downstreamvee

Checking in briefly. Going to update again later tonight, but I thought I'd just post a quick update. Took the day off. Haven't been able to do much of anything because of the migraine. Did manage to update MyFitnessPal for today. Up through my lunch, anyway. Also, new revelation: I've got to start planning my days better. I mean, I make a plan, but it's usually just "what am I teaching that day"? Half the time, it isn't even that much. I need to start planning out my actual days and not just throwing something together on the spur of the moment.

I've always found the controversy behind the old school food pyramid fascinating, especially since I grew up pretty much having that concept drilled into my brain. Everywhere I looked in pretty much every school I've worked in, I've found those posters blazoned on the walls. Makes one think how many other things people weren't telling the truth to us about in school. Congratulations on your progress! Paleo is awesome, isn't it? And bacon is pretty much edible happiness.

Couldn't really find a thread to post this (there didn't seem to be an ailments or what-to-do-when-you-feel-like-crap subforum), but since this affects my challenge, I figured I'd post this question here: I experienced a mild concussion a few weekends ago (so says my doctor) when I hit my temple on my car's emergency brake while doing some repairs. The doctor told me that I'm just going to have headaches from this for a while and that I pretty much have to suck it up and deal with it (he said this in nicer terms, of course). Problem is that these headaches are starting to impair my ability to do work, especially as they show up at the most inopportune times. Do any of you have any experience on dealing with these sorts of headaches? Tylenol doesn't seem to be working at all.

So, I've taken some time to woodshed these goals. I'll change the first post to reflect these changes sometime this weekend. 1. The beer thing is out. Hearkening to Lizz's advice, it's probably for the best not to implement too many sweeping changes at once. 2. I need to choose a focus. Right now, with the concussion thing, it needs to be my health. Yes, the cash thing is still an issue, but a bigger issue is that I feel like crap. I'm not eating enough, I'm not planning ahead and getting my meals ready, and it's affecting my performance at work now. 3. I need to make a few slight adjustments to the eating out thing just to allow for life anyway. For instance, I'm going to the beach in a few weeks, so I'm going to be eating out at least a little bit, anyway. Having said that, I've enjoyed cooking my own meals, so that particular goal hasn't been so hard. 4. One problem that I ran into with my last challenge (the one I started late on) was that I had a goal that I completed far too early. This go round, I'm going to have a goal that will cut off in the middle of the challenge and be replaced by a new one. Here are the revisions: Meta Goal: Maintain a daily caloric intake of 2,000-3,000 calories regularly through efficient meal-planning and tracking. Goal 1: Enter all meals in MyFitnessPal for the duration of this challenge. Goal 2: Cook all meals at home for at least four days out of the week. Life Goal 1: Up to October 5th (beginning of Fall Break), have all class assignments graded and entered into the system. Life Goal 1.5: (October 5 and beyond) Have established detailed lesson plans for both sets of classes that will get me through to the end of the semester.

Good point. Upon further reflection, I totally agree. I think the best thing that I can do for myself at this point is to give myself some wins. I sat down this morning and created a list of habits and things that I wanted to change. I then listed reasons why those things were the way that they were. A good bit of it related to making impulse decisions, not taking the time to plan things out, not sticking with my plans, not getting enough sleep, and not enlisting others to help me. So, I'm thinking that I'll table these goals until I can woodshed them for a bit and create new ones based on the above observations.

Haven't been doing so hot with this one. Ended up committing to at least two dinner plans. Need to figure out where I'm going wrong. Think a good bit of it is a lack of good old fashioned grit. Am starting to think that some of it may be that I haven't really been open about my goals. It's hard for me to talk about my goals. Even to my friends. I guess that I have it in my brain that people will think its laughable for me to want to improve myself. Of course, I know full well that my friends will support me. Though I suppose some of them will give me the side-eye. All in all, perhaps this really is a bad week to start all of thIs. Lots of socializing, lots of stress, and lots of changes happening. Work is pretty harrowing. With everything else, I still, in the back of my mind, keep thinking "Am I really a good enough teacher to do all of this?" That's my biggest problem with professional development, you know? I don't want to know about standards or so-and-so text. I want to know, after all is said and done, even if my kids stare at their cell phones during their lesson, even though they talk when I'm trying to give instructions, and even though they complain about the slightest thing that I do, am I still a good enough teacher? Does this kind of thing happen to the good teachers? Or just the bad one. That's why I want to give up this profession. If I was good at it, then why do my students still act like assholes?

Getting back out there. Today's a new day. And I ain't no quitter.

Wow. What a day. Just how many times CAN somebody tell a teenager to put away his/her cell phone. Eh. I'll vent later. Goal One/Two: Well, I did not buy any beer nor did I buy any meals out. My girlfriend, however, did last night. I'm marking one as a loss (since I did drink a beer) but two as a win because I didn't pay for the meal. Cooking at home today, though. Pita pizzas again. I need to remember to tell the g/f more detail about my challenge. Just seemed to have slipped my mind. I'm sure that if I did, she'd support me. I know that there are plenty of others who don't have that luxury. Goal three? Not so much. Edit: This is why I probably shouldn't post online in a bad mood. Had some time to reflect. Maybe all I needed was to distance myself from my work for a bit. Got some great ideas. Pretty excited.

