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thatvixenchick · 5 years ago

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AUgust Day 7 - Childhood Friends

Damen/Laurent from Captive Prince requested by MadKatter

Modern day. Damen and Laurent grew up together. They played a lot of games, things their parents didn’t pay much attention to unless Damen ran up crying about how unfair the rules were. Laurent was a bit precocious. His favorite game was “you’re my slave” which involved Damen cleaning Laurent’s room and giving up his portion of apple slices during snack time. Damen was not a fan of the game.

Still, as much as Damen complained, he never left Laurent’s side. Damen was always a head taller than other kids while Laurent was a head shorter. Laurent was smarter than all of them, but sometimes he needed Damen’s brute force to prevent other children from picking on him. Damen provided this readily, even when Laurent told him not to worry about it.

The day came where they would be split up. They were headed to different middle schools. So that summer during a playdate, Laurent attached a collar to Damen. In reality, it was a thin gold chain for a necklace that had lost its pendant. Laurent had found it in his grandmother’s shag carpet the year prior and kept it. Now, he used it as a visual representation that Damen was still his slave no matter how much distance was between them. For the first time, Damen didn’t argue or run off crying, he simply allowed Laurent to do it.

They saw little of each other over those three years, always busy with school and family activities. Laurent was forced to attend a football game once and thought Damen might have been on the opposing team, but he wasn’t certain. They texted occasionally, but the conversation was short and stilted. Laurent pretended that the distance growing between them didn’t affect him.

High school reunited them. However, since Laurent was in honor and AP courses, he didn’t see much of Damen until three weeks in. They ran into each other in the hallways on the way back from lunch. Laurent’s eyes were drawn immediately to the thin, gold chain around Damen’s neck. It looked smaller now in comparison to Damen’s larger body, resembling a choker — resembling a collar.

When Laurent’s eyes finally lifted to Damen’s face, it was to see a smirk on those full lips. Damen offered a small bow without saying a word before walking off.

From then on, their dynamic changed. If Laurent was in need of anything, Damen would do so. Damen carried heavy books, built sets for the theater group, tracked down elusive students for yearbook photos, and made sure every single jock in the school voted for Laurent when he ran for Student Body President. Other than ordering Damen around, the two barely spent much time together and never socialized like friends. This made their interactions baffling to others, though most proclaimed Damen to be “too nice” and Laurent to be “too cold.”

The sympathy vote earned Damen the rights to Homecoming king nearly every year because of Laurent. Damen wasn’t complaining. He had no end to women lining up to date him. In contrast, Laurent was never known to have had a relationship with anyone during high school.

They graduated. Their parents took a picture of them in their black gowns and hats side by side, the gold of Damen’s necklace glinting in the light. Laurent offered to take the collar back now that the rest of their lives was on the horizon. It was too short, after all, digging into Damen’s skin every time he moved. So, with a smile, Damen unhooked the delicate necklace before latching it around Laurent’s thin, pale neck.

��I am still your slave, but this way, you are also mine.”

Laurent couldn’t explain why his heart squeezed the way it did.

It was two years later when Damen, on a football scholarship, was playing against Laurent’s college team. Laurent hadn’t gone to the game, but a sweaty, grinning Damen knocked on his dorm room somehow all the same. They barely said anything, standing in the small room alone together, but Damen’s eyes laid heavily on the gold chain around Laurent’s neck. Then, Damen went down to one knee, took Laurent’s hand, and pressed a kiss to the back of it. Laurent stopped breathing.

Damen couldn’t stay long. He left to return to his team soon after that, but something fundamental had changed between them. Laurent found himself more willing to call on Damen for help like he once had, and Damen would always find the time. Except, now, Damen would ask things of Laurent, and, as if the gold chain he wore controlled him, he found himself obeying. It started small, with “sit by me” to watch a movie or “don’t run” when Damen left a kiss on Laurent’s cheek. It escalated when Damen said, “A kiss goodbye?” It could have been any small peck, but that wasn’t what Laurent gave.

Damen graduated after four years, taking an offer to sign on to a professional football team. Laurent continued his education, aiming for a doctorate. Damen flew in to see Laurent regularly, as his hefty paycheck could afford it. Laurent had his own apartment, so such overnight stays bothered no roommates or dorm rules. Damen would take Laurent out for dinner at high end restaurants, buy little gifts, and use the power of Laurent’s collar to make sure Laurent didn’t refuse such things.

Despite everything, a kiss was as far as they got.

It was a year later before Laurent finally questioned that. He said that if Damen asked for it, Laurent would obey. Damen ran his finger along the gold chain, calloused pad across soft skin. He said, “This is the one thing you must give of your own accord. I’ll wait. I always have.”

Aggressively, Laurent dated a few people over the next two years, hooking up with men he had no interest in at gay bars. The sex was fine, he supposed. They had more in common, perhaps. They wouldn’t be sacrificing something important just to be with him — a preference for women, a budding career in a machismo world, the opportunity for a partner that could love without reservation.

During Laurent’s final year in school, he made it known that he wanted to travel overseas. He’d work with great minds — but somewhere else. Somewhere that American football couldn’t follow. Damen had visited after hearing about this decision from his parents. He told Laurent that he’d visit, no matter how far Laurent ran. He’d follow, but he wouldn’t push.

“And if I order you to stay away?” Laurent asked.

“Then I’ll wait.”

That was the night they finally became intimate. Laurent took and took. He wanted the memories, this one night, so it would satisfy him when he later looked on how happy Damen would be without Laurent in the country. Except, in the morning, there was a gold ring on his finger, a subtle etching down the center of a fine chain. Laurent’s hand flew to his throat, but the necklace was gone.

He scrambled from bed to find Damen cooking them breakfast, nude but for his boxers and a thin, gold chain wrapped twice around his wrist. He smiled at Laurent in a way that shattered whatever argument had been building. It occurred to Laurent that perhaps all of his reasons for leaving were based entirely out of fear.

“If we break up, you’ll leave. I’ll never see you again.”

Damen wrapped himself around Laurent. “I belong to you, and you belong to me. Forever. It’s that simple.”

When they married, it made the papers, thanks to Damen being such a name in his industry. The magazine cover had him in full gear, paint on his cheeks, a football between his big hands, a gold chain wrapped around his wrist. Laurent was draped against the massive form in a perfectly cut suit, chin tilted up and eyes hard as if there was no one in the world that could match his wit and power.

The wedding was beautiful, and people mimicked the style for years to come. But it was the wedding night that Laurent would cherish the most. Forever.

#au gust #captive prince #plot bunny #all plot bunnies are up for adoption

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morfinwen · 4 years ago

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5 - 10 for two ocs of your choice :)

Not that it won’t be immediately obvious, but i picked Elise and Julie Wilson.

5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)

Elise has always been a fairly tidy person, but becoming an ER nurse has put that up to eleven. When she finishes eating something, any paper or plastic goes in the trash or recycling, and any plates or silverware get rinsed off and put in the dishwasher or at least next to the sink. Once she’s done with a book or movie, it goes back in its case (if it has one) and back on the shelf in whatever order she’s set it up in (occasionally alphabetical, but not always). Dirty clothes go in the hamper, clean clothes get folded and put in the dresser or hung up as soon as they’re out of the dryer. The bed is always made, with hospital corners. At least once a week, floors get swept and mopped, carpets get vacuumed, rugs get beaten outside, dust is wiped off, surfaces are wiped down with disinfectant, and windows get washed, more often if it gets used more often.

She treats her workstation exactly the same, just with more disinfectant and plastic gloves.

Her personal hygiene is quick but thorough: on days she works, a quick shower, brushes her teeth twice a day and flosses once, and combs her hair. On her days off she puts a bit more time into it: a longer shower or perhaps a relaxing bath, and brushes her teeth after every meal and uses mouthwash.

---

Julie’s pretty tidy, even compared to her aunt. Trash gets thrown out quickly, dirty clothes go in the hamper, and if a thing has a place it’s supposed to be, she’s not going to be comfortable leaving it on a table or chair for very long. If she didn’t live with Elise, she wouldn’t clean until things got visibly dirty, but she wouldn’t leave them dirty for long, either. Her bed doesn’t get made as such, but she’ll pull the blanket up to the pillow, so that the sheet is all covered.

She showers every other day, brushes her teeth regularly, washes her face every night, and takes good care of her hair and skin. She sometimes teases Elise about it, that of the two of them it’s not the nurse who has the “better” personal hygiene.

6. Eating habits and sample daily menu

Good eating habits are an important part of overall health, and provide energy to get through the day. Elise has alarms set on her phone to remind her about eating, and if she doesn’t have time to stop for a meal, she’ll eat an energy bar or some other substitute.

Breakfast is usually coffee, eggs (scrambled or sunny-side up) and toast, and fruit -- apple, banana, or orange. Occasionally vanilla yogurt with granola in place of the eggs and toast, if she’s in a rush.

Lunch is almost always a sandwich -- ham or turkey and cheddar, mayo, pickles, and a leaf or two of lettuce -- and a cup of soup or a salad, depending on how cold it is. She goes for more variety in her soups and salads, even with types she doesn’t like but have nutrient-rich ingredients. Tea to drink if she can get it, or water if she can’t.

If she doesn’t work, dinner is something hot from her well-worn cookbook at home, with a glass of wine and a light salad. If she’s at work, she’ll bring something from home -- usually a serving of a casserole or other storable dish that she cooked in bulk. Juice, or maybe a sports drink if she thinks she needs the electrolytes.

---

Jack was a big believer in eating at the same times every day, and he kept to that schedule even after he got sick. Julie doesn’t value that schedule as much as her dad did, but she’s used to it.

Breakfast is cereal, or oatmeal (instant or microwaveable) with fruit and/or cinnamon in colder weather, with coffee. Sometimes she’ll have a banana.

She ate lunch at the university cafeteria when she was at school. Otherwise, it’s either reheated leftovers or a sandwich.

Since she has a light lunch, she’ll often have a snack in the mid-afternoon: carrot sticks, celery with peanut butter, chips, granola bar, it all depends on what’s available and what she feels like having.

Dinner is whatever Elise has made, whether she’s cooked it that evening or left some in the fridge. If for some reason there isn’t anything, or Julie just really doesn’t like whatever there is, she’ll make some mac’n cheese, chicken nuggets, instant rice, soup, or some combination. When she was a kid, her dad would let her have two cookies or a small bowl of ice cream after dinner if she’d been good that day, and so she’ll usually have something like that for dessert.

7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time

Elise is not a fan of wasting time. Time is not meant to be wasted.

If she’s too tired to concentrate but not tired enough to go to bed, she might watch some light TV program she wouldn’t normally (a cooking or home renovation show, for example) to kill time. That’s not something she’s happy to have done, though.

---

Julie would never say wasting time is a good thing, but there are worse things in the world.

She can sink hours into watching Youtube videos on weird facts or events, or one of those channels that shares real-world spooky occurrences or unexplained scenarios.

8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging

Elise finds nothing wrong with indulging yourself, so long as it is either small or infrequent. In fact it’s healthy, to some extent: life is meant to be enjoyed. Obviously some indulgences are better than others, and some things should never be indulged, but broadly speaking it’s not something you should feel guilty about doing.

Her favorite indulgences are bringing a piece of pecan pie to work to have with her dinner, or a dark chocolate bar from a vending machine. Only once or twice a month.

---

In theory, Julie considers it acceptable. In practice, she doesn’t do it much. Maybe an expensive coffee before school on occasion, in the winter.

9. Makeup?

Elise put in a lot of effort into it when she was younger, but she puts on very little now. Usually she only wears it if she’s had a long day, because no one wants to walk into the ER and see a nurse who looks like she’s about to fall over (maybe it’s sexist, but Elise isn’t in the emergency room to fight sexism, she’s there to keep people alive and as comfortable as possible), but unless she’s going somewhere fancy she doesn’t bother with anything more than foundation. She knows a lot about it, though, so if you need any tips, she’ll be happy to help you out.

---

Unless she’s running too late to bother, Julie will wear some very lightly -- foundation, a bit of blush, maybe a little lipstick or lip gloss if she’s feeling fancy. On formal occasions, she’ll break out the mascara, eyeliner, and eye shadow.

10. Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such?

I don’t think Elise has any. She would have a hard time recognizing if she did, unless they got really serious.

---

Since her dad’s death, Julie’s been somewhat depressed (probably not clinical, but i’m no expert), and struggling to move forward. She’s got some lingering anxiety and stress from her time in high school, with her dad being sick and pushing to finish early. She recognizes the depression, but not so much the anxiety and stress, since those have been around since adolescence and she’s gotten used to them.

Thanks for asking!

#ask #answer #OCs #elise wilson #julie wilson #ioannemos

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lovemesomesurveys · 4 years ago

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How often do you…

check social media? I check it throughout the day, daily.

sleep in past noon? Everyday. Somedays I don’t get up until like 430PM, which is almost evening. :X

do your makeup? Never anymore. It’s been a few years.

straighten or curl your hair? Never.

brush or comb your hair? Every other day.

take meds? 4-5 times a day.

weigh yourself? It’s been a few years.

use the toilet? [just estimate] Like 5-6 times.

drink water? Various times during the day.

put on deodorant? Once a day.

change your clothes? 1-2 times a day.

eat breakfast? Very, very rarely. I like breakfast foods, though, which if I have any it’s usually for a late lunch or dinner instead.

work? I don’t.

go to school? I don’t, I’m done with school.

take vitamins? Gah, I’m supposed to be taking iron, B12, and vitamin D daily, but I haven’t been. It’s been awhile. :X

play phone games? I haven’t played any in like a year.

watch YouTube videos? I watch several a day.

log onto Bzoink? Never.

check your email? At least once a day, sometimes more.

drink soda? I don’t drink it anymore except for the little bit I have to take my medicine with.

drink tea? [either iced or hot] Very rarely.

drink juice? Never. I don’t like any kind of juice.

drink energy drinks? I drink a Starbucks Doubleshot energy drink almost everyday. :X

eat frozen meals? Not too often anymore. I used to.

eat nicer restaurant food? We get takeout a few times a week.

cook? I cook ramen every night.

bake? Never.

go on walks? Never.

read? I do a lot of reading.

write in a journal? Currently, six days a week for the Bible study I’m doing.

post on social media? Not very often. I go on and check out what other people are posting and “like” stuff. Occasionally, I’ll share stuff, but I don’t post very often myself with the exception of Twitter. eat snacks? I’m not a snacker anymore. I used to be.

exercise? Never.

do laundry? I personally never do it, my mom helps me with that. It would be hard for me to do.

do dishes? I rinse off whatever I use, but I don’t actually do the dishes or load the dishwasher. My mom or dad takes care of all that.

make your bed? It stays made cause I sit and sleep on top of the tucked in sheets. I have a throw blanket I keep to the side and use if needed.

shower? Every other day.

floss? I’m not good about that.

brush your teeth? At least once a day.

wash your bedsheets? Every couple weeks.

watch TV shows? Daily. My TV is on a lot for just background noise, but I do have shows I watch.

watch movies? It really just varies.

play video games? I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons regularly the past few months.

pray? Not often enough.

see your parents? I live with them, so I see them all the time.

see your grandparents? My maternal grandparents sadly passed away over a decade ago. It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen my paternal grandparents. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to visit them. It’s hard because they live out of state. They used to travel here every summer in their RV and stay a few months, but they’re no longer able to do that because of health reasons.

see your significant other? I’m single.

see your friends? I don’t have any friends.

see your siblings? I see my younger brother all the time, we live together. It’s been a few months since I’ve seen my older brother.

see your aunts/uncles/cousins? I last saw one of my aunts and cousins back in February. I haven’t seen any others in awhile.

go to movie theatres/drive-ins? I haven’t been to the movies since February either. Everything went to shit and shutdown in March and we’ve been going through it ever since.

go grocery shopping? I don’t, but my mom does twice a month for our big grocery shopping trips. She makes quick trips to the store in between then for a few things.

use ridesharing services like Lyft/Uber? The first time I used Uber was during my Disneyland trip back in, you guessed it, February. We ended up using it several times during that trip. I haven’t used it since.

use a food delivery service like Instacart, Postmates, Grubhub, etc? Never.

go to doctor’s appointments? Once a month now. I used to have two doctor appointments a month, but since covid happened I haven’t been going to one of them. I only go the one I go to because it’s the only way I can get my pain medicine.

go on vacation? At least once a year, sometimes more. Only once this year, though. I can’t believe my family and I had our big Disneyland trip this year, it feels like forever ago now. Who knows when we’ll have another vacation. :(

do outdoorsy stuff like camping or hiking or bicycling? Never.

take lessons like dance, voice, an instrument, or a language? I I’m not taking any.

play sports? Never.

write anything like stories, poetry, or songs? Never. I used to when I was a teenager.

listen to, watch, or read the news? I’ll check the news a few times a day on my news app and I see stuff shared online. I’ll catch some on TV sometimes.

eat sweets? I have a Hostess coffee cake everyday with my coffee. For the past month or so I’ve been having a lot of cheesecake as well.

eat junk food? I eat fast food, takeout, and ramen all the time.

eat veggies? Not very often. :x I have spinach sometimes with my scrambled eggs.

eat fruits? It’s been a really long time since I’ve had any fruit. :X

eat meat? Just about everyday, usually chicken tenders or boneless chicken wings. Meatballs sometimes.

consume dairy products like milk, cheese, or yogurt? I have cheese everyday cause I like to have shredded cheese with my ramen, which I eat every night. If I have scrambled eggs I’ll add shredded cheese to that as well.

go on dates? It’s been a few years now since my last date.

wear costumes or do cosplay? I used to dress up every Halloween, but I stopped a few years ago.

speak another language besides English? I practice my Spanish sometimes. More so lately cause my mom has been learning Spanish with the Duolingo app and I’ve been helping her and brushing up on it in the process.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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opepin · 7 years ago

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nov: week two

13: 5/6 pto day~ it was pretty gloomy outside so i felt a bit gloomy on the inside. kevin went to work and i woke up before he left. i ate another cinnamon raisin english muffin for bfast and then i hopped on my computer to update my tumblr. until i get my new gratitude journal, i am going to continue writing about my day, but i might change it up so that it’s bullet points again. we’ll see. i was pretty productive today. i finally decided on a gratitude journal to try it out and ordered it on amazon. then i chilled and watched some youtube videos and caught up on anime while eating lunch. after lunch, i digested a bit and then hit the gym. i thought i was going to spend it all in the yoga studio but i ended up needing to go to the fitness center so after glute activation exercises, i went across and did sumo squats and deadlifts. my legs felt so weak today. it could have been my form as well because my mind was scattered from going back and forth to the fitness center and yoga studio @_@; i managed to get through all the weighted exercises and then went back to the studio to do a burn out and hip dip exercises. i might have scared off someone in the studio, but i was in the zone so... ahha...

i came back, cooled off and stretched, and then showered and made myself a smoothie. i started prepping dinner and then kevin told me he left the office late so i just made dinner tonight. i made our spicy kale coconut fried rice and it came out pretty good (: i’m so happy with the outcome haha. kevin was also real happy to come home to a hot meal. it was nice. before cooking, i spent some time looking for my chocolate molds. they disappeared somewhere. i don’t know where they are :( i looked in all the small places as well as the storage room and no dice. kevin even looked with me after we ate :( sigh. i’m sad but i hope it will turn up somewhere. we asked the front to check our old apartment to see if we forgot it. i mean, it is transparent right? kevin went for a run after helping me look and i just continued looking until it was time to sleep. i was really bummed so i slept early. lol.

14: i got up at 7:45 am and then did my 30 minutes of stretching. it was nice and quiet in the morning and i felt like doing something but not cardio or anything of the sort. then i changed and made my smoothie for breakfast, said goodbye to kevin, and left for work. only john and haowei were in the office today. cole was waiting for a furniture delivery so he wasn’t in. mmm the moment i got on the train, i felt really sleepy. when i got into the office, i felt pretty kjsfnbkjsdf. i don’t know if it’s the heating, lack of people, etc. but i wanted to go home asap. there wasn’t much for me to do in the morning so i did some testing. then at around 11:50 pm, i ate my lunch and then packed up and headed to a chinatown market to get a carrot for our slaw tonight. i waited 10+ minutes to buy one carrot for 46 cents because the people in front of me chose to buy soy sauce that wasn’t entered into the system yet -____<” i mean it’s not their fault but the two other lines started moving faster after i was boxed into this line...

i got out and then rushed over to south station to get on my train. i waited 7 minutes for my train because it probably had left before i got to the station :( luckily, i got back at 1 pm and phil didn’t ping me about our meeting until i asked him if he was ready at 1:06 pm. we talked about next steps and upcoming sessions and then he went into a meeting and i continued to work while watching an episode of ‘jane the virgin.’ i got my blender bottle in the mail today! i washed the dishes as soon as i could so i could use it after my workout today. i also got kevin a ‘pre xmas’ gift! i saw that there was a christmas caroling and hot chocolate boat cruise so i got tickets for us because last year, he went on a team outing instead of the jazz cruise i booked for us (i took hillary instead because it made sense and we had funn!). so i thought it would be nice if he actually went this time~ hehe. kevin went climbing so after work, i cut up the carrot and cabbage and let it wilt with salt for about an hour while working out. i felt like doing a few cardio hip hop routines, standing abs, abs on a mat, and then ending everything with hip dip / bodyweight butt exercises. it was a good and fun workout. i finished seasoning the slaw after my workout and used my blender bottle to mix my protein with cashew milk. lol, the lid wasn’t locked in properly so i spilled a bit of my expensive af protein on the rice cooker and counter T___T on the bright side, everything was blended perfectly! tomorrow, i’ll try putting in some honey to see if it will mix well or not.

as i finished up with the slaw, kevin came back. we showered and then toasted burger buns, heated up the leftover pulled chicken, and ate small burgers for dinner. we were still hungry and i got an idea to make “curry buns.” i flattened out one burger bun, put leftover curry inside, sandwiched the curry inside and sealed the bread by pinching the outsides, and then pan fried it in butter. well, i did the stuffing and kevin did the pan frying. if we heated up the curry before pan frying it, i think it would have tasted better but it was fun cooking on the spot with kevin :3 <3 we split one and then i had a bite of kevin’s guava strudel while we watched the latest foodwishes video. we want to make his new soup video as well as his hasselback turkey breast video when we come back from thanksgiving. we cleaned up a little and then beat battleblock theater! omg the last few levels are so hard lmao. the ending was trololol but i think there will be a sequel. it was challenging and fun playing with kevin. :) we half-planned what to get our families for christmas (gift baskets for each of us visiting our families from harry and david).

then he gamed and i got ready for bed. this night, i was on my phone later than usual because i was chatting with daniel about working out with him when i get back, michelle about daylight savings dahkness, and chewy about us missing each other and i want to see her and i want to visit her so badly but ticket prices are so expensive from coast to coast T__T and then i did the thing where i stayed up on my phone doing nothing productive. if i got a new phone, i think i would spend more time on it, which is bad. lol. my oneplus one is my longest tech relationship with a screen (lol): 3 years and still going strong (well, my phone’s body is chipping).

