Mediaguy will swim to catch up to the boat that he missed...

[mediaguy99]

Hey Assassins:

 

I closed out my last challenge, and here I am to try again.  And no, I'm not actually swimming.  I don't mind the water, heck I'm a SCUBA diver so I kind of love it, but swimming for exercise is kinda godawful for my brain.  Too repetitive.  I'm a runner, through and through.  Also maybe a biker, and probably could be more so as my joints age.  But I digress.

 

My last challenge was focused on combatting sugar and eating more veggies.  I did OK on the sugar front, but failed miserably on the veggies.  So here I go again, starting smaller with a hope that I will be able to succeed this time.

 

1.  Eat TWO servings of vegetables per day; THREE if breakfast consists of a spinach (+ whatever) smoothie.

2.  Log food on MFP four days/week or more, stay below calorie recommendation.

3.  Come up with three solid "next phase" career paths, and write down the pros/cons/expenses of all of them.

4.  Keep running before work, 3x/week

5.  Archery practice 1x/week, until we go to Colombia

 

Rewards: 

 

For every seven days with 2-3 servings of vegetables, I get to buy myself P.  I don't know what P is yet, but I've got to reward that behavior with something other than good feels since I'm clearly highly opposed to it.  Might be date night at the movies with Mrs. MG, or filet mignon.

 

For every seven days of logging on MFP, I get to buy myself Q.  I don't know what Q is either, but see above for some ideas.  I don't need more stuff, so that's out.  It's limited to experiences and good food   

 

Archery practice, career paths, and running are their own reward. 

 

Theme:

I exercise a bunch, and I know my deficiencies are in stretching and weight lifting/bodyweight workouts, but I feel like there's enough on the list already.  I mean, there's the whole "pick up the apprentice on a bike" now that we've moved not further from his school but WAAAAY higher--like a 400-500' climb higher.  It's a serious proposition to pick him up on the tandem and ride home with him chillaxing in the stoker position.  (for those not in the know, he's only 8 and even when he's pedaling hard, which only lasts for 30-60 seconds at a go, it's a minimal effect).  Anyway, I have been the same weight (somewhere between 170-175) for like a year now, and I'd like to get down below that.  Clearly my fork is winning since, as mentioned, I exercise a bunch.

 

Well that's enough out of me for today.  Any support from the Assassins' Guild would be appreciated.  

[sylph]

Movie night with Mrs. MG sounds like a pretty good reward... 

 

When's the trip to Colombia?

[mediaguy99]

8 hours ago, sylph said:

Movie night with Mrs. MG sounds like a pretty good reward... 

 

When's the trip to Colombia?

We leave at the end of the month... 

[mediaguy99]

So yesterday I don't think I got two vegetables.  I think just one, and it was a pile of red-leaf lettuce.  I'd love to count the corn we had with dinner (grilled elk burger!  MMM!) but we all know it's a grain.  Today I brought another pile of red-leaf lettuce with a big handful of baby carrots in a tupperware.  I think that counts as two veggies.

 

I didn't get all my food recorded yesterday.  I'll try again on that today.

 

Riding with a physics professor this afternoon.  That's always enlightening!  We're going to try some hills, just after the hottest part of the day.  Hopefully I won't pass out.  Especially on the way down

 

Edit:  I ate the "salad".  I need to wash the lettuce a little better next time.... 13.5 mile bike ride with plenty hills and a turkey sandwich with cheese... at least it's on 100% WW bread?  There was a time I would eschew the bread but these days I like it.

[Manarelle]

On 7/11/2019 at 11:54 AM, mediaguy99 said:

1.  Eat TWO servings of vegetables per day; THREE if breakfast consists of a spinach (+ whatever) smoothie.

2.  Log food on MFP four days/week or more, stay below calorie recommendation.

 

Out of curiosity, do you prep meals for the week/ day/ whatever? I find it's much harder to "be good" if I have to decide what to eat when I'm hungry as opposed to "I have lunch pre-made, just gotta grab it and heat it up." If no, do you have meal plans for what your veggies could be? Same deal for MFP - what's the cue to go online and log it? While prepping or cleaning up? 

 

10 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

Riding with a physics professor this afternoon.  That's always enlightening!  We're going to try some hills, just after the hottest part of the day.  Hopefully I won't pass out.  Especially on the way down

 

Oof, glad you made it through. How was the physics less... er.. ride? 

[WhiteGhost]

Following along 

[mediaguy99]

Huh, I wrote this really long post this morning.  What happened to my post???

