Cymas: Embracing the Chaos

[Cymas]

Nutrition is just as important as exercise to maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle. I'm here to grind and level up my life primarily through diet first, then addressing fitness once I've mastered the art of the diet. 

 

Goals: Improve diet, return to fitness, break bad habits and build new ones.

 

Diet: Budget friendly Mediterranean-style

 

Using the guidelines found here to build a daily/weekly diet plan. Why? Because almost every diet out there is essentially this minus your trigger foods. Menus will be planned weekly to maximize budget and customized to individual tastes while still hitting as many nutritional goals as possible. I am not currently tracking macros.

 

Basics:

 

Fruits and vegetables: 3 servings per day, each

Whole grains/starches: 3-6 servings per day

Legumes: 3 servings per week

Fish: 3 servings per week

Nuts: 3 servings per week

Poultry: 1 serving or less per day

Dairy: 1 serving or less per day

Eggs: 1 per day, max 4 per week (with yolks, whites unlimited)

Red meat: 1 serving or less per week

Wine: 1 serving per day

Baked goods/desserts: 3 or less per week (as a hobby baker, ouch but understandable)

 

Notes: I will be avoiding tree nuts as my partner is anaphylactic to almonds and there can be cross reactivity so I'm not going to risk it. Peanuts are ok luckily. I'm giving myself 3 "open" meals per week to account for takeout, social engagements, etc. I probably won't use all of them every week, but I do get lazy on weekends.

 

Budget: $250 per month in the northeastern US, including household goods, the nights my partner stays over and occasionally cooking for friends/family.

 

Bonus Challenge: My partner spends all day on the road as a delivery driver and has expressed a desire to lose weight. I will be working on recipes to provide healthier snack and meal options that are easy to eat and are good either cold or at room temperature. This will probably amount to 1-2 recipes per week as we just don't get a lot of time together right now.

 

Fitness: Due to a difficult and stressful transition period at work I am not working toward any fitness goals right now beyond making sure I get up and move at least 3x a week.

 

Bad habits: Also due to the above, I spend way too much time gaming and need to cut back. I've also gotten quite lazy with day-to-day tasks and haven't been progressing toward my goals. Honestly the reddit implosion may end up being the best thing that could have happened to me as I don't have anything to mindlessly scroll through anymore, so that's a win already. As far as food goes, my downfall is ice cream and snacks.

 

Better habits: I want to get back to reading, writing, taking care of myself properly, socializing, learning Portuguese, and tackling the backlog of projects and other miscellaneous tasks. This isn't all reddit's fault, much as I wish it was so I'd have an easy scapegoat.

 

As far as weight goes, I am currently more interested in body recomposition than loss. Although I did not continue my old log, I did eventually reach my goal weight of 125 lbs at 5' 5" and have remained within 5-10 lbs of it ever since. I am at a healthy BMI, my nutritional goals are so that I stay that way and also as a mitigation against the numerous chronic health conditions that run in my family, all of which are outright prevented or at least helped with proper diet and exercise.

[Cymas]

Battle Log #1:

 

This is a meatless Monday. I don't do this all the time but I try to do at least one vegetarian day per week.

 

Breakfast: 1 cup of oatmeal with raisins, maple syrup and cinnamon. 2 servings of grains, 1 serving fruit.

 

I should probably have mentioned in my OP that I don't eat lunch at work. I'm not really intermittent fasting on purpose or anything, I'd just rather use that time for commuting. It's a 40 minute ride one way on a good day. So I go heavy on breakfast, take a snack when I remember, and eat a large dinner and usually a post-dinner snack on the days when I exercise.

 

Snack: 1 nectarine. 1 serving fruit.

 

Dinner: Mushroom stroganoff featuring white button mushrooms, red onion, peas and spinach. 1 serving of grains, 2 servings of vegetables, 1 serving of dairy. I halved the amount of pasta in the recipe and added the green stuff to it. Seriously this is absolutely packed full of delicious vegetables. I did use a little too much sour cream so it ended up being a little runny but that's ok. Got 4 servings out of it and gave one to my mom for lunch tomorrow. I'll eat the other one for breakfast. The last one is on the smaller side and will likely be a side dish for later in the week if my mom doesn't steal it lol. We both love mushrooms but my stepfather doesn't so she doesn't cook with them as much as she would like.

 

Post-dinner walk: Done. It looked like it was going to rain earlier but the sun came out and it ended up being a lovely evening for a walk.

 

Post-dinner snack: Peanut butter, 1 serving nuts. If it's not already a bit obvious it's a little tough hitting calorie goals without better pre-planning. Something to work on. In the meantime this helps stave off the midnight snack attack. Also had some chai for my evening gaming session. Gotta get them dailies done, one way or another.

 

It is somewhat disappointing that I only hit one, technically two of my daily goals today, but that's ok. I need to be kind to myself. Also I'm keeping the actual tally in my challenge log for anyone interested. Keeping a running list will help me figure out what needs the most work and possibly lead to solutions, too.

[Cymas]

Battle Log #2

 

Breakfast: Mushroom stroganoff. 1 serving grains, 2 servings vegetables, 1 serving dairy. Leftovers from last night. The sauce thickened up nicely as it cooled. I'm usually ok with leftovers the next day, but I still try to do smaller batches whenever possible. I did a full batch last night specifically with the intent to share. And also to use up all the mushrooms. Kitchen waste is definitely one of my weaker points.

 

My mom really enjoyed it, too.

 

Snack: 1 apricot, 1 serving fruit.

 

Dinner: Miso-glazed salmon, miso-glazed eggplant, "plain" miso soup, simmered sweet potato with lemon, rice, pickles. Breaking out my drop lid for a Japanese inspired dinner of ichiju-sansai (soup and 3) tonight. 1 serving fish, 2 servings vegetables, 2 servings grains. The salmon, eggplant, and sweet potato were all purchased on sale. The pickles I got on clearance awhile ago.

