This week was really rough, and I have a few suspects as to why, but I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it was a combination of the three.
Suspect One: corn flakes. I had been watching The Food That Built America on Hulu and the first season focused on time rather than specific brands. So, all season they were talking about the Kellogg brothers and eventually Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. It made me think about corn flakes and that I hadn’t had them in so long. Eventually I decided to pick up a box at Aldi. I don’t know exactly why, but I think the corn flakes were part of throwing me off this week. They were absolutely delicious with almond milk, but they didn’t fuel me the way I needed to.
Suspect Two: stress. It’s the end of the semester and this semester has been chaos for my Monday/Wednesday classes. Because of life happening to both me and my students, both courses are far behind where they should be. But I keep reminding myself that this is just how they’re going. I also have grading to get caught up on and I have a lot of grading ahead of me. And then there’s the fact that I need a job for the summer and can’t find one yet. And I need to keep working on my dissertation. I think this was a lesser factor in this week getting messed up, but it was definitely a factor.
Suspect Three: PMS. This week was PMS week for me. And for someone with ADHD, I have learned, it can have even more of an impact. One thing that happens during PMS is dopamine levels drop, and people with ADHD need those dopamine hits to get going and get motivated. Without my regular dopamine levels, it’s hard to want to do what I need to, and I end up doing things that make me feel better instead.
I really think it was a combination of the three that led to this week being heavily fueled by sugar and fast food. I stopped to get something to eat Monday through Thursday. I ate a lot more sugar than I usually do when at home. And the thing is, none of it really made me feel better. Sure, it felt good in the moment, but I still wanted my rice, beans, cheeze bowl and when I had it, I felt better. I’d have a salad and feel much better than eating the burger.
I’m really hoping that this week is going to go better than last week. On Sunday, I’m going to prep oatmeal for breakfasts as well as my rice for lunches. That should really help. I haven’t been prepping the oatmeal partially due to a lack of somewhere to store it. Partially due to lack of motivation. This week I have both, so I’m going back to the breakfast I know works for me. And hopefully next week will be a healthier week, which means I’ll feel better.
This has been a crazy few weeks. I had a wake and funeral to attend and that messed me up emotionally, mentally, and dietarily. Things leading up to it and after it have not been the greatest either. I’ve had a few days that definitely have more meat in them than I’m trying to aim for. I’ve also been struggling with food prep for the week, which has definitely impacted things.
It’s led me to come to the realization that I need what I am now calling “Poof Food”. I need food that is readily available and needs minimal preparation most of the time. Like my rice and beans bowls: I take the rice, add the 1/2 cup of beans, add some Violife shredded cheddar, and mix. That’s it, aside from microwaving. It’s just combining ingredients. I bought some tomatoes to use this week for lunch and I haven’t touched them yet. When I thought about it, I realized I should just buy the Pico de Gallo so I can add it instead of having to cut up the tomatoes. I’m trying to save money by getting tomatoes, but if I just throw them out, what money am I saving?
But, coming up with the term Poof Food has helped me define that feeling. It’s amazing how coming up with a phrase for something can help you to identify it. It’s helping me to get motivated and to actually get food prepped to make it easier to have lunch after I get home from campus.
I attribute it to ADHD Brain. I just get to a point where I know I need food, but putting work into it is just not an option. So I end up going and buying food from elsewhere instead of making food. Which has all sorts of problems.
There’s nothing wrong with having low-prep foods around. Especially if they keep you eating the foods you want and avoiding the others. As much as I am trying to cut back on processed foods, there are non-processed or low-processed foods that are easy to turn into Poof Food. I bought a bunch of half pints of blueberries this week because they were on sale. I tend to eat half a pint at a time anyway. This way I can just pour the container into the strainer for rinsing. I’m going to keep some of the containers so I can reuse them for blueberries when I buy pints. Also, they’re so delicious!
I’m working on getting myself back on my track. I made up a batch of rice Wednesday night because I had the spell slot for it and decided to go ahead and do it. I’ve still got plenty of cooked beans because I froze them. It’s feeling good getting back to the plants. I’m realizing how much I missed them.
So, it’s been a month since I started working meat and dairy out of my diet outside of dinner. It has been a really good month! It’s been a month of exploring different options and food combinations to see what I like and what works.
