Elennare's Adventures in Eating

[Elennare]

5 hours ago, raptron said:

Do you brace your wrist at practice for now?

For Saturday, I just put my wrist guard on over the wrist brace thingy I've been wearing (it barely fit, but I made it work).  Yesterday, I decided just to not skate.  I was considering practicing with the beginners or possibly training for them again, but work got a little crazy and I wasn't sure I would make it, so I didn't try to do that.  The intermediate and advanced people were all working on contact, so that was definitely out.  So, I watched, and then helped a couple new people learn how to penalty time during the scrimmage.

 

Also yesterday, I decided that the wrist brace thingy was no longer helping, and was maybe hurting.  It certainly wasn't providing support where I needed it anymore.  So I decided to try the thing the massage therapist suggested* and then switch to KT tape instead of the brace.  So far today, it's feeling a lot better.  I'm also down to taking advil twice a day instead of 3x, so that's good.

 

I think tomorrow for practice I'll see how just the tape plus wrist guard feels, unless it starts bugging me again before then.

 

Food is pretty good, but I'm still letting a bit too much junk sneak in.  It doesn't help that I've been a bottomless pit the last couple days.  Need to get on top of that better, but I do think I'm making slight improvements.  Had a can of tuna with my lunch yesterday and discovered pull-tab cans and a sprained wrist are not a good combination.  Ended up wearing some of the tuna before I got the can open.  I also broke the pull tab off in the process.  Oops.  Had to resort to prying it open with a knife.  So that was certainly an adventure in eating, though not the sort I had planned or want to repeat!

 

In awesome news, Husband has lost 15 lbs in the first week of doing keto.

 

*She suggested once a day I switch between ice and heat, for two minutes each, 5 times.  I've been told in the past by a doctor that switch between the two can really help with pulled/inflamed muscles, though not that quickly, so I figured I'd give it a try.  Worst case, it doesn't do anything, best case, it helps.  So far, after trying it once, it appears to be helping, though I'm not sure how much of the very quick overnight improvement is from that vs the KT tape, but either way I'll take it!

[Elennare]

Did not make it to practice last night.  Why does it always happen that when I take a job later in the day it's a complicated one? *sigh*

But this morning I (accidentally) put some weight on my sprained wrist and it didn't hurt as much as it has been.  So, slow improvement.

 

I am going to take some time today/tomorrow to plan out some breakfasts and lunches and actually prep them, because winging it has NOT been working.

[raptron]

Glad the wrist is improving.

 

Meal planning makes things a lot easier! Do you have somewhere you can write the plan out too? Maybe a fridge board or something? I find sometimes I forget what my plan is if it isn't written out somewhere obvious.  

[Manarelle]

On 5/7/2019 at 4:16 PM, Elennare said:

Food is pretty good, but I'm still letting a bit too much junk sneak in.  It doesn't help that I've been a bottomless pit the last couple days.

 

 Seconding what Raptron said re having a plan somewhere. Also, do you track at all? I occasionally hit those bottomless pit days, go back to tracking, and realize I've subbed too many carbs where I need protein... calories remain the same, but I'm just not full. 

 

Glad to hear your wrist is getting better. How are the new skates/ skate setups doing? I recall you changed something and wasn't sure it would work well. 

[Elennare]

I have a fancy meal-planning pad, that I am planning to use.  But, instead of having set days of "this is what I'm eating" I am going to use it more as a check-list of what I have stuff to make.  And I picked stuff that is all make-ahead or very little time in the morning, and the plan is for Little Bug and I to get our lunches ready ahead of time for next week.  We'll see how it goes.

 

I'm sort of tracking my food.  Just writing down what I eat in my planner, when I remember to.  I've missed about a week, but have been doing better again.  I keep thinking about going back to also using MFP, but haven't quite gotten there yet.  Mostly because I'm at least trying to mostly eat stuff I make at home and it's hard/annoying to track things that don't have a label the way it's set up.

 

I'm still adjusting to the skates a bit, but I think I have them set up right now, and so far I really like them.  My plow stops still suck, but at this point I don't think that's the skates.  I also think practice tomorrow is going to be focused on stopping and using your edges, so maybe that'll improve.

[Elennare]

I am not having a good day today. Vent ahead, sorry.