Heh, I'm right there with you. Hence my dramatic post(s) for my challenge. If nothing else, I'm hoping that I can set an example for my brother to follow. He's got two kids, and actually seems to be in worse straits than I am. How exactly does one tell if food is freezer burned?

Got a freezer question: I checked the StillTasty.com website which states that most meats can be kept in the freezer for up to 3-4 months to be at best quality, BUT as long as they're kept at a temperature of 0 F and below, they can be kept frozen for much longer and still be edible. Can anyone verify whether or not this is true? I've got plenty of meat in my freezer (and veggies), but a good bit of it has been in there for far longer than 3 months.

Just continuing the metaphor... Acrid smoke fills your nostrils as G Forces batter every inch of your body and alarm klaxons rattle your ear drums. The cabin is almost black except for the soft red glow of the emergency lighting. Needles lie impotent inside their gauges, and your head is foggy from the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the cabin. The only thing saving your craft from exploding on re-entry are the auto-stabilizers of your ship. Jerking hard on the stick, you manage to somehow right your ship. The gravity settles as your muscles relax. For the first time in almost a half-hour of plummeting, you're able to glance out of the ship's windows. Fog everywhere. Dull grey shapes loom all around. Mountains. Wonderful. The next step has been performed so many times, it's automatic. You flip the switch activating emergency power. Here you are, once again, in emergency mode, running on reserve fuel and spare batteries, desperately trying not to crash in a ball of flames and screaming. Things can't go on like this. Otherwise, one of these days, you're going to end up crashing into one of those mountains. First thing's first, though. You need to find a place to make an emergency landing. That means finding an acceptable runway within your ship's range and laying in a course... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's Sunday. Not the official beginning of my challenge, but the preparation day. The goal of this first campaign: Establish an emergency fund of $2,600. As things stand, I'm vulnerable. If I lose my job or get laid off or something explodes or I get hospitalized or if any catastrophic emergency happens, I am screwed. This is unacceptable. Add to this the fact that I'm going through my finances far too quickly. You'd think that having refinanced my house, I'd have more money on hand. I quickly discovered that that's not the case. For some reason, it seems like the more money I have, the more money I spend. The biggest place where I spend my money is on food. Incidentally, this is also my biggest battleground. I buy junk like crazy. I spend exorbitant amounts of money paying for food that I don't see being prepared, that I have no control over, etc. Some guy (or girl) that I do not know who has absolutely no connection to, relationship with, or genuine incentive to care about me whatsoever is providing me with the very stuff that I need to live, grow, and thrive. I am basically putting the source of my survival in the hands of some individual whose face I don't even see half the time! How insane is that? And don't get me started on the beer. 200 dollars! For beer! For a liquid that provides, at best, a negligible nutritional benefit! So, here's where I'm at: I've got 101 dollars in my food budget for the rest of the month. Here it is the middle of the month, and I've already spent almost 400 dollars on food. If necessary, I can dip into my emergency budget, but I'd like to avoid that if possible. I get paid on the 30th. I need a menu for this week and a menu for next week. I need to stretch my food out as much as possible and buy on sale when I can.

My motivation. Not perfect numbers, but they get the job done. Note the comment that my girlfriend wrote beside the motorcycle one.

Main Quest: Establish an emergency fund of $2,600 (one full paycheck). Goal One: No beer for 6 weeks. Goal Two: No eating out for 6 weeks. Goal Three: Record meals in MyFitnessPal Life Side Goal: Establish and maintain a routine for managing my to-do list Main Quest: Maintain a daily caloric intake of 2,000-3,000 calories regularly through efficient meal-planning and tracking. Goal 1: Enter all meals in MyFitnessPal for the duration of this challenge. Goal 2: Cook all meals at home for at least four days out of the week. Life Goal 1: Up to October 5th (beginning of Fall Break), have all class assignments graded and entered into the system. Life Goal 1.5: (October 5 and beyond) Have established detailed lesson plans for both sets of classes that will get me through to the end of the semester. Edit: Revised goals.

So, I know that this is no replacement for heading (heh) to the doctor, and as soon as my schedule frees up, I'm going to, but I figure I can get some thoughts in the meantime. Last weekend, I was doing some work on my car under the dash. I sat up too quickly and banged my head into the E-brake. I hit right square in my temple. Since then, I've had a slight headache that just kind of comes and goes. Granted there are plenty of other reasons why I'm having a headache. For instance, the school year just started, so my sleep schedule and coffee intake are a little out of whack (though recently, I've been getting around 7 or 8 hours). I also have to work with a room full of teenagers. As you can imagine, things get a little stressful. So, is this fairly urgent? I don't even think I hit it that hard, though it hurt like all get out at the time and I had a pretty bad headache the rest of the day. No other neurological symptoms as far as I can tell.