Shellos does some random stuff

[Shello]

Hi folks!  This challenge will be my 2nd challenge of the year.  I made it back for the anniversary reunion challenge in February and ghosted again.  I'm not even sure I finished that challenge.  Hmm.  But this is a short one; I can totally make it through this one.  

 

I've really let my habits slip.  They weren't working for me anymore and I've just changed how I live my life.  I need to completely start over.  So a couple weeks ago I joined Noom.   So far it has helped kick start my brain into trying again so that's a win.   It's still early in their process and I've got 'lessons' to read daily.  I haven't read much that I hadn't already encountered here but the format is working.  I make goals weekly so they are likely to change and then I'll focus on whatever topics I've read about.   I'll likely use this space to work through whatever behaviors or processes and try to internalize it.  Who knows what will happen here.  It might completely bore you.  It's a mystery or an adventure.  Maybe both.  I'd be happy to just finish the challenge.  

[Snarkyfishguts]

you're not here to entertain us, booby, you're here to be among friends who love and support your desire to be a healthier Shello.  I'm so happy you're back. 

 

💚

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

What Snarky Said.™

[deftona]

Always following my twinnie! 

[Shello]

16 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

you're not here to entertain us, booby, you're here to be among friends who love and support your desire to be a healthier Shello.  I'm so happy you're back. 

 

💚

5 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

What Snarky Said.™

It's nice to have such smart friends.  It's nice to be back.  

 

2 minutes ago, deftona said:

Always following my twinnie! 

yay! 

[Elastigirl]

Glad to see you back.

[Cheetah]

Welcome back!  Happy Challenge!

[Shello]

5 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Glad to see you back.

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, Cheetah said:

Welcome back!  Happy Challenge!

It's good to be back.  

[WhiteGhost]

Woah, an actual Shello sighting!  

[Shello]

Today I felt a little off the rails.  I had a plan to  stay on track for Thanksgiving, which was successful.  But the plan  didn't take into account the days of days of leftovers.  Choices progressively got worse after some decision fatigue  each day.   So it has been decided that this week is TRW.  Thanksgiving Recovery Week, which entail the following goals:

• Hydration.  I have my goal set to 6 glasses of water
• Green foods*.  I have lots of unhealthy leftovers to get through so I need to balance them with some healthier choices.  At least 3 green foods a day.
• Get batteries for my scale.  My scale died mid weekend and it triggered negative thoughts about being a failure because I couldn't see what was going on.  I just assume the worst and then toy with giving up. 
• Reflection.  Take some time to reflect on negative thought processes, behaviors that trigger them, and ways to cope. 

 

*Noom categorizes foods into a 3 color system.  Apparently no foods are restricted and none are 'bad' foods yet they still classify foods into green, yellow, and red.  Now tell me one of those doesn't sound bad.  Green foods are basically freggies and whole grains with some other exceptions that they try to encourage.  I haven't quite figured it out yet and I'm often surprised by what categories things fall into.  For my goal I'll focus on freggies but if I don't hit 3 freggies a day but I end up with 3 green foods from other sources I'll take it.  

[Shello]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

Woah, an actual Shello sighting!  

Evidently they can only be seen in the wild seasonally.  

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Thanksgiving leftovers can be a challenge. When we went to my parent's, it was just the four adults and little Bit. We all managed to cook just enough food so that there were only one meals worth of leftovers for each adult.

[Shello]

1 hour ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Thanksgiving leftovers can be a challenge. When we went to my parent's, it was just the four adults and little Bit. We all managed to cook just enough food so that there were only one meals worth of leftovers for each adult.

Great planning.   I had Thanksgiving at my ex's with the kids.  I only planned for that meal and then my tradition is to have homemade pizza so we did that Sunday when the kids came back to my place.  But my ex made a ton of food and sent a lot of leftovers home with me.  I hadn't planned or expected that.  It was nice of him and everything but whoa.  I made a hotdish with the leftover turkey but now I have leftovers of that. (Leftover leftovers?) I did send some pie and the rest of the mashed potatoes and gravy home with DDG.

[Snarkyfishguts]

You know what helps? A visiting uncle who eats most of the leftovers. Sure he smokes, is racist, sexist, and homophobic, and may set your backyard on fire (just a little bit) but he'll save you from leftovers! 

 

Red could be bad. OR... It could be FESTIVE.  FESTIVE FOODS are great for once in a while, but they're not every day foods like green ol' veggies.  I mean, how much fruitcake can a person eat, really?  Sure I'm just spitballing* here, but I like it and I stand by it!

 

*not literally, there's a pandemic for Pete's sakes!

[deftona]

31 minutes ago, Shello said:

 I had Thanksgiving at my ex's with the kids.

 

How was that? Is he being more reasonable these days?

 

21 minutes ago, Snarkyfishguts said:

You know what helps? A visiting uncle who eats most of the leftovers. Sure he smokes, is racist, sexist, and homophobic, and may set your backyard on fire (just a little bit) but he'll save you from leftovers! 

 

 

Yeah, I'd rather be fat thanks 🤣

[Shello]

9 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

How was that? Is he being more reasonable these days?

No more reasonable.  Thanksgiving was fine, fun with the kids even, but we had an argument the day before.  Peach needs braces and he is being argumentative about it and doesn't want to pay for it.   Fun times! 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

58 minutes ago, Shello said:

I made a hotdish

You can take the Shello out of Minnesota but you can't take the Minnesota out of Shello.

[Shello]

42 minutes ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

You can take the Shello out of Minnesota but you can't take the Minnesota out of Shello.

And why would we want to?

