Friday, September 30, 2016

September Review

September has been survival mode, or give myself a break mode, or basically trying to put into practice what I said last month: get better at 1) counting things that are being added to my plate, 2) taking other things off my plate to keep my plate total at a manageable level, 3) putting the plate down, 4) giving my brain a little extra quiet time to process it all.
E.g., You know what I thought would be fun, an axe-throwing party for MJ's birthday in October. So I floated a balloon to my usual suspects about that. It's eight minimum; if you have less than eight, you still get charged for eight. I got six bites. I mean, probably I could get two more and should just put down the deposit. And then I thought: with the 7,000 things that you have on your plate for work, I know it just seems like two little things about an axe-throwing party that you could nudge in on the edge of the plate. But, this is what you do! This is how you end up not being able to get out of bed because you can't face picking up that heavy-ass plate. Or dropping the plate and der schweetums finds you sobbing and terrified surrounded by shards of plate, and has to be like sigh I'll get the broom. So, I put the kibosh on the axe-throwing party, some other time. Good job, Munt.
And besides that, frankly just excusing myself from doing much of anything besides watching a looot of Netflix. Well also, work and stuff.

September picks:
HOME: Make a better place
1. The house needs me again: pick a thing, anything.
I did a major thing for this, actually. First of all as previously reported in September Eats, we finally got a new (to us) refrigerator. Secondly I suddenly went hog wild and took the front room to the next level, like threw out things and moved things that I actually use to places where I can actually reach them:

A video posted by Pauline Pang (@allapoppy) on

Similarly if I'm doing plank rows and rotations on my mat in the OPEN SPACE in the front room and I think, I could do with a 3# weight for these, I can get right up and get that 3# weight right out of its cubby.
Out of four blocks for HOME this month: one for the refrigerator, one for the front room, one to actually go into work on a Saturday and catch up on my work project, and one to pay bills (which is normal, one Saturday morning per month to pay bills, because I need to be brighteyed and bushytailed for that.)

SYSTEMS: Sharpen the saw
2. Order new glasses!
I still have not ordered new glasses, SIGH. I did order new contacts, though. And, I pretty much used 4 of 5 blocks for sharpening the saw—i.e., self care—on self-care: one to order contacts, see Dr Reyes, and fill a prescription for clonazepam, one to start a new notebook:
A photo posted by Pauline Pang (@allapoppy) on

...one to research therapists (recommended by Dr Reyes), research Quicken, and then to throw caution to the wind and buy a new laptop, one to see my new therapist, Dr Wolowitz. And the fifth one to go into work on Thursday, which Dr Wolowitz says is sort of self care, because at the moment it's this work project that's causing me the most anxiety. So taking care of the work project is taking care of my anxiety, which is self-care. That sounds kind of like a sucker's proposition, but this work project is supposedly finished on October 14th and after that I get to take care of my actual self? We shall see, and in any case I have Dr Wolowitz to talk about it to.
So yeah, so far September is seeming pretty all right, pretty productive even...
PLAY: Study movement and muscles
3. Keep watching Functional Patterns videos.
I only used 1 of 4 blocks for PLAY, for that I watched a video about taping for knee fat pad impingment and read an article about pain, and also produced a little collateral for a mobility session that I'm donating to WCR's Legends Ball for their raffle. That's my tiny gesture toward getting more clients, or I should say another client since I'm pretty committed to only ever onboarding one new client at a time. Getting more clients is something I would think or do something about if I wasn't so tired and sad all the time. Which is something I will talk about with Dr Wolowitz.
The three other blocks, one I think I ignited on the front room (so, totally worth it), one I caught up the week's cooking that I didn't do on Sunday because I couldn't get out of bed, and one I'm using to catch up writing this review that I didn't do on Monday because I went over to the Aloha Palace to eat grilled meats for Box's birthday (also worth it, plus I got two cast-iron pans and a spider plant cutting!)
Have I mentioned my plants? I have plants living at home now:


PASTIME: Write alla Poppy
4. Keep editing and publishing recipes.
No editing and publishing recipes was done this month, well, I did write up my instructions for noodle jars, but I'm talking about that friggin goodeats collection that I so dearly want to put to bed and be done with. The noodle jars I wrote up on a Sunday afternoon, though. The four Monday blocks that I had this month for blogging, one of them MJ and I went on a walk to scout out The Squared Circle, which was part of an initiative to do more fun things together:

A photo posted by Pauline Pang (@allapoppy) on

There lies the axe party.
One of them I drew some charts:

A photo posted by Pauline Pang (@allapoppy) on

One of them I was laying on my face on the couch watching Law & Order SVU, and one of them I was eating the aforementioned grilled meats.
State of the Blog
I. DON'T. KNOW.
Going out
Not much here, we did end up going to The Squared Circle to watch UFC 203; that was fun. Actually the day after, the supper club went out to Duck Duck Goat. It was good, said the world's most limited restaurant reviewer. And Sarge and Loren got married this month, and Box's birthday was this month.
Staying in
So not gonna lie, there was a lot of junk Netflix watched this month for resting, working, and sleeping: the aforementioned SVU, Hawaii Five-0, Bones, and Person of Interest all have had new episodes on Netflix. This is me putting the plate down, if not giving my brain quiet time. Apart from this, der schweetums and I tried to watch Hail Caesar but lost interest. We loooved Jean-Claude Van Johnson, though. And we also watched and liked Your Inner Fish, Your Inner Reptile, and Your Inner Monkey. And Luke Cage just started, we like that.
October picks:
I mean, mainly I want to be on the other side of this work project...

