My Road Back
- Thread starter Guy_Dudeson
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Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Yes, it was very tempting... I don't think I'll allow myself to turn that into a regular thing lol... I'll have to be wary of being casual about drinking, just as I am with the supermarket and foodcourts!
But yes, I'm happy I could resist. That beer tasted so good!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Day 30
28/4/2021
137.5kgs (303.1lbs)
A step back in the right direction!
I hit all my targets again today with my diet and exercise, I abstained from the beer this time, but did indulge in a little grazing. I had a bag of peanuts in the afternoon, and when I went to the supermarket (while my kebab box was being made) to pick up my low carb yoghurts, I bought a low carb protein bar and a Noshu sugar free donut. The donut wasn't cheap, but after my big walk it tasted like heaven. It was only 45g, and only contained 2.6g of carbs.
The insoles have done nothing... my uncomfortable work shoes are a dud! I've gone through my closet and found a barely-used pair of black Asics trainers that I'll use for my walks henceforth, as the cheapo work shoes I was wearing were causing some discomfort in my right foot and knee.
I can also say conclusively that my 8km walk is sufficiently challenging! Second day and I had moments where I didn't exactly feel amazing. But I made it.
All things considered, it was gold medal day!
28/4/2021
137.5kgs (303.1lbs)
A step back in the right direction!
I hit all my targets again today with my diet and exercise, I abstained from the beer this time, but did indulge in a little grazing. I had a bag of peanuts in the afternoon, and when I went to the supermarket (while my kebab box was being made) to pick up my low carb yoghurts, I bought a low carb protein bar and a Noshu sugar free donut. The donut wasn't cheap, but after my big walk it tasted like heaven. It was only 45g, and only contained 2.6g of carbs.
The insoles have done nothing... my uncomfortable work shoes are a dud! I've gone through my closet and found a barely-used pair of black Asics trainers that I'll use for my walks henceforth, as the cheapo work shoes I was wearing were causing some discomfort in my right foot and knee.
I can also say conclusively that my 8km walk is sufficiently challenging! Second day and I had moments where I didn't exactly feel amazing. But I made it.
All things considered, it was gold medal day!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
I did think that on the way home after my second walk! But I pushed through six days in a row in the end! The Asics trainers made a difference! Not a massive one, but a difference!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Day 31
29/4/2021
136.7kgs (301.4lbs)
Once again, banh mi for breakfast and chicken with hummus for lunch... I seem to have those two meals well in hand! Stayed at work a bit later than usual, so when I embarked on the walk home I was a little worried that I wouldn't get to my local supermarket on time to buy the low carb yoghurts, so ended up at the supermarket near work... they didn't even have the stuff I wanted, and I ended up getting a bunch of low carb protein bars and stuff... Not as bad as the old supermarket transgressions, but not great. Powered through the walk just in time to buy my kebab box and low carb yoghurts.
Day 32
30/4/2021
136.3kgs (300.5lbs)
Oh, so close to breaking the 200's!
I'm not gonna delve into too much detail about the eating as I hit the goals for the fourth day in a row. The difference is I went a bit overboard with the low carb protein snacks again... even worse than the day before. Nothing I'd consider junk food, but the volume of food was too great.
Day 33
1/5/2021
136.3kgs (300.5lbs)
No great surprises there. The scales can be deceiving and the transgressions weren't that bad... went off to work and had the same start to the day, then on the way home, I had a little foodcourt slip up. As the week wears on, the motivation wanes...
I grabbed a chicken katsu curry with rice, which was reduced to $6 for end of day special, and the nice girl behind the counter gave me some sticky chicken pieces (a small serve)... eek. I dodged the rice but some fatty, carby chicken. I told myself I'd skip the kebab box, but ended up grabbing some butter chicken from the Indian takeaway near the supermarket after my 8km walk. Again, dodged the rice, but ate as badly as possible without an all out junk food binge.
Day 34
2/5/2021
137kgs (302.3lbs)
Well, hardly surprising. Went to work and had a banh mi for breakfast... was the first one in the building and in the fridges there were two vanilla canroli with my name on them, a gift from a customer for all the staff lol. OMG, vanilla cannoli, or anything with custard, panacotta, ricotta... these things are my weakness lol... I gobbled the both with hardly a breath! Damn it lol... did a hard day's work and had some roast lamb with vegetables for lunch... Had some chicken kara'age on the way home, no rice, then picked up my usual low carb yoghurt from the supermarket to binge some episodes of the Sopranos.
