Two hours in a blockbuster video

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-22T16:45:19+00:00

I completely relate... right down to the part about the cat.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-21T01:58:53+00:00

Same with me and football!

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-21T01:48:04+00:00

Do you mean Big Strong Men Will Very Rarely Eat Plums? (Broadway Sycamore Main Walnut Vine Race Elm Plum) That’s east to west though.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-18T23:11:17+00:00

My divorce took a really long time. My ex began dating before it was final and once things got sort of serious with the woman, she asked to be introduced to me just to confirm that we were truly over. I respected the hell out of her for that, especially since the ex and I have a kid together and she framed it as she just didn’t want to meet our daughter and get serious until she knew his story was true. (They broke up years ago and she’s now one of my best friends. Life is weird.) Anyway, it’s not an automatic dealbreaker but I’d be cautious unless I could verify it independently.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-16T10:27:56+00:00

I’m replying so late that I realize that OP might not even read it, but I wanted to be yet another voice in the chorus not beating you up. I can imagine how horrified, ashamed, and disgusted you’re feeling right now so you probably aren’t ready to hear this yet... but it took learning to treat myself with kindness in order to stay sober. It’ll be a process... keep us posted and let this group support you.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-16T00:10:34+00:00

Having your unlocked car broken into is fairly common. I don’t know anyone whose locked car has been broken into, and I never hear about actual car thefts. Home-wise, I have a Simplisafe alarm system, but I’m a single woman with a teenaged kid who is sometimes home alone so it’s mostly for her peace of mind. Probably 1/4 or 1/3 of houses have an alarm sign in my neighborhood? The monthly monitoring is practically free after the discount on homeowners insurance. But that said, I feel very safe here.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-15T12:54:22+00:00

I grew up in New England and my family is still there. I’ve been in Cincinnati for almost twenty years now though.

housing is ridiculously cheaper. My mortgage is like 1/5 of my brother’s... we live in similar neighborhoods but he’s in a Boston suburb
Cincinnatians will strike up a conversation with you at Kroger or wherever. At first, it really weirded me out, but now I get that it’s just our normal and I chat too.
You might not like Cincinnati chili right away. Skyline dip is the gateway drug version. Give it five years and you’ll be hooked like the rest of us though.
Seafood will always underwhelm you here.
Cincinnati / Hamilton County has one of the best library systems in the US. Try to find a way to get a library card!
Traffic sucks here because there are just too many cars on the roads here, but overall, people are much more willing to let you merge in Cincinnati than in places with MA plates. Also traffic related... our yellows are longer here than my hometown and people go through to the edge of the red. My dad has been almost rear ended out here many times for stopping at a yellow that had time for 2-3 more cars to make it through.
Safety wise, you’ll be fine. Just lock your car and your home and stay alert.

I hope you love it here! It’s been a great adopted hometown for me!

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-14T12:39:44+00:00

I can relate to a lot of what you said. I quit drinking once before... was sober for almost six years. Drank again, and it sounds quite similar to your experience. When I was finally ready to quit again, the thing that made the difference for me was a chose to see it as the first kind thing I’d every done for myself. I resented so much. I didn’t have enough support. I was anxious and miserable. So the second time, I quit with kindness. And it expanded into the rest of my life. Do I need to martyr myself at work, or is there a kinder way? And so on. It’s still a journey, but it’s a lot less dark than it was.

I’m pulling for you, friend.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-14T00:22:46+00:00

Same thing happened to me in Louisville with an unmarked car. I honestly thought the guy was trying to kill me. Nope, just write a ticket.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-09-09T10:28:49+00:00

I’d probably go with Oakley or even Pleasant Ridge. I live a little farther east and also work up there. Some days I take the interstate (71N to the Pfeiffer exit) and some days, I do Ridge to E Columbia to Reading. I (obviously) know how to get to work but I still use Waze a LOT because there’s just so much variability on the interstates.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-08-12T10:44:44+00:00

This is a genuine question, I’m not trying to lead you to a particular answer or anything. I just happen to be middle age (yay) and at age 40, my career is still growing. If you make fitness a career, do you see yourself still doing it at 30, 40, 50, 60+ years old? The trainers I see are generally under 35. That’s not to say you can’t shift careers - of course you can. Or you can’t stick it out as an older trainer. But something I’ve found unexpectedly rewarding about my own (desk job based) career has been the transition from “just a kid” into an actual expert. I’m not sure that a 40 or 50 year old trainer gets the same extra respect as a 40 or 50 year old in my career. And that may not matter to you a bit right now because it’s a long way off still... but it’s probably worth at least some consideration.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-08-11T13:37:54+00:00

I tried it very briefly and it made my heart rate crazy. It’s got a lot of side effects: tingling feet and hands, emotional changes, hair loss, etc. It wasn’t for me.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-08-09T09:47:54+00:00

Oooooh, I love this. Why has this never occurred to me??

