Growing Celery Take 2: Fail

This post was last updated and completed on 7/22/2020.

After take 1 failed massively, we tried again with a couple of new celery stalks. I realise now that I probably should have planted my trial 1 on 22nd May when it’d already started to grow roots but the stalk hadn’t yet begun to mould. You live and you learn.

We bought two more stalks of celery and after eating most of one we decided to try again. This was the organic celery from Trader Joe’s. So far it seems to be a lot more successful. Check back for updates!

12th June

I thought the toothpicks in the celery may have been causing it to rot so this time I tried to tie it up with string instead:

Jacky asked why we couldn’t just put the celery into the glass with water at the bottom? I thought I read that it would cause the celery to rot, so to confirm this I did some more research and watched a video about growing celery (probs should have done that first). The video advised to cut a little off the bottom of the celery before putting it in water, and that it needn’t be suspended by toothpicks.

Jacky also said that since the celery just grows from the middle anyway, can we just put the thus-far uneaten centre of our celery stalk into water and see how it goes?

Sure, why not. Let’s test it:

We’ll call them Shortie and Tall Bro. I’ll let you figure out which is which.

I also trimmed a little off the bottom of the Tall Bro. Presumably doing this removes the hardened layer from the bottom so that the celery can better absorb the water and its nutrients.

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Growing Celery From Stalk Take 1: Fail

A month ago I also tried to grow celery from a stalk cutting. We bought the celery from Trader Joe’s. I’d done quite a bit of research online and it sounded simple enough.

I took off the very outer layer because the celery would have otherwise been to large to fit into my cute little tub (this, I later learned, was probably mistake #1), stuffed toothpicks in the celery and ensured the water level always covered the bottom but barely. For about a week it looked like nothing was happening.

Then, on the 14th May the centre started poking its head out, and by 15th May it’d grown even more:

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Wellness: Sleep By 11pm For June Challenge

Image credit: Unsplash

This post was updated daily and completed on 7/1/2020.
Jump to final thoughts & results.

Hello, now that I have your attention with the adorable kitten image, thanks for joining me on this challenge. Mwahahaha.

As you may be aware, the last challenge I gave myself was to cut out excess sugar from my diet. That one, I had no idea how long I’d track it for and also no idea what I was doing, and I didn’t even realise it was a challenge to myself until the last day. Needless to say, it was a spectacular fail!

This time though, I’m actually setting myself a challenge. Why? Because it’s hard. And I want to do it. And I want to be kept accountable.

I’ve been sleeping late recently and it’s just wrecking my health. I nursed the worst headache I’ve had for a while today after sleeping at 3am last night. I then took a 3hr nap in the afternoon and my head still hurts. It wasn’t even like I was doing anything important. I was just watching anime. Clearly I lack self-control and it’s a problem.

Challenge Details & Goals

Through 30th June, my challenge will be this:

> Turn off all electronics by 10:30pm to prepare for bed
> Be in bed by 11pm
> Wake up by 9am by the end of the first week, 8am by the end of the second week and 7am by the end of the final week.
> Note sleep time (night before) and wake time (day of) etc. using a sleep tracker app to track data. I am using SleepWatch.

I aim see how sleeping earlier affects my fatigue/lethargy, headaches and will also do a weigh-in every 7 days. Also, Jacky will eventually have to go back into the office for his job (maybe as early as next month?) so I want to be able to wake up early to make us breakfast and pack a lunchbox for him like this woman does for her husband — I’ve been inspired!

This means changing my wake up time from 10am to 7am in the next few weeks. I’ll be setting alarms to begin with, but ideally by the end of the 3 weeks I’ll be waking up naturally around 7ish. I need a good 8-9hrs sleep/night so that means going to sleep around 11pm. They say it takes 21 days to build up a new habit, and I have exactly 21 days of this challenge.

Please do check back in to see how I get on and keep me accountable. I’ll be updating this daily and will do my best.

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Health: Cutting Excess Sugar From My Diet

Image credit: Unsplash

Edit: This post was completed and last updated on 6/9/2020.
Jump to end results and final thoughts (spoiler alert: I failed).

Back when I was trying to lose weight for my wedding, I cut out sugar and exercised a lot more. I practically lost 2lbs in a week just from cutting out sugar alone. I felt healthy and strong.

Lately I’ve been having anxiety on/off for no good reason recently, as well as bizarre, anxiety-inducing vivid dreams. My husband said he heard me gritting my teeth while sleeping last night, and I’ve had a headache since going to Costco yesterday.

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