Elennare's Adventures in Eating

[Elennare]

I think I need a break from trying to make a super-structured challenge, so this one is going to be rather free-form/rambling.  I wasn't planning to put anything up until closer to the start of week 1, but I got inspired or something, so here we go.

 

So I say I'm not doing anything really structured, but what I guess I actually mean is, not going to have a structured tracking system.  Which, wait what?  Because as I started writing this, I realized that I've got practices, and my push up challenge, and I'm still trying to make lifting a regular thing (I still haven't managed to get through my first month of workouts, and I've already paid my trainer for the second month for when I get there!), but I guess I'm just considering that "normal life."

 

And this challenge is going to be all about food!  Husband has decided he wants to go keto.  He's planning to start right around when this challenge starts.  I am not going to go keto.  I don't think it's the right diet for me for a bunch of reasons.  But I am all about supporting Husband in his efforts to get healthy, so I'm going to be figuring out how to keto.  And I am also going to take this opportunity to get rid of all the bread and junk in the house and go all-in on paleo and likely end up eating fairly low-carb.  While also figuring out how to keep the boys from going nuts AND not have to cook 2 or 3 different meals.  So, maybe we will still have some crackers after all...

 

Which means you all get a sporadic, running commentary of the insanity that results from all of that.  And if you're lucky, I might even post some recipes!

[Manarelle]

17 hours ago, Elennare said:

Which means you all get a sporadic, running commentary of the insanity that results from all of that.  And if you're lucky, I might even post some recipes!

 

 Following, of course, with or without recipes. 

 

I hear you when things that used to be a challenge are now just part of daily life. It feels odd, but it's a good step to them being solid habits.

[Elennare]

1 hour ago, Manarelle said:

I hear you when things that used to be a challenge are now just part of daily life. It feels odd, but it's a good step to them being solid habits.

They're not, yet, but trying to make them be is.  So I guess that's progress? :)

[Manarelle]

23 hours ago, Elennare said:

They're not, yet, but trying to make them be is.  So I guess that's progress?

 

Definitely. Little steps add up.

[raptron]

Ohhh, exciting times.

[Elennare]

Apparently I was calendar-challenged when I wrote this.  Husband is starting his keto adventure week 2.  But, I'm still going to use week 1 to try to prep stuff at home.

 

That said, it's definitely still zero week.  I had a donut for breakfast.  I chose the one without custard filling, though.  The rest of my food choices have been decent.

 

Tuesday, when I was doing the slow negatives portion of the push up challenge workout, I actually did a couple reps in each set that were controlled all the way to the floor rather than my usual of getting to just past upper arms parallel to the floor and collapsing.  So that's awesome.

 

Less awesome is the state of my roller skates.  The plate was indeed broken, so I need new ones.  I did enough research on Tuesday that I knew what I wanted, so I bought them after finding out the current ones are dead.  But, I have no skates until Friday at the soonest.  One of my league mates had a pair I can borrow, so I was able to skate at practice yesterday.  I got the closest I've managed to come yet to doing a hockey stop.  So that was cool.  Less cool is the fact that on top of the skates feeling weird because they weren't mine and were the "cheap" beginner stuff they were a little too small.  Well, too small in the toe box - they were so narrow it felt like my toes were in a vice, and the length was the same as my foot so there was no room between the ends of my toes and the end of the skate.  But the heel was loose enough, no matter what I did, it was sliding to the point where it felt like I was going to walk out of the skate if I tried to use my toe stops.  Beats not skating, though!

[Elennare]

Did not do my push ups last night, so it'll be a bit longer until I'm actually back on schedule. Well, guess it gives me an excuse to go to the gym at work a bunch for short visits without "cheating." I need to go 7 more times this month or I have to pay for the month instead of getting my dues reimbursed.

 

And why did I not do my push ups? Because it turns out that eating half a large pizza and 2 garlic knots after basically not eating anything all day is a bad idea. I was going to make healthy dinner, but I got home late and the kitchen was a disaster and I was starting to get a headache and be hangry, so pizza it was.