15: i’ve been working out when i actually feel like it so i didn’t work out this morning and slept in :) i’m getting back to 7 hours of sleep now (more than once or twice a week)! kevin headed out for work and then i made my breakfast smoothie and started work. i’ve been craving warmer foods because it is colder now but my protein won’t taste as good if i put it in oatmeal or something. hmm, maybe i could just blend milk and protein and then eat an english muffin with pb and bananas on it. it’s a bigger breakfast but if it’s hot, i don’t think i would mind at all :) work has been chill this week because it is nearing thanksgiving and things are winding down for now. this day is a bit of a blur for me. i’m not sure what i did. i stayed at my computer for the most part until kevin got back home. i did talk to phil for a bit and then signed off and hurried to get the chicken thighs into the slow cooker. i didn’t realize it would take 4 hours for the slow cooker recipe. so i chopped up onions and garlic, put in the sauces and spices, and turned on the slow cooker. kevin got back early-ish but it he was in a heated argument with jon about sentencing. -___- this debate went on even after i went to sleep...

i snacked on edamame while kevin angrily typed away at his keyboard and waited for him to go to the gym with me. i knew it would take him more time to stop so i just left and did arms and back. i lifted mostly with 8s and 10s and took it slower this session. my arms are pretty flimsy and i still think my form is a bit off. i’m gonna check with daniel when i come back to chicago. after my workout, kevin was still debating. so i forced him to stop and go run and then i showered and added cornstarch to the thighs before it was done cooking 30 minutes later. i was pretty hungry by the time we ate. while kevin showered and cooked celery, i watched the beginning of season 5 of ‘mind of chef’ featuring ludo. lol kevin could see how excited i was and i kept gushing. i have 2-3 favorite chefs: david chang, ludo lefebvre, and christina tosi. i go nuts when i watch documentaries about them. lol. i now want to go to LA just to try all of ludo’s restaurants. instead of opening a big fancy restaurant, he went for a bit grungier strip malls in LA, which is fascinating. lol ok i’ll stop fangirling. we managed to get in a few games of helldivers before i rq’d and went to sleep because kevin would not stop debating with jon. i slept pretty late at 1 am (my phone dammit). i wrote in my gratitude journal that i just got as well. i want to think more positively. i think after this week, i’m going to stop updating my tumblr for a bit and just write in my gratitude journal.

16: i got up to go to work but after eating breakfast and changing my outfit twice, i really didn’t feel like going. so i changed back into my sleep clothes and worked from home. when it rains and looks gloomy and i’m not sure if my team is in the office, it makes me want to stay home. kevin got out of bed a bit later than usual so he went to work straight away. then i did a bit of work and phil pinged me with a new thing to do so i hopped on that. i worked on that until lunch time. then i ate lunch while watching youtube videos and downloading videos and movies to watch on my flight tuesday morning to chicagooo. after lunch, i anxiously waited for the eggie season ii drop. when it happened, i got a password screen and then all the items slowly came loading in. tbh, i wasn’t impressed :( mindy and i looked at the same time and she said she kind wanted the blur tee and i kind of wanted the oo dang long sleeve but $7 shipping is not worth for two shirts that are a bit pricey. we decided to wait for the next drop and bundle the shirts later. yeah, i had really high expectations. the season is inspired by the 2000s fashion, which i’m not a huge fan of, so maybe that’s why?

after that anti-climatic moment, daniel talked me into trying to bypass the $20 guest pass fee for his gym by live chatting someone for a free pass on his gym’s website. what he didn’t tell me is that they would call me and ask more and try to sell me their membership... man, i can’t lie. i feel so bad about it. :( i’m not gonna pick up sigh. i feel guilty for lying. anyway, i hopped on stand up and finished with the assignment phil gave me. the stand up took longer than i expected but after, i took a break to do some internet errands and stretches while watching more mind of the chef ft. ludo <3 after work, i made rice and chicken thighs for dinner. kevin came home and he made some chinese broccoli. hm i think today, i was feeling pretty moody. i watched some anime probably and some youtube videos while walking around the apartment. kevin went ahead and gamed with the guys. i think it was a pretty typical evening for us. we watched more ludo <3 while eating dinner and i continued watching after. hehe. i love this season.

17: today, i had a stressful day because of work. i didn’t work out in the morning but i ate my breakfast and then asked phil some questions and at the end of the conversation, i felt overwhelmed with the amount of videos i had to remake because of our monthly releases... so right after our talk, i hit the yoga studio. i started out with kickboxing with weights and then into hiit and a bit of legs. i ended up working out for over an hour. then i went back, drank a protein smoothie, showered, and ate lunch. i tried starting on my massive pile of work by figuring out how to streamline this process so that this won’t happen again. i like doing video tutorials but not when i am told i have to redo all the ones i’ve done because of small navigational changes... so i googled, researched, thought, brainstormed, etc about ways i can make this process easier for me and maybe for someone else in the future. i did this for a while alone until i decided to ask winston, kevin, and vivian for their ideas. winston actually video chatted with me for a while and it was nice catching up with him even though no solid solution came up. vivian gave me her best answer, which was plausible but not in the long run. kevin came back home and gave me two interesting ideas, but in the end, i had it in my mind that i had to remake all of them. oh well. it was the end of a week, so i set my mind to rest.

kevin brought me back sliders from his friday happy hour and we ate that while playing pokemon ultra sun and moon! i could have not worked a bit more and started playing but i wanted to start with kevin. we played a bit and then kevin went out for a run and then for dinner, reheated some broth to make korean rice cake soup. we watched ‘mind of a chef’ until i realized, that ludo’s season was only half of the season’s episodes... i forgot that this is how it was laid out after david chang in season 1. so we started watching the ‘best of’ episodes while eating. we ate the rest of our pomelo for dessert. we gamed for the rest of the night happily. we obviously, stayed up and gamed lol.

18: oh yes, we woke up late and we played pokemon in bed until we got hungry. then we decided to be responsible and went to do a quick grocery run. we just got edamame and bananas from bj’s because that’s what i eat on a daily basis lol. we got some ingredients to make caldo verde with the leftover kale in our fridge as well. kevin got me a slice of chocolate cake and some dark chocolate because i’ve been craving it like crazy. i know it’s going to be my time of month when i have a craving for rich dense chocolate cake lol. we also picked up chocolate covered wavy lays chips -- it’s a no. i ate it all but i would not buy again. lol. i would suggest getting ferrero roche instead. well, we got back and kevin felt like going climbing. i think we put everything away and then played more pokemon for a bit and then kevin went out. i tidied up a bit and got myself in the mood for working out. i wasn’t sure what i was going to do but i went to the yoga studio anyway. there was a girl facetiming someone in there... i felt awkward but i just did my thang in the corner while she did that. i don’t think she meant to go into the yoga studio for just that purpose because i heard her saying that he was interrupting her workout session. she left like 10 minutes after i started working out lmao.

i did full body strength today because i won’t have access to weights for most of next week. it was a good workout! i got back, made myself a smoothie, cut the potatoes and onion, and then washed some dishes. kevin got back, we showered, and he got to cooking caldo verde. i was pretty munchy at this point so i kept picking off the sausages lol. the soup turned out delicious! i think we ended up playing pokemon for the rest of the night. well, at least i did. i think kevin stopped and played hots before going to sleep. zzz.

19: today will be the last post before my gratitude journal break. we were bums again :P we played pokemon in the morning and then i was getting cramps and feeling out of it. i think we kept gaming for a while... ryan asked us if we wanted to game with him and terence and we ended up playing gauntlet together. after that, i started cleaning to be productive. at some point, i think kevin went for a run and then i worked out as well. we showered and then kevin made us fried rice with leftovers for dinner. after dinner, we digested a bit and then... hmm, maybe we ate then digested and then worked out, showered, and then cleaned the kitchen. lol. i am updating this on the 21st (when i stayed up to catch my flight to chicago) so i’m a bit out of it and 3 days ago is a lot @_@; anyway, it ended up being a really productive night. we cleaned everything and i got to rest a bit with my cramping and stuff. i tried going to sleep a bit earlier than we’ve been going to sleep because i needed to check in for southwest and get up to see the gymshark sales as well as take a call from kristen. yup. it didn’t feel like tomorrow was going to be a start to a new week aka work. i loved the way we spent this weekend just chilling and enjoying each other’s company. :)

20/21: okay, so that’ll be it for a bit. yesterday and today has been crazy. we spent monday working. i actually came up with a great game plan for the videos currently and worked a bit longer than i expected to -- i was on a grind though! we gamed together after eating dinner and when we left, we thought we had everything down, but when i got to chicago, i realized we didn’t take out the garbage... so i hope i don’t see a million fruit flies when i come back T__T i’m a bit worried but we’ll see! anyway, i stayed up yesterday because kevin’s flight to china left at 1 am and i wanted to go to the airport with him even though my flight left at 5 am. so after he went through security, i headed back to my terminal, brushed my teeth, and found a place to charge my phone. i started watching ‘psycho pass’ and i did stay up for the entire aiport process. i ko’d when i got on the plane. now it’s 10 pm and i am getting a bit sleepy. not sure if i want to do 10-15 minutes of abs anymore and/or play pokemon. i’m kind of ready to sleep. well, talk to you later, tumblr! thanks for being there for me and helping me document my life from sophomore year of high school until a year / two years after college graduation. it’s been real. i’ll be back in some way! <3

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synnefo-nefeli · 6 years ago

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@winter-melone this is such a cute prompt!!

So in general I think Apollo is the type to grab fast or convinieng breakfasts. Like he’ll grab a protein bar or scarf down cereal or grab a smoothie if he can on the way to work. Lunch is usually the bigger meal for him and that’s something he packs the night before or is leftovers from dinner he’ll portion out as much as he can.

Big breakfasts are things reserved for the weekends mostly because he’ll want to take a nap after. So if brunch is in the cards- whether or not he’s meeting Klavier for it or He’s planned on making it- Apollo will get up earlier, have a small snack to hold him while he gets important things out of the way as much as possible because once big breakfast is over, he knows he’s useless for the rest of the day.

Klavier on the other hand is a health nut because he has to be- he gets fat easily (meanwhile, Apollo sits on the couch scarfing down a hamburgerwithout even thinking twice about it) so during the week he’s eating things like Paleo Pancakes (a mashed up banana and two eggs cooked together to make a “pancake” or overnight keto oats) and a protein post-work out smoothie to have after cardio yoga and his Body Pump class.

But on the weekends the poor man wants all the carbs, fats, and sugar so he’s hitting up waffle places, or looking for an amazing breakfast place with strong coffee.

Sometimes theyll hit a farmers market together and do a progressive brunch - Breakfast burritos here, splitting a rainbow bagel with honey butter there, cornflaked bakedfrench toast, and coffee...even though Klavier knows that no amount of caffeine is going to ward off the carb coma, he and Apollo will be in, in the back of the uber home

‪Wow having a break in my depression and feeling like I want to interact with fandom again. Anyone want to give me prompts (beach themed appreciated) for #narumitsu #wrightworth #klapollo or #aceattorney , final fantasy 15 headcanons?‬

#ace attorney #klapollo #apollo justice #klavier gavin #headcanon

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alorconsulting · 5 years ago

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It’s a big beautiful, evolving world and nothing thrills us more than being somewhere for the first time together. Why, oh why, can’t magic carpets or teleporters really exist? Delta, do you need a spokes-couple? No… just saying, have passport, will travel.

Seeing as we’re both pursuing artistic fields and as my Mom puts it “honey, I made you smart not rich” we often travel thrifty, very thrifty.

Five Tips to Save on Travel Meals

1. Pop Your Cork in Private

When you buy wine at a restaurant you’re paying a hefty markup of around 3 times what you pay in a wine store. If you figure your overpaying by at least $20 – $30 a bottle and you multiply that by each dinner on your trip… we’re talking about saving enough in one week to add another night to your trip.

What are you going to do, skip a romantic glass of red while you’re on vacation… not us! We just hold on to that moment till we’re back in the privacy and comfort of our room. Siri is surprisingly helpful when you ask “Siri, where is the nearest wine store?” I also recommend packing shatter proof wine glasses like these from DuraClear, just in case your room provides nothing but paper coffee cups.

Lake Inle Balcony in Burma

Beer By the Hammock in Costa Rica

Miami Balcony Apéritif

Bello Toasts Cartagena

Rooftop Apéritif in Cartagena Colombia

2. Breakfast in Bed

Coffee in Costa Rica Hotel Room

Before I leave home, I make sure our breakfasts are taken care of. Coffee in the room plus homemade granola, breakfast bars or cookies that I bring with us generally do the trick to get out the door fast and fed.

“What! Crapy hotel coffee” you say. Well no, we bring that with us too. An AeroPress Coffee Maker is made of lightweight yet sturdy stuff that’s perfect for travel. At about $29, this little investment saves you from my Italian in-laws call dirty sock water (aka typical American drip coffee makers).