 

The last 2 nights Husband has had things going on in the evening, so I had to cook dinner. Which is fine, except my wrist hurts, our pan had stuff stuck on the bottom of it so it needed to be scrubbed before cooking, and it's heavy. So I asked Little Bug to help and he complained and acted so helpless that he was actually making things harder.  Yesterday I had a long day at work, and came home to that, and ended up feeling very unappreciated.

 

This morning, the boys woke me up early and I didn't get back to sleep until just before my alarm went off. Got up and tried to put athletic tape on my wrist while making breakfast and getting ready for practice. I mostly got my wrist taped, but it probably should have been tighter.

 

Since I was running late, Husband helped by getting my water bottle ready for me. Only, he didn't put the top on quite right (it's tricky) and I got to practice to find the entire bottle emptied into the back of my car. It maybe ruined the expensive battery pack/jump starter I keep back there. I have no idea, but it was fairly wet.

 

After warm ups, practice turned out to be entirely the drills I was doing when I got hurt. Because apparently the best way to have us figure out how to get low and use our edges is to just have us keep trying in a live play situation (hint: it's not). I tried, but after a few attempts it became apparent that my wrist was not ready for me to be doing contact yet. I couldn't use that arm to brace and I was so worried about falling on it again I couldn't do anything else correctly, making it more likely I was going to fall.

 

So I ended up just watching. And kind of crying because I was super disappointed that I couldn't do the practice, and then I was embarrassed that I was crying which made it worse. I am also afraid that it won't be healed enough to play in the bout and I don't know when the next one is, and chances are good I won't have made attendance for it because I can't skate which means sitting out the next two bouts.

 

Took the boys to see Shazam after practice because Husband was off playing 40k, but I didn't have time to get lunch first so we stopped at the snack bar. Dropped the soda on the way into the theater - it landed upside down and spilled the entire thing on the floor. The movie was good, a hot dog and popcorn for lunch was not.

 

And now I'm sitting on the couch with a headache and a bit of an upset belly, and feeling like a giant pile of failure.

 

I should get something to drink, because I haven't had nearly enough water today, but I'm probably going to take a nap. After I figure out what gift card to get my mom for mother's day because I completely forgot to order her something until this morning.

 

Blarg.

[Norgaard]

hope the nap was lovely, and here is a big virtual hug <3.

 

tomorrow will hopefully be awesome!

[Elennare]

Sunday was indeed better.

 

I got to sleep in, sort of.  And then the boys brought me breakfast in bed and some lovely presents they'd made at school.  After lunch, we went to the nature center.  Got there later than we hoped, so only had an hour, but we did manage to walk to the 1 mile trail (faster than would have been preferred).  Then we went to Ikea, because I need a desk and Little Bug needed a new mattress.  Then Husband cooked dinner while Little Bug and I went grocery shopping, and after dinner I made lunch for today.  Ended up going to bed with lunch all packed and over 11k steps.  Aside from getting to bed too late, it was a good day.

 

My wrist is still improving, but it's still doing it slowly, and I think it is more likely than not it won't be healed enough for me to play on Saturday.  Currently trying to decide how long I want to give it before saying I'm not going to play.  I should probably decide so the alt can practice at scrimmage tonight.  But I'm also like "but what if it IS better by Saturday and I have already said I wasn't going to play?".  Because that would also suck.  Stupid wrist.  I hate wound penalties...

[Elennare]

So it turns out I have until Saturday to decide if I'm going to play, but I have pretty well decided I'm not going to.  Even if somehow my wrist heals up a lot by Saturday, I would be concerned that it wasn't healed enough that a minor fall wouldn't result in re-injury/making it worse.  (I'm not sure I got that sentence quite right, but I'm also not awake enough to try to fix it.  Hopefully the idea comes through well enough.)  I'm definitely going to miss the next game, because it's the same weekend as the banked track tournament, and I'm going to watch that.  So, looking like August for my next chance to play.  Should be enough time to get all healed up and in even better shape!  Still sucks that I can't play this weekend, but it's the right choice.

 

My food was solid yesterday.  Well, aside from the extra frappuchino in the afternoon.  But we won't talk about that right now.  Today will be solid as well.

 

Funny story: breakfast this morning was a yogurt with blueberries.  When I pulled the box of blueberries out of my bag, I noticed that there was a moldy one on the bottom.  While I was going through the box to make sure I got all the bad ones out before I washed and ate them, I had 3 people in a row come up and ask "getting the bad ones out?  How do you tell?"  Apparently people in my office don't know how to blueberry?  I'm so confused.  It's not that hard to tell if the berry is bad or not...if it's white and fuzzy, it's bad!

