Maeghaan

New thread! March for Maeghaan

This is basically a redux of February, tweaked slightly! 1) Bodyweight and C25K rotation I started a weekly routine last week (though I skipped yesterday for reasons relating to the annual spring dog poop clean up and have a double session today... Sometimes being an adult interferes). Monday, Thursday, Saturday - C25k. Zombies, Run! version Sunday, Wednesday, Friday - BW Routine (taking from startbodyweight.com) as set up on google docs BW consists of - Squat progressions, Pull up progressions, Handstand pushup progressions, Leg raise progressions, Dip/Pushup Progressions (alternate session for these, thank the deities, fuck you dips!), horizontal pull progressions, and plank progressions. I'm also currently starting each session with deadlifts, but as I add more weight I won't continue doing them every session. 2) Adulting Redux Still need to sort clothes Still need to sort books Vacuum once a week Water House plants once a week Need to start outside yardwork, but I'll have to think on how I want to tackle all of this (and weather can still interfere!) 3) Pet care! Tis time for the spring shedding bonanza! Brush the dogs and the cats once a week (do the dogs outside if nice enough). Walk both the dogs 2 times a week. Dedicate 15 minutes a night to playing with cats, either with laser pointer or lure. Cuddle with all nightly (not like this doesn't happen anyway )

Maybe try subbing sour cream? I end up subbing sour cream for a lot of things cause I'm not a mayo fan.

Just a random thought based on some of my own diet stuff concerning your blood, have you tried keeping close track of your micronutrient intakes for a few days or so to see if you are low or high on anything? I don't know of anything specific that could cause this (maybe sodium?), but for myself, my pulse rate is super responsive to the amounts of potassium I take in each day, and to a lesser amount sodium as well. I have to make effort to make sure I get enough potassium (I've settled on supplementing because I'm terrible at consistently eating enough leafy greens :S), and sodium. Sodium is something that I think people get confused on a bit when trying to eat healthier, since it's been such a boogey man for so long. Try to hit your daily recommended amount unless told specifically by your doctor to limit more; too much sodium can be bad, but you do need some for proper functioning and research is showing that too little over long term can have just as nasty of outcomes as too much over longer term. Feel free to discard as necessary, was just spit ballin

I've been toying with trying container potatoes, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger. I, uh, might have just bought some more seeds from them. I have an impulse seed buying problem :D

I have been dying to try growing potatoes or sweet potatoes, but I just don't have the room anywhere

Depression sucks. Solidarity fist bump. All you can do is treat yourself the best you are able while trying to get through a down patch. Take care of yourself! <3

I got a seed tray prepped! Bunch of veggies started. These are mostly Baker Creek seeds. All my tomatoes: Costoluto Genovese Tomato Principe Borghese Tomato Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry Tomato Marglobe Supreme Tomato Emerald Apple Tomato Purple Bumble Bee Tomato All my peppers: King Of The North Pepper Emerald Giant Pepper Chocolate Beauty Pepper Yellow Monster Pepper Fish Pepper Lemon Drop Pepper Thai Red Chili Pepper Craig's Grande Jalapeno Pepper Pasilla Bajio Pepper And some serrano seeds I had saved from a previous year Also some Ground Cherries, and tomatillos, a couple kinds of spinach, a couple kinds of amaranth, and some rainbow chard.

Hey, if I wanted to join in next time should I go ahead and sign up or do you want to wait a bit to make sure your people from previous times get a spot for sure?

I think that's something that can be hard for any caregiver to balance - making sure you give yourself enough time to take care of yourself. It's so easy to get caught up in caring for someone you just want to feel better so badly that you end up neglecting yourself.

It really is! I have felt so much more energetic thus far this week. Well, really only yesterday and today, but I'll take it. I did the first workout for couch to 5k yesterday! The Zombies, Run! version, of course. And after I sat down long enough to dry off, I was moving around cooking up stuff for the rest of the week all evening! So, today will be my first day fully back on track diet wise, since I finally managed to get cooking done. Today I'll be taking it a bit easy (some easy yoga and stretching) since I have Tuesday set up as my 'rest' day right now. I'm so happy to be feeling more like myself! I don't know if the last couple weeks were just a depression blip or what, I'm just thankful it's over for now.