3. Flip Lunch and Dinner Around

As a couple prioritizing travel, we learned early on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner out, left us feeling ill from all the fat, salt and hefty tabs. For our financial and physical health we only eat out at most, one meal a day while traveling.

Crab Roll at Little Bird

If like us, fast food is simply not an option, I’m guessing you too have looked at a bill and thought, “Wow what did we just eat/drink?”

When in a great food city, full of restaurants you want you’ve read about, try going out for lunch as your biggest meal of the day. Restaurants are less crowded and the menu options are just, well cheaper.

Our Portland trip proved this theory true time and time again with lunch at Little Bird being my favorite example. Award winning food for a fraction of the price is served at lunch with no wait or reservation.

After a full day of exploring and a big lunch, we’re usually tired enough that the idea of relaxing with small snacks and some wine back in our AirBNB for dinner, somehow seems perfectly romantic. Plus those balcony or rooftop apéritifs, classic.

4. Book AirBNB‘s With Kitchens

If you haven’t tried it yet, I encourage you to go for it. Staying in a place with even a few minimal cooking options, which an overwhelming number of AirBNB’s do have, you can save a bundle over a week.

Just think how much you can spend on breakfast, lunch and dinner out in one day $100 – $150 easy if you add any beer or wine to your bills. That’s a lot of groceries! I say, get to know the food scene like a local by visiting cheese shops, bakeries, wine shops and yes even the local Whole Foods.

Bainbridge Island Balcony View

Bainbridge Balcony Apéritif

Petaluma AirBNB in Room Dinner

Cape May Balcony Meal

5. Shuck it Yourself: Get Seafood to Go

Is it just us, or when you’re traveling does the indulgence of a good seafood meal call to you too? On really good fresh seafood restaurants, there is usually a really big markup. Craving Lobster, ask a dockside market if they will steam it for you. Chances are good, like in Martha’s Vineyard the answer is yes. They will steam, crack and even hand over your lobster, caught that day, with drawn butter. Then it’s just up to you to find that perfect rock on the beach and bring your bottle of wine with you.

If you ever find yourself in Wine Country in California and have enough time to swing into Tomales Bay, which I highly recommend, chances are you’re going to start thinking about oysters for lunch.

You COULD wait for an hour or two to score a table at the amazing Hog Island Oyster Company which really is always a great idea, totally worth it. But at $30 for a dozen oysters… plus, you know once you’re there, you really should try the famed BBQ Oysters ($13 for 4) plus 2 beers and your lunch just ran you over $60 after tip.

Again, totally worth it, but if you’re on a budget a better idea, get the same exact oysters for about $1 each at Hog Island to go counter. Skip the wait, grab your bag of bivalves and go to a bayside cliff all your own. You’ll get twice the oysters for half the price without the wait (or sunburn) and you get the added bonus of the fun of shucking them yourself in front of an amazing view. It’s what the locals do, I’ve seen the remnants of many burned out makeshift BBQ oyster pits beside slurped out shells all over the bay.

Lobster Al Fresco

Martha’s Vineyard Lobster Al Fresco Spot

Matha’s Vineyard Lobster Shack

Fishing Docks of Martha’s Vineyard

Hog Island Oyster Company in Tomales Bay

Tomales Bay Picnic Spot

There are plenty of other ways to save on travel but when it comes to meals, these are the five tricks that saved us the most. Cooking meals to save money on vacation is certainly not a new idea. I’m predicting between American’s growing interest in what goes into the food they eat and the rise in AirBNB’s the retro concept of cooking on vacation will make a comeback. I say Cheers to that!

5 Cheap Travel Tips: Saving on Meals It’s a big beautiful, evolving world and nothing thrills us more than being somewhere for the first time together.

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lauramalchowblog · 5 years ago

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Dear Mark: OMAD for Women, Low-Carb Glucose Testing, and Carb Limit When Fasting

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering three questions taken from last week’s post on the power of pairing low-carb with fasting. First, do I have any advice for a woman who’s struggling to see results eating one meal a day? Second, how does low-carb interact with the different types of glucose tests you can take? And third, what are my thoughts on carb limits when fasting? Is lower always better? Is there a carb threshold after which fasting stops working so well?

Let’s go:

I have been dappling in low carb for nearly year and in the last 2-3 months I have been playing around with OMAD. My question is, I eat ’till I’m full ,which is about 12-18 grams of carbs, never over 100g protein and around 100g fat, sitting at 1000-1400 calories—but I’m not losing weight. Over 3 months I’ve lost about 6kg and I have about 30kg to lose. Do I keep going? I’m enjoying it but I get frustrated about the lack of weight loss (I’ve lost a dress size).

The majority of women don’t do well on one meal a day. Consider the average office worker struggling to lose weight. They do coffee for breakfast and maybe have a salad with no meat (and few calories) for lunch, struggle mightily not to eat five stale donuts at 3p.m. in the break room, only to cave at night and eat a sack of potato chips and take out while streaming some show.

My point is not that these people would do better if only they ate a solid meal for dinner rather than chips and snacks and Netflix. Nor is it that this problem only afflicts women and never men. Plenty of men do it, too, and have bad results. But it shows more quickly in women, who by nature of their reproductive physiology are simply more vulnerable to nutritional insults than men—on average. I explain the reasons this happens in this post on fasting for women. Long story short, because reproduction is far more costly and demanding on a woman’s body than a man’s (conception, pregnancy, nursing); woman are more finely attuned to caloric restriction and fasting. My point is that fasting for most of the day, every day, doesn’t work well for most women—it becomes a constant stressor, driving unhealthy cravings to which you eventually succumb.

It sounds like OMAD might not be working for you. Just one dress size (which is a better barometer than weight) in 3 months? Yeah, it might be time to try something else.

Was low carb with more frequent meals working?

I’ve seen a lot of men burn out on OMAD, too. Throw in some sleep disturbances, a heavy training schedule, work-related stress, cooking for the family, bills, and whatever other stressors modern life throws our way, and OMAD can be counterproductive.

For one thing, your calorie intake is way too low. One thousand calories is way too low; 1400 calories is really pushing it. Perpetually starving yourself for 22 hours a day and then trying to cram a big meal in that doesn’t even provide enough calories or nutrients just doesn’t work for most people. I can imagine your leptin is low, your caloric expenditure dampened, your thyroid function inhibited.

Here’s what you might try.

Do OMAD with 1000-1400 calories once a week. Twice max. Eat normal—two to three meals—the rest of the days. This way you pulse your fasting and OMAD’ing. You eat normal amounts of calories for five days a week and then drop them down low twice a week, giving your body a message of relative abundance punctuated with short bouts of scarcity.

I think that’ll work better for you. Write back with your results.

If you are low carb and need to do a glucose blood test and an A1C test: What is the best fasting times then? Just the night before or for 24 hours?

If you fast longer, shouldn’t the glucose reading be lower?

It really depends on what kind of test you take.

If you’re doing a fasting blood glucose test, fasting will probably lower it.

If you’re doing a postprandial blood glucose test, fasting will probably raise it. You’re asking your body to suddenly go from burning fat to processing 75 grams of pure glucose. The fat-based metabolism triggers transient insulin resistance, which inhibits your ability to process the glucose efficiently. Your postprandial reading will thus be higher than is “real.”

If you’re doing an HbA1c test, fasting won’t affect it. HbA1c is the “average” blood sugar over three months or so; a single meal will have no impact.

I totally agree with the science of this relationship. Mark, at what intake level of carbs are you considering this relationship no longer synergistic? Anything over 100 grams or should the carb intake be kept lower to have the greatest fat-burning / weight-loss effect?

The bulk of the synergy lies in the ease with which you can maintain the fast. Low-carb/fat-based metabolisms simply make it easier to slip into and remain in the fat-based metabolism of the fasting state. If you can easily fast, easily slip back into ketosis and maintain the fast while eating an otherwise moderate or high-carb diet, have at it. That isn’t as common as the opposite, drawing on my experience talking to hundreds of people about this.

However, some people get the best weight-loss effect by combining intermittent fasting, heavy weight training, and periodic/timed carb feeds. The trick is to time your carbs around your workouts, and eat no more than you’ve actually expended through glycogen depletion. That means you’re still in a fat-based metabolism because the carbs you do eat are going toward glycogen repletion rather than being burned for energy, so they never actually inhibit the burning of body fat.

If you’re doing CrossFit WODs that hit every muscle and leave you panting on the ground (or the equivalent), you could probably get away with 100-200 grams right after without any issues. It really depends, of course. More muscle, larger glycogen sinks. Some people just slip right back into ketosis more easily. Others have a life history that may inhibit this. But that 100-ish carbs after a “hard” training session that you feel should be a good target for most people.

You should keep fat low and protein high in these carb-heavy meals. What you want is to refill that glycogen and hit the protein hard.

That’s it for today, folks. Take care. Be sure to ask any followups or additional questions down below. Thanks for reading!

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jesseneufeld · 5 years ago

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Dear Mark: OMAD for Women, Low-Carb Glucose Testing, and Carb Limit When Fasting

Let’s go:

It sounds like OMAD might not be working for you. Just one dress size (which is a better barometer than weight) in 3 months? Yeah, it might be time to try something else.

Was low carb with more frequent meals working?

Here’s what you might try.

I think that’ll work better for you. Write back with your results.

If you are low carb and need to do a glucose blood test and an A1C test: What is the best fasting times then? Just the night before or for 24 hours?

If you fast longer, shouldn’t the glucose reading be lower?

It really depends on what kind of test you take.

If you’re doing a fasting blood glucose test, fasting will probably lower it.

If you’re doing an HbA1c test, fasting won’t affect it. HbA1c is the “average” blood sugar over three months or so; a single meal will have no impact.

You should keep fat low and protein high in these carb-heavy meals. What you want is to refill that glycogen and hit the protein hard.

That’s it for today, folks. Take care. Be sure to ask any followups or additional questions down below. Thanks for reading!

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jennyjeffries · 5 years ago

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Now that we’re well into 2020, it’s time I put up a new blog post. Y’all have already heard too much about my fractured ankle and its repair, and it is well on the way to being restored. Next month I get the long pin out and then go to a physio to help loosen it up.

In the meantime. . . I was given the hard word by an orthopaedic surgeon I saw after getting an MRI on my lower spine (to see why I had sciatica) in November. Basically he said it was arthritis, and that it was very common to have that issue in the lower back, and 30% of the population had a similar looking issue–not all suffering the sciatic pain. He told me that if I lost some weight it would make a big difference.

Now if, like me, you have tried many diets over the years, love food, and have a love/hate relationship with ‘the latest findings on weight loss’, then you’ll enjoy the rest of this blog. If not, feel free to stop here. It’s a very complicated issue combining 1. age, 2. genetics, 3. personality, 4. emotion and other factors like wealth and will power.

I have relaxed my guard as far as the type of food I eat is concerned for some months – especially since my overseas trip in August/September, and then my recovery from my operation. Then Christmas. I’m sure you get the picture. Quite honestly, I get tired of thinking about what I should or shouldn’t eat, and make every day a celebration involving some form of ‘treat’.

The ONLY way I could see myself losing weight now is if 1) I pay money for it to happen (to keep myself honest) and 2) I was accountable to someone else and 3) They could put together a personal list of food/supplements which could be altered depending upon outcome. Understanding what I ate and then making a habit of it.

In other words: I needed a Dietician/Nutritionist.

Now I am making myself even MORE accountable, because I’m bringing an unknown amount of you in to view my progress and watch whether my efforts yield results: I’m telling you all about it! I want to do this nutrition thing because I still have so much I would like to do – travel, cycling, walking, moving freely around without pain. The fact that I might fit clothes I prefer is a happy side effect.

(Pic above: beef and beetroot pattie in a hamburger made without buns – using cos leaves to hold it together. Delicious.)

A week and a half ago, I went and saw a slim young lass who was all fresh-faced and eager to help. She is doing her PhD in nutrition and–once I got over the hurdle of how young she was–I found her advice and suggestions absolutely do-able. I’ll be going back after three weeks to see how progress is, and tailor anything we need to. It’s not so much that I don’t know a lot about what I should be eating–it’s hard to avoid in all the various forms of media these days. It’s the personal discussion about my own situation: fatty liver, high cholesterol, sciatica, that I was interested in hearing her thoughts on.