[Shello]

I hadn't really solidified my goals until late in the day yesterday and they were mostly motivation by feeling unprepared for the week.   So it's no surprise I didn't hit them yesterday.   I didn't really pay attention to hydration.  I probably managed 16 ounces but that's a guess.  

 

I only had 1 green food, and none of them were freggies.  Chocolate milk is a green food.  I have no idea why.  I usually buy Fairlife chocolate milk.  It's higher in protein and has less sugar that the average chocolate milk.  But a couple days a week I'll treat myself to the loaded stuff from the snack cooler at work.  I've discovered the milk I consider a healthier choice is a yellow food according to Noom and the loaded stuff is a green food.  This makes no sense to me.  I've bypassed this by logging the loaded stuff all the time.  If I'm actually drinking the loaded stuff I log it with the full calories.  If I bring Fairlife milk from home I log the same loaded milk but reduce the calories to match the label.  Noom pays no attention to macros on the surface so only the calories are affected.  However, yesterday I had the loaded milk.  It's the only green food I had all day and I drank it guilt free.  

 

The work day was a little crazy.  For reasons I had to drive to work, 18 minutes, then drive home an hour and a half later and then back to work another hour after that.  Then I had to leave early and I headed back home for class (which is now virtual after Thanksgiving until the end of the semester).  I hadn't prepared any lunches so I used my driving time to pick up Jimmy Johns and chips.  I could have had some fruit I had stashed in the fridge at work but just didn't.  Dinner was leftover homemade pizza from Sunday.   I exceeded my calorie goal.  

[Shello]

Yesterday was a good day.  I was back on track.  I did buy batteries for my scale.  It wasn't great but it wasn't that bad either.  I can recover.  I had tons of green foods, including grapes and strawberries for a mid morning snack, overnight oats with blueberries and maybe almost a serving of banana for lunch, and green beans with dinner.    Also included was the chocolate milk for breakfast and the cream of chicken soup that was in the leftover hotdish.  And the pumpkin from the pumpkin pie.  Hydration was improved as well.  I managed 5/6 cups of water.  

 

I did get to relax a fair bit in the evening despite driving kids all over.  My son really needs to get his license so he can go pick up his girlfriend on his own.   I watched a bunch of trash TV, Below Deck and Sister Wives.  

[Shello]

Yesterday was a rough day.  Well the morning was rough morning with coparenting issues*.  I dropped the conversation before lunch but emailed my attorney, called a mediation center,  and the orthodontist then I stressed all day waiting to hear back from any of them.   This led to some mindless eating in the evening.  Pizza just sounded really good and I am tired of the thanksgiving leftover leftovers.  That's not a big deal but I ate a lot of pizza.  I had already logged all my meals for the day and had planned on a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert.  Since I overate on pizza I did scratch that to help balance it out.  I still went over my calorie goal by 500.  I did have 3 green foods and luckily there about 3 servings of fruit.  I've decided to also track the number of calories from green foods and calculate the % of my overall intake. because data and also because they're logging system can be deceiving.  Yesterday was only 19%.  The 2 days prior were 35% and 23%.   Hydration was iffy.  I had only 1 glass all day so I downed a couple more before bed for 3 out of the goal of 6.   

 

Spoiler

Damn braces.  We've known since peach was young and her adult teeth started coming in that she'd need braces.  It seems more than cosmetic to me and it might even to ScDouche (my ex for those of you who don't know me) if he took the time to ask questions or take her for a 2nd opinion.  He seems convinced that since I mentioned it to him recently and peach hasn't mentioned it on her own that I am just doing this to deliberately cause his economic downfall even if that means I have to pay my 60% portion as well.  Not to mention make Peach wear braces for 2 years.  Needless to say he is refusing to pay for braces or consent to them in the first place.  

 

[deftona]

3 minutes ago, Shello said:

coparenting issues*

 

 

Urgh ffs, that man. 

[Shello]

6 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

 

Urgh ffs, that man. 

So ridiculous!

I should add it's not the fact that he disagrees and refuses that's stressful.  It's the force of the disagreement.  He is ferociously argumentative and it is not only annoying and counterproductive but causes a physical stress response that takes me hours to shake.  

[deftona]

4 minutes ago, Shello said:

So ridiculous!

I should add it's not the fact that he disagrees and refuses that's stressful.  It's the force of the disagreement.  He is ferociously argumentative and it is not only annoying and counterproductive but causes a physical stress response that takes me hours to shake.  

 

I can imagine. I have someone in my life who regularly elicits this response in me too so I completely empathise with how difficult it is to deal with and can imagine you're just waiting for the next time he inevitably makes you feel like this. I think you're right to hand it over to the mediator and to seek advice. It's quite ridiculous though - what exactly does he think you stand to personally gain from this? You're paying more than half! I'm furious on your behalf now. 

 

Fuck that man. Fuck that man right out of town.

[Shello]

2 minutes ago, deftona said:

 

I can imagine. I have someone in my life who regularly elicits this response in me too so I completely empathise with how difficult it is to deal with and can imagine you're just waiting for the next time he inevitably makes you feel like this. I think you're right to hand it over to the mediator and to seek advice. It's quite ridiculous though - what exactly does he think you stand to personally gain from this? You're paying more than half! I'm furious on your behalf now. 

 

Fuck that man. Fuck that man right out of town.

I appreciate your sympathy fury!  His arguments rarely make any sense at all.  I am confident he is a diagnosable narcissist and it's strange to see similarities between him when he's argumentative and a particular narcissistic politician.  It's nothing I can argue with because it's not based in reality.