whats for lunch

atthequillsmercy

WIP Wednesday: Kitchen Sink and Patreon Update!

I’ve been behind, so this update is a bit of everything:

I figured that doing these long runs back to back may feel like something that productive but will likely not be effective. So, I took a break and had a nice walk to break things up. These runs are getting easier and I don’t wanna fuck it up by overdoing it and hurting myself. Also, I feel WIPED after those long runs. My body hits a wall around 4-6PM and all I wanna do is sleep. I’m taking that as a sign my body needs the recovery.

There are different tomatoes growing in my hard now! No clue how but I’m not about to question free food in this economy. And it’s just nice to pick things out of the yard and put them in a nice salad. But sometimes, salad doesn’t cut it. It’s fall, I feel the cooler weather, and out comes the slow cooker! That chili is ground beef and elk with some delicious chips as a side. Sometimes you eat something and it just heals your soul. I have a good sized batch of this, so it’ll be on repeat and I’ll freeze some for days when I need something quick.

As for writing, I released another erotica short under the other penname and updated my Patreon with the start of the “There, I Fixed It” series! It’ll have it’s own category on there and once it’s complete, I think I’ll offer it for free on my blog. I did do some lazy Googling about the copyright and the stupid AI that won’t let me turn it off said that what I’m doing is original enough to probably not get sued, but I’d rather not risk it by charging for it. Putting it for free will give anyone interested a chance to have the entire thing in one go rather than go through the Patreon posts once it’s finished. Or maybe, if I can figure out how it works, I’ll do an optional tip deal through Buy Me A Coffee or something. I would like to finish it, run through some editing, then release it in one go. As far as I’m concerned, the Patreon posts are clean drafts but not final drafts, if that makes any sense. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. I should actually finish something instead of starting something new before I start pondering how I’m going to deal with the finished product. Hopefully, I can blast through my word goals over the next couple days.

 

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Workout Catch Up: They make me eepy…

While these longer runs are getting easier, they make me so sleepy. I opted to repeat week one in Just Run to make sure I can get through the intervals without a break and yes, it’s working. But if I do these runs first thing in the morning, I crash before the end of the day. By the time I have to cook dinner, my eyes are at half mast. I did a run on Saturday, fully intending to run again on Sunday before I went to work, but I slept through my alarm because my body went “Nah, you’re resting. End of discussion.” Maybe running daily will help my screwed up sleep schedule…

Since I’ve been working so hard, I’ve been stressing protein in my meals. That’s a chicken Caesar wrap and a bison burger with homemade fries. My son wanted to try one and I figured it’d be a nice new experience for him and a treat for me. Other than that, it’s been the usual stuff or very small snacks. I have extra time this week, clearly. If I ever learn to roll a wrap properly, I’ll probably be eating those all the time but that was a pick up order. It’s heading into crockpot season and I can’t wait to start making chili and stew again. All in all, I’m sure earlier on in the day, I had something super profound to say but now my brain is mush and I need to be in bed. Tomorrow I’d like to post the first “There I Fixed It” part to my Patreon and for that, I need my two brain cells to be on the same page.

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atthequillsmercy

Workout Dump: New Missions!

I needed a break from running for almost an hour on Sunday, so I did some walking and the Wirk peddler up till today. It was still rough going, but I was able to hold my pace well. My form, not so much. I need to work on that. And I got the chance to get into the new missions on Zombies Run! It still sucks that the original Abel is gone… But as for my actual fitness, these long runs are a bitch to be motivated to do. Once I get on the treadmill, it’s fine. It also gives me a chance to catch up on my very long list of things I wanna watch.

Sadly, the Hello Kitty collab is done, so now I go back to not even thinking of McDonald’s as an option for food. But I seem to be all about the sandwiches lately. If I ever save up enough money for a new oven, I’ll be baking my own bread instead of buying it. I love to play around with flavors, and it’s cheaper! Win-win! Not that I should be having a lot of carbs anyway. I’m not the type of person to demonize carbs, but I do need to keep them under control if I want to lose more weight. Making more things at home puts more control in my hands. I can literally make half a loaf or a couple of buns instead of buying expensive bread from the store and feeling pressured to use it all up before it grows fur. And even though I’m tired after work and overtime and all my side stuff, I do enjoy baking! I make little gift bags of Pagan cookies for the Solstice for my friends and everyone at work nearly every year. I think I’m doing pretty good overall. It’s been a long week.