They really do! Well, at least, one of mine does. Tristan will jump up, curl around my head, and get all tangled up playing with my hair Milo, on the other hand, gets offended when I get up because I disturbed his rest.

Home gym picture finally! Tristan is giving it finally inspection now.

Last recipe for me! So, in the quest for a new breakfast item to make ahead of time, I'm combining an old favorite with a keto-friendly substitute. Muffin Melts (filling modified from the Pioneer Woman's recipe!) on Cloud Bread (via ruled.me) Cloud Bread: 3 large eggs 3 oz cream cheese 1/8 tsp Cream of Tartar 1/2 tsp morton lite salt (I use lite salt to get more potassium cause I suck at eating leafy greens) 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder 1/8 - 1/4 tsp Cayenne Few cracks of ground black pepper Instructions: Preheat oven to 300F. Separate yolks from whites into two different bowls. Beat whites and Cream of Tartar until soft peaks form. In the other bowl, mix together cream cheese and yolks with seasonings. Gently fold egg whites into yolk mixture. You can make this on a cookie sheet into 6 larger circles, or I usually make them in a muffin top/woopie pie pan which will give me around 20 english muffin sized pieces. Cook in oven for 25 minutes. These can be kept in the fridge or frozen, but separate slices with paper towel/waxed paper/parchment paper so they don't freeze or mush together. Muffin Melt filling: 12 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1 cup shredded mozz cheese 1 cup sour cream 12 slices cooked bacon, crumbled 1-2 T Dijon mustard 1 tsp Garlic Powder 1 T Worcestershire sauce Generous squirt of Sriracha Instructions: Gently mix everything together. Store covered in a bowl in the fridge. In the morning, scoop out roughly 1/12 of total amount onto a slice of Cloud Bread. You can eat cold, or place under a broiler for ~5 mins to make all hot and melty.

Have to share, current hair color I'm coveting the hell out of!

So in both good and frustrating news, everything blood related came back normal. Bah. They want to do a urine culture next, so I have to finagle how to get that done ASAP. I'm not optimistic as generally if I have a UTI I have very noticeable symptoms, but we shall see. It is reassuring to have recent normal blood tests, though. I think it's a good idea to have an idea of what your body's baselines are, in case something is happening. Anyway, we got the treadmill set up in the room, woo! I'll try to remember to get a picture up later this evening. After a week of just letting myself sleep as much as I felt like, I'm annoyed and trying to just force myself through this. We'll see how it works, but I'm just so frustrated right now that I'd rather try to muster will power than sleeping all the time now. In slightly more irritating news, turns out my barbell is too short to work on my rack properly (grrr) so I'll have to buy a different one sometime here. I'm looking to recommit to strict keto here, so after today (I'm giving myself today since I need to do cooking tonight to properly prepare) I'll be back on a strict diet with no zero cal soda or no occasional alcohol and no snacking on a whim, even if it's technically diet compliant. I'm trying to watch my micronutrients a bit better, so for the first few weeks I'll be doing a protein shake that has a good amount of micros in it for lunch.

They drew blood for a bunch of tests, hopefully I'll get the results here soon. I feel like all I did last week was sleep and go to work. Ugh. My 4 week challenge is not going well Might have to just redo this whole thing more or less in March. I also indulged in a big way over the weekend in not diet friendly foods. On the plus (?) side, I think I can rule out any obvious dietary things as the issue, an influx of carbs did nothing for my overall energy levels. This is all so frustrating.

