Darkfoxx 70: Jingle In The Dunes

[darkfoxx]

‘Cause we’re not jingling all the way anywhere this year. 

 

Is it Deep Holiday Season again, already? This year has seemed interminable - and yet quick; but like it’s barely happened? Let’s get an early review in: 

 

Jan - Feb: “Normal” life; a fair bit of travel, too many nights and weekends spent eating and drinking allthethings in preparation for my local bestie skipping off to a different desert. 

 

Mar - July: Fortress of Solitude life - yoga where I had the band with for it, kicked creative projects into high gear sparked off by Animal Crossing and coloring on the iPad. Ate like a college student for the most part. 

 

August: Lockdown lite and kicked yoga into high gear with walks to and from despite it being surface of the sun hot - I was just happy to be outside and moving my body in a way that felt nourishing. A return to not eating like garbage. 

 

September: Quarantine for reals and a wrist (re-re-re) injury; back to doing what I could as far as yoga was concerned. Kept up the healthy eating and was 100% tired of French fries at this point. 

 

October - November: A great groove was found with my Zoom yoga classes; most week I was able to fit 5 in. I had a bad week or two with anxiety and body freak outs, but overall some solid progress to be had. 

 

December: Hoping for the same. This year, I’m actually looking forward to staying the course as it were. The Holiday Season is always kind of wonky for us - if we’re Stateside and we travel, it’s either for Thanksgiving or early December and that’s always stressful. If we’re left to our own devices, it’s either travel for pleasure around my birthday and Chinese food + a movie on Christmas; or it’s lots of little get-togethers with friends and possibly a big blowout brunch on Christmas itself. This year, we aren’t able to travel anywhere so we are doing a birthday staycation (hence the dunes part of the challenge title), and we don’t feel like joining the masses for a big brunch blowout. If we congregate, it will be with 1 other couple. 

 

And that’s okay. Every year, this time is a whirlwind and it’s Really Frickin Easy to absolutely go off the rails when it comes to my own fitness and nutrition goals. Some years I manage to keep my proverbial shit together, but not the past few. This year will be spent focusing on other things. I’ll be spending this holiday season keeping the habits going that will fuel future-me, instead of creating a situation 2021 me will have to dig herself out of. 

 

If we choose to celebrate with back home family via Zoom, great. If not, that’s fine too. We have games for our NYE game night right here to mark the end of the year in our own style. 

 

 

Holiday Bash NF-Style Goals

 

1. Betcha didn’t think I’d say nutrition. 🤣 I’m going to continue to build on my last couple challenges here - continue to MFP track daily and report weekly without judgement, continue to post a daily log, continue to post daily pics, and continue to do what a can re: portion sizes, meat consumption, garbage consumption, and veggies. 
2. Movement. This month is going to be kinda wonky with Zoom classes - Hopefully by Week 1, schedules will have settled out and I’ll have figured out what I’m doing and who I’m paying for the privilege.
3. Feed Your Mind. Continue on with 1 Skillshare course a week + ongoing crafting project(s).
4. Feed Your Family. Continue on with doggie enrichment and training. 
5. Feed Your (potential) Future. Continue learning how to grow readership with the blog and figuring out if monetization is something I want to pursue. 
6. Mini Challenges. I know there will be mini challenges. I have the bandwidth to participate this year, whatever this may bring - Be it internal or external, Bring It! Come on Squatmas! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following along, awaiting the day you return from the sandpit (and plotting in plain sight to convince you about where to live when you do return).

[Teros]

On 11/23/2020 at 3:53 AM, darkfoxx said:

100% tired of French fries at this point.

 

HOW?

[Rurik Harrgath]

[Scaly Freak]

Looking forward to learning more about dog enrichment through this challenge as well.

[darkfoxx]

8 hours ago, Teros said:

 

HOW?

