In Which Sarah Barr Does All Her Exercise Outdoors (Challenge 10)

[Sarah Barr]

Spring is here, I have been outside in a t-shirt to prove it. 

 

I have a holiday in week 4 that I'm hellbent on spending in a tent somewhere, so an outdoorsy challenge sounds like just the job.

 

 

Overall life-goal: Become a physically capable ecologist.

 

 

Goal 1: Diet

 

I'm bad at sticking to something for six weeks, so I'm taking a suggestion from LadyShello and Deftona and mixing it up this time for the food goal with three mini-goals, all revolving around removing unnecessary rubbish of some description, and increasing intake of good things.

 

 

Weeks 1 and 2:

Buy no food in plastic/metal/glass packaging whatsoever. So, loose freggies, and any loose nuts that I can stick in a paper bag. Food I already have in my cupboard right now is fine. A concession of two packs of pretend meat in week 2, but only if I've run out. Flour/sugar can be found in paper bags but I'm calling that cheating. 

 

 

Weeks 3 and 4:

New plan! Iron Age Britain is too wheaty and meaty, really. So during week 3 and 4, I instead have to eat at least one meal a day with five natural colours in it. So, could be chilli with purple beans, red tomato, yellow peppers, green courgettes and, er, grey mushrooms. Or could be a fruit smoothie with yellow pineapple, orange... orange, green kiwi, red strawberry and white natural yoghurt. Five shades of yellowy-browny-beige don't count (sorry, four cheese pizza) unless they're freggies. Parsnip, yellow pepper, turnip, chickpea and mushroom curry would be fine.

 

[Old Plan: Eat at least one meal a day that consists of food you'd have found in Iron Age Britain. Lots of research needed, which should be fun, but also guarantees there won't be nachos and there will probably be at least mushrooms. It's for fun, not experimental archaeology, so the modern varieties of freggies are allowed. And if I can cite a reference of it being found in Iron Age Britain, I can eat it. There was once an Irish king who was given a baboon as part of a trade deal, according to Time Team, so chances are I can eat the odd fig.

Might even throw in some wild food since wild garlic's coming into season. It smells strongly of garlic. Oddly enough.]

 

 

Weeks 5 and 6:

Bring a homemade packed lunch to work every day that contains at least two portions of freggies. Sweet chilli sauce, avocado, mango and marinated tofu is much better than a sad supermarket sandwich.

 

+3 Con for healthy eating, +2 Wis for learning new things

 

 

 

Goal 2: Exercise

 

Straightforward. Have to exercise at least three times a week, and it has to be outside. Could be walking to/from work, could be doing conservation volunteering, could be going for a hike. I love lifting, but I want to find a way to build up strength that also improves my stamina and my ability to lug bits of timber about up hills. Best way to do that is, I guess, to lug bits of timber about up hills. So signing up for conservation volunteering is a priority. I am excited for week 4, because I might even have the opportunity to swim outside.

 

+2 Str, +2 Sta

 

 

 

Goal 3: Self-Care

 

A compound goal, breaking down into:

- Drink at least a litre of water a day

- No caffeine after 7pm

- Take care of skin (put coconut oil on stretch marks 3x a week, face clean and moisturised every day, exfoliate once a week)

 

+1 Cha for feeling more confident, +1 Con for feeling more capable.

 

 

 

Life Goal: Lighten up the backpack

 

Moving house in July; would rather have a lot less stuff. Would also rather have some more money from selling said stuff.

- I have shelves of precious bookspace devoted to classics I've never read; they will be read and sold or unread and sold but sold they shall be, so I can put the rest of my Pratchett books somewhere I can see them.

- I have a huge drawer full of papers from university. The sentimental-or-scientific-value ones (old assignments, journal article printoffs) will be scanned/kept, the rest are going out. Same for half-filled notebooks.

- Craft projects: Some can be finished, others will be binned or unravelled. Some finished craft projects could be sold. Small crafting materials I keep since that's an investment. Large things like fabrics will either be used or sold.

