2011 First week of goals check in

Goal 1: make 1 new recipe
Success! I made the following recipes: Brendan Brazier's "Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide" Wild Rice Rice Yam Pancakes, Cucumber Pesto Salad, Spicy Chocolate Energy Bars, and one of his smoothies using his Vega Whole Food Health Optimizer. All were fantastic. I shared the energy bars at work and they were a hit. Next up were my recipes from "The Happy Herbivore" by Lindsay S. Nixon. I made her Spicy Greens (page 184) and added Orginal Field Roast Vegan Grain Meat Sausages 'Mexcian Chipotle' flavor to it. In addition to that I made the Low Country Cucumber Salad (page 186) and brought both to my in laws last night for dinner. Everyone like them! Even my brother in law who loves to cook (bought him a subscription to the magazine Cooks Illustrated, a very popular gift by the way) said he liked it and he ate a good deal of it!Goal 2: Eat a healthy balanced breakfast every day
I have some opportunities here. Goal not met. Only met this goal 3 out of the last 8 days. Therefore this goal will carry over to next week. I'm planning oatmeal w/nuts or those yummy pancakes

Goal 3: Brisk activity everyday for at least 25 minutes
YAY! That's an easy one. I mopped 4 days, vacuumed every day, work obviously is an easy one to get this one done, shoveled 2 days, and did general house work and snow work all week. The challenge will be to continue this next week.

Goal 4: Do my PT exercises every day
They aren't exercises yet. They are still just stretches but I did them. Every day at least 3 times a day. I now have some I can do easily at work which helped. This one is practically a "gimme" but as I start to feel better I'll have to work to continue my stretches and strengthening.

Goal 5: Put all Clothes away right away
Except for last night, I succeeded. I feel like a little kid with this one but when you get so caught up with getting stuff done it's an easy thing to say "I'll do it later"

Well I met all but one this week. I feel down right lousy though. Sharing my successes with the internet makes it feel a little better. Night eating was a problem 7 out of the last 8 nights. My weight is up (178!) and my back hurts pretty much constantly. I'm a real ball of fun! Ok ok this is the plan for this week....

*eat a healthy breakfast every morning
*Aerobic exercises 10-25 minutes daily
*core exercises 3 x this week
* Make 7 new recipes (Buddha's delight, Lasagna Rolls, & Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki from HH; Chocolate Blueberry Energy Bars, Adzuki Bean Quinoa Sesame Pizza, & Sesame Miso Soup from Thrive; and Pasta w/Swiss Chard and Red Kidney Beans from "Supermarket Vegan" are the goal recipes)
* say some kind of positive affirmation daily (I know it's silly but people say it works)

Other highlights to come this week... a new Lululemon shipment and new winter boots by Salomon! Exciting exciting!

Snow Snow and More Snow

Snow is keeping many people inside. It's also very depressing how much snow and darkness we've had. I'm ready for some sunshine and a little boost of external energy.

My back and leg are still in pain. Yesterday was the first day of physical therapy. I temporarily stopped yoga, in part due to snow, but also because it was making my back hurt more. PT was torture yesterday. On Monday night I tried the treadmill. First five minutes I walked with no incline at a 16 min pace (felt good.) Next five minutes I upped it to a 1% incline with the same pace, still good. At minute ten I upped the incline to 2%, upped pace to fifteen minute pace and still felt good. The big test came at the 15 minute mark. No incline but run at thirteen minute pace for 30 seconds and walk for a minute at 15 minute pace. I felt a tug at the apparent insertion point of the posterior tibial tendon. Not bad though. Finished with 22 minutes total.

The disappointing outcome came the next morning. My leg ached. Walking at work hurt. Therefore when I showed up for my physical therapy appointment I asked if we could start with leg instead of back. After measuring and testing, Laura (my PT) chose to do ultra sound followed by massage (I had to lie on my stomach because she couldn't really get in to massage it the with me on my back due to the damage that's in there.) I thought I was going to scream. Imagine a cut and really bad bruise. I'm talking a bruise that's a bump and looks horrible. Now imagine someone digging into that bruise. That's how I felt. After she was finished I iced it with a dixie cup, numbing the area. That was the best part of the whole thing. It's now Wednesday and it's aching. I have basic calf stretches to do for now. No strengthening until we get it under control (joy!)

Now it's snowing and I'm being lazy before trekking out to work. I'm incredibly bummed. I've been trying new recipes from the Thrive Diet book (love them), but I've been really hungry. Add in that I'm upset about not being able to move without pain and it results in me waking up at night and eating. The scale's not budging (in the right direction that is) and my motivation is sinking lower and lower and lower. I'll make it through this. What usually happens for me is I lose weight, start getting in great shape and something big happens (injury, surgery, life.) What then follows is a stop in exercise and sinking of morale. I bounce back though just like I will this time.

This week's motivational goals are:
* make one new recipe for week (already made 4!)
* eat a healthy balanced (carb:protein) breakfast every day (so far so good)
* brisk activity every day (work is definitely brisk, but I've also cleaned, shoveled or exercised for the last 3 days)
* do PT exercises (already had some before my first appointment)
* put away all clothes and items right away (I tend to produced massive amounts of clutter)


Each week I'm going to make small changes to my goals, add on new ones, etc. As I check them off I can feel good that even if I'm not losing weight or running, I'm still doing good things for my life. Positive vibes don't just pop out of no where, we must create an environment for them to flourish. That's what I'm doing.