Noel's Daily Check-in

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 3:50 pm

My good habits did not survive a Life Eating Project that has been pretty amazing professionally and took a bad toll on my personal life in terms of moderation and balance.

So, checkins for awhile until I get back on track.

Food
3/24
3/25
3/26
3/27
3/28 Went on a train trip. Was VERY hungry before dinner time, as I was lazy and did not pack my usual Bento lunch and had only a hot dog. I had an ice cream sandwich as a snack before a late dinner. Could have said no. Didn't.
3/29
3/30

Exercise
3/24 weights
3/25 walk
3/26 weights
3/27 walk
3/28 Went on a trip. Could have done SOMETHING. DIDN'T
3/29
3/30

Glass Ceiling (This is nearly irrelevant. But it would be a good way to keep it from creeping up on me as a snack substitute.)

3/24 0
3/25 0
3/26 1
3/27 0
3/28 0
3/29 0
3/30 1

ironchef · Post by **ironchef** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:08 am

Hey Noel! I remember you from when I first joined, great to see you again

I can say from recent experience that coming back to check in here has been a great way to tune up my habits.
Can I ask what a Life Eating Project is?

automatedeating · Post by **automatedeating** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:51 am

I was wondering about that project too.
And glad to see you with a check-in.

osoniye · Post by **osoniye** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:27 am

Hi Noel- Welcome back. Sorry to hear habit has slipped but it is good to see you around here again. Your comments are often very insightful and interesting!

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:59 am

ironchef wrote: Can I ask what a Life Eating Project is?

In this case, a major operating system upgrade of some thousands of medical computers from Windows XP to Windows 7. I'm project manager, and it's a considerably more time consuming job than you would believe to play den mother to an argument of IT professionals.

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 12:08 pm

3/31/14

No-S

Breakfast- Pinhead oatmeal with walnuts, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries.

Lunch - (Bento) Chicken breast with garlic and red wine, pasta with Parmesan cheese, cherry tomatoes, sliced yellow peppers and blueberries.

Dinner- Burrito, green salad.

Exercise

Weights day. If you're actually interested in the actual workouts, I log them on http://www.fitocracy.com. I use the same username there.

Glass Ceiling

0. (0, 1 or 2 are all acceptable to me)

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:24 am

4/1/14

No-S

Breakfast - Oatmeal with walnuts, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries

Lunch - (Bento) Leftover burrito, yellow pepper, carrots, cherry tomatoes, sliced strawberries

Dinner - White chili, green salad

Exercise

1/2 mile walk. Short, but it's not a weights day.

Glass Ceiling

0.

automatedeating · Post by **automatedeating** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 7:10 pm

Hey, any moving is great! Half a mile is better than no walking, right?

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 10:33 pm

No-S

Breakfast - Pinhead oatmeal, sunflower seeds, walnuts, dried cranberries

Lunch - (bento) Orange ginger chicken, Onigiri, broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, sliced strawberries

Dinner - Stir fried chicken, yellow pepper, carrots, broccoli florets and rice.

(Today was heavier on the rice than usual... Ah well. Poor shopping made it necessry)

Exercise

Weights. https://www.fitocracy.com/profile/NoelFigart/ if you're interested.

Glass Ceiling

1 for Woden's Day. Mead.

ironchef · Post by **ironchef** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 2:44 am

NoelFigart wrote:
ironchef wrote: Can I ask what a Life Eating Project is?
In this case, a major operating system upgrade of some thousands of medical computers from Windows XP to Windows 7. I'm project manager, and it's a considerably more time consuming job than you would believe to play den mother to an argument of IT professionals.

That I can believe

When I first read your post, I was wondering: "The Project that Ate My Life" or "Project regarding Lifetime Eating" or "Project about Eating lots of Life"? I had fun imagining everything from a major work event to an experiment with raw foodism.

Thanks for the fitocracy link, very cool.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:56 am

Haha, I also read it as a project regarding lifetime eating. We just had a major upgrade of our IS system - not a fun time for the IT staff and managers so: BIG HUG!!!

Your food sounds yummy!!

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Fri Apr 04, 2014 12:17 am

No S

Breakfast - Pinhead oatmeal, sunflower seeds, walnuts, dried cranberries

Lunch - Bento. Chicken breast sauted in garlic, marjoram and red wine, Pasta with a bit of parmesan cheese, Green bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli florets, and strawberries.

Dinner - Spaghetti and green salad. Wanna make sure you don't eat too much spaghetti? Fill half the plate with a green salad. IF you like salads. obviously I am fond of raw veggies.

Exercise

I could fudge this, but I didn't plan anything and didn't work out. Gotta own it.

Glass Ceiling

1. Glass of mead. Hail Thor!

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:03 pm

No-S

Exercise

Glass Ceiling

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Sun Apr 06, 2014 11:32 pm

No-S
Exercise

Can't fail on an S day. Gotta love it. Sure, sure, don't be an idiot and I've had S-days where I didn't have snacks or treats, but this isn't one of them.

And the only exercise I got was doing freeze ahead meals. I chop up ingredients, put 'em in gallon bags and freeze in anticipation of thawing later, dumping them in the crock pot and cooking all day for dinner. I recommend it for any really busy household. You would not BELIEVE how much it keeps me from the Magic Sushi Phone.

Glass Ceiling

Sat = 0
Sun = 2 (I like sipping wine while I cook. I also like sipping wine while writing. I allow myself the former pleasure occasionally. Never the latter. *grin* I can't write as well as Hemingway and haven't earned the privilege)

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 10:39 am

No-S

Breakfast - Porridge, dried cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds

Lunch- meatballs, orange pepper, strawberries, pasta, Parmesan cheese, broccoli

Dinner - Beans and rice, green salad

Evening snack- piece of toast and butter I wish I'd toughed it out. Didn't. Will remember that I want to tough it out next time.

