Am hoping to complete a couple more photo lessons tonight - they're super short, but sometimes when there's a fresh little nugget of info, guess it can be nice to pause the video and try out the new tip? So then a 10 minute video wind up taking an hour and a half to complete? Sometimes


Was just relaxing a little bit first, after finishing up the dishes - with a little Dancing with the Stars, and looking at more tote bag patterns on pinterest ...

Look at this stunner!

Can't seem to find any more details about it though, because the link seems to be broken - must keep searching for more info!

My new meat tenderizer arrived today - am hoping it'll make a difference on those little cuts of steak they sell at the store, that are less than $10?

Pic from Amazon

Hope my steak pizza turns out - GL me!

Nightly Update


Okay ... just took the garbage down to the curb, then came back in and put on my jammies - so am all set to relax and take it easy

Some random stuff ...


Kitchen Gadget Review - Meat Tenderizer

Saw a couple of restaurants on tv using these meat tenderizers on some cheaper cuts of steak, like sirloin and round? So decided to give one a try - the steak by itself wasn't great, but on the pizza with other stuff on it, it tasted really tender ... and this amount of steak only costed $1.75!

(couldn't get this pizza to look that tasty - hopefully food photos are covered later on in my photo course? lol )

Guess tenderized round is no substitute for a grilled ribeye or anything like that But maybe a meat tenderizer can make a big difference for stuff like fajitas or steak sandwiches? Will have to try making those next

Staying Patient with Investing

There was such an uproar over that video of the incident on the United plane yesterday - then after seeing the CEO's response, it seemed like their stock might drop today? So was super tempted to try shorting it - even though *just* last week it seemed very clear that was losing too much money by not staying in my lane of sticking to growth investing ... d'oh!

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that my experience with SNAP has been so high variance, that it's made me a lot more hesitant about doing anything too rash? Took some time to look at UAL's long-term graph, and it's doing very well - so maybe not a good stock to short, for the chance at a small-ish short-term gain, when there's a chance of a large-ish long-term loss?

Really not too sure, since am so far outside my lane! Although, it looks like by the time my transaction would have gone through, the short-selling might not have gone well? So guess maybe this was another chance to be reminded to stick with the long-term holdings, and just be patient?

Wow, some pretty wild stories TMZ was able to come up with on that Doctor - made for some interesting reading!

Going to go get a mandarin orange from the fridge, brb ...

Okay, back from my snack ...


Photo Lessons


The weather was a bit funny this afternoon - it would be sunny for a while ... and then a cloud would pass over top and it would rain quite hard for about 10 minutes. And then the sun would come out again ... until another cloud would drift over, and it would start to rain again! So it was sort of nice out ... until it wasn't?


Just decided to stay inside and practice yesterday's photo lesson on my strawberry bowl. The lesson was pretty neat - the video was pointing out that when the sun's bright, you can get very different results when (1) facing the sun, or (2) having the sun shine on your back?

So here's the strawberries with light coming from the window behind them (with a little shadow from the bowl on the table)

And here's the strawberries with the sun shining on them from the window (with a little reflection of the bowl on the table)

Can see a difference! So guess that's two new ways a picture can wind up looking pretty different - trying out different angles, and trying out different lighting?


In addition to watching the class vids, have still been checking out the photos of other students that have been getting posted - someone today confirmed that snacks are the key to a great photo

This one must be on Atkins.


Okay, guess that's enough for today - have some Spring cleaning have been meaning to do ... may do a little bit of that tomorrow

Lighting is a big deal. The effect you can see with strawberries is especially bad with faces. I mean you see so many pictures on FB when face was taken against the light and you just can't see the face, only the silhouette.

Do you have a camera or are you using a phone?

Hey Lapka

Just have my phone Wasn't planning on trying to get super serious about photography, since am not a very artistic person, or anything like that. Guess am just hoping to learn how to do the best with what is already there?

Am super glad to have tried something new, even if it was outside my wheelhouse - it's been pretty cool to learn more about lighting! Guess will have to practice lots more now and see how things go

Goodness - came home and fell right asleep Not sure why was so tired today?

Now am all drowsy - may not be getting much done tonight

The grocery store was packed just now. It was especially busy at the meat counter.

Saw a couple of people picking up fresh turkeys, but not sure if people are already getting ready for their Easter feasts, or if everybody's just getting a little anxious that the stores won't be open tomorrow? Isn't it a bit early to be picking up a turkey for Sunday - or is this the time to pick one up to brine it or something?

Trying Something New - Unplugging From the Internet


Anybody have any little spending indulgences? Like buying stuff that maybe a lot of people might not spend money on, but makes you happy?