Some lapses in diet motivation towards the end of the week, but 6 days in a row with the walk!
Day 35
3/5/2021
136kgs (299.8lbs)
Woo! Some mitigating factors on that weigh in, long sleep, plenty of extra time without any food intake... but a best weigh in is a best weigh in!
Aaaaaand I upheld the Monday tradition of gluttony lol. No full on junk food, but volume and carbs. 4 x frozen fish pieces at breakfast, before a trip to the local shopping mall whence I discovered my usual chicken kara'age spot had shut down. A banh mi with low carb yoghurt for lunch, then 5 more frozen fish pieces and a tin of soup at dinner.
I hope to have a better bad weigh in than last Tuesday. We'll see!
29/4/2021
136.7kgs (301.4lbs)
Once again, banh mi for breakfast and chicken with hummus for lunch... I seem to have those two meals well in hand! Stayed at work a bit later than usual, so when I embarked on the walk home I was a little worried that I wouldn't get to my local supermarket on time to buy the low carb yoghurts, so ended up at the supermarket near work... they didn't even have the stuff I wanted, and I ended up getting a bunch of low carb protein bars and stuff... Not as bad as the old supermarket transgressions, but not great. Powered through the walk just in time to buy my kebab box and low carb yoghurts.
Day 32
30/4/2021
136.3kgs (300.5lbs)
Oh, so close to breaking the 200's!
I'm not gonna delve into too much detail about the eating as I hit the goals for the fourth day in a row. The difference is I went a bit overboard with the low carb protein snacks again... even worse than the day before. Nothing I'd consider junk food, but the volume of food was too great.
Day 33
1/5/2021
136.3kgs (300.5lbs)
No great surprises there. The scales can be deceiving and the transgressions weren't that bad... went off to work and had the same start to the day, then on the way home, I had a little foodcourt slip up. As the week wears on, the motivation wanes...
I grabbed a chicken katsu curry with rice, which was reduced to $6 for end of day special, and the nice girl behind the counter gave me some sticky chicken pieces (a small serve)... eek. I dodged the rice but some fatty, carby chicken. I told myself I'd skip the kebab box, but ended up grabbing some butter chicken from the Indian takeaway near the supermarket after my 8km walk. Again, dodged the rice, but ate as badly as possible without an all out junk food binge.
Day 34
2/5/2021
137kgs (302.3lbs)
Well, hardly surprising. Went to work and had a banh mi for breakfast... was the first one in the building and in the fridges there were two vanilla canroli with my name on them, a gift from a customer for all the staff lol. OMG, vanilla cannoli, or anything with custard, panacotta, ricotta... these things are my weakness lol... I gobbled the both with hardly a breath! Damn it lol... did a hard day's work and had some roast lamb with vegetables for lunch... Had some chicken kara'age on the way home, no rice, then picked up my usual low carb yoghurt from the supermarket to binge some episodes of the Sopranos.
Some lapses in diet motivation towards the end of the week, but 6 days in a row with the walk!
Day 35
3/5/2021
136kgs (299.8lbs)
Woo! Some mitigating factors on that weigh in, long sleep, plenty of extra time without any food intake... but a best weigh in is a best weigh in!
Aaaaaand I upheld the Monday tradition of gluttony lol. No full on junk food, but volume and carbs. 4 x frozen fish pieces at breakfast, before a trip to the local shopping mall whence I discovered my usual chicken kara'age spot had shut down. A banh mi with low carb yoghurt for lunch, then 5 more frozen fish pieces and a tin of soup at dinner.
I hope to have a better bad weigh in than last Tuesday. We'll see!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Thanks, although I weighed in a little over 137 today, but it is a better bad weigh in that last Tuesday!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Day 36
4/5/2021
137.3kgs (302.7lbs)
Well, a bad weigh in, but better than last week by more than a kilo!