Right? And Coke Zero, for me lately :D

So, this week has been a total bust so far. I've been incredibly exhausted - I barely make it out of bed in the morning, and once I get to work all I can do is think about how long until I get home so I can take a nap. I get home, go to sleep, wake up long enough to snag some dinner, and go back to sleep until the next morning. Been about 12 hours of sleep a day, which is absurd. I was feeling this increasingly the last couple weeks, but I was fighting against it, convinced I was lazy or something. Over the weekend, I finally admitted that yes, something is wrong (after a few other symptoms cropped up). I talked to my doctor, who wanted me to come in as soon as i could manage (which is Thurs afternoon). Your doctor wanting you to come in right away is never good for your state of mind, and this sent my anxiety into a tizzy. I preemptively cut off my nails, because I knew they would be a casualty to my anxiety per usual. I did what you aren't supposed to do, look up your symptoms, and per usual when one does this, I convinced myself I had Sjogren's syndrome, or MS, or cancer, etc. But, after actually bring all my worries up with my partner, he made an offhand comment about meds that made me look up the side effects of the anti depressant I've been on. Turns out, all of my symptoms seem to be one of the listed side effects. I have mixed feeling about this. It would be nice for it to be something that simple, and going off of it would fix the incredible sleepiness and fatigue and forgetfulness I've been suffering. But at the same time, I don't WANT to go off of this med - it's been working beautifully for my depression! I don't relish having to go through searching for a good med again :/ I know I should stop thinking about this so much until I go to my appointment with my doctor, but anxiety does what it wants, and right now it's spinning in circles over this Seems like it my be an interesting few weeks regardless, though.

For our Super Bowl party, I made two recipes. The first is easy (and so damn good!) Guacamole 3 ripe avocados 1 roma tomato 1/2 a small yellow sweet onion 1 jalapeno 3 cloves of garlic 1/2 t salt 1-2 T lime juice Instructions: Peel and mash the avocados in your bowl. Cut the roma tomato, onion, and jalapeno at a very small dice (or bigger, if you prefer chunkier guac). Mince your garlic. Add all your veggies, salt, and lime juice to the mashed avocado and stir well. Try not to eat it all in one sitting. If you manage to restrain yourself, don't be scared of it if your guac develops a brownish/greyish tinge from oxidation; I promise it will still taste fine! The second was my addition of a keto-friendly sweet so I wouldn't be too tempted by the other stuff there. The main recipe is here: Keto Roll Cake. I modified it a bit (because I never have coconut milk, and I don't like sour cream in the filling). And, I made a couple variations: Default (chocolate with vanilla filling), Mint (chocolate with mint filling), Vanilla (vanilla cake with vanilla filling), and berry (vanilla cake with berry filling). I'll list the Berry one, as it turned out to be my favorite: Berry Keto-roll cake Cake: 1C Almond Flour 4T melted butter 3 eggs 1/4 C Psyllium husk powder 1/4 C Vanilla Protein Powder 1/4 C Sour Cream 1/4 C Erythritol 1t vanilla 1t baking powder 1-4 T almond milk, if it needs to have more moisture (but mine was fine this weekend without) Cake Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine all your dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, and mix together. Add your wet to your dry, mixing well (I'm rarely all that careful about orders of addition, just make sure your butter isn't scalding hot when you add it). Put a silpat or sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and flatten your dough out to cover the surface evenly. Cook at 350F for 11-14 minutes. Let cool a bit (but not too much, it's easier to roll if it's a touch warm still) For the filling: 8oz cream cheese, room temperature 8oz butter, softened 1/4 C heavy cream 1/4 C Erythritol 1/4 t liquid Stevia 1t vanilla 1-2 teaspoons cherry extract 1-2 teaspoons raspberry flavoring syrup Instructions: Mix everything until well incorporated. Spread evenly on the surface of the slightly warm cake. Using the silpat or parchment paper, roll the cake tightly together. Eagerly eat the filling that squeezes out of the roll. Cut into pieces (10-12), and eat the rough ends immediately because you can. Refrigerate for storage. Eat extras for breakfast for the next week because they are keto diet friendly and I can.

Congratz! That's all so exciting!