Lou_be_Lou figures out healthy......

[Lou_be_Lou]

Part of the challenge for my parents is that my dad is a do it in advance character who does goofy stuff under immediate stress situations (classic is doing things like leaving his camera in a rental car when catching a plane), and my mum loves last minute stress, and hates longer term stress, so a major move, hmmmmmm, they have opposite modes of action and wind each other up quite nicely thank you very much.  Good luck to them.  Meantime I can prepare for them crashing here (in my mum's case I'm expecting at least three completely horizontal days), so some sorting and cleaning is required, think I already have enough trashy novels for their recovery.    They're visiting for 12 days between sweden and nz - so I am expecting exhaustion from them, both physical and emotional - and then I get to recover from delivering them to the airport (am contemplating a trip to edinburgh zoo for some panda therapy on the way back to fife).  That is going to be one tough day.

 

Anyway.  This week has been more like it.  I've had a good week at work (didn't break any equipment, fixed some equipment, helped several students, generated data!).  Managed a bit more exercise - monday and tuesday were write offs (travelling and recovering), but since then, gym, 2x yoga and a 2 hour jujitsu session.  The jujitsu session was one of those klutzy random ones that sometime happen (included stomach throws with anatomy problems - my training partner and I got off lightly in that she mistook my boobs for my stomach, so lots of laughter but fairly painless - the blokes though, two of the four managed to be got in the groin - not nice).  We've all had better training sessions - it was good fun, but I'm hoping to be more co-ordinated next week.  Mind you, I also managed to fall over at the gym (squats, apparently I was taking the keep your weight on your heels advice too seriously - at least I was close to the ground) and in yoga, and at work, so not the most co-ordinated of weeks.  Oops.  Yay for falling gently.

 

I've also managed to help prep a friend for his grading (sunday night) - purple belt kickboxing - he is so close to being ready for a good grading - just needs a few more times through everything - lacking confidence and a bit of flow.  We're due another run through tomorrow, so hopefully that will help.  I'm so impressed with how much his technique has improved in the last few months - did he believe me?  Hell no - but i'll tell him again tomorrow.

[Lou_be_Lou]

I've had a good end to the challenge - the last three days have included friday lunchtime yoga (quote of the day = melt your heart), as a special "treat" we got to do king pigeon - less excruciating than last time as I've been doing some work on this, but OWWWWWW!

I also park ran (my outdoor 5k is back under 30 min!  very happy with 29.09, especially as it was a bit cold and very windy, so I was expecting to be slower) on saturday morning.  Bass practised (very embarrased at how much I fell off the wagon with bass practise this challenge) both sat and sunday.

 

Then today was kickboxing - it was a good class, lots of kicking, lots of sparring.  And my friend who I've been helping prep for his purple belt did a good grading!

 

I'm also back into playing with food mode - trying out a gluten free cracker recipe - its been passed onto me by a friend, her batch of crackers were amazing, so hopefully the recipe will work in other ovens (its cooking right now).  Maize flour (rather than corn starch), pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, linseeds, olive oil, water and salt.

[Lou_be_Lou]

Ok, challenge summary........

Goal 1: get healthier

the good news is that I am soooooo much better than at the start of the challenge - I'm feeling like me again, still slightly tired, but so much better.

 

Food diary:  I hated this -  but I'm going to try to keep this up - I did notice weird stuff, like my raynaud's syndrome poor circulation seems to be slightly worse if i've eaten dairy......  Worth keeping track of, then if I choose to eat dairy I have an idea of what the consequences will be.  Plus, it showed up that I'm a bit of a disaster if I go to whole 30 levels of carbohydrate.  I do much better with some carbohydrates in my day.

 

Handwash like I'm in the lab:  Done, especially after being in environments I'm dubious of......  Has it made a difference?  Who knows?  Seems worth keeping up though. 

 

Kitchen cleaning: not perfect by a long shot - but my threshold for how many dirty dishes triggers dishwashing is definitely lower, so washing up is quicker, and the bench much more ready for cooking.

 

Take care of me goal:

Rest when needed.  I might have managed this!  Even said no to some projects on the basis that I needed sleep.

Change GP:  massive fail, I've printed out the forms, but not filled them in! 

Try reintroducing dairy:  I'm still very dairy light, but I have eaten some, and my gut is fine with a tiny bit (phew!  makes eating out much much easier if I can eat food cooked with butter), but I'm not convinced that it is amazingly good for me - so I'll play with this a bit more and for now stay light on my dairy consumption.

 

New recipes:  only managed about 4, so not one a week. 

Bass practise:  Massive fail, managed some good weeks, and some rubbish weeks.  Definitely a can do better bit of the challenge.

Get back into exercise:  Yep, done, I'm still not up to a full schedule of exercise, but I'm building it up and enjoying every bit of it. 

 

Now I get to start planning my next challenge.......  Hopefully it'll have more exercise and just an ordinary amount of sleep.

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Learning about yourself and how you react to foods is one of the best investments you can make!  Otherwise, energy and health levels can seem pretty darn random.

 

I hope you're able to get in at least some gentle exercise each day.  I'm convinced that it helps in the long run with energy levels.