bakingmakingmachine

[bakingmakingmachine]

Went to a conference recently and had a good time presenting.

I wish I had gotten to explore more, but I'll share some of it here!

[bakingmakingmachine]

Hii I just wanna tell you that I'm also doing stuff for my uni- my final project after a big pause. Since I went back to Uni everything kinda went sideways a little bit (my mood, weightloss journey I'm on, focus on my daily stuff... even some anxiety is back and I didn't have any for a few years). Anyway my therapist said that that's something that happens offten when we are about to finish an era of our life. Like you're finishing your grad school so that's probably why everything feels like a lot. Academic pressure is so reall and annoying... Just wanted to tell you you're not alone in it and I guess it's a common thing.

Sending you lots of love and let's get it girl! 💗

Thank you so much! This was extremely helpful mentally. I meant to reply a bit ago, but thank you so much! ❤️

[bakingmakingmachine]

I graduated with my doctorate recently! I tried to remove anything distinguishing, so if you think you know me, no you don't. I'm glad to be done!

The hard part has been applying for jobs. I've put out over 100 applications and already been rejected from half so it certainly feels defeating.

I'm hoping for the best!

[bakingmakingmachine]

Meals I've made recently trying to get back on track after some conferences I've attended (I'll share those next).

Spinach, arugula, caramelized onions, jasmine rice, quinoa, black beans, avocado, muhammar sauce (bell pepper, walnuts, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, breadcrumbs), garlic spread (garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt), carb balance tortilla.

Wasabi peas, sweet chili sauce, spicy chili crisp, pineapple, broccoli, sesame seeds, thai peppers.

Fried tofu pieces with dipping sauce of the muhummar sauce mixed with the garlic sauce.

[bakingmakingmachine]

[bakingmakingmachine]

My dinner with also 6 oz beer. 🥰 I did great today!

[bakingmakingmachine]

I did really great on my diet yesterday but messed up with snacking (not as bad as usual). So I'm hoping for a similar baby step improvement today.

For breakfast I snacked on 18 oz. of watermelon.

For lunch I had this salad [spinach, arugula, salt, pepper, garlic, capers, goat cheese, tempeh, cucumber, sweet onion, avocado, lite mayo, kalamata olives, green olives]. DELICIOUS.

For dinner I am planning on a soup and sandwich combo. Miso soup packet maybe also a bone broth for my soup(s). My sandwich will likely be proscuitio, salami, spinach, arugula, sweet onion, tomato, basil, pepperoncini, lemon juice, pumpernickel/rye bread, salt, pepper, olive oil.

And hopefully that will fill me up enough (emotionally and physically) for no snacks tonight to start getting back on track. If I DO end up wanting to snack, I'll try eating something small.

[bakingmakingmachine]

Some of the good meals I've made and enjoyed recently.

Quinoa jasmine rice mix (I used the one minute microwave rice single serving packs), a portion of avocado, black beans (about 2 servings), spinach, arugula, diced sweet onion, garlic seasoning, salt, pepper, lime juice.

California power blend microwavable steamable (has quinoia, edamame, etcetera), portion of avocado, spinach, arugula, tempeh that was pan fried, pan fried egg, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, coriander, cilantro, lime juice, chili powder, paprika.

Half a bag of frozen potatoes baked in the oven (this is made by bettergoods and has like 5 servings in it and I made half of it), 1 pan fried egg, bettergoods dairy free shredded mozzarella and cheddar blend cheese, Toni's seasoning.

Another bean and quinoa rice bowl.

I've also been enjoying some tuna salad sandwiches with chips. These have been some of my more healthily made meals. Of course, I've been not doing the best with my diet outside of these but I wanted to share some quick meals that taste great and are filling. ❤️

[bakingmakingmachine]

Looking for advice/tips for the following:

Sleep schedule- anyone have any tips on fixing a sleep schedule? I've tried benadryl, melatonin, diphenhydramone, tart cherry, no electronics within 2 hours of trying to sleep, no exercise within 4 hours of trying to sleep, warm showers, cold showers. Any other ideas?

Snacking fixation- I always do really well on my diet until about 7:00 p.m. and then the snack monster within me awakes and I can easily clear 1,000 calories within 3 hours ruining all my diet progress. Any advice? And low calorie dairy free snack ideas that can be portion sized? [If it's in a pack, I will somehow talk myself into finishing the pack so portioned is best or homemade so I can portion myself].

[bakingmakingmachine]

Still struggling heavily with diet and exercise and everything going on in life with work and new changes. So I've just been trying different meals or routines weekly to see what I like each week and taking notes. I definitely have been going over maintenance and my workouts have slacked, but I'm hoping to get my diet reared in sooner than later. This has been tough with how stressed I have been, my poor sleep schedule, plenty of new things in the works, graduation coming up, uptick in cravings for sweets or carb heavy foods, mental exhaustion, planning the move, timeline crunch for work tasks due before I'm able to leave and change jobs, etcetera.