My relationship with French fries is long and complicated. Suffice it to say, it’s been a longtime trigger food that I successfully defeated during either my first or second Whole30. During lockdown, we ate pretty much nothing but junk - and since my GI system was also on the fritz, plain(ish) sandwiches and fries were a pretty safe bet to avoid the worst of the unpleasantness. So we ate a lot of them. 

 

And I just ... got tired of them. Which is a great sign for my relationship with healthy eating - it means my brain has turned that corner and is no longer in pouty survival mode. It also helps that DH has crawled halfway out of his crap food binge, so he doesn’t look like I’ve shot his pony every time I suggest something remotely healthy for delivery dinners or weekend meals out. 

 

1 hour ago, Scaly Freak said:

Looking forward to learning more about dog enrichment through this challenge as well.

Advent calendar adventures to come! 

 

8 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

Psssah. I wish! 

[spezzy]

On 11/23/2020 at 2:53 AM, darkfoxx said:

 

 

1. Betcha didn’t think I’d say nutrition. 🤣 I’m going to continue to build on my last couple challenges here - continue to MFP track daily and report weekly without judgement, continue to post a daily log, continue to post daily pics, and continue to do what a can re: portion sizes, meat consumption, garbage consumption, and veggies. 
2. Feed Your Family. Continue on with doggie enrichment and training. 

 

I should really have doggie enrichment and training as a part here, too, my teenage boy is becoming quite the handful hahaha. Raising a  puppy during quarantine was good for my mental health, but it has created a stage 5 clinger 🤣🤣🤣

 

Tracking without judgement is the HARDEST part of tracking - you've got this

 

Here for all of it!

[Fonzico]

Here's to giving 2021 us a headstart instead of a hole!

 

Following obvs. 

[darkfoxx]

11 hours ago, spezzy said:

 

I should really have doggie enrichment and training as a part here, too, my teenage boy is becoming quite the handful hahaha. Raising a  puppy during quarantine was good for my mental health, but it has created a stage 5 clinger 🤣🤣🤣

 

Tracking without judgement is the HARDEST part of tracking - you've got this

 

Here for all of it!

 

Oh noes! One of mine - Mr. Difficult, of course - is also a clinger. A jealous butt ‘will yell at anyone who dares gain my affection while he’s out in the proverbial cold’ clinger. 

 

Enrichment feeds seems like such a small thing, but it has made loads of difference in the general peace of our household. And it’s fun. 

10 hours ago, Fonzico said:

Here's to giving 2021 us a headstart instead of a hole!

 

Following obvs. 

🙌

[darkfoxx]

Week: 0, Monday

 

Nutrition

Goals here: smaller portions, less meat, more veggies, nutrient dense food options, no GI issues. Eat with an eye toward Base MFP goals for slow weight loss: 1,260 calories, 20% protein, 50% carbs, 30% fat

 

Week 0 Averages: _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 1 Averages: _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 2 Averages: _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 3 Averages:  _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 4 Averages:  _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: ??
Week 5 Averages:  _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: ??

 

Breakfast: The last pumpkin pecan cinnamon roll

Lunch: The last of the fall pumpkiny salad

Dinner: What better way to use up leftover ham than hash? This had roasted baby potatoes, baby chard, a yellow bell pepper, half an onion, and bourbon ham leftovers 

Snacks: “Oriental” mix because I was genuinely hungry 

Did I eat a vegetable today? Yep! Pumpkin, green leafies, peppers 

Did I eat like an asshole? Nope

Did anything try to kill me? Nope

Did I drink enough water? Maybe? I didn’t wake up too dry

 

Movement

Goals here: 4 - 5x a week yoga classes via Zoom or in person if that’s available and desirable + a little or a lot of accessory work on Saturdays. Projected weekly schedule: Monday Slow Flow (Zoom), Tuesday Handstand Practice (Zoom), Wednesday Monk Foundations (Zoom), Thursday Rest Yo Body Day, Friday private mobility & skills class (in person), Saturday Zoom flow or a little directed movement elsewhere, Sunday mall walk

