I managed to squeeze this in on a day where we were short staffed and I ended up helping this very nice man with his Google Docs for over an hour. While darting about helping other people. Good news is I helped him out and learned that you can merge Google Docs with an app. That’s pretty cool.
This was dinner after having a gyro platter for lunch (no pic, I forgot). I get my gyro platters with no dairy so it’s less calories; basically, it’s a salad with some lamb meat on the side.
Yup. I broke. I walked into the house after work and faceplanted right into my bed. My brain is fried and my body is tired. I need a treat or I’m gonna fall down. It’s just one and I have my kettlebell workout to do later. I’ll burn it off.
I also got in a walk during my lunch break; a quick 20 minutes and later I’ll do the kettlebell workout for 15 minutes. I think I need an extra stretching session to wind down more and get ready for work tomorrow. I am mentally so exhausted. And I’ve still been writing every day. I think I deserved that one beer.
I did the bike and kettlebell today and man, my thighs were feeling it again.
Since my food was just a repeat of the previous day, I didn’t take any pictures. It was exactly the same meal and I didn’t make anything for dinner because I was still full from lunch.
Mostly, I am so tired from working so many days in a row. It’s almost done so I can finally have a day off soon. Then I can actually put two words together to make a longer post.
I felt the need for some muscle work today so I brought out the kettle bell and did some squats instead of all cardio all the time. Building muscle burns fat and also, repetition can get boring.
As it was my late night, I slept in through breakfast so I only managed to grab a grapefruit and some almonds for lunch and had a big dinner. My last blood tests said my iron was low so I put steak in the electric lunch box today. I had some bok choy from Misfits Market and some snow peas to use up. What I noticed is since I’m trying to slim down quickly and lowered how much salt I eat, the soy sauce I used to marinate the steak was overwhelming. And I’m the type to put salt on a salt bagel.
When I prepped my dinner for today, I made the same for lunch tomorrow. I’ll have to water down the sauce. I actually got a bit of a headache from all that salt. Luckily, I don’t have any problem drinking plenty of water to flush out my system.
This is the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. It turned out pretty good; even on the second day. Once I got home, I wasn’t hungry at all so I just made myself some popcorn as a snack, then did my bodyweight workouts.
This was the desk peddler at work and the resistance is up to the highest setting so I really felt this in my thighs and I was breathing faster.
I did just the abs and stretching for today since I’m pretty sore from yesterday and I don’t want to overdo it. Good news is I’d jumped up to 211 and I’m back down to 209 so this is working so far! I have more to go but I bet I can make it if I stay on track.
I also have my new blood test results which are odd but that’s another entry for another day.
Because there’s no such thing as universal sizing, the costume I purchased for NYCC doesn’t fit right. It goes on but won’t zip up. And the most frustrating part is I held it up next to a dress I lost enough weight to fit into and wore today to work and they look almost identical. So, I’m increasing my steps and changing up my food to try and slim down enough to get into this thing.
Because that fucking costume was $80…
In addition to this for lunch, I had some simple broccoli and garlic for dinner. I used lemon juice for lunch and hoisin sauce with the broccoli to make it more interesting and avoid adding too much salt. Salt is my weakness. I’m severely cutting it down in order to help and honestly, it’s better off for me anyway.
I know it’s not likely I’ll lose a bunch of weight but it’s all about getting my money’s worth out of this cosplay. Fingers crossed, guys…
I felt pretty productive today; finishing off a bunch of books, returning them, clearing away space on my desk, and making sure I have a healthy lunch and prepped what I wanna make for dinner… And I was able to get my heart rate up enough to make me feel like some good calorie burn happened.
Now, I was talking about the electric lunchbox I use at work – where my co-workers get mad it’s not a buffet and don’t bring enough to share – and the steamed meals I make in them.
These are the raw ingredients before I started cooking. Those are small bits of sliced chicken in soy sauce with my usual spices: paprika, cumin and red pepper. I use plain noodles and break the block in half. One pack is over 400 calories, no way I’m eating the whole thing. The greens are bok choy, sliced garlic, white onion, and ginger. I end up having to cook in stages; the chicken first for 15 minutes, add the bok choy in the top section at the 15 minute mark, and the noodles in hot water at the 20 minute mark. At 25 minutes, it’s all done.
Sometimes (as in most of the time), I end up over packing the vegetables. I eat what’s cooked and let the rest steam a bit longer. I don’t like my veggies too soggy. I like the crunch. When I do broccoli, I leave the veggies in the entire time since that takes much longer to cook than the bok choy. The water I use to cook the noodles dilutes the soy sauce (I try to use low sodium but that’s not always on sale and I’m a cheap bitch) and the chili crunch is just delicious and fun.
This is a filling dinner that is so satisfying (even though the red pepper makes my nose run, which is gross but worth it). If I get one pack of chicken tenders from Trader Joe’s or Butcher Box, that makes two of these types of meals. I change up the vegetables (I already ranted about my issues with the broccoli from Misfits Market here) and those ramen packs are so cheap when they’re on discount and also last two meals. If I don’t have any noodles, I just add more veggies.
