Endless Apps As In Appetites

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Whose bright idea was it to schedule a medical appointment at the crack of dawn?  Oh, that's right, it was me.   Idiot.  Oh well.  Made for a short night of mediocre sleep.  At least the appointment was fine.  We'll see if there is any weirdness in the blood work.  I was a little concerned about the BP number when this morning's reading was high but it came in good.

Anyway, another day.  A busy one.

Breakfast:  McD egg mcmuffin, BEC biscuit, hash browns.  Coffee

Had to fast for labs, did not have time to run home and did not pack anything.  Poor planning.

Lunch:  Taco meat and mashed potatoes

 

Standard slop bowl.  Tasty.

Late afternoon snack of pretzel bits and some kind of cheezit things. 

Dinner:  Dominos NY pep ham is onion jala, bread bites

Crashed out.

Exercise:  Nope.

Definitely was encouraged to be more active.  Which I agree with 100%.

106.8 

Partially Opened Gate

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Yesterday was a halfway decent day.  Other than cheese popcorn, I ate what I had planned.  And frankly I wasn't all that upset about the extra, not that many calories just too many carbs.

Also managed to get rid of a little water.  Not quite an open floodgate, but the scale was down this morning reversing the last few days.

Today won't be as effective, as I'm having some work done on my car.  Which probably means a delivered sandwich for lunch.  Oh well.

Breakfast:  2 slices Meijer extra sharp cheddar, Meijer chicken bone broth 

 

It was a broth kind of morning.  The Meijer brand was okay, but not as good as whatever kind I had previously, probably Pacific. 

Lunch:   Jimmy Johns #9, chips, light lemonade

Pretty good, toasting sure makes a difference.  As usual with takeout though I wanted to keep eating.

Dinner:  Cheeseburger, fries w ketchup

Very good burger and fries from the local 5G knockoff.

Also cheese popcorn. 

Exercise:  Nope.

107.0 

Bigger With Less

Monday, February 23 2026

Okay, it is Monday again.  I really enjoy taking Sundays off but I will say that I'm not getting enough stuff done.  Either at work on Saturday or at home on Sunday.  Just not enough zip I guess.

Anyway, so far today I have narrowly managed to keep back on track.  It has not been easy, I want to EAT.  All the things.  Constantly.  But I am not going to.  The plan is to get back to really simple basics, a focus on protein foods, eating at home, less carbage.  I have a bag of cheese popcorn but I think that's it for on hand junk food.

Scale predictably way up, BP about the same still on the high side. 

Breakfast:  2 slices Meijer extra sharp cheddar, coffee

 

A pretty standard breakfast.  I did buy some salami so I can mix it up this week.

Lunch:  Taco meat, mashed potatoes

 

Upped the protein quantity from 1/3 lb to about 1/2 lb.  Mash stayed at 1 C.  Solid.

Dinner:  5 eggs over medium in EVOO, 2 meijer sausage patties, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

Messing with the egg-to-meat ratio here.

Also:  Lesser Evil cheese popcorn.  Tasty. 

Exercise:  Nope.

110.8 

Greatly Greatly Excessive

Sunday, February 22, 2026

Looking forward to a day of "rest".  My to do list covers an entire page, but I'm actually looking forward to doing most of it.  A significant piece is several cooking projects so that I can get back on track here.  A birthday party tonight, but after that I have no excuses until it's vacation time in 2.5 weeks.

Another predictable large jump on the scale today and the BP number was high too.  Actions have consequences.

Breakfast:  Lazy bagels w chive/onion cream cheese, coffee

 

Really should be the last time for the lazy bagels for the foreseeable future.  Intentionally did not buy more cream cheese so maybe I can give them up.

Lunch:  Jersey Mike's hot italian, salt & vinegar chips

Very tasty.

Dinner:  Fettucine, chicken, salad, garlic bread, blueberries and strawberries, brownie and ice cream

Birthday party. 

And earlier I had chili cheese dogs, fries, coke.  Ate WAY too much today. 

Exercise:  Nope.

108.6

The Master Of Gain

Saturday, February 21, 2026

Nobody, but nobody, can gain weight like I can.  Ten pounds in less than a week?  Child's play.  It's a gift.  A cursed gift, but a gift none the less.  No matter how long I am "good", the ability to binge eat enormous quantities is always there, lurking in the background.  

It's disgusting.  And when I stop to think about it, it makes me mad.

So let's get back on the horse.  Hitting the grocery store tonight, cooking tomorrow, let's do that.  Once we get through today.

Breakfast:  McD egg mcmuffin, BEC biscuit, hash browns.  Coffee

All very tasty, all very excessive and mostly bad for me.  And again I hated spending money, which may be one small factor pushing me toward being good long term.

