Recovering from Covid

Yep, I got covid. An xmas present from my ex. Grr.

Anyway, I have lost 4 lbs over the past 3 weeks, all of it muscle mass though I'm sure, since it was lost by not eating and lying in bed with a fever.

But I'm feeling pretty normal now, just worn out and stiff from lack of exercise and lack of nutrition. Need to start feeding myself properly and exercising.

I did do exercise at home a couple of days, when it was my son who was sick and I was well, just not allowed to leave the house due to quarantine, but then bam I was sick as well and just going downstairs was too much effort! Haven't even been great about taking my vitamins either, I have just been withering away.

For now, my goal will be to maintain that 4 lb loss while converting some of my flab back into muscle. It's nice to have lost some bulk (I'm currently wearing a pencil skirt that had been too snug for my comfort previously), so I'd like to stay where I am in terms of body size, just firm things up because I feel like a blob of lifeless goo. 

Oh, and it seems like my long term fitness tracker, fitday.com, has given up the ghost entirely in the past week. All of my logs are gone. I was using it from 12 October 2005! Augh

Crappy day

 Having one of those days. Pandemic is getting to me. And then a friend said to me, "you know what you need..."

Hot tip: never, ever say "you should" or "you need" unless you are ready and willing to procure that thing.

This was the worst when my kid was a baby, and childless single friends would say dumb stuff like, "you need to make time for yourself! Plan a spa day!" Oh, are you willing to pay for that spa day, and provide childcare? No? Well how is it supposed to happen then? You think it never occurred to me that a spa day would be lovely, and that's the only reason I haven't done it?

Honestly 90% of the time people know what they need, they just aren't able to get it. 

And reminding people that they aren't able to get things they really, really need is just rubbing salt in the wound.

Grr.

I think it is once again time to go full hermit mode. Interacting with people means either seeing happy families (grumble) or happy couples (grrrr) or people going out and about throwing caution to the wind (GRAAAAGH) or getting shouted at by neurotic judgy doomsayers (augh!) or self-righteous people who lack empathy saying "you have no right to complain because someone else is worse off" (seethe) none of which is what I need right now.

Even Instagram, formerly a haven of lovely loaves of bread and birdwatching posts, is now full of restaurants announcing closures, either out of caution, or because their staff members have already tested positive. I just can't handle the constant misery. Augh.

Anyway this blog might get busier as I try to divert myself away from other things. We'll see.

Monday Foods

Much better with nutrients today! Started the day with blood pudding (look at that B12!) and ended it with a swiss chard salad. The kid didn't much care for blood pudding, so in the future I'll just make it for me and he can just have eggs.

I realize this blog is a bit dull but it's mainly for my own accountability and is anyone reading anyway? Ha! Maybe things will get more interesting Friday when I'm off work till January.

Sunday foods

 I did not hit my nutrient goals. Also, over one third of my calories came from a can of Pringles. Coincidence?

Looking back, looking ahead

Yesterday morning I stepped on the scale for the first time in a long time (the scale was literally dusty) and no surprise I'm at the heaviest I've been in a few years - 149lbs, BMI 24.8 - still healthy range, but at the very upper edge. More to the point, some of my clothing is uncomfortably snug, which I do not like.

So, I'm getting back on track. 

Since I've restarted this blog, I've started most mornings with 20 situps. Not a lot, but at least I'm getting the blood pumping early! Yesterday I picked up some calcium-free vitamin C to take with my iron, in addition to upping my intake of red meat. Last night I had swiss chard in addition to beef. I just need to get myself moving! I used to get up early to run, but it's so hard in the dark. Thankfully we're nearly at the solstice, so days will be getting longer again. Also, winter break is almost here, so no rush in the mornings.

I think to start, my goals will be: do something physical when I get up (i.e. keep doing situps but add more), and do something outside for at least an hour a day.

This is scary, but I took "before" pics Saturday morning, in hopes that some day there will be visible progress:

Ignore my messy hair and grumpy expression!

Meanwhile, here's Saturday's nutrition:

Friday foods

 

Duck!

I was looking at a resource on getting enough iron and it offered this easy tip:

The redder the meat, the more iron it contains

... which made me think, what about duck? It's fairly dark. So I looked it up, and it's pretty good, and is also in my freezer, so that will be dinner tonight. Thinking of picking up lamb for tomorrow, as I haven't had it in a while, and my last blog post in 2018 was about how I finally got 100% of my iron from food by eating lamb with spinach. Worth a shot!

Meanwhile, here's yesterday's nutrition log: