Friday, June 27, 2014

Egressions #156-159


156. KOLDSKAL! Via Danish Baking Adventures.
157. World's easiest peanut butter cookies? Via Babyccino Kids.
158. Or these? Via FitSugar.
159. I don't even like raspberries, but. Via Food52.

Koldskål is my new obsession, I make it with buttermilk, greek yogurt, egg yolks, a little bit of sugar, vanilla, and I forgot the lemon. Next time with lemon! You're supposed to eat it with cookies, but I eat it with peaches which are perfectly in season right now. Peaches and koldskål, so lush and good, and actually kind of good for you. Because of the cultures. But maybe I want to bake some little cookies, too.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

State of the Break
 summer 2014 with chart

State of the break means blog break, and lately it's all blog break. More to love, right? More to write about?

What have I done for me lately, let's look at the chart:

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cleaning
WORK
 
PLAY
footwork
SYSTEMS
Appts
WORK
 
SYSTEMS
Bills
WORK
 
SYSTEMS
Tasks
WORK
 
HOME
Clothing
afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon
PASTIME
 
PLAY
practice
PLAY^^^
train
PLAY
practice
PLAY^
scrimmage
PASTIME
 
PASTIME
 
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

Ahhh I love this chart, I've tweaked it a bit, always tweaking:

  • I switched around Sunday and Thursday so Sunday is cooking and Thursday is cleaning, it makes a lot more sense to start my food week on Sunday, boil my eggs and prep my chicken jars for the week, and then on Tuesday re-up my meat and greens, and actually cleaning makes more sense to me toward the end of the week.
  • Woo, I have three clients stacked on Tuesday night, almost like a grown-up trainer.
  • I decided on and designed an amazing Saturday practice that I call footwork, it's actually foot and fascia work, an hour of work just on my feet and another hour just on fascia, incredible! TK, maybe...
  • ...if I can find time to write it up, it was really optimistic to hope that writing would happen in Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening pastime blocks. That's just not the pastime I'm up for at those times, maybe sometimes, but not regularly that I could keep a blog going on.

I mean, let's talk about that. Writing is pastime for me, but I guess there's pastime and there's pastime. What writing is not is rest, which I hugely need, and hugely get, so that works out. This is why I kind of don't trust self-help bloggers who tell you to stop watching television. For me watching television is rest, and it isn't at all that there's nothing wrong with rest. Rest is a thing, you know, totally necessary, there's everything right with rest.

So there's my rub, my rest stops are the blue boxes and, actually, the orange boxes; systems work is relaxing for me, because I'm weird, and in any case appointments, bills, and tasks are pretty tiny tasks, like an hour's work at most and then truthfully I take the rest of those afternoons off. I mean, I have time for writing or studying in there. There's just not energy, I tried. I'm okay with it, too.

Life is trying things and seeing what happens, and I really mean seeing, and then life is choices.

I mean, there's also trying it again and seeing if something different happens.

I mean, whatever. Life is a lot of things.

Right now, I don't have time to write. You're not supposed to say "I don't have time..." but pfft, I know what I'm saying. I say what I want. The choices I've made have filled up all the time slots.

Except I have my eye on that Saturday afternoon slot, my clothes are crying, they thought they were finally going to get a place in the sun, and now I might want to write instead of do something about the parlous state of my clothes.

But anyway, this is what I've been doing instead of blogging, nothing grand, but quite grand, just living my life, working and housekeeping and a lot of playing and a lot of resting, watching television with the sweetie man and actually spending time with people, me and TS hung out in lawn chairs for a whole afternoon and got slices at Dante's and soft-serve at Tastee Freeze, and I rode my bike up to Punk and Riot's and just laid around and dranks limonadas de coco, stuff like that.

