The Daily: January 18th, 2021

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I hope everyone is having a good one. My baby doll has the day off today so I am having a short day myself and then running amuck with him. well, amuck, grocery shopping. Sort of the same thing really.

This week i decided to start my day a little earlier. I actually got up at six am and got my workout in early. I know I say that like I planned it. In reality, I didn’t sleep well and dozed off and on. At six am I decided falling back to sleep wasn’t possible and so I turned off my alarm and got up.

I have been getting up a little earlier each week for the past few weeks in an effort to train myself to get up and do my excercises before I start the day as it is actually easier for me to remember to do them if I start my day with them. I can usually fit in a walk during the day as it is a good brain clearing exercise for me. The non-walking workouts either go into my day forst thing or they just don’t make it in at all.

Adam, my favorite Halloween mug. Inside he says “You’re the Ghoolest” It makes me smile.

So insomnia or not I figured going ahead and getting up at six am could help set the theme for the week. while I doubt I will ever be a morning person, for now I think it might be a necessity to at least imitate one. I can’t say the exercise actually made me more awake. I was sweaty and my heart rate was up. But as soon as I cooled down that wakefulness faded. Perhaps in time it will stay longer. For today, there was coffee.

I’ll admit I grabbed my favorite halloween mug and Frankenstein’s monster did make me feel better. Did you know in the book, his name is Adam? Just a little bit of trivia from me to you.

I will say that getting in the exercise first thing did make me feel rather virtuous. But don’t worry, I won’t let it go to my head. And now, I’m going to take a few hours off and enjoy the rest of the MLK Holiday with my baby doll. I hope you have a fabulous rest of the day and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow. Well early at least. I think it may take a few weeks of early morning habits before bright enters the picture. Until tomorrow, my darlings. I’m off to play hooky.

The Daily: January 5th, 2021

I’ll admit, I may have gotten up in time to get a cup of coffee before heading to work, but I hit the snooze alarm enough times in the process to make a workout a bit of an impossibility. Which kind of annoys me a little bit if I am honest.

This morning was the first time I woke up the day after a workout and I wasn’t at all sore. Well, not the first ever time, but the first in a while. It means my body is starting to get used to doing more than just walking for exercise.

I think I may have to move my clock to the other side of my night stand to make it harder to reach. Right now it is easy to just snake an arm out from under the covers and hit the button.If it is far enough away that I actually have to sit up and possibly even slide a leg out of bed to turn it off then I am already halfway up and it might make me just go ahead and get up.

Strategic spatial planning for for the non-morning person.

Be that as it may, I did manage to get two walks in today. Admittedly, they were partially for mental self-defense. Sometime in the night everyone decided they missed me and my inbox was packed full this morning, mostly with things that required at least one short immediate answer. It turns out that when there are a lot of short, but completely different responses needed, it ends up taking a lot of time.

The walks were more for mental clearing than anything else. They were good exercise, but today, that came in second to keeping my brain from imploding. Dinner tonight is roasted beets with walnuts, goat cheese and thyme. It is warm, comforting, yummy and not terribly caloric.

It is also likely to make me thing I have some sort of medical issue when everything comes out dyed toxicaly red tomorrow morning when I first visit the restroom. Maybe i could leave a postit note on the mirror. “There is no internal hemorrhage, you just had beets.”

I know probably too much information. But the beets will be yummy. as will be the warm and melty goat cheese mixed in with them. Speaking of which, i need to chuck them in the oven so they will be cool enough to peel and slice before dinner.

And then i need to keep digging out my inbox.

Well, that’s the rest of my day sorted then. I wish you luck with the rest of yours.

Oh and if you are looking to do a little shopping Julep has a sale going on today and tomorrow: 30% off all orders with coupon code “2D30” at check out. You also get a free gift and free shipping on all orders of $50+. Personally, I am a big fan of their Pore Minimizing Blush and their liquid lipsticks.

The Daily: December 22nd, 2020

Today was an interesting day for me. This morning the phone rang off the hook with last minute conversations and then just before lunch my e-mail went crazy with happy holiday messages as people went out of the door early for their vacations.

Which meant the afternoon was really quiet.

Which was nice. I got so much done today.

