[AerynLee]

14 hours ago, Laghail said:

 

This right here, this is the healthiest relationship to food and celebration ever. Delighted for you. 

 

 

Big hugs. I know those feels. 

Thanks on both accounts. It's amazing and annoying how both mental health and food relationship feels can swing so wildly. I was still feeling pretty meh overall yesterday but in logging my food I actually came out really well. Today I'm not feeling motivated, but in more of a good way. It's my day off and I'm gonna relax and enjoy it.

[AerynLee]

Tuesday 9/10

 

It was a day of "well that didn't go as planned"s. I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon so I left work at noon. Came home to eat lunch and brush before the appointment. A little bit before I was gonna leave the dentist called and asked why I wasn't there yet. Apparently my appointment was an hour earlier than I had marked on my calendar. Oops. So we rescheduled to next week. since it was too late by then. I was still feeling very meh so I didn't want to go back to work and so I didn't. I read a bit, got a few personal tasks done, took a nap, and generally fretting about my meh-ness. I had plenty of time to workout, do my mobility, take a walk, but I just wasn't feeling it so none of it got done

Felix is normally off on Tuesdays but he had to work yesterday. Tuesday is also normally board game night at a friend's house, but enough people couldn't make it and Felix was exhausted from long days so we called it off completely. I had no idea what time Felix would be home and that uncertainty does not vibe with my 'tism so I just sat there spinning my wheels. He did a very appropriate job of keeping me informed so it's not a complaint on him, just the uncertainty of timing combined with changes of plans. By the time he finally made it home we were both just done, but we still had to drop my car off at the dealership for it's appointment today. We got greek while we were out, came home and watched a little bit of tv before going to bed early. 

 

On a good note that I forgot to share earlier: Monday morning I was 199.8lbs!! I haven't been under 200 in 2.5 years. It had an expected jump up after our date night, but then this morning it was back to 199.6 so not a fluke!

 

Lift - none

Mobility - none

Food - 1720 cals

Protein - 88g

Steps - 3452 

[AerynLee]

Wednesday 9/11

 

It was another "not quite as planned" day but for the most part it wasn't in a bad way. I woke up stupid early (5:30am) to take Felix to work so I could have the car. Went back home and lazed around until about 10:30 when I noticed a guy parked in front of my mailbox (we live in the country, this is odd). Watched him for a minute before I saw that he was wearing a shirt from the tree company that was supposed to be coming out today (Thursday) to finally cut down the trees damaged in the tornado. So I went out and talked to him going over what needed done again (he came out the day after the tornado and talked to Felix then). He said they could start that afternoon so that was awesome, except it enforced the fact that I was not doing anything productive (I had originally planned on refinishing the last pieces of trim for the upstairs closet but was already leaning towards taking it easy instead). They cut down three huge trees ? We still have 6 huge trees a a couple dozen smaller ones but that was still a big hit to what drew us to this property. We're definitely going to be planting some new trees next spring. But I got a lot of reading done while not doing anything. 

Then in the afternoon the dealership called and they're gonna have to order a part for my car and want to keep it until it comes in (so they don't have to put it back together just to tear it back apart later). They're giving me a loaner car and it's all covered under warranty so no big deal but I had a bit of a giggle at it all.

Spoiler

I bought this used car last year from a dealership in another state and had it shipped. After it was delivered I realized it's in metric, so win for me since it has 3/5ths of the miles they said, but also slightly annoying because the US is (for some reason) not metric. I played around and googled and couldn't figure out how to change it. So I took it to the dealership and they couldn't figure it out. After talking with the manufacturer they thought a software update would do it, which is what they were doing yesterday. They called and said it worked! For about 10 minutes and then switched back to metric ?So they called the manufacturer again and now they're suggesting replacing some part.

