Lateral Planet: Fury Road

[Lateral Planet]

Actual footage of Australia right now:

 

Just replace guzzoline with toilet paper and that's pretty much the current situation. We've had a lousy year so far: heat waves, bushfires, smoke haze, hail, floods... and honestly I've struggled to adapt. I keep saying, "Once this is over I can get back on the wagon," but there's always some new challenge around the corner interrupting my plans to get fit. Coronavirus isn't going anywhere quickly, so I've just got to get out of that mindset and take action now.

 

1) Eat sensibly

It's a good time to get strategic with food. Intermittent fasting and rationing the snacks (basically, eating less) means fewer, infrequent trips to the supermarket. I'll keep meal prepping even if I'm working from home. Keeping track of what food we've got, and using it wisely, will also mean fewer emergency takeaway dinners.

 

2) Exercise

Even in a lockdown the puppy needs his walkies, and so do I. When I'm stuck at home I can fit in a lot of exercises throughout the day; even if I'm working I plan to wear a sports bra so I can exercise in between tasks. Exercise will also benefit physical and mental health, both of which are more crucial than ever these days.

 

3) Sanctuary

During a normal work week I'll let things get a bit untidy, but if I'm staying home all the time it's going to be clean and tidy, dammit! A well-organised home will help us stay happy and comfortable even in confinement.

 

4) Mental health

Perhaps the most important. Staying home and only going out for groceries can make for a nice quiet weekend, but after a while it gets pretty tedious. Keeping in touch with friends and family is vital, but so is checking in on yourself now and again to make sure your needs are being met, and how they can be met in these extraordinary circumstances.

 

Friends, we're in for some tough times. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But Nerd Fitness is a support group after all, and community is so important right now. I'm very glad to be here and to have this connection with you all. Good luck and stay safe.

[Lateral Planet]

My challenge in gif form:

 

 

 

 

[Bean Sidhe]

I totally am in the same boat. (Aside from the Australia only part).  Although toliet paper seems to be  the gold around here too.

 

Good luck dealing with the cabin fever. Know you are not alone.

 

[RedStone]

Not alone. We're all doing some version of it  

[Lateral Planet]

7 hours ago, Bean Sidhe said:

I totally am in the same boat. (Aside from the Australia only part).  Although toliet paper seems to be  the gold around here too.

 

Good luck dealing with the cabin fever. Know you are not alone.

 

6 hours ago, RedStone said:

Not alone. We're all doing some version of it  

Thanks, chums! I really love the sense of solidarity around all of this. Like of course there are some idiots running around making things difficult (as always) but for the most part I think people are looking out for one another.

 

As for the toilet paper thing, the mind boggles! I'm more worried about actual food shortages. I mean, as a country we produce more than enough food for everyone, but if it's not on the shelf and available for purchase it might as well not exist, y'know? Anyway, we have enough at home for a couple of weeks; I just hope that by the time we need to do another big shop everyone will have calmed down a bit and left some on the shelf for us.

[Lateral Planet]

Well what can I say, it's Tuesday and I'm already feeling burnt out! Monday started very well, with a sleep in and a late start at work. I wanted to do some exercise but after several months of inactivity I'm pretty seized up, so I had a go at some yoga. It's not easy following along a video on your phone when you're not sure what you're doing, but I did feel nicely stretched out at the end. I had a little chocolate but not too much, and didn't eat anything after dinner so that's good for IF.

 

Trouble was I got stuck at work until just after midnight, which majorly sucked. On the bright side, that's probably the last crazy work day until August. But now I'm back at work again ten hours later and I'm really just not up for it today. Might have an early lunch to give me a spur of energy.

 

On the whole it's been a fairly good start to the challenge. My mental health meter is running a bit low but I'm sure a good sleep tonight will put me back on top.

[Tyr the Conqueror]

Mickey & the Beanstalk was one of my faaaavorite movies to watch as a kid. The dinky bean between two "sheets" of bread...  best of luck on your personal hero's tale.  Not to sound like a broken record, but you're not alone! (Sounds like you're still able to go to work? My company shut down to start working from home as of last week...bring on the cabin fever!)
Hope yesterday got better for you and you were able to get some sleep. Keep fighting the good fight and keep focused on why you wanted to start this journey in the first place.

[Lateral Planet]

5 hours ago, Ruby-Wan Kenewby said:

Mickey & the Beanstalk was one of my faaaavorite movies to watch as a kid. The dinky bean between two "sheets" of bread...  best of luck on your personal hero's tale.  

It's a classic! Thanks

 

5 hours ago, Ruby-Wan Kenewby said:

Not to sound like a broken record, but you're not alone! (Sounds like you're still able to go to work? My company shut down to start working from home as of last week...bring on the cabin fever!)

