//6:10 pm
For dinner tonight, we made whole wheat penne pasta, and used tomato sauce mixed in with this homemade, vegan, “cheese” sauce that we like. It's made of cashews, mostly, as well as a few seasonings, and lime juice. It's pretty great. We've been having it a lot lately, mostly on what we call, “Mexi-bowls”, which is basically an open burrito in a bowl that you just eat out of, using the tortilla as the bottom layer.
I've been plant-based for 13 years now, (vegan), and lately have become very strict with myself about eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet, and not eating any junk or processed “foods” at all. Previously, we would enjoy a lot of processed stuff, such as the fake meats, fake cheeses, treats, and especially potato chips, which I have an unhealthy relationship with. Even cooking with oils in most things. But, all that is gone now. And in the last 2 weeks, with just cutting out the junk and oil and processed garbage, I've lost 12 pounds. Pretty great, right? I've been binging a lot of videos from NutritionFacts.org again, which has helped me do a good reset and cut out the garbage edible substances that come in brightly colored packages, and poses as something we call food. Even as a vegan, you can still be massively unhealthy, which I admit, I wasn't the best. But, moving forward, I'm doing pretty awesome and going to stay strict with myself.
My girlfriend agreed to watch all the episodes of Seinfeld with me a few months ago. At first, she didn't seem into it. But after a few episodes – maybe after the first season, or so – it was obvious she loved it and had a great time getting through the remaining episodes. But, when it was done, she asked if I would watch her favorite show, Friends, in return – which I agreed to after some deep sighs... (yay, boyfriend points). We watched an episode of that while eating tonight, which we've been doing every night lately to just get through the show. I think we just started season 3? I have to admit, it's not the most horrible thing I've ever watched, as there are some funny parts to it. But I think I do maintain my dislike for it still overall, even though I'm open to my mind being changed. I'm rather picky with TV – usually never watching any of it – and overall dislike society, and it's “consumables” in general. Sometimes the earlier episodes of any show are total garbage, and it takes them some time to get rolling and crank out some good stuff, so I'm open to that being the case with this show. But, mostly, I think I just enjoy zoning out and de-stressing from the work day, and am fine watching just about anything, really. Other times, we'll put on an interesting documentary, or some science/health videos, or won't watch anything and just enjoy eating with each other and just being.
We cleaned up dinner together, and I returned to my 'geek station', which is my monster of a gaming computer with three screens, which is where I go to just get away a lot, and my lady is out on the back deck doing some journaling and meditation. The rain has stopped, and the skies have cleared, and the sun is shining again. It's turned out to be a pretty beautiful evening, considering it was rainstorms all day. We like to have our own separate time after work to just re-center, focus on whatever creative pursuits we want to focus on, or to just relax quietly if we want. Then we'll sync up again later and do something together such as read, do some project, talk, go on a walk or to the gym, or just watch something before going to sleep. Pretty simple, but sometimes simplicity is what wins.
I'm considering taking her to the gym later, which she loves. She's a gym nut, for sure. I like to stay healthy and active, but working out isn't “fun” for me. For her, she loves it. It's totally “fun” for her. Which, for me, doesn't make sense. I mean, I get sweaty AF and curse non-stop, and I'm not really that out of shape. I can hike 100 miles in a week, easy, and I've done so many times this year already. But, just willingly going to the gym and destroying myself sounds worse than my grandma screaming her way through explosive diarrhea with a bad case of hemorrhoids. Yeah, you read that correctly. Is it true? Not at all. But we can't undo it now, can we.
I think I'm going to add some notes and info into my Joplin note app, about some book/story ideas I've had growing in there for a decade or more (previously using Evernote before switching the Joplin about a year ago). I've always wanted to write a book, as many people have, and have dozens of ideas written out that I keep pouring notes into – scene ideas, more details on characters, dialogue, or working out some puzzle or complication with the story itself. I go in spurts of working on these, usually focusing on them for a week at a time, whenever the creative interest hits me again, and then maybe I'll step away from it for a while until the inspiration hits again. But, I've got a load of info that's ready to be logged and sorted out, so I'll focus on that for a while tonight. Maybe some day I'll actually get to organizing things and get something written out?
More later.
Peace and plants.
/mg