our work is reading and thinking and writing we spend a great
  deal of time sitting still.  Teaching is one break from this but it
  isn’t enough.  It is painfully easy to gain weight *blush* when one
  spends a lot of time sitting and thinking.  Exercise can help.

Losing weight would be nice, but it is not the only reason to exercise and I’m fairly sure it shouldn’t be the primary one.  These other reasons are just as, if not more, important.