 

Got my skates back, though! They're so pretty. Need to go to the rink today so I can get them adjusted right. I really hope they work well for me.

[Elennare]

End of zero week. I tried to jump back on the push up challenge wagon and missed, so I have a bit more catching up to do than hoped for. Gotta chase down the wagon before I can jump back on again.

 

Eating the last few days has been either great or terrible. I haven't been able to do "ok." Not stellar, but at least there's been some good meals to balance out the bad. I had way too much chocolate today, but it's Easter, so I feel like you're doing it wrong if you don't.

 

We had a lovely day today, though. Started with an Easter egg hunt for the boys. They had an egg with one candy in it in their baskets and a note that they had to hunt for the rest. The original plan was to put the candy in the eggs in their baskets but they both were super excited about the idea of an egg hunt so that's what we did. Then we played Star Munchkin, and then off to church.

 

After church we went out to lunch, came home and changed out of our fancy clothes, and then Little Bug asked if he could practice sword fighting. That happened for a little bit, then one of the neighbor kids came over and Husband and I ended up showing off a little. Then the boys played outside.

 

And then we went tide pooling and saw lots of cool stuff. Many hermit crabs, including one that Husband picked up and let the boys hold. Well, offered anyway. Little One decided he didn't want to hold the crab. Also saw some pelicans. Ended the outing at Cold Stone.

 

In not great news, Husband's car is in the shop and there's a good chance we'll end up facing a decision on whether it's worth repairing or not. But I'm glad it's getting looked at and they're not taking it on the road trip to Northern California tomorrow. But they are renting a car, which means getting up early to get it before I go to work, so I think I'm going to go to bed so I can start week one not horribly sleep deprived. At least I have coffee again!

[Manarelle]

8 hours ago, Elennare said:

Eating the last few days has been either great or terrible. I haven't been able to do "ok." Not stellar, but at least there's been some good meals to balance out the bad.

 

"They say" your intake averages out over a week or so, hence the "one day mistake isn't bad." Sounds like you're averaging ok, at least. Neat that you got to go tide pooling, it's always cool to see the diversity in those.

 

Sorry to hear about your car, that's a tough choice to make. 

[raptron]

Aw man, that does sound like a lovely day.

 

[Elennare]

2 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Sorry to hear about your car, that's a tough choice to make. 

 

Unfortunately we're currently in a holding pattern to know if we need to make that choice.  They called us back late Saturday afternoon and said "it'll cost $X to fix the things we've been able to find, but before we can diagnose this other issue we need to do a $40 deep clean on your engine.  Should we start fixing stuff?  And we need an answer like right now."   X dollars was a not-insignificant amount of money, but still solidly in the "worth it" category.  But, the issue they hadn't diagnosed yet could end up being cheap to fix or it could easily push the total into the "not worth it" category.

 

So after we had a quick discussion, Husband told them to do the $40 deep clean and get back to us with the actual total before we decided on anything.  Apparently the guy at the shop was like "oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense, why didn't we think of that option?" when he called them back.  So, now we wait.

[Manarelle]

23 hours ago, Elennare said:

So after we had a quick discussion, Husband told them to do the $40 deep clean and get back to us with the actual total before we decided on anything.  Apparently the guy at the shop was like "oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense, why didn't we think of that option?" when he called them back.  So, now we wait.

 

 

Keeping fingers crossed it turns out well. 

[Elennare]

1 hour ago, Manarelle said:

 

 

Keeping fingers crossed it turns out well. 

Thanks.  Alas, it was the head gasket leaking, which pushing the cost of repairs to approximately twice the value of the car.  So, new car it is.

 

Yesterday, I opted for a donut for breakfast.  It was not good.  The "bread" part was ok, but the chocolate frosting was meh and the custard inside was broken.  Bleh.  Well, on the up side, I don't think I'll be wanting donuts again for a while.  Randomly, why does my spell checker thing "donut" is spelled wrong by "donuts" is perfectly acceptable?