ETA: As a point of fact, I just wrote this right now, on this Thursday afternoon, so maybe this is a good time, maybe it's just this afternoon.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Egressions #152-155


152. Sooo refreshing-looking! Via Smitten Kitchen.
153. I decided that I hate campari, though. Via Refinery 29.
154. I'm thinking about this with prosecco. Via Food 52.
155. I might get into spritzers... Via Joy the Baker.

I did make that orange soda float without the campari, or the ice. So basically orange soda and ice cream.

Me and Punk and Riot are going to make those limonadas de coco this afternoon!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Bout Day Breakfast
 Second Wind vs Motor City Disassembly Line

cheesy scrambled eggs, avocado tomato salsa, chili-salted cantaloupe, and water

Cheesy scrambled eggs, avocado tomato salsa, chili-salted cantaloupe, and water. Coffee already consumed.

I'm actually a little proud of this one. I puzzled it out yesterday while I was doing some math at work. I mean, it's scrambled eggs. It was going to be scrambled eggs and cantaloupe, which I eat every other day for breakfast. But bout day breakfast should be special, actually, I came up with this whole other idea for fried eggs with crispy brussels sprouts and shallots on mashed potatoes, another day, when I don't have two-thirds of a plate already composed. Avocado could be the third third; but eggs are plain (this was before I found the little bit of cheese) and cantaloupe is plain, this plate needs a little fancy at this point. I didn't want to go to the grocery after work, so I had to visualize the contents of my refrigerator and see what would do for all the parts of a salsa: avocado I always have, cherry tomatoes I always have, sure why not, parsley I have in the freezer. Annnd I had a container of already cut up hungarian hot peppers, surplus from yesterday's chicken stew. I regretfully thought about the shallots I used up, if only I had kept one little shallot. But then I remembered I had chives from the fishcakes, click! And key lime juice.

And then I found the cheese. And then I might as well put a little chili and salt on the cantaloupe.

More bout day breakfasts!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Early Summer Food Chart



Black coffee in bed.
Hard-boiled eggs with melon for breakfast.
Chicken jars for lunch.
Tea and strawberries for afternoon snack.
Ground meat, greens, and rice for pre-workout dinner.
Fish cakes!
Beetlejuice for pre-workout drink.
Cococherry2O for workout drink.
Fruit, nut butter, and yogurt smoothies for post-workout snack.
Tart cherry soda and coco popcorn for Friday evening snack.

Okay so, this is what I'm actually eating this month. I feel so much better all synced up. Also, summer food chart is the best chart. Summer is pretty much my cooking break, I barely cook anything.

So I've fully transitioned to hard boiled eggs with watermelon...

...which frees up avocado and tomato to plate with chicken jars. There's lots of other ways to plate chicken jars, too—on greens, obviously; on sliced fruit, delicious; topped with golden raisins, walnuts, and parmesan, luscious.

Now is the time for berries, I like strawberries and blackberries. I do not like raspberries. And I only like blueberries cooked.

For summer I get to have Trader Joe's frozen microwavable rice for spacefood, which is soo lazy. Ahh. And my new trainer gym is right by Trader Joe's, so I can just pop in after my Tuesday clients and stock up. That was the only disadvantage, it was kind of a trek to Trader Joe's—removed!

Okay, I finally made fish cakes. They're really good, but they're a lot more complicated than I usually make and maybe just a flash in the pan so to speak.

Ultimate food chart! Always tweaking...
Early summer food planner for the extremely detail-oriented.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Egressions #148-151


148. Whole brain breathing. Via Lisa Byrne on Vimeo.
149. Calming energy technique Via Lisa Byrne on Vimeo.
150. I'm post-breakdown by now, but still useful stuff. Via The Change Blog.
151. Savoring. Via The Week.


ETA: I mean, not like a Sylvia Plath breakdown. Just like, not really wanting to get out of bed or cook any food or do any dishes for a few weeks. The dishes are done now, though!

