athousandwords

I'm behind by a couple days, so I'll post for Tuesday but give a quick catch-up: I did meal planning on Sunday and got our groceries picked up on Monday, so that's a win. But Monday I was watching the kids and the cleaners were here and we had parent/teacher conferences for daycare and the small amounts of time when I could go for a run got away from me. Tuesday wasn't any better - I left work early to volunteer at the polls and didn't want to go running in addition to that, so I just skipped it. And that's ok. Missing one run (even a Monday) isn't the end of the world; I've been pretty consistent for the last 4-5 months. And yes, I did run today, so a new streak begins. Otherwise, m diet has been plagued by tiny candy bars, but not to an excessive amount. I've been drinking water, but not enough, and abstaining from alcohol since the weekend. Tuesday Food: Lunch: Leftover chicken & dumpling soup, saltines Other: 1 donut, 1 ham and egg thing?? – I dunno, I just grabbed what I could from the election bake sale Dinner: Chicken Enchilada Soup with tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese Run: N/A ❌ Continue Healthy Habits: IF 16/8, 5-6x a week ✅ Drink 8 glasses of water daily ❌ Floss daily ✅ Limit alcohol to 2x a week ✅ I did drink about bring my big as Yeti and drank water while at the polls, but didn't drink any before or after, so I missed my target. Reading: Too tired last night, but I'm making good progress on Talking to Strangers after reading over the weekend. I think I'm 60% through.

The kids didn't get a ton of candy, but we had a lot leftover that didn't get handed out too. We let the 4yo pick out a sandwich bag size of candy to eat over the next couple weeks, and he knows the rest of it is going "away." At the moment, that's mostly into my mouth. 😬 Ah bummer. But yes, you're being spared the pleasure For next time! And thanks! ❤️

How did your first week of the challenge go? We'd love to hear about your progress so far!

Hey Casbin, how did the weekend treat you? Hope you're feeling better rested and have better brain capacity!

I love this book! My writing-friend and I totally attempted a letter-writing novel after reading it. It's so much fun! Huzzah! This is still something I struggle with and I've been a web developer for over a decade. 🙊

Hey @Scholar_And_Cat! How did your first week go?

How're you feeling Cheshire? Hopefully less run down and achy? And do we get to see your Halloween costume??

How did your weekend go? Any birthday celebrations?

Hey @Pokes how did the first week go?

Congrats on a good first week! Looks like you're doing well tracking and keeping your water goal afloat! Also I really like that meal plan tracker, especially the "Not Dinner" column! I'm sorry if this is too nosy, but have you considered going cold turkey on the alcohol or having 0 servings on particular days? I ask because I know that when I have 1 drink it tends to snowball into 2-3 or 3-4 more often than I'd like. Lowered inhibitions and all that. To me, it's easier to just have none than to try to limit myself - everyone is different, of course. I don't know your situation so please do tell me to fuck off if this is a sensitive subject or you don't want unsolicited advice.

WOW, that is some day! Honestly I was just impressed you went to the gym twice, let alone everything else! Sounds like you had a lovely weekend - congrats on a Steelers win! Best of luck in the week ahead!

When I was following the Couch 2 5k program, the host of the podcast I listened to would guide us toward dedicating a 5 minute section of our run to different people in our lives – someone we loved, someone we wanted to make proud, someone we were angry at or wanted to prove wrong, or even just all the other people out there running. I loved it. This is a kind of meditation I can completely get behind. Thank you for the positive energy, and I'll be sending happy thoughts back at you during my next run. ❤️

Glad the party went well and your stomach behaved! I bet your sister really appreciated all the effort (and the cleaning). Lovely that you got to catch up with your family and snuggle a precious little kiddo. ❤️

Honestly, it looks like a pretty good week from where I'm standing! All your morning and evening workouts, plus cycling! That's fantastic! It's worth a pat on the back that you didn't let yourself get totally derailed when plans changed. It may not have been a perfect week, but you reflected on the things you missed and are more prepared for them next time.

