Tobbe

Day 37 Saturday, 18/8 Mostly good choices  Food log Breakfast - 08:40 Scrambled eggs with hot sauce Veggie sausage Shredded cheese Salsa American "Canadian bacon" Fruitbowl Zero fat vanilla Greek yogurt One cup of black tea I had tasted most of the "bad" stuff for breakfast yesterday. So today I wanted to make healthier choices. Also keeping Steve's "two in a row" rule in the back of my head. Yesterday they had pork and turkey sausages instead of the veggie sausage. Had they had that today this breakfast would have been even better! Drink 2 - 11:00 Cherry flavored Coke Zero Another thing we don't have where I live. So I wanted to taste it. Did I like it? Let's just say I'll never buy that drink again in my life! Drink 3 - 11:30 Zero calories Monster energy drink. This one tasted much better than the coke! Lunch - 15:00 2 sweet potato fries Again, yesterday was horrible. The lunch I had yesterday was a horrible choice looking at it from a pure physical health perspective. So today I wanted something healthy. But we couldn't find any good options in the area we were. So I decided to just skip lunch. I knew I'd again eat things that aren't very good for my health later tonight for dinner. My friend didn't want to skip lunch though, so I tasted two of his sweet potato fries. They were really good. Especially the thin and super crispy one! (Not pictured) Drink 4 - 17:30 Fermented juice Didn't really care for the flavor of this one. I think something less sweet, like perhaps lemon, would taste much better. In fact, I read "Lemon - Ginger" on the label when I looked at it in the store, and thought that was what this one would taste like. But it tasted Cantaloupe melon. Reading "Stevia" on the front I assumed it would be a zero calorie drink. Not until I had finished it all did I realize that the bottle contained 80 kcal. A quick google told me I'd have to walk or swim for about 15 minutes to compensate for those calories. So that's what I did. Dinner - 20:40 Pacific Poke Soba Noodles Went to "BJ's Restaurants and Brewhouse" for dinner today. I had already browsed through their menu online. So I immediately knew what I wanted. But look at that messy plating! I would never serve something like that when we have friends over for dinner! But at least it tasted really good! I ate it all, except for maybe half of the noodles. Dessert - 21:15 Oreo pizookie White chocolate and macadamia pizookie Monkeybread pizookie My friend and I split a "Pizookie Trio". I ate a little bit more than half of it. It was really good! Definitely something I'd eat again (But I probably won't, unless I decide to bake it myself.) Fitness Log Morning walk @Ingagr Those are three photos from my morning walk today. Didn't plan to post them at first, but since you commented about the photos from my walks I figured I should post some new ones from today Swimming Did laps in the pool again today.20+ minutes. Swam some extra minutes to burn off the calories from that melon water drink I had (I did 10 minutes of extra swimming, and 10 minute extra walking.) Workouts Did my first Academy workout today! Yay, finally! I've been waiting to get started, but been putting it of because I could never get off my ass and select warmup- and cooldown exercises. Completed Quests Fitness: Warm It Up 40 XP Fitness: Cool It Down 40 XP Fitness: Complete your first workout 25 XP 10 Bodyweight Squats 40 XP Fitness: Complete a workout on the road 25 XP Fitness: Complete your first workout 25 XP

I've posted a lot of photos of beautiful nature from when I was on vacation in Norway. Could it be those you've seen?