I have begun a programme of high vegetable, medium protein, and very low carbs. (No sugar). Since I love my vegies, and my meat or fish, I’m thrilled. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I skip breakfast altogether – and so far, I’m surprised at how easy that was to do. Breakfast is either Greek Yoghurt with some fruit and a little paleo muesli (no grain) sprinkled on top. Or paleo toast with peanut butter, or an egg. Lunch is a salad of any sort, with a good amount of protein. (No bread). Dinner is similar, with cooked vegies maybe, and meat/fish, very little potato if I do have it. Snacks are things like celery or carrot with pesto, or a matchbox amount of cheese. I end the evening with a glass of magnesium (lemon-flavoured) in soda water. My coffee in the morning is a long black with a touch of milk (not the latte I have been used to.)

I have three supplements including the magnesium, which should help with their anti-inflammatory, sleep inducing, blood cleansing properties.

So far, 1.5 weeks in, I’m feeling pretty good about it all and enjoying the new meal plan. I was 10kg heavier than I thought I was, and I’m not putting that weight up on this blog, but I will tell you when I lose some.

I cycle to work – 30 kms on an ebike to and from work twice a week – and am building my other exercise. Need to do more stretching.

That is my 2020 so far, and I’m feeling very positive about it. I turn 65 in October, a milestone I’m surprised to be facing (I still feel like I haven’t decided what I’m going to be when I grow up). This feels like the best start to the year, and I hope the posts to follow show what a good move it was.

I hope yours is heading in an equally good direction. Thanks for reading.

Less is More, more or less. Now that we're well into 2020, it's time I put up a new blog post. Y'all have already heard too much about my fractured ankle and its repair, and it is well on the way to being restored.

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livinglife250 · 6 years ago

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How do you keep up with day to day meals? Do you cook every meal, everyday? I love to cook, but I don’t love cooking every single meal. I try to Bulk Cook … even if it’s just one meal, I try to always cook twice as much, this way we have another meal, or at least a ‘snack’ for later! And you should know, this takes a little effort in planning, being prepared gets you a whole lot further down the road, cuts your prep time & cooking down by a lot, cuts down on the grocery list, cuts down on the trash amount and gives you LOTS more time to focus on other things, like hanging out with your family!

Here’s a little of what I do …

Thursday, we went grocery shopping. Earlier that morning, I worked on a meal list for the weekend. We use a lot of ground turkey around here … I try to work it out so that the meat we are buying is included with most of our meal plans for that week. Once you get the hang of what you’re doing and have extra in the freezer, you can start swapping out your meats for the week and so on … until then work toward one meat per week (if needed). I just find it’s easier to prep one meat at a time, plus, we normally stick with ground turkey or salmon. That’s really just what we like! Also, we try (try really hard) to eat lower carb foods. So as we go along, you will notice that we eat a lot of the same foods, just in different formats. LOL.

OK, back to Thursday. Grocery shopping. I bought 12 lbs of good Ground Turkey. And all my other items to prep for the week. My Husband had requested tacos, and might I say, we LOVE Mexican. We have taco salad a lot, it’s easy to prep and have plenty of! So, when we got home from the store, I took ALL 12 lbs of my Ground Turkey meat and

Ground Turkey … all cooked!

threw it in the Crock-Pot! With a little effort, it all fit, and eventually cooked down so the lid fit! LOL! I didn’t add water or other fluids, just the meat. Here’s the kicker, season the meat, don’t flavor for specific recipes though. I used to throw a bunch of taco seasoning in it, but then I always felt that I had to use the extra for Mexican food. Now, I just add Himalayan Pink Salt, pepper, garlic powder, I usually throw some oregano in there too or what other spices are calling to me from the cupboard! Throw the lid on, set that thing for 10 hours and go to bed (or hang out with your family!)

Next morning, once I’ve had my coffee and I feel like I’m ready to conquer the world, I quickly clean my kitchen! I sweep, wipe down all the counters, and put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher (if it’s full, I start it). I am blessed that my Husband & Son do the dishes, so this is usually just {maybe} emptying the dishwasher and placing a few cups in there. And, I almost forgot, take out the trash! Always start with an empty trash can when you’re prepping! I also like to place an empty store bag on my counter, so I have an empty ‘trash bag’ close by, this cuts down all the trips and drips to the actual trash can, you can just throw your packaging and scraps right in there and then throw the whole thing in the trash can later! You now have a clean, clear surface to work off of! And then, I turn on the radio! Music always makes working more fun! 😉

So, remember we were preparing Tacos for today. I try to get all the bulk cooking/prep work done before we actually sit down to eat what I’m actually preparing for lunch/dinner, so once we’re finished as a family, I can spend the rest of the day with them too. And all our dinnerware is placed in the dishwasher and turned on again, with everything else I’ve used prepping. Ground turkey tends to cook up into one big massive meat junk, so I start by ‘chopping’ it down into smaller big junks in the Crock-Pot with a spatula, this makes it easier to transfer to a strainer. I place about 4 – 6 cups in the strainer over a big bowl and use a pastry cutter to chop it down (while draining it), making certain that it’s back to being ‘ground’. This makes for better storage too and easier thawing later. I took out what portion that we were going to be using for the Tacos today and about that much more, so I could store it in the fridge for leftovers and another meal tomorrow.

There’s 6-7 cups in that silver bowl, covered & placed in fridge for tacos today & something tomorrow.

I place about 4 cups of ground turkey meat in a quart Ziplock Freezer bag … remember to ALWAYS label them with what is in it and the date! I prefer to lay these flat in the freezer until they are fully frozen and then you can move them or stand them up for easier storage. 4 cups of cooked & drained ground turkey equals roughly 1 lb of meat, so this is the perfect size for simple meals!

Spinach & Turkey Momlette, sprinkled with a little Cheddar Cheese

Here’s a little more of what I did with the rest! I made 8 Breakfast Burritos, that went into the freezer! With the leftovers from that mixture {because I only bought 1 pack of wraps – what was I thinking}, I made 2 ‘Momlettes’ and placed them in the fridge! I also froze 3 cups of broth!

3 cups Turkey Broth

Here’s how I make the Breakfast Burritos! These are great for Prepping ahead of time, great for anyone in the family, great for on-the-go quick breakfasts, lunches or snacks! Just take out of the foil wrapper, wrap in a paper towel and heat throughout, about 45 seconds for my microwave. In a large, non-stick skillet, wilt down a 5oz container of Spinach. While this is cooking, scramble 6 eggs in a bowl, I always add Himalayan Pink Salt, Pepper & Garlic seasoning. DO NOT add milk or water to the eggs. I find this makes them to ‘watery’ when you heat them up later! Pour your egg mixture into the skillet with the spinach and cook until done. You can also add other things to your ‘Momlettes’! Try mushrooms, more spinach, basically any other veggies or meat that you like. Just remember to keep your veggies or meat diced small, it will be much easier to fold those burritos when assembling!

Scrambled Egg Mixture

Low Carb Wraps

Assemble

Wrap

Wrap in Foil

Place in Freezer Bag

We switch this up a lot, depending on what we’re feeling like! Once your egg mixture is finished, I like to move everything to a bigger counter and make an assembly line! I take all the wraps out of the bag, have my foil wrappers/sheets close, my skillet of mixture near by and my shredded cheese handy. I DO NOT put the cheese in the scrambled egg mixture because it’s too stringy from the skillet to the wrap. Start with your tortilla wrap in front of you, on top of the foil sheet. Place 2-3 Tablespoons of egg mixture onto your wrap, then sprinkle with a little shredded cheese, I probably use 1/8 cup. Wrap them up as tight as you can without busting them open, burrito style. Wrap in the foil wrapper. Finish all of them, place them in a gallon size ziplock bag, lay flat in freezer until completely frozen.

Breakfast Burrito Recipe: {For Freezer} 8 Low Carb Tortilla Wraps 6 Eggs 5 oz Spinach 2 Cups Shredded Cheese Also Needed: Foil Sheets – you can find these at Sam’s or Amazon Gallon Ziplock Bag

Wilt spinach in a non-stick skillet, add beaten eggs and cook completely. Place 2-3 Tablespoons into wrap, add shredded cheese, fold burrito style. Wrap in foil wrapper, store about 16 in Gallon Freezer Bag for up to a month in freezer.

Instructions for reheating: Take out of foil wrapper, wrap in a paper towel, heat throughout {that’s about 45 seconds in my microwave} … enjoy!

Nutritional Facts per burrito {roughly}: 4.9 Carbs 244 Calories 19 Fat Grams 14.5 Proteins

*Remember to always label what’s in the bag, date & instructions for re-heating on bag. See above for specific directions & helpful hints. I’ve kept them longer than a month in the freezer … I also double or triple this recipe and make a much larger batch! I also find these are better frozen and re-heated than fixed and ate immediately.

So, my 12 lbs of Cooked Ground Turkey yielded us: 8 Breakfast Burritos {Freezer} 4 1lb Packs of Turkey {Freezer} 3 Cups of Broth {Freezer} 2 Momlettes {Fridge} 6-7 Cups Ready-to-use Turkey {Fridge} – We had 12 Tacos out of 1/2 that meat. – Will use the rest today!

So, depending on how you use them, for us … that’s 16 meals! Less than one bag of trash & 1 load of dirty dishes! 🙂

Oh & we enjoyed our Tacos!

Cook Once, Eat Twice or 16 times! How do you keep up with day to day meals? Do you cook every meal, everyday? I love to cook, but I don't love cooking every single meal.

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wellpersonsblog · 6 years ago

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I’m Upgrading My Daily Diet, Here’s How

At the beginning of this year, I set the goal to get into the best shape of my life in 2019.

This meant a return to running. Building strength, muscle, and quickness through Muay Thai. And probably lifting some weights, too.

One thing it didn’t mean, I thought, was a change to my diet.

I was already eating 100% plant-based, and mostly whole foods, when I told Doug in a recent episode of No Meat Athlete Radio that I was grateful not to have to worry about my diet in order to achieve this goal.

Well, I was wrong.

Since then, in thinking next-level about what it’ll take for me to achieve my fitness goals and others this year (I set nine of them!), I’ve realized how important anything that affects my energy levels — and indeed, anything I do every single day — is.

Hence more closely examining my supplementation routine, my daily schedule, and of course, my diet.

Upgrading My Daily Meal Plan

After I joined a mixed martial arts gym and started Muay Thai last fall, I found myself (not surprisingly) hungrier than I had been before, and eager to make sure I was eating enough to recover from workouts and build muscle.

So I started eating everything. Still vegan, of course… but white flour, oil, salt — if it made food taste better and made me eat more of it, I was in.

Or rather, it was in. Me.

It worked, like I knew it would. I added a lot of muscle, quickly. But I was always bloated, and although, admittedly, the departure from healthy eating was fun, I knew I’d need to find a way to build muscle while still eating healthily for the long term.

I made two decisions:

1. Start cooking ahead of time, “for the freezer,” so that I’d always have a healthy, substantial meal at the ready.

The motivation here: I found myself eating junk around lunchtime after my workouts if I didn’t have leftovers from the previous night’s dinner. This is the time when I was most ravenous, and could rationalize anything as “good for post-workout refueling.” By always having a healthy meal available, I eliminated that issue.

(Previously I had been eating a big salad with beans for lunch, but I found this wasn’t enough calories once my workouts became intense.)

Cooking ahead of time — every few weekends, I knock out several double-batch recipes at once — has also freed up my wife and myself from cooking, for several nights a week.

Last year we did a good job of stocking quick meals we knew the kids would eat (frozen veggie burgers and falafel from Trader Joe’s, for example) to avoid the old “No way in hell we’re cooking tonight, let’s just order something.” But this year, instead of the greasy frozen food, it’s non-greasy frozen food I’ve made ahead of time.

Big win there. At the bottom of this post, I’ll share the two “for the freezer” recipes I happened to cook earlier this week.

