Bookish Badger Learns to Love the Grind

[Bookish Badger]

On January 14, 2017 at 0:49 PM, Owlet said:

Fun story, over here the cornstarch packaging looks almost identical to the custard powder. Guess which one I used last time I made stir fry.... 

Everyone loves a creamy, vanilla stir fry!

 

Edit to avoid double-post: So I didn't get to Mr. Bear's bathroom this weekend. I did some surface cleaning, but I determined that I need some supplies to really organize; namely something like a wall-mounted spice rack to contain all the med bottles. Purchases need to wait for a paycheck so I've moved the project to next weekend. At least I'm stocked up on bathroom cleaning supplies!

 

Instead, I cleaned out the fridge and called that my weekly contribution to household order.

[Severine]

High five on cleaning out the fridge! That always feels like such a slog to me. Any job where cleaning the thing comes with extra bookends of having to empty the thing and then reload the thing is an extra slice of ugh. On the other hand, a clean fridge is such a glorious thing.

 

We have a couple of these little shelves (marketed as spice racks but I use them in the bathroom, and also the wall beside the couch to hold remotes, etc) and they're pretty cheap (2 for $14) and easy to install! Obviously might not be your style but there are lots of affordable options.

 

@Owlet your post made me laugh. You know here in the US I have to buy custard powder at a special "foreign foods" store?? I need it to make nanaimo bars, so it's very essential. The Americans are missing out on a very delicious item.

[Bookish Badger]

Thanks, @Severine! Something like that is just what I'm looking for.

[Bookish Badger]

Level Update (wow, it's been a long time since I've done one):

 

As of Jan 1st, I began tracking my attribute points again. To refresh everyone's memory (including mine), they are:

 

Stamina: 1 hour of activity (gym, walking, yard work, etc.) = 1 point
Health: Eating LCHF for the day = 1 point
Magicka: Abstaining from alcohol, reading 1 hour per day, and writing my affirmations are each worth 1 point per day.

Here is my current point breakdown:

 

Stamina: 11

Health: 6

Magicka: 45

For a new total score of 62.

 

I'm optimistic that I will see more progress soon, as I've recently gotten back on the LCHF wagon.

What do we say to carbs? NOT TODAY!

 

Still need to get a lot more activity into my days.

 

But what really kills me is seeing how I tanked my score due to alcohol consumption - I lost 14 points there. Seeing that string of "-1s" really illustrates just how counter to my goals drinking is.

What do we say to booze (tempting, tempting booze)? NOT TODAY!

[Bookish Badger]

Further update:

 

Just got back from the dentist (need old cavities drilled & refilled, boo) and my blood pressure was 147/74!! Systolic is still a little high, but the diastolic is finally in a normal range!

[Owlet]

Your dentist took your blood pressure? But yay, that is great news!

[Dagger]

11 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

Stamina: 11

Health: 6

Magicka: 45

For a new total score of 62.

 

I'm optimistic that I will see more progress soon, as I've recently gotten back on the LCHF wagon.

What do we say to carbs? NOT TODAY!

 

Still need to get a lot more activity into my days.

 

But what really kills me is seeing how I tanked my score due to alcohol consumption - I lost 14 points there. Seeing that string of "-1s" really illustrates just how counter to my goals drinking is.

What do we say to booze (tempting, tempting booze)? NOT TODAY!

Sounds like you are getting back in the groove after the break.

 

7 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

Further update:

 

Just got back from the dentist (need old cavities drilled & refilled, boo) and my blood pressure was 147/74!! Systolic is still a little high, but the diastolic is finally in a normal range!

I'm so relieved!

[Butternut]

Just read your Kung Pao Califlower!  Sounds awesome! I've really been digging Califlower, been doing a lot of Cauliflower rice.  Its an awesome substitute for rice, but also just do have that little something else. 

 

I didn't realize you were "Paleo-ish"  when your mentioned "fat adaption" in my challenge, I made that connection

 

Sounds like your doing really well with having the battle log! I'm excited to see your leveling up!

[Bookish Badger]

Thanks, @Owlet, @Dagger, and @Butternut!

 

I'm more Keto than Paleo-ish, I guess. Staying very low carb is pretty much the only thing that gets weight off for me; if it weren't for that fact I'd be all about the pasta and bread! And since I have historically lapsed with my forbidden love of grains, I'm very familiar with low carb flu and adaptation symptoms (mine, at least).

