Lemur Journal!

Where are you and where are you going?
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Lemur
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Post by Lemur »

I've lost 5 pounds in a few weeks. Eating 2000 calories a day whereas my body maintains around 2700. That has been consistent.

As for my job, I've never worked harder nor have I had as much pressure as I'm dealing with now - with the options I've in this life now, it is a wonder why I don't just quit and do something else. But at the end of the day, I just don't want to give up. I don't want to quit. I want to see this project through to the end even if that end is me being let go (yeah just missed some deadlines). The stoic moves towards obstacles. Reminds me of a quote from Marcus Auerelius - Meditations had quite an influence on me. Its a text I've revisited before.
Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces - to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What's thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it - and makes it burn still higher.
This project it has been humbling in ways that are hard to describe - there is so much difference between being a cog and being the the lead and developer and building something from ground up while navigating internal/external politics, customers, resources, code, and even time. I've grown from it and I think any future work streams I take it are going to feel easier in comparison. Unless I keep pushing for harder work that is.

Lately I don't even think about weekends. I'm too engaged. I have a notebook at the side of my bed to jot things down because I'm juggling so many things and thinking about so many things...I have to get it out of my head.

I'm still surviving.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

07/02/2021 AMC -7P $50 / +7P $47 = $0.79 Credit

Could not help myself. IV is still high and I think AMC will start stabilizing with the reopening of movie theatres this summer. Should be enough headlines to keep the underlying up for the next few months. My thesis changed completely from thinking this was gonna crash in the near-term. I think it will eventually but not anytime soon.

The above trade is my annotation of a put credit spread. You sell some puts, collect premium, and then use the premium to buy puts at a lower strike price to cap your losses. Max profit is net credit received. Max loss is calculated as width of strike prices minus the credit received.

Typically you would want to receive a credit 1/3rd of the strike widths to justify risk/reward ratio. In my case, I should've aimed for $1.00 credit but close enough. My short puts are also covered with capital.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Finally reading the paper on this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Adaptation

Surprised I did not come across this in 2020 when I had my personal climate change crisis. I am halfway through. This would have left me depressed if I discovered this last year during that denialism stage.

Reading about the heat waves hitting the Pacific Northwest and Pakistan today had me thinking about this topic again. Its not one I have thought about in many months since the 2020 election and my new project taking up most of my thoughts and brainpower. Realizing now that if the power in the shelter I live in suddenly went off, and we were in the midst of a heat wave, I would be wholly unprepared.

This made me suggest to my Spouse that we might want to be strategic in our "early retirement" location. I expect the Philippines where my spouse wants to go and live (to be near family) may not be the best approach unless it was in one of the mountainous areas ... I mean the place my Spouse grew up has occasional floods - there is no way that is not getting worse this century.

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Lemur
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Scare this morning with AMC suddenly taking a 10% drop but as soon as it bounced up over my short strike, I got out. Here is how the trade went overall this week:

Sell to open: AMC210702P00050000 $1,084.99 (I sold Puts at $50)
Buy to open: AMC210702P00047000 -546.00 (I bought Puts at $47)
Buy to close: AMC210702P00050000 -$357.00 (I closed the short puts)
Sell to close AMC210702P00047000 $49.00 (I closed the long puts)
P/L: $230.99 including commission fees.

That was a close one...most of the gain here is due to theta decay. I'm glad I did not play greed - I could have let this go until end of day today and crossed fingers that AMC would stay above $50 but I decided not to.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

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This is a fun update - mainly because I'm kicking ass at everything and I am firing on all cylinders .... :D

July 3, 2021

Net-worth:
$484,000 (Up $41,000)

Financial - A $10k bonus from my salaryman job. My spouse made her quarterly investment after paying taxes ($5k invested). A few stocks hit my covered call strike prices triggering sales - Apple, Visa, and AMD. And thousands made on successful options trades (covered calls on NOK, MAC namely). Plus general market going up and normal savings...all compounded to make this one month a gain of almost 2x yearly expenses.

With this total net-worth we're now at a 4.96% withdrawal rate. William Bengen states that 5% SWR might even be alright...We will continue to do what we're doing - hard to change course when money is flowing in like tap water. But I have this nagging feeling (in a good way) that many doors are starting to open up. If I was more creative, I probably would have realized these doors were open before but now it is starting to stare at me in the face. Hard to believe we're at almost $500k. Earlier this year I made a post saying $500k would be possible by end of year if we were very very lucky but now it looks like we might surpass that.