Yoga Class: 

 

Feed Your Mind

Goal here: Continue learning via Skillshare - Learn about selfies, food photography, increasing social media traffic, digital art, watercolor - and keep working on crafting projects

 

Work on a craft project: Crocheted a bit, started holiday cards 

[ x ] Duolingo Arabic class

Skillshare class or putting knowledge to work: Puttered around a bit reading odds and ends 

 

Feed Your Family

What was today’s doggie enrichment and/or training? Made the advent calendar bags for the pups. Tonight’s dinner was snuffle mat goodness. 

 

Feed Your (Potential) Future

What am I working with re: the blog? Figuring out Pinterest and whether I care enough to go all in. Probably not. There is a tool a lot of people use to automate posts and amplify best performers - but that costs $, and I’m not to that point. Not sure if I ever will be. 

 

Mini Challenge All The Way

What did I do here today? Haven’t seen it yet, so nothing done here. 

 

 

 

[Rurik Harrgath]

Can we please please please institute a SPOILER WARNING rule except it's FOOD PORN WARNING for those of us who don't eat during the day? 🤣

[darkfoxx]

12 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

Can we please please please institute a SPOILER WARNING rule except it's FOOD PORN WARNING for those of us who don't eat during the day? 🤣

I know, right? That hash was AH-Maz-Ing

[darkfoxx]

Week: 0, Tuesday

 

Nutrition

Goals here: smaller portions, less meat, more veggies, nutrient dense food options, no GI issues. Eat with an eye toward Base MFP goals for slow weight loss: 1,260 calories, 20% protein, 50% carbs, 30% fat

 

Week 0 Averages: _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 1 Averages: _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 2 Averages: _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 3 Averages:  _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: _
Week 4 Averages:  _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: ??
Week 5 Averages:  _ calories, _g protein (_%), _g carbs (_%), _g fat (_%) End Weight: ??

 

Breakfast: Soy/Almond yogurt with muesli 

Lunch: Fried chicken sandwich with turkey bacon, pickled beets, quick pickles, an interesting butter(?) buffalo(?) style sauce and about a quarter of the fries. They were delicious, but that pretzel roll ... 

Dinner: Too full from lunch still 

Snacks: Nothing but whiskey & diet 

Did I eat a vegetable today? Marginally

Did I eat like an asshole? A bit. Managed to stop with lunch when I was full but not dying, which is a win in my book. Finished the sandwich. Could have stopped about 3/4 of the way through, tbh, because I was tired of the fried bit of the chicken - delicious as it was. 

Did anything try to kill me? Nope.

Did I drink enough water? I think so 

 

Movement

Goals here: 4 - 5x a week yoga classes via Zoom or in person if that’s available and desirable + a little or a lot of accessory work on Saturdays. Projected weekly schedule: Monday Slow Flow (Zoom), Tuesday Handstand Practice (Zoom), Wednesday Monk Foundations (Zoom), Thursday Rest Yo Body Day, Friday private mobility & skills class (in person), Saturday Zoom flow or a little directed movement elsewhere, Sunday mall walk

 

Yoga Class: Skipped yoga today in favor of a nap with the pups 

 

Feed Your Mind

Goal here: Continue learning via Skillshare - Learn about selfies, food photography, increasing social media traffic, digital art, watercolor - and keep working on crafting projects

 

Work on a craft project: Crocheted a bunch 

[ x ] Duolingo Arabic class

Skillshare class or putting knowledge to work: Nope 

 

Feed Your Family

What was today’s doggie enrichment and/or training? Today was Advent Calendar day 1 and it was a big hit. Dinner was puzzles and I need to figure out a way to make one of them harder. It takes like :30 to rip through it now. 