Lunch:  Italian beef sandwich, fries

Again, tasty and bad for me.

Dinner:  Home pizza with italian sausage, bacon and mushrooms, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

I make a very tasty pizza.

Exercise:  Nope.  On the plus side I did a pretty good hike at the grocery store.

106.0 

Look Forward Angel

Friday, February 20, 2026

Whew, we made it.  TGIF.  Another week in the books.

I'm honestly looking forward to the reset.  I have found that both spending money and being a slave to my gut the last couple days have been unpleasant.  I'm looking forward to returning to full eat at home, no snacks, no stops along the way.  I'm good enough as a cook that it's not suffering.  I'm mostly just lazy.

Anyway, let us weekend.

Breakfast:  3 slices Sargento sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Finished the package.  Had a raspberry muffin mid-morning.

Lunch:  Chili cheese dogs, fries, tots, Coke Zero

Tasty but toxic.

Had a slice of pizza late afternoon.

Dinner:  Cheeseburger, fries w ketchup, Snyders jalapeno pretzel pieces

Local 5 Guys style place, very tasty. 

Exercise:  Nope.

102.6 

Upcoming Reset

Thursday, February 19, 2026

Another unsuccessful day on the food and exercise front.  Reset coming this weekend.

Breakfast:  2 slices Sargento sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Again.

Lunch:  CFA spicy w pepperjack, fries, 2 strips, diet lemonade

Not bad, just bad for me.

Dinner:  Restaurant mushroom swiss burger, fries, 16 oz Mich Ultra

 

A truly excellent burger and fries, plus a cold beer.  A+ and paid for by gift card.

Also no bakes, Lays kettle jalapeno chips

Exercise:  Nope

100.2 

Uncarded

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Well that's certainly different.  I was going to go home for lunch as usual today but could not as the entire area is blocked off by police and fire.  I think the power is out too.  So much for that.

Not much else to report.  Scale was predictably up quite a bit.  BP a bit higher.  Nothing surprising.  Hoping that I can avoid having to work super late again tonight but it's looking iffy.

Breakfast:  2 slices Sargento sharp cheddar, coffee

Standard.

Lunch:  Meatloaf sandwich, fries

I couldn't decide what I wanted for lunch instead of the planned bacon and eggs.  Ended up on this, which was good as always.

Dinner:  LC pep pizza w sauce, capper of oatmeal cookies and milk

A no photo day.

Exercise:  Nope

99.0

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 16.09 + $7.73 / Way over 

Post Meltdown Reflection

Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Hours later and I'm still kinda ticked off at myself for last evening's failure.  It was something of a cascading fail - if I had cooked my potatoes on Sunday as planned I think I could have made myself eat the planned meal of leftovers.  But I left that chore for last night and when I realized that I had hours worth of stuff to do at work, I cracked.  I learned that I can still eat to crazy excess when I crack. 

The consequences weren't life altering.  Up a pound on the scale.  I'll lose it.  The stress and the excess calories kept me awake until about 2:00, so I'm running on very little sleep today.  So far it's been okay, but I will need to get extra tonight.  

Still hoping to get through the rest of the month without further damage, but I can already see cracks in the resolve.

Breakfast:  2 slices Sargento sharp cheddar, coffee

 

 

Standard.

Lunch:  3 eggs scrambled in a little EVOO, bone broth rice, 3 strips Meijer bacon

 

Also standard.   Merely okay.

Dinner:  LC pep pizza + sauce

Full embrace of FAT TUESDAY.   Once again back to the office for additional hours.

 

And the capper, oatmeal cookies and milk.

Exercise:  Nope.

97.0

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 9.16 / $ 0.00 (over) 

After That The Fix

Monday, February 16, 2026

Another week.  Kicking it off with a non-holiday holiday.  Just another work day.

Scale minimum up, BP a bit higher than it has been.  I'm losing interest in the budget challenge, though I think I will stick it out through the end of the month.  Eating all meals at home is good for a lot of things, but as long as I eat this much starch (and don't exercise) I probably won't lose any weight.  So as much as it pains me to do it I think I'll have to change.

Breakfast:  2 slices Sargento sharp cheddar, coffee

 

Standard stuff.

Lunch:  3 eggs over medium, 3 strips bacon, bone broth rice

 

A bit light on the rice.  This was okay.

Dinner:  Dominos thin crust w ham, bacon jala stuffed cheesy bread

Ugh.  I cracked.  Stupid work.

Capper a glass of 2% milk. 

Exercise:  Nope.  Went back to work for hours.

