sarakingdom

All families are different, and some really care about feeding you up, but in my experience, most don't care what you actually eat. They just want you to join in the bonding activity, like things that they like, and appreciate their effort. So as long as you're saying things like, "That looks amazing, I can't wait to taste it, you must have spent hours baking" or "oh, I had a bite of that, it was fantastic", you've done the social joining-in, and they don't really mind what you put on your plate. Could be a serving, could be a spoonful. Sometimes they'll even appreciate it more if your line is, "I shouldn't, but I have to try a small bite". (Which is the sort of thing I hate saying because I loathe the cheat mindset, but it can flatter the person who's standing there offering it while letting you make it a small serving.) Where they start pressuring you is when it looks like you're not interested in, or excluded from, the social activity. Take care of the social interactions, and the food is pretty much left up to you.

Most of our gif shock troops are taking a challenge off, but we can see what we can do, if you like.

My feeling on social eating situations is to find a win-win compromise. Food is social bonding, on a level that's hard to fight, at least all at once. I mean, sometimes it's just fuel, but sometimes it's really not. So sometimes I figure you find a place in between that basically satisfies both needs, good-enough-for-government-work fashion. For me, it's usually a huge salad, with a really small serving of whatever it is, and that works for me, because "No thanks, I'll just have a salad" is totally different socially from "Let me grab a salad, I need to get my vegetables in, but pass me a couple of those wings to go on top". I figure that if 2/3rds of what I'm eating during one dodgy meal is hitting my goals and I'm not doing it every day, I've got no reason to feel guilty over it. (And if it helps, wings are high in protein and low in carbs, which makes them one of the best fast foods out there. Don't hang onto that guilt over them. Not worth it.) As long as the trend is improvement, I don't think compromise is a dirty word. I've come to mistrust perfection. There are all sorts of emotional eating, and when emotions like shame and regret and perfectionism get involved, there is a risk of orthorexia among people who spend a lot of time working on diet or exercise, and it's a very short jump from there to some real problems. It's hard to be totally pragmatic about the purpose of food when it's so wound up in big issues like self-image and peer pressure and fear and nostalgia, and on some basic biological level, emotion and food can't be totally separated, because we're designed to reward survival behaviors like eating and group bonding. It helps to recognize that 1) from a totally neutral viewpoint, that emotional response exists, and 2) there's a reason it's there, so it's likely to be strong. Then you see the game board a lot more clearly, and see the needs you have to meet to outsmart it. Social eating isn't a good or bad thing, or a personal weakness, it's just a human culture thing. The trick is finding a way to thread the needle between conflicting social bonding and body image goals, rather than trying to force yourself not to care about one strong need or the other.

Nice. Are you training from a 19th century source, or do you have a modern trainer? Also, the important question from that video: what do you think of Black Sails? I've been kinda tempted to check it out. Meditation does help blunt the extremes of stress, anxiety, and depression pretty well. (And in theory helps some with ADHD, but...) I haven't quite got to the point where I feel like mindfulness is quite as awesome as I'd like it to be, but my meditations are short, and lately they've been sort of infrequent. But it definitely moves the needle when stress hits.

For not liking water, I'm gonna suggest getting a pitcher of it in the fridge with some fresh mint leaves or some slices of cucumber (or lemon). It'll taste better cold and with a hint of something in it, without bending the water nature of the challenge by adding herbal tea or anything. (Although herbal tea is also a thing that also is water.)

Your martial arts school opened! Yaaaay! How's it feeling, aside from conditioning issues?

Week 3: Day 1 0 points Swimming, sword, and strength 5 points IF -- points Nice disciplined sleep hours 5 points Meditation 0 points Boom 3 points Bonuses Total: 13/25 points Back to a nice strict IF today. One bonus point for extra-long meditation, which I needed, one for doing some postponed tasks. No penalty for bad sleep choices, because I've decided to try the Carrot rather than the stick.

Week 2 catch-up post will go here when I get a minute.

Hello, my name is Sara, and I'm an insomnoholic. I gave myself a special holiday stay-up-late-to-watch-TV-and-drink-tea indulgence, and ended up starting a (very useful!) job that ended up with me going to bed at 5am. (By which I mean nearly 6am.) This means that I absolutely cannot trust myself to stay up late. Anything past midnight is a serious ADHD-symptom risk, which I know, but don't always enforce. (I can, however, go to bed and watch TV. That doesn't trigger the same work-till-dawn impulse, and anything I can do to lure myself to bed is worthwhile. But when it comes to post-midnight verticality, like the Überwald League of Temperance, my motto must be "Not von drop!" I need to become a black-ribboner. It seems appropriate for midnight, and also the black-ribboners have explicitly given up all that "zee children off der night" business. Like those going B-total, I need to resist my urges with cocoa and wholesome group singalongs about how I no longer crave zer B-vord, my vord yes! (The cocoa, at least, seems useful for sleep. Songs about no longer vanting to suck blood, not so much. But you can't mess with tradition. That much Discworld has taught me.)