Banh mi for breakfast, then had the most physical part of the job right off the bat! Heavy lifting and hauling of kegs, done in a hurry so I wouldn't have to stay late at work! I did absolutely no snacking until lunch, then had my usual chicken with hummus, before the walk home. Took a slight detour which upped it to about 9km, because I'm kinda OD'ing on schawarma/kebab chicken at the moment... I eat it for lunch at work, then for dinner... went on a little explore and ultimately ended up with a quarter BBQ chicken with Ceasar salad, and the usual low carb donut and 3 low carb yoghurts... The salad was nowhere near as oily as I feared it'd be, actually still quite crisp and fresh! Plenty of chicken breast in it too! So I still got my leafy greens. Pretty good day all in all!
4/5/2021
137.3kgs (302.7lbs)
Well, a bad weigh in, but better than last week by more than a kilo!
Banh mi for breakfast, then had the most physical part of the job right off the bat! Heavy lifting and hauling of kegs, done in a hurry so I wouldn't have to stay late at work! I did absolutely no snacking until lunch, then had my usual chicken with hummus, before the walk home. Took a slight detour which upped it to about 9km, because I'm kinda OD'ing on schawarma/kebab chicken at the moment... I eat it for lunch at work, then for dinner... went on a little explore and ultimately ended up with a quarter BBQ chicken with Ceasar salad, and the usual low carb donut and 3 low carb yoghurts... The salad was nowhere near as oily as I feared it'd be, actually still quite crisp and fresh! Plenty of chicken breast in it too! So I still got my leafy greens. Pretty good day all in all!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Day 37
5/5/2021
136.3kgs (300.5lbs)
So far so good!
We've hit a little rainy patch in my area, which always motivates me to go out walking... So I decided to walk part of the distance into work! I took a bus through some of the "boring" parts of my walk and started from the main streets, where the shops and general activity are... It ended up being about a 5km walk to work.
Picked up the banh mi from a different spot (as the ones close to home were shut), but weakened and picked up a couple of "extras" from a Korean eatery nearby... Curses, I'd beaten the temptation of the foodcourts I knew, only to be hoodwinked by a shiny new foodcourt!
Grabbed a small serve of yangnyeom chicken and a small bulgogi pork maki roll. Quite a big breakfast, lucky I got additional exercise.
As stated earlier, OD'ing on shawarma chicken, so at work I got some Italian meatballs with sweet potato mash... A little carby, but... at least it wasn't parpadelle a ragu drowning in cheese.
Before I walked home I decided that I wouldn't have both a savoury dinner and low carb yoghurt when I got home, I'd have one or the other... and I find myself craving the sweeter stuff more! After the 8km walk, my mind hadn't changed, and I bought a 700g tub of the low carb yoghurt (about 25g carbs in the whole thing)... I also had two low carb donuts and a protein bar. Actually less than my blowout last week, and without the double hit of a savoury dinner to go along with it.
I really hope to break below 136 tomorrow!
5/5/2021
136.3kgs (300.5lbs)
So far so good!
We've hit a little rainy patch in my area, which always motivates me to go out walking... So I decided to walk part of the distance into work! I took a bus through some of the "boring" parts of my walk and started from the main streets, where the shops and general activity are... It ended up being about a 5km walk to work.
Picked up the banh mi from a different spot (as the ones close to home were shut), but weakened and picked up a couple of "extras" from a Korean eatery nearby... Curses, I'd beaten the temptation of the foodcourts I knew, only to be hoodwinked by a shiny new foodcourt!
Grabbed a small serve of yangnyeom chicken and a small bulgogi pork maki roll. Quite a big breakfast, lucky I got additional exercise.
As stated earlier, OD'ing on shawarma chicken, so at work I got some Italian meatballs with sweet potato mash... A little carby, but... at least it wasn't parpadelle a ragu drowning in cheese.
Before I walked home I decided that I wouldn't have both a savoury dinner and low carb yoghurt when I got home, I'd have one or the other... and I find myself craving the sweeter stuff more! After the 8km walk, my mind hadn't changed, and I bought a 700g tub of the low carb yoghurt (about 25g carbs in the whole thing)... I also had two low carb donuts and a protein bar. Actually less than my blowout last week, and without the double hit of a savoury dinner to go along with it.
I really hope to break below 136 tomorrow!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
I'll edit this later, but 135.7 (299.2lbs) this morning.... huzzah! I wanna leave the 300's in the dust now!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Thanks @Cate and @LaMaria!
