PaperCat

Author: paperkat

  • Progress From 9.29

    To recap, on 9.29 was a daily writing prompt about “What is your #1 priority for tomorrow?” and mine was to lock in on my health and fitness goals. Here is an update on my progress.

    I have managed to focus my nutrition on protein-focused foods as well as fruits and veggies. I have had a few too many sodas still through the week and a few too many junk foods, so this week will be about lowering those sodas and junk foods. I got a menu plan for this coming week set up and I bought the ingredients necessary such as the chuck roast for the pot roast that I’ll make in the crockpot tomorrow morning. For snacks, I have plain greek yogurt, cottage cheese, granola, and frozen berries to thaw and mix in.

    For my activity, I walked a 5K on Saturday 10/5, and that got me into a medal-motivated mood. I found virtual competitions that I can enter through The Conqueror’s Challenges (https://www.theconqueror.events) and those allow you to compete in a self-paced distance-based competition in order to earn a medal. I enjoy walking and cycling, so both of those activities can help me earn points towards the challenge. I started with their Lord of the Rings challenge, The Shire, which is 145 miles total and I gave myself a goal to complete it in 6 months. Next week, I hope to jog as well and work my way up to a run so that I can cover more distance and hopefully finish the challenge sooner than expected.

    As these progressions continue, I hope to be able to share my menu plans and grocery lists if that’s something interesting to you. They aren’t going to be made by a nutritionist or anything, they’re just my own ideas and trying to be nutritious from my limited knowledge of nutrition.

  • Daily writing prompt 10.05

    Daily writing prompt
    What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
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    This is a really sad one but I’ve had to think through it a couple times because of my work in processing insurance claims. I would have to grieve the memories that the things are connected to but I would have to move on eventually. It would probably recur a few times later on where I would remember and grieve the loss or miss an item. I would also work through replacing items, starting with necessities. It would be a whole rebuilding process.

  • Daily writing prompt 9.29

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s your #1 priority tomorrow?
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    My number one priority for tomorrow is to keep myself on track. I’m going to be tracking my nutrition and my fitness much more strictly like I was in the first half of the year and I fell off in June or July. I am continuing on from where I left off so I’m not starting from scratch like I did in January, but I did fall off my plan. To start, I’ll be prioritizing protein in all my meals and then I’ll also be reducing my sweet snacks in favor of increasing fruits and proteins. I use the MyFitnessPal app to track the calories and macros that I eat through the day as well. The other part of this plan will involve setting a specific time each evening about 7:30-8:30 PM for my at-home workout. I don’t try to think about it, I prioritize upper body or lower body, alternating which one each day, I put on my headphones, and workout for about an hour to an hour and a half at a slow pace. I basically took a whole quarter off my plan and now I’m setting up to have the last quarter of the year to dial back in and lock in. Wish me luck!

  • Daily writing prompt 9.25

    Daily writing prompt
    What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
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    I would like to learn what my cultural heritage is. I feel disconnected from my family’s culture as I am not entirely sure what country my family is from originally. We live in the US in North America but we haven’t learned where the family came from. I would be interested in learning where we came from and about the culture in that place.

  • Daily writing prompt 9.24

    Daily writing prompt
    What brands do you associate with?
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    It depends on what item I’m thinking of for use. For phones and computers, it’s Apple. For planners and notebooks, it’s Sterling Ink. For makeup, it’s Maybelline. It varies widely.

    Overall, I aim for products that are relatively affordable but have good enough quality to not be a terrible disappointment when I use them. For instance, I don’t find designer clothing to be of a good use of money because they usually make products that are of average quality or less. I will buy secondhand clothing or new clothing from Target or Walmart but I wish I could afford more ethical clothing options.

  • Question Prompt 3.05

    How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

    I have actually been thinking about this a lot lately. Most recently, I had gotten a job in 2022 for my dream company to work for: Neiman Marcus. I got a role as an Assistant Sales Manager for the Women’s Clothing department. It was the dream for a fashion merchandising major who had graduated during the worst part of the pandemic in October 2020.

    Quickly, I learned that the fashion retail world was not what I had thought that it was during my school experience. I was also spending about 3 hours a day in my commute to and from this dream job.

    I am grateful for the experience and the company was amazing to work for. But in the process, I learned that I did not fit in well.

    The company also provided me with a benefit of being able to use LinkedIn Learning and I was able to start exploring IT, technology, and cyber security. I started leaning into that curiosity and I am still obtaining certificates in that field even after leaving Neiman’s a year ago. And I am thankful for that whole amazing process that looks like a failure on the outside because it led me to something that I am developing a new passion for.

  • What have you been working on?

    I have been working on developing the skills to move into a whole new career field. I’m working through Coursera courses to learn user experience design and develop my portfolio.

  • The Goal Planner That Made Me Reconsider Goals: Makselife

    My previous main planner had the goal of simplifying my life. But it began doing the opposite. I started obsessing over the daily details and then writing down the same exact things everyday, believing that it would automate my life and bring myself into consistency. I’ve been drowning in this postpartum season of life and simplifying sounded good. Then comes the Makselife planner. I had bought this planner around April when it was on sale and around the same time I bought the other planner. I’m not sure why, but I had dropped it after it came and I tried to only use the goal work in the beginning of the book to find myself again. April through July ended up being chaos and my whole life and house looked like it. I brought the Makselife planner out of my shelf and put everything else away, telling myself to only use this planner to try and level things out and it has worked for the best.