Current watchlist: Looking at MU. It was mentioned in the investments log and I thought it looked interesting. I have a cash-secured put on VISA to try to get back in at $235. Apple, I lost some upside with my CC admittingly. I successfully made money on an AMC put credit spread though it became very risky very fast. I opted not to continue with this - I put my money back in Apple and have the rest of the capital tied up on Visa.

Physical Health / Diet: I lost 8 pounds this month sticking to a 2,000 calorie a day diet. I am now 177.4 lbs which puts me at a 24.1 BMI. Part of my motivation was mastering mind over body as I've been failing on this all year. Something triggered me 5 weeks ago to start taking it serious. In a weird way, I've realized the distance from my birth to 30 is the same distance from 30 to 60 years of old...this is the prime of my life and I want to do it with good looks (abs would be nice to see) and a very healthy BMI. My goal is 165lb range with a forever high limit of 170lbs. In other words, the plan is to reach my target and then go on a thermometer mode where whenever I hit 170lbs, I diet again.

In terms of exercise, my right shoulder continues to heal but I am back to doing calisthenics.

Mental Health: Good. On 5 day work break.

Job: Don't feel like typing about my job and would rather ignore. My mental health is great when I am not chained 9-5.

Gardening: I made a few self-watering containers. My squash unfortunately have blossom end rot. We've eaten a good deal of peas and string beans. Starting to see first tomatoes. Corn is coming up.

Reading / Other: History of the Russian Civil War by Bruce Lincoln - I got to a certain point and stopped reading. Just lost interest. I have been reading this book called "The Permaculture Promise" by Jono Neiger. It is very much a beginner overview of what permaculture is - nothing in here is about tactics. I've read recommendations here to check out "Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture" which I might do next. I've also read the Dark Mountain Projects Uncivilized Manifesto by Paul Kingsnorth. I am more ready to handle these topics now as I'm mostly past the grieving stage of climate change. As an Atheist, I found Paul's conversion to Christianity stunningly interesting - this is a rare thing. I've also discovered lectures and works by Michael Dowd. I shared a video on the "recommendation watching" log.

Other: I won every set against my good friend at a Tennis match. This was a long time coming as I've lost almost every match since we started playing lol.

Goal: Continue with successful diet. Explore works by Paul Kingsnorth a bit further - something is drawing me to what he has to say - certain connections that I cannot describe are clicking.

Begin discussions and develop plans for alternative lifestyle and find a healthy compromise with Spouse. We're at that point. If our Wheaton levels were more aligned, we'd just quit now honestly lol. I'm still very much thinking about what sort of life I want to live post 9-5. At the point now where I'm beginning to think more money just doesn't change things all that much.

Really just need to make sure inflow of capital is greater than outflow of capital...everything else is just noise. Alternative lifestyle to me is finding ways to depend less on inflow of capital. It is one thing to live in theory but another thing to have your hands dirty.

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Reading Mark Manson's book "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fu*k." I probably need something like this given how much I let my mental state be effected by my occupation. Ironically as I asterisk curse words. Anyhow I wrote this book off years ago due to the title alone - just thought it was crude. Turns out its a much better book then I judged it for. Good read so far.

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So finally I decided to do something about this job suffering. I did a few things:

1.) I went all out and documented and emailed all my problem/concerns with my stakeholders. This actually turned out positive - the responses I was given were ones of "we agree our teams need to collaborate a bit more blah blah blah lets set up this and that time." A reminder that anxiety/anxiousness is a prompt for you to "do something." Thanks for the reminder Mark Manson.

2.) I gave my client the good and the bad. The former is easier to give out. The latter I have to get better at.

3.) Yay me for trying my best to not fail here but even then I realize there are just some problems that can't be overcome. Failure in itself is not a bad thing- in fact, it may even be necessary for one to grow into whatever skill they're trying to develop. So I need to learn better not to take failure so personally - it comes with the territory I think.

I mustered the courage and put in a job application for a government position. Felt relieving...I don't know if I will get this position (lack of experience) but I do have the KSA for it. The position had some things I've been dreaming about - full-time remote (which I have now but may be coming to an end), flex-time! (meaning we can set up 4 day a week situations), much more leave and sick leave, and non-supervisory. Research says this position is boring but is hiring like crazy right now. It is the perfect position to cog out these last few years if I can get it. The salary is also in the $80-130k range - the amount of $$$ was not a big deal for me personally but my Spouse urges that I try to go at least lateral - and since she is the non-emotional thinker in this situation I will have to agree.