Good progress!
I'll just make an entry here rather than editing the one above I guess!
Day 38
6/5/2021
135.7kgs (299.2lbs)
I tried to do the same walk into work as yesterday, as the rain is persisting, but it was very heavy this morning... not a drizzle, pleasant for walking, but a full on deluge! I had to take buses through stretches where there was no cover. I ended up being about a 3.5km walk rather than 5km... Had a banh mi and two of the Korean maki rolls (which I now know are called Kimbap) for breakfast... I thought a second roll was much better than sticky chicken lol.
Went back to the shawarma chicken with hummus for lunch, with leafy greens again... It really does make sense for me as a lunch option.
Did my 8km walk home and had the 700g tub of low carb yoghurt and two noshu sugar free donuts again. I found myself craving things on the way home, especially greasy food, or the oily beef stew I bought in the first week that time... especially in colder weather it's so tempting to eat hot dinners... but I thought it through, and none of them was worth skipping the sweeter options for me... With Friday around the corner, it was a great effort!
Good progress!
I'll just make an entry here rather than editing the one above I guess!
Day 38
6/5/2021
135.7kgs (299.2lbs)
I tried to do the same walk into work as yesterday, as the rain is persisting, but it was very heavy this morning... not a drizzle, pleasant for walking, but a full on deluge! I had to take buses through stretches where there was no cover. I ended up being about a 3.5km walk rather than 5km... Had a banh mi and two of the Korean maki rolls (which I now know are called Kimbap) for breakfast... I thought a second roll was much better than sticky chicken lol.
Went back to the shawarma chicken with hummus for lunch, with leafy greens again... It really does make sense for me as a lunch option.
Did my 8km walk home and had the 700g tub of low carb yoghurt and two noshu sugar free donuts again. I found myself craving things on the way home, especially greasy food, or the oily beef stew I bought in the first week that time... especially in colder weather it's so tempting to eat hot dinners... but I thought it through, and none of them was worth skipping the sweeter options for me... With Friday around the corner, it was a great effort!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Thanks! Although this weekend I surrendered to another old temptation...Well done on resisting the greasy food on the way home & having an active day, despite the bad weather
Day 39
7/5/2021
135kgs (297.6lbs)
I tried to walk partly into work again today, but much to my chagrin, it was blaringly bright and sunny... I only ended up walking about 2km out of the potential 5... I had the usual breakfast of banh mi and two gimbap, and another plate of shawarma chicken for lunch. I was going pretty well... but unfortunately I fell victim to my alcohol cravings today... I drank about six double vodkas with pepsi max after work while watching the rugby league, but still walked home... I was quite pleased with myself in that I didn't break my diet... in fact, I didn't even have the usual yoghurt! Far too much to drink, which would have been fine if I could've left the stuff alone the next day...
Day 40
8/5/2021
134.7kgs (297lbs)
I got right on the turps today... PLENTY to drink... I had the banh hi for breakfast and skipped lunch as it was pretty busy. After work I had one hell of a session, then on the way home I bought a miniature picnic of junk to eat, the main part of which was a big serve of Indian curry with a cheese naan and some sides. This has to be my first proper slip up (prior slip ups were more about volume than volume compounded with pure junk, this had both). I guess it's a pretty good effort to make it 40 whole days without one, but a slip up is never something to be pleased about.
I'm sure I enjoyed the food, pity I was too much of a drunken mess to truly appreciate it! I should've just gone to bed!
Day 41
9/5/2021
136.6kgs (301.2lbs)
Ah, that hangover feeling... the throbbing head, impossible to get comfortable... And the gross feeling from eating all that heavy food! I had a dinner with my parents planned for Mother's Day, so I couldn't very well be a basket case all day! I eventually dragged my sorry corpse out of bed and freshened up... I really had a good time catching up with the folks, my mother chose a Vietnamese restaurant she likes, and the food was actually pretty healthy! Plenty of crunchy veg with everything, although my dish was full of vermicelli noodles... I also had a couple of beers, as it was an occasion, after all!
At dinner I had a big serve of low carb "pasta" with olives and red sauce, and my low carb yoghurt.
Decent follow up, although not a "diet" day.
