Lemur Journal!

[Kriegsspiel]

Its picking at the small details but one would want to do pull-ups for one set facing away, one set facing towards. Similar analogy like they tell track runners do not repeat clockwise every single day because you'll put strain on one knee. Must change directions daily.

You might find that your body works better with one or the other. Every time I do pullups (with palms facing away) I pinch a nerve in my neck. I have no issues with chins, so I only do those.

The way to think about the track athlete analogy is when dealing with someone who, say, only does bench press/pushups, and never trains their back, leading to muscle imbalances.

[BookLoverL]

Definitely varying the grip can be a good way of working slightly different muscles. Of course, in a basic workout of this sort, chest muscles/leg muscles/core can all be worked without equipment, so a pull up bar or something else for the back is still the only essential equipment.

[Lemur]

@BookLover

Agree. Even a kettlebell is a luxury but maybe necessary once someone reaches a certain level of strength with bodyweight alone? Of course ...this is not necessary for a long time. One armed pushups , one armed pulls ups, pistol squats...take a long time in themselves to master.

Today’s grocery shopping

- 6 lbs of pinto beans ($.89 per pound)
- 2 lbs of broccoli
- 3 dozen eggs
- 2 for $4 Cantaloupe

Total was $18.47. Not bad. I learned something interesting that the Goya brand pinto beans were $1.79 a pound. The ‘good brand’ eggs were 3x more expensive then the store brand I bought too.

2lb bags were the largest possible quantity for beans at my store. Funny if you buy just a 1lb bag it was a $1.24.

Store brand + largest quantity possible + base incredients.

[jacob]

One armed pushups , one armed pulls ups, pistol squats...take a long time in themselves to master.

Like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XIZMR6/ ... which I bet you're familiar with since you mentioned it in this context.

[Lemur]

@Jacob

Familiar with Pavel but haven't read the Naked Warrior. Just watched a lot of Youtube Videos relating to his work. Perhaps my local library may have it...

Speaking of which...This one for pistol squats:
https://youtu.be/PZlLHZ4Venw

I've a long way to go here. Admittingly my legs are too weak from neglect, meanwhile I've terrible mobility and flexibility due to chronic lower back issues as well as generally just being too sedentary. Much progress needs to occur in this domain.

[classical_Liberal]

Look in fridge for any leftovers --> If none, eat the current pantry (use expiring ingredients if available) --> Design a days worth of food for $3.33.

I split food costs with my GF, but we rarely eat together since I intermittent fast. Whenever I get a bit miffed about her choices being too extremely luxurious, instead of saying anything, I play a game. It's called live off the GF's food waste stream... It's kind of fun mixing and matching her leftovers. Usually I can get several days of food before it runs out. Helps offset the costs, and as long as she doesn't realize what I'm doing, no foul.

[Lemur]

@Classical_Liberal

Flexibility really is key; especially with a spouse + toddler. I'm finding that last portion of the flow a bit unnecessary and time-consuming having to calculate everything in my head....so re-worked it to account for day to day fluctuations:

Leftovers --> Cook using expiring ingredients --> Eat staple meals.

To recap purchased foods...as mentioned: Store brand + largest quantity possible + base ingredients is really key. Avoiding beef, pork, dairy, and processed foods as well as out of season veggies. Grocery list is small right now but fairly memorable: Eggs, Chicken Breasts (occasionally), Rice, Beans, Lentils, Carrots, Potatoes, Onions, Tomatoes, Tortilla wraps, and bread. Fruit on sale...Discovered I can probably eat some variation of burrito just about everyday

As for food disagreements...not too many actually. My spouse doesn't purchase beef and pork is very rare. These are the problems that persist: What hits me as luxurious is the specialty store my spouse goes to for Filipino foods. Sometimes she will buy those foods herself but other times if business is slow, I'll lump it into our food budget. But $40 worth of foods there doesn't last longer then 3-4 days So...its a tricky one because food is cultural and I usually err on the side of avoiding conflict here. I'm more subtle I guess lately...somewhere I read here...smooth is fast, fast is smooth? I've found much wisdom in just being the change you want to see, just 'doing', and advantageous behaviors will eventually be picked up by SO hopefully. If not, well, I guess the system accounts for that with the eating of leftovers and the refusal to par-take in other habits. Secondly, the gas station purchases are always there but my spouse just buys those herself anyway. On a positive front, I managed to replicate a chicken salad sandwich that beats Wawa and Subway so my Spouse gave me kudos on that one.