I had a story proposal accepted by one of those computerized choose your own adventure type programs (the ones where there are different pathways the story can take depending on the choice you make.) So I’ve been putting together my first episode. The story is fun and familiar, the codes the computer program needs on the lines of test are all new territory, but I think I am finally getting the hang of it. Kind of exciting.

While I missed my workout this morning I made up for it with an extra walk. The sun is still shining, the temperatures aren’t bad and as long as that holds I am happy to use walking as my primary exercise. I know I need to do more strength training on days when the weather is good, but as the walks are also one of the only times I leave the house, they have more than just an exercise appeal to them.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my house. I am just starting to appreciate leaving it more than I once did. The walks keep me from going stir crazy as well as burning calories. I consider that a double win.

I’m going to do my best to finish up the episode I am working on today so I can spend tomorrow double checking codes and then feel accomplished as I take a few days off. I know if I don’t finish it before then I will obsess about it the entire weekend. And something just don’t go well with Christmas goose. Work obsession is one of them. So it is back to work for me and I will see you back here tomorrow. As I am not posting on Friday, tomorrow will be the review of the eyeshadow Palette and CC cream I used this week, and Thursday will be the Makeup bag post and the Face mask of the week. Since I’m also taking New Year’s Day off next Friday next week will have more or less the same schedule. In case you are wondering.

But now it is back to work for me. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.

The Daily: December 15th, 2020

Good afternoon my darlings. Today has been an interesting exercise day for me. I am still on the Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning workout schedule with walks whenever I can shoehorn them in so this morning, there were no videos.

While my thighs are growing accustomed to the efforts I require of them, there was general relief all around with the skipping of the videos this morning. I think my the new year, I will be ready to bump it up a bit, but until then I will settle with the regimen I have going. Admittedly as two of the upcoming Friday’s will be holidays, those workouts will get bumped to Saturday.

I’m not going to be waking up bright and early Christmas morning to work out and anyone expecting a workout on New Year’s day will be sorely disappointed.

But as today was just a walking day, I walked. Actually I walked a lot today. Snow and sleet are predicted tomorrow so I added a little extra to my walks today to make up for what will surely be an indoors day tomorrow. If it were just snow, I could see walking. It would be like a nice pre-christmas wonderland. The prediction of sleet means it is going to be ugly and icy.

While I can deal with ugly, me on ice is just tempting fate. And I’d rather not start the new year with an injury I gave myself. It’s sort of a personal preference.

So extra walking was done today. and if the sleet doesn’t materialize, I can always walk tomorrow. The extra today won’t hurt me.

So that was the exercise sorted and as I have managed to keep my calories balanced today I am doing fine. The big concern is the moment it the box the postman just left. It comes from my babydoll’s mother. She decided that since no one was going anywhere, she was going to ship goodies. Most of the items we unpack will no doubt be his favorite so I can easily hand them off. The problem is that she knows I love peanut butter fudge and always makes a big batch just for me.

It is in an airtight tin so it will keep a while. I just may have to figure out if fudge can freeze. I believe in a little holiday indulgence, I just don’t think that I need to consume several pounds of homemade peanut butter fudge. Don’t get me wrong, it is fabulous fudge. It is the kind of melt in your mouth fudge that is somehow lighter than air. I have no idea how she does it. the salty balances the rich and if you sit down with an open box intending to eat one, you will have gone through half the box without realizing it. So they have to be parcelled out one at a time, the tin never leaving the kitchen. even if weight isn’t a concern it can send you into sugar shock. Overindulgence brings its own retribution.

But she was happy to send it and I am delighted to have it. I just need to be careful with it. I think with the box arriving, the holidays have officially begun at our house.

The Daily: December 14th, 2020

Happy Monday my darlings. I hope you had a good weekend and are not being hit too hard by the start of the week. Surprisingly it has been quite calm today for me. I’m not going to poke it with a stick too much to see why people have calmed down, I am just going to enjoy it.

My one moment of craziness was in realizing that one gift had not been ordered. Luckily it was still available and for a little extra I could have it wrapped and sent directly on. It was actually a birthday gift. Surprisingly I have three family members born just after Christmas (the 28th, 29th and 30th) Somehow I missed the one on the 29th. But that is all remedied. and even if the package is delayed slightly, it should still make it by the birthday.

Of course it means I had a minor freak out and double checked my list at lunch time. I am pretty sure that was the only thing I missed. So things should be okay.

