Challenge - Day 1

Day 1

I was supposed to begin this challenge of mine yesterday, but while I was thinking about it I realized I want to keep some detailed notes aside from writing about it like this.  I wanted to do that for tracking the fitness end of what my challenge entails just so I would know what I had completed and had yet to do each day.  

I built a spreadsheet for that in Google Sheets as I am getting versed in those from using them so much at work.  Before I could complete that sheet, I started thinking about the food and plastic end of things.  Next thing I knew I was building more sheets.

Figuring out what I needed, how I wanted to reflect them on each sheet and then building the sheets themselves took a bit of time.  It didn’t leave me with enough time to complete my tasks for my first day, and I thought that would be a shitty way to start…Failure right out of the gate from being unprepared

I didn’t like the thought of beginning all of this in failure, and I knew it would sit with me the whole time, so I made sure the sheets I needed were done the way I wanted, and pushed it all one day until today.

The way I looked at that was that it just took one day off the back end of everything between finishing this and the weekend I would like to start into triathlons if my body gives me the opportunity.  Also, as I was initially thinking on doing this for the month of July, but started days earlier, I had a bit of guilt-free room to play around with my beginning.  I guess that’s a payoff of beginning something early…that it gives a bit of grace for a stumble.  Considering all of this I feel like I made the right choice because I will be worth it in the long run.

Last night at work was my beginning as it is the equivalent to the day time for the vast majority of people.  (I work through the night.)  I had simple rice with spices, and left over roasted chicken.  

Even though my challenge is to not bring any new plastic into my life, I still decided to keep track of all the existing plastics that I use, and how many times for each item every day.

I felt it would be good to nit-pick that much just so when I look back on things after the month is over, I can see how many plastic items I use in my life even though I brought no new plastics into it.

The Tupperware for my food put me into plastic usage right off the bat.  Then there was my van, and keys.  My work was excluded from that though as I have no control over that, and if I were to count plastics for that too, my totals would be skyrocketing.  (Plus I can’t spend my time at work tracking all the plastics I use…even the simplest things…pens, computers, highlighters, staplers, keys…)

I was exhausted by the time I was done work.  Before I clocked out I had to go over to our head-office to do some stuff.  When I was there I started getting pretty freakin’ hungry.  

It was Lynn’s birthday.  When I was talking with her she asked me if I wanted to come to her birthday lunch they were having at noon.  I said I couldn’t because of this challenge and the time restricted eating within it…that I can eat food during the night when I was at work, and then from there it was juice and water only.  It was 10:45am and I was also really fading with that exhaustion, to the point where my head went numb and I felt half drunk.  I said happy birthday to her again and went back to my work to finish up and clock out.  

When I left work I knew I didn’t have any food at home other than rice, quinoa, some spices and garlic.  I didn’t want to deal with the grocery store and already knew how limited it was.  The Co-Op was the other much better option for this, but it was Wednesday and the market was on, so I was going there to get some food.

The market has moved and is smaller this year, but there were some good little fresh food stands.  The first place I went to are super local to me as they are from Glade, like me.  Their farm isn’t across the ferry where the main community is, but they are Glade none-the-less:  Glade Organics

I got some kale, a cucumber, and some kind beets from them.  I was about to grab their last bunch of carrots, but some woman scooped ‘em up in front of me.  I was thinking about how I would eat them.  Right away I figured that I would make rice, then chop up the kale and put that on top of the rice to steam once the water level cooked down below the top rice level.  When I dished it up I would shed the beets and put that on top.  “Sweet…I have a plan!”

I talked with the people a bit.  They were super nice.  Bummed about the carrots though, I asked them if they sold anything from their farm as I was a neighbour and it would be stylin’ to just go grab stuff directly from them.  They said they did on Tuesday later afternoons.  I told them I’d be coming for sure next week and would be coming with a camera and would likely write something about being there.  They offered to take me around their farm.

I said good-bye and walked around looking at what the other stands had.  It’s seasonal, so everybody had all the same stuff.  I went to some organic stand from Blewett and got some green onions.  After that I went to another stand and got a small thing of strawberries. 

As it is my first day, I didn’t have my head totally tuned in yet, and ate one tiny little strawberry just to see what they were like.  When I was done eating it I realized I wasn’t supposed to eat anything through the day and casually cursed myself for screwing up that fast.  I tried to talk myself into forgiving myself as it was only one tiny chintzy little strawberry.  I decided it was OK, and let it go.  The challenging part was about to come.

I knew the hardest part would be the adjusting of my body to the change of eating times, and one meal a day in the beginning until I adapted to it.  I was prepared for it, but I was still getting pretty freakin’ hungry.  I just knew all I had to do was get home, take a siesta, and then I’d be OK.

I saw a stand with a bunch of loaves of breads though.  “Hot damn…I’m goin’ to check that out!”  I love fresh bread.  Always have, always will

It was the French bakery’s stand.  All I really cared about was if they were packing them up in paper or plastic.  Sure enough…paper!  “Yeaaaaah!  I’m getting’ somea that shit for sure!”

I got a 2 for 1 deal on two kind loaves.  I was psyched…right up until he put them in my hands.  I felt how soft they were and I was horrified.  Normally, I would have only made it back to my van with 1½ loaves ‘cause I’d just eat chunks of it along the way.  Not today though!  I simply had to toughen up and ignore the urge

My Market Scores!

By the time I got home I felt like I was hungover in the head because of how tired I was.  I had an intense headache.  I actually had a couple Advil.  Of course, they are in a plastic bottle, so I had to log it.

I then made a real quick stock with the chicken bones, some garlic, rosemary, some spices, and Liquid Braggs.  That is prep for a base for the rest of the month.  Once I got that going I half-assed put the greens in the fridge.  I then had to think about the bread and how to store that.  As I was not bringing new plastic into the house, but could use plastics I already had, I grabbed one of the few plastic bags I had from when I buy my bulk rice and stuck one loaf in there.  I kept the other in the paper bag it came in. 

Even though I already had the plastic bag here, I don’t feel quite right about using it.  For now I am gonna, but I will log it, and will figure it out for next time, next week.

I then crawled into bed and slept for about 1½ hours.  Maaaan did I ever wanna sleep more, but I know if I did I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep before I have to go into work tonight and I’d be real screwed.

When I got up, my head ache was even worse, so I took a couple more Advil’s.  I didn’t feel really good about it, but seeing that I take nothing else for all the pain I am in, I let it slide.  

I used to get real vicious migraines for about 10 years when I was a kid.  Nothing worked for them at all.  It would be one solid migraine for 2-3 weeks.  Hallucinations, seeing spots, light headedness, and the pain.  It wasn’t until I gave up red meat by accident that they went away.  Since then though, even the smallest headache drives me insane regardless of the rest of the pain in my body, so I ate a few Advil’s today.

After I got going, all my thoughts have been on my challenge.  I know how much time it is going to entail, especially if I want to log it and write about it as I am doing now.  I’m still in the midst of all the fitness stuff, but had the urge to sit down and write as soon as I came up from my four sets of hills down my back yard by the river.

Now that I am cracking into this, and have a basic template set up for it all, it shouldn’t be too bad from here on out.

The one thing I was thinking when I was doing my first hill is that I am gonna do it shirtless even if it is chilly in the rain.  I feel like I need to toughen up and don’t wanna make it easy on myself.  The whole point of this is to challenge my potential, so I wanna find more ways to do that even in what I am already doing