The Real June Recap

Confession time – I only realized on Friday, as in 2 days ago Friday, that the May recap was titled June recap… Yup took me all this time and I am not going to change it.

There were 21 walking days in June. and 2 workouts. I lost another 5 pounds which makes me think it is time to kick it up a notch. Since I go into the office 2 days a week now, I have committed to doing some sort of workout on the days that I am home. I figure that I can commit to 3 days a week to start. This will be in addition to my walking. I also started tracking my calories. This is not fun. I eat a lot of fruit which is a ton of sugar so I need to get that under control. I am going to say it is a summer problem. I am still eating relatively clean otherwise. Minimal gluten, processed sugar and gluten.

I read 4 books in June. I had high hopes for The Wrong Family but it didn’t thrill me. The other 3 were great. I attempted to finish 2 books that I had previously started. That did not go so well. I don’t seem to be in the right frame of mind for those books.

There were 14 no spend days in June. Still spending too much on food. I might have to ban myself from going to the stores. I might have overstated my grocery purchases recently as I don’t separate out my Costco bills and up until recently just groceries or cleaning supplies were available for purchase. Will keep an eye on this in July.

I had another massage and the poor RMT fought with good effort but I think my knots won. So I have been trying to more foam rolling in my life. I think it is helping. My left shoulder is very problematic. I might have to try to put a few yoga workouts in my life.

Towards the end of last summer, the AC in my car died and I decided it could wait. Well these hot days reminded me that I need AC. I took my car to the mechanic and it seemed like they fixed it. I was supposed to go back within a few days to see if everything was ok. I forgot until it was another hot day. In my defense I only leave the house a few times a week, so I wasn’t really focused on it. Anyhow, the condenser was leaking in multiple places so I spent a fortune to be cool in a vehicle I am not in often because I am foolish and like to be comfortable.

One of my neighbours passed away a couple of weeks ago. I usually only ran into her when I was on time to work so rarely, but other neighbours noticed her absence. They were reaching out to her sister to get her help but I don’t think that worked out like it should have. The police came one Saturday for a wellness check. I thought they got in contact with her. I was wrong. Two days later, they returned and had to get the fire department break open her door. She was dead, apparently had been for 10+ days. Very sad really. Even sadder is her apartment was cleared out and is now for sale. I hope she rests in peace.

This month, I have a day trip planned to get ice cream from this little town 2 hours away. I am really looking forward to this outing. Ontario is slowly opening back up and I am no rush to get out. The lockdown has been good to my wallet. 🙂 We have summer hours at work which means there are 5 Fridays of my choice during July and August that I get to leave at noon.

That’s all that is going on in my world.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

June Recap

Well, I am not getting better at getting these up in a timely manner.

Another month in the books. I swear every week feels the same. Get up, go to work, walk, read, rinse, repeat. Other than my building starting work on the balcony, which now has me looking at a space I never use with fresh eyes, life has been the same as the month before.

I walked 21 days last month and did 4 workouts. This seems to be my routine. I have lost 5 lbs since last month. Not a ton but I’ll take it. Plus my weight is going in the right direction. 🙂 Towards the end of the month, I did the Wild Rose D-Tox Cleanse. I haven’t done it in years, but it came back to me. 12 days of no dairy, gluten, sugar, vinegar or soy. I am continuing to follow this “diet” loosely for the rest of the month to see how it goes for me. Summer is a great time to go more plant based. Hopefully I can keep it up. I have gotten it down to meat once a day if at all. I ate the last steak in my freezer and did not replace it. I have mainly been eating chicken and fish as my meat options. A big change from my usual pork and beef.

I read 5 books in May. Just As I Am and The African Lookbook were both books I started before May began. There are 20 books in my Goodreads account that I have started but not finished. I am trying to half that by then end of the year.

There were 12 no spend days in May. Food still remains a bigger chunk of the budget than I’d like. More was spent on groceries than eating out last month, but still. Produce remains a constant line item on my list. And now that it is cherry season … all bets are off.

I had my first massage almost a year and was reminded that I really need to put self care higher up the list of things to do. I scheduled my next massage for later this month and will try to keep a monthly massage on the agenda. If I was less of a procrastinator I would figure out how to consistently put 15 minutes of stretching in every day. I think it would make a big difference.

That’s all that’s going on in my world.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

April Recap

Hmmmm … well this recap is a bit overdue. I think that is because not much happened to me in April that was outstanding. I have been racking my brain and April was a mundane month for me. Other than getting confirmation via a baby shower invite that one of my cousins is pregnant, no big happy news happened. I think with my friend experiencing so much loss that my focus, as much as it can be, has been on her.

Exercise is now mainly walks as I am still trying to get 10,000 steps done 5 days a week. My new shoes were hurting my feet but my Mom told me how to tie them and it has made all the difference. There were 21 days of walking in April. I also managed to work out 4 times which is a surprise to me. I would like to get back to lifting weights but haven’t managed to motivate myself to do it. Interestingly enough my weight has remained steady, no real loss but no gain either!