If this doesn't work then I'm just going to deal with being in metric and laugh at the fact that I get to set my cruise to 100 on my commute into work (the dial speedometer shows mph but anything digital like the odometer, fuel economy, and cruise are in metric)

 

I did make it to the gym and got in a good workout. I got my steps in, even though I forgot to put my Fitbit on until almost noon (so I wasn't wearing it walking around the property with the tree guy). I did not do any mobility. My calories were pretty low, which means my protein was low. Going to the gym at noon throws me off because I don't want to eat lunch before and I am never hungry after. I ate a protein bar after but it does not make up for missing a meal. 

 

Lift - OTF workout that included shoulder presses, bicep curls, lateral and reverse lunges, plank pull-throughs, and crunches. 

Mobility - nope

Food - 1340 cals

Protein - 67g

Steps - 7200

[Elastigirl]

Congrats on the weight loss!
Glad the trees got taken care of, but how sad that the tornado damaged so many.

 

Do the steps even count if  you aren't wearing your fitbit??? 

[Laghail]

On 9/11/2024 at 10:52 AM, AerynLee said:

Tuesday 9/10

 

It was a day of "well that didn't go as planned"s. I had a dentist appointment in the afternoon so I left work at noon. Came home to eat lunch and brush before the appointment. A little bit before I was gonna leave the dentist called and asked why I wasn't there yet. Apparently my appointment was an hour earlier than I had marked on my calendar. Oops. So we rescheduled to next week. since it was too late by then. I was still feeling very meh so I didn't want to go back to work and so I didn't. I read a bit, got a few personal tasks done, took a nap, and generally fretting about my meh-ness. I had plenty of time to workout, do my mobility, take a walk, but I just wasn't feeling it so none of it got done

 

Unplanned unstructured time is honestly amaze. Good on you for seizing it! 

 

On 9/11/2024 at 10:52 AM, AerynLee said:

On a good note that I forgot to share earlier: Monday morning I was 199.8lbs!! I haven't been under 200 in 2.5 years. It had an expected jump up after our date night, but then this morning it was back to 199.6 so not a fluke!

 

Those milestones feel good, right?? 

 

2 hours ago, AerynLee said:

Wednesday 9/11

 

It was another "not quite as planned" day but for the most part it wasn't in a bad way. I woke up stupid early (5:30am) to take Felix to work so I could have the car. Went back home and lazed around until about 10:30 when I noticed a guy parked in front of my mailbox (we live in the country, this is odd). Watched him for a minute before I saw that he was wearing a shirt from the tree company that was supposed to be coming out today (Thursday) to finally cut down the trees damaged in the tornado. So I went out and talked to him going over what needed done again (he came out the day after the tornado and talked to Felix then). He said they could start that afternoon so that was awesome, except it enforced the fact that I was not doing anything productive (I had originally planned on refinishing the last pieces of trim for the upstairs closet but was already leaning towards taking it easy instead). They cut down three huge trees ? We still have 6 huge trees a a couple dozen smaller ones but that was still a big hit to what drew us to this property. We're definitely going to be planting some new trees next spring. But I got a lot of reading done while not doing anything. 

Then in the afternoon the dealership called and they're gonna have to order a part for my car and want to keep it until it comes in (so they don't have to put it back together just to tear it back apart later). They're giving me a loaner car and it's all covered under warranty so no big deal but I had a bit of a giggle at it all.

  Hide contents

I bought this used car last year from a dealership in another state and had it shipped. After it was delivered I realized it's in metric, so win for me since it has 3/5ths of the miles they said, but also slightly annoying because the US is (for some reason) not metric. I played around and googled and couldn't figure out how to change it. So I took it to the dealership and they couldn't figure it out. After talking with the manufacturer they thought a software update would do it, which is what they were doing yesterday. They called and said it worked! For about 10 minutes and then switched back to metric ?So they called the manufacturer again and now they're suggesting replacing some part.

If this doesn't work then I'm just going to deal with being in metric and laugh at the fact that I get to set my cruise to 100 on my commute into work (the dial speedometer shows mph but anything digital like the odometer, fuel economy, and cruise are in metric)

 

That's faascinating. Fingers crossed you get back to freedom units soon! Or, at least get your car to be consistent on what units it's running on. 