On 7/12/2019 at 8:10 PM, Manarelle said:

 

Out of curiosity, do you prep meals for the week/ day/ whatever? I find it's much harder to "be good" if I have to decide what to eat when I'm hungry as opposed to "I have lunch pre-made, just gotta grab it and heat it up." If no, do you have meal plans for what your veggies could be? Same deal for MFP - what's the cue to go online and log it? While prepping or cleaning up? 

Oof, glad you made it through. How was the physics less... er.. ride? 

 

Anyway, Thanks Manarelle, yes I do "batch prep" things but lately I haven't.  And when I do think I'm doing that, it just turns into "Dinner" with my family because I grossly underestimate how much everyone is going to be eating.  Maybe we get some leftovers outta that though, so that's good.  I try to enter my MFP data at work.  I will do that tomorrow.  And tonight before I go dwnstairs to watch the last episode of Stranger Things 3   And I totally need to get on making meal plans that incorporate veggies.  For the longest time I made "veggie surprise" every night for dinner (three or four vegetables in a skillet with a surprise herb or spice).  I'd make enough for dinner and lunch for me and the Mrs. every day.  It didn't take much planning either, just had to make sure there were always fresh veggies in the fridge (onions, carrots, peppers, broccoli, snap peas, frozen veggies of all sorts, you know... and soy sauce).  

 

The physics ride was good.  Mostly we talked about educational technology and the MS 150 bike ride here in Colorado.  And trying to work, work out, and be a good dad.

 

On 7/12/2019 at 10:28 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Following along 

 

Glad to have you aboard White Ghost!  You have the coolest posts.

 

Amma gonna record the foods today.  Actually did it yesterday, and the day before that.  

 

So, here's the tallies so far:

 

Vegetables:  3

MFP:  2

 

Tonight I basically just get to eat a lot of carrots and celery for dinner.  There's not a lot else in the fridge right now, and everyone else has eaten dinner already.  Plus I'm not super hungry, we went to a big birthday party at the reservoir and there was so. much. food.  Mostly healthy and Mrs. MG and I managed to split our piece of carrot cake.  It was really too much.

 

[Manarelle]

16 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

And I totally need to get on making meal plans that incorporate veggies.  For the longest time I made "veggie surprise" every night for dinner (three or four vegetables in a skillet with a surprise herb or spice).  I'd make enough for dinner and lunch for me and the Mrs. every day.  It didn't take much planning either, just had to make sure there were always fresh veggies in the fridge (onions, carrots, peppers, broccoli, snap peas, frozen veggies of all sorts, you know... and soy sauce).  

 

That sounds really good and fairly easy to prep. I hear you on food getting repurposed. I prepped a bunch of BBQ chicken legs one week and the gentleman asked if we could just have them for a couple dinners instead.  Ah, family. So helpful. 

 

16 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

Mostly healthy and Mrs. MG and I managed to split our piece of carrot cake.  It was really too much.

 

Seriously. Dessert sizes are ridiculous. Glad you got to enjoy responsibly!

[mediaguy99]

Today has been good!  I ate two veggies for lunch (shoulda been three but the peppers were bad out of the bag) plus had the ubiquitous spinach smoothie for breakfast so actually ate three total.  Plus plenty of fruit and nuts.  Am in process of recording food eaten on MFP.  Also this morning I ran 3.5 miles then biked the apprentice to his day camp (7.5 miles away, downhill and then uphill, and then back) for nearly  2 hours of cardio.  It is HARD WORK biking that heavy ass tandem around.  Anyway I've been starving for carbs all day!

 

8 hours ago, Manarelle said:

Seriously. Dessert sizes are ridiculous. Glad you got to enjoy responsibly!

 

You notice I didn't say anything about the baklava... a much worthier dessert IMHO   And you're right--it's SO HARD to cook for your own nutrition when you come home and all the chicken is gone.

 

Oh, and we got our HOT TUB!  But it's not hooked up yet.  It's just sitting in the back yard, taunting me!  Mrs. MG and I are getting the wiring to hook it up tomorrow after work.  And the conduit.  And the masonry mounts.  Soon, soon we will finally have our hot tub.

 

[Manarelle]

11 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

Oh, and we got our HOT TUB!  But it's not hooked up yet.  It's just sitting in the back yard, taunting me!  Mrs. MG and I are getting the wiring to hook it up tomorrow after work.  And the conduit.  And the masonry mounts.  Soon, soon we will finally have our hot tub.

 

Oooooooh, jealous.  Enjoy!

[mediaguy99]

Just posting tallies so far, from yesterday:

 

Veggies:  4

MFP:  3

 

Turns out that 2 hours of cardio in one day might be too much.  So I'm going to take today as a sort-of rest day.  Am diving at the aquarium this afternoon so it's probably good to take it slow.  Don't want to be post-workout spacey in the shark exhibit.  