- Kitchen and homebrewing whatever: Make that beer. Drink that beer. Then decide whether it was worth it, and either go forth and make more beer or sell the flaming beer vat. Weed out silly kitchen things that take up space ad contribute nothing. I'm looking at you, boiled egg moulds. 

- Clothes: clothes.

+4 Charisma for sheer ruthlessness; a whole 4 points because I find this hard. Not in a letting-things-go way, in a procrastination way, or not wanting to have wasted money. (Seriously though, Sarah, if you don't want to waste money, don't buy seven metres of tacky polyester satin in the first place.)

 

 

 

Recording:

Via HabitRPG; they're mostly did do/didn't do kinds of tasks. Weekly summaries as well.

 

 

Prep:

- Sign up for conservation volunteering

- Make a list of the loose freggies in the supermarket

- Find recipes that fit those freggies.

- Tidy room so there is an organised place in which to rifle through things.

- Freeze gym membership - DONE.

 

 

Right, let's get cracking, then!

[Sarah Barr]

(Reserved for Week 1 and 2 Analyses)

 

Week One Summary:

 

Packaging free days: 4/7. A couple of forgotten packed lunches tripped me up here. But I'm remembering better! If I forget again, I'm leaving my purse at home, so it's either packed lunch or no lunch. If that doesn't help me remember, well, I guess at least it cuts some calories. Trying to be strict with myself.
I quite like this goal, it's getting me more freggies and my bin's not getting as full so fast. Depending on how this week goes, and tonight's shop in particular, I might stick with this one a bit longer.

Self-Care: Face is happy it's getting a cleanse and moisturise every morning. Can't say I'm sleeping better without the caffeine after 7pm, but I've stuck to that 7/7 days. Don't know why I'm not sleeping. Room is dark, I've been avoiding my laptop, no evening caffeine, comfy bed, room a good temperature. Might ask pharmacist for a recommendation. Forgot to exfoliate. 

Exercise outside: Didn't go volunteering this weekend, because it's ragwort pulling and I am paranoid about ragwort. (Can cause irreversible cirrhosis of the liver, although you'd need to accidentally eat enough of it. Still.) Did exercise outside 3/3 times though! Also, we have mice and I'm setting up ramp-fruit-and-bucket systems to catch them. So if I ever catch any I'll have to release them a mile from my house. Which may mean some very early morning walks to the park before work, but being responsible for the wellbeing of some mice is a good motivator. I love mice. Even if they may or may not rattle about in our toaster sometimes. (Another good thing: not eating toast for the sake of it because THERE WAS A MOUSE IN OUR TOASTER.)

 

Life goal: Gutted my clothes, books, papers. We're having a "party" this Saturday, and by party I mean the four of us in our flat are going to feed our friends alcohol while we try to convince them to buy all our spare stuff. They have been informed of our intentions. Should be fun. I may wake up on Sunday morning with an armful of my friend's corsets because we agreed that we all get first dibs on each other's good stuff for free. 
 

 

 

 

Week Two Summary:

 

Packaging: Certainly less packaging than normal but still no cigar on this one, about 4/7 days again. Looking forward to the rainbow freggies portion of this challenge. 

 

Self-Care: Great, 7/7, and I've started taking omega oil tablets on recommendations from people who also bleached the living daylights out of their hair. But still not sleeping. Things just keep happening. Night before last it was a terrified mouse backflipping behind my headboard. Last night the fire alarm ran out of batteries at 3am, and is connected to the mains in order to beep piercingly at you every 20 seconds to let you know about that and you can't get it to stop unless you change it or smash it up. I was really looking forward to sleeping. 

 

Exercise outside: Some gentle short walking but not enough, 2/3. Remembered to book place in conservation group only after the Friday afternoon deadline because I'm an eejit. Did get so much exercise yesterday, though, scrubbed our kitchen so thoroughly to get rid of the little mouse presents. Getting progressively grumpier at the mice. Not their fault. Still haven't managed to catch any. Slightly obsessed with these mice at the moment.