Exercise

Weights. Bumped up weights, dropped down reps

Glass Ceiling

None

automatedeating · Post by **automatedeating** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:16 pm

Hey Noel,
I love your blog post about preparing all those meals ahead of time. Now, if they all had 5 ingredients or less....

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:42 pm

automatedeating wrote:Hey Noel,
I love your blog post about preparing all those meals ahead of time. Now, if they all had 5 ingredients or less....

Is there a thing about few ingredients? Most of these recipes have two or three main ingredients then a metric asston of spices.

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:23 am

No-S

Breakfast - My usual porridge n stuff

Lunch - Orange ginger chicken with pasta, red peppers, grapes and broccoli

Dinner - Homemade vegetable beef soup with a green salad

Exercise

Stretch out

Glass Ceiling

1 glass of Redneck wine (Pink sweet cardboardeux)

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:28 am

NoelFigart wrote:Orange ginger chicken with pasta, red peppers, grapes and broccoli

Wow! Do you have a recipe by any chance? It sounds delicious!

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:55 am

Well, I made it up, but this is what I did:

1 lb of cut up chicken (I used thighs, but parts is parts

)
2 T olive oil
2 t ground rosemary
1/4 c orange juice
2 t ground ginger (I didn't have fresh, but that would give it more of a zing)

Saute chicken in olive oil, then add rosemary and ginger. When it gets to smelling really good (yes, this is actually a technical thing. The flavors are marrying) add orange juice and simmer to reduce liquid. When the liquid has gotten to the sauce stage, it's ready to go.

eschano · Post by **eschano** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:55 am

Yummy! Thank you for sharing NoelFigart!

MerryKat · Post by **MerryKat** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 12:07 pm

Mmmmm, that sounds delicious!!!

Will have to give it a try!!! Thanks for the recipe!

Jill d · Post by **Jill d** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 4:19 pm

two or three main ingredients then a metric asston of spices

Ha ha! This is how I cook, too.

Simpless · Post by **Simpless** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 4:32 pm

Hi Noel,

I'm enjoying your posts and just copied your chicken recipe. I can't wait to try it and more!

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Wed Apr 09, 2014 10:57 pm

No-S

Breakfast - Porridge

Lunch - Club rolls, red pepper, broccoli, strawberries.

Dinner - Chicken Curry, green salad.

Exercise

Weights

Glass Ceiling

1

NoelFigart · Post by **NoelFigart** » Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:24 pm

No-S

Breakfast - My usual porridge.

Lunch - Stir-fried chicken, onigiri, broccoli, red pepper, cherry tomatoes, strawberries.

Dinner - Chicken burrito, green salad.

Snack - Peanut butter sandwich, several scoops of ice cream.

While I am going to mark this and move on, I'm definitely wanting to eat due to anxiety. My project is almost over and I don't know where things are going to go, so I'm stressing. I want things decided, dammit. I cant go searching for another contract until i know what my commitments are going to look like for my current client, and I'd like to leave myself open for a couple of projects that my current client is talking about having me take on. But I can't stay on the string forever and need to wrap up and move on if they don't need me for anything else.

I looked on the freelance boards to see what was out there for small projects, figuring two or three would be a good stopgap and insurance.My word, the market has deteriorated in the past year since I've been spending all my time on my current client. It was after that I was wanting to eat, though I didn't even realize that was the trigger until now.

I have GOT to stop eating in response to stress. Comfort eating in moderation is FINE at a meal (being a total puritan about eating for fuel is not something I will ever choose), but this is not how I want to handle things outside of that. Thing is, all the common psychology about using transference behaviors (taking a hot bath, or whatever) instead of one's behavior one wants to change seems to me to keep one focused on the bad habit and gives it too much mental power. I could be barking up the wrong tree, but I think I want to handle it a different way that isn't somehow an AA-typa "I accept I have no control" thing. I know it works for some people, but using control freak methods for other problems worked better for me.

Exercise

Stretching

Glass Ceiling

0. Never thought that I could consider not having a glass of wine as a mistake, but ya know what? I betcha if I'd had ONE, I wouldn't have gone to the ice cream and peanut butter sandwich.

Dandelion · Post by **Dandelion** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:09 am

I just read about the 'life eating project'. That is almost exactly how I've described it. I may have said 'life sucking project' I don't even have thousands of XPs, but the last few months of my life have been crazy trying to get everyone in my little world off of XP.

automatedeating · Post by **automatedeating** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:12 am

Hi Noel--
I agree that "accepting that you have no control" might not be effective. I'd put it this way: accept that you have no control over your urges to use food as comfort. You can have all kinds of control "freak" (as you put it!) over your RESPONSE to those urges.

Go girl.

automatedeating · Post by **automatedeating** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 4:16 am

I have to just add one more comment here, Noel. On your blog I followed the link to UFYH, and I LOVE it!!! Hahahahahah, it is so funny, and that is just what I need when dealing with my house cleaning problems. Flylady is great, too, of course (like everyone says), but she is a little goody-two-shoes, and I am so not that.

BTW, anyone else reading this, UFYH has bad words in it. Lots of them. It's sort of for people that need to clean their houses but have a bit of a chip on their shoulder about the whole process (which would be me, to a tee).

Strawberry Roan · Post by **Strawberry Roan** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 3:54 pm

I so agree about Noel's blog. I read it often and love it. I told you, Noel, over on my thread that I find you so interesting and let me add intelligent and FUNNY - but in case you didn't see it there - I am saying it again.