My Weight Loss Toolbox: Meal Calendar (Part 5)
Food/Calorie Journal
Scale
Walking App
Meal Calendar
Digital Food Scale that Weighs in Grams
Weekly, Detailed, Shopping List
Walking Buddy (My Daughter & My Dogs)
Yeti 36oz Rambler
Walking Shoes and Walking Socks
Let’s explore these one at a time.
FYI: There are a lot of calendar pictures in this post. Plus it is long, so I will be splitting it up in to several parts. This is Part 5. Parts 1 & 2 contain all of 2018 and Parts 3 & 4 contain all of 2019. If you are interested in seeing these meal ideas, take a look at the four previous posts. I do not have 700 unique meal ideas – but I have a handful of them, so if you are looking for ideas to put on your food calendar, I might have a couple for you.
The last half of 2019 was very stressful for me. I understand that people are supposed to be receptive to change – that we are supposed to embrace it and work with it. We are supposed to change, life changes…but I do not particularly like large change. I like change of scenery. I change the rooms around in my house (we had our bedroom in our walk-in closet for over a year so our technical master bedroom could be our dining room – we made things work). I was having a hard time accepting, yet again, that my plans were getting scrapped. I took a deep breath. I told myself I would get it together and make August and September as easy as possible on Lucas so he could get his work done. I would figure out how to make the change feel like nothing to Catawba-Lynn. I would then go into October – my favorite month – and enjoy it. I would walk and hike and feed goats and look at pumpkins and have a glass of wine from my stock at home and I would enjoy October. (Wisconsin ended up getting snow most of the month, so a lot of the cute family farms were closed, and Trick-or-Treating was done in snow pants). November and December were reserved for the holidays and I wanted to make the family feel as joyous as possible. I would focus on the holidays and get us through to the end of the year. But 2020, 2020 was my year of clarity. (2020 = 20/20 vision = clarity). Anyway. I was going to find out who I was and what I wanted – what I needed – to get through life.
Lucas enrolled in classes, mostly for networking capabilities, and to take advantage of his GI Bill that he had left over from the Army. This time would allow Lucas to get his blog and business moving again, as up until then, he had few clients and they had so much work that time was not available for blogging and website creation. I had my two part-time jobs. I worked at our county fairgrounds, basically being a janitor, when I thought I was going to be doing other things such as anything to do with event coordination, since August, 2019. But I ended up not doing anything within my skill set or much in my interest and after some poorly managed scheduling, I put in my one month notice and quit. (I am not opposed to being a janitor. I have been one before working at the fairgrounds and even if I was office staff, I have no problem cleaning – I had a waiting room and front desk cleaning schedule that I set for myself when I worked at the VA Medical Center. The job I was sold was doing more, and I wanted to expand on my abilities). And I was a tutor at the college, in the program, that I got my associate degree in. I loved being a part of the field, but I feel my abilities were not gelling with the program’s needs.
Due to Luke’s classes, game night was ended – with the intent to run one or two game nights on the weekends per month. But Wednesdays were done. Our Monday night family dinner was still running, so long as I was not scheduled to work at the fairgrounds. Many of the other meals in January and February needed to be made or prepared so that they could be eaten between classes or on the road.
I only had 4 days of paid training in January through the college and then I was not going to be needed until March or April. I felt I needed to find a job – with health insurance – with hours that did not get in the way of Catawba-Lynn’s life, Luke’s class schedule, and would still allow for Luke to grow his business. And I found a job. And I was hired. And I was excited – as I loved working and I was finally going to be working again! Plus, I would not be so stressed about money. And we had health insurance. And I was beyond excited about my job and career possibilities. I would be able to care for my family at home and support them financially at work. I felt like a badass. What a plan – and I could make it work!
Lucas was approached by his number one company and offered a job. He never thought this would happen and even though he wanted to run his consulting business, this opportunity was amazing, a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we knew he had to take it. But, for this to work I had to quit the job that I had just got – was supposed to start training for in less than a week – and for it to work for Lucas, we had to move. From “rural” Wisconsin to Philadelphia. I do not like cities. I grew up in West Milwaukee and hated living in Milwaukee county. I left as soon as I could and was very fortunate that Lucas and I could move to Hartford. We loved it there. Now we would be moving to the sixth largest city in the United States. (Milwaukee is 31st largest, per Wikipedia). Lucas started working remotely less than a week after the offer. Financial stability was back, but life uncertainty crept in. Philadelphia? How far away is Philadelphia? I have no clue how I am going to live in Philadelphia. I mean – Hartford, population of a little over 15,000, was starting to feel too crowded for me. We were discussing the possibility of purchasing a second house a little further ways out from the city and renting out the one we were living in (right before the contract ended).