Guess a lot of common goodies people might treat themselves to are conveniences like coffee, or relaxing stuff like spa treatments. Was just scrolling through my Amazon purchases and noticed the weirdest trend in my spending habits - look at the stuff have bought in the past year

A manual phone charger

A portable phone charger

A phone charger for my car

A power bar with a USB outlet - to better charge my phone!

Wonder if may be a little addicted to my phone?

Or maybe in this day and age, everybody is a little bit since it's the way everybody stays connected, and find interesting info, and good stuff like that?

Still ... started to wonder what it'd be like to try doing something differently, the way Jaime Staples is completely changing his lifestyle. Tried unplugging tonight instead of spending time looking at stuff on the computer - and actually wound up making a reusable shopping bag after all. And it even works now too!

(the black one from Shopper's Drug Mart was the template)

Guess looking at stuff on the internet can be enjoyable because there's so much interesting stuff, and it's pretty relaxing. But maybe it'd be interesting to try unplugging for a change, especially now that it'll be a lot warmer and lighter out between Easter and Thanksgiving?

Or is that a silly idea?


May give it a try - will see

Look at all the interesting info one can find when plugged into the grid Guess internet issues are a popular topic for TED Talks, so there was a wide variety of opinions on how much/little usage is optimal, how best to use it


Someone tried unplugging for a year, and he felt:

• like he was better able to enjoy people and experiences when he didn't have the internet to entertain him
• but because he used to use the internet as a distraction to combat boredom, he soon found new ways to waste time
• and he did wind up feeling like he wound up missing out on e-connections, which made him sad because he felt out of the loop

Here's the vid - it wasn't that great a watch, aside from the findings:

And then here's some more ideas:


This person tries to keep his internet use to a minimum - had trouble getting through this vid to be honest

While this person is even more panicky at the thought of something happening to the internet than me haha! He wants us all to start putting in place a 'Plan B' for if something happens to the internet *right now!!1!* lololl

Some other vids were also pointing out that Wikipedia is a non-profit that relies heavily on volunteers the world over collectively caring about the site enough to ensure that it stays for the most part reliable (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P65XdTlk4vA).

And it's generally accepted that Wael Ghonim's Facebook page helped stoke the 'Arab Spring' in Egypt, which helped topple a long-standing authoritarian regime (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwJ0hNl1Fw)



LESSON: Maybe the takeaway is that it might be +EV to just try to be a bit more mindful of how we're making use of our time, to make sure it's being used the way we feel is optimal?


Have probably been using the internet as a distraction to combat boredom - have noticed that thing about being more in the moment, after spending less time on the internet. May continue to cut back over the Summer, and see how that goes?


Will probably spend the afternoon doing my Spring cleaning, before the Easter feast! Hope everybody is enjoying the gorgeous weather!!

It feels like my posts have started to flood the Jaime/Matt/Bill Perkins prop bet thread, so should probably start posting in my own for a change


Wonder if it'd be possible to make healthier food and have it be so tasty, that other less healthy food wouldn't seem as interesting any more? The Bollywood star's trainer was wondering if maybe we live our best life if we provide our soul with a healthy body, so we can best enjoy everything life has to offer? Kind of like that idea - guess am pretty good about eating fruits and some veggies ... and my portion sizes are fine. Also don't eat a ton of fried foods or refined sugars or carbs - but also don't seem to eat too many nuts or beans either? And guess there's room for more veggies?


Was looking at 'healthy' recipes tonight and was finding a bit of a mixed bag:

Guess this is kind of the stereotype of healty eating - looks a bit bland?

This looks tasty - so tasty, can't help but wonder if maybe it might not be as healthy as other stuff, not sure?

Are carbs not ideal? Would this be healthier as a salad than as a taco?

This seems like it might be both tasty and satisfying?

Guess it can be hard to know what's truly healthy all the time. Will have to try to get better at that - guess that can be a new hobby to add to my others


Still taking mediocre looking photos - will have to watch some more of those vids, for more tips!

Looking forward to being able to plant some veggies in a couple of months!

Had something of a breakthrough tonight with the healthy living stuff, which is pretty exciting.


Guess have been moving in the direction of possibly trying to live a healthier life - so was looking at exercise bikes tonight. lol that the one of the bunch that caught my eye was the one that makes it possible to surf the internet and talk on the phone while biking

Guess the breakthrough came while doing more Spring cleaning - was just flipping through an old pile of magazines before tossing them into the recycling, and stumbled across a mini-article that had a Doctor recommending everybody, "make health your hobby."