 

2 hours ago, AerynLee said:

I did make it to the gym and got in a good workout. I got my steps in, even though I forgot to put my Fitbit on until almost noon (so I wasn't wearing it walking around the property with the tree guy). I did not do any mobility. My calories were pretty low, which means my protein was low. Going to the gym at noon throws me off because I don't want to eat lunch before and I am never hungry after. I ate a protein bar after but it does not make up for missing a meal. 

 

Are you concerned that your protein per meal was depressed by having a protein bar instead of a full meal? Zero criticism, I'm just being slow. 

[AerynLee]

2 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Congrats on the weight loss!
Glad the trees got taken care of, but how sad that the tornado damaged so many.

 

Do the steps even count if  you aren't wearing your fitbit??? 

Thanks! 

I'm glad it's taken care of too, but the backyard is so sad now

Ugh, they do not count! ?That's why I made sure my fitbit said I reached my goal  

 

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Unplanned unstructured time is honestly amaze. Good on you for seizing it! 

Unfortunately for me it doesn't end up feeling amazing. I get it in my head that I'm doing one thing, and if I don't then I can't pivot because I'm supposed to be doing the thing. So I end up feeling anxious about not doing the thing, but not able to do other things and not able to relax because I feel anxious. Yesterday's unplanned unstructured time felt much better since I'd already almost decided to not do the thing the day before. 

 

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Those milestones feel good, right?? 

So good! It's such an arbitrary thing (especially since for my online program I'm reporting in kg's so there I'm 90.5 today ?) but still a good feeling.

 

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

That's faascinating. Fingers crossed you get back to freedom units soon! Or, at least get your car to be consistent on what units it's running on. 

If I end up stuck in metric it'll be okay. I'm getting really good at converting in my head. And since I drive cars until they are done (last one was 13 years old with 200k miles and a toasted clutch that cost more to replace than the car was worth in working condition) I'm not worried about it affecting resale. It is funny driving Felix's car and feeling like I'm going slow because I'm only doing 60

 

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Are you concerned that your protein per meal was depressed by having a protein bar instead of a full meal? Zero criticism, I'm just being slow. 

If I had eaten an actual meal my total protein would have been higher. Though honestly not by that much probably unless I had the protein bar in addition to the meal

[Laghail]

40 minutes ago, AerynLee said:

If I end up stuck in metric it'll be okay. I'm getting really good at converting in my head. And since I drive cars until they are done (last one was 13 years old with 200k miles and a toasted clutch that cost more to replace than the car was worth in working condition) I'm not worried about it affecting resale. It is funny driving Felix's car and feeling like I'm going slow because I'm only doing 60

 

Haha! That's fascinating and fun! 

 

40 minutes ago, AerynLee said:

If I had eaten an actual meal my total protein would have been higher. Though honestly not by that much probably unless I had the protein bar in addition to the meal

 

Fair. Where are you sitting on the ongoing discourse around hypothetical protein usable maximums for muscle building from a single meal? I'm certainly not qualified to evaluate your position, but I'm curious on what heuristics you're using.

[AerynLee]

1 hour ago, Laghail said:

Fair. Where are you sitting on the ongoing discourse around hypothetical protein usable maximums for muscle building from a single meal? I'm certainly not qualified to evaluate your position, but I'm curious on what heuristics you're using.

I don't get too worked up about protein overall. I'm in the camp that most people, doing an average amount of strength training (which, let's be honest, is zero), get enough protein, and that the recent craze of needing 1g/lb+ of bodyweight is unnecessarily high. I am mostly vegetarian and don't actually like dairy products that much, and for an average sedentary life I believe I get plenty of protein. 

However, since I am starting to weight lift while losing fat I do concede that I would likely benefit from eating more. But as for a specific per meal/per day/ideal goal, I don't really have one. My training programs initial goals (which was auto calculated by my weight) is 165g. Supposedly they will probably lower it based on how I'm doing and once they take a deeper look into what a reasonable end weight for me would be, but that remains to be seen. 

I've made my short-term goal to work up 100g/day without sacrificing on my values or animal product preferences while also not loading up on tons of protein powders/shakes and without going way over on calories.

