Safe for Now/The Scale

So it seems that my idea about my employer giving me the proverbial ax/walking papers may have been a bit premature. While it’s true that they’ve already let one temporary employee go, it wasn’t without justification from what I’ve heard – and saw, now that I think about it.

In any case, I believe I will be fine for a little bit longer and here’s why.

We had an unexpected visit from the temp agency’s manager today. Yes, this is the same person that helped me out with my Direct Deposit debacle and got it all taken care of. She was there doing one-on-one meetings with some of us and when she entered our area I started to worry.

She greeted one of the proofreaders and asked if she could have a few minutes with her. Again, I worried.

About 15 minutes later, they both return and neither of them look glum. Then it was my turn to speak with the manager.

What it boiled down to was a simple survey that the agency likes to conduct on a semi-annual basis, where they ask what areas you think you can improve, where things in general can be improved, etc. It was also a critique of your work habits.

Needless to say, I was rather pleased to hear that my direct supervisors and manager had nothing but praise about my work habits and my improved work performance which, quite honestly, I had noticed as well. I’ve come a long way from the day I started and with things always changing, it’s a constant learning process.

If anything, I’m a bit more confident that should they decide to start letting people go, I might just rank a bit lower on the list based on what my superiors have said about me. This may not necessarily be true but I would like to think that this will be the case.

I’ve proven myself to be a valuable part of the team and that makes me feel a little better about things.

Speaking of feeling better, here’s a little something that also did the trick. About a week ago, the battery in my scale went out and being it was one of those funky flat types (2032 or whatever), naturally I didn’t have any on hand.

At first I considered this a disaster of biblical proportions. I mean, this was the worst thing that could possibly happen since I know exactly how much I weigh on a daily basis after losing my weight. In my haste, I shook the scale, tapped the scale, did everything I possibly could to the scale to get just that much more life out of the battery so that I could once again weigh myself.

Then I stopped and made a decision: much like quitting drinking diet sodas (or “pop” for you back east) cold turkey when I realized I was addicted to them, I chose to put the scale back up against the wall and not bother to weigh myself until May 1st. That’s right, I’m going at least two weeks without doing it.

The results so far? Since I’m not dependent on the scale to give me signs of my progress, I find myself making better food choices knowing that I don’t have the crutch to lean – or to growl at me. It’s an accountability issue that I can definitely live with, especially since I’m realizing that my pants are fitting better and those dreaded love handles / spare tire (or what’s left of it) is slowly disappearing. I’m very happy about this.

This also means I’m more motivated to exercise. In fact, I went out last night and ran 5k and when I say ran, I mean it. I didn’t slow down my pace to a walk once and made it home in a reasonable time: 39:02, which isn’t very fast but was still a faster pace than my walks which average 42 mins. over the same distance. Everything was on automatic after the first mile and it felt damn good.

Anyway, good news all around for the time being. I’m taking a night off from exercising to let my body recover and to blog. Speaking of blogging, I also need to find more topics to write about. I’m coming up a bit empty lately which is why you see so many posts about Virgin Mobile and their smartphones. I’m not too sure if it’s possible or even healthy to be in love with a phone but for the time being, I really am.

Off to bed – or at least to relax for the night 🙂