Lately I've been refusing to par-take for a few weeks now since end of June. I'm past the 'What phase are you in now?' talk from my Spouse to the acceptance stage lol. Spouse is happy that I quit my nasty habit of energy drinks and diet sodas. It has been 3 weeks since I've consumed those and go figure I'm not missing out.

[Lemur]

Mid-July and I'm winning the war on food costs and 'other' costs so far. I'm pretty sure my diet has been something like 60% leftovers, 30% beans/lentils/rice, 10% random garden veggies and fruits. My neighbor just proudly gave away some zucchini and cucumber that they're having surplus problems with. Works perfect for us because all of our squash died this year (minus pumpkins) lol and we just started with cucumber a few weeks ago and planted new squash a few days ago.

I don't feel any sort of deprivation or sacrifice with these changes. This is almost too easy....It won't be long before these new habits are just ingrained / and how I operate now.

Speaking of Myers-Briggs, I've had a chance to study that quite a bit more. I'm definitely the textbook definition of an INTJ. I'll welcome myself to the club here. Sometimes I wonder if ERE is just a natural filter for this personality type. In the wild, this personality type is rare...but here, seems rather common. My spouse seems to be an ISFJ after further reading.

This was short but very insightful...

https://www.crystalknows.com/personalit ... /intj-isfj

[Alphaville]

30% beans/lentils/rice

you’re very lucky to be able to eat like this and not pork up like me

with rice in particular. o man.

i had to drop the carbs recently to prevent disaster.

[Lemur]

@Alphaville

Interesting as I've read numerously that some people operate really well on carbs while others seem to operate much better on a more keto-like / lower-carb diet. I take it this is partially genetic but also could deal with how insulin sensitive / insulin resistant some people's bodies are. I seem to be okay with either but I prefer having more carbohydrates. I always feel weighed down or sluggish with higher fat content.

I can pretty much have a day of like 70% carb, 20% protein, and 10% fat and feel great. Since I've mainly been eating whole foods and not processed foods, regardless of carb content, I've been slowly dropping weight since drastically changing my eating habits. No calorie counting involved like I've done previously. Dropping even diet sodas is probably having a benefit. I"m thinking the added fake sugars can 'trick' your brain into thinking you're hungry when you're not just like what real sugar does.

I'm finding my energy levels and appetite levels just much more stable lately.

[Lemur]

A new first...pickled the veggies my neighbor gave us. Will revisit these in 2 weeks.

[BookLoverL]

Ooh! How long is the pickled veg expected to keep compared to if it was eaten fresh?

[Lemur]

@BookLoverL

Raw veggies like squash and cucumbers...I'd estimate maybe 2-3 weeks or so?

I've read that pickled foods can last 5-6 months but thanks for asking me that question because when I googled it, I found out that you've to refrigerate them as well. I did not refrigerate last night so just put them in the refrigerator just now...umm only sat out less than 24 hours so I'm probably still good. Will let you know if I get food poisoning or botulism in a few weeks lol.

Or is the refrigerator only required 'after' you open the jar?

I'm not 100% sure on the differences and nuances between 'canning' and 'pickling' and what the differences between the two processes are. Just adding more tools to the skillset when it comes to not wasting food so I'll have to research that.

[BookLoverL]

That's definitely a big extension from the pickling, then. I might have to try it some time. Fingers crossed that it was refrigerated soon enough!

[jacob]

Pickling mainly slows down bacterial life as does refrigeration, whereas canning kills it and isolates the food behind a vacuum seal until you open the jar. If you don't refrigerate it, you'll begin to get wild yeast fermentation and you probably don't want to eat the result (it'll get cloudy and stinky ... the lid will bulge out... OTOH, if you (nature) picked the right yeast, you'll get alcohol (different kinds) although it'll taste nasty) Actually, you get that result in the fridge too, it just takes much longer and you'll probably have eaten it before that happens... if not it'll begin to look pretty unappetizing. Insofar you added sugar, you'll speed up fermentation. Vinegar and salt will slow it down or outright stop it for some bacteria. For example, a pH < 4.5 prevents botulism bacteria, so it's always better to err on the too much vinegar side since you can not taste or smell it directly.