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Late Spring Food Chart

Black coffee in bed.
Hard-boiled eggs with avocado and tomato for breakfast.
Chicken stew for lunch.
Tea and cuties for afternoon snack.
Ground meat, greens, and quinoa for pre-workout dinner.
Honestly what's for Friday dinner.
Beetlejuice for pre-workout drink.
Cococherry2O for workout drink.
Fruit, nut butter, and yogurt smoothies for post-workout snack.
Tart cherry soda and coco popcorn for Friday evening snack.

Gah, I jinxed myself saying that I could keep up with food charts at a minimum. I think, I theeeeenk now things start to calm down and I can keep up from now on.

Also, heads up, I'm about to do a great vowel shift and start publishing my food charts as they happen, instead of being a month behind. E.g., this late spring food chart was actually May's chart. Next week I'm going to post the early summer food chart, which is actually June's chart and happening now.

I think I have to give up on apple cider vinegar for my morning drink, it's too acidic on an empty stomach for me. Starting the day with black coffee doesn't exactly have the healthful aura of green tea or hot water with lemon, but it so grounds me. Ha ha grounds, that was not on purpose. Also I just read a study that coffee isn't as dehydrating as people think, in normal quantities. Lastly, in winter, all I want is coffee with milk, and in summer I suddenly don't want milk. And cold, too; so that's how it is.

Breakfast-wise, I'm transitioning from egg bites to hard boiled eggs but hanging onto avocado and tomato for another month.

Still hanging onto chicken stew for lunch, this was my favorite spring item.

Eurrr cuties were definitely at the end of their season.

Also hanging onto my quinoa bowls, this was my first year of that and it's a winner for sure.

Same workout drinks, perennial.

Peanut butter dates really didn't work for me this season or last, idk why, I loved them last year. I took the opportunity to jump into smoothies and I have a new simplified smoothie recipe TK.

And I did drop alcoholic drinks for my food chart; that doesn't mean I'm not going to drink them, just not regularly. Also well I still have mulled wine down for fall and winter, so it's going to be that and tart cherry soda for spring and summer sort of. Ish.

Ultimate food chart! Always tweaking...
Late spring food planner for the extremely detail-oriented.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Summer Chart Preview

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP
morning morning morning morning morning morning morning
HOME
Cleaning
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
HOME
Cooking
WORK
 
PLAY
TBD
SYSTEMS
Appts
WORK
 
SYSTEMS
Bills
WORK
 
SYSTEMS
Tasks
WORK
 
HOME
Clothing
afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon afternoon
PASTIME
Write
PLAY
practice
PLAY^^
 
PLAY
practice
PLAY^
scrimmage
PASTIME
Write
PASTIME
Write
evening evening evening evening evening evening evening
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP

New schedule! New color coding! Nevermind what the colors mean!

I must say, I am pretty stoked about this summer schedule.

Omggg, I have Sunday back. Sunday morning, I am going to clean for the love of god; then Sunday afternoon starting with appointments, whatever desk work I have to do—taking CEC quizzes, doing admin work, writing workouts for my clients. Then Sunday evening if I don't have other plans, write. Or make stuff.

Monday morning work, Monday afternoon work, Monday evening practice.

Tuesday morning cook; then Tuesday afternoon starting with bills, whatever desk work I have to do; then Tuesday evening train.

Wednesday morning work, Wednesday afternoon work, Wednesday evening practice.

Thursday morning cook; then Thursday afternoon starting with tasks, whatever desk work I have to do; then Thursday evening train and scrimmage.

Friday morning work, Friday afternoon work, Friday evening if I don't have other plans, write or make stuff.

Ahhh Saturday morning, what should I do with this juicy bit of free time?? An hour of myofascial release? An hour of lifting heavy? Then Saturday afternoon NEW! do something, anything about my clothes for the love of god, then Saturday evening if I don't have plans write or make stuff.

I love this schedule so much. Be my schedule forever.

Though you can see, there's not much time for writing. Basically just Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, if I don't have other plans. And I do plan to have plans more often than not, I feel overdue for a summer of fun.