The act of putting in job applications is therapeutic in a way actually. I was not doing this before because I felt like by doing that - I'm not fully committing mentally to what I'm currently working on. But its the feeling of having a failsafe I think. Humans are social creatures - we hate rejection and being out-casted by our tribe (same psychological triggers from being fired?) but the good news is we can find other tribes.

Anyway that's the job stress. There is some real dramatic family stressors as well to deal with but that can come after work.(In short my brother / sister-in-law left a week ago but now want to come back - for reasons I won't get into now, we don't want them back in....it wasn't working out :/ )

Boy oh boy. Life is full of never-ending problems. Some we create by default. Really glad I found Manson's work - he makes a good point. Even if I were FI and lived off my investments, surely I would have other problems that I would have to deal with. We just need to choose our problems better - what are we willing to struggle for is a better question then trying to avoid these things.

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Post by Lemur »

Applied for a margin account @ my broker. My brokerage does not allow naked calls but the level 4 account (highest level) will allow naked puts which I aim to do. I've so far had a very high success rate in over a year of options trading (with the occasional blow-out lesson learned) so I figured its time.

My margin trades by design are going to be far less riskier then my normal CSPs and CCs. I'm aiming for much further OTM, a slightly shorter DTE, and only on stocks that pass a few tests (neutral to slightly bullish stock movement, not around earnings) and not all in one industry. I also need to understand my brokerages margin requirements and find a comfortable leverage ratio.

I don't see why they would not approve me for the account unless they may figure lack of experience. But I do have the funds...usually money speaks loud.

Salathor
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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Salathor »

Saw your comment on Gaia's Garden. One of my wife's favorites! We read it aloud together on a car trip a few months back. I highly recommend it.

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Thanks Salathor - Still need to pick it up from the library. Just finished reading Mark Manson's "The subtle art of not giving a fu*k." Good book, easy read, and some great lessons.

Today I defeated my friend at a tennis match. He had won 3 in a row so this is my first win in about a month. The past 2 matches were really competitive and both were comebacks by my opponent. In this match, I was also up 2-0 on the sets before the match quickly became 2-2. My friend does a lot better when he is down big on the score - seems to hype him up to comeback. I'm the opposite - I tend to get demoralized and I constantly find myself having to "get it together" and take a breather. I think this is why I really like this sport. It teaches you some things. There is definitely a mental aspect like all sports.

Another great thing about tennis is that while being athletic is a plus, and as long as you're not grossly overweight or generally have bad conditioning, one could play tennis well into there older ages. Coordination, technique, and patience mean a lot more in this game. I've seen 70 year old's at our local park that could probably whoop my friend and I :D. After having played a while, we can see others play and know almost instantly whether they would give us a run for our money or not.

Both of us exhausted today (hot weather and competitive) and I had bonked out when the set was 2-1 (and my friend was having great momentum) but I somehow caught a second wind (I was shaky in the previous few games - I think my blood sugar was getting low!) possibly after my energy levels stabilized. Felt great to finally get a win. The very last hit to close out the day, I had envisioned a strong overhand return to my opponents left side and that is exactly what happened.

We're both getting better and better each match. Losing the past 3 matches actually made me start looking up tennis tips and practicing my serves on the weekends. Tennis is awesome...wish I played in high school or something.

For anyone not familiar with tennis scoring (professionals might use more games/sets) the framework is called a game - set - match. So we play best out of 5 games. If you win a game, you get a set point. After a player scores a set, the opponents switch sides on the court. If you get 3/5 on the sets, you win the match. A competitive game like today where we got down to 2-2 on the sets and the final set I won 3-1 took exactly 2 hours.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by jacob »

https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tenni ... 679778314/ ... is a classic in trading, also, I suppose, in tennis.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Solvent »

Please excuse the random interjection to your journal, but tennis strikes me as the kind of sport I'd like to get my kids involved in. These observations may not be valid, since I myself haven't ever been a tennis player, but:
- Infrastructure costs seem like they shouldn't be too high, and courts are fairly widespread even globally, I'd hope this translates to relatively low participation fees (vis-a-vis other sports)
- Gear required doesn't seem too bad
- General agility and cardio probably has good crossover to other sports
- Even if not playing competitively, it's something that could be sociable (as you describe)
- Injury risk doesn't seem especially high, and probably tends to fairly low-consequence injuries.