2. Stop cooking with oil.

I stopped eating oil back in 2015, and lasted six solid months that way. I felt great and didn’t lose any weight like I had worried I would, but ultimately, I missed cooking with olive oil. So it slowly crept back into my diet (though I was much more careful with it than before).

But recently, motivated by a major heart scare my mom had, I decided that “it tastes good and I really like cooking with it” isn’t a good excuse.

It’s actually not the caloric density of oil that scares me — it’s what happens to oil when it’s heated (and worse, reheated), especially at the high temperatures we use for sautéing and frying. Oxidation, peroxidation, and the creation of mutagens that our bodies don’t recognize and that are linked to cancer.

I’m not really into that.

So I’ve once again cut the oil, with just a few exceptions.

My three allowances with oil:

1. I’m okay with drizzling unheated extra-virgin olive oil on salads, or other foods I might eat that traditionally involve a drizzle of oil at the table (pan con tomate is the only other example I can think of right now). This happens about twice a week, for me, and the amount is small (a teaspoon or so).

Like I said, it’s the heating of oil that most concerns me, so no major issue here.

Why the “extra-virgin” requirement? Because extra-virgin olive oil is the only oil I know of that, in some studies, has been shown not to cause arterial impairment in the hours following its consumption.

(There’s a lot of interesting and confusing research on this topic — some shows that red wine in combination with extra-virgin olive oil avoids arterial inflammation, while others suggest that even extra-virgin oil is harmful to the endothelial cells lining our arteries. Adding to the confusion, it’s not always clear whether the oil in the studies is heated in cooking or instead served raw.)

According to Dr. Greger, any protective effect of extra-virgin oil is because of the fact that “Extra-virgin olive oil retains a fraction of the anti-inflammatory phytonutrients found in the olive fruit, and so doesn’t appear to induce the spike in inflammatory markers caused by regular olive oil.”

So certainly not a whole food, but closer, perhaps, than other oils. And some of the evidence for how our arteries respond seems to support this.

2. I’m okay with simmering extra-virgin olive oil in tomato sauce over very low heat.

Partly because low heat is better than high (and olive oil is fairly stable due to low polyunsaturated fat content), partly because it’s a Blue Zones kind of thing to do, partly because I love cooking Italian food and consider it my mission to collect as many great sauce recipes as I can, and partly because of the way that extra virgin olive oil and tomatoes interact, when slow-simmered, to enhance the cancer-fighting properties of tomatoes. (I learned this from anti-angiogenesis pioneer Dr. William Li.)

3. If I’m out to eat, I don’t worry about it then.

You could argue these exceptions are excuses. So could I. They might be.

I’m okay with that.

My New Meal Plan

I used to eat like this:

Smoothie for breakfast.

Giant salad with beans and nut-based dressing for lunch.

A grain, a green, and a bean for dinner

Fruit for snacks

(You can get more details about this simple meal plan structure here. I like it because it makes it very easy for me to include my 7 Foods Worth Eating Every Single Day.)

But now, given that find myself wanting to eat an entire pizza at 11am after my workouts, I eat like this:

Smoothie for breakfast*

Beans and grains for lunch (leftovers, or from my freezer collection)

A medium-sized salad and a grain, a green, and a bean for dinner

Fruits, hummus and veggies, and cereal with almond milk for snacks

*I’ve added tart cherry juice to my smoothie recently, mainly for workout recovery. The other ingredients, most days, are flaxseeds, walnuts, bananas, and mixed frozen berries.

Oh, and I have a single cup of light-roast coffee each morning, and most nights a glass of wine or beer after dinner.

So there you have it. My 2019 meal plan. Until it’s time to change it.

‘For the Freezer’ Recipes

For some examples, or loads of fun playing along at home, here are two of the freezer meals I’ve cooked this week, both from my book No Meat Athlete, Revised & Expanded, Fair Winds Press, October 2018.

Note: I cook these recipes without the oil now, and when I’m cooking for the freezer, leave out anything that would work better as a last-minute garnish. This includes the last-minute garnishes (duh), greens wilted in a stew or soup, and sometimes seasonings, like the toasted spice blend in the curried red lentils recipe. Streamline, baby.

No nutrition info included here. I don’t pay attention to that stuff at all. It’s in the book though, because people leave bad reviews if you don’t put it in cookbooks. I tried it once.

Enjoy!

Simple Spanish-Style Stewed Beans in Tomato Sauce

1 can (14.5 ounces) fire roasted diced tomatoes (or whole peeled tomatoes and their juice, pureed)

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 can (19 ounces) white beans, such as cannellini, drained

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Vegan Parmesan Sprinkle, for serving (recipe in book, but you can use this one instead)

Extra virgin olive oil (optional), for serving

4 slices rustic whole-grain or sourdough bread (optional), for serving

Add the entire contents of the tomato can and garlic to a medium skillet and bring to a simmer over medium heat. After 5 minutes of simmering, add the white beans.

Lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent the beans from sticking, for an additional 12 to 15 minutes, until the tomatoes begin to break down and most of the liquid has evaporated. If the pan gets dry too quickly, add a splash or water or two to allow the simmering to continue.

Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Serve topped with a few tablespoons of Vegan Parmesan Sprinkle and, optionally, a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, alongside toasted rustic bread.

Super Quick Red Lentils and Rice

2.5 cups red lentils, rinsed under cold water until it runs clear

6 cups water

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1.5 teaspoons chili powder

1.5 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons coconut or grapeseed oil [Note: I omit this now]

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1.5 teaspoons cumin seed

1.5 teaspoons dried marjoram or oregano

.25 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, more to taste

4 cups baby spinach

.5 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Lemon juice, for serving

Hot sauce, for serving (optional)

6 to 8 cups cooked brown rice, for serving

Combine the lentil and water in a large pot and stir in the turmeric, chili powder, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally until the lentils are tender and the mixture is more or less homogeneous, 25 to 30 minutes. (Some of the lentils will dissolve completely while others will just barely hold their shape and provide some texture.)

When the lentils are about 2 minutes from being done, heat the oil in a separate pan over medium-high heat. [Again: I don’t do that part anymore, and instead just lightly toast the spices in a dry skillet.] Add the fennel and cumin seed, marjoram, mustard seed, and red pepper flakes and stir for a minute. Then pour the spice-and-oil mixture into the pot with the lentils, along with the baby spinach, and stir to combine and wilt the spinach.

Serve over brown rice, garnished with cilantro, lemon juice, hot sauce, and more salt to taste.

When reheating this dish (or if it sits for a while on the stove and begins to dry out), simply add some hot water and it will be like new again!

The post I’m Upgrading My Daily Diet, Here’s How appeared first on No Meat Athlete.

First found here: I’m Upgrading My Daily Diet, Here’s How

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healthbolt-blog · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on Health bolt

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How To Cook Mustard Greens Healthy

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gbrlife-llc-blog · 6 years ago

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10 Simple Adjustments to lose weight

Freshmen 15? Newly wed 20? Fresh break up 50? We all gain wait at some point in our lives and it’s usually in the most inconvenient horrible moments that we look in the mirror or put on our normal pants and find that we have gained more than just that cheese burger from yesterday. I bet it was delicious too! And for all of you Vegans, I respect you and all, but I’m going to keep eating meat. Anyhow! Gaining weight when you aren’t looking to do that is hard. The feelings of ugliness and hatred of your own body are in my opinion inevitable in those moments. But I’m here to help give you some simple adjustments to lose weight that worked for me.

But before I do that, one important fact is that we are all beautiful, Feeling ugly isn’t being ugly.

1. Accept that you have gained the weight! I remember a coworker…ok he was a boss, that had gained some weight from the last time I had seen him, but he was wearing the same clothing as he did from prior so it was so noticeable. If you accept the fact that you weigh more, you can go to the store and buy some “yup I’m the hot chick/guy” outfits! Feel good about yourself, and you would be surprised how much you actually start to lose when you forget that you don’t obsess that you have gained.

2. Drink more water! I know you have heard that a million times, but that’s because it’s actually true. Don’t kill the messenger or blogger! I don’t make truth the truth. It just is. That barely made sense but what does make sense is water. Drink it. A lot of those juices have too much sugar, along with soda and yes to you wine and beer lovers…put those down too. Not all the way down, but reduce your other drinks with some good old H2O!

3. Eat! So I bet you didn’t expect me to say eat, but yea I just did. And here is why, when people put on weight they think starving themselves will fix the problem but it won’t. It’s not about cutting out the food, it’s about changing it for the right food. You are what you eat and your body needs breakfast, lunch, dinner and a few snacks in there.

4. Stop eating 3 hours before bed! This can be a hard one because if you ate dinner to early and finally become hungry again 2 hours before bed, you’re likely to want to snack. I like to have tea, you know the kind with water in it. That usually helps to stop me from eating UN necessary food and keep my digestive system happy. And to everyone, that’s the reason why, to help you digest all that food you ate all day. Again you need to eat…just not 3 hours before bed

5. Cut out the fast food! If anything, just do this for your health. That stuff is very bad for you in so many ways, I would have to write a blog about that alone. Now I know how most people work. They say that they don’t eat that junk but we all do at some point, so just make that something you rarely eat instead of a go to meal once a week.

6. Take Probiotics! Sometimes we are gaining weight because our bodies are out of whack. Now I’m no doctor so please ask a doctor before taking anything, but just know that a simple probiotic twice a day can help get your body back to normal and the weight may start to go down. Not dramatically or anything, this takes time.

7. Exercise! I’m a guilty party here before I even get started on this one, but it’s another true one. Just a bit of movement a day is what is needed. You may not remember how much you used to move around but most of us move less and less as we get older, and if you get back to moving around, you will drop some weight. The most important factor here is to do a bit at a time. You shouldn’t try to run a marathon on your first day working out again.

8. Eat this not that! This one I kind of mentioned under eat but its two different things. You want to eat the 3 meals a day with 2 snacks but you also want those 3 meals and 2 snacks to be good for you. I’m not saying eat bland boring food, but if you can cook, then make a delicious salmon with plenty of greens instead of that fried chicken. At first you will crave only that fried chicken but I promise you, after a little while you will start to dream about that homemade turkey taco on some romaine lettuce.

9. Reduce your stress! Stress is a big reason we gain weight because of hormones and eating our feelings. So if you can do one thing on this list it’s to calm down and remind yourself that life is hard, no reason to put it all on your shoulders….take a break for goodness sake.

10. Go to sleep! Surprise…you may be eating more because you aren’t sleeping. So this is a quick and easy one…just go to sleep for 8 hours a night. If you have insomnia, go to your doctor to help you sleep, and have some sleepy time tea J

Disclaimer: If any of the items on my list are known to be a problem for you, as in a health issue, don’t do them. Go to your doctor first before trying anything.

Hope my methods help you as they did for me, and below is some products to help with my methods! TALK SOON!

#lose weight #weight loss #list of 10 #eat this not that #probiotics #food and drink #stress #sleep #excercise #eat #gbrlife

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ayeletinthemountains · 6 years ago

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Thunderbolt to Sill, plus Mount Agassiz

8/17/18 - 8/19/18

This was a big one. Leo and I first talked about Thunderbolt to Sill, a traverse of five of California’s 14ers, two years ago when we did a 2-week long road trip along the Eastern Sierra ~five months into us dating. I wasn’t a strong climber at the time. Leo wasn’t as much of a slogger and didn’t have as much alpine experience. We rightfully decided the traverse was probably above our pay grade, so decided to save it for another time. We still nabbed Sill via the Swiss Arete, an awesome climb and Leo’s first 14er. I remember being on the summit and staring at the rest of the peaks on the traverse, thinking how nuts it looked.