I also don't want to significantly undereat in general. Yesterday was fine as a one off, but not something that should be a regular occurrence. 

[Laghail]

1 hour ago, AerynLee said:

I don't get too worked up about protein overall. I'm in the camp that most people, doing an average amount of strength training (which, let's be honest, is zero), get enough protein, and that the recent craze of needing 1g/lb+ of bodyweight is unnecessarily high. I am mostly vegetarian and don't actually like dairy products that much, and for an average sedentary life I believe I get plenty of protein. 

However, since I am starting to weight lift while losing fat I do concede that I would likely benefit from eating more. But as for a specific per meal/per day/ideal goal, I don't really have one. My training programs initial goals (which was auto calculated by my weight) is 165g. Supposedly they will probably lower it based on how I'm doing and once they take a deeper look into what a reasonable end weight for me would be, but that remains to be seen. 

I've made my short-term goal to work up 100g/day without sacrificing on my values or animal product preferences while also not loading up on tons of protein powders/shakes and without going way over on calories.

I also don't want to significantly undereat in general. Yesterday was fine as a one off, but not something that should be a regular occurrence. 

 

I'm not an expert but that sounds safe/sane/consensual all around. Thanks for sharing

[AerynLee]

Thursday 9/12

 

Another kind of a meh day. I attempted to work from home while they finished work on the trees and ground down the stumps. They did a good job of cleaning up and now I have a HUGE stack of future firewood (we asked them to leave the trunks and larger limbs because we have a firepit and a fireplace and had run out of firewood last year). If only it would save us on heating costs this winter, but our fireplace is not for heating the house, it is for cozy vibes ?

 

Once they were finished I had the dealership send a courtesy car to pick me up so I could get my loaner (mostly needed so I could make it to the gym today while Felix is at work). The car they gave me is the most obnoxious neon green/yellow color that the guy actually apologized when he brought me out. Good excuse to not leave the house I guess ?

 

Felix worked late again. This stretch of long hours has been unusual, it was a perfect storm of vacations, deaths in families, audit, mandatory training, and a feast phase of their feast or famine workflow. I don't like it but I know it's temporary. And his next paycheck will be nice. But not knowing when he'll be home puts me in that weird freeze state where I can't convince myself to do much. So I read and doom scrolled until he was on his way home and then I cooked an actual dinner for the first time this week (fajitas). 

 

No exercise or mobility was done. I was a little short on steps, but pretty good considering I only left the house to get the loaner car. I will do some mobility as soon as I'm done posting so it is done today. 

 

Lift - none

Mobility - none

Food - 1843

Protein - 117g

Steps - 5266

[AerynLee]

Womanly cycle talk, input appreciated

 

Spoiler

Something I saw while doom scrolling this morning had me wondering: has my meh mood lately been because I'm in the luteal phase?

 

I'm a 38 year old woman who has been on a form of birth control that suppresses the cycle for most of my adult life. I got on it at 21 and, other than about 15 months where I tried (and hated) the copper IUD, I stayed on it until about a year and a half ago and just got my cycle back about 6 months ago. So I really have no idea how what my hormones and body do in a normal cycle. 

 

So I saw a Insta video today that was explaining the phases (presumably for men, but this demi-female found it informative) and it made me wonder if the meh's are from being a week out from my period. Is this normal? Is this something I should plan on happening every month? 

Not so much a complaint, more of a revelation that I am in fact genetically female and that I might need to plan ahead for these things so they don't throw me off so much every few weeks. 

 

Ok, off to do my stretches

[Sovalis]

Yeah, that can definitely be a thing. I don't get my cycle now due to an IUD, but before I used to get low mood and a lowering of my total strength at the gym (could lift less or do fewer reps before getting tired). Might be worth tracking for a while to see if there's a pattern. 

[AerynLee]

22 hours ago, Sovalis said:

Yeah, that can definitely be a thing. I don't get my cycle now due to an IUD, but before I used to get low mood and a lowering of my total strength at the gym (could lift less or do fewer reps before getting tired). Might be worth tracking for a while to see if there's a pattern. 

