Dances with Nerds

"You open your eyes to discover that a new day has been bestowed upon you. It is day number 1.You feel refreshed enough to take on the world! You strap your Fists to your back and head out for some adventure." I wonder what the record is for most respawns in one challenge... Oh well. I'm taking today to somewhat clean the apartment and make a really good list of crap that needs to get done (spread out over a reasonable amount of time), and down lots of hot liquids for these sniffles, and then it's back into The Jungle (hopefully not spending too much time on The Failboat)!

It resonated, but made me anxious at the same time. Part of it is being unable to see Future Me as someone I should be advocating for. I'm working on this. I'm working on negative self-talk in general. The other part is a deeply ingrained habit of laziness. I was going to try to get out of that habit with Buffy, but the treadmill died on the third day; it's from the 80s and the helpline is dead as well. I don't have house shoes; I have slippers. It is so nice coming home and taking my shoes off and putting on slippers. Of course he'd agree! You know what else he'd say? "It's not easy to keep trying, but it's one good way to grow." Say. Sing. Same thing. Dishes have been done the last few nights, and I've been getting to bed on time (last night that was despite reading), and hitting snooze less. Hitting snooze just once is a big win for me AND I'M TAKING IT!

The fact that I'm in the same boat is probably why I checked in before doing any kind of update myself, so rest assured that we've all done it. Well, all the cool kids have, at any rate. Definitely! And what is towel talk with out DNA: "A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough." ― The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Thank you for the encouragemints. Just found out that vacation is getting moved to February. This is actually a bit of a relief as the end of the year is super busy what with donations and prep. work for next year. It also gives me more time to get back on track without stressing. Speaking of back on track, I was in bed by 10 and out of bed by 7:15. I'm aiming to be out of bed 15 minutes earlier each week until I hit 6. Dishes were done and put away before bed, and I even got tonight's Jerk Chicken marinating so all I have to do is cook the brussel sprouts while it bakes. Yay!

I'm not positive what's going on with me, but I haven't made my bed or flossed my teeth in about a week and I've left dishes sitting overnight on several occasions. The challenge? Not even close. I'd say that there's some SAD going on, but we've just had an amazingly beautiful week so it's hard to believe that the seasonal change is getting to me. What does this mean? "So we're going to modify the design; you might say, throw it out." (I swear I'm not usually this ineffectual.) CHALLENGE 2.1.1 - GET BACK WHAT WAS LOST 1) Make the bed, floss the teeth, do the dishes. I was doing really well on this and POOF! they've gone. 2a) Go to bed. Set an alarm for 9:30 to remind me that it's time to prep for tomorrow and get ready for bed. 2b) Get out of bed. Yes, it's a comfortable bed, the sheets are soft and the blankets warm; those are not valid reasons to stay in bed until 2 P.M. on the weekends, and 15 minutes before I have to leave on weekdays. 3) Eat my veggies. I'm dropping the meal planning and going to focus on just getting some plant matter back into rotation. That's it. Super simple because apparently even the basics have become a challenge.

Introduction A year ago I was around 340 and I signed up for the NF emails. I did well for a while and fell off. I decided to join a challenge to jump-start things again and did well enough, and then my second challenge happened. How did it go? Let's put it this way: I'm taking no stats from it despite the fact that my weight continued downward. I moved a day or two before the challenge began so my focus was lacking. Which brings us to... CHALLENGE 2.1 - TIME MANAGEMENT BOOT CAMP Main Quest - Make time for fitness. Quest 1: Meal Time Quest 2: Time to Get Up Quest 3: Buffy Time All points will be awarded based on percentage of the quest completed, and will be rounded DOWN to the nearest 10th. Bonus Quest: Time to write it down. National Novel Writing Month I'm not sure I have a novel in me, but I'm pretty sure I have a screenplay in there somewhere. I will write before bed. It will kinda be a pass/fail goal depending on whether I have completed it by the end of the challenge, but if I can start writing at all I'll consider it a win. Bonus Bonus Quest: This time, say it in French. Ce temps, dis-le en Français. (Translation courtesy of Google so....yeah.) I have five more weeks of driving 4 hours every Friday. I have an 8 hour French language course on my mp3 player. I will listen to it, and do my best to learn. Motivation The week after this challenge ends I'm going on vacation with a co-worker. It may involve roller coasters. I want to go on roller coasters. I WILL GO ON ROLLER COASTERS! I hope I'm not too fat for roller coasters.

I'll be following along for general inspirational kick-assery. And because the captain's log picture made me snort.