I only read 3 books last month. I started Cecily Tyson’s autobiography late in the month and was not able to finish it before the month changed over. I vaguely recalled some controversy when Matthew’s book came out. I can’t remember what it was and after reading the book whatever it was did not register on me.

There were 9 no spend days last month. There was way too much spent on food considering my freezer is still not empty. But sometimes a girl just wants someone else to cook. Plus I am addicted to bubble tea and dragon fruit. I also find that if it is not in my house, that’s the meal I want . 😦 Time to get myself under control. With the stay at home order extended, there should be more no spend days this month.

My decluttering has been paused. No reason other than laziness. I was hoping my cousin would say she is coming for the shelving unit that I offered sooner rather than later and that would be the kick in the pants I need. But so far she is trying to get settled into her new place before figuring out how to get this large shelf to their space. Right now I am using the shelf as an excuse not to do any more as I will be moving the furniture around as soon as it is gone.

The microwave that I took from my Dad stopped working a few weeks ago. I am hesitant to buy another one and have been finding creative ways to reheat my food. Steaming is working really well for me. The lack of a microwave is also influencing what I cook and eat. More plant based food and salads for the win!

That was April in a nutshell.

Hope all is well in your world.

February Recap

Very little progress has been made in the freezer clean out. I have been eating a lot of fresh food lately. I bought shrimp since I gave up meat, then ate mainly salads. 🤨😒🤪 I am debating skipping grocery shopping again this week as I still have so much food. I don’t have any fresh vegetables but have lots of frozen or canned. Sounds like I have an answer to this debate.

I worked out every day except 3 and still managed to get almost 5 hours more exercise than January. Those 10K steps for at least 5 days a week are making a difference. Not sure how I will manage now that we are supposed to be in the office 3 days a week. I have lost 10 inches over all so far but the pounds are not really moving. Thank goodness I took measurements or else this would be very disheartening. I do feel stronger so that helps.

I read 6 books last month, thanks to the library’s best bets feature. Which allows you to take out popular best sellers for 7 days. I apparently can get it done once there is a deadline. Hench was an unexpected addition. My cousin’s book club was reading it so I put it on hold and when it became a best bet I jumped on it so we could discuss it sooner rather than later. It was not even on my radar. I quite liked it, very different from my usual reads. The rest of the books definitely needed a deadline for me to finish them. 😦

There were 9 no spend days last month. I will try for 15 this month. A challenge considering I am returning to work 3 days a week. Time to return to meal prepping. I bought these curried lentil and chickpeas pouches so I really just need to make some rice. I have a lot of quick to make meals that just require rice or pasta.

Now pardon me as I think there are some shrimp calling me.

Hope all is well in your world.

Impromptu challenges

On Monday, I randomly decided to try intermittent fasting. Stop eating by 8pm, restart again at noon the next day. It was easy as I was working Monday thru Wednesday night. Thursday however … I decided to grab a bite with a friend, which ended up being much later than I would have liked. And just like that intermittent fasting is over for me. lol

While I was intermittently fasting, I was also having a few no spend days. Yeah me! But again once the fasting fell off, so did the no spending.

I bought the Samsung S8. After putting feelers out, I was given a price that was about 45% cheaper than what I had seen in the stores. I debated it for about 12 minutes. I was tired of running out of storage space. So I am now the proud owner of a new phone. The camera is fantastic and I will be taking a ton of pictures moving forward. Especially when I hit the west coast next week. 🙂 There is a bit of a learning curve and a search for a few favourite features. I did lose the ability to give personalized message tones but I’ll get over it.

I accepted my fate for a minute and bought 2 pairs of pants in a larger size. I am tired of being uncomfortable. But not tired enough to consistently commit to a diet and/or exercise program. When I return from vacation, I will be getting back on board. I am still doing some exercise but it’s more maintain than create change. I put My Fitness Pal on my new phone and will start tracking everything this week so I can get back into the habit. It will probably be very discouraging to see my lack of progress.

Wednesday, I am meeting with my financial institution to finalize the renewal of my mortgage. I am glad to get this resolved before going away.

Got my schedule for the PT job for this week and was surprised to see that I am on the schedule on Saturday. That will be hard to do when I am not in the country. I think that when I asked for the time off, someone confused June with July as I had an unexpected week off last month. Hopefully no one will be calling me when I am off to ask where I am.

I am counting down to my trip. I am in need of a change of scenery and some down time. My cousin has my whole trip planned out and I am looking forward to doing new things and the food. I have already sent her a long list of places I want to go to. I tried to get her to commit to driving me to the nearest In N Out Burger, 5 hours away but she does not seem game.

 

 

And so it begins

I might have to do a lot more work on my way of thinking that I imagined. My first reaction is to go to the store and buy the ingredient I need instead of adapting my recipe to what’s in my fridge.

Case in point, I want to make beef soup. Usually made with salt beef and beef ribs. I have the salt beef, no ribs. First thought? Add ribs to grocery list. Then remember I am on a no spend challenge. Next thought? Increase amount of salt beef to compensate for no ribs.

I can be taught!!!