 

I just want to say the sweet potato was divine. Recipe here. Beautiful combination of sour and sweet. You can fashion a drop lid out of tinfoil.

 

Walk: Yes. Another nice evening. It did rain a little earlier. Our walk is a circuit around a nearby neighborhood, about 35-40 minutes and about 1.5 miles in total. My mom has RA so she can't walk very fast or far, but it's not really about speed or distance either. We can walk, talk, and count wild bunnies. Only 1 bunny tonight, but in fairness we passed 8 dogs.

 

Post-walk snack: Watermelon. 1 serving fruit. After such a big meal it hardly seemed necessary but I am doing my best to hit my nutritional goals. I actually can't hit the 3 fruit per day metric right now simply because I don't have enough fruit on hand. On the other hand I got a total of 4 servings of vegetables, which does even out the missing serving yesterday. And another chai later on to go with my in-game dailies.

[Cymas]

Battle Log #3

 

I am very pleased with last night. Not only did I shut the computer down before 9, I used some of that time before going to sleep to prepare breakfast, clean up the kitchen a bit and load the dishwasher and even had time to read a chapter in bed.

 

Breakfast: Overnight oats with nectarine, cashews and honey. 1 serving dairy, 2 servings grains, 1 serving fruit, 1 serving nuts. Not quite according to plan but it works. Regarding the tree nuts: I have some left from before we discovered my partner's severe almond allergy. As we do not live together I am taking opportunities to use up what I do have remaining and will not buy more. Anything including almonds was given away or discarded the day the reaction occurred. I am sad as almond extract in particular was one of my favorite baking ingredients, but needs must. The Greek yogurt is full fat from whole milk and I added a bit of water rather than milk to accommodate the oats. Mostly because this week is unusual and I don't typically keep a lot of dairy on hand aside from cheese. Milk is something I almost never have on hand because I don't drink it.

 

Snack: 1 apricot, 1 serving fruit.

 

Dinner: Chicken fajita rice bowl with bell peppers and onion. 1 serving poultry, 1 serving grains, 2 servings vegetables. The chicken is actually leftovers, already cooked. It's peri peri chicken I made for Father's Day dinner, also sometimes known as a cheeky Nando's. Despite the ingredients in the marinade it is not spicy hot, but very juicy and delicious. I used Chef John's recipe and subbed jalapenos because I couldn't find any fresno peppers locally. Basically I took the meat off the bone, chopped it up and tossed it in the bowl with the leftover spices and oil in the bowl I had the vegetables in, then added the chicken on top for the last few minutes of cooking to heat it through. The bell peppers were on sale and part of said marinade. Put it over the leftover rice from last night. I've found leftover rice is fine in the fridge as long as you eat it the next day. Longer than that and it dries out too much, although that is nice for fried rice.

 

Walk: No. I wasn't feeling well today and made poor life decisions.

 

Dessert: Oreos. I know. In my defense, my period just started and I feel like crap. It's not unusual for me to eat an entire pint of ice cream on a day like this...trying to stop that is like stopping a freight train with no brakes, once it starts there's no stopping it. Then chai with my dailies.

[Cymas]

Battle Log #4

 

The Oreos ending up being regretful for reasons other than the norm. Almost as soon as I ate them I got hit with a headache. I know digestion doesn't work that fast, but I'm wondering about the sugar after near a week without anything processed...hm. This is basically one of my two weak times. My period and weekends. I also stayed up rather late because of it, I rarely sleep well the first couple of days.

 

Breakfast: Fajita bowl with rice and sweet potatoes. Using up leftovers. 1 serving vegetables, 2 servings grains, 1/2 serving chicken.

 

Snack: Nectarine, 1 serving fruit.

 

Dinner: White fish with roasted summer vegetables and rice. Yellow squash and zucchini. 1 serving fish, 2 servings vegetables, 1 serving grains.

 

I also prepped some energy bites. I'm still fine tuning the base recipe so I won't post that yet. I'm basically smashing together multiple recipes to optimize nutrition without sacrificing flavor. It's a no bake recipe that makes a fair amount and keeps for a week.

 

Walk: Yes. Nice day. My back hurts.

 

Dessert: Yes, I caved again and had more Oreos. And yes, the headache came back again. No, I don't know why I do this to myself. In fairness though I did not buy the cookies myself. My stepfather did. He bought like 4 packages and gave me one even though I told him not to. I learned a long time ago not to buy anything I have no self control over. I already snuck the rest back over into their cookie jar so I don't have to deal with it anymore.

[Kadriel]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a weakness for Oreos! 

[Cymas]

Honestly it's pretty much any carby, junky snack that gets me lol. Especially as a hobby baker, nothing makes me happier than eating my own creations and sharing them.

 

Battle Log #5

 

Today ended up being basically a free for all, which is exactly what I was trying to avoid with planning. I may have cut down on kitchen waste, but I was also out of fresh produce outside of my aromatics and some spinach. It doesn't help that I woke up tired, cold (left a window open by accident) and low energy again.

 

Breakfast: I ended up trying one of my energy bite balls since I had changed up the recipe and also it's really easy to grab and eat, which is kind of the point. 1 serving nuts, small amount of grain. Small amount of local honey, a gift from a friend. Turned out good but I wish I'd had some dried fruit or something to add in. It's also not an optimal peanut butter to be using but it's what I have in the house and using up the current supply is better than buying something new right now. I got the pb on clearance awhile back, great price. Grabbed some watermelon while I was busy chopping the rest of it up, too. 1 serving fruit. Decided to go ahead and make some oatmeal so I at least had something substantial in my stomach for work, 2 servings grain in total.

 

In case you're wondering about the effects of a sudden increase in fiber--my digestion is already messed up from my period this week so it's not really affecting me adversely atm. I can already predict that tomorrow is when it'll all be moving itself along, though.

 

Snack: Nectarine, 1 serving fruit.