As much as I love the ancient grains bread from Whole Foods, I found that my eczema was getting worse in a few places. I’ve figured out that having a certain amount of gluten in my diet regularly makes the eczema flare up. I don’t have any other obvious symptoms related to gluten intake, but the flare ups are enough to make me stop. Combine that with the lack of meat to put in my sandwiches and my decision to just eat when I get home from classes, it was easy to stop getting the bread. I do miss it, because it is so delicious. But I know without sandwiches I wouldn’t eat enough of it before it went bad to be worth getting. I’d be throwing away more than I ate.
So, last Sunday I did some major meal prep for the week. It made me realize how little I had to store this food in, so I’m having to be careful going forward until I can get some more glass food storage containers. I used my InstantPot to make up 2 pounds of black beans. I had a bag that was 2 pounds and the cooking tips I found said they can be frozen after they’re cooked, so I did the whole bag. That’s why I used the InstantPot in slow cooker mode. Cooking 2 pounds of black beans requires 12 cups of water. But they were beautifully cooked after about 3.5 hours.
2 pounds of black beans, cooked and divided up.
I washed out the pot and put in my short grain brown rice. I can’t remember how much rice went in, but it made at least 4 cups of cooked rice that lasted me the week. I cannot recommend the InstantPot enough for cooking rice. I used the Multigrain function so I had more control over the time. It was delicious rice and it kept really well throughout the week. Just a few tablespoons of water per cup in with the rice before going in the microwave keeps it from drying out while reheating.
I also made up some pico de gallo. I love pico de gallo. It’s so fresh and crunchy and has just the right amount of acid to it. Unfortunately, the recipe can’t really be cut down further because it only uses half an onion, and I don’t use onion in a lot of my cooking. So I made up the whole thing, minus the jalapenos, and it was delicious! But I only got through about half the batch. I’m definitely going to use it again, but probably when I know it’ll all get eaten.
The initial intention behind all of this prep was to make layered rice bowls for lunch. Rice, beans, cheeze, pico, and avocado. Like this:
But after a couple of days, it just didn’t quite hit the spot. So I shifted to something more simple and nice and delicious: rice, beans, and cheeze. I’d put them all in the bowl, mixed up, and then microwave it until the cheeze melted. Then I’d mix it up so it would be cheezy rice and beans. So delicious! And the combination of rice and beans creates a complete protein, on top of the fiber and other good stuff in the foods. I’m figuring that’s going to be a bit part of lunch this week. Sometimes I’d add the avocado after it was cooked, adding more healthy fats and omega-3s. Yes! Avocado has omega-3s just like fish, but it’s a plant and I love avocado anyway.
I feel like the thing that’s different about this time is that I’m not making myself feel guilty over wanting or eating meat and dairy. Usually during Lent, for example, I would be drooling over my hubby’s meat at dinner, wishing I could have it. Granted, that was just for one day, and the point is to give up the meat for the day. But I haven’t been feeling that lately. I haven’t been missing meat or dairy.
There’s a few things I feel are why this is the case. One is that I’ve been loving almond milk for years, so having that option instead of milk has been the case for a while now. Another is that cheeze. Violife’s plant-based cheese are amazing and provide that comfort of cheese without the dairy. Shredded or sliced, it is an amazing plant-based cheese. Another is my enjoyment of the beans and rice. It’s taken me a while to come to enjoy beans. Usually they were too mushy for me and it was hard to enjoy beans of any kind. Or they were *shudders* lima beans in pot pies and mixed veg. Ugh. But I’ve come to enjoy beans and now I’m cooking them for myself. And that complete protein I get from the rice and beans is likely really helping me not miss meat-based protein.
One last benefit I’m finding from this diet shift is that it is very ADHD friendly. I have no diagnosis, but everything I’ve read about it points at me having ADHD. Right now I’m trying to do what I can to properly care for my brain so I can have the focus I need. I’m not opposed to medication, that’s just not an option for me right now. But I can control what I eat. And eating a diet that is high in fiber, complex carbs, protein, and omega-3s, among other things, while being low in sugar and processed foods is really good for someone with ADHD. That’s what I’m eating.
I am definitely going to keep going with this shift. It’s making me feel so much better both physically and mentally. This week I’m on break, so I’m looking forward to being able to cook without pressures of time. Which is why today I’m trying to get caught up on dishes so I can get the rice and oatmeal ready for the week tomorrow. It’s just easier to make those two grains up ahead of time. They cook better in big batches. At least they do for me!