Thanks for your perspective. It's definitely something for me to watch. Unfortunately I'm terrible at tracking these kinds of things

 

*looks guiltily at the journal I bought to help track migraine triggers that has about 5 days filled in*

[AerynLee]

Friday 9/13

 

Not too much to say about the day. I worked from home, got out to the gym for an OTF workout. Ate fairly well, though dinner ended up being frozen pizza since I didn't go shopping last week so my onion was bad and bread was moldy. I did to my mobility work after posting yesterday as promised. 

 

I'm planning on lifting at some point today. I've missed two lifting sessions this week, which is not ideal. Some of it is the meh's of the week but also some of it is just not being excited about this lifting program I started. I tried to be a good sport, but I liked my own program better. And the community aspect is much less than I expected (there was one post all of yesterday). 

 

Lift - OTF workout which included db deadlifts, sumo squats to upright row, kneeling tricep extensions, and some core exercises. 

Mobility - done!

Food - 1750

Protein - 89

Steps - 6882

[AerynLee]

Weekend Catchup

 

Saturday 9/14

 

Was sick of being unmotivated and getting behind at work so I used a pomodoro-esque technique and forced myself to do a 30 minute on/30 minute off workflow for the afternoon and guess what? I got though all the bullshit that had been holding me up. You know, that shit you really should do first, but you don't wanna do, so you do nothing because you haven't done the shit that should be a priority? I got my inbox as close to zero as I could for a weekend (left two emails that needed phone calls to resolve) and made a priority list for the less urgent things that need done. 

 

Then, since I was feeling good, I went down in the troll cave and did a workout. I forwent the training plan and did my own chest/core day. After Felix got home we decided to go to the local Mexican place owned by our neighbors. I was going to be pretty good and avoid the chips & salsa, but our neighbor saw us walk in and sent over free queso and it would be just rude to not eat it ? But I did eat only about half of my entre so that kinda made up for it. Calories are a wild guess because who knows how many calories are in a restaurant seafood enchilada? Or how many chips I actually ate?

 

Lift - Chest/Core day

 

Spoiler

BB bench press - 55lbs x 3 x 10

OH marching steps - 10lbs x 3 x 10 (each leg)

Incline Pushups - 3 x 10 using the barbell on the safety bar of the rack

Dead Bugs - 3 x 10 (each leg)

Standing upward fly - 10lbs x 3 x 10

Situps - 3 x 10

 

Food - 2300

Protein - 105

Mobility - I think I did a tiny bit

Steps - 4253

 

Sunday 9/15

 

It was a mental recharge day. I went grocery shopping (yay actual food!) then did another workout. I stuck to my own program again but realized it needs a bit of a tweak. I have legs and glutes together, but it's all really big lifts using the barbell which leaves me with nothing in the tank (physically or mentally) for unilateral work, which I really need to do. So I think I'm going to split it out with my chest/core day going forward. 

 

Felix left work early (after only 75 hours for the week) and was home around 1. We did some work in the yard and I played with the chainsaw for a bit cutting down some of the branches into firepit sizes, which isn't hard work but feels like it when it's 90F outside and your backyard shade tree is gone. Then the evening was being kind of lazy on the couch. 

 

Lift - Legs/glutes

 

Spoiler

Squat - 50lbs x 3 x 8

Hip Thrust - 65lbs x 3 x 8

Deadlift - 135lbs x 3 x 5

RDL - 65lbs x 3 x 8

 

When I break this out I'll probably add split squats to legs and either reverse lunges or single leg glute bridges to glutes

 

Food - 1350

Protein - 64

Mobility - tiny bit while resting between sets

Steps - 8183

[Laghail]

Working in the troll cave and wielding a chainsaw; you hella deserve a lazy evening. 

[AerynLee]

I haven't really been tracking so far this week. Life is still a little sideways, though we're getting back on track. I know that food hasn't been too bad, but I have no idea where my protein was. My steps were a little low Monday & Tuesday but I more than made up for it yesterday. I haven't done any official workouts, but I definitely got my workout in yesterday. 