 

Dinner: Ended up being an "open" meal because it's Friday and the one night a week my partner and I spend together usually. So dinner is totally up in the air. Today ended up being a later evening so I had the rest of the fajita mix and some cheese while I waited, lol. 1 serving vegetables, 1 serving dairy.

 

Also I put this in my challenge log but I think this is really better off here:

 

Weekend Battle Plan #1

 

Rules of Engagement

 

1. No PC time before noon. (I can set up music or YT, but cannot sit at the desk and get distracted.)

2. Must complete at least 3 items on my to do list in their entirety before PC time each day for 6 total.

3. Must cook a minimum of 3 meals across both days.

 

Mission Objectives

 

1. Laundry (clothes must be put away!).

2. Clean the floors.

3. Water and feed the plants.

4. Do the dishes (looking at you, sink).

5. Set up next week's menu.

6. Clean the bathroom (shower is overdue for a scrub).

7. Clean the dishwasher (the filter...ugh).

8. Clear to Neutral (too much crap out of place everywhere).

9. Clean out the freezer (also overdue).

 

Bonus Daily Challenges

 

1. Do 1 workout.

2. Spend 1 hour writing.

3. Read 1 chapter.

 

Haven't decided what sort of reward system to use yet.

[Cymas]

Budget Breakdown #1

 

Total Spent (minus household goods): $82.95

 

Fruit: Bananas, red grapes, nectarines.

 

Vegetables: Red, orange and yellow bell peppers, yellow onions, sweet potatoes, mini cucumbers, whole white mushrooms, portobello caps, large can white beans, large can pinto beans.

 

Other: EVOO (this was a huge chunk of this week's costs at $15), 4 cups Icelandic Provisions skyr yogurt, 2 boxes in store special Cabot mac & cheese ($1 each), clearance organic flaxseed, 12 pack chicken ramen, 1 package of sardines, 2 bottles of coffee creamer, 1 box of snack bags.

 

Notes: The creamer wasn't for me directly. My mom and I have coffee together almost every day so every month or so I pick up a couple for her since she makes the coffee. The sardines are for an upcoming date night dinner. I know I have yogurt but I wanted to try the skyr and they are awesome, I'll definitely be stocking up on sales for a nice summer breakfast/snack/dessert option. Anything to keep me away from the ice cream.

 

I wanted to buy strawberries but they were out so I sucked it up and got bananas instead. I stopped buying them about a year ago because every time I got a bunch I ended up with fruit flies and they turned from green to black so I was just like no. We'll see if they've improved, if not I'm swearing off them again.

 

Tomorrow I will post my planned menu for the week.

 

Battle Log #6

 

Breakfast: Icelandic Provisions extra creamy vanilla bean skyr 4.4 oz, 1 nectarine. 1 serving fruit, 1 serving dairy.

 

Lunch: 1/2 chicken Caesar wrap, 1 serving vegetables, 1 serving chicken, 1 serving grains. Served with a side of watermelon because I need to eat the rest of this. 1 serving fruit.

 

Walk: Yes, surprisingly. Early afternoon walk between storm fronts. Not quite the workout I was aiming for but movement is movement.

 

Snack: Grapes, 1 serving fruit. It's a 2 lb bag, I'm going to be eating them literally every day. 1 serving fruit.

 

Dinner: Pizza. I am proud of myself for only eating 1 slice. 1 serving grain, 1 serving dairy, 1 serving vegetables (it was pepper and onion).

 

Weekend Battle Challenge #1

 

Completed:

 

8. Clear to Neutral

 

This is a technique I picked up from my personal productivity phase, lol. As applied in this situation, the base concept is to pick everything up and put it away and ensure all horizontal surfaces are clear. It's easy to let a few items stray throughout the week, but then if you don't set time aside to clean it up...you end up with a chaotic living space. It took me about 3 hours just to do this but the difference is stunning. I didn't even clean anything yet but my apartment is already significantly more serene. It will also making cleaning the floors easier since everything's been picked up already.

 

Side note items don't have to be in their optimal locations as long as they're in their approximate ones. For example all the stuff I moved in the kitchen isn't optimized, but everything is in the cabinet it should be in for now. I'll do a fine sort later.

 

2. Clean the floors

4. Do the dishes

 

So the nice thing about having a time component to this challenge is it kinda removes some of the decision making process. By the time I was done with CtN it was close to 11 and from there I looked solely at the list for what 2 tasks I could easily finish by 12 in time for lunch and game time, lol. Using my own bad habits against myself.

 

Also perfect is the enemy of good. I really need to do a proper mop of the kitchen in particular but for now a good Swiffer session will do. Job is still done and the floor is much cleaner than it was. I need to work on making sure I wash the floor on the days when I cook...

 

Dishes are only an issue when I have to hand wash things. I do have a dishwasher but it's not working correctly so a lot of times I end up having to hand wash items that it didn't clean properly, and also I have a number of items that are hand wash only. The worst part is the damn thing is brand new, less than 2 years old. My old decrepit falling apart dishwasher worked so much better and I have no idea why. The other thing is I have one of those old 70s shallow, double basin sinks that are absolutely useless. I can't fit any of my good pans in the sink and 90% of the time when I need to wash something, it's one or both of those pans. It's impossible to wash them without getting water everywhere.

 

In progress:

 

1. Laundry. The reason it's on this list is because I have a lot of seasonal items that still need to be washed and put away into storage and I can only do so many of them at a time due to delicacy. I'll be able to do 1/2 of it today and finish tomorrow.

 

Bonuses:

 

During my CtN session I went ahead and did something that was on my to do list already, which was moving the coffee/tea station back into the kitchen. This ended up eating half of my time during this task as it caused a chain reaction that resulted in rearranging half the cabinets. But it was worth it as I also found a new home for something else in the process. Nice.

 

Not only did I read more than a chapter, I finished the book I was reading, too.

 

Loaded up Ark guilt free today for a couple of hours before my partner arrived for some much needed snuggling. Went exploring with my para, finally figured out how to get up to Syntac's base location, mostly because I wanted carrots. Building a small base and looking for horses.