96.0

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 8.47 / FAIL.  $ 8.08 over.

Cook Those Projects

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Strange start.  Could not get to sleep last night.  Not super tired and with just enough sinus irritation to make it a challenge.  It was after 1:00 before I crashed.  Sleep itself felt okay, I guess.  But then I woke up and could not get back to sleep.  Finally looked at the clock, 6:00.  Ugh.  So I'm running on less than five hours today.

Scale minimum up, BP okay, let's have a day.  Lots of cooking and stuff to do but first off to Meijer for the mid-month restock.

Breakfast:  Lazy bagels with chive and onion cream cheese, coffee

 

Made with the little container of greek yogurt I bought on the first (since they were out of big ones) and some olive oil.  Tasty as usual.

Lunch:  2 eggs (plus two egg whites) scrambled w peppers and onions in EVOO, 2 strips Meijer bacon

Will also have tastes of today's cooking projections, which include mashed potatoes, bone broth rice and oatmeal cookies. 

Dinner:  Chuck roast w gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, NSA peaches, 12 oz Miller Lite, oatmeal cookies

 

Sunday dinners.  All very tasty and I have roast and carrots for the next two nights.

Exercise:  Nope

95.8

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 13.06 / $ 0.39

Forgot I had five dollars of store perks so I was able to get what I needed.  Whew.   Also noted that I had not updated my spreadsheet when I bought a slightly more expensive bottle of olive oil at Walmart ($8.79 vs the $7.36 I had planned) the other day in order to get glass instead of plastic, so I didn't have as much available to start the day as I had thought.  Now to get through the next two weeks with zero spend.  

Fully Blocked

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Ah, the annual holiday that celebrates the fact that February is half over.  It truly is the worst month.

Many hours of complete blockage appear to have finally convinced the sinuses to settle down.  We'll see if that continues, but it's been good so far this morning.  Plan for the day is mostly office time, so the change of environments may test it.  Still, TGIS.

Scale was down this morning thanks to a nice system reset, back down to the low mark.  Today will test that.  BP was fine.  Feel okay, though I can't say that I slept well.

Breakfast:  Sprouted oatmeal w butter and maple syrup, coffee

 

Standard of late, though given that I plan to make another batch of oatmeal cookies on Sunday I'm not sure if my bag of oats will make it through the month.

Lunch:  Taco meat, bone broth rice, guacamole

 

Usual portion sizes.  Those 1C glass containers sure are handy.

Dinner:  Home pizza with pepperoni, ground beef and jalapenos, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

You have to love pizza night.  So, so good.  On one hand I'd like to increase the size of my dough balls a bit and get something closer to a 14" pizza, but the flip side is that would be a lot more pizza.  Which my mouth would love, but my waist not so much.

 

And the capper, oatmeal cookies plus 2% milk.

Exercise:  Nope.  Active but nothing that counts.

95.6

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 0.00 / $ 14.88 

Yearning To Breathe Freely

Friday, February 13, 2026

Very happy to see Friday, though it is going to be a crazy busy day.

Also happy to see a small drop on the scale.  By all rights it could have been up due to another night of excessive eating of very calorie dense stuff.  But it wasn't.  Still essentially flat for the month as I drag my feet on exercise, but is what it is.   BP was a bit higher than usual but not crazy.

Also hoping for a day of no sinus irritation.  Very tired of that.  (ETA:  LOL, nope)

Breakfast:  Meijer extra sharp cheddar cheese, coffee

Last of the block.  It was interesting having the scaled down portion sizes this week (ate 4 oz over the five days instead of the usual 7 or 8 oz).  Can't say I really recommend it.

Lunch:  3 eggs over medium in a bit of EVOO, 1 C bone broth rice, 1 C chorizo gravy

 

Another day another bowl.  Gravy instead of patties or bacon does make for a heartier bowl.

Dinner:  5 oz taco meat, 1 C bone broth rice, guacamole, 12 oz Miller Lite 

 

Also a repeat bowl.  Yum.  I might make March the month of many slop bowls.

 

And the capper.  Sprouted oatmeal cookies and 2% milk.

Exercise:  Nope

97.0

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 0.00 / $ 14.88 

Here come the test, I will get my restock in tomorrow or Sunday and so far my list is almost $ 2.00 over budget.  I probably have enough returnables (home and work) to cover that, but it will be close. 

Absurd Appetite

Thursday, February 12, 2026

I do not know what is causing it, but I have the hunger this week.  Just a relentless desire to eat.  It is quite annoying.  I have pretty much worked through my supply of readily eatable stuff other than planned meals so I won't necessarily be able to indulge going forward but this week has been bad.

