Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.

[chemgeek]

Today's goals: 

1. Meditate
2. Work out
3. Cook turkey dinner

(turkey time - happy Canadian Thanksgiving to Canadians who celebrate it, happy Monday to everyone else) 

 

Workout was some pushups and squats - starting a 30 day squat/pushup challenge because I dislike pushups and thus have been slacking them lately. I like my squats so it's kind of a carrot for me - do my pushups so I get to do squats.

 

[chemgeek]

Still on my theme of wonderfully ridiculous music, metal cover of NSYNC It's gonna be me. Behold. 

 

 

[chemgeek]

This morning's goals: 

1. Work out
2. Meditate
3. Take the damn blazer I've been meaning to get dry cleaned for like 2 weeks to the damn dry cleaner's already!

 

[Kishi]

Metal just takes the things that were okay and makes them awesome.

 

Get that damn blazer dry-cleaned!

[chemgeek]

Lab clothing probs:I should wear blazers to be professional but then I forget to take them off and get them smeared with thermal joint compound (a greaselike material that is bright white aka the worst possible thing to dirty a black blazer with )

[Mistr]

8 hours ago, chemgeek said:

Lab clothing probs:I should wear blazers to be professional but then I forget to take them off and get them smeared with thermal joint compound (a greaselike material that is bright white aka the worst possible thing to dirty a black blazer with )

 

Yes, doesn't that always happen? When I was in the lab all the time I would not spill anything for weeks. Then I'd wear clothes I liked and something colored or corrosive would splash.

 

My old PI kept a blazer, tie and dress shoes in his office so he could quickly look professional when need arose.

[chemgeek]

Yeah, in the summer I was able to just drape my blazer over my desk chair... except the desk chair is no longer feasible because I'm pretty much always cold. 

 

Also: 3/3 today, whoo!

 

Just looked at my food log and realized I've slipped back into eating too damn little. It's 10 PM and I've had 700 calories so far today. WELL THAT SURE EXPLAINS MY LIGHTHEADED SPELLS IN MARTIAL ARTS and why I felt weak and draggy and generally like I ticked off my hypoglycemia somehow. Yesterdays calorie totals were high, yes, (like around 2400) but not that high and anyway I have it from a nutritionist that I shouldn't go below 1600 at my activity level and body mass. 

 

This is what I mean when I say "I forget to eat sometimes." Not sure if I've said it here but I've sure as hell said it in meatspace before. 

 

Anyway, whoops, my bad. 

 

Time to go figure out what will let me down close to 1200 calories (ie hit my goal of 1900/day) of reasonably healthy food quickly without being up all night with heartburn from too much rich food or stomach pain from overstuffing myself. 

 

might just let myself go with a low day and aim for 800 cal in supper... It would balance out holiday weekend without being pissing-off-my-hypoglycemia low like I'm doing right now. Cup of pasta should be good for at least 300, serving of cheese is probably at least another 200, leftover turkey could get me up to 700ish? Turkey pasta with cheese and veggies it is. Assuming I add some fat that should get me close to 800, and it should be fast. 

 

ETA: 600ish (whole wheat macaroni is apparently lower cal than my brain remembered), will top it off with cereal I guess cuz I need some more complex carbs to meet my macros and the fat & protein from the supper should prevent a carb crash and it's 11 by now so beggers can't be choosers. 

This is why I normally take time to plan my meals for the day at the start of the day... I just forgot today was a martial arts day not a make-food-at-home day cuz of the long weekend and then after work didn't have time to duck home for a snack if I wanted to catch beginner class (and I did, so I figured, "eh, I'll just skip it, nbd" except I'd packed a light lunch to make up for holiday weekend and just had way less fuel on board than normal). So then wound up doing beginner class (arm day in class after arm day at home because of course it was), intermediate class, and by the time black belt class rolled 'round I was on fumes.

 

New plan: Next time I forget to pack enough food, skip beginner class and get food. I wasn't feeling how awful I was feeling until I ate and yeesh.

 

Onn the upside, I didn't piss off my reactive hypoglycemia by eating a boatload of simple carbs, so once the food gets fully into my system I'll be back to normal hopefully. Would've been bad if I'd listened to the hunger-brain and went for something simple carby or sugary and wound up with a sugar rush followed by sugar crash right back to where I was to begin with.  

[chemgeek]

After cereal yesterday I finished up at 1650ish calories, and a little high on protein and low on carbs but ok for fat - which balances out the weekend when I was high carb, low protein in my intake, so I'll take it. 

 

Feeling back to normal this morning. How's about I try to not do that again this week? 

 

Today's goals: 

1. Meditate
2. Work out
3. Make home-made protein bars (Cliff ones are good but so spendy, going to hope on the home-made protein bar recipe merry-go-round again and see if I luck into something not-awful)

Woke up 20min ahead of my alarm this morning and rather than going, "Sweet! I get to sleep more!" like I normally do when I wake up ahead of the alarm, I pounded out my pushup-squat challenge and some pull-up negatives. Think I understand why some folks like to work out first thing in the morning. Certainly woke me up. Meditated, too.  