[Cymas]

Week #1 Menu Analysis

 

Lack of planning, particularly regarding the end of the week really let me down here. I will say the week was unusually high in dairy and devoid of legumes when normally it's the other way around. 

 

Menu Plan #1

 

Sunday

 

Breakfast: -

Lunch:  Vegetarian black bean chili with rice

Dinner: Steak with mushroom risotto

Snack #1: Banana

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Monday:

 

Breakfast: Vegetarian black bean chili

Dinner: Portobello mushroom fajitas over rice

Snack #1: Banana w/ energy bite balls x2

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Tuesday

 

Breakfast: Leftovers

Dinner: White fish miso soup and rice

Snack #1: Banana

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Wednesday

 

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Dinner: Slow cooker chicken cacciatore

Snack #1: Grapes

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Thursday:

 

Breakfast: Fried egg over rice, vegetables, grapes

Dinner: Salmon pasta with spinach

Snack #1: Energy bite balls x2

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Friday:

 

Breakfast: Leftovers

Dinner: Date night

Snack #1: Yogurt

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Saturday:

 

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: Shrimp ring, pasta salad

Dinner: TBD (based on groceries)

Snack #1: Energy bite balls x2

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Battle Log #7

 

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with cheese, toast with jam, grapes

Lunch: Vegetarian black bean chili with rice

Dinner: Steak with mushroom risotto

Snack #1: Banana

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Walk: Yes, in the morning before the storms moved in.

 

I basically eat beef once a month, right after my period ends, to help replenish my iron due to having a significantly heavy monthly flow. If nothing else, this right here is the reason why I would never be 100% vegetarian due to the limited bioavailability of iron from other sources.

 

Tomorrow will be the weekend challenge results and analysis.

 

Breakfast was a family meal. My lunch was this fantastic and super simple weeknight black bean chili recipe only instead of ground turkey I added a can of (drained and rinsed) pinto beans, and I added a red bell pepper because, well, I have plenty this week. Protip: brown your tomato paste and bloom your spices in the oil before adding the wet ingredients for intense flavor. Also if you're really missing the meaty taste, add some mushroom base if you can find it.

 

Dinner is my traditional post-period victory steak. The risotto is mainly to use up some ingredients and also because it's so decadent and I feel the need to pamper myself today. Two-for-one, too; I spent my stirring time starting the new book I picked out to read yesterday. One page per stir is the perfect rhythm. 

 

Then my evening cup of chai with my dailies. It's not the only tea I drink, I'm just really into it right now.

[Emissary2Ornj]

Popping in to say howdy, because many little things throughout your path look very familiar to me. Dunno if I can pick them all out, but here are a few:

Adding dried fruit to energy bites? My fave no-bake granola bars include dates. Lots of yum. Here's the recipe.

I'm also on a quest to care for my home space more routinely.

I'm moving toward decreasing red meat intake and increasing veggies (in general) and legumes (specifically).

Walking is amazing.

 

Anyway - a delayed welcome (back) to you, and I appreciate you sharing your food log.

[Cymas]

Thanks! I notice for all the focus on fitness there's not as much content based around nutrition so I'm being the change I want to see in the world lol. I do plan to add dried fruit to my energy bites eventually, but probably cranberries or apricots over dates. For now I'm using up what I have in the house before I purchase new ingredients. I also want to add ground flax and chia seeds eventually. Considered tahini until I saw the price, lol, peanut butter is far more budget friendly. Maybe I'll mix in a small amount of tahini instead. Seeds are by far the hardest thing to work into my diet outside of sesame seeds.

 

Honestly my apartment fell to the wayside largely due to work stress, I had already made a ton of progress towards my overall goal of being able to maintain my living space in just 15 minutes of cleaning per day. It helps that I've long since completed my Konmari tidying festival and now only need to make major adjustments with larger decisions. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also low key preparing for my partner to move in, which will happen eventually.

 

Decreasing red meat and increasing legumes is a worthy goal. I personally love beans so I don't consider it a hardship but it's still tough sometimes. Taking a page from Eastern practices, you can achieve both at the same time with tofu by using it as a filler alongside or replacing ground beef. Learning to prepare it is a bit of a challenge but I don't find it unpleasant if I stick to the extra firm varieties instead of the too-soft silken ones. Or just sub beans outright in whole or in part in recipes. I will say the one vegetarian recipe I can make that even my carnivore stepfather will reliably eat without complaint is this copycat Olive Garden minestrone recipe. I don't make it exactly as written but use it mainly as a guide for the flavor profile.

[Cymas]

Weekend Battle Plan #1: Analysis

 

Rules of Engagement: followed? No.

 

Mission Objectives

 

1. Laundry (clothes must be put away!).

2. Clean the floors.

3. Water and feed the plants.

4. Do the dishes (looking at you, sink).

5. Set up next week's menu.

6. Clean the bathroom (shower is overdue for a scrub).

7. Clean the dishwasher (the filter...ugh).

8. Clear to Neutral (too much crap out of place everywhere).

9. Clean out the freezer (also overdue).

 

Bonus Daily Challenges

 

1. Do 1 workout.

2. Spend 1 hour writing.

3. Read 1 chapter.

 

Review:

 

A strong start on Saturday that was disrupted and fell apart by Sunday. That said, I did complete my 6-task minimum adequately and one bonus daily on top of that. While I did not do any workouts, I did exercise both days via walking.

 

I need to focus on consistently following the Rules of Engagement and completing my tasks. What I didn't finish this week will be listed as mission critical next week and will be required to complete the weekend challenge.

 

And for the curious, my list of houseplants: philodendrons heartleaf, Brazil, rio and golden goddess. Red and green marantas. Rattlesnake calathea. An unhappy coffee plant named Emergency Rations. And a small collection of herbs that will hopefully survive long enough to be useful. So far the rosemary is going crazy, it loves my grow light.