Which is why it was oddly pleasing to have the scale give me the same number for the third day in a row.  It's not a great number or even a good one, but at least it was not up.  BP fine too.

Breakfast:  Meijer extra sharp cheddar, coffee

Again.

Lunch:  3 eggs over medium in a little EVOO, 1 C spicy beans, 2 Meijer sausage patties 

Again.  Testing out the EVOO I got yesterday, seems fine.

Dinner:  ~ 5 oz taco meat, 1 C bone broth rice, guacamole, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

I do like the slop bowls.

 

And the capper.  Ferris cherries berries and nuts with dark chocolate and 2% milk.

Exercise:  Nope

97.4

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 0.00 / $ 14.88

Underappreciated Miracles

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Here to sing the praises of a truly underappreciated miracle drug.  We're talking ... Afrin. 

And I'm being completely serious.  A couple times a year I just can't stand the sinus issues any longer, crack and use the stuff.  And it works.  Five minutes later, I'm breathing freely the way the body is designed to work.  It truly is miraculous.

Obviously last night was when I cracked.  Just before I went to bed.  And you know what?  I slept better.  Deeper, probably.  Had a very lengthy dream.  Didn't get extra sleep (my fault) but slept through right up to my alarm.  Woke up and felt good.  Got going without incident.  Had a blood draw and I actually felt a bit of pep.  Noticeably more with it, like I could actually do things.  Sleep is good.  Oxygen is good.

Now if I could just get rid of the sinus issues without needed pharmaceutical intervention that would be great.  Not sure I can though.

Scale was flat which is miraculous given the minor meltdown last night, BP good.  Let's go. 

Breakfast:  Meijer extra sharp cheddar, orange juice, coffee

Last of the OJ.  Not planning a rebuy, that's a carb I can easily cut.

Lunch:  3 eggs over medium in butter, 1C bone broth rice, 1C chorizo gravy

 

Quite a bit of food.  Tasty.

Dinner:  Leftover chili, rice, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

 Last of the chili.  

 

Also Ferris winter spice mix.  More Christmas treats.  My desire to eat is relentless tonight.

 

And the capper   Truffles and 2% milk.

Exercise:  Nope.

97.4 

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 7.36 /  $ 14.88

Had to pick up a prescription so I grabbed olive oil at Walmart.  I'll get the rest this weekend.  It will be tempting to pre-buy a couple non-perishable things for March - there are a few good sales.

Failure Fatigue

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Yesterday was, truth be told, another failure and a big one.  I was exceptionally unproductive at work.  It was largely a wasted day.  I was unable to make myself do anything productive in the evening.  No exercise.  I couldn't even follow through on going to bed early.  Ate too much and way too many carbs.  All bad.

But then at least I slept a little bit better overnight and it's a fresh day.  Feeling better so far, we'll see how well that translates to productivity at work.  Let's hope.

Scale was down thanks to some clearance but still elevated, BP good. 

Breakfast:  Meijer extra sharp cheddar, orange juice, coffee 

Notably small bit of cheese this morning.  Good thing I am not hungry.

Lunch:  3 eggs over medium, 1 C spicy beans, 2 Meijer sausage patties

 

Again.

Dinner:  Leftover chili, 1 C bone broth rice, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

Fast.  Tasty.  Also ate the remaining homemade cheezits of which there were not too many.

 

And the capper, (too many) dark chocolate peppermint pretzels and a glass of 2% milk. 

Exercise:  Nope.

97.4 

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 0.00 / $ 22.24  (not $22.44, I have been screwing it up since day 2)

Mapped out this weekend's restock and it actually works better to get everything except olive oil at Meijer.  Some things I need are on sale and with the rewards money I can just fit everything under the cap including another pound of butter. 

When You Eat The Different

Monday, February 9, 2026

Ugh.  Ate too much yesterday, and with the consumption of different things than the usual my guts are not overly pleased.  It's a low level displeasure, nothing active or severe, but protest is definitely being registered.  I took some leftover chili but otherwise it's back to the usual today and hopefully that will settle things down.

Scale was predictably up.  Honestly I was expecting worse, but it's still enough to be annoying.  First BP reading was a serious WTF.  I got a diastolic number vastly higher than anything I've had recently.  Reset the cuff, re-ran it and got two numbers that were perfectly fine, inside the normal BP range.  I certainly don't trust and haven't trusted the home monitoring machine, but I still use it out of habit. 

Breakfast:  Meijer extra sharp cheddar, orange juice, coffee 

Might be a bit less cheesy than usual this week since I used half of the block to make cheezits yesterday.

