My Passion Experiment – One Month Summary

A month ago I scratched a list onto a piece of paper of a bunch of things that I could do that would help to recharge me and keep me balanced and centered. Here’s the list. The items in blue were done at least once over the month and the items in green did not get done in March.

 

• Make bone broth
• Paint nails
• Wax legs (I had this done professionally…will NEVER go back to doing it myself!)
• Make salt scrub
• Make shampoo
• Do Coquitlam Crunch
• Exercise 3/week
• Go on an evening mid-week coffee date
• Do Sunday mall
• Go on road trip
• Get haircut
• Wax underarms
• Read before bed
• Enjoy couch time
• Make kombucha
• Go tanning

 

I did not make kombucha or bone broth although I did go so far as to buy jars for it…..but I decided against it due to cost at the moment. The cost of all those jars I would need add up! I did not make salt scrub because I totally forgot about that one. I did not hit the Coquitlam Crunch because, quite honestly, the weather has been so shitty that it wasn’t feasible. The nice days we did have, I rode my bicycle to work…climbing up the side of a mountain after that just seemed foolish!

 

Overall I’m pretty pleased with how the “experiment” has been going. Admittedly last week wasn’t tops for me, I had (& continue to have) horrible seasonal allergies and have been wasted on allergy medication for three weeks now. Add some ongoing difficult family issues to getting some very bad news about a good friend’s health and the final week of March sort of sucked. I felt out of sorts and blue and a bit off my game. Ray and I were bickering a bit (which is, honestly, completely out of character for us) and I was also recovering from riding nearly 65 kilometers (40 miles) over 7 days. Many of those kilometers were uphill. My body was also recovering from falling off of my bike and onto the road and/or trail and/or curb more times than I would like to admit. That definitely took a toll on me mentally as well as physically. Made me seriously question my crazy idea of riding my bike as a method of commuting!

 

Anyway, I don’t want to paint all of March with the same brush because most of it was really good. We did a lot of eating at the table, we did some after dinner dog walking, we conserved our money, we only ate out twice in the month. My social media usage has gone WAY DOWN during my at home hours (that is a huge one for me!).

 

I’m going to continue My Passion Experiment in April with a focus again on self-respect and awareness. I would like to see April contain more bicycle commuting, more weekend gym rowing, more tanning, a haircut, painted nails, dedicated couch time, our Sunday mall date, a massage (this is booked!), coffee with a friend (this is booked too, right Tara?), a family dinner, a blood donor appt and maybe depending on the weather, a motorcycle ride. I especially want to practice turning negative thoughts and feelings over to positive and, eventually, having a positive (or at least neutrally optimistic) attitude as my default. I want the majority of the things that I do (if not all of them) to be things that are done with the intent of adding passion to my inner self and value to my life overall.

 

As I enter April, I do not have a goals list ready to “guide me” along the way. Maybe that’s a mistake and if it is, I’ll be the first to admit it. I mostly want to go through April happy, healthy and active. If I can pull that off then everything else will fall into place!

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Things I Love – Tuesday

Morning!  I have a new post up on 90 Seconds of Real; four of us post there daily, short videos (less than 2 minutes) encompassing anything from cooking, nutrition, weight loss, exercise, dealing with depression/anxiety, Whole30 or whatever we’re feeling or dealing with at the moment while trying to live balanced, healthy lives.  If you think you can relate, we’d love to see you over there, take a look around (the About tab tells about each of our backgrounds) & watch a couple videos.  Click the “FOLLOW” link in the top right corner to join our little community!

 

This morning I was at the gym and did mile-row-mile (run a mile as quick as you can, get off and row 2000 meters and then run another mile….supposed to be for time, I usually am just happy if I don’t puke).  At 0.6 of my second mile I realized I’d taken in too much water after my row and I felt like I was going to be sick.  Since my current feeling is that I do a little every day and build on it, I stopped at 0.6 for the second mile and went to the weight room instead.  There I did assisted pullups, straight arm lat pulldowns, shoulder press, dumbbell flys, chest press, abs and stretching.  There were two other women in the area as well working on different programs and I took a minute to watch each of them and appreciate how we were all doing something different.  I was doing some fairly traditional exercises, another woman was doing some more advanced full body work and then the third woman was….well….flopping about like a landed fish, really….but she was super lean and fit so whatever she’s doing obviously is working for her.    None of our workouts looked like they’d particularly been designed by anyone and that got me to thinking that we all just do the best we can with what we have.  We read and research, assess ourselves and our goals and then try to do the things that will be effective with all of that in mind.  Really levels the playing field, doesn’t it!  It was also nice to see lots of new faces in the gym this morning, women that are trying to push themselves forward, shed weight and baggage and create something for themselves that is better and healthier.  So nice to see!

 

When it was epically hard to get out of bed this morning I reminded myself that A) you can’t move forward if you don’t take a step and B) the large amount of work that I do and money & time that I spend feeding us as well as I do…well….I sort of felt like that was a wasted effort if I don’t get to the gym. It’s a package deal for maximum success.

 

So…moving on, I went to the Dr last night after work, had no wait to see her (yay!) and had a nice little chat with her.  I told her about my iron issues and she’s giving me the iron panel again but adding in a B12 test for pernicious anemia as well as a test for celiac.  I do NOT think that I have celiac disease but it’s the number one cause of poor iron absorption so it makes sense to test for it.  In doing my own research I also think I would benefit from taking a Vitamin C supplement with my iron supplement as C assists with absorption of the iron.  Now I just have to find time to pop in and get my blood drawn.