This is really working. I’m through three weeks of shifting to a plant-based diet and it’s working. I think the biggest thing is that I’m not being hard on myself for being excited to have meat during dinner or wanting something processed. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not eating nearly as much of it as I was. It’s not that I’m completely cutting these things out of my diet forever. I’m just trying to reduce their presence in my diet.
For example, the substitutions I’ve made for my sandwiches. I tried Tofurky. I wrote about it here. I liked the taste. I liked it in my sandwich. I get the strong impression that my guts do not like something about it. I’ve never had a problem after eating tofu, so I don’t know what the problem is without diving into the ingredients. It could also be a combination of ingredients. I don’t know. What I do know is that about half an hour after eating the sandwich, I’m in the bathroom. Oh well. Now I know.
But that inspired me to try something different for my sandwiches this week. Instead of trying to find another plant-based “meat”, I went all plant! I picked up a bag of avocados and some tomatoes instead of “meat.” I decided to just make the sandwich after I got home today, and I’m so glad I did! The tomatoes drip like crazy, which means I’d be a mess in the car. But it was so delicious!
Also, I finally got to open up and try my new “cheese”! I had bought some Violife mature cheddar to use when the Daiya cheese ran out, but I didn’t need it last week. I opened the package and was hit with a beautiful smell of cheddar. It was flexible like a cheddar. It tastes like a cheddar! I actually want to see what my hubby thinks about it (he’s a cheese addict). But I am loving it!
I think the second biggest thing is that I’m getting enough plant-based options to have on hand. I try to have a fruit I can snack on available. I’ve also been buying an additional tub of greens to have a salad when I want one. It helps me keep my energy up because I know I’m getting less calories than what I’d been eating before.
Let’s face it, baked goods, candy, and processed foods tend to have more calories. But all of these plant-based snacks also fill me up more than those foods do. And I’ve been feeling much better about being full.
I have been working on shifting my diet to plant-based and much less processed. I have done this many times before, some of those are chronicled here. Honestly, some of the early attempts are what formed my first blog, The Green Geek (all of the posts are archived on here). But this time around I am not stopping myself from eating things. Like, today I had a can of Pepsi, a large can of raspberry tea, and a raspberry paczki among my noms. They all sounded good, so I had them.
But, more importantly, today I made another major substitution. Monday through Thursday, I teach about 45 minutes away. Monday through Wednesday I have breakfast before I leave and eat a sandwich on the way home. Thursdays I can get away with eating breakfast and lunch at home with class in between. I need something I can eat while I’m driving on those days. I’ve been making a delicious sandwich using Whole Foods’ ancient grains bread (I am addicted to that bread!), turkey, Havarti cheese, a greens mix from 80 Acres Farms (Power Crunch or Queen City if the other isn’t in stock), Dijon mustard, and mayo. About half of that is already plant-based, which is awesome. The rest I’m working on replacing as they run out. Last week, I ran out of Havarti and swapped in Daiya’s Swiss cheese. It is good. The biggest adjustment I had to make was more that I was used to Havarti instead of Swiss. Havarti is a very creamy cheese and Swiss is not. I’m enjoying the Daiya and I’m looking forward to trying another plant-based cheese soon.
But, today, I made another swap. Yesterday was the end of my turkey. I had bought some Tofurky roasted turk’y deli slices as my replacement. I figure the company has been around for a while, so they must be doing something right. It was a bit frustrating this morning trying to peel the slices apart, but that’s been the worst part of it. I used it on my sandwich today and while it doesn’t taste like turkey, it does taste good. It is denser than turkey, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I’m liking this!
I’m really impressed with the progress I’m making. I think it helps that I’m making small changes instead of just going “I’m not eating that anymore!” I’ve also been making grocery choices that allow me to snack on fruits and veggies between meals, or to just kinda graze on them throughout the day when I’m home. It’s really nice. I feel like these are sustainable changes because I don’t feel like I’m denying or depriving myself of anything. I am still eating meat and cheese and such at dinner because dinner is with the hubby who is still an omnivore, but it’s becoming a kind of treat in the day. At the same time, I’m not missing meat during the day.