The doctor was on The Bachelor a couple of years ago - people may recognize him? lol




Anyways, was able to find a similar article/interview he did with USA Today online, and here were some of his tips:

There's so much focus put on weight as a measure of health - maybe because maintaining a healthy weight can be a challenge when there's so many tempting foods so readily available? But at 115lbs, am probably no different from Jaime at making time for exercise? Hardly did anything this past Winter - and in Canada, Winter's like 6 months long ... that's half the year! That's probably why am always yawning so much in the Wintertime

Wouldn't be surprised if the majority of us aren't making healthy living priority - didn't Jared Tendler say in his book that it used to be common for even pro golfers to be out of shape? Until the Tiger Woods era, when everybody started paying more attention to details, like being fit and doing more mental game preparation, and stuff like that?


And then there was that idea of the Bollywood star's coach, about maintaining a healthy lifestyle being important for living our best life - he was also saying something like that when we maintain a healthy lifestyle, then we're more free to enjoy all that life has to offer including the occasional treat, because then we'll have earned it?


Really like those ideas of making healthy living a priority, to help with living a more energetic, less stressful life? With indulgences being earned - even did a bunch of exercises at home tonight after reading the article!


Will see how things go - GL me!

My internet's been down since this morning, and it looks like it's still not back ... boo

Guess will try again after dinner ...

Internet's back!!

It's so horrible being without internet - was just sitting here in front of the computer feeling sorry for myself for being without internet for 9hrs lol ... and then just like that it was back. Not sure what the problem was, but it's sure nice to be back online again.



Hope everybody had a lovely day

Healthier Living


Seem to have gotten a bit side-tracked away from investing in stocks But the market's been kind of flat the last couple of months, and since my attempts at trying to get something going when nothing's really happening did not go well ... guess there's been time to do other stuff



Grocery Shopping

Comparing Prices

Would love for the healthy living stuff to become so much of a habit, that it doesn't take so much time, so can go back to doing stuff like stock investing, or following poker and stuff Went to the grocery store early this morning and was there for what felt like forever Guess it took time to compare prices of frozen versus fresh veggies to see which were the better buy? And fish too - was able to get a 4-pack of these individually wrapped fish for $7, and fresh is about twice the price?

Reading Labels


Usually eat sweetened yogurt - was just read though that it's better to buy plain and add fruit at home ... guess the sugar they add is way too much? Looks like different companies have different definitions of 'plain' and 'natural' though - didn't even know what agar was. Then came home and looked it up online - and m still not sure what agar is lol??

(went with the pink container)

Healthy Cooking Oil


Looks like it's taking some time to get used to the idea that certain oils are healthy. Have never used very much, and apparently there's a proper way to use each of them?

https://jonbarron.org/diet-and-nutri...t-smoke-points

Was hoping to be able to pick up some avocado oil, but it looks like that's not something they carry at my local grocery stores - maybe it's something that's only available at healthfood stores? Was hoping to not spend too much time going around to buy specialty items, so decided to try grapeseed oil - but a couple of blog sites say it's got too many omega-6 fatty acids? Is that bad? Guess will have to keep searching for a different oil for cooking?

Searching for New Recipes

A couple of years ago, when was trying to be vegetarian for a month, had a pickle of a time trying to find tasty food - at the time there were only a couple of sites, so the best of the worst was this site called 'treehugger.com'. Some of the ideas were pretty good, but some of the stuff was kind of fringe too, like tofu sauteed in hemp oil, etc.

Looks like many more healthy eating sites have popped up in the meantime - and a lot of the recipes get added to Pinterest, so was able to find quite a few nice things to try on their site.

Tonight, gave three recipes from Pinterest a try - blackened tilapia, parmesan zucchini/corn/mushrooms/onions, and homemade ranch dressing. The fish and veggies turned out nice - may have added a bit too much buttermilk to the dressing though?

The zucchini/corn recipe has over 250k pins! Tried the medley out before adding the cheese and it was okay - but the cheese totally took things to the next level ... not sure if cheese is super healthy, but hopefully a couple of sprinkles is okay, if it makes eating veggies a lot tastier?

One nice benefit of food that's simple is that it hardly took any time to prepare and cook, so hopefully it'll be easy to follow through and keep up with the healthier eating

Photos for the Week

The weather's been really up and down - cold and cloudy one day, and then warm and sunny the next. Here's some stuff from my afternoon jogs ...


Some random walked into my shot here lol

Wish the cherry blossoms lasted longer than a couple of weeks - they're so beautiful!

Nice to have the internet back, but am sad that wasn't able to watch any poker on Sunday funday! Guess there's next week ...