 

After breakfast, though, I ate pretty good the rest of the day.  Mostly paleo, except for the leftover pasta I had for dinner.  Or whatever you want to call it when I eat at 10:30 at night after practice.

 

Today is going to be cleaning out the fridge.  Like deep cleaning it.  And figuring out what I need to use up before next week.  And also hoping I don't gain like 10 pounds from eating it all. But having a (mostly) clean slate to kick off the new eating plan will be good.  Plus, having an empty fridge will make it easier for us to replace the water filter holder, which we need to do, and need access to the bottom of the fridge for doing.

[Manarelle]

18 hours ago, Elennare said:

Thanks.  Alas, it was the head gasket leaking, which pushing the cost of repairs to approximately twice the value of the car.  So, new car it is.

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. Definitely made the decision easier tho. 

 

18 hours ago, Elennare said:

Randomly, why does my spell checker thing "donut" is spelled wrong by "donuts" is perfectly acceptable?

Pessimistic linguist opinion: Because most of the rest of the world spells it "doughnut" and they only eat one at a time. Americans spell it "donut" and tend to eat/have them in the plural form. Frequency of use dictates spelling "correctness."

 

18 hours ago, Elennare said:

Today is going to be cleaning out the fridge.  Like deep cleaning it.  And figuring out what I need to use up before next week.  And also hoping I don't gain like 10 pounds from eating it all. But having a (mostly) clean slate to kick off the new eating plan will be good.  Plus, having an empty fridge will make it easier for us to replace the water filter holder, which we need to do, and need access to the bottom of the fridge for doing

Good luck!

[Elennare]

Well, this week is not at all going to plan.

 

On the roller skates front, it turns out the wrench I have doesn't actually fit the new plates, so I haven't been able to adjust them.  I bought a new one, but the skate shop closes early and I haven't been able to get to the store to actually pick it up yet.  At least the second time I skated on them they felt a bit looser.  I guess the cushions are breaking in a bit?  But they're still not right.  I do think I'll really like them once I get them adjusted how I want them.

 

I've ended up falling a bit further behind on my push up challenge, but I'm not giving up.  I think I can get back on track, or close enough, to finish only a day or two behind schedule.  Despite all that, I am definitely seeing improvement, which is awesome.

 

I successfully got the old nasty food out of the fridge, but ran out of time to deep-clean it.  I haven't cleaned the house at all.  Guess that's what I'm doing tonight and tomorrow, because I kind of can't deal with it in it's current state anymore.  Which is actually a pretty big win, because not all that long ago it's current state wouldn't have bothered me.  I was planning to work on it yesterday, but that didn't happen.  I came home with dinner, turned on Sabrina, and ended up watching the rest of season 2.  Which is fantastic, by the way, if you enjoy that type of show.  But, I finished it around midnight.  Oops.  Actually, other than the staying up too late part (plus slightly spooking myself out...not the greatest idea when you're home by yourself...), last night was amazing.  I needed a break where I wasn't doing or worrying about anything.

 

My eating this week has kind of descended into dumpster fire territory.  Dinner last night was 2 corn dogs, tater tots, and root beer.  They were really good corn dogs and root beer, though, from the "fancy" hot dog restaurant that I have been craving all week, so I don't feel bad about it.  And anyway, starting Sunday or Monday, my food is going to be on point, so I also don't feel bad about eating whatever.  Balancing priorities, and this week eating well is not one of the high-focus ones.

[Manarelle]

On 4/26/2019 at 12:25 PM, Elennare said:

I've ended up falling a bit further behind on my push up challenge, but I'm not giving up.  I think I can get back on track, or close enough, to finish only a day or two behind schedule.  Despite all that, I am definitely seeing improvement, which is awesome.

 

Boss. Not giving up is beast. Seeing improvement is hella beast. I'm very proud of you. 

 

On 4/26/2019 at 12:25 PM, Elennare said:

I needed a break where I wasn't doing or worrying about anything.

 

YAS. This is so underrated in society because people either tend to way overdo it or way underdo it. Hope it was exactly what you needed (minus the spooky) and the weekend has you feeling better. 

