Delalana tries something new

[delalana]

Working towards the overarching goals eating healthier and feeling more in control of what I’m eating, my therapist suggested temptation bundling cooking with something I like. That’sa much more positively oriented approach than my usual say I’m going to cook and then feel bad if my routine gets thrown off and I miss it approach, so I’m running with it. I’m not sure what I want to use as my thing I like yet, so far my ideas are:

1. Listening to my favorite podcast. I like this one, the only problem is that I usually can’t hear whatever’s playing off I’m doing something at the stove. I did just get a pair of noise canceling headphones for work, though, so that might make this work.

2. Wine on cooking nights. I’m somewhat less enthusiastic about this one, but on the other hand it’s 100% doable.

 

I’m also going to start focusing on stress management (swimming, going outside) now. My cousin’s going into the hospital a week from tomorrow for a medical trial. She’ll be there for 3-4 weeks. So I will be - and already am - worried about her and hoping things go well. And, while we’ll still have texting and video chat, I’ll be a lot more on my own than usual.

 

It’s going to be a stressful month. So I’ll try to take control of things where I can and manage my emotional and mental health where I can’t.

[Kestrel Grey]

Temptation bundling is a great way to positively reinforce change! 

 

Some thoughts: Another option is a favorite movie - one that you know well enough to not care if you miss some bits, but still enjoy.  Audiobooks are hard if you are cooking anything new because you'll get distracted and keep having to rewind. A glass of wine while you are cooking sounds lovely. It would be most effective to have during cooking because if you had it later, it's just a reward and not bundling.

 

Best wishes for your cousin. Hopefully the weeks go by quickly and you don't feel too lonely. 

[Xena]

I never heard of temptation bundling before, but the concept makes sense. Hope you find something that works well for you.

[delalana]

16 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

Another option is a favorite movie - one that you know well enough to not care if you miss some bits, but still enjoy. 

The podcast I’m thinking of works pretty similarly. It’s prone to long (amusing) tangents and, when it is on topic, things tend to jump around enough that I can miss some bits and still be ok.

 

16 hours ago, Kestrel Grey said:

Best wishes for your cousin. Hopefully the weeks go by quickly and you don't feel too lonely. 

Thanks

 

I did cook today, even if it wasn’t temptation bundling. I had fifteen minutes left when I finished lunch so might as well start the slow  cooker meal I’ve been procrastinating on for a while.

[delalana]

The wine worked. At least as far as planning goes. Sometime in the next week or so I’ll be making avgolemono soup and spinach, mushroom, and feta quiche.

[Kestrel Grey]

Yay for wine!

 

3 hours ago, delalana said:

Sometime in the next week or so I’ll be making avgolemono soup 

So that's what that soup is called! Oh man, a friend of mine in high school hosted a Greek themed dinner party and attempted that soup.  She really got it wrong. All of the guests came up with different creative ways to not eat that atrocity... oh the memories.  May your soup be fabulous!

[Xena]

I clicked on the quiche link...I never knew the difference between a quiche and a frittata before!

I may try that recipe 🙂

[RouleurBaby]

Mmmmmm might make a frittata! Do prefer them to a quiche, more like a big omlette! Mmhmm 

[delalana]

On 10/26/2020 at 1:27 AM, Kestrel Grey said:

Best wishes for your cousin. Hopefully the weeks go by quickly and you don't feel too lonely. 

Thanks. As it turns out, there’s not a bed available*, so the hospital date got delayed by two weeks, which isn’t helping her anxiety. It won’t make a difference to the trial in the long run, but I’m worried about her emotional health in the short term.

 

I made a plan to cook after work today. Then I told the customer that I’d package things up and send them over right after the meeting. And then Murphy’s Law intervened and I had a very long and stressful day. Cooking was not a thing I felt like doing by the time I signed off from work, so I heated up a can of soup instead.

 

On the positive side of things, I did not deal with my stress by getting fast food. And I was super motivated last night and now my kitchen is cleaner than it’s been in months.

 

On 10/28/2020 at 4:35 PM, Xena said:

 

I clicked on the quiche link...I never knew the difference between a quiche and a frittata before!

 

I didn’t either... but both sound good!

 

 

* For anyone curious, this doesn’t say anything about our area’s covid capacity. My cousin just needs to be on a specific ward that covid patients wouldn’t be going anywhere near.

[Xena]

14 hours ago, delalana said:

I heated up a can of soup instead.

That sounds like a very good choice.

[delalana]

Last week ended up being incredibly stressful (work, election, life) and I worked a decent amount of overtime so food choices weren’t great and not much cooking happened.

 

I did finally get around to making avgolemono  soup on Friday... Saturday... what day is it? It also turned out a lot closer to what I grew up with* than the last time I made something similar a few years ago. I’d thought that the soup as I was used to it had a cream base, but it turns out that was actually eggs. So now I can have it without drowning myself in calories, which is wonderful.

 

As far as incentives go, turns out podcast listening is enjoyable, but not particularly motivating. So I’m going to see how far I can make it with the wine and try to think of something else that might work.

 

* Fun fact: Detroit had a fair amount of Greek immigrants a few decades back, so now there are Coney Islands (full service fast food that’s mostly hot dogs and Greek food) all over the place and basically every restaurant serves chicken lemon rice (avgolemono) soup.

[Xena]

4 hours ago, delalana said:

As far as incentives go, turns out podcast listening is enjoyable, but not particularly motivating. So I’m going to see how far I can make it with the wine and try to think of something else that might work.

 

It's great that you tried the experiment. Definitely tell us how the wine experiment works out!!

 

I didn't know that about the Greek population of Detroit. Interesting!

[delalana]

It’s been crazy 25 hours. Both work and family stuff have gotten pretty hectic relatively suddenly.

