2024-08-08
h2/Bread, DATEM, and convenience/h2 I have today, in going to the shops, bought bread containing DATEM (diacetyl esters of mono- and diglycerides). I know I used to eat this bread a lot, and after eating one slice and feeling an acidic feeling in my stomach (which is likely fault of the jam, not of the bread) I almost don't want it anymore. The difficulty is that I deem bread to be an important part of my diet: I eat a lot of bread. I of course was making my own bread, but it was never very good. And I am aware of the problems with leaky gut, etc. that DATEM brings about. I've just had two slices of the stuff.
Now, several solutions. First, I could only buy bread lacking DATEM. This would work, but of course would still be ultra-processed bread, and not exactly good for me... I can get decently unprocessed bread in Sainsbury's, but it's a way away and inconvenient...
Or, second, I could just not eat bread (unless I feel inclined to make it). This would likely do me good: I would lose some protein, but could easy supplement this with rice, pasta, etc. which I currently eat a fair bit of but often cannot be bothered to cook. As for peanut butter, where I get a good bit of protein, I could just... forego it, and just eat raw nuts instead.
Or, I could set several guidelines informing my bread purchasing, and then set myself an out if I have no bread. This could entail, for instance, only buying non-UPF bread (so, I've blundered today, but fine) from say, Sainsbury's that does it, but then also making my own if I've time/the inclination (and finding ways to improve my homemade bread, that is currently bad as I'm lazy), and in the case of no bread, preferring pasta or rice instead. Have I just written my way into a solution?
h2/Summer/h2 Summer is almost over. Well, it's August. I guess summer won't end for a few months, but it feels over... despite the fact it is constantly mid twenties. I suppose it is just that I am becoming aware of the shortening days, and of the nasturtiums that have all now run to seed, and ... I'm beginning to get a bit depressed, almost pre-emptively, knowing that I've winter to deal with. Winter in the UK isn't even proper: it's mild as can be. Yet still, I feel as if I've barely started to enjoy the summer and now it's ending...
h2/Coconut Milk Drink/h2 Currently I pay £0.99 per litre of a coconut "drink", one of those horridly craftily crafted terms to put it in a particular spot of regulation. It is made of water, coconut milk, rice flour, calcium citrates (?), coconut flavouring, salt, gellan gum, and added vitamins D2 and B12. I should probably value it for the vitamins (it is probably my main source of B12) but really not sure about the rest. Potentially, I can make my own? It might be fun to...
h2/Measuring myself/h2 I want to find out more about myself, in terms of my health particularly. I think this will mostly involve taking a lot of tests: I will have to pay for these (it doesn't feel right trying to offload the cost of my vanity onto the NHS). What things ought I test?
I can probably expand the list. For now, I suppose these are the most important. I could do it again every say six months and note the changes. Really just to try and see if I am healthy or if there is anything I need to improve on.
h2/Tracking/h2 I want to do something different for the tracking next week. I sort of want to have it more in a calendrical format, where I list the days and what I have done on each of these days. That way I do not just get to the end of the day and have many boxes to fill in showing I haven't done it... Perhaps I can then schedule in this to do particular things upfront for a certain period of time, e.g. study, read, guitar, etc. I suppose the difficulty is that I do not want a fixed schedule, as it is bound to change. For instance, I might arrange on the Monday itself to meet with a friend - in fact, this week there was a drinks which I was only alerted to on the Tuesday. As such, it is quite difficult to use a calendrical system knowing that I cannot write in pen, or that it will have to be adapted as the week goes on... Perhaps, I could specify a list of things to do on a given day, a todo list of sorts, and just tick them off. This at least means I can leave planning of the concrete time down to be slightly more ad hoc. I will have to plan it so as not to be simply able to be missed, and so that it can also take into account new things that have happened.
There should also be room to more concretely block in certain periods of time. For instance, I must block in 9.00 - 17.00 for work (on Mon and Fri) and 6.00 - 18.30 on Tues,Wed,Thurs (due to trains, sorting out clothes etc). I should also block in concretely and absolutely my exercise/gym time, as this is important at the moment. Guitar can be an absolute but must be given a degree of freedom as to where it is located. Reading can be before bed, etc. wv is for whenever I have free time. I can also block in social events naturally, seeing friends, work events, etc. which will be in more concrete times also. So I can have maybe {daily concrete, daily flexible, weekly actions}. As for daily concrete, I suppose I do have a degree of flexibility to change them if needed.
The problem is pen vs pencil, and form. What is a good for this sort of thing? I often just write something like q/06.00 - 08.30 :: gym/q, but I'm not sure this is really good or not. For instance, what if I don't go to the gym for as long as I describe? What if it takes longer? What if I oversleep, or cannot find something, and end up leaving at 06.15? This is why I'm not sure that rigidly planning things works. I would have to go over it in pen constantly... Essentially, this is a pencil type of element. Is there any element that can be written in pen? Well, sleep and work, I guess. I'm far more relaxed with every thing else in terms of moving it, or allowing it to be slightly late, etc. Maybe that is the problem?
I am not sure. Perhaps "~06.00 :: 1h30 gym" could work. This gives a degree of flexibility. Or, I just become more rigid about certain things. In terms of scheduling then, I need to eliminate anything that makes it difficult, e.g. locating items. I have mostly done that already, but I still have a few blips or where things get moved (living at home problems).
I'm going to bed now. Have a good one.