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Workout Dump: The Final Push

As you can see from the workout lengths, I jumped to the longer runs yesterday. I know runs like that are not a good idea to do daily, so today was a nice, easy session on the Wirk peddler and some much-needed stretches. And I’m gonna miss this series of Zombies Run missions. I love the characters, and I hope they revisit this series one day. But I have the new missions to get through! I’ll start those tomorrow. I’ll have to build my way back up to where I was in 2020 during lockdown when I had all the time in the world at home.

While it’s probably not for the best that I keep getting McD’s kid’s meals for the toys, I like to think I’m doing pretty ok with my other meals. Those pork dumplings are 200-ish calories for 5, the sandwiches have protein from lemon chicken or roast beef, and that pasta dish was loaded with spinach and ground beef. Safe ground beef, since I live in the US. I’m also enjoying the lemon pepper wings. Shoutout to my air fryer for saving me some calories. And you can also see where I am working my way through those random tomato plants. They’ve been pretty fruitful! I’ve been getting so many of them that I’ve been eating those Caesar salads more. AAAANNNNNND, I’m trying to vairy my lunches. While I adore the beef or chicken with a veggie, sometimes it’s nice to change it up. Once the McD’s collab is over, I can go back to going years without going there again. Thank goodness I can enjoy the smaller portions because I’m not really that into fast food anymore anyway.

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Workout Dump: Doubling up

It’s probably not the best idea to do the desk peddler and a run on the same day, but I feel like if I have the energy, I should take advantage of it. I don’t do that every day, though. I’m sure it’s terrible for my joints to do so, and some random professional will come across my little blog and scold me, especially as I go through menopause. But a calorie burnt is a calorie burnt, and I’ll take it.

Yes, I was bad and made another trip to McDonald’s to see what toy I could get, and I was not disappointed. I should probably stop now, but I really want the Cinnamoroll x Destoroyah toy. It’s dumb, I know, but the little gremlins make me happy. Other than that, my usual Itaki meal is making the rounds, and the price of lettuce is surprisingly going down, giving me more chances to have a nice salad. I did pick bacon as a protein, and I am aware that’s not the healthiest choice. I just need a break from tuna sometimes. I still have to chill out with the salt, which I tend to go ham on when I’m stressed out or on my period. That’s always been a struggle but I’m doing better.

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Workout Dump: Did I break the plateau?

I need to get back to posting workouts when I do them instead of a random day when I think, “Hey, I haven’t done that in a while. I should do that.” But anyway, with the washer and dryer back up and connected, I don’t feel anxiety about producing any extra dirty clothes than absolutely necessary, and I’m back to my regular workouts. I’m still running with the weights on my arms and incorporating more body weight stuff. I think it’s working because my weight FINALLY dipped under 205. Perhaps I shouldn’t be all excited for losing one pound, but I was stuck for so long; I will take any victory I can.

The random tomato plant in my yard is producing a bunch of fantastic little fruits, and I have been throwing them into whatever or just eating them straight up. Given that I repeat a lot of meals, I limited the pictures. There’s no point in posting the same thing over and over. One hard lesson I learned is that not every food will tolerate my 3-day limit. The cute little hot dog, rice, and egg will work if I prep it on Sunday and eat it Monday and Tuesday. If I stretch it to Wednesday, I get sick. I think it’s the egg, to be honest. That’s fine. I’m good with bringing in some other meal. To save money, I have been using some frozen vegetables. I’m sure I’m violating some kind of rice commandment by putting seasoning and beans right in the rice maker along with the rice (that I did wash, of course). I’ve also limited my alcohol to weekends, and I miss my little nightcaps so much. But I can’t have them; it’s not good for me, it’s a bad coping mechanism, and it’s empty calories. Drinks should be a sometimes treat, not a nightly event. I hope this finally broke the plateau. Let’s see how the next week goes.

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Workout Dump: Still peddlin!