 

Life Goal: Didn't sell much at party, which I guess is good because now I can flog them on eBay at prices higher than friend-prices. If I get round to listing them, that is.

 

 

[Sarah Barr]

(Reserved for Week 3 and 4 Analyses, endless tide of blurry pictures of trees and stuff)

[Sarah Barr]

(Reserved for Week 5 and 6 Analyses)

[DrFeelgood]

(Reserved for praise and adulation for all your successes)

[Shello]

   Well done!  I love what you've done with your challenge.  The 3 separate goals are quite smashing and sound like fun.  And I really love the functional fitness.  Looking forward to your progress.  

[Sarah Barr]

Raring to go today! Started self-care already, and... (hanging up)... just booked a place to do woodland management volunteering in Roslin Glen tomorrow! 

 

This is going to be fun!

 

Okay, recipe plotting.

 

Let's see. Buying freggies with no packaging and using things I already have, I could make...

- Zoodles with balsamic mushroom bolognese

- Lemon-roasted courgette, aubergine and pepper with homemade flatbread and avocado "mayo"

- Mushroom and pepper fritattatattata omelette

- Nectarine and pistachio crumble

- Mango and chilli tofu with rice

- Mushroom bean burgers (all hail mushrooms, seriously hope I can still get them loose there)

- Curried carrot soup (I need to remember to make this more often, it is amazing and so very thick. Going to put recipe in recipe book in signature.)

[deftona]

Great looking challenge and I want to eat all of this please. 

 

 

- Zoodles with balsamic mushroom bolognese

- Lemon-roasted courgette, aubergine and pepper with homemade flatbread and avocado "mayo"

- Mushroom and pepper fritattatattata omelette

- Nectarine and pistachio crumble

- Mango and chilli tofu with rice

- Mushroom bean burgers (all hail mushrooms, seriously hope I can still get them loose there)

- Curried carrot soup (I need to remember to make this more often, it is amazing and so very thick. Going to put recipe in recipe book in signature.)

 

Following along again  

[Sarah Barr]

Haha! Just been reading about food in Iron Age Britain. It's basically just wheat, barley, beans, parsnips, meat, and milk. And beer. Lots of beer. Glad I'm expanding it to native plants. I want fruit!

The sour cream cheese recipe here looks fun though:

http://www.tastesofhistory.co.uk/Recipes/Iron-Age/

 

Simple cheesemaking is really satisfying. None of that rennet fuss, just milk, lemon juice, salt, a saucepan, and a bit of muslin to drain it with.

 

Going to stop posting now!

[GingaNinja]

Sweet!

[Terah]

Love the way you split up the first challenge!

Subbed off couse. Go team#1!

[Teros]

Raring to go today! Started self-care already, and... (hanging up)... just booked a place to do woodland management volunteering in Roslin Glen tomorrow! 

 

This is going to be fun!

 

Okay, recipe plotting.

 

Let's see. Buying freggies with no packaging and using things I already have, I could make...

- Zoodles with balsamic mushroom bolognese

- Lemon-roasted courgette, aubergine and pepper with homemade flatbread and avocado "mayo"

- Mushroom and pepper fritattatattata omelette

- Nectarine and pistachio crumble

- Mango and chilli tofu with rice

- Mushroom bean burgers (all hail mushrooms, seriously hope I can still get them loose there)

- Curried carrot soup (I need to remember to make this more often, it is amazing and so very thick. Going to put recipe in recipe book in signature.)

piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIcs

 

Howdy again! *waves*

 

[chiyou]

This sounds exciting... and tasty! Awesome side quest, too--decluttering is hard but so satisfying once you get going! I did something similar before a recent move, and just hearing about it makes me want to start tossing everything again

[Sarah Barr]

Piiiiics will haaaaappen! I recently got a camera for the first time since I was about 19, still excited about that. 