 

Even so, I did actually ended up doing some cooking this evening. There were two things that made this work:

1. I had a plan before everything went sideways to make the sauce for a pasta dish. This was what gave me a chance of getting anything done.

2. The promise of wine. This was what made the cooking actually happen.

 

So it looks like the wine is going to work. We’ll see if I can make it two for two when I assemble the pasta dish tomorrow.

[delalana]

I ended up babysitting until 6:30 today so cooking dinner didn’t happen, which I’m fine with. My eventual dinner choice wasn’t the healthiest, but it did come from my freezer instead of a restaurant, so I’ll take the win in that.

[Kestrel Grey]

Sorry it's been hectic recently. That's great the wine is working!

[delalana]

On 11/11/2020 at 8:24 PM, Kestrel Grey said:

Sorry it's been hectic recently. That's great the wine is working!

Thanks. Family stuff is stable at this point and we were able to figure out the work issue this morning. So now I’m enjoying an evening of relaxing and looking forward to getting some good sleep this weekend.

[Xena]

Great that things have settled down, and hop you had a really nice weekend.

[delalana]

I needed this weekend. I got some much needed sleep and now have a much better idea of what day it is. Which happened just in time to order presents for the soon to be six year old’s birthday next weekend.

 

Earlier today I finally got around to cooking the pasta dish that I made sauce for on Tuesday. All other cooking plans are getting pushed off indefinitely as I’m now far more aware of the fact that my parents are going to be getting here on Thursday.

 

 My cousin goes into the hospital on Tuesday (this got pushed back again for scheduling reasons, but is now officially a go). After talking  things over with her doctors, she and her husband decided that they feel safe having him come and visit a few times while she’s in there. Her mother in law is coming to stay and watch her son for the entire time she’s in her hospital, so that her husband can both work and come visit her during the day. So, provided visitor policies don’t change due to covid, right now this is working out about the best it can.

 

I’m realizing that I’m probably not going to get back into a pool for at least a couple of months at this point. Either I’m going to be quarantining to hopefully be able to see my family over Christmas or things will have gotten bad enough that I won’t be able to go see them, in which case I can’t imagine feeling safe at the pool either. And I am not going anywhere near the pool in at least the two weeks following new year’s. I’m sad and nervous about the impact that this is going to have on my mental health, but I don’t really see any other way around it. Maybe it’ll snow a bunch and I’ll be able to get out and snow shoe this winter.

[Kestrel Grey]

It's good to hear your cousin's hospital stay is turning out as good as possible in covid times.  The pool not feeling safe sucks, but getting outside often, whether for snowshoeing or just a walk, is good for mental health too.

[delalana]

Unfortunately hospital policy is changing as of tomorrow to not allow any visitors. My cousin is having a hard time with the news that she won’t be able to see even her husband for a solid month. She’s sad, scared, and pissed off that people couldn’t even wear masks or cut down their socializing enough for us to be in even slightly less of a raging pandemic.

[Xena]

I'm also sorry to hear about the pool.

 

Do I have you mixed up with someone else, but were you also doing some belly dancing a while ago? If yes, maybe try out some zoom classes or videos.

If I have the wrong person, maybe take up belly dancing...or something

 

ETA: I don't mean to sound insensitive by suggesting different exercise. I completely understand that you really valued your time at the pool and that losing that opportunity is really hard.  🙂

[delalana]

My cousin want into the hospital this morning. I haven’t heard from her yet today, so I’m assuming she’s busy with checking in and trial sorts of things.

 

19 hours ago, Xena said:

Do I have you mixed up with someone else, but were you also doing some belly dancing a while ago? If yes, maybe try out some zoom classes or videos.

That was, indeed, me. I was taking virtual classes with a lot of the same people I had been doing in person ones with, but stopped because I wasn’t getting any of the social components of the classes and I was getting bored with drills.

 

The videos are a good idea that I hadn’t thought of. They might not be exactly what I’m used to, but I’m a lot more open to that when I’m not paying the same price as full in person classes. And knowing that people could see me on a screen was never my favorite part of the virtual classes anyways.

 

19 hours ago, Xena said:

I don't mean to sound insensitive by suggesting different exercise. I completely understand that you really valued your time at the pool and that losing that opportunity is really hard.

I appreciate your and @Kestrel Grey‘s suggestions. Needless to say, it’s been a hard year. While I’ve been relatively ok for a little while now, that grasp on ok has felt pretty tentative and fragile. So having one of the main supports go away is scary. And the stress and lack of sleep of the past couple of weeks isn’t really helping. But I was always going to have to diversify at some point. Some day I could end up living somewhere where I don’t even have access to a pool or having some temporary or permanent medical issue that makes it so I can’t swim. I’ll get through it. And I think getting outside and getting back to dance will help.

 

On a less depressing note, I had a rather interesting revelation last night. I was walking back from my cousin’s, wanting to eat my feelings in deep fried food, but also most of the way through the last day of the drink more water challenge from the NF app, where the goal was not to drink anything other than water, coffee, or tea for 24 hours. Turns out I find the thought of eating deep fried food with water instead of pop absolutely unappealing. That, combined with the motivation of already being most of the way to my liquids goal was enough to convince me to eat the healthy dinner I had at home with a side of some fancyish garlic cheese bread. I don’t know what I want to do with that, but it feels like there should be something useful I can get out of it.

[Xena]

2 hours ago, delalana said:

I don’t know what I want to do with that, but it feels like there should be something useful I can get out of it.

 

It's a really interesting observation! My two cents is that it shows how much our desire for certain things is emotional. You have a sort of emotional memory of fried food and soda making you feel a certain way.

 

What I think is interesting is that it parallels really nicely with your experiments with wine and cooking. That's like trying to create a different positive association/memory.