Monthly Archives: January 2021

Eating Healthier

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In the last nine months to a year, I have gotten healthier because I have been eating almost all my meals at home and making better food choices.

By only bringing in healthy food, it’s easier not to eat less healthy foods. Doing so has made it easier to eat what is in the house.

Another reason is when you are walking to the grocery store with a backpack, there is less room for junk food. Plus, when you are stocking up on fruit and vegetables, along with kombucha and eggs every two weeks. You buy less junk since there is less room. Not that I haven’t been buying tortilla chips to crumble on my salads for some crunch or dark chocolate bars, etc.

I think I’m healthier partially because I’m not eating at restaurants. Or I haven’t had any takeout since mid-March, and I’m walking more. Doing so has improved my eating habits. I have been making, cooking, or assembling (salads) for all my meals, which I enjoy doing. But hadn’t done much of or as often until this year, especially when cooking for one person.

Changes in Eating Habits

I have managed to eat more peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, on tortillas, than in the last ten years. Which is still better than what I would eat for breakfast or lunch from the work cafeteria.

Breakfast at work used to be scrambled eggs and pork sausage. Or two egg, pork sausage, and cheese sandwiches on a croissant or toast or a toasted bagel. At the same time, lunch ended up being about a pound or more of hot food from the lunch buffet.

I have eaten more fruits, vegetables/salad, nuts, this year, which has been a good thing. Along with trail mix of peanuts, cashews, almonds, raisins, and M & M’s.

Rethinking My Cooking

When cooking hot meals, I have used more grains, fresh vegetables, and less meat. When using meat, I would put a pound in what I was making. That gets divided amongst the six to eight servings that I ended up eating over time. So there is less in each portion. I even ate more tofu and plant-based meats too.

By making larger quantities, I was able even to make enough to have many extra meals. So I only had to reheat them and put others in the freezer for later. That way, I wasn’t cooking every day, but a few days a week. Then I would have salads, etc., so I wasn’t eating the same thing for every meal.

Not Everything has Been Healthy

Not that everything I ate was healthy, but it’s been an improvement. I have eaten more fruits and vegetables, healthier snacks, salads, etc. The snacks have been more nuts (peanuts and cashews).

I nice dessert I have made many times is to take a large handful of nuts. Put them in a bowl with half a pint of blueberries, a sliced up banana, and then add some dark chocolate sauce. To me, it’s like an ice cream dessert without the ice cream and a lot more fiber.

How I Fared with Eating Better

All in all, I have been eating better but not on what I would call a diet per se.

So here is to making more eating improvements in 2021 for the long term.

More Sleep

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At the start of the pandemic, I started going to bed earlier to got more sleep. So I would feel rested and help my immune system in the process, not knowing what to expect with COVID.

As I ate better and walked more, I didn’t need as much sleep. So  I stayed up later or back to my old time between 11:00 PM and midnight.

With not starting my workday until 9:00 AM, I could stay in bed until closer to then. Even if I woke up at 7:00 AM or before and couldn’t get back to sleep. I would stay in bed and rest until close to 9:00 AM, when I would start my workday.

Instead of reading Twitter or other things on my phone, I stay in bed with my eyes closed and rested most mornings. Which has helped with starting the day more relaxed.

Another positive thing with this year has been I have been getting more sleep. Because my commute is now from one part of the house to another. My commute has gone from about 45 minutes to about 45 seconds each way.

Getting more sleep/rest has helped me cut back on my need for naps on the weekend. Even though I enjoy a good nap on the weekend when I don’t have any plans. I can get more done that way since I took a long nap of a few hours.

Working at Making Better Use of My Time

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I need to start making better use of my time, which means not scheduling every minute. But when I’m out on a lunchtime walk, by starting to outline a blog post. Then on an evening walk working on what I want to say for the blog post. So when I get to writing the post, a lot of the work is done, and it will go faster.