Compare this to, for example, swimming, which is the sport I was involved with in high school:
- Pool fees are high. In the emerging world, pools are not super common (too expensive)
- Gear costs are low in swimming, though
- Cardio from swimming certainly carries to other sports, but agility absolutely doesn't
- Swimming clubs can be as sociable as any other sport, but it's a very solitary activity. If trying to make new friends, seems unlikely to ask another person to come and swim laps with you
- Injury risk also low in swimming.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Hristo Botev »

Lemur wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:31 am
Goal: . . . Explore works by Paul Kingsnorth a bit further - something is drawing me to what he has to say - certain connections that I cannot describe are clicking.
@Lemur, not sure if you've seen any of Kingsnorth's Substack (https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/), but it's been some of the best essay writing I've read in some time; right up there with a Wendell Berry for me. It's not overly religious, I don't think, notwithstanding that the first essay (IIRC) begins with a long description of the Garden of Eden. I highly recommend it; his description of the Machine just nails it for me on so many levels. And speaking of the Machine, I finished Kingsnorth's Buckmaster fiction trilogy earlier this year, and it also blew me away; and I'm about to re-read it with a book group. As a helpful tip, I read the first book in the trilogy, The Wake, along with the fantastic audiobook (narrated by Simon Vance). The book takes place 1,000 years ago, and Kingsnorth invented a dialect of Old English that he said would still be readable by a modern reader--and although @Jacob said he figured it out after 20 pages or so, I struggled. But it makes PERFECT sense when you hear Simon Vance reading it; really a creative triumph.

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@Jacob

Thanks! I'll look into this.

@Solvent

The odds of a Tennis injury are pretty low with the most common injuries being overuse injuries such as tennis elbow or recurrent knee problems. Both can generally be avoided with proper warmup, technique, and knowing when to let your body rest.

I take my Son swimming every Sunday because its good exercise, wears him out, and its a good life skill but I am looking forward to getting him into tennis one day. He can play now at 5 years old but it will be a couple of more years before his coordination levels up.

With that said, I think your observations are valid. Tennis is definitely cheaper though by default. Easier to maintain a court with once in a while upkeep and usually tennis courts are open and free at parks - the best part is they're often unoccupied! Pools obviously take more money.

@Hristo

The more I've read Kingsworth the more I've become to understand his world views are much more complex then I originally took him for. Far more then what I gathered from the YouTube video on "a recovering environmentalist." and his Manifesto. Thanks for the reference; I've been looking into his non-fiction work and trying to gather what I would like to read first. My to read list is growing but I've been wanting to pick up Alexandria.
Last edited by Lemur on Tue Aug 03, 2021 4:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

The monthly update.

August 3, 2021

Net-worth:
$501,000 (Up $17k)

Financial - Its arbitrary but we're officially half millionaires. :o This doesn't even count my Spouse's cash savings which is used to purchase inventory. I also have a tax liability building up from all the profit taking this year so that is something I am tracking. Probably in the $12k-$15k range.

On the investing front, I now have a margin account. Like a kid in a candy store, I opened up 15 contracts for 21 DTE OTM puts to collect a quick $1.4k in premiums but aim to close at 50%. In just a few days, some of those contracts closed. I probably will again visit my word document and refine how I want to use this effectively.

Interestingly, my largest holding, AMD suddenly soared 15-20% or so in the past month ...but I had written covered calls. I traded away a lot of upside but my $97.5 September contract still has some time on it - I'm projecting a pull-back but if I am called away it will probably be about that time to take some cash out. I've been saving up cash with my after-tax savings.

Watchlist: Corsair Gaming - I've $30 Cash-Secured Puts on this one. They dipped today despite an excellent earnings report. Something to keep an eye on for a long-term LEAP Play.

Physical Health / Diet: A small weight loss of 1.4 pounds so now I am down to 176 pounds and 23.9 BMI. It took forever, but my right shoulder finally healed from the bike accident. My physical activity has increased from 1 game a week to 2 games a week of tennis, plus I added swimming on Sundays and occasional jogs on top of the normal calisthenics I do. Still dropping body fat percentage and I'm finally starting to look a bit more defined.

I feel great and in the best shape of my life. I have this very strange calling right now ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon :o

Mental Health: Mark Manson's book was a good read. He definitely makes a good point on what values we're prioritizing and how that effects our mood. I really liked his emphasis on the difference between fault vs responsibility and what creates an entitlement attitude / victim mentality. It was a good reminder on locus of control.

Job: Still sucks but finally some good news. Was told that my contract is up end of October and I'm free to get on a different project. So now I have this light at the end of the tunnel - I just need to survive for 3 more months. On the other hand, our employer is having a "big meeting" after labor day to discuss the future of our work from home status.

I said this in jest quite a bit - if they try to take me back to the office I'm out! This is becoming less of a joke the more I read about "the great resignation" and seeing all the open remote positions....

The only reason I haven't left my job at this point is comfortable misery.