Nice work hitting the goals this week! Oh man, I hate it when you make something and it's not... not great. Feels like a total waste of time and food - and with extra chops on top of that! Hopefully you at least enjoyed eating out on Friday and the leftovers plan is more successful next week. I've started planning in leftovers for dinner as well, especially on nights when we want to try and get stuff done after the kids go to bed and don't want to be bothered with cooking cleanup. I've heard some hilarious stories about deer mitigation.. apparently predator pee is a big deterrent? And yay butterflies! 🦋

You got a lot done last week woohoo! Glad to hear you're full up on sleep too - that helps a lot. I wish I knew. It feels like so many people are running on empty levels as the pandemic stretches on and we're cut off from our normal villages and exhaustion outlets. Good on you for recognizing it; hopefully that's the first step in figuring out a mitigation strategy.

I'm trying out Plan To Eat for this challenge since I saw it so highly recommended and I badly need to offload some of the mental load of meal planning/shopping/etc. I find the UI to be a little clunky, but I like that it has a million different sort/filter/tagging options. Also that it connects to my local grocery store and puts together my cart for me. It does cost money, but apparently they have an annual Black Friday sale, so I'm going to wait and subscribe then.

WEEK 1 RECAP Meal Plan and Share Meal plan 6 healthy recipes per week ✅ Add 5 recipes per week to Plan To Eat ✅ Log meals on NF challenge thread 5x per week ✅ Run 1 long run – 45min ✅ Run 5k 2x per week ✅ Continue Healthy Habits IF 16/8 5-6 a week 5️⃣ ✅ Drink 8 glasses of water daily 5️⃣ ❌ Floss daily 7️⃣ ✅ Limit alcohol to 2x a week 4️⃣ ❌ Read Read Talking to Strangers 🔜 Finish The Starless Sea ✅ Finish Deep Work Read Atomic Habits Overall the week looks pretty good on paper. I feel a little 'bleh' about the weekend because I ate a lot of tiny Halloween chocolates and drank like 2 ciders and a beer while trick or treating (because we like to drink with our neighbors) and then skipped my run this morning because of poor time management and a smol hangover. BUT most of that doesn't discount that the majority of the week was pretty good. I stuck to my meal plan and felt good about what I was eating. I shared recipes and photos here and hopefully y'all liked that? I had a PR on my 5k that I'm super proud about! I finished a really good book and I'm already 50% of the way through the next one. And I mostly kept up with my healthy habits, but clearly I need to be drinking more water and less alcohol. 😬 Also - does anyone know what on earth to do with all this Halloween candy?? We're both remote so I can't just dump it in the office breakroom anymore! I feel terrible throwing it away, but we seriously have so. much. candy. I'm going to try and bring some with me tomorrow while I'm volunteering at the polls, but I'm also afraid I'm just going to sit there and eat it.... Hope all the rest of you nerds had a Happy Halloween! 🎃

Definitely YES buuuut it doesn't get me any closer to finished the 4 specific books I decided on for this challenge! Go look for Ace Pumpkin Cider while it's still in season! Our local grocery store carries it from the opposite coast, so it's not super niche. And it's DELICIOUS!

35 minute 5K!!

Food: Breakfast: half an avocado toast, 2 sausage links Lunch: Leftovers – mariana and meatballs over roasted squash and mushrooms Snack: 2 squares chocolate Dinner: Leftovers – Enchiladas with fried egg, black/pinto beans, avocado After dinner: 1 glass wine, bowl of ice cream Run: Pushed to Saturday due to rain Continue Healthy Habits: IF 16/8, 5-6x a week 5️⃣ Drink 8 glasses of water daily ❌ Floss daily ✅ Limit alcohol to 2x a week 1️⃣ Reading: ❌ Still in book hangover mode from The Starless Sea so I watched Bake Off with the hubby instead Yesterday was fine. A little weekendy/splurgy, which I think is going to be a continuing risk this weekend. Going to try to keep it under control and not go off the rails just because I "can". It's way too easy to justify that more and more as we get closer to the holidays. I'm already struggling to rein in the sugar dragon. I may try a no-sugar challenge of some sort for the first 3 weeks of November to try and rewire my brain a little. 🤔 This morning I'm putting together my meal plan for the week so I can put in a shopping order on Monday (when my grocery budget resets for the month 😆), then going for the run I skipped yesterday.