As for exercise, this morning I went with Chloe Ting again. Today it was the six and a half minute warm up routine (I was quite warm at the end of it) and the Intense Fat Burning Full Body Workout which is twenty one minutes. Over all it went well. I was out of breath and sweating at the end of it, but I felt like I accomplished something. With luck it won’t hurt in the morning.

As it has been raining off and on, occasionally the rain mixing with ice, there was no walking today. So that will actually count as my workout for the day. The rest of the day has, alas, been spent at my desk. I can’t complain too much as I have gotten a lot done today. I feel a little antsy because of my lack of walk but otherwise everything has been good. Cold and drizzly, but good.

I hope your Monday is toddling along with no major issues as well.

The Daily: December 8th, 2020

Well this morning I may have shot the alarm clock a dirty look, but i managed to get myself out of bed. It actually wasn’t that bad. My new container of Hum Sleep gummies came in so I took them last night (I’ve been out for about a week). As a consequence I managed to actually sleep fairly well last night.

In case you are wondering the gummies don’t actually knock you out like a sleeping pill they just help to sort of calm you down before sleep so that you actually can quiet your mind more easily and drift off. Because that is one of my problems. My brain doesn’t want to shut down enough to let me get to sleep. There is always something to keep it occupied. So for me, the gummies help. Plus any time I’ve tried regular sleeping pills I end up sleep walking.

But the point is that I got a decent night’s sleep so despite the dirty looks I got up on time AND because I not only laid out my clothes for my work out,but also lined up my you tube work out programs for the morning the night before, I was actually prepared.

That’s right my darlings, I conquered the morning!

At least this morning anyway.

This morning featured Chloe Ting and the Full Body No jumping Workout to burn Fat which was a little over sixteen minutes followed by the 10 Min Morning Routine to Burn Belly Fat | No Jumping also by Chloe Ting which ran a little over ten minutes. What can i say? It was a Chloe Ting morning.

I like her workouts actually, even though i complain about them. They are short enough that once I start them I feel foolish for stopping so I complete them. Plus I can also decide how many I actually want to do and what area I want to target. and I don’t need a lot of equipment. Key for at hime workouts.

I was sweating and limber by the time I was done and I’ll admit it, thinking mean things about perky people in general. I couldn’t say them as the workout took my concentration and breath. which means it was a good workout. Which made me feel both virtuous and oddly more grumpy. I put an extra tablespoon of creamer in my coffee because of it. And yes the 30 extra calories did make me feel better.

Lets face it, I am never going to be eager to exercise. I love walking, but the gym (and workouts) will always be a chore, not a delight.

Still I needed to do it and i did. I also got a long walk in because the weather cleared up around mid day.

And despite the extra tablespoon of creamer, I did stay within my calories. Tonight is cauliflower curry so as long as I measure my rice I will be fine.

I’ve also decided to start implementing my personal rewards program. I used to give myself a reward for every ten pounds lost, but then I stopped. I think my weight loss stalled so I didn’t get the rewards and then i forgot about my personal incentive plan. So I am reinstituting it so that it will help motivate me. My next reward will be at ten more pounds down. Since my last weigh in was 216.2 my ten pound mark will be 206. When I reach 206 I can order a perfume from Sobelia. It is a company that specializes in perfumes at a discount. The purchase of full perfumes of samples I’ve enjoyed keeps getting postponed so I figure this will let me go through the list and actually order one I really want and know I will wear as well as motivate me. So on with the scented motivation. I know it is bribery, but it works.

I’ve linked both the Sobelia site and the Hum Nutrition below. One got me out of bed this morning and one is motivating me to keep working out. So it seemed like a good tag team. At the moment both have discount deals going that you might want to check out.

The Daily; November 5th, 2020

Today I managed a walk. My legs are still not happy with me for my extended bike ride and i did give my bike a nasty glare this morning, but after coffee and some moving around I felt better and less like glaring.

And I was able to go on a walk without hobbling.

So no permanent damage was done. I just need to remember to take a watch with me next time I go bike riding. It was less of a problem when the park was small and the ride rather finite. Now with all of the parks being connected it is easy to lose track of time and over do it.

Which clearly I did.

But again. no permanent damage.

