food prep

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Getting back into it

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I will completely admit to getting off track the last few weeks. But, I’m refocused and ready to work. I went back to using the desk peddler to get my muscles working again

I’m still working on making breakfast a proper habit but one of my friends at work gave me a protein bar from Trader Joe’s that was really good! I may have to get a couple boxes and keep them in my desk. For lunch, I tried out my Yule gift to myself, the Itaki Smart Pro (not sponsored). I’d made lemon chicken, rice, and broccoli on Sunday so, I packed some of the leftovers in the containers and set the Itaki to reheat. 20 minutes later, I had a hot lunch. This works out better than the microwave since it didn’t dry out the chicken when I heated it all up. Yes, it does take longer than 2 minutes in the microwave, so if your break is 30 minutes, it’ll be a rush to snarf it down and pack everything back up to go back to work. The cord is also ABSURDLY short. I already have an extension chord from the other Itaki so it was fine but yikes. I get that they’re expecting you to do this at your desk and have an outlet close by but even so, there’s no way it would reach directly from the top of my desk to an outlet near the floor. And yes, it still uses steam and you have to put some water in the bottom.

Not that I intended this to be a review of the device but anyways, I got a deal on some avocados and made a salad with one for dinner. I can feel my muscles waking up and I hope to get back to running soon!

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Best laid plans…

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While I know I’ll feel good afterwards, I still am having a lot of trouble getting up early to run before work. It probably doesn’t help that I’m not sleeping through the night so when that early alarm goes off, I am not rested. I’m gonna have to rethink what days I’m able to fit in a run but for now, I got on the stationary bike while I did some writing.

Over the weekend, I made a batch of chili and I’ll be picking through that for the rest of the week. The usual beer I like to use has vanished from the face of the earth but Modelo Dark will do the job in a pinch. I used up all the ground bison I had bought before I had a bunch of issues with my car that cleaned out my savings. It’s good but ground beef/pork works just as well. I’d buy it again if I can get a good deal but not regularly. For dinner, I had a salad but with cabbage instead of lettuce to change it up a little. I find it to be more filling than lettuce and has different vitamins in it. Plus, it’s colorful to mix the red and white cabbage together.

It’s looking like my meals will be mainly repeats this week. I guess batch cooking doesn’t make for very interesting day to day photos but it’s helpful to me to always know what food is available and how many calories on average I’d be consuming and my macros. I don’t stress macros much but if I’m low on certain things and my doctor suggested supplements, I want to keep an eye on certain things. I would prefer to get nutrition from my food rather than pills or gummies but hey, I’ll do what’s necessary.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: A nice session.

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More desk peddler for today. I had a webinar and doing the peddler made it bearable. I haven’t been trying for long but I have already noticed my hip pain is lessened since I’ve been moving around more. I was really worried something was seriously wrong and I do plan to talk to my doctor about it anyway but I’m really happy about that.

I didn’t have time to make lunch and since the place across the street actually lowered their price on their salad (they’re still smaller than they used to be), I decided to get one of those. For dinner, I needed to use up the meat and veggies I was not going to use for Thanksgiving and the leftover rice. I doubt Uncle Roger would approve of my beef fried rice but I liked it and had plenty leftover for lunch tomorrow. All in all, not a bad day.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: New Gadget

I managed to sell a few things on eBay and since I’ll take any chance for cardio, I took a walk up to the post office in addition to 30 minutes on the desk peddler. I noticed that having that walk and getting up more during the day is helpful for the hip pain I’ve developed.

I will get back to running soon.

I’ve been wondering about the electric lunch boxes that don’t cook food but reheat it as an alternative to the communal microwave at work. I put the leftovers from the previous night (swordfish, rice, and broccoli) and while it did work, it took forever. Not a good idea for a thick slab of fish on top of a bed of rice. I could see it working better if all the food at direct contact with the heating element on the bottom. Much like the Itaki, I’ll have to play around with it until I get used to using it regularly. After all that rice, a salad was necessary. Those tomatoes just hit different, they were so refreshing. It was exactly what I needed at the end of a long day.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Ultrahuman HIIT Beginner Day 1

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Today I figured I have this stuff on my phone, I might as well us them to build up my strength. I like that there’s no equipment and I can do these quickly.