 

Yesterday Felix and I were both off work so we did the romantic thing and did 12 hours of work in the yard. We cleaned up the random brush and limb piles left around the yard (turning them into one neat pile or ashes), tore down the damaged lean-to (to be rebuilt later), used the lumber from the lean-to to build holders for all (well, some) of our new firewood, raked the twigs up from about 1/3 of area of the yard that needs it (and turned those into ashes), and split some of the larger bits into firewood sizes. I ended the day with 22k steps. Oh, and went out and paid an obscene amount of money to the tree company (on a 2% cashback card with 0% interest until next June by which time it will be paid off). 

If you want to get shit done, find a strong independent woman and give her a fire, and a stubborn ass man and give him some power tools ?

 

Today I'm working from home and plan to finalize my re-arranged lifting schedule so I know what lifts I will be doing in the troll cave tonight. And cleaning up my house which somehow became a bit of a mess (already started one load of dishes this morning, pretty sure I have enough left to justify doing a second load)

[AerynLee]

Some pictures

 

Spoiler

Consolidated wood piles plus what we've split so far. Each one of those is about 6'x3.5' of capacity

 

 

 

Felix in what was the lean-to

 

 

Large pile that still needs to be processed. The one on the right is higher than my shoulder

 

[TimovieMan]

That's a lot of firewood! ?

[AerynLee]

6 minutes ago, TimovieMan said:

That's a lot of firewood! ?

A lesson on "be careful what you wish for". One of my goals for the year was to source new firewood because we had run out. Then mother nature took out three trees the day after we had picked up a (much smaller) tree from a coworker. So we're set for a LONG time. It's kinda too bad we can't really heat with wood. We have a fireplace, but it's not at all useful for heating the house

[TimovieMan]

4 minutes ago, AerynLee said:

It's kinda too bad we can't really heat with wood. We have a fireplace, but it's not at all useful for heating the house

The fire makes things very cozy, though... ?

 

...until the next day, when there'll be complaints about the smell lingering in the house... ?

 

(we have a fireplace too, and it's also mainly for atmosphere on winter evenings rather than for heating the house - although it would definitely work for heating the house, as we often have to open a window when it's going to avoid it getting too hot in the living room...)

[Laghail]

On 9/19/2024 at 9:21 AM, AerynLee said:

A lesson on "be careful what you wish for". One of my goals for the year was to source new firewood because we had run out. Then mother nature took out three trees the day after we had picked up a (much smaller) tree from a coworker. So we're set for a LONG time. It's kinda too bad we can't really heat with wood. We have a fireplace, but it's not at all useful for heating the house

 

They have firebox inserts you can click into your fireplace that brings the heat more into the room, usually has a blower fan to further distribute the heat, and it lets you do slower steady burns by controlling the oxygen supply to the firebox. We had an oil furnace for heat as a child, and we used a firebox to keep the oil bill lower. Not always worthwhile depending on your setup, but it's an option.

 

[AerynLee]

19 minutes ago, Laghail said:

They have firebox inserts you can click into your fireplace that brings the heat more into the room, usually has a blower fan to further distribute the heat, and it lets you do slower steady burns by controlling the oxygen supply to the firebox. We had an oil furnace for heat as a child, and we used a firebox to keep the oil bill lower. Not always worthwhile depending on your setup, but it's an option.

When I looked before I couldn't find any that fit our fireplace, it's a pretty small opening. But with it's placement in the house overall and the room it's in, it wouldn't heat more than the living room even with a blower. I'm pretty sure the house originally had a coal furnace so less reliance on fireplaces for heat than you might think for an old house. 

We had a super efficient geothermal heat pump installed after our first winter here so the heating cost isn't really an issue. I would probably care more if we were still on propane because that shit gets expensive. 

But I do want to get a chair/loveseat to put in front of the fireplace for coziness. Right now our gaming table in there, but I think I can rearrange things to have comfy seating instead.