By outlining or writing parts of my blog posts while walking or doing other things, I can get them done quicker. Or maybe even a few ahead when I have time. To make it easier for those times when I don’t make as much time and want to get something out there.

What to Use My Time Doing

I need to figure out what my next thing to learn is and spend time doing that. Be that cooking, farming, raising animals, tiny houses, new coding languages, etc. Or even how to relax or read more.

I have been watching many YouTube and other classes on how to raise my own food, be that plants or animals. Along with watching cooking videos for inspiration and different ways and things to cook.

My reading lately has been from beekeeping to comic books, creativity, to work/business-related. I’m attempting to get more diversified with my reading. Even read a few fiction books this last year or so, which I tend not to do much of before.

What I Have Noticed Taking Classes or Reading

I have noticed when taking training classes or reading an article. Taking handwritten notes has been great. Which tends to make it twice as long to watch or read something. A ten-minute video depending on the content could take 15 or 20 minutes to watch. With stopping and replaying parts to take notes from. I think I’m getting more out of them that way, but I wish it would go faster, is all.

Conclusion

My guess is this will be a work in progress as much of life is to make better use of my time with more to come over the year.

Purposeful Walking

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The first thing that improved during the pandemic for me was, I did more purposeful walking this year. Meaning, I walked for a reason and not because I was commuting to and from the house to the train to the office and back.

Daily Walking

Since the pandemic started for me in mid-March. I started using my weekday lunchtimes for a walk of about 20 or 30 minutes.

Then another walk after work, starting around 5:30 PM or so for a long walk along with longer ones on the weekends.

Some days because of meetings or poor weather, mostly rain, I only got out for a short walk around a block or two or three. The blocks near me are about a half-mile around each block. So going for those, even those short walks add up.

Other Reasons for More Walking

Having no car means walking to the grocery store or the farmer’s market. Each is about a mile or a bit more one-way from my house. All these walks helped me spend more time enjoying and find new things in my neighborhood.

What I Noticed in My Neighborhood

Until this year, I didn’t know there was a handful of houses in the area with pools. Some people even had tiny houses or offices in their backyards. Or used the land behind their house across the alley and the Metro train line fence to grow vegetables.

When walking around your neighborhood, make sure to walk in the alleys to see what’s there. Instead of always walking out front on the sidewalk. When doing so, make sure to do it during the daylight and have some type of ID on you in case someone calls the police. No, the police were never called on me. Now more people are used to people walking in the alleys behind their houses.

Longer Walks

Saturday’s tend to be my longer walking days. Because of going to the framer’s market or the grocery store or both.

One Saturday over the summer, I walked a little over ten miles. With trips to two different farmer’s markets (Old Town Alexandria and Del Ray). Followed by a walk to the grocery store in the evening for my every two weeks grocery shopping trip.

Conclusion

In 2020, I managed to walk 3,200,944 steps. With 2,314 flights of stairs, few with living on the first floor of a house for a total of 1,468 miles. Which is two or three hundred more miles than an average year of mostly walking during my commute.

More Blogging this Year

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Over the last few weeks, I have been thinking I need to blog more to get things out of my head. While keeping track of things that happened in 2020. Along with things that will happen this year.

I used to write long blog posts that were way too long and needed code examples. But not too many posts at all in recent years. So it would take a day or even a week or a month to get it all done or sit in my drafts forever. Some are still there now.

To make it easier, I’m looking to write shorter pieces. About life, food, health, weight loss, walking, accessibility, learning, etc. And at the same time, attempting to keep them between five hundred and a thousand words.

I might even post a quick photo from my walking the neighborhood. Or what I’m eating or reading, etc., with a few words about what it is or why I’m posting it.

There might even be some posts with some of my drawings, but most likely not.

Or I could finish and post old drafts that I have lying around that need to get out into the world.

So look for more writing from me this year. I am looking to keep it going more often than once or twice a year.

So this post came in at 238 words, so it’s a good start to writing shorter posts.