Day 42
10/5/2021
136.9kgs (301.8lbs)
Although I hadn't earned it, I still had a Monday glutton day... I had some more of the fish pieces, a banh mi, and at lunch time, a big tub of full fat and sugar custard... oh dear lol.
I will give myself proper credit for one victory over this whole drunken fiasco of a weekend... At night time, I came face-to-face with one of my old eating demons... I thought that I'd eaten so much over the weekend that I might as well have one final splurge! I thought about ducking over to the local Thai restaurant and picking up a Panang curry (one of the creamiest ones) with extra chicken, a large steamed rice and some curry puffs. After all, I'd already had a big feed of curry on Saturday night.
These weren't the thoughts of someone who'd earned a cheat meal through 40 odd days of good dieting; there's nothing wrong with an earned cheat, but only days earlier my "diet mind" wanted to leave 300 in the dust! This was one of the bad excuses that helped my lose control of my weight in the first place...
Ultimately, I told myself that if I wanted a decadent feast of Thai food before I've done another 40 days of dieting, I'll have to have it for "breakfast" (I sleep in on my days off), when I permit myself some carbs and fat.
I ended up having some more oven bake fish pieces and a tin of soup... I still ate a substantial volume of food, but I didn't give in to the usual temptation, so that's a win in my book!
Day 43
11/5/2021
136.8kgs (301.6lbs)
Okay, not as bad as I thought!
Banh mi for breakfast, but no sides... I just wasn't feeling the shawarma chicken, so I had a chicken schnitzel with no fries... crumbed, but I skipped the worst of the carbs. All was going well until the nice bloke from one of the neighbouring restaurants bought me a slice of tiramisu (he'd been taking pics for his restaurants social website)... I just couldn't resist! The rich coffee cream was insane! I have no idea how many calories it had, but I'd guess it'd be somewhere in the neighbourhood of... a million?
I still walked home, and picked up my tub of low carb yoghurt. If not for the tiramisu slice it'd have been perfect.
Glass half full and all.
Err2
New member
Hey Guy, glad to see you were able to keep things from totally coming off the rails over the weekend. That may seem like a small thing, but it is huge! Good job.
One of the things that has really helped me sustain a caloric deficit is eating a large volume of food. The key is just to make the food low in calories. For instance, I eat a huge salad just about every day - one with 2-3 heads of romaine (~500g), ~200g of chicken, ~20g of parmesan, ~30g of dressing, and seasoning. It takes me nearly 45 minutes to eat and keeps me full for another 4-5 hours, but has only ~500 calories using regular salad dressing (the lite stuff just doesn't taste good to me).
This is a mindset I used to have, but changing it helped me tremendously. I just could not sustain a diet that viewed eating healthily as a punishment and eating unhealthily as a reward - eventually my willpower depleted I wanted to "reward" myself to excess. And then I'd feel bad about having "failed" and want to cheer myself up with another "reward." not sustainable...
It was a gradual process, but instead I've come to incorporate many of those reward/treats into my normal diet - they just have to fit in with everything else. One big change that came along is that I now savor the treats rather than shovel them down. I probably experience the same amount of time tasting & enjoying these high calorie foods, I just don't eat as much of them.
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
I agree! I don't want to imagine a world where I can't have a splurge once in a while... in fact, it helps motivate me sometimes lol... "do I want to have a heavy carb dinner, or be good and have a big blowout at the end of the month?"... probably not a great idea for the long run though lol.
The savouring thing is what bugs me about my drunken feast: I would have just sloppily devoured it with little real appreciation.
My intention of eating my Thai food for breakfast is kind of related to the idea of "incorporating" it into my current routine, I think!
Yeah, I'm pretty happy!
One thing I'm feeling a bit guilty about is skipping the leafy greens... I was so good at the start! Yeah, it's the one thing you can really fill up on! I've sort of gone for a lazy/fatty keto approach after breakfast, which I'll ride until I get bored or the results slow!
Guy_Dudeson
Active member
Day 44
12/5/2021
135.3kgs (298.3lbs)
Slept in a bit today and got caught a little in-between plans in terms of getting breakfast and lunch... I originally wanted to grab a banh mi for breakfast and some sushi to save for lunch.... I didn't end up having enough time to do both, as none of the good banh mi shops are close to any of the good sushi shops (at least the ones that open for breakfast)...