 

Feed Your (Potential) Future

What am I working with re: the blog? Did nothing here 

 

Mini Challenge All The Way

What did I do here today? Not yet, my pretties. Talk of Squatmas has appeared! *minor cackle* *cough* *cough* *cough*

 

Today was spent mostly at the embassy trying to get our passports renewed. This was the first day since lockdown the embassy was open for passport stuff and it was super busy. Lots of new babies needing documentation; lots of people with expiring paperwork. Overall, it wasn’t as much of an ordeal as I was led to believe. Yeah, there are quite a few layers of security and screening to get through before you get to the “office” and that “office” looks like the post office or DMV, complete with bulletproof glass walls, but it wasn’t the foreboding guards in full riot gear I was expecting. They don’t serve you tea like some of the other embassies ... but then again, it’s US soil, so .... it functions like other government facilities. Got our stuff done and sent (hopefully). Should see quick turnaround too - the passport lady said she’d been seeing 10 day turnarounds. 

 

After all that, we were starving so I took DH to lunch at one of the places I discovered with coffee group he hadn’t been to before - an American themed place with fried chicken sandwiches, brisket and supposedly prime rib after 6. We shall have to return for dinner some time. The place itself is in kind of a cool area. It’s a tennis complex, I believe, complete with some sort of stadium thing and I think training facilities - with a kind of shipping container/tiny house village in the parking lot housing what’s kind of like a drive-in food haven. Drive-ins aren’t really a thing here. A few of the McDonalds and Burger Kings are actual drive throughs, but most places operate on the park & honk system. Park. Honk & someone runs out with a menu and the credit card machine when it’s time to pay. We have not really taken advantage of that system because it’s weird. This was a little actual cafe style restaurant tucked in the back of all of that in a strip of cafes. Lots to explore in this area, since it looks like they’re all cool places. 

 

Doggie Advent: 

 

The odd assortment of ‘wealth porn’ art on the walls of the restaurant we ate at:

 

And finally, the foods: Workign on spoiler tags 😜

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

.

[Fonzico]

Glad to hear the passport mission wasn't hellish! 

 

 

Mmm fried chicken. I tried making it homemade last week for the first time, it was so stupid good. 

[darkfoxx]

On 12/3/2020 at 5:48 PM, Fonzico said:

Glad to hear the passport mission wasn't hellish! 

 

 

Mmm fried chicken. I tried making it homemade last week for the first time, it was so stupid good. 

Homemade fried chicken is awesome! 

[darkfoxx]

Oops. 

 

Week 0 Wednesday & Thursday

 

Both were fine. Wednesday was functional yoga with shoulder stuff worked on. Thursday was planned skip day spent wrestling the pups and trying my damnedest to keep Odin calm while maintenance was in. He’s done far, far worse - but there was still a lot of room for improvement. Poor guy was able to calm himself down enough to whine and bitch while getting treats instead of just barking his face off the whole time, so there’s that. He even fell asleep while the guy was in the back bathroom and out of sight for a good 10 minutes. And while Freya was getting petted by one of the guys, Odin was barking - but he was able to calm enough to take treats. Poor baby was frustrated af. 

 

Wednesday food was snuffle mats, Thursday was rude balls. 

 

Wednesday they were both crazy on their walk but the walker has said that she definitely notices a difference. Odin no longer screams at gardeners; just joggers and bikers (they avoid other dogs like the plague). 

 

So. Good progress there. Still not perfection, but this is the long haul. 

 

Wednesday I made a book choy/gochujiang mixture to go over rice for dinner; Thursday we finished off the ham leftovers. Lots of ham sandwiches have been had. 

 

Haven’t really done much with the blog this week and did not do a Skillshare class. I’ve been napping in the afternoons, and crocheting. 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

7 minutes ago, darkfoxx said:

a book choy

Would that be literate cabbage?

[darkfoxx]

3 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Would that be literate cabbage?

🤣

Could be 

[Fonzico]

I'm pro-napping, so no judgement here. 