[Manarelle]

Sorry to hear last week ended roughly, glad it's improving for you now. As much as it stinks to miss out on a bout, I think you're right to play it safe. 

 

I am also confused on the blueberry question.... do they think there's some other indicator of badness? 

[raptron]

21 hours ago, Elennare said:

So it turns out I have until Saturday to decide if I'm going to play, but I have pretty well decided I'm not going to.  Even if somehow my wrist heals up a lot by Saturday, I would be concerned that it wasn't healed enough that a minor fall wouldn't result in re-injury/making it worse. 

THAT IS A SMART CHOICE! As un-fun as it may be to turn it down. 

 

 

[Elennare]

Huh. I somehow didn't realize today was the end of the challenge.

 

"Adventures" in eating has turned out to be right. Husband is doing awesome and lost around 20 lbs! I am spinning my wheels. I do well when I have a plan and can follow it, but apparently I am not so great at following plans currently.

 

To be fair, I've had a lot of plot twists to deal with (sprained wrist, and now I'm sick, plus lots of long days at work). I've also discovered snacks are currently my weakness, in if I don't plan for them I have no good options available at work.

 

I finished the challenge by starting the week great and then everything fell apart when first the boys got sick and then I did.

 

Pretty sure I gained weight over the last 4 weeks. Mental health has been a bit off, too. At least partially because I haven't really been able to exercise how I want to. Feeling very blah about this one, but proud of Husband. And now I'm trying to decide if maybe I do want to try keto...

[raptron]

On 5/19/2019 at 9:46 PM, Elennare said:

Huh. I somehow didn't realize today was the end of the challenge.

 

"Adventures" in eating has turned out to be right. Husband is doing awesome and lost around 20 lbs! I am spinning my wheels. I do well when I have a plan and can follow it, but apparently I am not so great at following plans currently.

Goodness, that's quite a lot. 

 

On 5/19/2019 at 9:46 PM, Elennare said:

Pretty sure I gained weight over the last 4 weeks. Mental health has been a bit off, too. At least partially because I haven't really been able to exercise how I want to. Feeling very blah about this one, but proud of Husband. And now I'm trying to decide if maybe I do want to try keto...

I don't really recommend keto for women. It does wild things to hormones and we tend to be a bit more sensitive to that. Maybe find a plan that has a similar amount of structure if you think that is something that you'd benefit from? 

[Elennare]

2 hours ago, raptron said:

Goodness, that's quite a lot.

He had quite a bit to lose.  We're both fairly sure a good chunk of that was water weight, because the rate has slowed down to something much more reasonable, but he has, so far, kept off the giant initial drop.

2 hours ago, raptron said:

I don't really recommend keto for women. It does wild things to hormones and we tend to be a bit more sensitive to that. Maybe find a plan that has a similar amount of structure if you think that is something that you'd benefit from? 

Yeah.  I'm still on the fence about it.  I think it's mostly frustration with the fact that I've been stuck in the same place for probably close to a year combined with seeing how well it's working for him.  I do think it would be easier for me to follow a plan if everyone was eating the same things, but honestly, that wouldn't be 100% the case with keto because the boys wouldn't be eating that way.

 

Honestly, right now, time is my biggest issue.  Just made more of a crunch by the fact that work assignments just got reshuffled yesterday (for the next couple of months, minimum) and my workload was significantly increased and there's a good chance I'm going to be working late a lot.  And maybe not being able to make it to derby practice, either.  How do you workout and meal prep when you don't get home until 7:30 at night, still need to eat dinner, and spend a bit of time with the kids before putting them to bed? And then it's 9pm, and I have an hour tops to do anything before it's time to get ready for bed if I want to be able to get enough sleep to wake up and function in the morning.  And somewhere in there I need to have some time to talk to Husband, too.  Since it looks like that's where I'm going to be for the next couple months, that's the puzzle I need to solve.

[Manarelle]

18 hours ago, Elennare said:

How do you workout and meal prep when you don't get home until 7:30 at night, still need to eat dinner, and spend a bit of time with the kids before putting them to bed?

 

It sounds like you're pretty busy on the weekends, too, but would weekend food prep work? I try to prep all my lunches on Sunday, so I can just grab and go in the morning during the week. Could you make it a family thing so everyone pitches in the meal prep?