 

On 4/26/2019 at 12:25 PM, Elennare said:

Balancing priorities, and this week eating well is not one of the high-focus ones.

 

It'll get back there, I have faith in you.

[Elennare]

On 4/28/2019 at 6:16 AM, Manarelle said:

It'll get back there, I have faith in you.

Yep, and it is, starting now!

 

We went grocery shopping yesterday (after fixing the fridge, yay!) and while we don't really have a plan yet, we had enough info to buy things that can be made into keto meals.  Got a few other things, too, but I think the plan is going to be breakfast and lunch everyone is on their own and everyone eats a keto meal for dinner.  Obviously the boys will still be getting help with their breakfast and lunch (and snack), but Little Bug can basically make his own lunch now.  Aside from a small bit of rice here and there (I wasn't thinking beyond "yummy" when I grabbed a box of coconut rice pudding cups), I am done with grains for a couple months at least.

 

Today I will actually make it to the skate shop to pick up my wrench.  I'm writing this here to force it to be true.  That's how it works, right?  On a semi-related note, I'm starting to wonder if I should actually be skating on harder wheels and may have to experiment.

 

The bouts on Saturday were good and a lot of fun to watch.  It was hard to not cheer for them.   But, you're not allowed to do that when you're an official for some strange reason.   I tried to do zebra stripes eyeshadow for it, but it didn't quite work as well as I had hoped.  Not enough time was the main issue.  I didn't manage to get nearly as much house-cleaning done on Saturday as hoped, but I did some and got the cookies baked.  They were a huge hit and I have been requested to make more next bout.

 

Still plugging away at the push up challenge.  I was planning to do 2 days worth of workouts last night, but ran out of steam and only did one.  I'm probably not going to manage to do two tonight either, because scrimmage, but at least I did the thing!  (and will do it again today)

[raptron]

23 hours ago, Elennare said:

Yep, and it is, starting now!

 

We went grocery shopping yesterday (after fixing the fridge, yay!) and while we don't really have a plan yet, we had enough info to buy things that can be made into keto meals.  Got a few other things, too, but I think the plan is going to be breakfast and lunch everyone is on their own and everyone eats a keto meal for dinner.  Obviously the boys will still be getting help with their breakfast and lunch (and snack), but Little Bug can basically make his own lunch now.  Aside from a small bit of rice here and there (I wasn't thinking beyond "yummy" when I grabbed a box of coconut rice pudding cups), I am done with grains for a couple months at least.

 

Today I will actually make it to the skate shop to pick up my wrench.  I'm writing this here to force it to be true.  That's how it works, right? 

YEP.

 

23 hours ago, Elennare said:

but at least I did the thing!  (and will do it again today)

\o/

[Elennare]

On 4/29/2019 at 12:38 PM, Elennare said:

but at least I did the thing!  (and will do it again today!

Well, this turned out to be spectacularly untrue. During drills before scrimmage I decided to try blocking someone backwards (facing towards her). This is not something I've done much for "real." I screwed it up by not getting low enough, and she hit me really hard and I went over backwards so fast I didn't have time to fall properly. I twisted to the side enough to not land on my tailbone and I didn't hit my head, but I landed on my right hand really hard. And sprained my wrist. So no push ups (or contact) for at least a week.

 

It's still pretty sore, but it's doing better than it was last night. And even by the time I got home from the doctor it was feeling better than when I first did it. Very glad I didn't break it. Yay safety gear! I am 95% sure it would have broken if I fell like that without a wrist guard. It's going to be an interesting few days until I can actually use my wrist, though.

 

Food is good so far, though!

[Manarelle]

16 hours ago, Elennare said:

It's still pretty sore, but it's doing better than it was last night. And even by the time I got home from the doctor it was feeling better than when I first did it. Very glad I didn't break it. Yay safety gear! I am 95% sure it would have broken if I fell like that without a wrist guard. It's going to be an interesting few days until I can actually use my wrist, though.