In the meantime though, I'll be sharing some meals, food items, or recipes that I've enjoyed as of late.

[bakingmakingmachine]

Woodworking Workshop:

My partner and I decided to do a woodworking workshop together and chose, out of the available options to make some wooden bowls. I chose the cherry wood (I believe my partner's bowl may have been walnut?)

It took about 4 hours and the price was well worth it for both of us and the instructor was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. I think you should absolutely consider booking one if you find one near where you live. I had a great time!

[bakingmakingmachine]

I went over my maintenance yesterday when I went out, but, honestly, not as much as I thought I would. AND I did my workout yesterday and hit my water goal. So definitely better than before. ✨️

Pros: did workout, hit water goal, made some healthier choices out of the options, didn't let the mistakes of yesterday ruin my mindset for today

Cons: went over on calories, consumed slightly more alcohol than I originally planned out, poor sleep schedule

[bakingmakingmachine]

If you're someone that is limited on cooking equipment and time, I had this for lunch today and found it very filling.

It was microwavable black beans (the bean vivo pack but there are other brands), steamable vegetable blend (california power blend by birds eye [it has broccoli, quinoa, edamame, etc]), seasonings, and some mashed avocado.

(The beans were put on top so it mostly looks like black beans but the veggies are underneath)

Took less than 10 minutes to throw together and was yummy!

[bakingmakingmachine]

My diet lately:

I've been doing it so far well I notice I do well 4 to 5 days a week. Not the best 1 to 2 days. And poorly usually 1. Which is definitely much better than I was doing which is great. I do the worst on days I've been meeting friends at our weekly hangout on Wednesday and poorly on Saturday when visiting family. They both prioritize drinks and food when spending time together and the family is against people bringing something else to eat which ends up in me eating a bit here and there while there but everything is so higher calorie that I always end up going over maintenance by the time I leave. However, it's still much better than I was doing so I'll take the current win.

Exercise & Weight Loss Goals:

I've also been doing pretty good at getting my exercise in 5 days a week. So I'm also proud of that. I'm glad I'm making any sort of positive progress. Once all the celebration stuff ends in May, I'll get to re-evaluate in June and do so much better during the summer I hope. And then moving I mid-july will probably make it difficult for a bit. But I just have to remember this is a lifestyle not a temporary thing and hopefully I'll have made enough good progress throughout the year that I'll see major differences towards the end of this year! I'm super hopeful. I will say in terms of weight loss, it's going slow but great. I've stayed within the same 10 pounds over the last couple of months which is great and I haven't gained back all the weight I lost which is also great. So i definitely see great progress. And some of my measurements are very slowly decreasing as well! Which is also fantastic feeling.

TLDR-----

My biggest setbacks: alcoholic beverages, poor sleep schedule, late night snacks, not consistent enough with higher protein, high calories 2 days a week at gatherings

My biggest wins: staying within the same 10 pound range for a couple of months, some measurement decreases, consistent workout routine, hitting water goal

[bakingmakingmachine]

My dinner tonight. Yummy!!

The filling: half a block of extra firm tofu drained and crumbled into a bowl, 1 tbsp honey mustard, capers, pepper, salt, dill, sumac, granulated onion powder, garlic powder, sesame seeds, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 4 cups of spinach (boil and then squeeze out the water), sautéed 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sweet onion, 1 tbsp minced garlic.

Spray pan, preheat oven to 350F.

Put 4 layers of phyllo dough down (you can use oil, cooking spray, or melted butter between the layers). Pour in the mixed filling. 4 more layers of phyllo dough done like prior. Cover and bake 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake 20 more minutes.

It was 569 calories for the whole tray. I think next time I might consider topping with tzatziki and using less tofu and more spinach to help with the calories. ❤️

[bakingmakingmachine]

I decided to stop weighing myself for a few weeks. I'm doing my best on my calories (some days at maintenance, some under, some over but nothing egregious I think) and I'm consistently sticking to cycling 5 days a week for about an hour with 15 minutes of some calisthenics and kettle bell exercises. I'm going to see how this goes and try to slowly clean up my diet a little bit better now that school has slowed down and it's just busy at work and see what happens.

I hope my weight will trend downwards, but, even if it maintains, I will consider that a success as I try to find a better balance with the current "celebrations" I keep getting invited to (that are higher calories than usual hence the days that go over) now that I'm graduating, my trying to fit exercise in where I can, and my on the go and change up in diet. Trial and error. I'm going to keep doing my best! Hopefully, I'll have something good to report in about two weeks.

In the meantime, I'll still be posting meals I make that I enjoy or want to try again and tweak, exercise successes, mechanical and material testing images, crochet, workshops I do (I have a woodworking bowl making workshop coming up within this month and well as a thai cooking course), etcetera. ✨️

[bakingmakingmachine]

Quick bear ornament I crocheted for some friends when I found out they were going to be having a new member to the family. It could definitely have been better, but I also made it very quickly.