Apple muncher's number crunching

apple_muncher

Thanks earthie!

It has been a bit of a nothing half term, to be honest. We didn't get anything much done and both me and dd feel rather meh about it. Looking back, we had too much screen time and not enough doing-other-things time. Yes, we painted part of a wall in her room, met a couple of friends for walks, did 1 tip trip (to take stuff for our neighbour) but that was mostly it!

So we decided last night that this morning we would go for a short walk after breakfast. Which we have duly done.

But it is not all doom and gloom at all; there are some ta-das. I started shortening my eating window, so have not breakfasted for the last 6 days, and have been faithfully logging all my food. Yes, I do get hungry, but it's only for a few hours and the morning seems to be the time that I can tolerate it better. I do not seem to be any good at just cutting back, or reducing portions for more than 3 days, so 6 of simply not eating until later is good! About 3 weeks ago I started implementing a lunch mostly based on veg, with a little dressing and then a splodge of protein (chicken, cheese, cottage cheese, tinned fish), with a view to massively increasing my fibre intake. That is still going well - one prep session makes about 4 days of veg mix. And I eat my last food at about 7pm. I guess that makes about a 7 hour eating window without having to think too hard about it.

Morning exercise is still going well, but it's the eating that impacts most. Though I would NOT give up the exercise voluntarily. Ever.

And with the thought that I may be back in the classroom in 2 weeks, I really do need to be able to fit into some clothes. I have lost 2 pairs of jeans due to wearing through them in an unmendable place...

2 weeks is not long enough for a transformation, but it could be a start....

f0xh0les

but  it might be 2 weeks in which to find some new trousers in a c/s!    

May your unmentionables never wear thin! 

earthgirl2

Apple, I have started doing the same thing with having breakfast later this week. I stop eating at 7pm, have a snack at 11am with protein, and then breakfast at lunch time. This is because I like my oats and have them with lots of fruit, so I didn't want to miss them totally! It works quite well and I am with you on not feeling hungry in the morning.
Glad you got a walk, half term strange this year. We actually don't get a half term in February!

apple_muncher

Unfortunately, I don't think the ch shops will open before the schools, f0xh0les!!! I do have 1 measly pair that will just about fit - and will most definitely be worn with a lonnng jacket...!

Karmacat

I've fixed in place the last paving stone to protect my new fence, and I'm just about to start proper walks again tomorrow - haven't been walking out there for a month or so, with one thing and another.  Also focussing on upping veg and fibre at the expense of carbs.  Health rules  

apple_muncher

Tis right muddy out there, karma! A week ago we walked on frozen ground where all the ruts in the squelchy mud were solid. Now it is all back to slippery and slidy.

I took dd to meet up with a friend this afternoon, in a flat park with tarmac paths. It made me think of a utopian ideal for how a park would be used: various groups playing football in different areas, tennis courts in use, same for the basketball area, people doing yoga, dog walkers, multiple families with many and varied wheeled modes of transport, runners, walkers, sitting downers, walkers, talkers, photographers, a full playground, skateboarders, petanque players, roller bladers... You get the picture! They only have a small car park, but keep that gate locked so people are not dodging vehicles as they do their laps.

Back to work tomorrow.

apple_muncher

So that's that, then. Back to work in 2 weeks.

I did find a new-to-me pair of trousers that fit me today. But they are jama trousers. And tartan. Hmmm. Prob not quite suitable for work then... OK for online teaching but not real-world stuff...

However, freeing millions into society to be all moving around to get to school at roughly the same time does seem a tad ill-thought-out... What with them all needing a test simultaneously as well as keeping them all apart until the results are through... Hopefully centres will be able to stagger the return. But someone, somewhere, needs to be carrying out the regular testing required...

f0xh0les

I think a twice a week postal test kit might work quite well Apple.  Parents do it at home, send it in, results in 48 hours, if they start it from Monday next, each child gets 2 tests before they go back anywhere near the school building, carry on  twice a week for the 3 weeks until Easter hols, and that way the govt will have a map of where the plague carriers are, how fast it is swelling or ebbing, the kids get results to their phones twice a week.

They have no idea how much the kids were transmitting because first you could not get a test for an under 18, then only if they had symptoms,  then only if it was within 5 days of symptoms onset, etc etc etc.    They muffed it up from the beginning.

Have you checked your place in the vaccine queue recently?  If I were in charge, all the teachers would have been offered a vaccine before the kids are required to go back,  and the second jab scheduled for Easter break. 

But at least we have a schedule now.  All this uncertainty had seriously started to do my head in.

apple_muncher

Thanks f0xh0les - it's good to see it from a different perspective. Yes, having a schedule is a very good thing indeed. And the return of pupils to school is an extremely good thing.

I'm in group 9 in the queue, purely by age. Being coeliac doesn't bump me up. (I have a very reactive immune system, not a suppressed one)

f0xh0les

So you could - possibly -  get your first jab in April.  Which is awful.  There was no reason not to vaccinate the teachers, if, as the govt keep banging on about, it is more likely to catch it from the teachers than the kids (utter nonsense!) except they are terrified of handing the Unions a weapon.   I just have this awful feeling the teachers will be offered their second vaccine sometime daft like the middle of the summer holidays, or October half term.    So I am totally happy to swab my kids at home twice a week to try and protect the teaching and learning staff, in fact I would do it every day.   The parents are behind you on this one, all you teacher-types.

I think it is very interesting that the school kids can go back (childcare issues anyone??) but the University has just stated that unless there are practical elements to a course, there will be no return to face to face teaching for the foreseeable.