Gardening: Last month I made my first self-watering containers. In a comparison of my watermelons that are planted in those vs just the regular pots, the former are growing MUCH better. Additionally, I rescued my squash from the blossom end rot using crushed egg shells + milk. We've harvest squash and corn in the past month. Tomatoes and bell-peppers are growing nicely. This is a good year for gardening. I don't have a huge yield but I have the process now...just need to scale up and do more long-term investments. For instance - I'm already building the soil up with cardboard and dead grass for next years planting.

Reading / Other: I am re-reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. This months rabbit hold is the history of the Roman Empire.

Goals: Continue with successful diet. Don't lose every tennis match this month lol. Don't blow up my account on margin and write out a good strategy. Continue to teach Son how to swim and ride a bike. For swimming, he has gone from scared to not having his feet touch the bottom to being in the swim lane with floaties...Bike riding is interesting and hard to teach ever since we crashed a few months ago.

I'm happy to say that lately I've a lot of life goals that are not centered around work and that has done wonders for my mood. Instead I have focused on my tennis game, physical health, and teaching my Son stuff rather than ruminating about my job.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Sold my mall stocks today at profit. Macerich sold and funds put into VXUS (Vanguard International ETF) and SPG sold and put into Visa - one of my long-term holds that I'm bullish on. Visa is now back into buy prices for me.

This is part of a continued path to reduce trading activity and get back to more passive investing.

I am renewing a focus on reducing expenses - namely around food.

I also put in for job applications. Right now I'm targeting lateral / similar salary but I'm open to a slightly reduced pay cut. I'm aiming for government positions. Just need to coast these last few years... life is too short to deal with this bullshit. I tried...I really did. But I was finally sent over the edge recently.

Constantly fantasizing about being laid off is no way to live lol. :lol:

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Post by Lemur »

Aug 29 / Day 1: $0 spent.

Giving a buy nothing year a go:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12084

I don’t have any rules or exceptions at the moment. Overthinking here trying to figure out what counts and what doesn’t count but realized I am missing the forest for the trees. Bills + Food is obvious but outside of that we shall cross that bridge when we come to it.

Just gonna start and give it my best shot and see what the tally is.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by white belt »

Lemur wrote:
Sun Aug 29, 2021 8:50 pm
Speaking of Spouse eating out - we’ve done a good job of minimizing that but when they do occur my rule is “you get the cheapest meal on the menu and water only.” It is actually nice to have the choice eliminated. This is for me btw my Spouse does what she wants lol.

But all our trips to random snacking and the occasional fast food … usually after a stressful work day - yeah that is a vice I did not mention. This will test me slightly but shouldn’t be that hard to quit. Rule there - Spouse can do what she wants but I can always choose not to partake in these instances.

For family gifts - no problem here. They occasionally come over my place and order pizza which I never do but I love pizza … it ends up being a wash IMO and it is a real treat when you don’t partake in things (ordering pizza that is) but get to have them organically or through social functions.
I'm putting this response in your journal since I thought that made more sense than the Buy Nothing Thread. A buy nothing exercise is definitely in my future, but just this month I did a "no restaurant/takeout food" exercise and I found that to be pretty enlightening, so I think I can maybe provide some recent insights on food spending.

The first thing that I came to realize is the different purposes that food/snacks can serve. It can be utilitarian, excitement, entertainment, socializing, and so on. For example, you mentioned your spouse enjoys eating food out. Is that because she likes having a break from cooking? Or because she can try exotic/complex foods that aren't available at home? Or because she likes the experience of sitting at a set table at a specific time without distractions? Or because she likes getting out of the house and interacting with other adults? Or she doesn't have to clean up and deal with a screaming kid? Etc, etc. I think you are absolutely right to not try to force the buy nothing exercise onto her, but having this discussion may reveal some insights into how you can get the pleasures of eating at a restaurant without having to actually do it.

That's good you have the awareness that you use snacking and fast food to cope with stress. But is it really the stress or is it that you like the palatable food? For example, what would happen if you prepared palatable snacks/beverages ahead of time for after work because you know you will be stressed? In my experiment I found that replacing high quality meals/snacks was much more effective than just trying to eliminate them altogether. So now I can make great comfort foods like pancakes, pizza, mac and cheese, breakfast burritos, tacos, etc. Basically, if I get a craving for a specific dish or restaurant now, I just spend a few minutes researching a recipe and then cook it up that night (and of course I can make the recipe much healthier since I'm controlling the ingredients). Within 1-2 recipe attempts I usually have a dish that tastes better than 90% of restaurant versions.

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