Diet, Exercise, and Motivation

I've been very unmotivated to do anything that requires a lot of thought or effort, so I'm effectively getting lazier. Since I've moved to Seattle, I've been getting on the order of 9 hours of sleep per night (I used to get 7 hours or less). I've gained 5 pounds in the last year (which is a lot since my weight never fluctuates and I don't weigh that much to begin with). I also haven't been doing the work I'm supposed to be doing (like my NSF fellowship application) and I'm only taking two classes this quarter (one of which is all review, so it's rather boring).

I keep asking myself, why? I feel like MIT has partially burnt me out (which was evident at the beginning of senior year). But stuff at UW has been considerably easier and yet I cannot muster up the motivation to do anything. I want to be productive... but, eh.

So I'm trying reeeally hard to be productive. I'm trying to get a bike so I can bike to lab/class everyday instead of taking the bus (it's about a 30 minute bike ride). And I'm going to cut my over-portioned meals in half since I tend to eat more when I'm unproductive. So I'm taking steps in the right direction... hopefully.

On another note, Sharon and I have decided to cut out two cities in our Europe trip in December. Although we wanted to visit Berlin and Prague, it seemed too much to squeeze in 7 cities in less than 2 weeks... so now it's 5 cities: Dublin, London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. It should still be a fun trip and if I can steal Sergio's camera during that time, I should have some very nice pictures to share (yay!).

I'm also participating in this study about stress levels of first-year graduate students at UW. I'm not sure what they'll find out since I'm stressed all the time for no reason (and uber-stressed when I should actually be stressed). Maybe they'll find that I have abnormally high levels of cortisol, a hormone that gets released when you're stressed. And if so, I may just mess up their results...

Anyway, if they do find that my cortisol levels are high, it may explain why I have such a crappy immune system. At least I got a flu shot this year. Weeee.