Alrighty-o, let’s get the first day of the restart underway, and it’s underwhelming …
But let’s actually backtrack slightly. I haven’t gotten COVID-19 yet (or SARS-COV-2 or whatever). Neither has the boyfriend. Until yesterday. He wasn’t feeling well, and first he thought it was a month delay reaction to his flu shot, then he thought it might be food poisoning from eating some “questionable” strawberries, and then a few hours later decided to take an at-home test. And, the little line lit up within two minutes, it didn’t even need close to the full 15.
I immediately took a test, and it came out negative.
Ergo, my Saturday afternoon was spent quarantining him on one side of the house, washing all the clothes and bedding, keeping the cats away from him, wiping down all the common surfaces he’d touched in the last few days (door handles, TV remote, etc.), mildly freaking out, emailing or texting everyone we’ve come in contact with for the last few days, and going out and getting more COVID tests since those were our last two and I now need to test daily for at least five day. I wasn’t able to get anything done around the house (or work) that I had wanted to, except for laundry (and I hadn’t planned on doing quite so much).
I was doing that stuff ’til midnight, and then I watched TV to try to unwind for another ~90 minutes, so I went to bed quite late. And got up at 10am, much later than I’m trying for (really trying to do the whole go-to-bed by 10:30pm and up by 7:30am; really, really trying to do that).
This (Sunday) morning, we both re-tested. He was positive again within two minutes, mine was negative still after 15 minutes. Writing this twelve hours later (10pm), I still don’t feel like I have any symptoms.
So, while he stayed isolated except for going to the doctor so that he could get a Paxlovic prescription, I continued to clean but also tried to do some meal prep per my goal of doing that on the weekend. So, while finishing up the last of the chili from last week, I made pasta salad, Korean fire chicken, and some Bánh mì -flavored chicken that technically should go in a wrap but I just divided into five storage containers and put in the ‘fridge to munch on during the week. Then tonight I attempted a three-chili Thai fried rice recipe again after getting the correct – and not insanely hot – chili sauce. So, I spent 4.5 hours cooking today, but I have several meals and snacks prepared now for the next several days. However, that also means I again didn’t get to other stuff I had planned to today, though none of it is critical.
Now, a word about this pasta salad: Costco used to have a good pasta salad that came out in early summer, but they stopped making it maybe a decade ago. Now they do one that I like but end up throwing half of it out because I don’t like olives nor the whole grape tomatoes nor the salami. I would also have to guess at the nutrition info and then I found someone else’s guess online and I was horrified at how much fat and salt was in it.
So, I thought, “Self! I’m sure you can make a pasta salad just as good, with much less fat and sodium, with only ingredients you like!” And thus, I agreed with myself and worked at it. The key for me is that I make my own dressing so I can control the salt, sugar, and oil, I use turkey pepperoni as the meat, and I found a really quite good pasta that, instead of ~45 gms carbs and ~5 gms protein per 2 oz serving, is 24 gms and 24 gms carbs and protein per 2 oz serving. It’s crazy-expensive, like $6 for an 8 oz box, but if anyone’s interested in is “Good Day” brand pasta.
Anyway, with all that, I can make a batch and it’s 2200 calories, with 51% of them from fat, 21% carbs, and 28% protein. Now, you might be thinking that that’s a lot of fat (most of it comes from the little fresh mozzarella cheese balls I add), and you’d be right. But, cut into six servings, make sure that they are actually divided up and in individual containers (otherwise I just eat half the recipe in one sitting), and it’s a respectable 365 cal, 22gm fat, 20gm carb, 27gm protein. And, considering that I’m usually really good on fats – it’s carbs I struggle with – I’ve been making it now almost every week (that I’ve been home) and eating it as a snack.
So, with all the cooking and moving around today, I did not snack much, and with the food I did have, I got all the macros I needed without even having to resort to a protein shake (same thing planned for tomorrow). I was so far over in protein today that I went over a bit on calories, but I’m somewhat okay with that.
But also with all that prepping today and dealing with the chickens and helping further isolate/quarantine the boyfriend (and get him set up for work), I did not get any exercise in. I think that’s a bit understandable given the situation, though still less than ideal. Obviously.
Another thing I did today was a bit of meal planning. The reason I did the chili fried rice and Korean fire chicken is that the bf won’t eat spicy foods, so I figured while he’s sort of not eating much (felt nauseous all day yesterday), I’ll indulge a bit in the spice. But, I’m playing things by ear and only have food planned through mid-Wednesday at this point. I also erased my doughnut plans on Friday because I am going to avoid work, even if I keep testing negative. It’s just out of an abundance of caution, and I had already cancelled my in-person meeting Friday morning, anyway. But, that gives me more carbs and fat to play with on Friday. Though I also need to factor in the tarts I make every 4th of July for next Monday.
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