Got all my shopping, cooking, exercising, and dishes done before 8pm - just in time to watch Dancing With the Stars lol

Every week the show has different theme, so last week was Disney night and everybody dressed up like Disney characters, like Ariel from Little Mermaid, etc. This week they're dancing to Boy Band and Girl Group music, and someone just danced to a Pussy Cat Doll song. Totally forgot about that group - what ever happened to them?

Remember this song?

Various Stuff


Shopping - Avocado Oil

Visited a different store today, and they had a couple of different bottles of avocado oil, so had my choice of two!

The President's Choice bottle was right there on the shelf with all the other oils, but the other one was in the section of the store that has all the stuff that's like vegan, gluten-free, fair-trade, environmentally-friendly, sustainable, etc ... and everything's about twice the price lol

Although both the bottles of avocado oil were about the same price - more pricey than canola oil, but hopefully worth the extra money? The articles on avocado oil seem to be about as scarce as supplies were at the stores - guess if avocado oil truly is a healthy cooking oil, then hopefully it'll become more popular in a couple of years, and'll be easier to find?

Authority Nutrition - Canola Oil: Good or Bad?
Authority Nutrition - Benefits of Olive Oil
Authority Nutrition - Benefits of Avocado Oil

New Recipe - Roast Chicken

Made chicken tonight, with sweet potato fries - everything tasted better than it looked, so will have to hide it all behind the salad and keep the picture really small May not have bought the right peppers, or maybe was supposed to blend them a bit more? Guess sometimes it can take some practice to get a recipe just right, so will keep trying out new things and take notes on how to improve the next time

Photo from My Jog

And my picture of the day - this doggie had one of those home stagers come to his house last week, that cart out all the junk that's piled up in the house over the years, and then fill several truckloads with it ... and then bring back in a plant or two to make it look 'homey'. Although probably in most peoples' homes, it's more common to find piles of junk, and not a ton of plants

The house just went on sale Saturday morning, and by dinner time the for sale sign already had a 'sold above asking price' sticker on it. Guess real estate can be a great investment - especially in a super hot market? Prices are supposed to be up over something like 35% over the last year - guess the trick is to have a million or so available for investing ... will have to start saving my pennies, so maybe one day ...

Stock Market Stuff

Am still keeping track of the stock market, even though not much has been happening - have FB, AAPL, and AMZN right now and it looks like they'll all be reporting earnings over the next couple of weeks?

AMZN - Thursday, April 27, 2017
AAPL - Tuesday, May 2, 2017
FB - Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Was planning on just holding onto everything this time around, except it looks like FB is almost at $146 already, so maybe it won't rise too much more over the next couple of months? Also, managed to ditch my SNAP at $19.90, so only lost about 0.5% - guess was super lucky not to get stuck for a lot more

Summary

So the changes are coming along - it kind of ruins the fun of meals like a burger and fries to know that it's high in saturated fat, refined carbs, and doesn't have a ton of nutrition It seems like it was much *much* harder stopping drinking soda, like there was some sort of addiction there, with some sort of withdrawal that made it so much tougher to adjust? Mentioned having to eat candy to help me adjust to not having a daily soda - didn't mention how big the bag of candy was that helped me kick my habit. At first, was just buying little bags of gummy bears at the store - but was going through them so fast, it made more sense to buy a bulk bag at Costco that looked very similar to this one

Spoiler:

Guess addiction can be tough - so healthy eating's been pretty easy. The plain yogurt with berries added was yummy! Better than the sugared kind that doesn't have as much fruit. So things are coming along

In Jaime Staples' vlog today, he mentioned that his coach wants him to start eating 1500 calories a day - and so there's several comments down below that were wondering if maybe that might be too low? It can be so fun and exciting to learning new things - guess at times too it can be a bit ... frustrating (?), with trying to find resources that are reliable/trustworthy, and a good fit, and stuff like that?

Today's conundrums for me - are whole wheat tortillas healthy? Is fat-free sour cream okay to have as a garnish?


Whole Wheat Tortillas

On the one hand, found several sites that gave whole wheat tortillas glowing reviews, like Livestrong (What Are the Health Benefits of Whole Wheat Tortillas?). But are they just listing the benefits of fibre (or insoluble fibre)? Maybe is it too hard to try to get the daily recommended amount of fibre from fruits and veggies, so whole grain carbs are considered good, even though stuff like tortillas don't have as many vitamins and minerals as fruits and veggies?