[Kishi]

11 hours ago, chemgeek said:

Just looked at my food log and realized I've slipped back into eating too damn little. It's 10 PM and I've had 700 calories so far today. WELL THAT SURE EXPLAINS MY LIGHTHEADED SPELLS IN MARTIAL ARTS and why I felt weak and draggy and generally like I ticked off my hypoglycemia somehow. Yesterdays calorie totals were high, yes, (like around 2400) but not that high and anyway I have it from a nutritionist that I shouldn't go below 1600 at my activity level and body mass. 

 

This is what I mean when I say "I forget to eat sometimes." Not sure if I've said it here but I've sure as hell said it in meatspace before.

 

I mean, bodies are different. Myself, I typically go to do terrible things on roughly 600-700 calories before eating a massive dinner afterward. I haven't really noticed any drop offs in performance beyond the first week of going lower carb, which was just my body readjusting to which sources it was using for which things. Now that I have that, I'm no longer light-headed or anything. But then, I track everything because like you I tend to forget to eat - I get lost in projects or writing or other things because, man, refueling is boring and keeps me from doing other awesome things. Like watching YouTube.

 

Look, I didn't say it made sense. Just commiserating.

 

So, as far as getting lots and lots of calories is concerned, would your system be able to handle things like nuts and starches? Or would that be too much bulk on your stomach? What about adding fats to your cooking - would that make it too greasy or too rich, or might that be an alternative?

[chemgeek]

I have competing medical concerns here. I have a GI condition that means I need a very high fiber diet (I am talking 40ish grams per day) and I have a mild case of reactive hypoglycemia which means in effect I can't do carbs on their own, and need to be careful with sugar lest I risk literally passing out (thankfully for me it is self-limiting so I will have my blood sugar level recover after a crash that severe and now that I am on the right diet I rarely pass out from it anymore... Usually only if I did something that I know is stupid, like eat cookies on an empty stomach or have hard candies or juice or sweetened drinks).

 

So for me, fat, protein are both ok. Carbs need to be paired with protein or fat. Sweets are once per week at most on a full stomach only - with fatty sweets (cheesecake, truffles, chocolate, real cream ice cream etc) being much easier on me than carby sweets (candies, cakes, pastries etc). Most juices, pops, sugary drinks, fudges and hard candies are all never-have things for me because no matter what I pair with, I will trigger an episode.

 

Finally, I have to avoid certain veggies (turnip family) because of food intolerance and herbs (anything made of or derived from a flower - so lavender, saffron, etc) because of pollen allergies.

[Kishi]

So, fats then. Nuts, seeds, avocados, whole eggs, and cooking all your food in fats like grassfed butter and coconut oil. Macadamia and olive oil are good sources of monounsaturated fats as well; realistically, if you're wanting calories on the cheap, that's probably going to be your best bet. The problem there being that it might make your food a little rich and a little harder on the stomach, but.

 

I don't mean to barge in and try to force solutions or anything like that, you understand. I'm actually in a very similar position right now trying to keep my carbs low and still get the calories I need, so I thought I'd try to share strategies I'm working with now that seem to be working.

[Mistr]

Would you be willing to share your high protein granola bar recipe?

 

I have a peanut butter granola bar recipe that is tasty but not all that high protein. We just caved in and got a big box of commercial granola bars from Costco. I think of those as candy bars with redeeming virtue in protein.

 

My sympathy on your dietary constraints. It's hard enough to eat healthy without restrictions. Seems like quite a few Monks have to work around food groups.

[chemgeek]

... it is not a big deal at all now. The only real effect for me is I have to be careful what I snack on and a bit more mindful of my macros than most. Plus I am supposed to always have whole wheat bread/pasta/grains. Back when i was figuring it out though, it sucked. 

 

Honestly I don't even like white bread or turnips or most sweets anyway so a lot of the time it is just a happy excuse to turn down things I don't like without being rude or lying.

[chemgeek]

Yesterday was unexpected late working followed by making home made turkey soup! Also I had to boost one of my coworkers. 

 

Today, after martial arts, found myself with some unexpected free time because game night got cancelled. 

So instead I bought myself a package deal off Steam from a creator whose stuff I borrowed from a friend a while back, loved to bits, and for some reason never got around to getting myself. So, got it now. 

 

... Wait, I just realized I have completionist tendencies. 

And I bought 3 collection-based JRPGs. 

 

(Admittedly really lighthearted ones - Recettear, and a couple others from the same creator). 

 

This might not be the best plan for my sleep schedule. :\

Oh well! Time to go build my item shop! 
 

[Kishi]

Well, guess that's just something you're going to have to struggle with, then.