So I hear that a six-week challenge happened. I, um... am glad so many people took part! Here's my final update: Life Quest: Lose 15 lbs. 14.8 lbs. lost! Imagine if I had tried! This makes 30 lbs. from when I joined NF and 65 lbs. from September 2014. I need to wear a belt with my pants or they don't stay up. At some point I should probably just get new pants, but I still hate hate hate clothes shopping. Quest 1: Meal Planing Having the CSA was great for getting me to explore other foods, but didn't lend itself to good meal planning. It didn't end up so much a plan as a general outline. I did manage to eat out less on Wednesdays than I had anticipated, but Fridays kicked my ass. I am too tired to do anything more complicated than heat something up by the time I get home. This means I either had to eat out Friday and try to make a good decision, or I would come home and devour everything. Quest 2: Big Stretching Every Other Day This is being moved to the next challenge. Quest 3: BBW Every Other Day This is being moved to the next challenge. Bonus Quest: Explore the New Town Check. And now that it is the end of October it is basically closed... Motivation OH! And longer-term goal (like next summer) is to be able to go on roller-coasters and water-slides again! . . . I've been invited on vacation the week after the next challenge ends. There may be roller coasters involved. I guess it's time to step it up.

I warn people to wear layers when they come to my new place. Wear layers, and maybe bring a hot water bottle It sounds like you've been doing a great job adulting, so I have to admit I'm impressed at your decision to spend your unexpected free time doing it as well! Congrats on everything!

Just a quick check-in. So I'm steadily losing weight, due to eating better in general, but I haven't really participated in this challenge. I don't think my challenge goals will change much next time out. The next two weeks I'm concentrating on getting a list of things done and getting back to walking now that I have a treadmill. Oh, and it snowed this weekend, and it's still on the ground; not everywhere, but still. It is far too early in the season to be this cold (22 F!)

1) Identify who your kryptonite is. For a while it was Mom. She'd bring home cookies and suggest we have pizza for dinner at least once a week. Last week she (and Dad) came over for dinner and she brought a pie. Now a) I don't like pie and b ) she KNOWS that I'm trying to lose weight. WTF!?! But the reality of the situation is that I'm my kryptonite. I'm the one that allows myself to stress-eat. I'm the one that continues to put immediate (and very temporary) satisfaction before long-term goals. I'm the one over-scheduling. I'm the one not planning for the fact that I'm going to be to worn out to cook. I'm the one sucking pond water this challenge, and it's nobody's fault but mine. 2) Share ways that you deal with this person/situation. Hiding under my blankets hasn't been working; I'm still there. Enter professional help. I've had my consultation with the psychologist, and we're going to work on stress-eating (and other... stuff.) I also had my first appointment with a Nutritionist and we worked on some goals, but the biggest thing I took out of the meeting is this: Snacks are mini-meals, NOT TREATS. It may take me a few days to wrap my head around that one.

This recipe came with my CSA last week and I finally got around to making it. Curry Apple and Butternut Squash Soup 1 Tbs butter 1 Tbs olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 tsp curry powder (or more!) 1 large butternut squash OR 2 small honeynut - peeled, seeded and cut into chunks 2 apples - peeled, seeded and cut into chunks 1/2 tsp salt pepper to taste 1 cup stock (chicken or veggie) or water 1 cup apple cider Cook onions in butter and oil until translucent (DO NOT BURN!). Add curry powder and let it cook for a few more minutes. Add everything else and boil, then turn it down to a simmer for 30-40 minutes until everything is soft. Puree. Add more liquid (stock for more savory and cider for more sweet) until you have the desired consistency and warm it up a bit if the liquid was cold. Or you can skip the puree step and serve it chunky over rice. I haven't broken it down nutritionally. Sorry.

It came with my CSA the other week and I just got around to it this week. Curry Apple and Butternut Squash Soup 1 Tbs butter 1 Tbs olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 1 tsp curry powder (or more!) 1 large butternut squash OR 2 small honeynut - peeled, seeded and cut into chunks 2 apples - peeled, seeded and cut into chunks 1/2 tsp salt pepper to taste 1 cup stock (chicken or veggie) or water 1 cup apple cider Cook onions in butter and oil until translucent. Add curry powder and let it cook for a few minutes. Add everything else and boil, then turn it down to a simmer for 30-40 minutes until everything is soft. Puree. Add more cider until you have the desired consistency and warm it up a bit if the cider was cold. Or you can skip the puree step and serve it chunky over rice.

I really hope that some of the thirty-eight papers are multiple-choice.

Glad to see you're still around! I can understand needing to save money by not going to a class, especially if you're building a house! Are you doing the construction yourself?

I almost think it's going to be easier after I pick up my final CSA. Right now the majority of my groceries are leafy greens, which I don't care for raw. Once that's over I can plan and then pick up groceries instead of wondering what the hell I'm going to do with all these beets. On the other hand I made two types of soup tonight; one is almost a chicken stew (and I only have enough left over for two more meals so I'm getting better at cooking for one!), and the other is a curry apple butternut soup that I'll have for dinner tomorrow before auto class, perhaps over rice. My meal plan for the week includes finishing all the soup. It also includes two meals at work, because we're having an event weekend. I'm not worried about it too much food-wise, because they lean heavily on organic, minimally processed food (although they usually do a vegetarian burrito bar for lunch the day I'm working, and it never sets well...) The pizza may have one, but the chocolate didn't really. I had one handful and not the rest of them. I counted it as a win. I'm also counting the fact that I maintained my weight as a win. The fact that half of the curtains on the front window are one length and the other have are nowhere near that... well that's going to have to be a draw! Thank you both for your words of encouragement.