Fat-Free Sour Cream

And Livestrong doesn't say anything bad about sour cream (Is Sour Cream Good for You?). But this other site called 'Fooducate' pointed out how low-fat sour cream is a lot more processed than regular sour cream - and that surely that can't be very good When Fat-Free Makes No Sense? They really had me wondering - the only thing is that they then went on to make the recommendation that people eat full fat sour cream, because saturated fat is must surely be better than processing, and didn't site any sources or anything like that?

Guess is sour cream maybe something to eat sparingly - like maybe once a week, or something?


And guess for me, today was that day Made fajitas with chicken instead of beef, so took extra care to find a good recipe on Pinterest - also it was helpful to have the meat thermometer got after watching MasterChef with David Williams last year to keep it juicy as well.

Chicken (dark meat) and frozen fish are so cheap - my meat's been costing less than my veggies Hope stuff like whole wheat tortillas and pitas are okay - maybe they're fine, so long as there's lots of veggies to go with them?

You are cooking! That makes you healthwise and moneywise a mile ahead everyone who eats a to out. I run once a theme comparison: an item bought somewhere (milk shake, coffee, salad, ....) against the same item made myself. I compared calories, cost, taste. Absolutely always doing it yourself wins in all categories.

Those are my favourite things about cooking - when the food turns out, and it's tastier, healthier, and cheaper than anything that's available at the store ... guess it's like being able to eat out every day, right from the comfort of home, where it's all cozy and stuff?


Every once in a while, don't mind paying extra for meals - guess it's still nice to go out and eat with friends and family every once in a while as well

And it can be fun to try new foods - something that's neat about my city is that there's a lot of people who have settled here from all over the world, so there's an incredible variety of different cuisines available to try. Just checked and it looks like there's someone making Kazakh food! It looks like they have a lot of lamb dishes on the menu?

A lot of the food is oftentimes really reasonably priced too - the restaurants make it so easy to just grab something yummy as a special treat, like a tandoori chicken quarter, or a shawarma, or some spicy fried rice for $5 to $10 ... soo good There's even Groupons sometimes for different stuff, like right now there's one for half price Himalayan food:

Not sure how this take-out deliciousness is going to fit into my new pledge to eat healthier lol Guess with the food being so reasonably-priced, haven't been super motivated to try making some of it at home, like fried rice - but if it's only available at restaurants with white rice, maybe will have to try making it at home?


The internet's such an awesome resource for home cooks these days - they even have recipes for Starbucks coffee, like their holiday peppermint mocha, and stuff like that.

Do you have any favorite recipes you've discovered, or any favorite take-out spots you still indulge in Lapka?

Just checked on Pinterest, and apparently fried rice can be made somewhat (?) healthy, with lots of veggies, and a little bit of brown rice (and chicken)?

There was even a recipe for mexican fried rice, that has beans. It looks good!

Have been wanting to try eating more nuts and beans, so tried making homemade falafel tonight, with tzatziki yogurt sauce - wasn't sure how it was going to turn out, but it tasted a lot like the ones from the shawarma place, so that was a relief ...

Will be able to use the whole wheat pitas to make pizza as well - guess this healthy eating hasn't turned out so bad

Went back to basics, and just made some spicy teriyaki salmon with roasted carrots today ...

Seems like the healthier meals are coming along, so maybe no need to keep posting pics of my nightly dinners Guess can go back to taking a warm-weather break from the internet - hope everybody's enjoying the lovely weather!

i like your food pics

There's something comforting about looking at food, isn't there SA?

The photos on Pinterest all look a gazillion times better than mine too - that chicken dish of mine from a couple of days ago was supposed to look like this haha

Also, may have left my carrots in a little too long today, although they tasted fine


Have so many new recipes on my list of things to try, like this coconut chicken - yum!

Will maybe save my foodie pics and post them altogether every once in a while?

The weather's still kind of back and forth - cold and cloudy one day, and then bright and sunny the next. Although the leaves have come back on a lot of the trees this month, so even on a cold and cloudy day it'll still be quite pretty out in the most mediocre spots Here's my jogging route from this afternoon ... before it started to rain

And then spotted a goose who was not at all shy, and let me get very close! Didn't even have to offer him any snacks!

Also, the healthy eating's still healthy Modified my spaghetti bolognese to be about 2/3 vegetables, with some whole wheat spaghetti, and a little cheese but no meat. Guess am mostly eating fruit and vegetables now, with some meat and whole grains on the side to make sure everything stays yummy ... and that seems to be enough?

Sold my FB last week, so just have the APPL earnings report this week on Tuesday - not sure what to expect, but decided to try staying calm (for a change! ), and just hold onto things and hope that the price goes up instead of down? Am feeling a little afraid for no apparent reason, so hopefully everything will go okay

gl me!