It’s the last week of August and I actually cannot believe how fast time is flying by. I had a good week this week… I think. When I start these things, I feel like a lot of the time I don’t even remember what I did, so it’s good that I do this to jog my memory and feel like I actually did something, because I DID.
I did a really great job last week of eating well and going to the gym. I was at the gym four days last week, which is an awesome start! I was actually feeling excited and motivated to go, which is so exciting, especially since I was on my period. I also did really well with meal prepping and eating lots of protein. This week my meals were mainly egg scrambles with ground beef, but I also had a turkey and egg sandwich (which was meant to be had more often, but it didn’t work out), a ground beef quesadilla (which didn’t turn out as well as I thought it would, but it was fine), and I don’t remember exactly, but I’m sure I had some eggs with avocado toast too. I started tracking my food and exercise in Cronometer again, which has been really helpful in keeping track of where I am throughout the day and seeing where my protein intake is. I’m having a hard time hitting my protein goal while also not blowing my fat allotment out of the water. This week I’m going to prioritize lean proteins and not add too much fat to the rest of my meals. Of course, fats are very important to our health and nourishment, but I have been consistently eating way too much of it and it’s something I want to work on doing better at. This week my schedule is kind of funky so I’m going to keep lunches simple with turkey sandwiches, and alternate between Greek yogurt bowls and eggs with avocado toast for breakfasts. I’m excited! I think it’ll be really good.
Last week I picked up half of a wine barrel to grow my lettuce, spinach, and stevia. It’s in really rough shape so I have some things to do to keep it from falling apart, plus some work to install a cover for it to keep pests from eating my plants. I finally got my seeds in the mail this weekend, too, and I had intended to start them in trays today (Sunday as I am writing this), but that’s just not going to happen. We’re also still trying to figure out the best place for me to put my garden. I had already discussed it with my mom and we had agreed on a spot, but of course, my dad wasn’t happy with it so I think I’ll have to adjust my plans. I’m kind of annoyed about it just on principle, but in actuality, it doesn’t make that much of a difference for me. The new spot might actually require slightly less work than the original spot. I definitely want to get my seeds started this week and work on preparing the soil wherever it is that my garden will end up being.
Yesterday my mom and I went up to the lake. The original plan was to go kayaking since for the five or six months that I have owned my kayak, I have never taken it out. I actually only yesterday tried out the second style of scupper plug I bought for it. The first type was rubber and it was the wrong size, as well as extremely stiff so I couldn’t bend it at all to try to get it in. Then I bought a pack of foam ones that I thought would work perfectly, but I never actually attempted to use them. I tried one yesterday and it turned out the plastic part was also too big, but I was able to take it apart and get it in there in a different way that I think will still work, but I’m not totally sure. My mom and I spent a lot of time figuring out how to get the kayak strapped to the top of my car since I was driving a different car when I first bought it. We drove very slowly up the hill to get to the lake, just in case something went wrong with the way the kayak was strapped down. We finally made it up there, but we hadn’t realized how little water was going to be in the lake. I am aware that the water level fluctuates throughout the year, but I didn’t realize just how low it was going to be. We scouted out a couple of different spots, and there was one area where we technically could have launched, but there were kind of a lot of people, the bank was super muddy, and there were lots of geese and ducks that I didn’t want to cause problems with. We ended up at a different spot by the river, which was so gorgeous. We abandoned the kayak idea and just walked down to the river to sit and enjoy the view. We found a good spot and my mom set up her chair to read. I ended up borrowing her shoes so I could cross the river, where I found a big rock to sit on and I wrote four and a half pages in my journal. It was such a nice and relaxing time. I felt a little bit bad for leaving my mom alone on the other side of the river, but we would have been separated anyway if I had gone out on the kayak. We got to have our own time to sit and enjoy the view and the sound of the running water. Then we headed up a little further into the hills to a sandwich shop that we like so we could grab some lunch to take home. They have a warm roast beef sandwich with Ortega chilis that my mom always gets, but I had tried a couple of things there and hadn’t yet found anything that I would love to order again. This time I got a sandwich called The Tom, which is turkey, spinach, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, and some kind of goat cheese spread. It was absolutely delicious and I would be stoked to order it again. While my mom was ordering at the sandwich shop, I stopped by the coffee shop a couple of doors down and got an iced matcha latte, plus a couple of stickers for the cover of my journal.
The view from the rock I was sitting on
Speaking of which, I’m really excited about how the sticker collection on this journal is coming together. I also got a couple of stickers with a Depop order I got this week and I added those to my journal also. I’m also just so much happier with this journal right now than I was with my last one, and that makes me want to write a lot more. I loved the last one at first, but I felt like my relationship with it just got so weighed down and I didn’t want to engage with it as much if that makes literally any sense at all. I hope that doesn’t happen with this one. It didn’t happen with my first one this year before I lost it; in fact, I was so excited to write all the way to the end. I think this is better for me because it’s not so big, it’s a hardcover, it’s a brighter color and just feels happier altogether. Somehow this one makes me feel more like a “real journaler,” which isn’t a thing, but it’s how I feel. I don’t know. I just really like this one. :)
I'm loving how the front cover is looking, except that the sticker in the top right corner says "state park" instead of "national parks," but I still think it's a cute sticker. I have a couple on the back cover too, and they're both red so they go together, but one is from my job and I don't want to show you where I work lol.
Also, I painted my nails with regular nail polish for the first time in months, if not a year or more. I did a gel set on myself the other day, but it just didn’t come out right and it wasn’t sticking very well so I picked it all off while I was driving 200 miles for work. Last night I painted my nails with old nail polish from my nail polish bin and I’m really happy with it right now. The reason I don’t usually use regular nail polish is because it chips so easily, and I like how the gel reinforces my nails since they’re so naturally weak. This paint job certainly does not look perfect; it got a little smudged and it’s a tiny bit chipped already, but it’s still way better than what was happening with the gel set so I’ll take it.
Anywayyyy, I’ll close this out now. Last week was a pretty busy and tiring week, but still very good. I’m worried that balancing two jobs like this will be tiring forever, but I have hope that maybe it’ll start to feel a little easier, especially once I learn more and get more comfortable at my new job. All that really matters though is that it was still a good week and I think this coming week will be too. I’ll give you the recap next Tuesday. Until then…
Love always <3
Nicole
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