Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

SandyShores

That's a good gardening list - hope its going well KajiKita.  Glad to hear that TRE is helping with the work dramas - I hadn't really thought about exercise/meditation helping to cope at work.  That's a really good approach I'm going to use (I'm usually thinking about tackling the stress I'm feeling about work but not during work, if that make sense).  Its great that you can get together with your team, and have amazing food.  Meals out seem to be so much more expensive these days, but they are such a rarity in my organisation now its a shame (although probably better for the budget and the waistline ).

MissRikkiC

Great gardening to do list. I have one of a similar size and have managed to do 1 item which was set poles out for the French beans. Hope yours went better 

KajiKita

SandyShores said:

That's a good gardening list - hope its going well KajiKita.  Glad to hear that TRE is helping with the work dramas - I hadn't really thought about exercise/meditation helping to cope at work.  That's a really good approach I'm going to use (I'm usually thinking about tackling the stress I'm feeling about work but not during work, if that make sense).  Its great that you can get together with your team, and have amazing food.  Meals out seem to be so much more expensive these days, but they are such a rarity in my organisation now its a shame (although probably better for the budget and the waistline ).

I do the actual TRE practice at home not in work! 😉 But I have noticed I have become more aware of what is happening in my body when sh## starts flying. Someone I usually consider an ally, dumped on me massively in a management meeting last week in such a way as to make me look like the problem. That led to massive anger in me. This happened immediately before lunch and I had the thought (or did my body?) that it wouldn’t be good for me to eat food in this state. So I ‘watched my body’ for the bits that were reacting to the anger, breathed into them and dropped a lot of the anger. The other thing the TRE book talks a lot about, is how sharing trauma quickly after the event, talking it out with non-judgemental listening to receive it, eases the effect of it. I found myself sitting, in turn with two other managers from the meeting who I asked if what had been said about me was reasonable and was I over reacting by being angry. Hearing them agree that what had been said was unreasonable and out of character considering the relationship I have with the manager who’d done it, washed away most of the rest of my anger. That manager came up in my Friday post-work TRE session, but only briefly. 

I have only been doing this practice for a very short time (maybe 4 sessions in total) but it is like I have removed a dam or flicked a switch within me. Quite remarkable.

KK

SandyShores

Lol, sorry for confusing, I think that's what I meant Kajikita.  When I meditate I'm trying to relax all the pent up stress created by work and which is seeping into my home life.  But in future I'm going to carry that meditative feeling through to the situations at work - so that I don't take the stress home in the first place (not sure if I'm explaining, but I think we are both on the same page )

😡 to being dumped on in a meeting, I would have felt exactly the same.  But its fantastic that you could pause, and work through it.  I usually either react by defending myself or go away stewing - so this is definitely something I need to practice.  

redofromstart

Interesting reading how others cope. I try not to waste negative energy fretting about things, but it is easier said than done. I'm in a major '3am, awake and over thinking about work' run currently but I can generally drown it out with the kindle as the inner dialogue reading drowns out the inner dialogue fretting. 

KajiKita

I feel your pain @redofromstart, I have had long nights like that …..
One thing that massively helped was cutting back on sugar and unrefined carbs during the day. As my sleep cycle goes on, those easily accessed calories seem to fuel the anxiety spike that wakes me. 

KK

KajiKita

Had a really busy gardening weekend. I have:
- bindweed bashed but it is literally appearing daily now! 😳
- planted lettuces in the bed that is shaded by the shed in the late afternoons, put copper rings round them!
- planted out quite few ornamentals in the cut flower border
- cleared out the greenhouse, (harvested two winter density lettuces, gave them a deep drink in a bowl via their roots for a few hours and popped them in the top of the fridge) washed the greenhouse inside and out and topped up the borders with soil conditioner
- planted tomatoes, sweet peppers and marigolds in the greenhouse and *finally* got them out of the conservatory (note to self - mid February is good time to start peppers, but wait until early March to sow tomatoes), copper rings around the peppers and marigolds 
That lot took me to 13K steps today and I’m feeling it! 😉😂

I tried a new recipe today - a lentil and pickles salad with whole grain pitta - it was good. That will be repeated 😊
The remaining lentils are being used up in workday lunches.

I seem to have been spending a LOT this month so will wait to review / refill YNAB-stylee pots after payday before looking at any further OPs. I have had the Nationspread email about the £100 - when that lands I will split it between savings and an OP. 😊

We have been talking about next tasks for the house. Looks like we will be starting the lounge reorientation next weekend as we are a bit behind our rough schedule. I also asked Mr KK roughly how much the stone paving we want to use next year on the deck and around the house will cost - rough budget for that is c. £2.1K or so. I suspect it will be a bit more as we will also need gravel for base and sand/cement, so I will aim for 2.5K or as close as I can get by next May. 

Grocery shopping is done for the month as I get paid on Thursday this coming week. We are over budget by c. £100 again this month but that’s less than last month! 😳 Morr1sons seem to be pushing online deliveries in this area and I have a voucher for £15 off a shop, plus a further £20 across the next three shops. That will help next month a bit! Also, I dropped on an offer for vegan ‘meat’ products so I am well stocked on those for at least three weeks now. 

Think that’s it for now …. 🤔

KK

Merlin's_Beard

KajiKita said:

I feel your pain @redofromstart, I have had long nights like that …..
One thing that massively helped was cutting back on sugar and unrefined carbs during the day. As my sleep cycle goes on, those easily accessed calories seem to fuel the anxiety spike that wakes me. 

KK

This is something that I definitely know is true for me, but easier said than done, especially with a tendency to stress eat refined sugar by the bucketful!

KajiKita

Merlin's_Beard said:

KajiKita said:

I feel your pain @redofromstart, I have had long nights like that …..
One thing that massively helped was cutting back on sugar and unrefined carbs during the day. As my sleep cycle goes on, those easily accessed calories seem to fuel the anxiety spike that wakes me. 

KK

This is something that I definitely know is true for me, but easier said than done, especially with a tendency to stress eat refined sugar by the bucketful!

Yup, this is me too. 

I have slowly eroded this habit. 

I started by very slowly cutting back on sugar on tea (don’t take it at all now mainly because my teeth were rotting and I hate dental work! 😉). 

The next step was switching to good quality dark chocolate and only eating 2 squares at a time, very slowly and really savouring it. 

My next step was to really consider whether what I was eating was ‘useful nutrition’ for me - so out went the potato crisps (verging on an addiction), sweets, most commercial biscuits etc. Instead I make high fibre oat biscuits, eat nuts and a limited amount of fruit. 

As a new vegan I really struggled with eating vegetables - seriously! 😂 Over time though, the subjective taste experience of vegetables has changed for me - I now eat raw cauliflower!! Never in a million years did I think that might happen 😂😂 My theory on this is that as my micro biome changed as it adapted to the dietary shifts described above, as part of the ‘eating tube’ my mouth and tastebuds changed too. No idea if this is right or not - just my observation. It does take time though and slowly, slowly. 

The other thing I found helped was eating more fibre, protein and not worrying about consuming fats like olive oil, nuts etc. They are all slow to digest and therefore filling. 

KK

MissRikkiC

Your approach to nutrition is bang on. As a nutrition coach, this is the right mindset to adopt albeit it’s not an instant change to happen over night. Protein and fats over carbs every day. Protein is just often difficult on a vegan diet, without having to reach for substitute products but you’re going about it the right way to be consistent and keep the momentum to make it a life style change rather than a fad change.