 

Battle Log #8

 

Breakfast: Vegetarian black bean chili with rice, grapes on the side

Dinner: Portobello mushroom fajitas over rice

Snack #1: Banana w/ energy bite balls x2

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

Monday is the busiest day at work, by far. I am fortunate that my body is able to tolerate any type of food at any time of the day, so going all in for a heavy breakfast and high energy snack is the way to go. Also, yes meatless Monday is in full swing this week too. Vegetables cook insanely fast compared to meat and when I'm extra tired from a long day at work, every minute counts.

 

Side note I've heard it said that chili is basically American curry, which makes a lot of sense. That is why I almost always serve it curry style with rice.

 

Walk: New England said no. Thunderstorms.

 

Just realized I'm eating a lot of Tex-Mex so far this week, lol. It's only natural though, it's generally my first thought when it comes to bell peppers. I'm not a huge fan of stuffed peppers and now that I think about it I almost never eat them raw although I do enjoy them that way too. Hm.

 

Chai again with my dailies. Need to do a lot to catch up on my tomestone currency and get my weekly unsung blade for my weapon. Staying away from Ark during the week, it's way too easy to get lost in and it's how I spent most of yesterday. 

[Cymas]

Battle Log #9

 

Breakfast: Vegetarian black bean chili with simmered lemon sweet potato, grapes on the side

Dinner: White fish with mushroom risotto

Snack #1: Banana

Snack #2: Nectarine

 

A stormy start to the day with some early morning thunderstorms.

 

Slight adjustment to today's menu based on the fact that I have 3 dishes of leftovers. My mom claimed some of the mushroom fajita mix for her lunch. Yes, I should have made a smaller batch of chili, but I don't mind. Pretty sure I overbought again this week, or at least didn't plan adequately for use of the ingredients. It's not the worst, though. Nothing I bought will spoil so quickly. The bananas are holding well so far, this pleases me. And I couldn't resist making that sweet potato recipe from last week again to change it up from the rice, it is just so good and the sweet and zesty flavors pair so well with the spicy chili. Super easy to make too, although I do have a habit of underestimating how much time it takes to actually cook things so I ended up undercooking it and rushing a bit to eat.

 

I was also pleased that my partner was finally feeling better and came over last night. I was able to distribute more energy bites and the last of the watermelon, already chopped for easy snacking. They are insistent on intermittent fasting by skipping dinner, personally I think it should be the other way around. Skip the fast food lunch on the road and eat a large, nutritionally complete dinner instead. Well, it's not really my place to say what someone else does with their body whether or not I agree with it. I do worry, though. I suspect it has more to do with their current living situation than they're letting on, honestly.

 

Dinner turned out nicely. I seasoned a piece of whiting with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder and cooked it in the oven, then put it on top of the risotto after it was reheated. Simple, delicious. Maybe a little less vegetable forward but the chili was packed full so it's ok. I don't mind lighter dinners in general. I also wasn't the biggest fan of fish until recently so it's still a lot of experimentation.

 

Walk: Yes. Happily the storms cleared up in time for our evening walk.

 

Ended up going to bed early. The downside to my partner spending the night is having to wake up at 3:30 am. Worth it of course, but I'm tired.

[Cymas]

Another stormy morning.

 

I was so tired last night I skipped tea and gaming entirely and spent some time reading in bed before conking out early. Didn't even clean up after dinner like I have been, luckily there isn't a lot of mess. Feeling fairly well refreshed today though. Well enough that I even tackled a project from the weekend that I didn't get to! Since it's back to normal and trash day is today, I went ahead and cleaned out my freezer. I've been meaning to do it for awhile, it's been too full. Inventoried it while I was in there. It wasn't too too bad but it definitely needed to be done.

 

So now what I have in there: 1 turkey breast (that I may end up cooking either this weekend or on Tuesday), around 15 pieces of chicken, 2 portions of ground turkey, 3 petite sirloin steaks, 3 packs of bacon and about 8 assorted Italian meats (in fairness I did not buy any of these), 2 bags of whiting filets, 2.5 bags of salmon filets, 1.5 bags of peas, a bag of blueberries, a bag of cranberries, ginger root, orange and lime zest, and the Eternal Bag of Bananas (TM). My goal is to cut that way down and manage it more actively. I have an awful habit of stocking up on things on a good sale and then never actually cooking it so....yeah. That's how someone who lives alone ends up with enough food for a family. Once I get a better handle on my diet goals I'll be trying to use up a lot of this stuff, well I don't know what I'll do with the Italian stuff, it's all deli meats that I'm probably not going to eat. My pantry is even worse and a project for a lifetime at this point lol.

 

Ordered more coffee, too. I'm a bit of a snob and get whole bean from a local roaster, grind it myself on demand. It's so good I can and often do drink it black. I spent like a year probably a decade ago now just trying every local bean I could get my hands on. It's so worth it. I despise pre-ground now though because I can always taste how stale it is. Protip: if the coffee doesn't have a "roasted on" date on the bag, it's not good coffee. That's why I get creamer for my mom's coffee, so I can tolerate it enough to drink it with her lol. I also tolerate (barely) Dunks simply because of the familiarity of the aggressively mediocre brew they call coffee. Won't touch Starbucks ever, it's always burnt. My theory is they do it on purpose so you have to buy one of those 2000 calorie dessert drinks just to mask the awful taste of their coffee.

 

Battle Log #10

 

Breakfast: Vegetarian chili with sweet potato, grapes on the side

Dinner: Chicken and mushroom fajita rice bowl

Snack #1: Banana

Snack #2: Nectarine

Dessert: Yogurt

 

Deviating almost entirely from my planned menu today to account for the rest of the leftovers, which is I daresay better than what I had planned to do anyway. It was kind of a fill day because I didn't know what I wanted to do. This is around where planning starts to fall apart in general because I can't predict what I'll have for leftovers or what ingredients are left to use. Heck, my math is so bad I didn't even realize I would still have a banana left to eat lol.