Now in 2018, in ~February/March, I went on a permit booking spree, dreaming up big goals for the summer, and this was the obvious choice. I booked a permit for a weekend in August and prayed we’d have good weather and that I’d be up to the challenge. As summer came, I got in several long backcountry climbs, from East Buttress on Whitney and Fishhook on Russell, to the Saber Ridge deep in SEKI. In the weeks prior to our Thunderbolt to Sill weekend, I did some long climbs in Canada with my friend Marco which had me feeling strong and in decent shape. The biggest open question (well, aside from all my nerves and self-doubt) was the weather. The Sierra weather had been full of storms all summer, severe enough to damage many trails and even close some roads because of mudslides. We’ve also had really bad smoke for much of the summer, with fires raging all over the state, bad enough to even close Sierra passes. But, as the week came, Leo and I were beyond thankful to see that the storms seemed to stop just days before our trip, giving us a perfect weather window, and the major fires near the Sierra started to be contained.

Thunderbolt to Sill is not something you want to do if there’s any chance of thunderstorms. Well, at least for a mortal like me. In my research, I saw people doing the traverse in as few as three hours. I also saw many trip reports with people bivying in the middle of the ridge, spending a night up there. I really didn’t have a great sense of how long the traverse might take us. It seemed not crazy to think we could do it in as few as 15 hours, but I didn’t want to get cocky and knew we had to be prepared for it to take much longer.

We drove from the bay area to the east entrance of Yosemite Thursday night, sleeping off the side of the road up high. I was happy to have a bit extra acclimatization and to not feel rushed getting to the east side. We worked remotely Friday, finished packing, and slept up near the Buttermilks. It was so warm out that we watch a movie out in the open in the bed of our truck before calling it a night. We set the alarm for 7am and drove up to South Lake to take the Bishop Pass trail. The parking lot was totally full, but we managed to squeeze in on the side of the road, which saved us what would have been an extra mile of road walking.

By the time we were ready to go, the parking lot was bustling with people. It’s always so surprising to be around so many people when you’re headed out to do a remote climb. For our gear for the trip, we tried to keep it pretty minimal. In terms of climbing gear, we brought:

Two Arcteryx climbing harnesses

Moccasym climbing shoes for Leo

Mythos for Ayelet

A 60m 7.5mm half rope

A set of offset nuts (which we didn’t expect to use, but wanted as insurance)

Two cordelettes

Four slings, each with a non-locking carabiner

Two megajul belay devices

Six locking carabiners

Two prusiks (critical because of the very skinny rope)

A spare quick link

A bail knife

Two climbing helmets

Heading off.

We set off on the Bishop Pass trail a bit after 8am. Progress went quickly. Even though I’ve been up this trail five times before already, I still am always in awe of how beautiful this area is. We stopped for a short snack break about halfway to the pass, and then continued up, finding ourselves at the top of the pass just before 11am. Given how early it was, Leo and I decided to tag Mount Agassiz on our way to camp. Mount Agassiz lies just 2k feet above Bishop Pass, right along the route to our basecamp. I had failed at climbing Mount Agassiz twice before. I made the mistake the first time with Leo, when we tried to climb it Memorial Day weekend in 2016 and only left the trailhead at 5am, making it to the snow on Agassiz’s slopes too late in the day. We bailed as were miserably post-holing up the side of the mountain, barely making progress, and storm clouds were coming in. The genius that I am was so enamored with the idea of climbing Agassiz in the snow that I made the exact same mistake, again trying to climb Agassiz over Memorial Day weekend in 2018, once again leaving the car at 5am. Way to go, me.

Views of Agassiz on the approach.

We dropped our packs at Agassiz’s base, putting some food and water into a flashpack I had with me, and started up one of the chutes on Agassiz’s northwest face. Progress goes much faster when you’re able to scramble up class two rock rather than post-holing through melting snow. The base was a bit sandy and loose, but as we got higher up the rock felt more secure. Agassiz is the 21st tallest peak in California, 13,893ft. We both could feel the altitude as we trudged up what we thought was very slowly, but it only took us 1.5 hours from the base to the summit.

Views of our objectives for the next day!

Near the summit, we met another party of two who were also planning to climb something near Mount Goode the next day and did Agassiz as a warm up. It was so nice out that I didn’t even put a layer on at the summit. We took in the views, ate our lunches, and headed back down, making it to our packs by ~2:30pm. I was pretty excited to have already nabbed a bonus peak (particularly one that had been on my grudge list) so early in the trip.

We repacked our packs and started the cross country slog to Thunderbolt Pass, our planned base camp. There isn’t much elevation gain between the base of Agassiz and Thunderbolt Pass, but we contoured along the side of Agassiz so as to not lose elevation. There was still plenty of ups and downs, and the terrain was pretty talus-y at times. Not exactly fun. The pass was only ~1.5mi from Agassiz, but it still took us close to two hours to make it there. About half a mile before the pass, we met a party of four who was camped. They had just climbed Thunderbolt that day and were relaxing in the sun, enjoying the many beers they had lugged up with them. We chatted with them for a little while as we filled water before continuing on our way. They had taken the first chute up Thunderbolt, which is the standard route from Thunderbolt Pass. We had been planning to take the second chute, because we had read some conditions reports that the recent rains had left some huge boulders in precarious spots. They didn’t mention anything about that, which I took note of.

The last bit of slog to Thunderbolt Pass. Ick.

The last half mile to the pass was through a pretty miserable boulder field. I was so happy when we finally made it to the pass and it was over. We had originally planned to camp ~400ft down on the far side of the pass, since that is the nearest water. But we saw there were at least a dozen campsites much higher up near the pass. We made the call to camp near the pass, rather than down near the water, so we wouldn’t have to lug all our gear down there and we could shorten our approach to Thunderbolt in the dark in the morning.

Home sweet home at 12,300ft.

We set up the tent and our sleeping gear, and then headed down to fetch water. We saw a tent near the stream we planned to fill at, and wondered whether we’d see its occupants. Sure enough, as we sat down to fill our containers, they showed up. It seemed to be a guide and a client. They had climbed Polemonium and Sill that day. We pried a bit for beta, getting the guide’s opinion on first chute up Thunderbolt, and one of our possible descent options. The guide said they’d been up the first chute two days before and seemed really casual about it, not mentioning any additional hazards. We thanked him for the beta and slogged back up to camp.

The view of southwest chute #1 from camp.

I hadn’t felt too miserable the first time we arrived at camp, but after this additional short trip, I was really feeling it. As we waited for our dinner to cook, I did a bunch of stretching to hopefully not be too sore for the following day. We ate, went up to the pass to watch the sunset, and then got into bed. I bundled up into all my layers, expecting it to be very cold since we were sleeping above 12k feet. But as the night went on, I periodically woke up too warm and would take one layer off at a time.

Leo chilling at the pass, taking in the sunset. Thunderbolt behind.

We had set the alarm for 4:15am. Around 3:30am, I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep, because I was so nervous about what was to come. This often happens to me before big climbs. For once, it came in handy though. Turns out Leo hadn’t saved the alarm when setting it the night before. I looked at my watch and saw it was 4:18am, and woke Leo. It was time to get going.

We dressed, made breakfast, and put our food in our packs. When I got back to camp after going to the bathroom, Leo told me had a problem: the tube of his water bladder had broken. With no real opportunity to fill water on the whole ridge, having plenty of water with us was non-negotiable. We pulled out some leukotape and taped the opening of the bladder, hoping it would be enough to get through the day.

We put on our headlamps and started towards Thunderbolt. The night before, we decided to switch to the first chute instead of the second, since it was closer to camp, and both parties we’d met had seemed to think it was okay. The chute is only a couple hundred feet from camp, which we definitely appreciated in the dark, so that we wouldn’t get lost. The chute is definitely loose, as advertised. We headed up until we reached the chockstone described in the SummitPost beta. I had misremembered the beta for this section, we lost maybe 15 minutes looking for the class 3 way around the chockstone. Turns out it’s actually ~30 feet below the chockstone on the right, and we had walked right past it. It felt great to be out of the chute on much more solid rock. After a couple hundred feet of gain, we found ourselves back in the loose chute, but it was much easier to stick to solid rock on the sides at this point.

Heading up the chute.

We reached the top of the chute around 7am, feeling the sun on our skin for the first time, always a joyous feeling during an alpine start. We headed up the class 4 climbing (which was cruiser and fun) to get to the base of the summit block. And there we were! At the climbing crux of the day, as I’d seen in so many photos and videos leading up to this trip. The summit block of Thunderbolt is only 15ft tall, but it’s 5.9. And by 5.9 I mean unprotectable fall-and-you-die 5.9. Enter Leo. :) I promise I don’t only bring him around to lead the scary stuff. I also bring him around because he carries the heavy gear.

Leo prepping for the summit block. Summit register bolted at the top!

We pulled out the rope and our climbing shoes. Leo tied one of our cordelettes around a large boulder, to at least keep us attached to the mountain in the event of a fall. Leo sadly took off his shoes and socks, feeling the cold as he put on his climbing shoes. As I belayed him, I remarked, “I wish I could also film this!” Leo said back to me, “You probably could, it’s not like your belay is doing anything.” The whole climb took Leo probably about one minute, and then he was on top! Looking back, I wish I had taken more photos. I just felt like we had to go, go, go all day (which was true), but this is really a unique spot, and we should have taken more time to enjoy it.

My belay finally became useful as I lowered Leo (you’re welcome). It was my turn to have my feet be freezing at 7:30am at 14,000ft. With Leo’s belay assist, I made it to the top more easily than I expected. The climbing isn’t easy, but there were more holds than I had anticipated. One peak down! The register is bolted to the top of the summit block, so I signed for both of us before Leo lowered me back down. We packed up our gear and got ready to go. This was the only time either of us wore our climbing shoes for the whole traverse. Oof.

Me on Thunderbolt. I was in such a rush I forgot to take a cool standing pic. :(

We left the summit of Thunderbolt around 7:40am. The next peak on the traverse is Starlight. We checked the beta we had with us, and started to descend to the notch between the two peaks. We downclimbed what we believe was the fourth class chimney system, until we made it to the slabs. On the slabs, we stopped and took a look at what lay before us, trying to identify the route before we were too up close to it. We crossed the notch and started climbing up, trying as much as possible to stay to the ridge. We came to some giant rock walls, uncertain of where to go. We explored both sides of the ridge, settling on the right side. We walked along some very flat, sidewalk-width rocks on the right side of the ridge, below huge walls to our left. I was convinced this wouldn’t go and we were lost, but Leo managed to find a squeeze-ramp type feature. It was pretty steep, but managed to go. The top of it became a chimney, which was definitely fifth class. After Leo soloed up, he saw a very solid rappel anchor, so he pulled out the rope and belayed me up using the anchor. I was glad to have the rope, and definitely weighted it once while trying to figure out the moves. This was one of two times on the entire traverse that Leo belayed me (aside from the two fifth class summit blocks). From there, we had some more high class scrambling until we reached the milk bottle, the summit block of Starlight.

Looking to Starlight from Thunderbolt.

Descending the slabs just before the notch between the two peaks.

With this summit block only being 5.4, Leo opted to lead it in his approach shoes. We again pulled out the rope, and Leo once again quickly made it to the top. While he climbed, our rope fell off the ledge it had been sitting on maybe 40 ft down a hole between the rocks. I tried to pull it up, but it was caught on something. As Leo chilled out on the summit block, I managed to scramble down and free it. For those two minutes, I was really nervous, uncertain how we’d get down safely without a rope. Thankfully, it was not an issue we had to deal with. I scrambled back up and then lowered Leo back down to the ledge. I also opted to climb this block in approach shoes, and had no trouble (thanks for the tight belay, Leo!). Back down on the ledge, two peaks down, three to go! We started on to the next peak around 9:45am.

Starlight summit success!

From the summit of Starlight, I crawled through a narrow opening along the ridge, while Leo scrambled up and over. We continued along the ridge, trying to find the simplest way down. We eventually came to the notch between Starlight and North Palisade. This notch has a big gap, which isn’t easy to climb or jump. There was a rap station above it, so we pulled out the rope. Leo rappelled first, and had to swing over the gap to the other side before going off rappel. I rappelled next, and had zero grace in trying to get across the gap. I wish a third person had been there to get a video of this, it must have looked so ridiculous. I’d push off the wall, trying to swing across the gap, while Leo pulled me in as hard as he possibly could. This failed the first two or three times, as I could not get my butt or feet or anything on the ledge on the other side of the gap. Finally, with our teamwork, I managed to get across. I also bring Leo around to pull me in after rappels, apparently.