I’m still using the Wirk desk bike or the peddler as I’m working on other things. I like to think it’s paying off as I’m down to 205. I’d creeped up close to 210 for a minute there. As long I keep up my activity, those 5 pounds should slowly fall away.

I’ve been experimenting with some different meals and out of the bunch, my favorite is that sandwich. It’s some prosciutto, cherry tomato, parmesan, a drizzle of garlic olive oil, and spicy garlic seasoning. I could have done without the chips, it was SO good. And since I have four feral cherry tomato plants in my front yard (seriously, every seed or seedling I deliberately planted died but the cherry tomatoes that withered in the fridge and I tossed outside took root) I will probably repeat this sandwich a bunch of times once those tomatoes are ripe. And the hot dogs are cut into cute shapes because the world sucks and I want some damn whimsy.

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Workout Dump: Weekend Warrior

Since I’m trying to get these side gigs to make enough money to dig me out of the hole I’m in, I’ve been sticking to shorter workouts during the week and longer ones on the weekends. I’m also back to the desk peddler. It was amazing to make it through that long run even if I had to powerwalk for the last interval. It reminds me that I can physically do these workouts; it’s just hard to find the time.

I’ve been leaving out the ramen noodles from my daily lunches. And it’s really easy to batch cook rice and portion it out for meals for the rest of the week. I did get takeout once, but it lasted me 3 meals. Not bad considering how much it is to order out these days. Most of the time, I’ve been making do with whatever is in the house, which explains meals that are simply rice and a protein. I don’t mind it much. It makes things easy when I’m exhausted and don’t want to cook when I get home. I can tell this is making some good changes. I’m not as hungry, things are timed well around what I need to do every day, and I use fewer dishes! Wins all around.

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Workout Dump: I feel good! Mostly…

Even though I’ve had to scale back a little on some days to walking because I’m sore from the running days, I still feel amazing. I’m working out more often than not, my pace is decent, and my endurance is getting better every day! Even with the heat, I’m noticing a difference. The scale hasn’t moved, but my clothes are getting loose. I still need to take more time to do strength training, but I still do 60 squats every morning and night while I’m brushing my teeth.

I am trying to eat smaller portions when it’s not a meal of mostly vegetables. I’m certain I’m getting enough nutrients since almost all of my fingernails have grown back properly. I do need to worry about my blood pressure. I don’t think it’s the salt I’m eating, since I’ve been lowering that in most meals. Stress is a factor, I’m certain of it. That’s partly why I’m working on more frequent workouts, lowering my salt even more, and solving the source of 90% of my stress: my finances. I’m budgeting wherever I can for now and looking into some gig or part-time work. I know I’ll feel better once I pay down some debt.

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Today’s Workout: I am such a nerd

We’re switching things up today and starting with what I ate:

Yes, I fell for the K-Pop Demon Hunters meals. I left for work early for the Saja Boys breakfast and stopped on the way home for the Huntrix ‘dinner’ meal. I… Okay, I don’t eat fast food very often. Contrary to my waistline, I eat McD’s once or twice a YEAR. Wendy’s can be quarterly, I haven’t been to Taco Bell in like… 5 years, I think? So, on the rare occasions when I do eat it, my system feels like this:

(Image Source)

Most of my meals are my own cooked food, leftovers of that food, or takeout from local places that I eat for three days. I am NOT used to 600 calorie breakfasts and 800 calorie dinners. I average 900 a DAY because of the Saxenda. It may seem boring to you, but I don’t even drink soda. I have water, seltzer water, or unsweetened teas (if not a cocktail or beer). Yeah, the meals were kinda cool, I satisfied my FOMO, and now I can go back to never eating this stuff because I feel SO SICK. I can see how this stuff makes you fat even if you workout, because I feel so sluggish and bloated. It was kinda worth it because I don’t have to do it again. I doubt they’ll do another promotion with a property that I made my entire personality for a few months.

I’m supposed to take a running day off, but when I was putting my food into MyFitnessPal, I knew I was gonna at least take a long walk. I propped up my iPad and ignored the timer until I hit 40 minutes. It helped the guilt of eating so much fast food in one day, but I still feel like crap. I’m gonna eat so light tomorrow… Why the fuck did I do this…

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