 

Also, I'm starting to feel a "need" so I added dessert today. I really, really hate the way we've all personified our sugar addictions to make it socially acceptable by calling it a sweet tooth. I seriously feel like that addiction's a huge reason why I went crazy and binged on the Oreos last week. Trying to control it more with lots of fruit and anticipating the problem more. Fruit at least comes with fiber and lots of other nutrients. Junk food brings nothing to my table so it's relegated to social occasion holidays with the other guests. I even turned down my mom's muffins that she made yesterday.

 

Alas, no walk today. Still raining.

 

Tea and dailies. I didn't cap my tomestones last week so I'm a bit behind but meh. There's plenty of time.

[Cymas]

A cloudy morning but the rain finally let up.

 

Battle Log #11

 

Breakfast: Oatmeal w raisins, cinnamon and maple syrup

Dinner: Salmon on rice

Snack #1: Energy bite balls x2

Snack #2: Nectarine, grapes

Dessert: Yogurt

 

Another adjusted menu because I have no leftovers except for the rice.

 

Awful, awful day at work. I was so stressed and tired by the time I came home. I didn't have time to eat my snack or even drink more than half my water until then. I honestly wouldn't have cooked anything at all if I hadn't already taken the salmon out to thaw this morning. Skipped the salad I was planning to make because of it so a big fat 0 on vegetables today, then stress ate the yogurt. Sigh.

 

Skipped the walk too, just couldn't be bothered after running around all day.

[Cymas]

Battle Log #12

 

Breakfast: Nectarine, Grapes

Dinner: Takeout

 

Another long day at work. I was so tired and over this week by the time I got home it was either order something or ramen. I honestly don't order food very often and decided I wanted the splurge. Small chicken parmesan sub and skipped the fries for once. Probably only needed to eat half but considering I hadn't eaten anything else besides the fruit this morning...yeah. It's fine. I probably didn't even go over calories for the day when I include the running around I did at work and the walk I let my mom drag me on tonight even though I didn't feel like it at all. Lovely weather, though.

 

Changed it up and went for ginger peach green tea instead of chai.

[Cymas]

Today ended up being moody. Cool and rainy all day. My partner got called to help someone in their community move, an unfortunate side effect of owning a large transport vehicle. So another weekend without. Maybe tomorrow, although I've already been asked to go in to work early so I will be quite tired.

 

Fasted during the day to save space for dinner. As mentioned previously I do have a turkey breast to use, so I took that out the other day to defrost. I had one last bag of cranberries stashed, so that turned into cranberry sauce. Then potatoes were on sale so I bought some yesterday for mashed potatoes today. I also used up the rest of the carrots in the fridge to make mashed carrots with ginger. And finally did sautéed yellow squash and zucchini with onion and parmesan for a bit of texture and color. And since I had burner space I sacrificed a box of my nice mac & cheese because I know my stepfather won't touch the latter dish and will be 50/50 on the carrots, he might think it's squash. It's incredibly frustrating to cook for him sometimes which is why I rarely do this. Almost got the whole rainbow, didn't have anything to fill the blue/purple category alas. Honestly this is probably the largest dinner I've ever made.

 

I do wish I'd planned ahead enough to get more of a variation in textures, but it is what it is. I also didn't make any bread or anything like I normally would.

 

All in all though it turned out well. 

 

And it cleared up with just a bit of sun in time for today's walk.

 

Closed out the day with green ginger tea and Ark. I don't know why but I prefer green tea on rainy days.

[Snarkyfishguts]

On 6/30/2023 at 7:15 PM, Cymas said:

ginger peach green tea

Oooh this is a favorite tea of

mine.  I just like everything about it

[Cymas]

Alas, an unfortunate Chrome crash took my mostly written post with it. Computer definitely needs a dedicated maintenance session soon.

 

Due to going in to work early today, I did not eat breakfast. Dinner was salmon, mashed potatoes, sautéed squash with onions and pickles on the side. Mostly leftovers from yesterday. I'll be making turkey soup or chili tomorrow to use up more of the meat. Stuck the carcass in the freezer to make stock later, or try to. Mine never comes out very good but I keep trying.

 

Tomorrow is going to be pretty up in the air as my partner is taking advantage of our day off from work to come over. Lots of much needed snuggling, at least.

[Cymas]

So, my mashed carrots with sour cream recipe did not turn out as well as I'd like. Rather than waste the leftovers however, I turned it into something else. That something else being carrot cake or rather carrot quick bread. You can sub cooked, mashed carrots in your favorite recipe. Side note, I love cream cheese but abhor cream cheese frosting because of the way it makes my teeth feel. So, I don't use it. My go to topping is a simple maple glaze, especially lovely with my current bottle of vanilla infused syrup that legit smells like pancakes. I had enough carrots to make a double batch. I remembered at the last minute there was black pepper in the carrots so I added some turmeric with the dry ingredients. This recipe already has ginger so this will add an earthy, spicy note to the sweetness. Hopefully. I do tend to wing these things past a certain point. I also tossed in some walnuts that I'm trying to use up. No, I'm not trying to kill my partner. I know for a fact walnuts are safe, I'm just trying to limit the potential for cross reactivity to develop into more and more serious allergies in the future. I'll give one to my mom to keep for us and bring the other one to work, where it will disappear instantly.

 

A note about my living situation: I rent an in-law apartment from my mom and stepfather. We share the laundry room and the cats. It's the only way I can afford to live alone and what issues stem from living with family is mostly mitigated by the ability to do whatever I want to my space. It's also nice because I get all their old appliances whenever they upgrade. There's plenty of room for my partner whenever they're ready to move in, too.