 

What is a rude ball? I'm scared to Google...

[Scaly Freak]

23 minutes ago, Fonzico said:

I'm pro-napping, so no judgement here. 

 

What is a rude ball? I'm scared to Google...

 

It's a dog toy. 😛 

 

There's lots of different types and brands, but the concept is a sphere that is either hollow with an opening, or some kind of skeleton structure, and everything in between. The idea is that you can put treats, food, or strips of paper, rope, or whatever else, inside the rude ball, and then let the dog go crazy on it. 

 

They exist because dogs are animals living with humans, and their mental health suffers if they are not allowed to just "be a dog" every now and then. An important part of being a dog is to use their nose to find things, and to bite and chew on something just for the fun of it. Rude balls and other enrichment toys allow them to do that. 

[Big_Show]

At least you're guaranteed warmth - my last Christmas in the sandpit left me slightly suburnt!

[darkfoxx]

23 hours ago, Fonzico said:

I'm pro-napping, so no judgement here. 

 

What is a rude ball? I'm scared to Google...

🤣

23 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

It's a dog toy. 😛 

 

There's lots of different types and brands, but the concept is a sphere that is either hollow with an opening, or some kind of skeleton structure, and everything in between. The idea is that you can put treats, food, or strips of paper, rope, or whatever else, inside the rude ball, and then let the dog go crazy on it. 

 

They exist because dogs are animals living with humans, and their mental health suffers if they are not allowed to just "be a dog" every now and then. An important part of being a dog is to use their nose to find things, and to bite and chew on something just for the fun of it. Rude balls and other enrichment toys allow them to do that. 

The rude ball also makes horribly rude grunting noises. It’s got one of those gravity-fed noise maker things instead of a squeaker. 

 

Ill try to remember to take good pics next time I whip them out - ours are hard plastic with lots of nubbles. The dogs go wild for them. 

 

So far, it’s Toppls with frozen food, snuffle mats & rude balls FTW. The other treat balls are okay, and our snuffle boxes have managed to get tossed, along with most of my fabric strips, so no more of that for now. The puzzles are a hit, but I feel like they’re getting bored with the easier one and we only have 1 hard puzzle with enough room to fit all of dinner. 

 

21 hours ago, Big_Show said:

At least you're guaranteed warmth - my last Christmas in the sandpit left me slightly suburnt!

😆

[darkfoxx]

Friday

 

Friday was good. I had my first one-on-one lesson with the good functional yoga guy, and it went really well. Anxiety made sure I was a damn goofball when I showed up and hadn’t spoken to another human (other than my husband and 2 friends I talk to all the time) in months, so that was nice and dorky. Made friends with a cat. Got to see his wife, whom I really like as well, so that was a bonus. And he gave me homework for my wrist - and doesn’t think it’s beyond rehabbing. He thinks I should get it checked out, but there are strength exercises that can be done to mitigate the damage. So that’s good. He also gave me another variation for down dog that will decrease the pressure on my wrists to help there. Which is great, because that one kills me when they’re flaring up. 

 

He’s an arm balance guy with tricky wrists - so there is hope yet! I think we are working on either hips or knees next week. I like that his concern is the skeleton - and he appreciates my data nerdiness. 

 

Food was fine. had eggs & tortillas for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and neither of us wanted delivery for dinner - so more eggs & spaghetti squash. 

 

Didn’t do much more than yoga; that took a chunk out of my afternoon and I wasn’t really moved to. Crocheted a bunch. 

[sarakingdom]

3 hours ago, darkfoxx said:

Made friends with a cat. Got to see his wife, whom I really like as well, so that was a bonus.

 

Always nice to meet a committed feline couple. It's so rare that they legally marry.

[darkfoxx]

11 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Always nice to meet a committed feline couple. It's so rare that they legally marry.

Woooooooow that took me a long time to “get”. 🤣 I get it now. Ha!