So I grabbed sushi for breakfast as it was closer to work. Four maki rolls (two tuna with avocado and two raw salmon with avocado).
For lunch I had a burger patty with mushroom sauce. Walked home and again, fell to the temptation to drink. I grabbed four low carb ciders for the walk, each one had 7.9g of carbs.
This is something I'll have to keep an eye on... some time ago I used to walk home from work and the whole thing was as much about an hour and a half of drinking and listening to music as getting some additional steps in.
I also noticed I was feeling more tempted by the savoury foods on the way home... I deliberately walk through Korea town and China town as it's a nice interesting route, but it's filled with the most enticing food smells lol... One of these days I'll have to swap the low carb yoghurt out for some dinner I guess.
Had two low carb donuts and the low carb yoghurt on getting home.
Day 45
13/5/2021
134.2kgs (295.9lbs)
Whoa, happy with that!
Had a banh mi for breakfast, and a burger patty for lunch again... After work I had to go to a shopping centre to buy a gift for a colleague who is leaving soon... It took me to a foodcourt that I'd been avoiding... and I slipped up. The sushi shop had the last of their stuff on end of day sale, and I picked up a kara'age bowl and some takoyaki... and as with last time I visited, the nice girl behind the counter gave me one more thing for free, a small cup with three pieces of fried chicken in it. I had everything but the rice, so all in all it was about six small pieces of boneless chicken, some egg, and six small takoyaki. Absolutely a diet-friendly dinner, but it meant I'd have to skip my tub of low carb yoghurt.
Had only three of the low carb ciders on the walk home, and also ended up having the yoghurt as I watched an episode of The Sopranos.
Bit of a naughty, although it'd have been a slam dunk in the early weeks of the diet.
The yoghurt is such an end-of-day comfort... I eat it the same as I'd eat a pint of ice cream... It's a routine! I don't know if the "one or the other" will ever totally work.
12/5/2021
135.3kgs (298.3lbs)
Slept in a bit today and got caught a little in-between plans in terms of getting breakfast and lunch... I originally wanted to grab a banh mi for breakfast and some sushi to save for lunch.... I didn't end up having enough time to do both, as none of the good banh mi shops are close to any of the good sushi shops (at least the ones that open for breakfast)...
So I grabbed sushi for breakfast as it was closer to work. Four maki rolls (two tuna with avocado and two raw salmon with avocado).
For lunch I had a burger patty with mushroom sauce. Walked home and again, fell to the temptation to drink. I grabbed four low carb ciders for the walk, each one had 7.9g of carbs.
This is something I'll have to keep an eye on... some time ago I used to walk home from work and the whole thing was as much about an hour and a half of drinking and listening to music as getting some additional steps in.
I also noticed I was feeling more tempted by the savoury foods on the way home... I deliberately walk through Korea town and China town as it's a nice interesting route, but it's filled with the most enticing food smells lol... One of these days I'll have to swap the low carb yoghurt out for some dinner I guess.
Had two low carb donuts and the low carb yoghurt on getting home.
Day 45
13/5/2021
134.2kgs (295.9lbs)
Whoa, happy with that!
Had a banh mi for breakfast, and a burger patty for lunch again... After work I had to go to a shopping centre to buy a gift for a colleague who is leaving soon... It took me to a foodcourt that I'd been avoiding... and I slipped up. The sushi shop had the last of their stuff on end of day sale, and I picked up a kara'age bowl and some takoyaki... and as with last time I visited, the nice girl behind the counter gave me one more thing for free, a small cup with three pieces of fried chicken in it. I had everything but the rice, so all in all it was about six small pieces of boneless chicken, some egg, and six small takoyaki. Absolutely a diet-friendly dinner, but it meant I'd have to skip my tub of low carb yoghurt.
Had only three of the low carb ciders on the walk home, and also ended up having the yoghurt as I watched an episode of The Sopranos.
Bit of a naughty, although it'd have been a slam dunk in the early weeks of the diet.
The yoghurt is such an end-of-day comfort... I eat it the same as I'd eat a pint of ice cream... It's a routine! I don't know if the "one or the other" will ever totally work.