sarakingdom

28 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Naps are good. And in your case, a two hours of sleep IS self care rather than punishment.

Seven or eight hours was what I needed. Two hours of sleep a night is definitely punishing. And I felt every minute.

I did that thing where I put all the effort into good self-care, and was punished with two hours of sleep. Where is the fairness, I ask you.

This is probably a lesson in Buddhist non-attachment. Do not get attached to the results of your actions, they are not promised to you. All you possess are your own actions. Stupid graphic novel-appropriate life lessons.

Anyway, today has really dragged as a result. This won't help my deficit much, but it won't hurt it much, either, because it's replacing a three-hour night, so I'm only an hour down.

I'm trying to remember that I probably do not actually have insurmountable interpersonal problems this week, I have a twenty-hour sleep deficit. Nor am I probably actually hopeless about my challenge, I just have a twenty-hour sleep deficit.

Probably I need a nap.

2 hours ago, Gemma said:

I've never taken the time to dive down the Whovian rabbit hole (mostly because I am sure that once I start I will binge-watch everything there is, and stop living my life for however many months that takes)

The sooner you give in, the less disruptive this will be. Better just get it over with.

6 hours ago, Harriet said:

even though I saw therapists for nearly twenty years with little effect

I understand the total and utter discouragement over the wasted time, but it may ultimately be a two-pronged solution, like keto to bring down the physiological symptoms in order to give the psychological tools the breathing room to actually be useful. In ADHD, the general wisdom is that the meds don't by themselves fix the problem, but give people people the ability to learn and use the habits and tools, which they can't do without the hormonal intervention. No one's favorite answer, but a logical one.

10 hours ago, Harriet said:

Hidden Orange Morale Talisman!

WHO IS THIS MAJESTIC FLOOFY DOOFUS?

Week 0 Day 4

I'm taking my zero week rest seriously, partly cuz I need to bank that rest and reduce my 20-hour deficit. Other things to set up the challenge:

Task list

• Scrub the desired water bottle
• Take challenge start measurements
• Buy the combat boots
• Return the shoes
• Send the card
• Find a good walking bag
• Pick a Darebee workout as backup for walking, just in case

God, self-care is so boring. It's just cruel how many necessary things are boring.

My sleep has been a disaster lately. That's partly me, but partly that my sinuses are a dumpster fire and my nose is so dry, and I need to do eeeeeeverything just to keep them barely functioning at night, and then they still hate horizontality.

I need more sleep, cuz I'm deep in emergency territory, so we are doing a focused sinus intervention this week.

I can't think of a way to make this fit my theme. It's not interesting enough to be dystopian, or syncopated enough to be jazzy. It might be wet enough to qualify for swamp creature self care, but I don't think that's a metaphor I wish to draw.

8 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

I do not have an instant pot, but this conversation is making me want to invest in one!

I'm not normally a "go buy gadgets" person, but... cookers that shut themselves off and are safe to leave unwatched are great.

The good news is, my calf pull isn't too bad. The bad news is, it's bad enough, and it's jacking up my hip. I'm not a fan.

Walking distances is probably out for the near future, so I'll do ten minutes or so of walking at home, and switch to low-tech rowing. Maybe some dance. I can stand on it fine.

2 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

What about second flowy kilt?

I practice intuitive pleating.

19 hours ago, Salinger said:

I am thinking i will aim for 5000 steps per day this challenge.

5000 steps is a good goal. I'm a fan of the 7000-ish step ultimate goal, and 5k is a good chunk of the way there.

I would make a plan for gradually getting there. 5000 steps is about 50 minutes of walking, and will be very noticeable going from a more sedentary pattern. It might even be a bit of a strain, if your body isn't used to that. So starting with consistency and ramping up, maybe even ramping up 1k steps per week of the challenge to hit 5k in the last week, would be one option. Another would be splitting it up into 3 or 4 walks across the day. I used to hit 5k just from various bits of my commute, if I picked the further bus stop. (That can also be a good way to hide it throughout the day, if the issue is more the shock to your schedule of losing a whole hour. Somehow finding four 10-15 minute blocks is a lot easier.)

Basically, have some plans for not burning yourself out on an ambitious goal, and work with where you are. It's a doable goal, for sure, but it's a big shift in where you're spending your time and how much walking you're doing.

48 minutes ago, Jarric said:

Chickens in your office is kind of a cool thing to have. I'm sure I'd get bored of the mess fast, but right now it sounds like a great idea.

4 hours ago, Harriet said:

Unfortunately I seem to be the kind of bear that does best not on honey or fish but on fruit and tubers and cows and cream, cream being a convenient modern substitute for cow fat, I presume.

Sacred foods are not for everyday meals. Reserve your blueberries and honey for the ritual observances. (Browse the blueberry bushes once a day, and raid the bees once a week and twice in summer, because stinging sucks and honey is seasonal.) We are not nervous comedy Pooh Bears who keep our paws constantly in jars of honey. We are very serious bears who hunt red meat between dabbling in sylvan omnivory.

MEND YOUR SALMONY WAYS, HERETIC.

Or at least think salmony thoughts while taking an omega 3 supplement.

I'm waiting for the Bored Stronkey NFT.

11 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

There is merit in showing up, and this is a wonderful challenge.

Latvia! Might not be bad...

7 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Do any of you have advice on aphrodisiac  supplements for alcohol that I can share with him?   

Alcohol is not gonna help with that. But he might see related benefits from the traditional American folk way of learning to tie the maraschino cherry stems into a knot with his tongue.

8 hours ago, Sovalis said:

I don’t know your sacred honey imbibing habits. ❤️

HONEY FOR THE BEAR GODS.