 

I had some time in the morning so I worked on fleshing out my story concept a bit more. It currently has the potential for at least 3 books, assuming I get that far. To date I've only completed a single first draft of a novel and that was the first volume of my failed web novel. One step at a time. I got some more worldbuilding done but ideally I'd like to have a rough outline of the plot before I start writing. I really should be working on one of my other in progress works, though. I have a new web novel, cover ready to go. Need to finish writing the second arc and ideally the third as well so I have enough material for my Patreon tiers plus some buffer. It's not going to be one of those endless, thousand+ chapter stories but I definitely see it running for 2-300 chapters and any funding I get from that will be invested into the writing business so it can grow. I've also got a second web novel in the background that would ideally launch after the current one finishes. On top of that, I'm working on a normal novel that would be my first foray into indie ebook author territory. I'd also really like to set up an author blog, even though I don't have much to say yet. I guess you could consider this kind of a proto-blog to see if I can actually maintain over time.

 

My ideal lifestyle is one of creativity and freedom. All of this stuff about diet and nutrition, exercise and mindset, it's all building the foundation for the world I want to live in. That's why I struggle so much with my gaming habits. It's too easy to escape into a virtual facsimile of just such an existence while skipping all of the hard, stressful parts.

 

For example, in Ark I finally settled on my first permanent base location and have spent the past 4 days or so laying the foundations and gathering the materials for my industrial forge, which means I can now build all of the other industrial tier structures and make my Ark life so much easier. In FFXIV, I'm the hero who saved basically everything, my character is friends with everyone of note, and I'm so close to getting the strongest weapon I have access to. I can get it as early as next week if I stop slacking on my tomestone farming. I'm improving significantly as a player so content is getting easier, and of course I can solo a lot of stuff now.

 

As far as diet goes, I don't count holidays. Since I had to run out first thing in the morning to gas up, I also stopped at the market. I finally got my much coveted strawberries, plus the brown sugar I would need for the carrot cakes. And since I was there I decided it was my turn to come home with donuts. So I did, and snagged myself my favorite Boston cream. Donuts are one of the few things I have not learned how to make because that is a power too great and terrible for me to wield, lol. I had an ice cream cone stashed in the freezer for the occasion. Grilled cheese for dinner. Definitely a sugar/dairy overload and my headache came back. So clearly it is from the sugar and I have enough more reason to be cutting back on it.

 

Did go for a walk, it was grey but not raining at least. Then closed out the night stealing wyvern eggs in Ark while contemplating things.

[Cymas]

I decided to move most of my diet breakdown stuff over into my challenge log because it's kind of silly posting the same stuff twice. This will be for more general diet and lifestyle related musings. Which reminds me that I did not do a budget breakdown this week so let me go ahead and do that.

 

Monthly budget: $250 including household goods

Weekly Spend: $52.94

 

Fruit: watermelon, cherries, blueberries, craisins

 

Vegetables: white mushrooms, 4 zucchini, 4 yellow squash, 4 lbs potatoes, tomatoes, 2x salad blend bags

 

Other: large jug white vinegar (for pickling), 4 clearance packs of soy flavor ramen, 2 cases of Poland Springs water, onion powder, 2 tubs of skyr yogurt.

 

Yesterday: $13.27 for brown sugar, strawberries and a half dozen donuts.

 

Total: $66.21

Remaining: $183.79

 

It's kind of insane to me when I start thinking about how much food I as a single, not particularly needy adult, consume to sustain myself from week to week compared to how much stock is on grocery store shelves. I think what gets me the most is the relative amount of vegetables available. Taking the zucchini for example, at my local market I estimate there was enough stocked to feed maybe 60-70 adults for one meal. I took 4 for the entire week, although I'll probably be using them next week too. I don't know what's depressing me more, the low availability of produce or the knowledge that they stock so little because so many of us don't eat enough of it to justify using more of their space. And yes I do know they stock constantly. It's more the thought that in a town of 11,000 people they only anticipate less than 1% of the population will buy a given vegetable on a given day, even when it's in season and on sale.

 

Although the fruit is constantly out of stock, hm.

 

And even multiplied by the 3 other local markets, that's less than 10% daily. With tons of out of state shoppers coming across the border to shop here, too.

 

I suppose if I want to make comparisons I should probably pick a more popular vegetable. Zucchini is a common garden vegetable after all, although with too much rain and not enough sun the growing season so far is a poor one.

[Sovalis]

I am really amazed that you can do groceries and household spending on $250 a month. We might be close to that for a family of 2 for ~7-10 days. Produce is fairly pricy here right now, I definitely notice (I am in Alberta, Canada).  Way to go!

[Cymas]

It's not always easy, for sure! Honestly it's helped make me cognizant of my own spending habits and tracking my diet makes me realize I overbuy in some categories (meat....) and underbuy in others, like vegetables. So these logs are also helping me fine tune.

 

What helps me the most is probably that I do my grocery shopping "backwards" in the sense that I decide what to make based on what I buy, not the other way around. I stick to the loss leaders, in season and on sale produce, and supplement a bit with frozen vegetables. If it's not on sale unless it's one of a handful of non-negotiable necessities, it doesn't get bought. I'm not overly picky and my only dietary restrictions are self-imposed. I do avoid the couple of things I know my partner is allergic to (almonds, brassicas). I'm also a fiend for clearance deals and have stretched my budget quite far just by walking up and down every aisle to see what's there. My best finds so far were two 10 lb bags of jasmine rice, bags and bags of high quality pasta, and bags of dried beans, all at least 50% off. I also peruse the manager's special meats and occasionally find something nice, like beef short ribs shortly before I respawned here.

 

The other big thing for me is figuring out how to avoid waste because let's face it, every time I throw away old vegetables or sour milk, I'm literally throwing my money away. The less I waste, the more food I have and the more my budget stretches. Pickling, making jam or curd, quick breads etc are all things I've learned to avoid throwing ingredients in the trash. I also make almost all of my own baked goods, up to and including bread. It's not necessarily cheaper but it's less wasteful and, well, it makes me happy. And everyone around me too lol.

 

Most of the time when I go overbudget it's a splurge meal for a special occasion.

 

Just need to figure out how to make my stock be not trash and I'll really be cooking, lol.