One of these days, I’ll post the version of this I make with lemon chicken and peppers (unless I did that already and fuck it, I’ll do it again) which I have had mixed results adding rice but for that, I just skip the carbs entirely. Rice is hit or miss for me with the electric lunch box. Or at least this kind of electric lunch box because I backed a different one on Kickstarter (yeah, not sponsored or an affiliate for anything I have linked here) that I’ll have to play around with when I get it to see what kinds of meals I can make or if it’s best for just reheating things. Either one would help me out since the microwave can kill food sometimes.
So… I went on a tangent about my food and the geeky products I own. If I put this meal into MyFitnessPal, it’s about 500 calories total; which is good for me since I don’t feel the need to snack at all hours after eating this. If I make this for lunch, I don’t even need dinner. That’s probably the Saxenda as a factor as well but a good workout and getting my steps in burns all this off no problem.
Uhm… I don’t have anything clever to say to end this. I’m tired and going to bed.
Today was a kinda chill day. I got up early to make lunch for the kid (who actually ate it? And actually did the dishes so I had anything to make lunch with? Clearly, an anomaly) and made myself a thermos full of coffee to make it through getting up really early without enough sleep.
I keep waking up in the middle of the night and it’s starting to piss me off…
Anyhooooooo, I learned a valuable lesson food wise not to buy any broccoli from Misfits Market ever again. Either I can’t get the full bunch clean enough to avoid visible bugs (I assume a certain amount of bug eating risk in general but I don’t SEE them normally and I can live in blissful ignorance) or I get the pre-cut florets that have hidden rotten parts in them and they don’t taste right. So, if I get it from them, I either have to make sure to use whatever I buy in one day and see random flies or grubs during my meal or use veggies that taste off even though they are fresh from delivery. Honestly, I’m better off getting broccoli from Trader Joe’s or basically any other place than Misfits. Sorry, Misfits Market, your other stuff is good but not this. I ended up throwing it all out.
On the upside, the other veggies and fruit I’ve bought from Misfits Market have been alright. They are very, VERY fresh and need to be used sooner rather than later. And if you’re wondering why I’m harping on the broccoli, I’ll have to take more pictures of the meals I make at work with the electric lunch box. There’s a method to my madness in usually choosing broccoli as opposed to bok choy; which has a very different result when steamed in the Itaki lunch box. (not sponsored… I WISH I was sponsored!) I guess I should take pictures of how I prep then cook various meals in this thing? Eh, if I remember. I tend to have these types of meals on days where I have time to properly cook and eat them during my hour break, be it lunch on my day shifts or dinner on my night shifts. I have to strategically plan my break to make sure I have an outlet.
If I remember tomorrow, I’ll take photos of my prep before I take the ingredients to work. Also, I have a reputation at work now. Whenever someone smells something delicious at a meal time, someone pokes their head into the break room and says “Oh, it’s her again, not bringing enough for the rest of us.” I’m lucky to have coworkers who aren’t put off by my cooking.
But for now, I’m tired and sore and want to go to sleep.
Since I’m trying to get more writing done, I’m back to the desk bike so I can type and peddle at the same time. That’s gonna have to be what I do while I get stories published so I can earn money for my NYCC cosplay. And also fit into my NYCC cosplay…
I wish I could somehow write and do crunches at the same time but, ah well. Sacrifices must be made.
I’ve also been listening to the inactivity alert I downloaded onto my smart watch and I’ve been able to get 3000 or more steps every day; which is up from a normal day of sitting around at a desk (I used to struggle to break 2000). Even if it’s just to get up and go look out the window, I do it so I’m active that much longer.
I did try on some dresses that were too tight on me before and they fit much better. One is actually too big (and I’m a little ticked off about that because I haven’t worn it out ONCE). Guess I’ll have to get me some safety pins or finally learn how to use Ma’s old sewing machine.
I don’t understand why my kid thought this app was boring because I was set to warm up for 5, run for 20, then cool down for 5, only to feel like I needed to slow it down because of the drama in this episode. This isn’t the first time Zombies Run has toyed with my emotions to the point where I was thinking “If they do (XXXX) I will delete this app right now.” But, I powered through with a very easy trot until the 25 minute mark and power walked the last 5 minutes to cool down. I felt energized and strong so, I enjoyed my workout despite the nagging impulse to roll over to the next mission but, I think I managed to step back and go stretch.
I think sticking to running three days a week is what’s best for me since I’m trying to do more weight training than cardio. It feels good to be running regularly again but I need to get stronger, as well. Even though I really want to know what happens next.
If you’re not familiar, if you have chases on in Zombies Run and you don’t make the speed, you don’t die just lose supplies. It was close but, I didn’t go fast enough and I ended up losing some stuff. On Friday, I bet I’ll do better. I wasn’t cramping nearly as much today as on Monday and my posture felt on point.
Tonight’s dinner was an old classic since I had some snow peas to use up. I cooked the steak first then added the veggies in some soy and hosen sauce. And I love me some chili crisp. I don’t like to think about how much MyFitnessPal rates it as a red food. It’s bloody delicious.
I still need to do my body weight workouts and stretching before I go to sleep but today felt strong. Good way to end out the month.
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