HOME: Make a better place
1. Let's keep working on the house, it's so rewarding: pick a thing, anything.
SYSTEMS: Sharpen the saw
2. Ughhh nevermind new glasses, let's try this pick anything strategy.
PLAY: Study movement and muscles
3. Keep watching Functional Patterns videos.
PASTIME: Write alla Poppy
4. Keep editing and publishing recipes.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

List #27: List The Things That Make You Feel Healthy: Mind, Body, and Soul

Truth be told I'm backdating this list to get it into third quarter. It's been a rough quarter, but these things help:

  1. Cooking weekly and cleaning at least biweekly.
  2. Scheduling appointments weekly.
  3. Recording bills weekly, paying bills monthly, reviewing budget quarterly, and prepping taxes annually.
  4. Sleeping 8–9 undelayed, uninterrupted hours nightly.
  5. Brushing teeth, washing face, and bideting twice daily, showering every other day, shampooing twice weekly, and bathing weekly.
  6. Drinking 16 oz water upon waking and with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  7. Drinking butter coffee with collagen upon waking four times weekly.
  8. Drinking black coffee with breakfast.
  9. Drinking green tea daily.
  10. Drinking tart cherry juice nightly.
  11. Eating eggs and fruit for breakfast, chicken, veg, and starch for lunch, yogurt for afternoon treat, meat and veg for dinner, and nuts for evening snack.
  12. Walking three times daily.
  13. Standing at least fifteen minutes morning and afternoon.
  14. Doing yoga four times weekly.
  15. Running three times weekly.
  16. Stretching nightly.
  17. Meditating daily.
  18. Going to therapy twice monthly.
  19. Staying in by myself weekly.
  20. Staying in with der schweetums weekly.
  21. Going out with friends at least twice monthly.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Noodle Jars

noodle jars

The thing I didn't get about these Pinterest noodle jars was the just add hot water part. Just hot water?? Surely not. Why not miso, obviously. Of course miso comes with its own handling instructions, I don't think you can just add water to the jar and stir: the miso will clump, and is that going to be hot enough to heat up the noodles and stuff out of the fridge? And you don't want to heat miso in the microwave, all the good little probiotics will be killed :(

miso
a package of saifun noodles, mine come with three noodle bundles per package
a 4 oz box of shiitake mushrooms
one recipe Korean ground beef
a 5 oz bag of baby spinach

Put two tablespoons of miso each in the bottom of three mason jars.

Soak the saifun noodles in hot water for twenty minutes or so. While you're waiting, stem and slice the shiitakes. And make the Korean ground beef. Or you know, whatever. Rotisserie chicken also works. Drain the noodles and put one bundle into each jar.

Top the noodles with a generous scoop of Korean ground beef, a third of the sliced shiitakes, and a third of the baby spinach. I mean, that is really stuffing the jar with spinach. As you know, I just don't like having half a bag of baby spinach hanging out in the refrigerator. Causing trouble. Being a bad example to the other vegetables. Do what you want.

To prepare a noodle bowl: dump the noodles and stuff into a bowl and reheat them for a couple minutes in the microwave.

The miso stays in the bottom of the jar (or if it doesn't, I put it back.) We have a hot water dispenser at work, I whisk a little hot water into the miso like you do with miso and really the jar is ideal for this as it doesn't splash. Then I add more hot water and the jar is also ideal for this, as it has measurements marked on the side. I add enough hot water to make about two cups of broth. Then I pour the broth over the noodles and stuff and let it sit for a minute until the spinach is wilted.

So like, I'm not eating my noodles out of the jar. The jar does have its uses, but I'm fine with eating out of a bowl.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

September Eats

FIRST OF ALL, we got a new refrigerator. Which I named William. Which I had to explain to der schweetums. We're very happy to have him.

yayy i bought william a lil bling to welcome him to the team 😊

A photo posted by Pauline Pang (@allapoppy) on

Are those bins perfect or what? They fit so perfectly! They are my F&V bins for, from left to right, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack. So that's a fruit or vegetable for every meal.

I'm still feeling overwhelmed so keeping September eats very easy. Breakfast is still hard-boiled eggs with fruit, but you can really fancy up fruit with a little dusting of spices. I just read a restaurant review where melon was dabbed with, wait for it, FISH SAUCE. I have fish sauce. I will try and tell you how it is.

[ETA: Meh.]

For lunches I got a big helping hand from my friend rotisserie chicken, not even heated. This is my lunch bowl for gym days, cold chicken, rice, kimchee, and avocado, couldn't be easier:

Somehow starch got moved from lunch to dinner, which is fine. For work days I've been playing around with those mason jar noodles. I couldn't see how just adding hot water to noodles and vegetables would be at all good, I added miso immediately. The jar is literally two tablespoons of miso, bundle of soaked and drained saifun noodles, some shredded rotisserie chicken, some leftover cooked kale that I needed to use up, and some sliced shiitake mushrooms.

I'm not a huge fan of eating out of a mason jar, I did try it and it was fine for home but for work I don't want to be slurping out of a jar. I do think where the mason jar will shine is as a mixing and measuring jar for the miso broth. But, not if the jar is cracked.

Der schweetums has been shoring up dinners, which would normally be red meat, but did you know, he doesn't like to eat (or cook) meat. So he makes me tofu, I get this like twice a week, on gym days I just bring a bottle of tart cherry coconut water with me, and then the other days we eat tacos or other fun stuff.

On gym days after training, I get chocolate chia pudding with strawberries as a treat. The pudding alone is a little bitter; but in combination with the berries and a bit of goatskal or cream, it is uh-mazing.