Good luck with the cabin fever and working from home, I'm sure it's quite an adjustment! Yep I'm still at work, but only because I would really resent having to use up my annual leave (paid time off) to stay home. At least it's a cushy government desk job. But last night the Prime Minister said the magic words "Work from home if you can" so hopefully that means they'll send us home soon.

 

5 hours ago, Ruby-Wan Kenewby said:

Hope yesterday got better for you and you were able to get some sleep. Keep fighting the good fight and keep focused on why you wanted to start this journey in the first place.

I was so grumpy yesterday! But I've had a sleep and I'm feeling a bit better now. Just taking one day at a time

[fleaball]

fwiw things started to go batshit in my state a little over two weeks ago, and supermarkets are mostly back to normal here now? Paper goods are still disappearing as fast as they come in, but not a day goes by without someone posting on the Boston subreddit asking which stores have what stuff and I'm seeing more and more people saying things are good now. So the panic does seem like it settles after a bit.

[Lateral Planet]

42 minutes ago, fleaball said:

fwiw things started to go batshit in my state a little over two weeks ago, and supermarkets are mostly back to normal here now? Paper goods are still disappearing as fast as they come in, but not a day goes by without someone posting on the Boston subreddit asking which stores have what stuff and I'm seeing more and more people saying things are good now. So the panic does seem like it settles after a bit.

I'm so glad! I know it's just my anxiety running wild but it's frustrating having so little control over basic stuff like what's for dinner. To be honest I haven't been to the supermarket in about 10 days so it's probably a lot better now than it was then. Husband even managed to get a couple of boxes of tissues yesterday!

[fleaball]

17 minutes ago, Lateral Planet said:

I'm so glad! I know it's just my anxiety running wild but it's frustrating having so little control over basic stuff like what's for dinner. To be honest I haven't been to the supermarket in about 10 days so it's probably a lot better now than it was then. Husband even managed to get a couple of boxes of tissues yesterday!

Totally sympathize. My last two shopping runs (a week ago and like 5 days before that) the frozen veg section was decimated and most of the fresh produce was picked over and gross. I may not love cooking but I do try to incorporate some kind of veg with my pasta/rice and beans and my anxiety was not pleased because “omg now what do I cook?!?! What if I never see a bell pepper ever again??”

[Lateral Planet]

6 minutes ago, fleaball said:

Totally sympathize. My last two shopping runs (a week ago and like 5 days before that) the frozen veg section was decimated and most of the fresh produce was picked over and gross. I may not love cooking but I do try to incorporate some kind of veg with my pasta/rice and beans and my anxiety was not pleased because “omg now what do I cook?!?! What if I never see a bell pepper ever again??”

Yep we're all having to improvise a bit. It's funny what you take for granted, never realised I was so passionate about cucumber until suddenly there weren't any available, a surprisingly crushing blow!

[Lateral Planet]

Major win for mental health today. I was still pretty cranky about having to be at work, so I just went ahead and asked for some days off. Boss was very cool about it, so I'm getting long weekends for the next few weeks, and now I feel a bit better. That's a little less time I'll need to spend out on the world.

 

Also I did some more yoga this afternoon. I'm doing the super slow and relaxing kind, and it's pretty good so far even though I never know what my hips are doing and I forget to breathe. The app is free for the next week so I'll take advantage of that and see if I want to go any further with it after that.

[J3NN]

11 hours ago, Lateral Planet said:

Also I did some more yoga this afternoon. I'm doing the super slow and relaxing kind, and it's pretty good so far

I used to go take a class called deep, slow stretch, it was amazing. I loved that class. I've never found anything like it. I should look harder. 

 

Glad to hear you were able to get some time off, and that your boss was cool about it. 

[Lateral Planet]

3 hours ago, J3NN said:

I used to go take a class called deep, slow stretch, it was amazing. I loved that class. I've never found anything like it. I should look harder. 

That does sound good! It's been quite nice taking some quiet time to stretch. Maybe next week I'll start doing some some bodyweight exercises but for now this suits me just fine. I don't really like gyms or classes very much (or at least not the ones I've tried) but maybe when the world is back to normal I could try a yoga class and see I like that any better. 

 

3 hours ago, J3NN said:

Glad to hear you were able to get some time off, and that your boss was cool about it. 

I probably spent half an hour trying to come up with the most professional way to say, in 50 words or less, "I just really, really don't want to be here right now" so I'm glad that paid off! And I definitely feel more chipper now that the weekend is that much closer

[Rookie]

I'm doing what you are doing with the intermittent fasting so we don't go through food so fast since all 3 of us are home now until who knows when. Though sometimes I crave and have some cereal haha. 

 

We can do this 

[Lateral Planet]

5 hours ago, Rookie said:

I'm doing what you are doing with the intermittent fasting so we don't go through food so fast since all 3 of us are home now until who knows when. Though sometimes I crave and have some cereal haha. 