In practice, if we pickle, we do it for taste and eat it within 2 weeks. Everything else gets frozen or canned for storage.

[basuragomi]

The National Center for Home Food Preservation is one of the best web resources I've found on preserving food. Lots of great lab-tested recipes too if you're worried about microbes.

My pickled beets, carrots and daikon have lasted up to two years after pickling (with a boiling water canner, mind). I've usually eaten them by that point so they could probably last longer. Some properly fermented foods can last for years before eating.

[Cheepnis]

Lemur - Those pickles look delicious!

basuragomi - thanks for that link. I've been doing some small-scale by-the-seat-of-my-pants pickling for couple years. That's gonna be a great all-in-one resource as I gear up to pickle my green beans. Ain't nothing I like better than a good pickled green bean.

[Lemur]

+1 - That link has been bookmarked. This will be very useful in coming experiments.

Upon further reading....it seems what I've done in the photo is both pickling + a form of canning. So the odds of me getting sick are probably extremely low. Seems I've done it right. I remember hearing a 'popping' sound when I put the mason jars in the boiling pot ; that popping sounds was the seal on the cans.

I've been reading up on horticulture lately. Such a fascinating subject and learned about this guy:
Interesting read of the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Burbank

This fella seems to have done a lot of good.

In other news...deleted Facebook. That was a long-time coming. Too lazy to type out a long philosophical reason that lead me to that decision but in short - most of it is senseless, mineless, scrolling of watching your country fall apart...I could really care less for my 'friends' political views (people whom I had a relationship with at one time but haven't spoken to in years), and what could be subconscious comparing of ones's self to others that I don't want my mind to engage in. I rarely posted anyway but more and more am I realizing my time is so precious .....would rather allocate this time towards better uses.

[Lemur]

Going tech-heavy post COVID crash was probably top 10 smartest decisions of my life. I'm up "bigly" . Thanks AMD, MSFT, and SQ

[Lemur]

Savings rate has bounced around 40% since start of this journal...In June, logged a 52% savings rate. In July, last 2 paychecks, have combined for a 60.14% savings rate. Happy with that progress - the savings were due to decreased food and 'other' costs. In August though, I'm expecting a lot of one-off expenses as I'm funding some of my spouse's trip so she can go see her family overseas so expecting less savings for August. Me and the little guy alone for 6 weeks too. That should be interesting lol.

Considering rolling my covered call options rather than letting them all sit there and expire in a month. This would free me up for making more premium money.

Example
1.) Covered Call - Sell to Open at $1.00 per contract for $100.00 Premium at 1 month out.
2.) Set a Buy to close order at $0.50 per contract for $50.00 cost.
3.) Collect 50% profit
- This occurs quickly when the stock trades down or trades sideways as theta picks up very quickly closer to expiration; especially at 21 day mark.
- This will occur close to expiration if the stock trades up near contract price.
- May not happen at all of course if the price of the stock moves above contract price and I'm forced to sell.
4.) Repeat

FYI - if you don't want to scroll around in my journal...basically what I've been doing with my active brokerage account is selling covered calls on all my stocks about 15-25% above the spot price about a month out. This 'trades away upside' but I have only ever been assigned once (at a profit anyway since my rule is the covered call price must be above my original cost basis) and this has basically been free money for me since February.

About the trading away upside and collecting premiums - I think part of the reason for this strategy is that it fits in with a narrative with my portfolio and personality - I may never get rich if one of my stocks 'explodes' but I'm slowly adjusting to build a 'I will never lose' strategy. I'm also not overly cautious either; as in I'm not hedging with puts because I'm looking for growth. The portfolio itself is diversified enough. Its tech heavy but I think that is on purpose...Ted Kaczynski would not approve of that.

I am very interested in 1 year out and 2 year out to compare my active portfolio performance against the ROI from my Roth / T IRA accounts which are all index funds.