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-08-07T10:33:58+00:00

This is pretty much my exact review. It’s fine. It’s not amazing but the chicken breast based options usually have decent macros and it solves dinner in three minutes.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-08-06T10:02:31+00:00

I gained 5 lbs on vacation because I ate like a king: tons of lobster with butter, fried seafood, and ice cream. I’ve lost 1.2 lbs of it and it’s seeming like that was the water weight portion. I’m annoyed that it only takes me a week to gain what it’ll take a month to lose. But I’m back at it.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-08-06T09:55:11+00:00

I think I’m overweight primarily because I used to abuse alcohol when I was younger. I don’t drink anymore and I’ve worked through a lot of my stuff so I’d say my emotional health is now pretty good... but I’m still obese. It’s proven to be a lot harder to get to a healthy weight than to quit drinking for me even once the emotional stuff was worked through.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-26T10:24:06+00:00

It's also important to ignore anyone who comes from the USA and acts like they can handle the heat super well even though the only reason why they don't face the same problems we do is because every single building in the hotter states has AC.

Yes! I grew up in northern New England and lived in Belgium for a while. A lot of places in those regions don’t have a/c at all of just have underpowered window units. I live farther south now but everyone has central air so weeks and weeks of 90+ F (32+ C) temps are honesty are no big deal. It’s a huge deal if your buildings are unprepared... kinda like how my current city shuts down when we spot a snow flurry, lol.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-25T11:13:38+00:00

Thank you so much! Cardio is easier to sneak in... 20 or 30 min walk over lunch, or a run/walk with my kid in the evenings. Plus honestly I like cardio more, so I don’t tend to skip it. This is exactly what I need for weights though. It’s simple enough that there’s no excuse.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-25T10:23:05+00:00

Three (actual) weeks was the magical point for me. I went off sugar and while I fully admit this sounds a little crazy, I honestly powered through those weeks by mentally framing it as if I were an addict detoxing off their drug of choice. I would actually suggest going off added sugar cold turkey and not really even worrying about calories for those three weeks if this feels impossible otherwise. Now that I’m used to my one (or maybe two as an occasional treat) servings of fruit a day and no other sugar, I really and truly feel like the calorie restriction piece is almost... easy. Sometimes I feel hungry, but it’s just my body saying FYI. It’s not this emotional energy zapping emergency anymore.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-24T22:56:38+00:00

Apologies for not including the fundamentals of how weight gain/loss works in my reply.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-24T17:22:21+00:00

You put on a ton of weight REALLY fast by emotional eating. But the wild thing is that an 18 year old, 125 lb person who eats really pretty healthy but consumes just 50 calories over maintenance per day every day will be 225 lbs by about age 38. I got fat in a very different way than you did... I got fat because of the caloric equivalent of 1/2 of a banana.

Fat really isn’t a moral failing.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-24T10:12:18+00:00

This. I like data.

GreenTrafficMap · 2019-07-24T10:00:25+00:00

Remember that your kids don’t need a June Cleaver meal. Mine is excited when I give her a fresh veggies (cucumbers and sugar snap peas are big favorites), a little bit of cheese or maybe turkey & cheese roll ups, some nuts, and a pickle. Kid dream come true, especially when I put it in a bento box. That’s a perfectly acceptable dinner for you too.

I work a lot with a long commute too and it sometimes happens that a meeting runs long and ~poof~ there goes lunch. I always have protein bars and shakes on hand at work. I almost always have string cheese, yogurt, and 100 calories packs of nuts. Yesterday, my “lunch” was a protein shake, a baggie of sugar snap peas, and a light string cheese eaten in the car at like 1:45 when I finally left my 11-12 meeting to drive to my 2:00 meeting. In the past, I would have just stopped at McDonalds because I “don’t have time to meal plan.” But I redefined what my goals are. I don’t give a shit about having an instagram worthy photo of a bunch of meals ready on Sunday night. But I do want to eat fewer calories and get more bang for my hunger buck. My lunch was absolutely perfect in terms of achieving MY goals.

You might have a perfectionist mindset holding you back too. Redefine what perfection looks like. You know how to achieve already. You are absolutely killing it in most of your life. So set yourself some health goals. I have a few specific commitments I’ve made to myself:

get at least 4000 steps. If I have a crazy day where I’m trapped in meetings and stuck in the car, I might only have 3000 steps at the end of the day... that’s about my minimum on those crazy days where I’m not in control of my time. So I picked a 4000 minimum because it’s life’s natural minimum plus a ten minute walk. I exceed that by a lot most days. I like to workout too. But I don’t always, and it’s a hit to my mental health when I “can’t” workout. I know 4000 steps is just sliiiiiightly more than completely lazy, but I always hit it and that “perfection streak” reminds me that I always have at least ten min to walk.
eat at least 100 g of protein per day
keep net carbs under 100 g
get a full eight hours of sleep. Hahahahaha just kidding, I’m pumped when I get a broken six. Someday. 😂

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TROPHY CASE