 

We can do this 

It's a bit harder when there's a room full of food just a few steps away, isn't it! 

[Lateral Planet]

My dudes, I'm having a bad day. Way too much happened and almost none of it was any good. The one good thing was I got approval to work from home at last. I'll go in on Monday to wrap up some stuff I didn't have brainpower for today, but beyond that I can stay in my sanctuary

[Rookie]

2 hours ago, Lateral Planet said:

It's a bit harder when there's a room full of food just a few steps away, isn't it! 

I found the hardest thing was when I was shopping and it was mostly only junk food left. I was like "... I could eat all this lol". And the first 4-5 days at home were hard lol I wanted to boredom eat. Luckily I've been on track with tracking my calories before this really started so I'm in a bit of a flow. And the want to boredom eat kind of died down just make sure you have your water available at all times. There's now times I feel a bit hungry and before I'd almost overreact lol like id be afraid of feeling hungry. Now I'm just kind of like oh I'm hungry, well I'll grab food in a bit. 

[Lateral Planet]

11 hours ago, Rookie said:

I found the hardest thing was when I was shopping and it was mostly only junk food left. I was like "... I could eat all this lol". And the first 4-5 days at home were hard lol I wanted to boredom eat. Luckily I've been on track with tracking my calories before this really started so I'm in a bit of a flow. And the want to boredom eat kind of died down just make sure you have your water available at all times. There's now times I feel a bit hungry and before I'd almost overreact lol like id be afraid of feeling hungry. Now I'm just kind of like oh I'm hungry, well I'll grab food in a bit. 

It's not a bad idea to have some snacks on hand as well as plenty of the sensible stuff; the last thing you want is to get stuck in a lockdown without any fun food to boost morale! The trick will be to ration it out so I'm not tempted to go shopping too often

 

I'm home alone today, having my much anticipated day off work. I have a few chores I need to do, but I also plan to fit in some exercise so I'm wearing comfortable clothes I can work out in so I don't have to bother changing. Zombies Run have pressed pause on their usual stuff and started doing home workout programs! I'm excited to check this new thing out later this morning, as well as some more yoga. 

[J3NN]

1 hour ago, Lateral Planet said:

Zombies Run have pressed pause on their usual stuff and started doing home workout programs! I'm excited to check this new thing out later this morning, as well as some more yoga. 

Ooh I may have to check that out, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Lateral Planet]

1 hour ago, J3NN said:

Ooh I may have to check that out, thanks for the heads up.

I just did the first one, it was really good! I guess with how the UK is right now they've really taken their immersive style of gaming to the next level. 

[Rookie]

12 hours ago, Lateral Planet said:

It's not a bad idea to have some snacks on hand as well as plenty of the sensible stuff; the last thing you want is to get stuck in a lockdown without any fun food to boost morale! The trick will be to ration it out so I'm not tempted to go shopping too often

Haha I got some treats (s'mores granola bars, Ritz cheese crackers sandwich things) but that's mainly for the guys. I have lots of flour, sugar, banana, chocolate chips, oil etc lol so I can make all the good things.

 

That's really cool zombies run did that. I might check it out as well

[Lateral Planet]

10 hours ago, Rookie said:

Haha I got some treats (s'mores granola bars, Ritz cheese crackers sandwich things) but that's mainly for the guys. I have lots of flour, sugar, banana, chocolate chips, oil etc lol so I can make all the good things.

Yep I made sure to get both snacks and ingredients for more snacks too! A few friends and I are planning to have a virtual morning tea tomorrow, so I'm going to make scones with jam and cream. I'll have to make a half-quantity though since only Husband and I will actually be able to eat them!

 

10 hours ago, Rookie said:

That's really cool zombies run did that. I might check it out as well

I feel like they're being really responsible, since their usual purpose is to get people off the couch and out of the house, they've really had to change their messaging for the time being.

 

Also that yoga app I've been using (Down Dog, is anyone's interested) is providing free access until 1 May, which is great.

[J3NN]

29 minutes ago, Lateral Planet said:

Yep I made sure to get both snacks and ingredients for more snacks too! A few friends and I are planning to have a virtual morning tea tomorrow, so I'm going to make scones with jam and cream. I'll have to make a half-quantity though since only Husband and I will actually be able to eat them!

I wonder how well scones would freeze. I don't think I've ever seen them frozen, but at times like this it might be interesting to test... Then you could heat one up in the microwave for an emergency

 

31 minutes ago, Lateral Planet said:

Also that yoga app I've been using (Down Dog, is anyone's interested) is providing free access until 1 May, which is great.

Ooh, thanks, I'll check that out.

 

31 minutes ago, Lateral Planet said:

I feel like they're being really responsible, since their usual purpose is to get people off the couch and out of the house, they've really had to change their messaging for the time being.

I haven't had the app in ages, but now I want to download it just to see what it's like.