I mean, it turns Monday into this, but STILL I LOVED it! I already want to read it again while it's fresh in my mind. I really struggled to get into it because the "book" chapters slowed down the main plot in the first half, but now I want to reread them with the new perspective of how they're all tied together. It was beautifully done. And yes, loved Night Circus, that's another favorite! I'm happy to talk books any time! The rest of my books for this challenge are more geared toward productivity (or picked out by book club) but fantasy/magical realism is usually my go-to. Last month I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which, if you enjoyed Starless Sea, you should check that one out! Next on my pleasure read list is The Cerulean Sea... though The Vanishing Half just came available from my holds list so that might be first.

Food: Lunch: Leftovers – chicken thigh, cheesy baked potatoes, brussels sprouts, caesar salad Dinner: Enchiladas (similar) with fried egg, cilantro-lime rice, black beans, avocado We were supposed to have these enchiladas with friends on Sunday, but our dinner got cancelled because one of their kids was coming down with a cold. So I made it up last night and we have enough leftovers to eat it it again tonight. This is one of my most favorite meals. I made these enchiladas for my husband the first time I ever cooked for him, and he always jokes that he married me for this dish alone. Unfortunately, I took the picture before I remembered to top the enchilada with a runny fried egg, whoops. But trust me, it's way better that way. The recipe linked is similar to how I make them, but I go off the top of my head from the way my aunt taught me when I was living in Colorado. It's essential that you burn your fingertips frying the tortillas and then drenching them in enchilada-sauce. She would always stand at the stovetop making enchiladas on demand and I would help load ingredients into them like an assembly line – you'd get your enchiladas one at a time and they were hot, fresh, and delicious. But I make mine up front and load them into a baking dish then heat them back up in the oven until the cheese melts. Way easier that way, even if the resulting enchiladas tend to fall apart. It's also not-at-all paleo (and I've tried - using egg tortillas or any other substitute just isn't the same) so I'm happy to be not "on paleo" this challenge and it gives me a little more leeway to eat some of my favorites. ❤️ Run: N/A 👍🏻 Continue Healthy Habits: IF 16/8, 5-6x a week ✅ Drink 8 glasses of water daily ✅ Floss daily ✅ Limit alcohol to 2x a week ✅ Reading: Finished The Starless Sea! ✅ I'm starting Malcolm Gladwell's Talking to Strangers next, just in time for book club on the 12th of next month. It's a cozy, rainy day here. I lit a candle on my desk and pulled back the curtains to watch the rain while I work. My schedule had me running this morning, but I pushed it to tomorrow (after checking with my husband that he wouldn't mind watching the kids solo for an hour in the morning). I'm not looking forward to starting treadmill runs this winter once it starts getting snowy and icy, so I'll hold on to my outdoor runs for as long as possible. I don't know how much I'll be updating over the weekend. It's Halloween on Sunday so I expect to be eating some candy and probably enjoying a pumpkin cider out by the firepit. Looks like we'll have a good night for trick or treating, though it might be cold. On Saturday we're babysitting for a friend and taking all three kids to our small town Halloween block party. We'll probably order pizza or eat out just to make life a little easier. Should be a good weekend though, I'm looking forward to all the fun!

Love the commitment, hate that work is overwhelming. Hopefully you have a great weekend and can relax a bit!

There are some bad colds going around this fall. I think we were all so insulated last year that it's playing catch up with our immune systems. Hopefully your Covid test is negative and the cough resolves soon!