Looking back down at the very awkward rappel from the other side.

We put the rope away and continued scrambling. I think we did not find the easiest way up North Pal, by any means. We scrambled mostly on the left side of the ridge, trying to find a way up. We didn’t have a great view of what was above us, so we couldn’t tell if going up was even the right way to go at times. We eventually found a chimney that exited onto an airy arete. Leo again soloed this, and opted to pull the rope out for me, the second and last time he’d belay me (aside from the two fifth class summit blocks). He slung a huge boulder with a cordelette, and tossed down one end of the rope. I was definitely glad to be on belay for this. It was not something I could have soloed. As Leo coiled the rope, I continued the route finding, down-climbing five feet to get to a squeeze ramp that then led to the summit! This was the only peak of the whole traverse that I summited before Leo, and it was just because I left him with the gear. Thanks Leo!

North Pal summit selfie. 3/5 down!

Sitting on top of North Pal, I was feeling really content. Even if we somehow next got lost and couldn’t finish the traverse, it still felt so cool to have done three new 14ers all in one day. So many people opt to do just one of these peaks in a day: but we didn’t plan on trying for just three, so it was on to the next. We left the summit of North Pal around 11:15am, and found a rap on the south side of the summit. It looked like we could potentially downclimb from here, but we figured we’d just do the rappel. This dropped us into a small bowl that had probably the best bivy sites we’d seen on the entire ridge traverse thus far.

After a bit more downclimbing, we contoured along the ridge, able to stay at the same elevation all the way around the bowl until we fell in-line with the ridge once again. We travered on the left side of the ridge, and then back to the right before finding some more rappel stations. We did four rappels and found ourselves in the U-notch. It was possible that we could have again downclimbed these, but I think we were both happy to get a little rest while rappelling rather than downclimbing. The right side, towards the west, of the U-notch looked like a sandy, miserable chute. I checked it out, knowing this is often used as a descent option to get back to where we had camped. We were still undecided about how we’d come down.

Me route-finding from North Pal to the U-notch.

From the U-notch, the description was pretty spot on. We went up some exposed fourth/low fifth class directly from the top of the notch, traversing right until we reached a ridge once again. Here again there was some more exposed fourth class/low fifth class, but it was short, and we quickly found ourselves on the summit. The fourth peak of the day! And the last new summit for us of the trip.

It was around 1pm as we topped out on Polemonium. We again took another rest as I perused the summit register. I was feeling really beat. The fact that we’d already climbed Sill before left me with very little motivation. Plus, if we climbed Sill, we’d have a much longer slog back to camp. I was entirely open to going back down Polemonium to the U-notch so we could get back to camp early. I even wrote in the register that I didn’t know if we’d continue, and you’d have to climb to Sill to see if we did. But, Leo was not having it. No way was he going to stop at this point, so on to Sill it was.

Looking back from Polemonium to North Pal, Starlight, and Thunderbolt.

Leaving Polemonium, there was some more fourth class to get off the summit and lower down. After five or ten minutes though, we found ourselves moving quickly over class two terrain. It felt nice to be away from exposure and able to move more quickly (despite the fact that the direction we were moving quickly was away from our camp). I was thrilled when we reached the point where we could drop our packs. I finally took off my harness, which I’d been wearing all day. For our last scramble up to the summit, Leo carried my flash pack with some water and snacks, so we could leave the rest of the gear. It felt amazing to scramble without a pack (thanks Leo!). And soon enough, we were on the summit of Sill, traverse completed!

Success!

The ultimate summit selfie. :)

We had read some conditions reports that Sill was currently missing a summit register, which we found to be true. We had brought a nalgene with us, along with a small notebook and two pens, to leave at the summit. We sat down to rest once again while we readied the register. I ate a packet of peanut M&Ms (when you do a traverse of five peaks, which summit do you eat your summit treat on!?) for some easy energy that I could keep down. I was definitely low energy, but I had no zero appetite. We took many celebratory selfies, and eventually I ran out of things I “needed” to do on the summit to delay the impending slog back to camp.

Our six summit register signatures in order from the trip!

We decided to take the long way back around, towards Potluck Pass, rather than re-summiting Polemonium and heading down the U-notch. And so, at 3pm we began our descent. It took just under 30 minutes to make it back to our packs. For this type of terrain, I’m not much faster heading downhill vs uphill, since I’m paranoid of rolling my very weak ankles. We headed south down the bowl between Sill and Polemonium until we reached the bottom, and then headed along the west edge of the bowl. Rather than taking the bottom of the drainage all the way around to Potluck Pass, we cut over the hillside. This saved us some distance, but I suspect it didn’t save us much time.

As we came around the ridge, we had the choice of dropping down to the west, where the drainage becomes flatter, or contouring along the slopes of the Palisades crest to keep our elevation all the way to camp. If we did the former, we’d have a long section of uphill at the end to make it back to camp, which sounded miserable to both of us. So, we opted to contour the entire way. It was a miserable talus slog that we suspect was worse in the end. If I had to do it again, I’d take the low route.

Camp was only a mile away in a straight line, but it took ages to traverse. As we neared camp, Leo so graciously offered to split off, to head down to the water source for us, while I’d continue on to camp. I had absolutely no energy to fetch water, and would have instead made the 2L we had waiting for us at camp work. But, Leo is great like that. We split off to do the last section solo. I knew I had to keep moving, because I’d be mortified if Leo somehow made it back to camp before me. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. I was able to have my gear unpacked and our dinners rehydrating before Leo made it back to camp (though he made it back maybe only 10 mins after me). All in all, from the top of Sill back to camp took us 4hr 45mins. We took essentially zero stops in that time.

We finally turned on our head lamps as we ate our dinner. We had made excellent use of the daylight, and our timing worked out perfectly. Having to do any of the slog back to camp in the dark would have been challenging and miserable. I was in bed at 8:40pm, thrilled about what we’d accomplished. I was so tired, but also so excited about having achieved this goal.

We slept from ~9pm to 6:30am, waking up with the late and not feeling too sore. We leisurely made breakfast and packed up, still being ready to go by 7:40am. It was really nice knowing the most miserable part of the hike out would be the first part, and then it would be behind us. It took us about 2 hrs to get from our camp back to the trail, with no breaks. This was about the same amount of time it had taken us to get to Thunderbolt Pass from the trail. Slow terrain is slow in both directions.

Once we were at the trail, it was a cruiser walk out, though we were both feeling ready to be done by the end. We were back at the car around 11:50am, quickly changed and headed to Bishop for some well-earned celebratory burgers. It’s always nice when you hike out early enough in the day to not feel rushed at all about getting home.

Looking down from Bishop Pass.

All in all, we couldn’t have had better conditions. We spent nearly the whole day of our climb above 14,000 ft, and never wore more than our base-layers after 8am. The air quality was totally fine, and the skies were nothing but clear. We saw no one our whole traverse day except for one person on Sill when we were just leaving Polemonium, very thankful to have no one to drop rocks on us. We were shocked that on such a perfect weekend, there was no one else doing this amazing climb.

Now here’s time for the mushy Leo part. This climb felt so daunting and scary to me, and I wouldn’t have felt comfortable trying it with pretty much anyone other than Leo. When I’m scared, he asks how he can help. He pretty much always knows when I’ll want a belay, always a step ahead of me with the rope. He never makes me feel bad if I’m not comfortable solo-ing the terrain he just cruised up. Not once has he ever complained that I descend talus at least twice as slowly as he does. And when I’m not sure if I have the skills, he reassures me that I can do it. Thank you Leo. Now I can think of the next big slog we can do together. :) End mushiness.

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newtneedsaplacetorant · 7 years ago

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I’m also just generally frustrated today, because he’s been getting increasingly selfish lately in lots of small ways. Individually they’re not much, but cumulatively I’m just feeling so drained by it all.

We both work full-time jobs. His commute is longer than mine, but we both work the same number of hours per week.

I do all the cooking. ALL the cooking. I make dinner every day (he was learning to cook last year and was making dinner once a week, but that stopped and he’s resisted every attempt to get him to start again). I make his packed lunch each morning, and his packed breakfast. At the weekend I also make breakfast, lunch and he’ll even ask me for it if he wants something as simple as a snack or toast.

He does make the tea most of the time, but then at the weekends will make a fuss about how he does it all week so he should get a break from it.

He’s responsible for the cat litter most of the time. He does do about 50% of the laundry work - at least he’ll put loads on, hang them out and bring dry laundry to the front room. He takes the bins out in the morning, because the truck arrives just after he leaves for work. And he’s supposed to be the one who does the dishes, as a way of recognising that I do all the cooking so already spend enough time in the kitchen.

Everything else? Up to me. If I don’t hoover the carpet, it doesn’t happen. If I don’t clear through rooms to get rid of trash, we end up with piles of trash everywhere. I scrub the toilet and mop the floors and clean the sinks and do all the budgeting. I plan the groceries and keep track of what we need. Mostly if something in the house needs repairing, I repair it. I have to deal with all the stressful money phone calls and letters and the banking and every bit of planning that goes into making our lives work.

Oh, and those dishes? I have to tidy the kitchen through first and collate the dishes so they’re easy for him and get the sink clean and tidy. And I’m the one who puts away the clean, dry dishes after. All he does is actually wash them.

And still, the last few months, he’s done it twice, and both times didn’t do all of it, and in the meantime it’s been weeks between loads of dishes or as long as I can face it before I give in and deal with the - by then absolutely disgusting - pile myself.

But, mostly, I’m alright with this.

Because he really is profoundly mentally unwell. I don’t think he even realises how bad it is. But when your day is ruined and you’re in a mood all evening because work was stressful, and it turned out the terrible stress was “the other guys keep quoting Monty Python and it’s getting old, also it was hot today”, and that leaves you so mentally exhausted that you can’t even think around the needs of another person who lives with you? That’s a pretty profound level of Not Well.

So I get it. I’m mentally ill, too, just in different ways. And the things I struggle with I, too, struggle with profoundly. So I am, although often tired, mostly accepting of the situation. And for his part he is usually aware and grateful of the efforts I make.

But this month.

So this last month I embarked on The Project. I also used The Project as an opportunity to do a deep clean of the rooms I was swapping, and have begun spreading that out into making a big impact on cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, which get pretty neglected sometimes. I’ve been doing all of this while working full time in a job I am actually starting to find quite draining on my mental health, while trying to keep up with going to the gym, and going to the allotment, and trying to actually find time for the creative pursuits that keep me sane.

And in the meantime so far this year I’ve lost my grandfather, the man who raised me, and found out my parents have split up.

And Spouse has... not been so supportive. So proud. So thankful and grateful for my efforts.

Actually he’s starting to seem kind of... resentful? Of it all? And annoyed that I’m not putting more of this energy I’ve found into directly caring for him?

Like, today before the shitty moment with the craft room. I’ve cooked dinner, we’ve eaten it, and I decide I want to get the last bit of work done in the craft room so I can have finished it. And I remember he asked for a USB cable, so I find him one.

Spouse: “Oh yeah, I need that because Friend asked me to try and fix that blackberry for him and I said I would.”

Spouse:...

Spoue: *Begins making whiny tired I-don’t-want-to-do-things noises

Spouse: ...”I don’t suppose you could maybe do some googling about how to fix it and take a look at it could you?”

And in all that? Zero acknowledgement that I tidied up the kitchen today and also cleaned up the frontroom. Zero acknowledgement for the dinner, which he didn’t even thank me for or comment on. Zero concern shown or interest in the stressful day he knew I’d had until I brought it up, although he complained at length about the Horrors Of Monty Python Quoting Coworkers. Zero actual sincere praise at what I’d done in the craft room. Just asking me to take on yet another fucking task, and one that didn’t even need to be a task for us to do because he decided to volunteer to do it and then tried to palm it off on me!

I’m just.

Really frustrated. And I feel really let down.

Lately I feel like every time I try to grow and improve as a person he’s trying to prune off the new growth before it’s established, like he’s afraid I’ll grow to where he can’t reach or something.

#personal rant #relationship issues

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