Whatcha Eating Today VSG'ers? Tuesday 1/23/18

So today it is 70+ degrees and muggy. Two days ago it was below freezing. So now the heat is off and the air conditioner is turned on. Florida weather is definitely unique.

QOTD: City, suburb, or country? Do you prefer concrete and highrises? Lawns and neighbors not too far away? Or are you a the type that is happiest smack-dab in the middle of the wilderness? Or something in between?

I like Jacksonville as it is a mix of all three. I prefer to live in the suburbs, but like the openness of the countryside. The city, I can take it or leave it. I would not do well encased in concrete 24x7.

M1: Coffee, PP vanilla, miralax

M2: Egg, miso and tilapia

M3: Shrimp in NE clam chowder (no pots)

M4: LO Lasagna (no noodles)

M5: Ribeye and garlic mashed cauliflower

S: Jerky or other protein forward snack if needed

E: Walking, standing up and sitting down. I am almost to the point where I don't use my electric wheelchair in the house anymore. And I get out and put away the dishes in the upper cabinets. Someone else always used to have to do this for me. This is a huge change for me.

Water/Vits: on track

Good morning! It is muggy and warm here too, but I prefer that to the cold.

QOTD: Definitely suburb. I like being able to go to the store, restaurants or into a city fairly easily. Though I do love walking in the country. I like suburban towns that have a fair amount of open space (preferably on the ocean).

1 year, 10 months post-op

B: eggs, cottage cheese and Canadian bacon

L: Emiepie egg salad with bacon

D: Grouper if I can find a good fish market.

S: yogurt

Being more mobile is such a HUGE NSV!! Congratulations on this achievement!

I've noticed that I can more easily get up and down on the floor to play with my nephews, and I don't get nearly as tired when I'm babysitting on my own. There's only two of them, but a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old really keep me on my toes.

Good morning!

QOTD: Well, I'm unsure. I've lived in San Diego, Memphis, Bossier City, and Horn Lake, MS. I've spent most of my time in Mississippi, and (besides the rampant undercurrents of homophobia, evangelism, and racism amongst the older generation) I absolutely LOVE IT. I'm only 25 minutes from Downtown or Midtown Memphis, yet I'm also only 40 minutes from a huge lake in the country. It's a nice mixture. I think I'd like a house somewhere near the suburbs one day, but I don't want a typical neighborhood with the next house 4 feet away.

B: premier chocolate

L: 1 hard boiled egg, 1 ounce of lowfat cheddar

D: chicken or fish (TBD)

Snacks: babybel cheese, turkey sausage

I was SUPER productive yesterday. I did all of these things: Went through all the "running bins" in my closet - I've got a 2x3 closet maid cube thing and each of the 6 bins was stuffed with running clothes. I tried on everything; Made a grocery list; Went through most of the drawers in my dresser; Gathered my surgical compression garments and made a post on OH to see if anyone could use them; Scheduled passport renewal appointment; Bagged three garbage bags of clothing for donation and loaded them in the car; Loaded old, dead microwave in the car; Completed GERO301 reading; Completed GERO301 discussion post; Cooked dinner; Did laundry and put away all the laundry from the week (we wear a lot of clothes...); Got the house ready for the cleaners; Went through the bag of stuff I'd pulled from the Toyota before donating it; Repackaged some chicken broth for better freezer storage. It was awesome :D

Today I've got slightly less to do, primarily because I expected some of those tasks to bleed over into today! Today it's: Run - but not until later once the rain and storms have passed; Haircut; Grocery shop; Swing by landfill to drop off clothes and microwave in their respective bins; Reading for HMGT310; Discussion post for HMGT310; Cook dinner; Get started on "quiz" for GERO301. But first, I'm drinking my shake before I go shower.

QOTD: My ideal living situation would be a house on a decent amount of land (5-10 acres) that was either wilderness or forest - something that didn't require any yard work. Close enough to a small, walkable downtown area that I could drive there in 15 minutes, park, and walk. Something with a lot of local businesses, a great year-round farmers market. Something with a strong college system. I also, however, want good proximity (no more than an hour drive) to a major city with cultural opportunities and an international airport. Oh, wait! I want to live in West Chester, PA! :D (Only it's doubtful I'll have the house with 5-10 acres of any sort, haha.) Basically, I want it all. Middle of nowhere feel when I'm in my home, proximity to small, walkable town, proximity to major city.

1: protein shake
2: something with eggs - there's leftover potato-bacon stuff and leftover tamale hash that would both work with a fried egg on top
3: Sweet and Sour Pork, rice for the guys

liquid and vites: on track
exercise: running later - I'm going to do the two-mile loop in my development for the first time in forever.

Just reading that made me exhausted. Excuse me, but I need to go take a nap...

Whew... that's better. Congrats Gwen, you must have a tremendous sense of accomplishment!

Jacksonville is very much like what you are describing. Except for the cultural opportunities. We are still very challenged in that department. And we have the beach so that it a big plus for me. I don't think I could live very far from the ocean. I must have been a mermaid in a previous life.

I felt super productive, I love days like that. Especially since I've had a hard time finding motivation recently and I've been procrastinating school assignments. I can't afford to do that this week since I'm "losing" Friday, Saturday, and Sunday due to my monthly weekend with my mom! While I -can- do school work when I'm visiting her, I prefer to not have to.

The real problem with Jacksonville is that it's in Florida ;) There's a good reason Fark has a Florida tag! It's also entirely too close to Art's family...

Do you read fantasy at all? If so, Mira Grant has two books about mermaids that are GREAT. The first, which is more of a novella, is called Rolling in the Deep and the second is Into the Drowning Deep. Interesting take on the mermaid myth :D

It's funny - I'm totally not a beach person. My family went to the Outer Banks when I was a kid, but it was all pre-age 8 for me. And we went to Ocean City Maryland, but only in November? So most of my memorable ocean beach experience is in the cold months. But I wonder if now-Gwen would be more of a beach person? I don't really know. I'm more of a mountains/wilderness type, I think!

Gwen, you are rockin it!!!

B: 1 poached egg with 1 oz smoked salmon and 1 oz guac.

S: 1/2 container Oikos triple zero with 2 oz fresh strawberries.

L: 1 smoked, skinless chicken thigh with 1 oz guac.

S: 1/2 container Oikos triple zero with 2 oz fresh blueberries

D: 4 oz Glazed tofu from Whole Foods and 1 oz pork rinds

E: Walking the dog throughout day - 10,000 steps.

QOTD: City, suburb, or country? Do you prefer concrete and highrises? Lawns and neighbors not too far away? Or are you a the type that is happiest smack-dab in the middle of the wilderness? Or something in between?

This is interesting... I love to visit the city, Washington DC being one of my favorites. BUT, at the end of the day, I want to return to somewhere in the country or wilderness. My brother lives in a beautiful development that is lakeside and has so many trees that you can't see the neighbor, even though they are less than 100 ft. away. They have close neighbors, but it feels like you are in the wilderness. That is what I like.

M1: chicken breast

M2: oatmeal and PP (vanilla)

M3: sausage and peppers/onions

M4: chicken

M5: Yogurt or cheese stick w/PB, whichever I'm in the mood for!

E: More PHYSICAL THERAPY!!! I'm certain they are trying to kill me! (Ha ha ha.) However, this Sunday I was able to do dishes, bake 2 cakes, do 2 loads of laundry before I sat down for the afternoon! That is more activity than I have been able to do in years! I was so proud of myself, that I made my hubby cook dinner. (Hey, I made him cake...)