Day 36 Friday, 17/8 A lot of walking. A lot of eating  Food log Breakfast - 08:00 Fresh and dried fruit, some nuts Greek non-fat blueberry yogurt Poppy seed pound cake Cinnamon swirl pound cake BP&J bagel Cream cheese and jam bagel Waffle with syrup and cinnamon/sugar blend Waffle with honey Two cups of tea We don't have bagels where I live, so I always have to eat that when I travel to the US! We also don't have grape jelly, so can't have proper PB&J sandwiches... We also never do waffles for breakfast. (By "don't have", I mean it's not available in regular grocery stores. I'm sure there are speciality bakeries that make bagels. And while I'm pretty sure you won't find grape jelly anywhere, you might find some craft jam maker somewhere that cooks grape jam. But I've never seen one.) Bad excuses to eat like crap for breakfast, but that's all I've got as my defense... Snack - 11:40 Bean and corn quesadilla Sampled a piece of "Trader Joe’s Chipotle Vegetable Quesadillas" while shopping at TJ's. It was surprisingly good for a pre-packaged meal I must say! Drink - 12:00 Coconut water My friend I'm traveling with bought a bottle of coconut water. Had a few mouthfulls, didn't like it. So he gave it to me. I had maybe half the bottle, but didn't really like it either, so we threw it out. Had it been calorie free I probably would have finished it. But if I'm going to drink my calories, I'm going to make sure it's something I really enjoy drinking! Drink - 13:00 Coke Zero Lunch - 14:40 Cheesecake We went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch... Another one of those "enjoy while you can" things. We don't have The Cheesecake Factory where I live. Don't have any cheesecake shops/restaurants/cafés at all actually. And this one is my absolute favorite. In their own words "Mango Key Lime Cheesecake - Topped with Mango Mousse on a Vanilla Coconut Macaroon Crust". OMG! It's also 1200 kcal, without the extra whipped cream Dinner - 17:30 Tortilla chips with salsa Small margarita Beef taco Fish taco Tequila shot with a slice of cinnamon spiced orange Tortilla chips with salsa (not pictured) Taquitos with rice and beans Margarita Huckleberry float We went on a food tour during the afternoon/early night. So that was our dinner tonight. I've divided the photos per stop of the tour above. Best food was the beans and rice (the taquitos on the same plate were very bland, and the guacamole wasn't very good either). Best drink was the tequila with cinnamon spiced orange. The tequila on its own was super smooth, and I'd gladly drink it as-is. But with the orange and cinnamon it was awesome! Much better than the regular salt+lime tequila shot combo Fitness Log Morning walk Morning walk, exploring the closest neighborhood around the hotel we're staying at Swim I was really hot when we got back to the hotel about an hour before the food tour was about to start, so I swam laps in the hotel pool for 10 minutes. All day walking Got a lot of steps in today! Doesn't compensate for all the bad nutritional decisions I've made during the day, but at least it helps a bit

Thanks. Had never heard of DBT before, had to look it up. I do know what CBT is though as I'm currently under treatment myself. With that description of what you do, I do see how that book could really be of interest to you!

Thanks for the yogurt making photos I don't have a yogurt maker, so I guess I'll continue buying my yogurt in the grocery store instead...

Nice going on the weight loss! And well done on doing both gym workouts and running! How do you make your yogurt? I've been wanting to try making yogurt myself, but it's just too cheap and easy to just buy in the store that I never get around to it...

