Ælfric’s Diary

Ah, the <sarcasm>joy</sarcasm> of having depression. In the last 6 weeks, I've pretty well undone everything I'd gained (er, lost?) when the depression was playing nice. So we get to start again.

17/10/2020

Food

Meal One: Muesli with almond milk. At some point during the depression I've made a batch of muesli, so at least it isn't laced with added sugars like commercial muesli's tend to be. And it needs to be eaten up before the moths attack it.

Meal Two: Tinned Pineapple.

Meal Three: Turkey kofta curry.

Meal Four: Banana and berry smoothie.

Exercise

Weights

See attached. I'm just going to print the exercise journal to PDF and upload it rather than retyping it.
 

Attachments

  • Weights Workout 2020-10-17.pdf
    88.7 KB · Views: 3
Hey Ælfric, good to see you posting!

Starting again is good, the future is what matters, past not so much. Your food and exercise look really good, I am looking forward to watching your progress.
 
Plus: if you hadn´t worked so hard before depression struck you would definitely been up higher now. Good to have you back.
 
Hi, Ælfric. :iagree: with Rob & LaMa. Depression sucks but you are back & back on track. Good for you.
 
Thank you all for your welcome back.

Depression and vacuum cleaners, they both suck, but only one is desirable.

17/10/2020…

Food

Snack [late]: Tinned salmon.

18/10/2020

Food

Meal One: Muesli with almond milk.

Meal Two: Tinned Peaches.

Meal Three: Salmon curry.

Meal Four: Banana and strawberry smoothie.

Snack: Peanut, almond, brazil, and cashew nut butter on corn thins. Again, this is stuff I bought while the depression was bad, and the corn things won't keep forever.

Exercise

I had planned to go cycling in the morning, but woke up under a cloud and didn't come good, so this didn't happen.

I went to the AGM of the state branch of the RSCDS in the afternoon, and after the meeting most of the attendees stayed and we danced for about two hours. Given that the dancers were all relatively experienced, there was a lot less learning the dances and a lot more actual dancing, so in the two hours we got about three hours worth of dancing done.

If anyone is wondering how we can dance in the current circumstances: in most states of Australia contact sport is allowed as long as there is a Covid management plan in place—and in many states Scottish Country Dancing and similar dance activities managed to define themselves as contact sports.
https://weight-loss.fitness.com/attachments/weights-workout-2020-10-17-pdf.38279/
 
Ælfric said:
Depression and vacuum cleaners, they both suck, but only one is desirable.
Click to expand...
I like that, will have to remember it. Wish I knew something about depression, but I am pretty ignorant. About all I can say is "cheer up", but I know that's little help. Hope you find a way to beat it or live with it.

A while back LaMa posted some videos calling depression a person's big black dog, I thought they were very helpful. It made me realize that my binge problem is probably a bit like depression, something I just have to learn to live with.

 
It's great that you got to dance. It is so good for you. I suffer from depression and have done for most of my adult life. Usually, it's when one bad thing happens on top of another & another & I feel utterly overwhelmed. From experience now I tell myself that it will pass as it always does. If the day comes when it doesn't I'll see a therapist again to get myself back on track. I find the Beyond Blue & Balck Dog websites really helpful & have rung their helpline for advice re our son who has BP 2.
I had to look up RSCDS. I used to love doing the Highland Fling when I was a teenager :)
 
19/10/2020

Food

Meal One: Muesli with almond milk.

Meal Two: Banana smoothie with eggs and nut paste.

Snack: Macadamia nuts.

Meal Three: Chicken, sweet potato, and green bean Jalfrezi (with extra onions, ginger, garlic, and coriander added); cucumber raita; and tomato salsa. Yum.

Snack: milk.

Exercise

Regular Monday night SCD (about 2 hours). The dancing works on so many levels, and it helps with not just the depression but also my aspergis: it’s movement therapy; it’s music therapy; it works on memory, spatial awareness, and rhythm and timing; it’s socialization (and it’s fun). While I could easily get a more effective cardio workout in a lot less time, the cost in terms of the mental health issues far outweigh the fitness related gains.

The good news is that the Wednesday night group near me is restarting this week, so that will be back to two regular nights of dancing each week.
 
Music really is a near-magical thing. Food is looking good as well, slthough I am now very curious in what form you add eggs to a smoothie. Raw? Or just cooked/fried on the side?
 