What a cutie. Hrm, can't say if there's any way to chill him out. I never had a cat who bothered me at night. (Which suggests maybe... catnip toy that gets released at midnight and 3am? Or, possibly, is he hungry? If you don't free-feed him, maybe leaving out some food would do it.)

I sort of missed the new fuzz ball! 1) Pics plz, and 2) he'll settle down. Where does he sleep?

Hrm. At something like this, I'd want stuff I didn't really have to cook, just quickly assemble. A lot of that stuff you can grab quickly is also good for bento lunches, too, if your friend and you wanted to take lunches. In theory, omelets are very doable in microwaves, but I've never personally tried it. Boiled eggs are good, though. Bagged pre-washed salads. (One bag is usually five quite generous side salads.) Nuts. Fruit. Baby carrots and hummus. A rotisserie chicken from the grocery store that you could eat some of, then stick in the fridge and keep working on. If you pre-cut veggies in tupperware, you can microwave them with a little water. (Or buy frozen veggie mixes, they can go in the fridge for a day or two before you eat them.) Heck, if you're really feeling organized, you can grab some tupperware, make four days of meals for two people, freeze them, then stick them in the fridge when you get there, and just grab some snacks. Four days is reasonable for stuff to sit in a fridge, and you don't want to spend time shopping and cooking if you can avoid it.

It might be worth just keeping some Lactaid tablets around, then. An allergy would be a lot harder, but lactose intolerance is treatable. And, honestly, when you've had to cut so much out of your diet already, having to do it again is annoying.

This is going to be Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart week. I totes need some Lethbridge-Stewart to keep me on track. Week 2: Day 2 10 points Swimming, sword, and strength 5 points IF 4 points Nice disciplined sleep hours 3 points Meditation 0 points Boom 3 points productivity bonus Total: 25/25 points The sleep hours were reasonably on schedule, but I'm exhausted, so they weren't on schedule enough. The meditation was a real meditation, but it hasn't been satisfying me lately, so I'm docking points.

Celiac and lactose intolerance often go together, which is a pain. If it is actually the lactose, and not an allergy to the proteins or whatever, you may have some options.

Man, I'm sorry it's come to giving up the dancing. But protecting your knees is a worthwhile choice. Knees are rough. (One of the things I really appreciate about aikido is that it seems doable with an aging body. You don't see the big fall-off you see in other arts when people hit middle age and start having real trouble.)

Week 2: Day 1 5 points Swimming, sword, and strength 5 points IF 4 points Nice disciplined sleep hours 0 points Meditation 0 points Boom Total: 14/25 points I had a big attention failure this afternoon. Completely hyperfocused on the wrong thing, and got something trivial done while not doing the important things. Did not even notice the hours going by. Blech. I've been doing so well lately, too.

Week 1: Day 7 5 points Swimming, sword, and strength 3 points IF 4 points Nice disciplined sleep hours 0 points Meditation 0 points Boom Total: 12/25 points Weekly Total: 97/7 = 13.9 points = WIN

Damn, there should be! Vodka, orange juice, and what? People usually add blue curacao to sci-fi-themed drinks, but I can't even imagine. (Actually, it is orange flavored, so maybe that'd work.)

Week 1: Day 6 5 points Swimming, sword, and strength 5 points IF 3 points Nice disciplined sleep hours 5 points Meditation 0 points Boom Total: 18/25 points Sleep was not that well disciplined, because I swam late and had a bit of a relaxed Friday evening, and slept in because my body was all worn out from doing stuff. So I just need to not make that a habit.

That's the rumor, anyway... They can indeed. I once heard "Wee Free Men" described in "Describe a Terry book badly" as "A young girl goes babysitting with a frying pan and a bunch of fun-sized Scotsmen", and the seventh Doctor is certainly a fun-sized Scotsman. Hey, I'm up for it. Do your worst, man.

You know, possibly you're tackling too many goals at once this challenge, and need to step it up over a couple of challenges. It might be worth your time to pare back to these basics (plus a movement goal). These basics are hard. Don't feel bad if the first week is an indication you need to simplify or focus your goals - that's what it's there to tell you.

Week 1: Day 5 10 points Swimming, sword, and strength 5 points IF 5 points Nice disciplined sleep hours 5 points Meditation 3 points Boom Total: 28/25 points Man, I am struggling with being focused enough on work, and also with the stuff I need to get done. This is a very, very tough concentration week for me. I'm pushing through it the hard way. It is hard. I am having small wins every day on that front, but not many big wins.

Week 1: Day 2, 3, and 4 5 points Swimming, sword, and strength 16 points IF - a lot of dropping back to 16/8 for brain-management reasons 12 points Nice disciplined sleep hours 5 points Meditation 2 points Boom Total: 40/75 points

Meditation is stupid but good for you. (I've also been avoiding it lately, and bad at it when I try.) Bother one of your friends. They won't mind. Go for a walk, or bag comics together, or watch a damn movie, you've earned it.