And it was a nice, if short walk today. While we had a brief glorious flair up of autumn colors dancing in the trees a lot of the trees remained green. Today it is like all the trees freaked out and their leaves fell off. There are even green ones on the ground. It reminds me of those cartoons when some one is shocked and their hair ends up standing strigh t up and turning white. except that the leaves stood up in shock and fell out.

At least this is my interpretation and why I don’t teach botany or biology.

But it did mean that there were piles upon piles of crisp leaves to crunch through. Even though I kept my walk short today I felt good about the exercise I managed to get. Every little bit helps right? Well I suppose we’ll see if it does when i step on the scale in the morning.

But I feel good. Part of that I think is more because of the lessening of pain. That always makes me feel good. However I also feel good because I have been eating better this week. I switched my food over to winter mode so cold salads have been replaced by warm soups and roasted veg. I had roasted sweet potatoes last night and felt positively decadent when i sprinkled just a pinch of brown sugar on them to caramelize. It was a little less than a teaspoon for the entire thing and well within my calories but it still felt deliciously decadent. As well as flat out delicious. Tonight is spaghetti squash with a quick homemade sauce. It will feel like a heavy meal when eating but the calorie count is fairly low and it scores pretty high on the taste-o-meter so it is a definite win for me.

I don’t know how many of you eat spaghetti squash but for me, I found that if I poke some holes in it roast it whole at 350 for an hour and a half (depending on the size, the ones our store has had lately have been huge, just roast it until you can press the flat of your fork into the rind and it is done) early in the day (or the day before), then after it is cool, I slice it open and remove the innards with a fork, tossing the seeds away. Then when I am ready to eat I make the sauce in a large wok pan and toss in the spaghetti squash to let it simmer with the sauce and come up to temperature. It helps make the squash super tender and makes it take on the flavors of the sauce more. I use the wok pan because it is deeper than my other sauce pans so I make less of a mess.

Anyway that is me today. work out in, calories on pint and a delicious dinner on tap for the night. Not a bad Thursday night all in all.

The Daily: November 4th, 2020

Yesterday’s bike ride really did me in. The sun was shining, the air was cold as it whipped past me. The two balanced actually making me feel it was the perfect temperature. Well, except for my hands. They were half frozen by the time I got home. I also didn’t realize how large the connecting path has become.

This summer my walking trail and park received an extension. I took the extension with my bike. Apparently the extension connects my little walking trail to another park (which was quite delightful to find out) and then that park is connected to another park, which is in turn connected to a third park. At least according to the map I checked when I got back home. It’s part of a plan to have a walking/biking trail that pretty much lets you go from one end of the state to the other. I only explored up to the second park before coming home.

However by the time I did head home, my rear end was numb from the bike seat, my hands were frozen and the light was fading. It wasn’t evening, but it was edging into gloaming territory.

I love that word – gloaming. In my opinion it doesn’t get enough use.

The thing about bike riding, at least for me, as long as I am moseying along on my bike, I can mosey for a long time. I am not a racer. I am the bike riding equivalent of a Sunday Driver. Go ahead and speed past me, cause I only have the one speed. But I can keep that one speed up for a really long time.

My problem comes when I stop and actually get off the bike. Then I am stiff and sore. Yesterday I was more preoccupied with my numb rear end and my frozen hands to take too much notice of any soreness elsewhere. But boy did it make its presence felt this morning. I hobbled out of bed this morning, found out that it may be Friday before all the votes are counted and the election is finally over which sort of made me feel like the rest of the world was groaning along with me, and then hobbled to the coffee pot.

I’m good once I get going because after a few steps my body stays in motion despite internal protests. But like my bike riding once I stop, I feel it. Then I don’t want to get in motion again. I did drink significant less coffee today as once I was settled in my desk chair I didn’t want to get back up again for refills. Also when I did get up I tried to see how many other things I could do while I was up and moving around. As the front of my thighs seem to be the most sore, the restroom has been my least favorite place today. I can flop into my desk chair if I have to. it is padded and has a back to it. The commode, not padded and no back. My arms did a lot of lowering and lifting today. I’m calling that my upper body work out for the day. I’m also going to have to remember to wear a watch next time I take my bike out. It is far too easy for me to lose track of time.

But at least I can say I got in a good workout.