Ugh, that's a lot of frustration and life stuff hitting all at once. Does it help to balance the extra effort with extra rest?  I sometimes do that, on the (slightly tenuous) grounds that my mental energy is being depleted faster than usual and needs an extra recharge.

I'm glad you and your brother will be seeing your dad soon!

I HAVE SWAMP THING. And also I am suitably dressed for this future, down to the whimsical socks. It's not my fault if everyone else forgot to move here with me.

I seem to have randomly pulled a muscle in my calf, so it's possible my morning walk might become something more rehabby for the first week, like a shorter walk and some rowing. That's fine. Half an hour of gentle movement. It's not sharply pulled, just oddly stressed, so it hopefully won't take too long to shape up. (Though I did not help it today.)

I need to remember, when I have no brain for the hard things, that doing five minutes of hard brain things feels good, and usually leads to a decent 15 minute chunk of work getting done, even if I truly don't have a long session in me. Helps if the headache is gone, though.

Anyway, I did some things, took a walk, rested when I needed it (roughly), have passed my 2 liter hydration minimum, and ate healthyish things. I would not call it a stellar day, but a day where I dealt well with subpar conditions.

An extra mellow musical choice today, because I'm low-level tired and dehydrated, and that's making it hard to think. (I've been working on both, but it's hard to get enough sleep or water.)

Coffee. I should go make coffee, shouldn't I? That would theoretically help with both problems. And I ought to be pairing coffee with my jazz.

I'm getting little things done today, but I'm not very focused.

22 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

May I ask in solidarity what artful things swim around in your options bucket of crafty things to do? 😉

"There is some confusion as to what magic actually is. I think this can be cleared up if you just look at the very earliest descriptions of magic. Magic in its earliest form is often referred to as 'the art'. I believe this is completely literal. I believe that magic is art and that art, whether it be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words, or images, to achieve changes in consciousness. The very language about magic seems to be talking as much about writing or art as it is about supernatural events. A grimoire, for example, the book of spells, is simply a fancy way of saying grammar. Indeed, to cast a spell, is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness. And I believe that this is why an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world that you are likely to see to a shaman."

 - Alan Moore

(That means definitely some writing, and maybe some painting or drawing.)

28 minutes ago, Jarric said:

This is similar to what I do actually. We usually have a roast dinner on Sundays (as is the law in England), so we just get about 1kg of meat for 2 of us and then chuck it in curries/chillis/sanwiches/pasta stuff/whatever during the week. It's arguably even lazier than his method, because we don't even seal the meat, it just goes in an oven dish and goes in the oven for a while.

 

You could do a similar thing with a slow cooker too - you don't even need to add liquid to a slow cooker, you can literally put the meat in, turn it on low, and leave it for 8 hours.

I'm also a fan of the massive batch of chili or stew that I can make in the Instant Pot and walk away from. It takes a while to build up variety at one or two of those a week, but it's pretty efficient for zero effort meals later. They also address the issue of not having any ideas for meals, which can be a thing. No thinking required.

Just now, Rhovaniel said:

I figured out WHY it feels like cooking is too much effort - it does not fit well into my evenings. My walks tend to be an hour long, and three nights a week I play D&D... that's three nights I can either walk OR I can cook and I will almost never choose cooking lol. The rest of the time.. by the time I get back from my walk, I am in no mood to wait for food to cook and I have stuff to do... thus the cycle repeats. 

I totally get it, that's largely why I dabbled in it, too. Spending an hour every night cooking after work is a lot of time.

I think I'd recommend the Instant Pot and rice cooker method. (The Instant Pot will cook rice, so in theory this could just be the Instant Pot method, but there's a lot to be said for being able to make the rice at the same time your meal is cooking sometimes. It is possible, with some thought, to cook two things at once in the Instant Pot, but I wouldn't say it's always convenient.) The two biggest labor savers in the kitchen. The "large batch of chili or tagine or stew" method is going to be the most efficient to store in limited fridge and freezer space for microwaving later.

And also, the worst case if you have nothing prepped is, you can safely start them going and go out for your walk, and come home to a cooked dinner they've been keeping warm for you after shutting themselves off. That is an unbelievably useful improvement over cooking you have to babysit manually. It's very freeing to walk away and do what you need to do, and come back when it's convenient to come back. The low end of low effort becomes very low indeed. And, okay, many of those meals would be nicer if things were lovingly browned till golden or chopped attractively, but there's nothing wrong with just dumping things in to cook.

13 minutes ago, Rhovaniel said:

If I can grab a container, throw it in the microwave and be eating within 5 minutes, I will do that. THAT SAID, using that idea of cooking a big bit of meat on Sunday and making that into several meals is worth exploring. 

It's also not a mutually exclusive thing. One of the biggest issues with meal prep is variety. Having a few cooked ingredients that are not preplanned can be good when you're tired of what you have in the freezer, and want a fast turkey and bacon sandwich and an apple. And also, just making sure every time you cook has tons of leftovers on principle. Doesn't even matter what they are now, maybe they'll be next weekend's big batch of soup. Maybe you just freeze it as slices until you're inspired to put together some roast turkey batch meals some day. It all brings down the net effort per meal.

And I forgot to add, for me, hydration has a huge impact on nosebleeds. Are you drinking enough?

1 hour ago, spezzy said:

I have always felt that turmeric was helpful when i'm consistent in taking it, so it's one of my very few staples. 

Do you take it for inflammation or more specific purposes?

1 hour ago, spezzy said:

am experimenting with ashwagandha and rhodiola and really liking that so who knows. 

Interesting! Tell me more about this.