Ejeff wrote:If you can’t give up the chocolate perhaps adding just a bit to some healthy oatmeal banana cookies might work. This way you will eat less chocolate, but still have a “treat”. I guess it would be somewhat lowering the calorie density of the treat. Just a thought.
Hi Ejeff!
I love stirring chocolate in with my oatmeal in the morning, when I have oatmeal. The secret is being satisfied with that for the day. I got in the habit of eating rich, and not thinking about whether my foods were on plan while away on my honeymoon...that was the first week of October, and it took me weeks to break away from that habit, and daily chocolate sort of stuck.
It's very good, high quality, very dark (78%) Lindt Excellence and I have one or two squares, nibbled and melted in my mouth over a day. I love the 85% too, but it was easier to stop at less with that high percentage. For the longest time, I allowed myself chocolate only on the weekends. Maybe I'll do something like that again.
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Yesterday there was a blood drive at work, and I signed up, but while waiting I got really anxious. A co-worker was already hooked up and the sight of her pumping her hand, the line of blood flowing to the bag just triggered me. I felt a little bit sick, and slightly weepy. Told the intake guy that I was a little scared. Well, he took my BP
Holy mahonies! It was 190/114!!!! He gave me some water and left me for a bit to calm down, and when they took it a second time it was 140/90 HOLY COW. At that level I was okay to donate, but talking about it got me all het up again, so I ended up leaving without donating, which is what I wanted to do from almost the beginning. I don't know where that anxiety came from, unless it was thinking about them trying to find a vein, which pretty much is impossible on me.
Anyway, I ended up not giving blood. But it got me thinking about the levels of stress in my life. Wylie and my mom tend to clash, though things are calmer these days than they were. But that has been a HUGE stressor in the past year.
My job pays well but it is boring and very desk/computer screen oriented and feels sort of like a Tiny Hub in a Huge Machine. Like really, what difference am I making in anyone's life? Although I enjoy the phone call part of my job very much. But dang there's a lot of copy and pasting. Morale is better than it was, since moving to a different manager, in a group where people are friendly and talkative, and have a sense of humor, so that's good. In fact, I have a giraffe by my cubicle now
the team Giraffe Barnaby Leopold Molina. Fun is part of my office scene now and I appreciate that a lot. But there's still quite a bit of griping among the old team, and the coworker who is the most likely to gripe and gossip has the same lunch hour as me so I get an earful almost every day. During lunch, over chat on my computer, etc. Not that I disagree with her sentiments, but DANG, every day? So that's starting to wear me down too. She's a friend, and she is funny and sharp but yeah, a couple of lunches a week NOT fretting and griping will be nice.
Got thinking about my daily routine. I'm up at 5:30 and getting ready for work right away. Out the door by 6:00 and pulling in the parking lot at work by 6:30. Shift starts at 7:00, so I like getting in about 30 minutes early in order to settle in with a cup of tea, check a few non-work things online (like this website) and my shift starts at 7:00. Shift is over at 4:00 and I head home. Trying to build the habit of a workout consistently, so in Heidi Has Healthy Habits-Land I stop at the gym three days a week before going home. That hasn't happened yet, however. It was better when I started at 9:00 so I could go workout early and come home to get ready for work.
When I get home I fix food, either cooking or reheating. TV on, Wylie likes his evening news. And honestly, at home I am pretty inert. Reading, watching TV, doing Zentangle. Visiting with Wylie or just sitting there with him. Not active, nothing very interesting (though I do love my at home down time) We hit the hay by about 9:30. If I don't think about it, I can go MANY days in a row without once getting outside. And there isn't much opportunity for alone time here, either. That is HUGELY important in my life. Down time, alone.
So overall I think the biggest health risk where stress is concerned is not having hardly any alone time, and not getting outdoors. I need to remedy this FOR SURE. Maybe I can put aside the emotional attachment to food (especially chocolate) if I can have this meditative, silent, time alone outside.
Food aside, exercise aside, I am not doing myself any favors by neglecting my quiet time.