Day 35 Thursday, 16/8 A full day of traveling. Because of crossing so many time zones I wouldn't look too closely on the different times for my drinks/meals...  Food log Drink 1 - 05:40 Drank the last of my Pepsi from yesterday, and some water on the airport this morning since I can't bring those through security. Drink 2 - 06:10 Sampled some really good rooibos tea at the airport while waiting for my flight. (Yeah, I know it's technically not even a tea, but that's what we're all calling it, isn't it? ) I love walking around at airports sampling free stuff But today I was here too early, so a lot of shops hadn't opened yet. Drink 3 - 07:50 I was expecting to be served breakfast on my first flight this morning, but we got nothing at all. Not even a cup of tea was offered. But I had a can of coke in my backpack that I drank instead for eating breakfast. Drink 4 - 09:15 Sprite Zero that I had to guzzle down before clearing the next security check Lunch - 12:10 Shepherds pie Salad with ranch dressing Roll with butter Two crackers with cream cheese Cherry crumble cake Mushroom pasta Drinks: Diet coke, water, black tea I was really hungry by the time they served lunch. So in addition to what I was served at first I also had half a serving of their vegetarian alternative, which was a mushroom pasta. It was all very delicious! Airplane food is really getting much better than it used to be! I think I'll have to try to recreate that shepherds pie at home. The ground beef in the bottom was really flavorful! I know it had carrots in it. It also had some kind of very dark green small leaves. I'm not sure if it was pieces of spinach, or if it was some kind of herb... If I do make it myself I'll make it with cauliflower mash instead of regular potato mash as they've used here. Or maybe I'll do a sweet potato/cauliflower combination for the mash. We'll see... Snack 1 - 13:00 White chocolate Snickers bar White chocolate Twix bar That cherry crumble cake dessert, and the quick carbs in the pasta I had for lunch really triggered my sweet tooth, so I caved in for the temptation of the candy bars I had in my backpack I don't like the taste of regular chocolate, so I never eat it. So never in my life have I eaten neither Snickers nor Twix bars before. But when I saw them in white chocolate versions I got really curious about tasting them! I can't say I'm a huge fan of white chocolate either, but at least I can tolerate it, and eat it if there's not too much of it compared to other flavors in whatever it is I'm eating. The outcome of my little taste experiment is that I will probably never eat the Snickers again. Didn't really enjoy the taste or the texture enough to be worth the price or the calories. The Twix however I can see myself eating again it tasted much better. Not good enough that I'll go out and buy it, but if someone were to offer me a piece I'd say "yes" and "thank you". In the rare cases that I do buy candy for myself there are better tasting options out there! Snack 2 - 14:50 Vanilla ice cream This was a pleasant surprise! I've never been treated to ice cream as a snack on any flight before. Wasn't the best vanilla ice cream I've had, but it was also not the worst... But it did keep that sugar high I was on going... Snack 3 - 16:00 Protein bar and coke zero At this point I had given up. By now I was just eating everything and anything. Mostly because of boredom I think. This was a loooong flight. More than nine hours. A pretty nasty tasting bar. I'll never buy that one again. It was one of those "healthy" bars with no artificial sweeteners (they use fruit juices instead) and some seeds and oats for healthy fats and complex carbs. Snack 4 - 16:20 Pretzels and orange juice Sorry for the horrible photo. It was a pretty bumpy ride at times As I said, by now I had given up. Now I'm even drinking my calories Dinner - 18:40 Cheeseburger sliders Sweet potato and feta sliders with beetroot relish Coke Zero The vegetarian sliders tasted so much better than the cheeseburger sliders! Way more flavorful. Snack 5 - 19:30 An apple Didn't want to have to check the "I bring fruit in to the country" checkbox on that slip of paper you have to fill in when entering the US, so I ate it just before getting off the airplane. It tasted really good. With all the unhealthy snacking I'd been doing for the last few hours I think my body really enjoyed getting something real, something more healthy. Snack 6 - 18:20 Biscoff cookies Black tea Canadian Dry Ginger Ale Third and last flight! Four and a half hours, and all they serve is this tiny snack... But I was really happy they had the biscoff cookies. I've wanted to taste them for so long! And now I finally got a chance. And they did not disappoint! Super tasty Drink - 20:30 Coke zero, lime and ice Last thing I was served during my trip Fitness Log Super short morning walk today. Just from the hotel to the train pretty much. With all the walking at the different airports I feel I more than made up for the shorter than usual morning walk And when I landed I walked with my luggage from the airport to our hotel. Took me almost an hour.

That sounds like a pretty deep/dark/heavy book. What is your field, if I may ask?

I know all about crashing in the couch in the evening. How do you identify these moments, and what are you doing to be pro-active?

I use Google Sheets all the time, but didn't know you could do that! Mind sharing how to set that up? And can you just copy/paste straight from Sheets to the forums and it keeps all formatting and everything? That's awesome!

I have a little bit of progress to report I'm done with adding week one and week two. But I've also run into a problem. Right now it looks like all quests are starred, and completed, even if they aren't I'm not sure what the best way to get the current status of each quest is. But I'll keep working on it!

New version out. Here's the commit log since last time 2018-08-16 14:34 Version 0.3 2018-08-16 14:33 Re-order source code 2018-08-16 14:32 Epic Quest XP explanation 2018-08-16 14:31 Week two overview 2018-08-13 12:22 Food Log:   (log generated by `git log --pretty=format:"%ad %s" --date=format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M'`)

I struggle a lot with getting in bed in time as well. And consequently to get enough hours of sleep. I actually have it as one of my epic quests to fix that! But it sounds as you have a great plan for how to do it! I think, as you mentioned, that starting to get ready for bed, to prepare your body and mind, well in advance could be the key to this! Best of luck, and keep us updated!