It was a rush but I managed to get my lunch prepped before work. That dinner salad needed to use up a bunch of cherry tomatoes before they went bad. I’ve been having an apple for breakfast and all that together was filling at the end of the day. I also did a little kettlebell on the side, despite just saying I like the workouts with no equipment. And I had a higher than average step count. Not a bad day at all. Tomorrow I’m gonna push a little harder.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Successful prepping

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I’m working my way through PMS right now where I want to just eat everything in front of me. I’m always hungry so, I need to be as active as possible to balance that out. And when I say “hungry” I mean my stomach growling not just feeling a little snacky.

Now that it’s cooler, I have no problem putting the oven on. I made some salmon on Sunday and had plenty to use as leftovers for my lunch today. Usually with all that rice I’d be too full for a big dinner but nope. Since I felt like I was starving, I made myself a big salad with tuna for some filling protein. Even though I passed 1200 calories, I still felt hungry later on in the night. It’s super annoying to feel this out of control when my hormones are all over the place.

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Today’s Workout: It’s mine now.

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A little shorter session on the bike today but I got a lot of work done on some interesting stuff for the library. Gotta make sure I stay productive at the day job.

I did get up early enough to not only make myself a nice breakfast but prep my lunch as well. Since my kid doesn’t want lunches from me, I decided to use the lunch boxes I bought for myself! I’m on a radishes kick again, apparently. For dinner, I only wanted to use what I already had in the house to save money on groceries. The cut of steak I used (I forgot) had too much fat on it for my Itaki. I used it over some pasta with diced tomatoes instead. I made the whole pack of pasta and packed the leftovers for tomorrow. Since all of this together was over a thousand calories, I felt a little overfull at the end of the day. I think pasta in general is too heavy for me right now.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Three Squares

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The desk peddler session was a little short today just because I didn’t quite have the time but I did my squats and crunches later on. I still need to get in more muscle work but I’m getting there.

I actually ate three meals today and I gotta say, I felt overfull. It all came to about 1,000 calories. That pasta dish took awhile to make but I was able to use some delicious heirloom tomatoes instead of canned diced tomatoes (which are fine, I just wanted to try the fresh ones) and I made a big enough portion for lunch tomorrow.

Since my weight isn’t really moving, I think I’m gonna switch to the desk bike; which has higher resistance than the desk peddler. I know I shouldn’t be focusing so much on cardio if I want to build muscle but with the higher resistance, I think I’ll get more thigh and calf definition. Once it gets cooler, I’ll get back to Zombie’s Run. I’ve been paying for it so, I might as well use it.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: New Breakfast Option

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This one was a little shorter because there was some work stuff I had to deal with but that’s ok. It was still over 30 minutes and I still felt my muscles working.

You know those videos online of a little kid cooking on a hot rock? Like this one? I was very curious about making something like that so, I found some flat bread similar to what’s in that video (if anyone knows where to get the exact thing, let me know) and tried it out myself. Since it wasn’t puffy enough to open and make a sandwich, I just folded it with the fried egg. That’s a little dash of chili crisp on that egg; which tastes fantastic. It’s a quick, delicious breakfast. Next time, I’m gonna try the scallion flavored bread. For lunch, I got pre-diced chicken breast from Misfits Marked and I gotta say, the convenience is so worth it. I don’t have to spend time and extra dishes cutting slimy chicken. They marinate and cook faster, too. Definitely gonna be in my regular rotation.

With that breakfast and my usual lunch, I didn’t feel hungry around dinner time. I just had an ice pop cause it was hot and I was in the mood for something sweet. I think it was a good day overall.

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atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Salad all day

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I had a webinar about some awesome graphic novels coming soon so, I decided to be on the peddler while I watched it. I had to slow down at a few points to actually look up and order some titles but it was a good ride.

Apparently, I was really feeling some salad today. I had some leftover lettuce and onion from yesterday’s wrap so I added some tuna to make it more filling. I also had one more burger patty from yesterday’s dinner. I chopped it up and split it with the kid. I made myself a taco salad and the child had beef with broccoli. I seem to be on a salad kick and that’s probably because I don’t want to cook much in the summer. Well, more like I want to cook but turning the oven on is the last thing I want to do. I may have to bring out the slow cooker so I have some variety.

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