We were supposed to visit Philadelphia for the first time as a family in March. We were going to drive to Philadelphia, stay in an AirBnB, meet Luke’s co-workers, see the sights, get some hiking in, and buy a house. Wow, we were going to buy a house. I had been spending every night, after Catawba-Lynn fell asleep, looking at houses online. The market was hot, and things were moving fast. The houses were also rowhouses, a foreign concept in Wisconsin, which were even smaller than the small house we were currently living in. As soon as the offer was signed, I immediately started purging my extra stuff. I sold it on Facebook Marketplace and hoped that my belongings would go to good homes and get good use – because I knew we were not going to have any space for them in our new home and I did not want to see my stuff get thrown out. The environmental waste bothered me. (Still does). I was excited about our trip. It would allow me to get a feel for the area and hopefully we would write an offer on a house. Then I would know how much more stuff I would have to get rid of.
I went to Dollar Tree and got some road trip snacks. I went to Aldi and purchased produce. And as a family, we went to Walmart to purchase protein bars and protein shakes. There was that thing that Lucas and I were paying attention to going on in China…where the government overnight built hospitals in the middle of the city to combat whatever was going in. Yeah, that thing that was over here now that was making people sick. Luke’s contract stated that he had to be relocated by mid-June and we had scheduled this trip as soon as the contract was signed. We were going, but I wanted to make sure we had shelf safe food with us in case restaurants and grocery stores were closed, or in case we were not allowed to leave the state. Weird things were happening in other countries – we had been watching it online since December 2019, and I wanted to go as prepared as possible.
We checked out of Walmart with $150 in protein bars and protein shakes. Lucas was on the phone. I saw the library director by the store doors and said “hi”. Tawbs loves the library personnel. We explained that it was heart breaking we were leaving – we were going to miss the library so much – we were at the library at least twice a week! The director was sad to see us go, but happy for Lucas. And then Lucas came over, smiled at the director, turned to me and said “Philly just shut down the school system. Business procedure is to now work from home. Philly is closing.” What?! I asked. The director let us go as we obviously had things to discuss and we returned home – with $150 in shelf safe meals.
So. Instead of driving to Philadelphia or being in the AirBnB on the 15th, I made baked “fried” pickles (to use up the food I had in the pantry). We purchased a giant jar of giant pickles for game night. We did not use them, and the jar was sitting in my pantry, taking up space. I knew we were not going to move them to Philadelphia, so we were going to be stuck eating them. But I do not really like pickles that much. But I like Texas Roadhouse’s deep-fried pickles, so I tried to make a baked version. And it was horrible. I gained so much weight from the sudden high sodium intake – no one liked the taste of them – it was horrible! But I do not waste food, so I was stuck eating them. Worst recipe idea ever.
Government was requesting people stayed home, and we abided by this request. Lucas was our only source of income (as I had quit the college job – because I took on the full-time job that I quit to stay home with Catawba-Lynn and prepare the house and our life for a move) and I could not afford Lucas getting sick. Lucas said he could not afford me getting sick because he has no idea how I keep the household moving. So we followed government mandates. Lucas and Catawba-Lynn stayed home, and I went grocery shopping every three weeks. I made meal plans accordingly – what meals would require shelf safe food only? Those meals would be put on the calendar in the “third week” of the shopping excursions.
The notice of the move in February had me clearing out our pantry and we ate the “old” food in the pantry and freezer. I was getting ready to move. COVID-19 had people wanting to have food on hand. And we had just used all our supply. And I could not buy a supply because I did not know when the governments were going to open the cities, so that we could buy a house, so that we could move. (Philadelphia did not see real estate as an essential business and closed in person showings. Real estate transactions that were started before the closure were allowed to be finished. We did not start a transaction, so we were in limbo with our move).
The lines that split the days in half on the April calendar were to show lunch and dinner. Before COVID, I could rely on leftovers or some random meal I came up with on the fly and threw together. But before COVID, I was planning and shopping every week. Now I was planning for three to four weeks with no intent for going out for one ingredient. If I did not have an ingredient, the meal would go on without it. Furthermore, we had an issue with our protein shake distributor and thus no longer had a stock of shake powder. I was having to come up with breakfasts as well. (We did not – and do not – have a downstairs fridge/freezer. We operate out of our kitchen fridge and we had one cabinet in our Hartford kitchen for canned goods).
April is filled with slow cooker meals! 15 out of the 30 dinners were made in the slow cooker. Utilize the tools you have to make the situation at hand work!!
We got word that Philadelphia was opening at the end of May. And we found a property that we loved. We contacted our realtor and she said that she could get us in to see the house – verified with the realtor that they would leave the house on the market until “Saturday” (this was Thursday) so that we could see it. Houses were selling after being on the market for one or two days. People were buying houses sight unseen because life keeps moving forward and when your lease is up, and you need a place to live – you need a place to live! We were doing our best to still honor or contract relocation date of mid-June.
