Tag Archives: health

Day 12: Cheese is wonderful.

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We’re back, winding down Day 12 on the cleanse. I’ve gotta be honest: I have broken it, twice. Once, for chocolate Jen brought back from New Zealand (because you only live once) and once for wine at work Happy Hour.

Other than that, sticking to it hasn’t been so bad, especially now that we’re able to eat cheese again. We’ve visited two new restaurants so far, the Veggie Grill and Tender Greens, both of which were delicious. We’ve also learned how to snack smartly – I have been eating a lot of citrus, fruit, and nuts.

We attempted to make whole grain wheat pizza dough in celebration of cheese being back in our lives, but I think we killed yeast (read: I killed the yeast) so it was more a flatbread. It was still pretty good, but it was definitely not perfect – we’ll have to work on that recipe.

Overall, I think that this cleanse, so far, has lead to drinking more water, more cooking, and really thinking about what you’re putting in your body. Which has been the most important part, I think. When you have to stop and think about everything you eat, you’re doing yourself a favor. I have been eating less because I stop and think, “I don’t want that for a snack.” Well, if you don’t want that, it’s probably not hunger driving you to eat – it’s boredom, or thirst, or lack of sleep, or some other basic need not being met.

I recently read this quote, and it really stuck with me:

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.”

– Ann Wigmore

I think this cleanse is teaching us to eat food. Not just eat things disguised as food, but actual, tangible things that came from this earth with the purpose to nourish us. I love the occasional candy bar, soda, and chip, but chemicals and fake sugar aren’t even food to begin with, and learning that is an important step in learning about eating the way we were meant to eat.

Heading into this weekend, we have two scheduled dinners (both home cooked) that I can’t wait to share with my friends. I hope you have delicious plans, too, friends.

have you ever had a dream you wanted to follow? we do, too.

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I started my 10K training yesterday. I hadn’t run since the 5K race, taking a month off to catch up on things and pursue other exercise options (read: yoga and Wii fit.)

I have learned if I don’t have a training schedule, I will not run just to run. And so, I will train for something. I love structure, and planning, and organization, and a goal, so for me, this is perfect.

For those of you who know me, you know I have several reoccurring dreams: the one when I realize it’s three weeks into the semester and I’ve gone to no classes, the one where I have to retake high school math even though I have a college degree, the one where I am at the final soccer game of the season and realize I’ve forgotten my shin guards…but the one I have most is the one where I am running, my lungs do not hurt, I am running fast and free and far, and I am happy.

I’ve always wanted to have that dream, to be that dream. I thought it not possible, but I proved myself wrong by running two 5Ks. And now, I want to prove myself wrong by running a 10K. And maybe, someday, more. I realize in order to make this dream come true, I must baby step up to the plate. It won’t be easy, it won’t happen overnight, but it is absolutely achievable, and that’s what matters.

My sister posted this video on the book today (below), and I thought it was accurate to the way a lot of people feel about health; they’ve given up, accepted status quo, let their current health state define who they are. But that’s not right, that’s not how it should be. You must define your own path. You must believe in yourself. You must push yourself to be the best you you can be.

As Sara Bareilles says, “Compare who you are to where you want to be and you’ll get nowhere.”

Getting it together.

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So this week has been busy, per usual, and I have been slowly letting things build up around here. Not so good for the morale.

With a special guest coming this weekend, and Andrew’s birthday party Saturday, I knew I had to get some things together before the weekend. So today, I emailed my eye doctor (I’ve been having contact-issues) AND I went to the podiatrist (who told me I need to do physical therapy for my big ole flippers.) My eye doctor told me how to fix the issue, and my physical therapy — something I never knew could help — starts Tuesday. For those of you who don’t know me that well, you might not know that I have plantar faciitis — aka no arches, and thus stretching of my plantar fascia, or one of the tendons in my foot.

Basically, this means that it’s painful for me to walk around, stand, and basically do anything involving my feet. Read: they basically hurt all the time. Jeff has been bugging me to go for weeks, since I  make him wrap ice packs on my feet all the time and then squirm in the icy pain that is an ice pack on your foot, and retrieve things for me once I’m wrapped up tightly and done squirming. And, while having Jeff’s service and reading trashing mags in the meantime has been nice, I figured maybe I needed a doc’s advice. So here we go onto physical therapy, some new shoes (again), and wait for it — new, full length orthotics.

My doc made me stick my foot in one of these:

And said, if we’re lucky, we’ll receive them in like 2 weeks. Lucky me. They’ll look like this:

Which is all good news, except that I am not too keen on finding flippers big enough to fit my size 10 foot into WITH a full length orthotic. Wish me luck…