 

When I got home last night I finished the process of making Well Fed “Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat”.  It was…..alright.  The seasoning mix and the morrocan dipping sauce was great but I found there was absolutely no difference between brined and unbrined meat.  It was a little dry and definitely benefitted from the sauce as well as a little drizzle of WellFed mayo.  It’s possible that since I brined on Saturday and then let it sit in the fridge that it wasn’t as good as it could have been….but she says right in the book that you can brine and then store raw for 2-3 days.  The seasonings & cooking method were definite winners but since this was a brining test for future turkey brining, it wasn’t a winner.  I will try it again though on a day when I can cook the chicken immediately after the brining process is complete.

 

Well Fed – “Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat”

Tonight I’m going to turn my car over to the body shop for repair for a few days (courtesy car) and then go home, put the stew on the stove to heat up and take Gracie for a walk in the rain.  I have my new snazzy coveralls that Ray bought me for Christmas, they are reflective, waterproof, windproof and flame retardant.  With the addition of polar fleece tights underneath, they are roasty-toasty and I love them!  I may consider wearing them for the “Chilly Chase” run on January 26!

 

I think that’s all for me today, this blog post originally started out as Things I Love Tuesday….but sort of went another direction!  In order that the title doesn’t make zero sense, here are some things that I love right now:

Ginger Citrus Body Butter by Arbonne. I actually won this, I never would have purchase it myself. My legs and arms are so silky soft and it doesn’t stay “wet” so you can easily get dressed after applying. Has a gentle fragrance also.

The now-obsolete Gingerbread Rooibos tea from David’s Tea. I bought two large cans of it in clearance because I can’t imagine not having it!

My Libre tea thermos and I do not spend any time apart. It’s self straining through the lid so you just drop your leaves in, add water and go! Absolutely love it!

Elements Botanicals sugar scrub….I use it on my face a couple times a week and my skin is So Soft!

They say you’re supposed to black out your sleeping environment completely. I can’t do that for various reasons so I have this…and I LOVE IT! I’ve been sleeping solidly every night since December 25th!

 

Living Plan

As of this morning my Four Week Feel Better Plan is concluded.  And the results?  I definitely feel better!  I was toeing the line of being depressed (not sure if it was the possibility of actual chemical depression or just a really blue period), but I think I dodged the bullet!  I got myself off of sugar-snacking, got myself back outside walking my dog consistently, got myself back to the gym, I’m sleeping better, feeling better and (I think), looking better.  I have a bit of spark back and I’m looking forward to things again.  I have energy again and I’m consistently cooking and prepping food.  I’m (strangely) able to hop out of bed on gym mornings and not feel like I’m dragging a semi-trailer along behind me.  All good things.  And I attribute MOST of these good things to quitting sugar. 

So what happens now?  I’ve converted my Four Week Feel Better Plan to a Living Plan and have another 4 weeks marked off with prescribed gym days, an extended embargo on sugar (really needed something to be “decided” before the Halloween candy made it into our house) and a couple of general wellness items (vitamins, bedtime, stretching etc).  And so, on I go.

Unfortunately I’m starting Week Five fighting off a cold.  At least I think it’s a cold.  It’s been so many years since I’ve actually had a cold that I barely remember what it’s like!  I have a sore throat, stuffy nose and achy joints.  I’m going to tea & water myself all day long today and I have a delicious warm and comforting dinner ready when I get home from work so hopefully that’ll do it. 

I was supposed to go to the gym on Saturday morning.  And I did.  Go all the way to the gym. Parked my car, climbed the escalator and walked all the way into the change room.  The whole time cringing at every left step.  I had twisted my knee doing some gardening on Friday night when I stepped off a crooked paver and with already tight thigh muscles from the gym day on Thursday, it was fairly painful.  I hemmed and hawed about doing my Saturday workout and ultimately got back in my car and went home.  Jogging and then squats and step ups are nothing to do with a sore knee.  I felt stupid checking out of the gym 3 minutes after I’d checked in……..but I didn’t feel guilty or bad about my decision. I just figured that these things happen and I’d prefer a skipped gym day to a skipped gym week or month if I really did hurt myself. 

Again, unfortunately, if I actually am sick (and I refuse to admit that yet) then tomorrow morning’s gym date might be in jeopardy also.  We’ll see….I was laying wide awake this morning at 4am (feeling like garbage) and could have easily gone to the gym if they’d been open.  Tomorrow could still happen!  Plus, isn’t it “starve a flu, do squats for a cold”?  😉

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures from the weekend.  The first is my enormous “lap sausage”, snuggled up on me while I was under my electric blanket on Saturday morning after my gym-fail.  And the second is a shot of some insanely delicious (if somewhat visually unappealing) Apple Almond Pancakes that I made on Saturday morning.  They are completely clean (Whole30 approved if you do such things) and so delicious.  I drizzled mine with some warmed coconut butter.  The original recipe makes about 8 small pancakes so if you’re sharing with someone you get approximately 1 egg, half an apple and some almonds for breakfast…..which isn’t a lot so next time I would double or even triple the recipe.  Next time I would also fry them on both sides and then finish them in the oven on a baking sheet….the batter is very wet and takes awhile to firm up in the middle.  If a person were to fry them on both sides and then bake them all at once, you could have a nice pancake breakfast and even the cook could sit and eat! (click the picture of the pancakes for the original recipe!)

Wish me luck tomorrow morning with the gym.  It was frosty out this morning and will be even chillier at 4am.  Ray’s on graveyards though so there’s no “but it was too snuggly in bed” excuse because I’m in there all by myself anyway.

Happy Week!

 

THIS was hard to stop doing when it was time to get on with the day!