Day 34 Wednesday, 15/8 Mentally I'm feeling much better today! It's reassuring to know I can pick myself right back up again after falling of the wagon like I did the day before yesterday. Today I'm excited to start my travel to the US!  Food log Drink 1 - 06:50 Ginger shot Took the last of the ginger/lemon/chili/honey shot today. Perfect timing too, since I won't be home for well over a week! I'll make another batch when I get back home from the States. Drink 2 - 08:40 4 dl / 1.7 cups of black tea I was feeling more hungry than I usually do this morning. Had to drink a big cup of tea to kill some of the hunger pangs. Breakfast - 10:15 Wild strawberry and strawberry flavored quark Kefir Frozen strawberries Brazil nuts and hazel nuts Drink 3: Black tea Drink 4 - 12:50 6 dl sugar free juice Lunch - 15:30 Fried cauliflower with chicken, greek yogurt, kimchi and chili flakes Drink 5: A glass of water We had great weather this afternoon, so I ate my (late) lunch out in the sun Leftovers, as you can see. But to change it up a little bit I had kimchi and extra chili flakes instead of the sweet chili sauce and sambal oelek I've been eating before. Kimchi and fried rice is a common combination, so it was a no-brainer combination really... But I think I do prefer the sweet chili sauce and sambal with this dish. Drink 6 - 18:00 Sugar free RedBull On the train, which is the first leg of my journey to USA Snack - 19:30 A plum I was feeling a little bit hungry, so I had a (very red) plum. Wasn't 100% ripe unfortunately. Better luck next time! Drink 7 - 20:00 Half a bottle of Pepsi Max Lime I was really thirsty for some reason, and was craving something carbonated. So I bought a bottle of Pepsi Max when I got off the train. Only had half of it. Need to be able to sleep early today. Getting up at 04:30 tomorrow! Fitness Log Longer, and faster, morning walk/jog than usual today. It was such a beautiful morning, and I was listening to a good pod cast where they were talking about running. So I got inspired and extended my morning walk a little bit Also, last chance to be a little bit healthy before indulging in all the awesome/horrible American food Noteworthy Struggles Once again the rest of the family had leftover pizza and blackberry cake for dinner. To be able to resist the temptation to eat that today again I didn't even join them at the dinner table. I went to take a shower instead, and didn't go out in the kitchen until they had cleared everything away. Then I reheated my chicken and veggies dinner.

Day 33 Tuesday, 14/8 Right back up on the horse again! As usual when I slip up like this I always regret it a lot the day after. It's never worth it! But that's nothing new to anyone I guess. Hindsight is always 20/20, right? I will try to make a bigger effort of asking myself "Will eating/drinking this make me happier tomorrow?" and then actually listening and acting on my answer to that question. I mean, sometimes, even if it's crap food, it will genuinely make me happier to eat than to skip it. But just stuffing my face with more and more of the same food (like the cake yesterday) is not one of those things.  Food log Breakfast - 11:00 Quinoa and steel cut oats apple pie porridge Drink: Black tea (what else, right ) @Maiyama Thank you, thank you for the porridge recipe! This was a great breakfast I would never have thought to combine quinoa with SC oats and make breakfast porridge out of it. Quinoa for me is a typical dinner food. With the apple butter I cooked yesterday, and my apple pie flavored whey protein powder (and everything else of course) this was truly a breakfast to remember! Didn't have any walnuts, nor the granny smith apple, called for in the recipe. But a red jonagold apple and almonds worked well too Drink 2 - 12:00 A glass of Coke Zero Lunch - 14:30 Pizza with a big salad Drink 3: A glass of coke zero I had one small piece of leftover pizza. The rest of the family had 2 - 3 pieces each. But instead of feeling totally left out I opted to have one small piece and eat it with a big salad. Drink 4 - 16:00 Sugar free energy drink, watermelon flavor I only got about four hours sleep tonight, so I needed some extra caffeine to get me through the afternoon. Drank it pretty fast and got a little jumpy from the caffeine overload So I did a few push ups to channel all that energy somewhere! Dinner - 19:30 Leftover cauliflower fried rice and chicken. I only ate half of that plate. Trying to compensate for all the extra calories I ate yesterday... Fitness Log Morning walk, that after a while turned in to a morning jog. Was still feeling pretty full from all the food yesterday. And feeling bad about my eating behavior was also an extra incentive to run for a little bit (running burns more calories than walking!) Noteworthy Struggles The rest of the family were plating up leftover cake from yesterday for dinner, while I was trying to convince myself to eat chicken and vegetables instead... Going to someone else for a birthday party or other happening is difficult when it comes to the food. But at least it's usually just for that one evening. When we're the ones hosting we always have the fridge full of delicious, but very unhealthy, leftovers for days! The temptation to make bad food choices is really real.