 

I seem to be taking a running jump at this challenge. 

 

Conservation volunteering was great! Fresh air, interesting people, beautiful countryside, manual labour, and free tea. We were planting and felling trees, and dear god, four hours working with a bow saw and my whole body still hurts two days later. Haven't had DOMS this bad since the Fort William meet-up when I first learnt to deadlift! I take this to be a very good sign, and that this will do me a lot of good.  I'm expecting volunteering will get less exhausting the longer I do it for, but I am quite glad it's only on Saturdays.

 

Everything going well so far, but was too knackered to do any decluttering this weekend. Will see how I feel after the walk home and my first packaging-free food shop (I may have forgotten to tell my partner I'm doing this, hope she's not too miffed, although I'm not docking points if I buy her things she has requested that have packaging, as long as I don't eat any).

[GingaNinja]

I've been to Roslin Chapel, that now charges for you to go in. I have never been in the forest. I hear it is lovely!

[Sarah Barr]

that now charges for you to go in.

God, the Da Vinci Code came out so long ago. I'm impressed they can still milk it. Forest is lovely! Worth a walk through although the hike back up the hill to the bus stop is a pain. 

[Teros]

and free tea.

You know what I just tried and was really good? Coconut tea.  I've never been a tea fan, but I think that's my 'gateway' tea and I want to try more soon.  Any other times I've tried teas, I haven't liked them so I'm kinda hopeful that I found something different.

 

It was like drinking a spray tanned person. A delicious spray tanned person.

[Sarah Barr]

It was like drinking a spray tanned person. A delicious spray tanned person.

That is a convincing endorsement right there!

 

First packaging-free food shop was a success, but I need to visit a fruitmonger because I'd not realised just how much fruit is wrapped in plastic before. I managed some bananas, some apples and a mango, and I saw loose citrus fruits, coconuts and some suspicious looking pomegranates. Not much loose, though. Also should go to a fruitmonger because the woman at the checkout in Waitrose had this heartbreaking screaming-internally smile on her face when she saw all my loose veg and I kind of feel bad.

Attempting to make butternut squash gnocchi tonight; could be... messy.

Walking is not going so well, since I keep remembering I'm supposed to walk to/from work as I'm getting off the bus having rode it to/from work. If I leave my bus pass in the office then I will HAVE to walk home tonight and back tomorrow. Good plan, Sarah. Thankyou, Sarah. 

I am very excited to make gnocchi for some reason. Also making mushroom and stilton burgers. Planned recipe going in recipe book, no idea if it's going to work. Yay!

[deftona]

Attempting to make butternut squash gnocchi tonight; could be... messy.

I am very excited to make gnocchi for some reason. Also making mushroom and stilton burgers. Planned recipe going in recipe book, no idea if it's going to work. Yay!

 

That butternut squash gnocchi sounds excellent, let me know how it goes - I've only made potato gnocchi before and that was messy enough! And I would also like to know how the mushroom burgers go because they sound fantastic too.

 

I know what you mean about checkout-person rage when you try to buy loose freggies. I did that once and she proceeded to put them all in a bag as she weighed them, looking disapprovingly at me the whole time. I only wanted to save the planet  

 

They should have little reusable baskets for this though. My greengrocer also bags up all the freggies so you might find it's just as bad there.

[Shello]

That is a convincing endorsement right there!

 

First packaging-free food shop was a success, but I need to visit a fruitmonger because I'd not realised just how much fruit is wrapped in plastic before. I managed some bananas, some apples and a mango, and I saw loose citrus fruits, coconuts and some suspicious looking pomegranates. Not much loose, though. Also should go to a fruitmonger because the woman at the checkout in Waitrose had this heartbreaking screaming-internally smile on her face when she saw all my loose veg and I kind of feel bad.

 

 

I've been there too.  I hate having to use plastic for fresh freggies; it seems like such a waste of resources.  Even the Mr gives me dirty looks when I do it.  