I really think that I’m making changes that can stick this time around! And I’m really looking forward to making even more changes and additions to broaden my intake. This really is a fun journey. Thank you for coming with me on it!
When I posted yesterday, I completely forgot to include my lunch from Sunday! I am still so proud of this bowl!
Before going for week’s grocery trip, I looked over what I already had to work with and got inspired by the rice noodles I had in the pantry. I thought I could pick up some broccoli, mushrooms, and tofu and make a nice bowl out of it. I cut the broccoli up close to the top and quartered up about half of the mushrooms. I made a chicken broth and put the broccoli and noodles in to cook. After a bit I added in the mushrooms so they wouldn’t overcook. While that cooked, I cut up the tofu (firm) and let it drain on some paper towel. Once the veggies and noodles were done, I put the cut tofu in the bowl and poured the veggies, noodles, and broth over it.
It was sooooo good! The only problem was my seasoning of it. I used a spice blend I hadn’t tried before and used a bit much. It has quite the kick. A little less spice would have worked really well. I’ll probably try that on Friday when I use up the rest of the veggies and tofu for lunch.
It’s kind of funny. I started this post as a way to keep myself from posting all the time about this journey and I kinda forgot to finish it up at the end of week 1. Oh well, here’s highlights from week 1
Tuesday
When I went grocery shopping for the week, I picked up a tote of Honeycrisp apples because they looked delicious and were on sale for $1 per pound. On Tuesday, I got a craving for peanut butter with my apples. I haven’t eaten “regular” peanut butter in a long time. Especially once I found out how easy it was to make it! So I went up to the grocery store and got myself some peanuts. I also picked up some cashews. I figured why not try to make some cashew butter, too!
Both use the same preparation method: put in food processor and blend until creamy. You can always roast and season your nuts at home before doing so. But I’m usually good with how the nuts I buy are already, so they just go in. The cashew butter was a lot stiffer than I thought it would be. I’m going to see how they work on the apples because it feels too thick right now for putting on bread without there being huge holes torn. The peanut butter came out just right. I used some of the fresh peanut butter on my apple. I don’t know if it’s because it’s fresh, or these peanuts are just really well salted, but it was a bit salty. But I’ve never used peanuts from this store before, so it’s a learning experience.
Totally worth the work though. Such tasty apples and peanut butter!
Wednesday
I’m trying to keep from beating myself up over what I do and don’t eat. It’s part of why I never really stick to these diet shifts. But this time I’m really trying to remember that it’s more about adding more plant-based food to my diet, not about banishing things from my life.
I didn’t have time to pack my lunch this morning, so I figured I’d just swing by Starbucks after class today. I’ve been feeling off lately–before the diet shift started–and I knew I wanted some comfort food from Starbucks. Today, that meant getting a matcha latte with almond milk, banana nut bread, and bacon gruyere egg bites. I felt so much better afterward. After I got home, I had a small peanut butter sandwich and an apple in the time before dinner. I’ve also been drinking a lot more water thanks to changing the water filter. I think I can actually make some sustainable changes here!
Thursday
At this point in the week, I’m noticing I’m making some great decisions. I’m allowing myself to figure out how to do this. I’m not trying to make drastic permanent changes, but trying to make little changes as I can. I’ve been making changes that involve less processed and sugary foods. I usually have a Pepsi with dinner, but I’ve been deciding to just go with water. I’m not forbidding myself from drinking Pepsi, just listening to my gut.
Doing research
I’ve been feeling kinda off since about a week before starting the shift, so I knew it wasn’t that. I realized that I might be low on iron, so I did some research. Turns out one of my favorite foods is a good plant-based source of iron: black olives! When I went grocery shopping for the week I picked up some cans of black olives so I can snack on them during the week. I also picked up some iron supplements since they were BOGO free and we were restocking our magnesium glycinate. There was only the one magnesium left, so my hubby suggested the iron. I have been feeling better since I started taking the supplements. Whenever I go to donate blood, I have just a high enough iron count to donate, so this is nothing new.