Lunch:  3 eggs over medium in butter, 1 C bone broth rice, 2 Meijer sausage patties

 

Standard stuff.  Very tasty today.

Dinner: Cracker crust pizza w pepperoni, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

Was going to have leftover chili but honestly this was all I could do.  Try again tomorrow.  Also had a few homemade cheezits to see if they stayed crispy.  Still tasty.

 

And the capper, yogurt pretzels and a glass of 2% milk.  Didn't make cookies, going to work on eating up the rest of the Christmas treats a little bit at a time. 

Exercise:  Nope.  Very fatigued today for whatever reason.

98.0

Dollars Spent / Remaining: $ 0.00 / $ 22.44

No change.  A couple items to restock/pick up at the end of the week.   Speaking of which, I thought up a way to make that trip a zero out of pocket thing even if I go to Walmart, I have a credit card with a promo credit balance that I could use.  Also determined that I have points on another card that could be used to shop at Amazon for non-grocery items.  But given the dollar amounts I may or may not bother.

Social Media Diet

Sunday, February 8, 2026

The day of rest.  It won't be entirely restful, of course, but as close as it gets.  I've been looking forward to it.  Even the laundry and cooking and cleaning part.  I think it would also help if I took the day off from social media, I scrolled a bit this morning and it mostly made me angry over things I have no control over and which mostly do not impact my life.  And when not mad I was mostly annoyed.  I do occasionally learn things and get inspired, but a day off still seems like an excellent idea.

Probably won't be a full social media diet day given that tonight is the Superb Owl, though. 

Scale was up after yesterday's dietary fun.  It wasn't a big jump and I'm not terribly upset, I really enjoyed the pizza.  Just need to be more active.  My diet is also excessively starchy, but that is likely to continue.

Breakfast:  Spelt lazy bagels, cream cheese, coffee

 

Last of the spelt.  Not sure if I'll restock it in March, it's expensive and I probably won't do the lazy bagels once the weather is warmer.  Probably just go with the regular flour.

Lunch:  Soup, homemade cheezits

 

Fun with a new recipe.  The cheezits were pretty easy, but they're very addictive so I had better not keep them around.  Made a half batch to test - including seeing if they'll stay crispy for a few days - and it's going to be hard not to just eat them all.

 

Also had some peanuts.  Have the hunger today, unfortunately.   And then Late July jalapeno lime tortilla chips, which were my impulse buy.  At $1.99 for the bag, pretty tasty, but wouldn't pay full price.  Nice to have another avo oil option.

Dinner:  Chili, cheese and crackers, veggies, tortilla chips and dip, 12 oz Coors Light, brownie and ice cream

And a glass of 2% milk.  Super bowl party.  Ate WAY too much today.

Exercise:  Nope.  Very much a day of rest.

96.4

Dollars Spent / Remaining: $ 0.00 / $ 22.44 

Happy Flaturday

Saturday, February 7, 2026

TGIS.  Plan for the day is once again to spend as much of it as I can stand at the office, but even knowing that it's still a Saturday and that means a lot.

Scale was exactly flat this morning and I was positively THRILLED by that.  I was braced for a sizable gain after yesterday's minimidafternoon meltdown.  It probably wasn't even 1k calories, hardly close to a binge by my absurd standards, but it was significant.  I'm also in need of a clearout, so bad things were expected.  Whew.

What I really need to do is get some exercise.  If it weren't so cold and icy out there I'd walk to work.

Breakfast:  Sprouted oatmeal w butter and maple syrup, coffee

 

The oatmeal is fine.  It's oatmeal.  I don't know that I'll buy it again once I eat it up - there is a lot left and I won't want to cook it in warmer weather.  Actually, summer meals are an issue in general I should start thinking about.  Might be a lot of grilling.

Lunch:  3 eggs scrambled, 2 Meijer sausage patties

 

I bought fresh sausage, cooked and froze it.  Seems to work fine.

 

Had some peanuts with my beer while waiting for the oven to heat up for dinner.  Guess I need to not buy nuts next month.

Dinner:  Home pizza with italian sausage, mushrooms and jalapenos, 12 oz Miller Lite

 

On real pizza crust I started on Wednesday, no cracker crust tonight.  A+ delicious.

 

And the capper, the last of the peanut chip cookies and 2% milk.

Exercise:  Nope.

95.6

Dollars Spent / Remaining:  $ 0.00 / $ 22.44

No change, no food spend, all good.  I certainly would have in my previous life - went past a number of temptations while running some out of town errands.  I'm liking not spending money too much for that, though I did have to get gas, spent $34.00 relating to my upcoming vacation and about $25.00 on work-related stuff so it was not a full zero spend day.  But these things are in the budget.