[Terah]

No market nearby? You can find produce without packaging there. 

Check out "no impact man" for more tips

[Sarah Barr]

Thanks for the link! No market that I know of except the weekly farmer's market, where the vegetables are mostly soil and cost a small fortune, but there are plenty greengrocer-type shops in Edinburgh! I'm going to explore the Middle Eastern and Far Eastern mini-supermarket shops too, because I think I remember seeing loose dried beans and grains for sale in a couple of those. And the veg is more interesting. Also going to find paper bags to take with me and re-use!

[Sarah Barr]

Still going well; wrestled with blender this morning and made fresh smoothie. Well. Fresh lumpie. But it is tasty. Pineapple, orange and banana. Could do with some frozen yoghurt, though.

 

Still managed to avoid packaging but it may be tough today since packed lunch is fruit. I keep boiling up extra pasta at dinner for my lunch the next day and then eating the extra bit. I am going to look into self-control because I want food for lunch. Fruit is only sort of food. It is mostly drink.

 

Got outside exercise walking both home and to work over the past 24 hours. Didn't go the whole distance for time-saving reasons, but that was two miles walked each way.

 

Decluttered a fair stack of papers yesterday, which felt good, and have another stack of coursebooks and lab notes that I'm going to digitise this weekend so I can get rid of the actual papers. 

Been thinking that while my week 3 and 4 gimmick might be interesting, a British Iron-Age diet is not going to be that healthy. A different gimmick is called for. Something entertaining that doesn't require a diet of little but wheat, meat and beer. I liked the rainbow freggies goal LadyShello (I think) did last challenge, maybe that! I read something about Japanese cuisine aiming for five colours in a meal. Or I imagined that. Either way, if I aim for five colours in every meal it reduces the likelihood of three plates of beige a day. Yes, that works, I like that. Editing challenge. Might be tricky with breakfast, so I'm making it one meal a day that has to have five colours in it. 

[deftona]

Been thinking that while my week 3 and 4 gimmick might be interesting, a British Iron-Age diet is not going to be that healthy. A different gimmick is called for. Something entertaining that doesn't require a diet of little but wheat, meat and beer. I liked the rainbow freggies goal LadyShello (I think) did last challenge, maybe that! I read something about Japanese cuisine aiming for five colours in a meal. Or I imagined that. Either way, if I aim for five colours in every meal it reduces the likelihood of three plates of beige a day. Yes, that works, I like that. Editing challenge. Might be tricky with breakfast, so I'm making it one meal a day that has to have five colours in it. 

 

That's a really good idea, a great way of getting lots of different freggies in. I can see how an Iron Age diet would be difficult for a vegetarian!

[deftona]

I've just read this article and I thought this list might be useful to you:

 

GREEN -- Leafy greens (kale, spinach, arugula, lettuce, chard, etc.) Green vegetables (broccoli, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, green beans, snow peas, etc.) Herbs--they count! (parsley, basil, cilantro, rosemary, chives, etc.) Fruits (kiwi, green apples and pears, honeydew, limes, etc.)

BLUE/PURPLE -- Vegetables (eggplant, purple potatoes, purple cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, asparagus, or cauliflower, etc.) Fruits (blueberries, figs, grapes, plums, blackberries, passion fruit, etc.)

RED -- Vegetables (beets, red bell peppers, red onion, radicchio, red chili peppers, rhubarb, etc.) Fruits (tomatoes, apples, watermelon, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, pomegranates, pink/red grapefruit, etc.)

YELLOW/ORANGE -- Vegetables (orange and yellow peppers, carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, acorn, butternut and summer squash, pumpkin, etc.) Fruits (oranges, lemons, grapefruit, mangoes, apricots, pineapples, papaya, etc.)

WHITE -- Vegetables (cauliflower, onions, garlic, mushrooms, Jicama, turnips, shallots, kohlrabi, parsnips, etc.) Fruits (white peaches and nectarines, coconut, bananas, etc.)