So I feel as though I'm getting enough distance from last week to think about it. It didn't go well. I'm floundering. Not quite that kind off floundering... I've planned one week of meals so far. I've exercised thrice. I'm no longer walking because I'm scared of my road and don't have a dog to enthusiastically insist that it's time for walkies. I didn't get everything done at work that I wanted to before I missed Friday. My Friday class is about 8 hours of constantly interacting with classmates (networking is important! So let's do it all the time!) which left me so mentally drained, that by the time I got home (after a 2 hour drive) to discover that the fireplace hasn't been repaired, I ate an entire frozen pizza by myself. Which left me down and I didn't crawl out of bed until after 2 the next afternoon at which point I ate a handful of M&Ms. I got frustrated trying to get online with my laptop, which knows it's being replaced. I spent several hours on Sunday trying to get the sewing machine to work; I failed. And Sunday afternoon I had a coworker over for dinner, and she's the type to monopolize the conversation so it's all about her, so I got a nice big heap of "woe is me". (And yes, I know that's what I'm doing here, but you can read it and move on in under 4 hours.) Then I was reading my medical paperwork last night and I realized that I'm not sure what some of it means, so I have to get in touch with the program coordinator and find out if I'm going to be seeing a whole lot of my PCP. Alot of it is just tiny frustrations, and I know that. But they add up until I feel crushed. I don't know what to do with this alot.

I work in a converted farmhouse, so we don't just have a full kitchen, we also have a bathtub/shower and a washer and dryer. What we lack is insulation... There is also a small farm on site. The pig will be gone for slaughter sometime soon, so we decided to happy up the bacon. The sheep, cows, goats and alpacas will stay all winter. As far as me being the positive influence... nope! I work with mostly super fit folks who do all kinds of sporty fit things and eat super clean, and they do some for fun and some for work. I am the bad influence who started a cookie exchange a few years ago. But I'm not doing it again.

So I didn't get up to exercise this morning but I DID get up. Unfortunately I spent the morning talking with my landlord about a leak in the roof. Oh well, better to discover it now and get it taken care of. On the plus side, six of us went for an afternoon walk at work! It was about a half hour and it included hills and stopping to pet a pig. AND the coworker I'm taking the class with agreed to not eat out, but rather to cook at work, so we've got garlic cabbage in the oven and the chicken in the slow cooker is done! Weeeee!

Sorry, but you get absolutely no say in whether others find you inspiring.

"Use up all the leafy greens before they go bad. Ditto the chicken. In fact, combine the two into a sauteed stew type thing. Eat the rest of the chowder for lunch" That was basically my meal plan for last week. Except Sunday. Sunday I broiled veggies (and a head of garlic) and made spicy tilapia and had a coworker over for dinner. We played Wii Sports until we were sore and then went out and watched the eclipse. Saturday I went for a "hike" with my sister and her kids. Her kids are all under 5, which is why we went on a "hike" instead of a hike. Things I have discovered after living alone for two weeks: Apparently I have some variation of food anxiety. When living with others I have to eat the whole bag of whatever or else it will be gone before I know it and when I want it it won't be there for me. When living alone I can have a bag of mint M&Ms, take a small handful, and not touch them again for a few days and when I want more they're still there. Also, when I made a meal before I had to make enough for everybody and they had to be able to immediately have seconds. Now, I can make a small batch, and if I feel like more I can damn well make myself some more. I've only done this once. Paying the utility bills all by myself means I'm keeping the heat way too low, so I wake up and it's toasty warm under my blankets and I don't want to get up and exercise in the cold. I've exercised once in the new place. This is ridiculous, as there is plenty of room and privacy. I need to either learn to love exercising in the cold, or I need to open the purse-strings and bump the heat up. Celeriac is weird; I don't think I like it. Kohlrabi is okay. A bit of glow-in-the-dark paint helps when learning the layout of a new place. Where's the light-switch in the hall? Oh! There it is! Where is the doorway? Right there! Be sure to avoid falling down the stairs - you can see the edge of the top one glowing gently in the night, so it should be easy! (I may have gotten a bit over-enthusiastic with it one night when I couldn't get to sleep.) I need to re-do Mini #2 - only better. I have a sticky note on my work computer with some odd tasks that haven't been getting done due to the fact that they just aren't a big enough blip on my radar. Once I've got a solid plan I'll be ready to watch radar.​