 

That doesn't stop me from stealing the Paleo folks' ideas and recipes, though. Speaking of which, if you like cabbage rolls but not the tedium of boiling, separating, and stuffing the leaves, this recipe is brilliant. It took less time than a pot of spaghetti to cook, and has me wondering what else I can deconstruct to my advantage:

 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/unstuffed-cabbage-bowl/

[Bookish Badger]

Mr. Bear's bathroom is successfully cleaned & organized! I'd thought about installing shelves like @Severine recommended earlier, but instead found these: http://www.target.com/p/double-level-under-vanity-storage-rack-champagne-88-main/-/A-50281627 After spending way too long removing some long-unused shelf brackets, and seeing the gaping holes they left, I'm glad I didn't try to mount anything else to that drywall! Now I need to get fresh spackling compound.

 

I got two and they sit on either side of the sink near the mirror, corralling nearly everything that needs corralling. I hope they work for Mr. Bear, since he's the one using that bathroom.

 

When I showed the final results to Mr. Bear, his reaction was...underwhelming. He kinda half-smiled and said something like, "thanks, but you didn't have to do all that, I was ok with it like it was..." Oh, well. 

 

A new discovery! When you take the toppings off of a pizza slice and put them on a lettuce leaf, they taste pretty good! I used romaine but I think I'll try butter lettuce next time.

[Dagger]

13 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

When I showed the final results to Mr. Bear, his reaction was...underwhelming. He kinda half-smiled and said something like, "thanks, but you didn't have to do all that, I was ok with it like it was..." Oh, well. 

He might have thought he was ok before, but subconsciously he will probably feel better from an ordered place. He might just not realize it.

 

13 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

A new discovery! When you take the toppings off of a pizza slice and put them on a lettuce leaf, they taste pretty good! I used romaine but I think I'll try butter lettuce next time.

If I give up pizza, I will try this!

[FatboySuave]

On 1/19/2017 at 3:34 PM, Bookish Badger said:

What do we say to booze (tempting, tempting booze)? NOT TODAY!

 

Haha, I love this! I'm totally stealing it. We'll see how it works. Lettuce pizza also sounds pretty good, lol.

[Owlet]

A shame his response was underwhelming but good on you for doing it anyway  And yuuum to lettuce pizza!

[Bookish Badger]

2 hours ago, Owlet said:

And yuuum to lettuce pizza!

I should have taken a picture of it. The red sauce and other toppings looked pretty good against the dark green lettuce.

[Bookish Badger]

UPDATE: Went to the doc for a follow-up: blood pressure was down to 127/76! So I'm back into normal-ish range! Waaay better than it was not too long ago. She's keeping the meds the way they are for now but repeated that I could probably go off the blood pressure med permanently if I lost some weight. Then started pestering me about exercising. I haven't been going and am not sure why not, other than that I've decided not to go in the mornings at least for a little while and haven't been able to get into the afternoon workout groove. Excuses, Excuses.

 

Then she tried brainstorming with me, like "which 2 days would you be willing to go?" (I'm a creature of habit & wouldn't go only 2 days a week) and "Is there a friend or a workout buddy you could take with you?" (Oh, the look on her face when I said that not only do I not have a 'workout buddy,' when I see people from work there I pretend I don't know them. Introvert, who me?) I get what she was saying but that all just makes me dig in my heels and not wanna, sort of like when I was 13 and told I had to go do my homework.

 

I was outlining what I want to do when I do go back, and she listened then said, "You know, that all sounds great but I'd be thrilled if you'd just go walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes. Just to build the habit." So ok, she might have something there. Maybe I'm not ready mentally to jump back into a big ambitious routine - because I am a creature of habit and going to the gym after work is really outside of my normal routine. So I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

[Dagger]

10 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

I was outlining what I want to do when I do go back, and she listened then said, "You know, that all sounds great but I'd be thrilled if you'd just go walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes. Just to build the habit." So ok, she might have something there. Maybe I'm not ready mentally to jump back into a big ambitious routine - because I am a creature of habit and going to the gym after work is really outside of my normal routine. So I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

Glad to hear your blood pressure is down!

 

And the above does sound like a good way to get in the habit of working out in the afternoon as painlessly as possible.

[Bookish Badger]

Pandora is pranking me. So far this morning, Classical Romance Radio (usually unobtrusive instrumental music to drown out office noise) has given me rap and mariachi music. I have no idea how these got there because a.) I don't add personal choices to generic stations and b.) I have never listened to either of these genres, ever.

 

Go home, Pandora, you're drunk.

 

Also, due to watching Brene Brown's TED talk linked from Steve's NF post a couple of days ago, I half want to change my handle to " "Magic Pixie" "

[Severine]

Yay for your blood pressure going down!! Good motivation to keep doing the sensible things you're doing.

 

And yeah, it does sound like you have reluctance around re-establishing the workout habit that would be good to think a little harder about. Some of it is obviously habit and scheduling, but maybe there's something else going on, too? Is there some way you could start adding exercise into your regular routine in a solitary, low-demand way, like a morning or evening walk around your neighbourhood for 10-15 minutes? I don't presume to understand your situation, and I certainly don't pretend to have figured anything out, but I figured a little amateur brainstorming wouldn't hurt anything

 

Pandora always plays the weirdest, most embarrassing music when I've got people around. It's cheeky.