 

Mrs. MG made my lunch today!  Stir fry with lots of vegetables!  Hooray  !!!

[WhiteGhost]

Hot tub should be nice, hope it gets hooked up without any glitches  

[sylph]

19 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

Am diving at the aquarium this afternoon so it's probably good to take it slow.  Don't want to be post-workout spacey in the shark exhibit.  

 

Wait, what now? Is this a thing you do on the regular or some kind of special occasion?

[mediaguy99]

Went for another run this morning--4.33 miles.  It's amazing how little effect that effort has on my daily caloric numbers.  Here's the challenge numbers so far:

 

Veggies:  5

MFP:  3

 

Plenty of veggies yesterday, but I didn't get my digits into MFP, even though I started in the morning.  The afternoon got away from me--follow up appointment with the shoulder doctor (I *didn't* tear my rotator cuff, but I have a bone chip in my shoulder as well as "arthritis" and "bursitis" which is doc-speak for "it hurts" and might be inflamed.  PT starts today) and then rushing to get downtown to the aquarium through all the traffic caused by the football-field long crack that opened in the main highway between Boulder and Denver at the end of last week.  And then driving home in the same traffic.

 

1 hour ago, sylph said:

Wait, what now? Is this a thing you do on the regular or some kind of special occasion?

 

Yep, that's a thing I do.  Talk about a long-term goal?  I had to get 50 logged dives, then get my advanced and rescue SCUBA certifications, and then I could APPLY for the volunteer job.  I've been working there for a year and a half now, and I have two more supervised dives to go before I can be considered "fully trained".  To do what?  To dive in the tanks with the marine life, scrub the acrylics and other hard surfaces, "vacuum" the gravel, and (here's the fun part) feed the fish.  It's pretty fun as far as volunteer gigs go and I get to SCUBA dive with tropical fish in Colorado.  It's weird to "work" underwater though.  Vacuuming the bedroom and scrubbing the tub is so much simpler.  Also you're not supposed to do too much vigorous exercise in the time around when you're diving, especially right after, since you don't want to make any nitrogen bubbles condense out of the blood.  But then, I did go run this morning.  Maybe that wasn't the best idea.  Oh well.  That which doesn't kill me...

 

Decided this morning to hire a professional to connect the hot tub.  The cables we need aren't available at the hardware store, and we can't determine if we should put the line in flex or rigid conduit.  We don't have a conduit bender either, we'd have to borrow one from Mrs. MG's work.  Just our lack of knowledge of the NEC is enough of a barrier that it makes me want to spend the money even though part of my brain is saying "it's just hooking up four cables and running some conduit!  You've been doing this for years!!!"  I guess if I haven't heard back from the electrician by Friday night we'll try and do it Saturday morning.  

[Manarelle]

3 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

then rushing to get downtown to the aquarium through all the traffic caused by the football-field long crack that opened in the main highway between Boulder and Denver at the end of last week.  And then driving home in the same traffic.

 

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/07/15/us-36-closure-boulder-denver/

Had to look that up because I used to live in Westminster and commute to Boulder. That's just nuts on such a major highway. Hope it settles down and can get fixed soon.

 

That's super neat that you can volunteer to go scuba'ing and feed the fish. I did an intro to scuba class two years ago and while it's not my thing, it was neat to be in such a different world. And yeah, let's not have you passing out in a fish tank, please, no matter how big. 

 

Glad to hear the shoulder isn't a tear, although the -itis'es don't sound like much fun either. Good luck with the pt.

[mediaguy99]

My goodness, the end of the challenge came and went and I didn't write anything!  This is terrible!

 

I did manage to record my food a bunch, and eat a LOT of veggies.  The trick to that was to purchase cut and washed carrots and celery, and to chop up other "snacking" veggies to add to my lunch bag every day, or just to keep on hand in the fridge at work.  Recording the food took a little more effort and I haven't done it for a bunch of days unfortunately.  Lots to do at work, and then the in-laws came and that makes for crazy times, and then we left for Colombia.  We're in Bogota right now and the food we are eating is either very basic, like meat and potato, or hard to describe in typical USA terms.  Even if I had good internet connectivity all day, I don't know if I'd want to bother on vacation.  All I know is my wife's family is literally STUFFING me at every meal.  I'm trying to limit it but they are VERY insistent.  And the food is so good... it's hard to turn down.  At least I can say that there is a lot of fruit involved...

 

Anyway, WhiteGhost and Manarelle, and Sylph, thanks for poking your head in on my swim...

[mediaguy99]

And oh my, I just looked back at the actual goals.  There were three that I didn't write about.