@LaMaria: the eggs in the smoothie are raw. At least in Australia, almost all egg related food poisoning can be traced back to the person preparing the dish being clueless about food safety, and only very, very rarely due to the eggs themselves.

20/10/2020

Food

Meal One: Muesli with almond milk.

Meal Two: Chicken balls, mashed potato, green salad. Apple juice. My roof top tent finally arrived in Oz so I went to pick it up, and it took much longer to fit it to the trailer than I had allowed, so I was nowhere near home. Fortunately, you can get decent, and reasonably diet friendly, food at Ikea, and the motorway pretty much runs past their door.

Meal Three: Chicken, sweet potato, and green bean Jalfrezi (with extra onions, ginger, garlic, and coriander added); cucumber raita; and tomato salsa. Again, but still yummy.

Meal Four: Banana and strawberry smoothie.

Snack: salmon.

Exercise

I'm on holidays, so I was able to do weights mid week, see attached.
 

Attachments

  • Weights Workout 2020-10-20.pdf
    71.2 KB · Views: 0
Same here with the eggs - I think it´s mainly the US that has a high rate of salmonella infection actually inside the eggs. Some of my elderly patients told me they were given dark beer with a raw egg whisked in every day for extra nourishment as young teens. I just don´t think I could bear the texture. To each their own though!
 
My GK's still give me heaps for the time I put a raw egg in their milkshakes. I saw it as an opportunity to pack some more nutrition into their diets as they were such terrible eaters, but they thought I was trying to poison them!
I haven't heard anyone say motorway in Australia before. When you say a rooftop tent is it going on top of a 4WD or are you putting it on top of an actual trailer? Our son's GF has one & it's great.
 
LaMaria said:
Same here with the eggs - I think it´s mainly the US that has a high rate of salmonella infection actually inside the eggs.
Click to expand...

It happens, but is very rare from eggs themselves (only about 1 in 20,000 eggs are infected). On the other hand, 25% of cut poultry in the US has salmonella.
 
That´s a LOT. But then I wouldn´t use raw poultry no matter where it comes from. A nice steak tartare, on the other hand... And you can´t have that without raw egg.
 
Err2 said:
25% of cut poultry in the US has salmonella.
Click to expand...
At least, when I was in school in a sanitary microbiology class we did a lab project on salmonella. Took samples from all kinds of disgusting places, including swabs in untreated sewage. The only place we consistently found salmonella was in poultry from the local market, we found it 100% of the time, on both chicken and turkey, more than in sewage. Did not test eggs. I have been very careful with raw poultry since.
 
Cate said:
I haven't heard anyone say motorway in Australia before.
Click to expand...
Comes from living in the UK for six years, where all the roads with M numbers are motorways (except for the M25, which is really just a large, ring shaped parking lot disguised as a motorway). While we were away, Australia renumbered the freeways with M numbers. Plus, all the official signage says motorway.
Cate said:
When you say a rooftop tent is it going on top of a 4WD or are you putting it on top of an actual trailer? Our son's GF has one & it's great.
Click to expand...
It's going on top of a rack on the trailer. It's too heavy for the roof fails on the XV (Crostrek for Americans).

Eventually (fairly soon) I'll build a slide out kitchen to go into the trailer, and a lid with a weather seal to go over the box part of the trailer. The access will be improved by getting a plate that will mount to the draw bar just behind the spare wheel for the ladder's fee to sit on. I also need to put a solar panel on the roof with the battery system to go into the trailer, then I can have a fridge/freezer in the trailer.

Nest.jpg
 
21/10/2020

Food

Meal One: Muesli with almond milk.

Meal Two: Peaches and yoghurt.

Meal Three: Chicken, sweet potato, and green bean Jalfrezi (with extra onions, ginger, garlic, and coriander added); cucumber raita; and tomato salsa.

Meal Four: Banana and blueberry smoothie.

Snack: Kippers.

Exercise

Three hours of Scottish Country Dance.
 
22/10/2020

Food

Meal One: Muesli with almond milk.

Meal Two: Chicken, sweet potato, and green bean Jalfrezi; cucumber raita; tomato salsa, and a small serving of turmeric coconut rice.

Meal Three: Banana, strawberry, nut butter, and egg smoothie (post workout).

Meal Four: Mug of milk.

Snack: a small serving of mixed nuts.

Exercise

Weights.
 

Attachments

  • Weights Workout 2020-10-22.pdf
    67 KB · Views: 1
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