 

Oh, and I am growing some fresh herbs because grocery store prices are highway robbery and almost nothing is hardy enough to survive outside in the winter this far north, a problem I'm sure you're quite familiar with yourself. I haven't done it successfully (yet...) but you can propagate some herbs and even certain kitchen scraps if you're so inclined to experiment. For example, stick sprouted garlic cloves in a pot and watch them explode. They won't make new garlic, but garlic greens are amazing and can be used like green onions.

[Cymas]

Today's to do list:

 

Dishes

Put away the laundry from last week (an ongoing struggle)

Make a weekend plan

 

I keep needing to remind myself the task isn't done until everything's been cleaned up and put away.

 

One goal I've been working towards is cleaning, decluttering and organizing my apartment in such a way that it can be maintained with just 15 minutes of daily chores. Why 15 minutes? I did some math (ugh) and that's roughly 1% of a day. The only way this can work is if I keep horizontal surfaces clear (this includes floors) and put things away when I'm done with them. The put away part should be the easiest yet that's where I keep running into problems. Typically this is because not putting something away in one area tends to snowball and back things up everywhere else, too. I am currently surrounded by dirty dishes because I didn't empty the dishwasher the other day and still haven't, and the sink is already full because I didn't clean my roasting pan on Sunday and put it away and it takes up a lot of space in my stupid, useless sink.

 

This is what clear to neutral means, in a nutshell. When you're done working on something, everything should be put away and cleaned as though you never touched anything in the first place. The corollary here being of course that everything needs to have a home and a place to be put away to. Homeless items have a significant impact on the overall function and maintenance of a living space, much more than many people realize. This is also where having too many items or too much overstock, to borrow a term from my retail days, also causes problems with overflow. Storage should max out at around 80% full for this reason. New items need a place to go and existing items need room to breathe and be seen.

 

My pantry is definitely struggling with the latter issue. It's like 110% full due to my previous overbuying and lack of using what I have before purchasing more. It's ok to store things at the store and buy them when you need them! A concept I learned a bit too late to be useful. Although, budget is certainly an issue for most of us these days. But I think I can make a list of items that are ok to buy on demand because the chances of me needing it and not having access to it is essentially zero. It's basically the opposite of my non-negotiable list of things I must have on hand at all times which is honestly not really as long as you might think.

[Cymas]

Did half the dishes, did not get to laundry but a new cycle began today anyway. Did make a weekend plan, as follows:

 

Finish the outline for the new novel.

Write a character list.

 

Complete the weekend weekly household challenge I posted in PVP.

 

Replace my work laptop battery. I've had the new one in hand for months and just haven't gotten around to it...

 

And while I'm here I can do my budget breakdown for the week:

 

Total spent: $67.39

Remaining: $116.40

 

Fruit: cherries, strawberries, nectarines

 

Vegetables: white mushrooms, grape tomatoes, celery, carrots, yellow bell peppers, 1 artichoke, 1 bag Dole Italian blend salad mix.

 

Meat: 2 packages of ground turkey

 

Other: 4 packs of soy sauce ramen at 50% off, 3 containers of Tillamook ice cream, 1 container of vanilla Greek yogurt

 

Household: dishwasher pods

 

Lately it seems like I wouldn't spend a lot except for that one item that drags my bill up and budget down. Today it was the dishwasher pods. I hate them but my dishwasher isn't designed to take powder. Sigh. $18 for that crap, almost 1/3 of my entire bill. Also produce was pretty crappy this week so pickings were lean at best. That's ok though, I still have plenty from last week. And I am aware that my budget is going to end up being approximately $40 a week for the next 3 weeks or I'll go over budget. I should be fine, I'm not going to need any meat for awhile and that should have been my last big household purchase for the month. I suppose I should note I don't consider most personal care items as part of this budget, if nothing else because most of the products I use aren't found in the grocery store so there's no need to lump them in. Household goods I do because that's where I buy them most of the time and I'm lazy when it comes to budgeting.

 

As far as the ice cream, yes I am aware that's my weakness, but restricting does nothing productive. It was a fantastic deal and now that's basically my supply for the rest of the summer. I should get some fancy ice cream bowls/glasses.

 

Ramen is a comfort food and now my designated box is full so I won't buy more. The soy sauce flavor is really good and also vegetarian.

 

Also went thrifting for the first time in quite awhile, picked up 3 new tops and a purse for $30. I prefer thrifting for a few reasons, the main two being environmentally friendlier and also because it gets harder and harder to find quality clothes in retail stores. I make an effort to only wear natural fibers and well, either the brands are way out of my budget or the quality of the garment is awful. Thrifting is the best way for me to find quality at a price point I can afford. And yes I was a dirty flipper for awhile, hey it helps pay the bills. The main reason I don't really do it anymore is because my work hours changed and now the only way I can ship things is by having my mom drop the packages off on her way to work and that's not really fair, so I'm selling down my remaining inventory and shutting down. On the bright side it taught me how to get really good at thrifting and it's something I already enjoyed doing anyway. The thrill of the hunt, love it. It helps that my mom is also my personal seamstress lol. Tailoring makes a ridiculous amount of difference even for basics.

 

I do have a yearly clothing budget as well, which I am keeping track of. I used about 1/3 of it already this year on just one outfit for two weddings I attended as a guest. But hey now I have an event outfit so that's cool. I'm way late to the game, struggling to find my personal style in my mid 30s. So far it's been more of a process of elimination by figuring out what I don't want to wear first then going from there. It's not just a quality issue for synthetics, it's that they interact with my sweat to create a smell that is exactly like a vet's office. I sweat a lot. Yeah.

 

Anyway with all of that done I I was feeling rather out of sorts. I went to visit my mom's elderly cat Misha earlier. The end is near. So sad. I wanted to make sure I said my goodbyes in case I don't see her before she goes. It's been a week since she stopped eating. She's still drinking water, for now. I hate saying goodbye to pets, that's why I don't have any of my own anymore. Sigh. Went to go spend some time with my virtual pets on Ark.