When I went grocery shopping, I figured that I would find a cheese I liked at Whole Foods. I was kind of disappointed by the small selection of vegan/plant-based cheese at my local Whole Foods. I ended up picking up some Daiya slices for my sandwiches. Unfortunately, I haven’t tried them yet. Yesterday’s sandwich had the last of the Havarti. Today I simply stopped off at Starbucks for lunch. Tomorrow should be the first day of plant-based cheese! That inspired me to do a little research into plant-based cheeses and deli meats when I got home. I found a nice article about vegan cheese slices (https://www.worldofvegan.com/vegan-cheese-slices/) and vegan lunch meat (https://vegnews.com/vegan-guides/vegan-lunch-meat-deli-sandwich).
It’s going to be at least next week if not longer before I’m out of my turkey for sandwiches, but this way I know what is out there and what to keep an eye out for. Thankfully the Fresh Thyme nearby has a great selection of cheeses and a good selection of meats. Whole Foods has a good selection of meats too. I also did a search on a few of the lunch meat websites and found other stores nearby that have them. I think the biggest hurdle I’m going to have to overcome is diversifying my options. I choose turkey because I like it, but also because it doesn’t have the health concerns attached to other lunch meats. I can eat vegan corned beef without all the sodium and beef of it all.
I am really looking forward to trying out different lunch meats. This shift is really starting to work. And reminding myself that I’m trying to shift to a plant-based diet really helps. It’s not like I’m going vegan. I’m just trying to figure out a more sustainable set of eating habits.
Hopefully these weekly check-ins will be more on-topic and timely going forward. But it’s been a good first week! Here’s to week 2!
Over the weekend, I watched You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment on Netflix. You can search this blog and know that this is not the first time I’ve rethought my eating habits. I manage to find one or two changes that stick but the rest just doesn’t.
Well, You Are What You Eat has me wanting to try to make permanent changes again. In the series, they talk about the impact that omnivore diets are having on the planet because of the industrial agriculture complex we have developed and their manipulation of what we think of as necessary in our diets. It also includes people who are making products that are plant-based and work to create options for omnivores to enjoy.
In my experience, the difference between vegan and plant-based hasn’t really been explained. Plant-based diets are just that: plant-based. It’s not necessarily about cutting out all animal products. It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. And that’s the approach I need to take. My husband’s an omnivore and is not ready to give up his meat at all. But we only share one meal a day: dinner. But that leaves me with breakfast and lunch to myself.
Right now I’m wishing I could just give up all the animal-based foods and go completely plant-based, but I can’t afford to do that yet. I wish I had watched the series before I went grocery shopping so I could have made some changes then. And it’s not like I don’t have plenty of plant-based foods available to me. I just tend to get really drastic at first, which means it’s probably good I didn’t watch it before going grocery shopping. I’m hoping I can use this week to start pulling back on certain things and figuring out how to start to make adjustments and replacements to my diet.
Thankfully my breakfast has been plant-based. I love my steel-cut oats made with almond milk, cinnamon, raisins, and maple syrup. I’ll probably still have eggs every once in a while, but that oatmeal is a great way to start my day, when my day doesn’t start with lunch.
Lunch. That is the thing I need to figure out. Right now, I’m commuting to work 4 days a week. I eat in the car those days on my way back home. Those days I also have breakfast to get myself going. Right now I’m packing a turkey sandwich with Havarti cheese, Dijon mustard, mayo, and some delicious greens. The bread is some obsessively delicious ancient grains bread from Whole Foods. So it’s already got a lot of plant-based ingredients: mustard, greens, and bread. I’m going to cut the mayo out this week. Havarti is really creamy, so I shouldn’t miss it too much.
Going forward, I’m thinking of trying out plant-based “meat” and “cheese” once the Havarti and turkey run out. I know I can eat a sandwich and drive home. I’m trying to make changes that are sustainable for me and my life. For those other three days I’m going to work on other options. I’m home on those days and thus can make meals that I can’t eat while driving. But what those are, I have no idea at this point.
Part of not knowing is the budgetary side of things. I want to prioritize the shift in my lunch because I know what I’m going to do for lunch. But I don’t know how that will impact my spending. I am lucky that I now live near both a Whole Foods and a Fresh Thyme, which means it is easy for me to access a variety of options without having to use much gas.
Another unknown I’m worried about is my husband. I want to make some small changes to our dinners that don’t necessarily reduce the amount of meat (but that’s a possibility) but at least increase the number of plants at a meal. He is a much more selective eater than I am, so that is not going to be an easy thing. But, considering the health benefits, I think I can convince him to make little adjustments here and there.
