I have the My Weigh scale and haven’t had to change the battery yet, couple of years in. Love it. I think if you want an unpowered scale a balancing scale and weights are the lowest tech and accurate.

Book a long, long transatlantic or transpacific cruise that is leaving today or tomorrow morning. Bring as much as I can carry and a life straw and bunch of filters.

Anything helps, of course. Anything is so much better than nothing.

You are skinnyfat, yes? You don’t want to lose weight, you want to add lean mass. Weights are what do that best. Ideally you would want to lift heavy at least thrice a week if you are trying to shape up.

I can only lift once a week lately (lady, mid 50s) but do yoga 4x/week too. It’s maintaining me reasonably lean.

I have been where you are (single working parent) and what I did back then was wake up at 5am and run, because that was the only time of day nobody needed anything from me, and running is nearly free, just shoes. It sucked, but the days I ran I did feel better later on, it was worth it overall I think. If there is any way you can wake up a half hour earlier and do something vigorous, and then add weight training once a week I think you will get good improvement. Just maybe not as much mass as you ideally want.

At my work we jokingly dismiss each other, someone will stand up and say to someone else “hey, John, you can go home now” as though they are the boss, and then that person will say to someone else “hey, Jane, you can go home” and so on. Until we are all dismissed for the day.

Husband does this, I like going somewhere to work out because it’s more fun, though. I do lift his weights, and go to yoga classes with other people, that works. He says it was expensive to get all that stuff but it was so long ago it’s paid off.

I mostly just want to gently suggest that part of what people are getting from “the gym” is socialization, not just exercise. Which might be something you’d pay to avoid, I don’t know, but group exercise is a different experience from just lifting at home, and I enjoy it much more.

This makes sense, but I don’t think you need to change your feelings. Your actions are what affect the people outside of you, they don’t know what you are thinking, and you already recognize it’s not reasonable.

I remember when I went back to work after a few years raising my kids. It was odd to work with men, after only being close with the one man. But over time, it got normal and I am friends with some of them still, platonic friends. So some of it is literally just practice. Keep practicing. You sound pretty self aware, I think you will be ok.

Seitenbacher Museli is delicious too.

But you can make a kick ass veg broth with scraps, dried shitake, and a piece of kombu.

And the Museli I can also make at home.

And vice versa.

My kids’ elementary biology teacher had a zoo in his classroom, all these snakes and lizards and spiders, all sorts of animals, so in the Christmas break he had to farm them out. We got the tarantula once, and once a boa.

Also twice raised abandoned baby squirrels we saw kids walking around with. Like my ex just said “dude, you know how to take care of that?” And the kid shook their head no. Yes, twice. One was Earl, one was Pearl. They were sweet, and very sharp.

One of my kids’ swim coaches had a friend with a pet crow, too. A sailor with a pet crow; in fact a creepy sailor with a pet crow

I am sure you can guess what state I live in.

Run for office?

Croissants (made here but I think of them as so French)

Good cheese (there is some great cheese being made here but in Europe they make different ones and they are so, so delicious)

Cava wine, the Raventos Blanco Blanco de Blancos Vino Cava holy crap that stuff is so good it convinced me wine can be simply delicious on its own.

Not much smell, no. But don’t require any care, they are robust and native. And pretty.

Green leafy vegetables are no slouch either. I remember we had a chart with nutrition per calorie and collard greens were way up there. Eggs have much protein per calorie. I agree with foggenboody though, sarcopenia is mostly from inactivity, and particularly from not doing strength training. Your body will find the nutrition in whatever you eat if you lift first.

Apparently, lantana. That’s where they all go in my yard.

I have a low tolerance for repetitive work, am an accountant and my “career” has basically been two startups. There are places that just keep changing, changing systems and processes all the time. I don’t have to do things the same way every time, I keep trying new ways, and nobody feels stepped on if you suggest a better way of doing their job.

I would say look for the culture - when you walk in here there are people talking, people cussing, getting up to get water or to go for a walk to clear their head. We can walk into the president’s office and make a suggestion (or email or teams them), and people do also transfer between jobs here, it’s encouraged.

What I will say the tradeoff is though - chaotic places like this always require more hours at least some of the time. They are more flexible with you but also require some flexibility from you. For me that choice is a no brainier, I am useless in a more regimented job. But it doesn’t suit everyone.

Commercial eggs aren’t fertilized, when we had chickens we had no rooster and still the hens popped out about one egg per day. That’s why chicken eggs are “eggs”, generally speaking. Not saying they are ethical by whatever standard you are using just that they wouldn’t have turned into a chicken ever.

A quiche does rise a little, yes. But you are correct that it’s not like a souffle that has to really puff. Good quiche is so good.

The cake comment and recipe review comment two different thoughts though.

Come to think of it, I have seen blood broth soup on menu at some Vietnamese restaurants, so I guess it is used sometimes in foods.

I think no, because you plan a real apology with restitution and have a plan to do better and are actually doing better. If you have to try to be “good” and are, I would argue you are a better person than someone who doesn’t have to try.

Think of it as your character arc. You started out bad and are improving. If you aren’t good yet, you will be. Keep practicing.

Long after I learned to read. At which point it was just confusing since so many words can’t be ‘sounded out’.

I learned to read alongside learning to speak, learned it like a language, not like a code, I didn’t really sound things out consciously, it went in the other direction, I recognized words. So by 3 years I could read quite well, and did come by that path to an understanding that the individual letters had sounds.

Like if you’ve ever seen a little kid learning to write, they start with just scribbles then lines of scribbles then clumps of “letters” then actual words with letters. That is sort of the process I had - books held stories, then I saw there was writing, then my mom read the stories while pointing to the words, then I pretended I could read by memorizing the book, but then just jumped to being able to read. Anything. Like first book was “bears on wheels” but second book was Grendel, and I could read the newspaper, literally think I could understand written language more than spoken.

So anyway - yes was taught phonics but not taught to read with phonics.

I did this through high school by listening in class, the teachers explained the material then assigned homework, which I did not do, then tests, which I crushed with near 100% accuracy, then got a C grade in most classes because I don’t do the work, only the tests. Also tested out of the first year of college. Was just good at taking tests I guess.

In university though - I did have to study and do the homework to ace the exams. That was more specialized (accounting).

ETA: your friend sounds like an absolute testing savant. I don’t know how that will translate to a job though.