 

Ouch. Glad it wasn't a break, yay safety gear indeed. And hey, you learned a lesson about backward blocks that you will never forget.

 

16 hours ago, Elennare said:

Food is good so far, though!

 

On 4/29/2019 at 3:38 PM, Elennare said:

We went grocery shopping yesterday (after fixing the fridge, yay!) and while we don't really have a plan yet, we had enough info to buy things that can be made into keto meals.  Got a few other things, too, but I think the plan is going to be breakfast and lunch everyone is on their own and everyone eats a keto meal for dinner.  Obviously the boys will still be getting help with their breakfast and lunch (and snack), but Little Bug can basically make his own lunch now.

 

Nice, takes a bit of the pressure off you, and teaches responsible eating early. 

[raptron]

Oooh no! Poor wrist. 

[Elennare]

1 hour ago, raptron said:

Oooh no! Poor wrist. 

4 hours ago, Manarelle said:

 

Ouch. Glad it wasn't a break, yay safety gear indeed. And hey, you learned a lesson about backward blocks that you will never forget.

 

Thank you!  Yes, lesson definitely learned.  Hopefully it'll end up implemented as "get low" rather than "don't try that again"!

 

It's doing better today.  I managed to do my own ponytail this morning instead of needing Husband to do it for me. (have I mentioned he's amazing? )  Taking the day yesterday to do nothing was the right call.

[Elennare]

Food is mostly on track.  Had a stumble Wednesday night because I got stuck late at work and Thursday morning because I forgot what time the cafeteria stopped serving breakfast.  Whoops.  Otherwise, things are going ok.  Husband is killing it at keto. 

 

My wrist is slowly improving.  It's kind of odd, actually, but probably the way this sort of thing goes.  It's hurting less in general, and I can move it more, but when I do something it doesn't like it hurts more.  And bruises are finally showing up!  Two smaller/lighter ones where I would expect (the spot that hurts the most and where it got super swelled up) plus a giant dark one further up my arm where there's actually no injury but I guess the blood pooled there.  *shrug*

 

Recipe:

Tasty salad dressing

2 oz balsamic vinegar

3 oz avocado oil

approx 1 tbs minced garlic

approx 1 tsp dried rosemary

shake vigorously and let sit for 5 minutes for flavors to combine.  Shake again before serving.

 

I measured the liquid ingredients in the salad dressing mixer so that's why they're in oz.  The solid stuff I just added "that looks like a good amount" but that's my best guess as to how much I added.

 

It was served over spring mix, cherry tomatoes, and vegan feta.  I can't remember the brand of the "cheese" because it was a new brand I hadn't seen before, but it was delicious.

[Elennare]

Friday was a bit of a disaster food-wise. Today was pretty good, aside from the candy bar. In my defense, I didn't really have breakfast before practice and I was REALLY hungry. I am not doing as well with my resting as hoped. Mostly from lack of planning resulting in me being hungry with no good options around. Though, not being able to cook particularly well isn't doing me any favors either. Next week I'll do better.

 

Practice today, I was training the new people. Except everyone warmed up together and after a few laps of paceline worms, we did 27/5.  I did not think I would do that well, but I almost made it today. I was like 2 steps short, and that was with running into a traffic jam right at the end. So, ya know, the closest to actually meeting the requirement I've come in a long time. And then while teaching the new skaters, I was reminded of just how far I've come from when I started.

 

And both of those things were good, because I stepped on the scale this morning and I have gained almost 5 lbs since I last weighed myself a couple weeks ago.

 

I think I may have slightly over done it with my wrist by taking a shower without any sort of support on it, which sucks. It's definitely a bit more sore this evening. Though, that could also be because I forgot to take my advil in the afternoon, too. Either way, it hurts more and I don't like it. Stupid wrist needs to hurry up and get better.

 

I was going to close this post with a "you should know, I am not left handed" Princess Bride gif but I couldn't find one. So, use your imagination, I guess.

[raptron]

Aw, poor wrist. Sorry it continues to be a bother. 

 

Woo for your continued skating progress!  Do you brace your wrist at practice for now?