    The Makselife planner was made by a life coach named Sierra Friend and it came out first in 2019. Being a planner enthusiast, I had seen it around but the relatively high price tag always pushed me away. A one-year Makselife planner is regularly $76 according to the website so it’s one of the more expensive specialty planners. The company describes itself as a luxury planner company so the price makes sense.

    The purpose of putting the goal planning pages with the daily agenda pages is to keep your goals up front and plan out your days and actions with your goals in mind. Most planners keep the two separate or a goal planner company only releases a goal planner but not a daily agenda so this planner is unique in that it keeps the two completely together in one book.

    There are 8 areas of life in the book that are the areas for goals and weekly actions. That may sound like a lot but in my case, most of the 8 can overlap or each can have its own goal that ties in with a goal from another life area, especially since my life has one overarching theme in it right now which is motherhood. According to the company, you don’t have to use all 8 areas if that’s too much for you but each area is important to the facets of most individual’s life and goals.

    With this in mind, this planner has been my best tool for finding myself again and calming the sea of chaos around me that is my mental health, physical health, and physical environment.

    They just came out with their 2024 planners at the end of September and I am anxiously awaiting being able to dive into the goal setting pages for the start of the new year.

  • My Favorite Christian Resources

    In this day and time, it is getting more and more difficult to find Christian resources that actually use the Bible as the foundation for the material. (Shocking.) Because I’ve been running into this problem repeatedly, I’m sure many other Christians are too so I want to share a list of some channels and books that have helped me in my studies. If you have some resources as well, I would love to hear what they are.

    Just a side note as well, I’m sure there are some minor issue disagreements that I have with some of the creators and authors that I’m listing here but overall, they are Christians who believe the Bible is the word of God and that faith in Christ is the only necessity for salvation.

    1. The Messed Up Church YouTube Channel – This channel is run by the Kozars, Steve and Paulette. They post videos critiquing messages from mega church pastors and ministry speakers who primarily use their speaking skills to make a profit rather than to properly teach from the Bible. The videos are slightly chaotic and disorganized, but their videos feel much more like a conversation uncovering the manipulative techniques in these speeches. They are both very clear that they are not teachers but they are laypeople, which makes most of their videos easily understood and relatable. I especially like their use of humor but they’re also clear that the tactics of these speakers is very serious and ruining the lives of their followers.

    2. Fighting for the Faith YouTube Channel – This channel was the inspiration for the Kozars with their channel but it is run by a Lutheran pastor, Chris Roseborough. He also primarily posts videos critiquing mega-church pastors and other church leaders who manipulate Bible verses to tell the story they want to tell or to support the life lesson they want to tell but only by ripping a verse (or passage) out of context. A bit that he also posts is called Prophesy Bingo, a game he plays with guests to essentially show that all of these self-proclaimed “prophets” use similar empty buzzwords and phrases in their supposed prophecies and predictions. This channel also uses plenty of humor while teaching the seriousness of understanding scripture to the Christian life.

    3. Long4Truth 1 YouTube Channel – This channel is another married couple, the Longs, Daniel and Robin, and they also discuss false preachers from mega-churches but they have covered additional topics such as “Christian” Bible study books and cults that have started due to the misinterpretation of scripture. They are also laypeople so they can explain these topics in ways that are easy to understand while still being a broad study of the development of mainstream Christianity.

    4. Counterfeit Kingdom book by Holly Pivec and Doug Geivett – In the same vein as the study of supposed “Christianity” is a book that discusses a false Christian movement that has arisen called the New Apostolic Reformation that is a branch that claims that the offices of apostle and prophet from the Bible are still active today. This is contrary to the previously well-understood role that apostles played in the New Testament. Apostles in the New Testament were in the role if they were eye witnesses of the resurrected Christ. Even the late comer Paul (previously Saul) saw Jesus Christ. This book goes into detail about the movement of the NAR and the results of the beliefs that the movement teaches to its followers including spiritual abuse.

    5. The ESV One Year Bible – This Bible is the easiest reading plan for reading the entire Bible in one year. I prefer the English Standard Version translation of the Bible and the One Year Bible is offered in multiple translations including NIV and NLT. I admit that I don’t read it perfectly every single day but each reading is dated, allowing you the ability to know where to read each day, which is often the first step to making a daily habit of reading the Bible – knowing what to read or where to start each day. The readings include a section from the Old Testament, a section from the New Testament, a section from the Psalms and a verse of Proverbs, making it very easy to read through the whole Bible.

    6. The English Standard Version Women’s Study Bible – This is a starting place for me to further understand some of my other reading in the One Year Bible. This Bible includes study notes and references to other related verses of the Bible such as the prophecies and their coming true. I’m building a further library of commentaries and notes regarding scripture but this Bible has been my starting place.

    Please let me know of your favorite study resources and I would be happy to look into them! I also want to continue to share more resources as I find them so I may do regular posts like this one.

    (None of the links in this post are sponsored)

  • Daily writing prompt
    If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?
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    Literally. I use it way too much and sometimes incorrectly.