Today, a Saturday no less, I dragged myself to the gym to finally complete, for the first time since the summer, my goal of working out five days per week.
I have a problem with my knees that I’ve never officially gotten checked out. But my friend’s mom is a physiotherapist, and when I was younger she said it sounded like “runner’s knee” which she kindly pointed out was bizarre, seeing as I was so unathletic.
Indeed, I am not even close to being a runner even now. I want to say I’d love to be able to run a marathon, but I actually really have no desire to do such a thing. Until about a year ago when I started getting fed up with my flabbiness and laziness, I forced myself to go to the gym. But I’ve never, ever been a fan of fitness. I’m gradually learning to like it – or at least, not mind it – but it still seems like a chore sometimes. So while working out five times a week is not a big deal for most health bloggers out there, it is for me. And I’m giving myself a gold star for this week!
So, what’s the verdict? How did it feel?
Good and bad. I’m glad I did it and even after a week I’m noticing intervals leave me less breathless, my arms shake less when I do weights, and I’m adding more crunches to my routine. I enjoy my days off, but I’m also learning that spending an hour doing something I don’t really want to do doesn’t totally ruin my day. And it means I don’t have to feel guilty all day.
The bad? My knees/legs are not happy with me. I definitely think five days is enough at this point, and I think next week I may have to take a break from the treadmill and find something less taxing on my leg joints.
Now onto the good part: the food!
Yesterday I wasn’t feeling too hot. Most people don’t want to eat in these scenarios. But I always want to eat comfort food when I feel sick and sometimes I’m able to justify indulging because I feel sorry for myself. This time around I aimed for balance, and I think it worked!
For “breakfast 1″ I had orange juice. Anytime I feel sick I instantly go for the OJ even if it’s not actually a cold or anything.
Maybe an hour later I had “breakfast 2″ consisting of Life and Kashi Go Lean cereals and unsweetened almond milk. I’m taking advantage of the natural sunlight that has blessed the true north rather early in the year. I hope it stays, but I’m not optimistic.
The boyf was visiting and so I guiltily slouched over to the market with him, but with home five minutes away and the market taking under an hour, I felt more comfortable being close to a toilet than I would have sitting in a three hour seminar. I’m sure my classmates prefer it this way as well.
For lunch I busted out some market goods – fresh French bread (I do normally go for multigrains, but we were planning bruschetta for later, and this was too good to resist!) with roasted onion hummus (first time and not a huge fan unfortch), Camembert, baby spinach, onion, tomato, cucumber and Bolthouse yogurt honey mustard dressing (so yum!). Also some carrots, olives and half a plum on the side.
We had bruschetta for a pre-dinner app but I forgot to take pics. It was just some diced tomato, garlic and dried basil tossed together, let it ruminate for a bit and top on French bread toasts. No oil but very good and fresh-tasting! I had two slices.
The boyf (AM) made dinner – veggie stir fry with brown rice. We were pretty full from the bruschetta so veggies and rice were definitely sufficient. Lots of market fresh veg: mushrooms, broc, carrots, onion and zucchini. AM made a spicy basil-citron sauce. Very good and very profesh looking (apparently due to the cornstarch). Oh, and no oil again! And I didn’t even miss it.
And a Stella Light to go with it. Premium light beers are a godsend.
Then things got a little crazy and went a little downhill. Well, not really. I was craving Tostitos and salsa, but we got to the corner store and there were no small bags of Tostitos! Wha?! Having a big bag in the house is too dangerous, so I harumphed and made another selection…
I don’t even know what these are. I think basically cornmeal, salt and oil made into little puffs. AM made fun of me, but I saw him stick his hand in that bag! Sometimes I just crave junk, and I had room to sate that desire last night. So sue me. Also Diet Coke in a wine glass just to up the class a little bit.
Then we passed out like a couple of old geezers and slept past the alarm. AM had to catch a bus home bright and early and so I drowned my sorrows in a small pre-gym brekky.
Some more French bread with almond butter and strawberry jam. I have so much French bread left I’m a little scared about how much of it I might eat…this definitely hit the spot though.
After the gym I was very much looking forward to a KERF-inspired SIAB:
Smoothie In A Bowl! Made with plain non-fat yog, frozen strawbs, banana, OJ and spinach. It looks kind of ugly, but it was good! When I have a smoothie for lunch, I prefer it in a bowl. It makes it seem more like a meal than just a drink. I had it with a cuppa decaf and the other half of my plum. Plus I crumbled some carrot muffin on top.
Got these carrots 2 for $1 at the market! Wow. So soft and fresh and yummy. Really cinnamony too…almost like there are Red Hots in there somewhere!
Now off to do some reading for school. What will dinner hold? Only time will tell.
Until then,
Carolyn
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