End of May, beginning of June was probably not the time to get a first impression of a large city, especially Philadelphia. Fires and explosions created curfews. Our house viewing and area exploration was stunted. A tornado touched down right over the border in New Jersey, knocking out power in several areas of both states and bringing down trees in Philadelphia. An employee from the city said that it would take crews weeks to clean up the storm damage, so be careful while driving. It was commonplace, that week, to have to weave around fallen trees in some of the areas in Philadelphia a short way away from Center City. The house that we went to see, we were outbid on and the second house we put an offer in on – supposedly the family accepted out offer but needed 24 hours more to take the offer to their lawyer to close on a family member’s estate. We verbally agreed on this extension so long as it would close the house from being on the market. The family agreed. We were told the contract would be sent over immediately, with our inclusion, but it never showed up. We went to the house as scheduled, one last time before we drove back to Wisconsin so that we could get room measurements and pictures. We looked over a couple of the rooms but then the seller’s agent kicked us out of the house, stating that people were coming to look at the house. “Look at the house?” I said, “I thought this was closed, a done deal. The family accepted our offer. That is why we allowed the extension.” Basically, we were told that we did not have the extension signed (because he intentionally never sent it) and planned on leaving the house on the market until after we had our inspection done (which was not a part of the deal). We offered listing price. The seller’s agent wanted a bidding war. It was the principle of the matter – they went back on their word, and since there was no contract sent, we back out on ours. We told our agent to drop the sale, that we would not be signing the contract, if and when it came. (They ended up selling the house several weeks later for $10,000 less than asking). We returned to Wisconsin with no contract, a confusing view of what Philadelphia was, and questions of whether or not Philadelphia was the right move for us.
When I break 2020 up into a couple of months and put it on paper – it does not sound as bad. To be able to sum up on month in a paragraph – it feels kind of crazy. When you are “in it” things feel horrible. And then you get through it. “It” may be horrible. “It” may have lasting effects on you. But you still get through “it”. I know we are not collectively through the insanity of what 2020 (actually 2019) brought us – but I, my family, we are through parts of our own insanity that 2020 brought us. With some sort of a plan, I was able to keep myself in much better health than I would have been if I went through the contract end, the changes, 2020, more changes, the move, and even more changes, on a day to day basis with no plan. I personally love planning and speak very highly of it. If you are having a tough time with something – it does not have to be weight or health related – try stopping and making a plan. Many of my plans have gotten scrapped over and over again, but then I make a new plan and keep working towards the goal, sometimes even changing the goal slightly – but still having a similar outcome as the goal intended. Case in point: I have always wanted to finish the Iditarod with a team of “rescue” sled dogs – dogs that were not specifically bred to run or dogs that may not have had training in mushing since they were pups. I wanted to do this to prove that rescue dogs are still good dogs – that maybe they are not competition worthy of the Iditarod, but they can still band together and make a great team. Rescue dogs are not garbage – they make great pets. (To be clear, I have nothing against reputable breeders – never have). I came up with this goal when I was in second grade. Second grade! And I remember it! But second grade me was not an adult and second grade me is definitely not current me. I have hung on to this goal through everything, knowing this will never happen. But what can I do? I can love mushing and I can follow it and/or I can put together a small team and enjoy it within my limits. I can support the Iditarod through other means, and I am not saying only financially, but spreading positive statements about an amazing event that is wrongfully under attack. And I may not travel the 1,151 miles from Anchorage to Nome in March with a team of 16 dogs, but I can adopt a/some rescue dogs and walk trails – not only through walks, but pieced together, lifetime walks, that give me the sense of adventure and completion and accomplishment – like the 1,000 mile Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin. And I can work with a rescue/shelter/humane society, like I have done in the past, to aid rescue dogs, and get the word out that they are great! There may have been a time when Dianne Brisingamen was capable of doing more of the goals that she concocted throughout her life. But the Dianne Brisingamen now understands that some of these goals need to be reformed, restructured, balanced and adapted to what Dianne Brisingamen is capable of doing now. And that is hard. It can be soul crushing and defeating to seemingly walk away and give up or forget about a goal – but you do not have to walk away or give up. It may not be as great as what you wanted, what you intended – what you worked hard for and set up for yourself – but you cannot control all variables. You have to roll with it – and that is not something easy for me, but I do it. If you are struggling with any of your goals, I am asking you to do it too. Maybe you will not hit the number on the scale that you decided you had to be, but why did you pick that number? Why? Looks? Health? A number you used to be back when…? You can achieve the “why” of your goal without hitting the number on the scale. I am not saying stop trying to lose weight or be healthy – no not at all, never! Do not get hung up on the number. Achieve that “why.” And who knows – maybe you will complete the Iditarod some day – I mean – hit your original goal number on the scale, even after you have already accomplished the “why” on the journey to your original goal.
That’s it, it’s all I got. I will be posting the last half of 2020 very soon, and then I will be posting the rest of my Weight Loss Toolbox items shortly after. Any questions on any of the meals, let me know in the comments and I will respond. Have a great one, everybody.
Half A Human 