Instead of taking stock of my freezer/fridge/cupboard situation, I moved my living room furniture around … a lot. I supposed it’s still early enough that I could knock this task off my list. We’ll see how that goes. Either way I spotted some ground beef in my small freezer which I will take out and make dinner with tomorrow.

My only goals are to come in under budget this month and empty out my freezer. This being said, there is a concert tomorrow that I really wanted to go to that I am “choosing” to miss. Or at least that is how I am marketing it. 😉 Gotta keep my eye on the prize!

 

 

OTMTW – 1/25/16

Since I didn’t really cook a thing last week, I was going to recycle last week‘s menu. Then I remembered I was running low on white rice for my dirty rice. Then I thought whatever I’ll just use brown rice and hope the kidlets don’t notice. 😉

I’m going to challenge myself to not spend any more money this month. I am under in the food categories, but paying for grad photos and the post secondary school application for Princess pushed me over my “other” category.

I am going to have to get creative as I am out of spaghetti sauce but have lots of pasta and meat. I will be scouring the cupboards if I need to. The lasagna roll ups I made tonight, the left overs from the weekend and the dirty rice should get us to Saturday. I have a couple of frozen pizzas and other convenience food in my possession. This might not be as hard as I thought.

*******

On a completely different note, my tea mug cracked today. All I did was pour hot water … like I have done hundreds of times before and crack … hot tea all over my counter.

Not sure you can see the way it cracked right through the bottom and partially up the other side.

 I have never had this happen before. It was one of my favourites. 😦

 

N(L)S Challenge – Recap and new challenge

The No (Low) Spend Challenge is done!!  Whoo hoo!!!!

Jan 29
No Spend Day 🙂

Jan 30
$250 last payment on Diva’s QC trip!!!
$29.73 groceries

Jan 31
No Spend Day 🙂

Grand Total: $279.73
2 No Spend Days!!
Coffee Tin Change Pile: $17.07 + $33.40 (debit usage) + ???

Overall it was a trying month.  I managed to pay for over $900 worth of “unplanned” expenses with good old fashion cash and without dipping into my savings! 🙂  To do this I had to reduce my debt repayment and savings. 😦  Doable for a short while, but I don’t think I would like to attempt it on a long-term basis.

Overall I spent just over $1300 on ‘life’.  Considering $900+ was on one time expenses, I don’t feel too horribly.  I had 11 ‘No Spend Days“.  Had I planned better I think I could have had more.  Coffee tin has $74.36!  Not bad for spare change.  I will continue to add to it, but the next time I open it and count it will be December 2, 2012.  Maybe there will be enough in there for a little sparkly something.

As for my ‘other‘ challenge … I managed to get rid of some of the offending products but not all.  😦  I sort of forgot about it. 😦

So on to the next challenge.  Carla has another great one.  This month’s fun is “Decluttering AND Low (No) Spending“.  I will be doing both.

For the Low(No) Spending portion I am going to boost my vacation fund to at least $500, but hopefully closer to $1000.  Right now it sits at a measly $194.45.  During my family filled week-end, my Dad asked me if I (along with my girls) wanted to come along with him, my step-mom & siblings to … either North Carolina or South Carolina next month.  I wasn’t really paying attention.  All I heard was “This March Break we are going to … Carolina, wanna come?”  I booked the week off last year but had no plans to do much, so this is a welcomed trip.   In light of my new-found cash only lifestyle I want to have some spending money instead of relying on credit.  Hopefully there will be space in the mini-van for my cooler so I can bring back lots of Chobani. 😉

So it looks like another month of watching the pennies and minimal eating out for my household.  The kids understand that this is for a greater good so they are on board.  That makes it a little easier.

For the decluttering part I am going to take incriminating before pictures soon.

• Week One: Personal Space Challenge
  I have a chair in my room that has become a place to rest my clothes. 😦

• Week Two: Family Space Challenge
  We have a book shelf in the living room that needs a lot of pruning.  I have to be honest with what books I will really read in the near future and which ones I can part with.

• Week Three: Productivity Challenge
  I am not sure about this one yet.

• Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge
  Oh I have a doozy and I think it might take the cake.  I moved into my apartment over 4 years ago and still have stuff in boxes. 😦

I am sure with all of that I will be able to find 29 things to remove from my home.

One tenth

Last night was a weak moment.  I spent far longer than I would like to admit drooling over a pretty watch.  It is amazing how in life we can justify stupid irrational decisions.  Last year I fell in love with a watch … until I saw the price.  Now I am lusting after another one whose only redeeming quality other than it being pretty is that it is 1/10th of the price of the original watch.  1/10th!?!  **shaking my head**

It’s a slippery slope people, watch out.  (pun intended!!)  LOL

It is no secret that I like pretty sparkly things.  But I am trying hard to keep it all under control.

I don’t need to buy things.I don’t need to buy things.I don’t need to buy things.

Maybe if I say it often enough maybe it will sink in. 🙂

On a different note, once this month is over and the no (low) spending is relaxed just a little, I will turn my coffee tin change pile officially into a “Sealed Pot“.  It will not be opened again until December 2, 2012. At that time it will either magically turn into a watch or be put towards Christmas shopping.  Either way a WIN-WIN. 🙂