Eats
My culinary adventure of the week was making a batch of Edgy Veg's Vegan Steak Strips recipe. It was as easy as pie. The only thing that I would do differently next time is that I feel like the marinade is enough to handle a lot more soy curls than the recipe advertises, so I'd sneak some more in there to get a bigger batch. Thumbs up!
Workouts
My first shot at doing my own thing for strength workouts went well. When I say "my own thing" of course I mean "my own selection of things that I stole from other people".
I came up with a list of exercises that I like, split the list into lower body and upper body, and then whittled the list down to a reasonable number of each. For the format, I looked to one of my all time favorite workouts, and went with 10 to 6 (first set 10 reps, 2nd set 9 reps....).
The good news is that this format is hard (what I'm looking for), the bad news is that my workouts are lasting between 40-50 minutes, which is a longer than I was looking for. But hey it's a start.
Watching
Nada.
Reading
A miss and a hit!
The miss was The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work by Simone Stolzoff, which I heard on audio. The book is an exploration of why work is such a huge part of many people's identities and I think the point was meant to be what to do instead, but the book never really got there. The case studies were interesting, but given where I am on this subject, I really needed a solution besides "it's complicated".
The hit is via Engie! Mary Jane is about a teenager in the 1970s from a conservative, uptight family who lands a summer babysitting gig with a progressive family. Early on they expose her to their wild side when they get a bag of take out hamburgers with orange soda for dinner and let me tell you I could taste the soda. So yeah, I think this is going to be a solid read for me.
Speaking of books and speaking of Engie==>who wants to join a book club? If yes, go here for the deets - just read 5 chapters of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn each week, then go to her blog to hang out with cool people starting on July 10th - that's NEXT WEEK!!!
Therapist Freebie
I don't have much to say about therapy yet other than it's been very helpful and I recommend it - I'll say more about after I get further along and have a better idea of the "after" story to match up with the "before". For right now, I want to tell you about something that my therapist gave me that is too good not to share.
The Insight Timer app is free and has approximately one bajillion meditations on a variety of topics and lengths - I've linked to their website but the app is what I use. For the purposes of my therapy to deal with work burnout, I use it to listen to a short mediation right before work so that I get out of the habit of hating my life right before I log on, and then right after work before I leave my office I listen to another meditation so that I can break the "work sucks so the rest of my life sucks" train of thought that's been dominating my life. While of course no app is going to make me love my job, the meditations are really helping to contain the suck to working hours, which is a huge improvement.
The other thing is that it has a bunch of sleep meditations and I've been helping myself to those as well and liking them. I've used sleep meditations before, but I only had a couple and they had gotten pretty stale.
By the way, I am not a meditation person so I don't "do" anything to meditate. I just let the track play while I chill out. Hey, it works.
That's all for now! I'll be back on Wednesday to continue The Great Island Vacation Saga.
An online book club session about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?!! Going to follow that for sure! Can't wait to read all the comments.
ReplyDeleteI had a look at the Insight Timer page - neat! I can imagine how meditation (in whatever shape or form) can be very helpful. Thanks for the link!
Enjoy a day off from work!
This book club is going to be lit! Engie's blog is a must follow for her book reviews alone.
DeleteLetting the track play while you chill out sounds a lot like meditation to me! I love that you're doing that and that you've been in therapy. It sounds like it's helping!
ReplyDeleteI also liked Mary Jane and have just finished chapter 4 of ATGIB and I remembered that I loathed her father.
Therapy is definitely helping - basically I felt stuck in every aspect of my life and 5 sessions later I don't. I can't recommend it enough for folks in my situation.
DeleteAll I remember about the dad is that he was a drain on the family and then he died. I'll start my reread very soon.
Alright, I'm ordering soy curls right now! That recipe looks easy and delicious- my son will love it.
ReplyDeleteYour workouts sound great. I looked at the original workout. So on upper body days you just sub different moves like bicep curls, etc? If I remember correctly, the Caroline Girvan Iron Series workouts were around 40 minutes, so you're still in the ballpark.
I'll check out that app! It will just be a matter of me being willing to put down my book and listen to a sleep meditation... but I'll try it.
You don't have to put down your book! The beauty of sleep meditations is that you do them...while you sleep. It's multi tasking at its finest. Most of mine are in the 15-20 minute range and I start them when I turn the lights out. Sometimes I fall asleep during and wake up later and take my headphones out, other times I'm still awake at the end and take the headphones out then.
DeleteYay! I have to give props to Stephany for introducing me to Mary Jane. I really loved that book. Thanks for linking about the ATGIB book club - it will be awesome if it sparks an awesome discussion.
ReplyDeleteI just downloaded the meditation app to help me with my meditation goal. I had the Calm app, but they actually had relatively few free things available and those that were available were longer than my 5-7 min sweet spot. Hopefully this one will be a better fit for me.
Book club is going to be lit! We're going to get awesome discussions every week. This was a brilliant idea - you picked a book that everyone loves but most of us haven't read in a while, and broke it up into manageable chunks so anyone can keep up.
DeleteI don't think I'll ever run out of meditations on Insight, and they have a ton of short ones. I listened to a 2 minute one the other day and it did exactly what the longer ones do!
I'm so excited about the book club! I bought a copy with my "birthday money" (my friend always gives me money each year to go toward a book and this year I bought ATGIB).
ReplyDeleteI have Mary Jane on hold after both Stephany and Engie recommended it.
I should look into the Insight Timer. I remember using it several years ago, but I'm struggling with some stress overload lately and this would be useful!
That's a good friend!
DeleteI'm very pleased at the payback on meditation. I clicked the download button, bookmarked a few things that looked interesting, lie down and close my eyes twice a day while the meditations play and somehow that makes my life better. Winning!
Oooh I love your strategy for bracketing the work day with meditations. That sounds really smart! I hope it's helping.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the book club! My copy of ATGIB is on my nightstand!
It's definitely helping. It's no cost and very easy.
DeleteI just read chapter one! I'm going to limit myself to one chapter a day/5 chapters a week and really make it last.
Yay! I am glad your self-programmed workouts went well! Are they longer because you are resting between sets?
ReplyDeleteI am so so glad that therapy has been helpful! The Insight Timer is a great tip. I should check it out. Thank you!
I'm reading ATGIB, too, but need to get my butt in gear and start it!
ReplyDeleteI used Insight Timer during the early weeks of my pregnancy following a miscarriage. They had super specific meditations, so I listened to meditations for those who had experienced a pregnancy loss. It was helpful to have something so incredibly specific! I only really needed it for the weeks leading up to our 8w ultrasound and then kind of forgot about it - I should check it out again!
I am also joining for the ATGIB book club! So excited. The book about reclaiming life from work sounds exciting, but I am already disappointed to hear that the book didn't really get to the 'good part'.
ReplyDeleteYay for ATGIB. I'm kind of behind today - finishing chapter 10 literally today, the day the discussion opens up on that section - but oh, the discussion has been wonderful so far.
ReplyDeleteChecked out the steak strips but don't think that recipe is for me, alas. Another interesting site, though! Thanks!