 

Running:

Instead of keeping running I switched over to biking a bunch.  I was taking the apprentice to school two mornings a week on the bike and then riding home--actually a pretty tough ride on a 60 pound tandem bike up a 400' elevation gain hill over 6 miles in each direction.  I did run at work once, but I definitely was getting my cardio in.  The running was starting to make some of my joints ache in a not-so-good way, so even though I'm definitely a runner I have just been doing a bunch of stretching and foam rolling to try and make them calm down before starting distance training.

 

Career goals:

As for my career paths, here they are:  Teacher, counselor, physician assistant.  I can take classes towards getting into PA school while I'm at work, and then cut out (ie, "retire"--I've been at CU for almost 20 years and that's enough to earn my retirement) early enough to go to school and hopefully graduate by the time I'm 55.  Then I can continue working for another 10-20 years as a PA.  Teaching is something I'm already ready to do, though I'm not totally qualified except through the alternative licensure program.  So either I'd have to quit and do a 1 year masters degree in education (wait, I already have one of those), or I find a school in the state that's in need of an English or Drama teacher and convince them I'm ready to be hired.  Finally, there's a counseling program that gives you a state therapist license, a school counselor license, and allows you to practice in Colorado and has reciprocity with many other states.  That program, part time and at night, would take me three or four years, and then I would have to take a semester and do the internship.  Which would be fine too.

 

I have charted the goals and deliverables necessary to do the thing most appealing to me--Physician Assistant school.  BUT acceptance rates into those programs are INSANELY low.  Very hard to get in.  So we'll see which way things go, and I will continue to trust the process and move forward.  Meanwhile I'm starting work on my EMT license in Colorado so I can start volunteering doing that and earning some hours in the medical field.

 

Archery:

As for archery practice.... what's that?  I couldn't get the family to go either weekend we had available.  There was too much to do getting the house livable.  I'll have to focus on that when we get back.  Though I'm probably not going to be able to hunt this year if I'm not practicing.  Not the end of the world, but the wild game meat is a real "very nice to have" reward for that practice.

[WhiteGhost]

1 hour ago, mediaguy99 said:

Even if I had good internet connectivity all day, I don't know if I'd want to bother on vacation.  All I know is my wife's family is literally STUFFING me at every meal.  I'm trying to limit it but they are VERY insistent.  And the food is so good...

I have been in this exact same boat for the last week or so.   The food has been great but relatives are very insistent that I eat until completely stuffed.  Consecutive days of this has not been good for my waistline

[Manarelle]

6 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

(ie, "retire"--I've been at CU for almost 20 years and that's enough to earn my retirement

 

I did not know this about you. What dept are you in? I attended CU from 10-13, Linguistics, Russian and French. 

 

6 hours ago, mediaguy99 said:

Archery:

As for archery practice.... what's that?  I couldn't get the family to go either weekend we had available.  There was too much to do getting the house livable.  I'll have to focus on that when we get back.  Though I'm probably not going to be able to hunt this year if I'm not practicing.  Not the end of the world, but the wild game meat is a real "very nice to have" reward for that practice.

 

Boo for no practice time. What do you like to hunt? We had a friend give us one of the deer he shot a few years back - we pay to have it processed, we get the meat. It was *wonderful*.

 

Good luck on the career choices. Fwiw, I'm working on my third year of trying to break into a tough industry, but I still think it's worth it. What really motivates you?

[mediaguy99]

On 7/30/2019 at 2:21 PM, Manarelle said:

Boo for no practice time. What do you like to hunt? We had a friend give us one of the deer he shot a few years back - we pay to have it processed, we get the meat. It was *wonderful*.

 

 

Ha, I hunt elk but actually harvest deer typically.  Elk are wary beasts....  but so delicious.  Deer is a good but much gamier alternative.  But whatever, it free-range, fairly stalked, organic and grass fed so I won't complain  You have a very generous friend!  

 

What's the new industry for you?  What motivates me is, I love helping people and feel at my best when in service to others.  Also, I like problem solving and troubleshooting from a deep understanding.  Finally, I like educating folks.  Being a PA combines all three of those things.  Plus it's a pretty straightforward career with lots of intrinsic challenges and rewards.  And, even though it's generally considered a "pink collar" job (aka, roles usually filled by women) it's exciting, has a lot of responsibility, and pays pretty well too.  Counseling and teaching have all those things going for them but the "pink collar" wage gap is hard to swallow.  The way roles are compensated here in the US is pretty messed up.  

 

Not of course as messed up as things here in Colombia are!  Geez, the gap between poor and not poor is pretty awful, and even "not poor" is still pretty poor off by US standards.  I'm reminded of how good we have it in the US.