[Bookish Badger]

1 hour ago, Severine said:

you have reluctance around re-establishing the workout habit that would be good to think a little harder about

No question. I've got a bad case of the bratty don'wannas for some reason. And right now I've got the nasty virus that's been going around the office so I've got a couple more days to think about it. Brainstorming is never a bad idea.

 

The walk isn't a bad idea, but it's still pretty dark when i get home (sunset is still before 5pm) and I'm just clumsy enough to fall off a curb even with a flashlight. Oh, and it's supposed to snow again this week. Yay.

 

I have no idea what was up with Pandora that day. I actually checked to see if it was some sort of April Fool's day that no one told me about. I'm used to all sorts of weird stuff showing up in my own channel since I plug everything I like into that - it will jump from Adele to Gaelic Storm to Disturbed to Johnny Cash to George Thorogood. The generic stations usually behave themselves though.

[Dagger]

5 hours ago, Bookish Badger said:

it's still pretty dark when i get home (sunset is still before 5pm)

I can't wait for the light to return to a large portion of my day. The good thing right now, is that it is happening as fast as it got dark before winter solstice.

 

Light light light light light. :3

[FatboySuave]

On 1/25/2017 at 9:33 PM, Bookish Badger said:

I was outlining what I want to do when I do go back, and she listened then said, "You know, that all sounds great but I'd be thrilled if you'd just go walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes. Just to build the habit." So ok, she might have something there. Maybe I'm not ready mentally to jump back into a big ambitious routine - because I am a creature of habit and going to the gym after work is really outside of my normal routine. So I'll give it a shot and see how it goes.

 

How's the habit forming going? I know this may not be exactly the same, but I know that when I really started to take my fitness journey seriously, I started out by walking on my treadmill daily. What helped me was watching episodes of the Flash. And I would only watch the show when I was on the treadmill. After that, I gradually transitioned into walking outside — I used to be kind of scared of walking around the neighborhood. I still struggle to maintain the habit daily, but those early baby steps definitely helped me out!

[Bookish Badger]

January Recap (Includes points from Jan 19 update):

 

Stamina: 13

Health: 14

Magicka: 52

For a new total score of 77 points.

 

I continue to have my struggles with eating Keto and with avoiding the evil booze pixie, but at least I'm struggling. I haven't thrown in the towel. I will persevere! 

 

And on the exercise front... Mr. Bear's job has changed, and with it his schedule has changed to a time that will give him a more forgiving commute (he is currently spending at least 20 hours a week driving to & from work). Working remotely from home at least a few days a week seems to be a strong possibility. So I floated the idea that if he's interested, I'd be willing to change gyms to one we could both go to in the evening and work out together. He didn't leap at it with a "hell yeah, let's go!" but at the same time didn't completely dismiss the idea. So that would be something we can do together that would be good for us both.

 

A new recipe: Paleo Hash. The local New Seasons had it, made with a mix of rough-chopped Granny Smith apples, sweet potato, mushrooms, celery, dried cranberries, and pecans, all mixed with their sage breakfast sausage. Of course I started by frying some chopped bacon before adding the hash mix. They also had the skinniest asparagus I've ever seen so I steamed a bundle of it and served over a bed of the fried hash, all topped with a couple of eggs over easy. I admit I was a little nervous about how it'd all turn out but it was really good. Mr. Bear agreed that it was a good candidate for the regular rotation. 

 

So now I've been thinking of ways to make it myself. I liked the mix of fruits/veggies but neither of us are big fans of breakfast sausage and seems like it would go well with any meat one wanted to use up (which was the original point of hash anyway). Also, since everything is fried, it seems like it would be a good candidate for batch freezing - any water given off when the veggies thaw would evaporate. Fixed with some of  @NeverThatBored 's meatballs, it could be a good quick dinner to pull out of the freezer on those what-am-I-going-to-cook-too-tired-to-think nights.

 

This warrants further research. I'll experiment and report back.

[Severine]

Oooh, I would very much like to hear the results of that experiment. 

 

Yay for Mr. Bear having a shorter commute! And possible exercise partnership

 

Watch out for that shady booze pixie...

 

 

[Dagger]

6 hours ago, Severine said:

Yay for Mr. Bear having a shorter commute! And possible exercise partnership

Second this!

 

I love how you experiment in the kitchen, learning new recipes to add to rotation. I admire that.

[Bookish Badger]

10 hours ago, Severine said:

Watch out for that shady booze pixie...

 

 

Yep, that's the little tart.