I have a vegetarian cookbook that isn’t exactly small, it’s simply still packed somewhere. I’m hoping to find it this week and see if it inspires something. I know I need to start to stock up on some grains and beans as well as fresh fruits and veggies. But what exactly to stock up on I have no idea at this point.
That is why I am sharing all of this now. I’m going to be sharing this journey here. It probably won’t be on a daily basis; probably weekly. But I feel like it’s important to share my work at shifting my diet (and hopefully my husband’s a bit as well) more plant-based and away from industrial animal products. I’m looking forward to this journey, sharing the successes and failures, and to see how it impacts my everyday life.
I got to the point where I wanted to be today (and needed to be on some levels), and with tomorrow being President’s Day and thus no classes to teach, I decided to take the day for myself.
It’s been a good day reconnecting with myself. I went grocery shopping and started working on listening to myself again. In the attempt to create good habits for myself, I kinda fall into patterns because “they’re good for me.” Like I usually have the same thing to drink every day in a certain order, with my one can of Pepsi waiting for dinner. I started thinking about having it tonight and went with water instead because that’s what sounds better. Just because I usually have Pepsi with dinner doesn’t mean I have to have Pepsi with dinner.
It was like that grocery shopping. This week I started to feel like I need at least a break from the smørrebrød. I also realized that I haven’t been eating as much fruit and veg as I really should be. While the smørrebrød is not bad for me, it wasn’t as enjoyable as it’s been. So it’s clearly time for a break.
Yesterday when we went grocery shopping, I was thinking about what to get for myself today. I realized picking up a rotisserie chicken would be the best way to go for protein this week. I love Meijer’s rotisserie chicken when it’s cold, so I can just grab what I need for that day. I also picked up a chunk of feta for Wednesday and Friday this week, since Ash Wednesday is this week. Once I got the protein figured out, I let myself indulge in fruit. I picked up a pound of blueberries, a bunch of blood oranges, and green grapes because they were all on sale, and I also got a thing of mango because I wanted to indulge a bit. This way I have protein and can grab some combination of fruit every day to go with it. I’m really looking forward to it.
When I got home, I put on something I’ve been meaning to watch and had my Sunday salad. The rest of my day has been working on more masks for myself. At one point my hubby was going out in public more than I was, so he’s got more masks that I do. Now I’m the one going out more, and I need more masks. It’s been so nice to have the repetitive, almost meditative actions of pinning things together and then sewing them, while letting Sort Of play in the background. Also, I’m really doing something for myself. I’ve been so busy working on getting classes prepped and grading and dissertation and other writing that my “me” time has just been vegging out with TV and digital games. I needed something with less screen involvement.
Tomorrow I’m throwing myself back into class prep. I’m not even a week ahead anymore. Hopefully I can get back to being a few weeks ahead. Now that I’m past the worst topic of the semester (Manifest Destiny brings up all sorts of guilt), I should be able to get ahead again. But I am so glad I took this day for myself. Now, back to masks!
These past couple of weeks I’ve been feeling off. I hadn’t gotten as much prep for the semester as I wanted done. It was a struggle sometimes to get work on the dissertation done. Today I realized at least one reason why: Sundays have been busy.
I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve developed a Sunday habit after coming home from conference in October. I get myself a Caesar salad kit, grilled chicken, two 20+ oz cans of tea, and a package of Pepperidge Farm cookies (preferably Brussels, but whatever sounds good lately since those have been out), and set out to get shit done. It’s a dietary and mental reset for the week that has been really nice.
But Christmas and New Years Day were each on Sunday this year. I haven’t had my Sunday reset in two weeks. Combine that with the other aspects of my diet being off these past two weeks and things have been off. I’ve managed to get really productive today in a way I haven’t been able to in a bit.
This is why when I find something that works I keep going with it until it doesn’t. Especially when it comes to food. My smørrebrød is hitting the spot during the week and I’m not tired of it. My Sundays provide me with a quick break from that, which my tastebuds and wallet appreciate. I know not everyone likes having the same thing every day, but it works for me!
Now to get back to prepping for week 5. I just might be able to at least get the lesson plan done if not get everything done for the week before the semester even starts. It would be nice to be 1/3 of the way done with class prep before class even starts.
Polymind 