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The Daily: November 3rd, 2020

I know I am a little bit early today but I decided that this afternoon was so beautiful I was just going to indulge in a nice long bike ride. They extended my walking tail so there is a really nice bike trail that runs several miles. And I just got new tires for my bike so i am set to go.

And I am posting my daily post early because of it.

I am feeling pretty good today, I have to say. Last night I dyed my hair. I know it sounds super vain but I felt significantly less blah once I did. It’s not much of a change just a slight bit darker to get rid of some of the grays popping up here and there. I really felt the pick me up of having my hair done, even though it was just me doing it. I think because I have been the one trimming my hair for most of this year and doing simple things to keep it healthy that it felt really good doing something kind of big. It wasn’t as good as a full out salon visit, but it was really nice.

kind of a mess at the moment but I love the color and the gray coverage

I went with the Color and Co by L’Oreal. Mostly because I really liked the L’Oreal box dye when I tried it back in March so I figured this would be a step up, even if it wasn’t a salon. Which it was. I got to choose my custom color and it was super easy to figure out. It was also super easy to apply at home. It was about double what I would spend on a box dye, but so much better and so worth it. If you are interested there is a link below and a $5 off code (I get nothing if you use the code, it is just their standard deal for new users). I was really pleased with it.

I also figured with the stress of the election it would be nice to do something nice for myself as well. Because we all know that no matter how the election turns out, tomorrow morning is going to be bonkers. It is just that sort of election. Everyone keeps saying it is a once in a life time sort of election and ‘one for the history books’ and I really hope so. I personally never want to go through another election this stressful.

But I did my voting and I hope you did too, regardless of what candidate you chose to back. It is just very important that everyone’s voice be heard and that the decision be made by the many instead of the few. Or at least the many before it gets to be funneled to the few of the electoral college.

Regardless, tomorrow is going to be bonkers regardless of the results. So me and my freshly dyed hair are going on a nice bike ride this afternoon. I suspect I will be glued to the news all day tomorrow. So I am going to enjoy today. I hope you have a good afternoon and do something fabulous for yourself.

The Daily: November 2nd, 2020

The Monday after the autumn time change is always a strange one for me. I wake up feeling rested because I feel as though I had an extra hour of sleep so I start off feeling good and actually somewhat awake as i start my day. Then as time passess I begin to feel off kilter, as though I am late for everything I planned to do and have to hurry to catch up.

Which makes me early for a few things in the morning.

And then i self correct, which ends up making me late for everything in the afternoon. It happens every year. Oddly enough in the spring i am just tired and grouchy for a week until my body adjusts. I also mutter about the government stealing an hour of my precious sleep for no good reason. Then my body adjusts and I’m fine.

In the fall though I just have a week of feeling like I am either too early or too late for whatever I am doing. In case you arewondering, this may affect the timing of some of my posts this week. They will still all be posted, but the times may vary a little from the norm.

It will all even back out next week.

But getting up earlier meant that I managed to get my twenty minute work out in before starting work this morning, which was nice. For the last few weeks I haven’t been getting it in. Especially in the morning. Getting up in the dark made me somewhat disinclined to wake up with the alarm so there wasn’t a lot of time in the mornings. I tried shoehorning it into the afternoons with varying degrees of success, but I do better if i can just do it in the morning before I have too much time to think about it.

I find it better if I trick myself into working out before I am fully awake and caffeinated enough to form arguments against it. I will say that is one thing that was easier when I was going to the gym. Because I was paying for the gym I felt obligated to go so that I wasn’t just wasting my money on a decorative gym membership tag for my keychain. It is much easier to skip the home workouts, and I do need to start adding them in on a more routine basis. The walking is fine, but I need both the walking and the strength training to balance my workouts.

And so I trick myself into doing the workouts before I am fully awake and then reward myself. My current reward is a bottle of the Hint water I have stashed in the laundry room. While I use my soda stream water throughout the day, I occasionally need the incentive of a flavored beverage. I happen to really like Hint. It is just enough flavor that I feel like I’m getting a treat. My all time favorite is the Blackberry, but I am starting to warm to the Watermelon flavor.

I’m hoping that I can use the time change to jump start my first of the morning yoga/strength work outs. Blended with trickery and bribery, my two favorite workout companions, I managed it today, here’s hoping I can keep it up.