Health Check-In

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Hello friends and welcome to our Wednesday! Being back to the regular schedule this week…it’s time for a health check-in!

A week of unexpected took the health plan and threw it out the window. Living on coffee, diet coke, fast food (mostly bagels), does not match up with my initial goals of this health journey. The reality of what the experience really is - a journey has set it. It will not be 100% perfect everyday - heck we may even lose a week or two in the shuffle - the point is to pick myself up, keep going and focus on improvements. So much of the success here comes down to the ability to keep going and win the MENTAL game. If I can train my mind, body, tastebuds to be inclined towards healthier choices - then in the end I am winning…and will reap the benefits.

Let’s break it down:

EXERCISE

This weekend was supposed to be my 10K in Pittsburg. It was going to be a chance for Danny and I to get away, visit with some great friends, and enjoy life a little bit. What was that whole wanna see God laugh thing from yesterday…… yup, plans change. Change with them and get over it.

The reality - after my back issues (which are much better, oddly enough because I slept in those hospital chairs that recline, so I had to sleep straight - not on my side, that I tend to do, and it healed - silver lining!), and general frustrations in kick starting the running, 10K was looking like wishful thinking. Gotta have goals - and I will run a 10K before January 1…but I was suddenly trying to run to just make it to this race, not to become a runner. It was no longer about learning, feeling my body, enjoying the rhythm - it was just trying to beat the 10K boogey man following me. A runner this strategy does not make.

We are taking it back to basics and jumpstarting my running plan. I am following Jeff Galloway’s plan that I loved when I first tried running. I am planning to read up on my running a little more (starting with: "Run Like a Girl” and "Run Your Butt Off”), and hoping to find a few new routes for at least my long runs and maybe a few of my short weekly runs. Finally I am trying to be OK with learning to run when it works. Yesterday was my first RUN day on the re-start. I needed to run for just 15 minutes and did it right after I made the starting salads for our dinner while Danny cooked the main course.

Normally I would want to stretch for a while, find a good playlist, walk the dog after, and take a nice long shower once finished. Well running out the door, then back in to grab a sweatshirt, then out the door, then back in cause Dan had a question on the food, then out the door and up the street and back just to wash my hands and grab my plate was not the same - but it was D-O-N-E! And that is better than just letting it go.

The two biggest things I am really trying to focus on right now: 1. Just doing it and 2. when folks ask me about it or I talk about it be POSITIVE. Don’t complain or mention the race I missed or how much better I HOPE to be ……be positive. Are you running still? - Yes I am! In fact, right now is my FAVORITE season for running. The cool fall air that is a little crisp, your lungs feel the colder air and it refreshes you, your sweat is some sort of sweet reward for your effort, warming you up - but not weighing you down. That is why I am running, because of those moments. Let’s focus there and just keep going!

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DIET

Like I said - hospital diet not really what I had in mind. This time around especially I really felt the lethargy of the junk food. Normally I actually sort of enjoy the hospital time. It is a free ticket to french fries, diet coke and Starbucks. No one judges, Danny rolls with it and I don’t have to think twice about it or plan my meals….just eat when I can. This time I really hated it. Perhaps it was knowing those few lbs that had come off where just waiting for me around a hospital corner to jump back on my a**! Maybe it was the new hospital or that I was living there more than usual. Or maybe….just maybe….I was starting to like the healthier food (see above for that thing about positive thinking). Not sure what it was but I was CRAVING healthier food. One day I got a good salad and then on my afternoon out of the hospital I hit up a Robek’s - and it was good.

The reality is that healthy food is key for feeling better, performing physically better and mentally staying strong in this crazy thing we call life. But the even greater reality…it is hard to do! Growing up food and I had a special journey. As a little, little kiddlet, I did not like chocolate and my favorite food was “chicken on the bones” aka a plain chicken bone, nothing done to it - #gross.

As I got older I still found myself to be a more salty person with the exception of ice cream, peanut butter, and Oreos. But mostly I LOVED soda, chips and pickles!! I still remembering drinking the juice….and it makes me feel a little sick now. Fast food, burgers, fried chicken - those were my loves and a lot of family activities centered around food.

My parents were very normal though and we had fruit and veggies we had to eat (like can remember seeing some of my brothers' veggies return back after he HAD to sit and finish them #doublegross). When we got a little too junk food focused soda was limited to once a day. But for the most part we could eat what we wanted within reason.

A normal snack for us after school was double stuffed Oreos with peanut butter. I still remember being in 2nd grade and practicing for my First Holy Communion with an Oreo. My youngest sister Brig's FAVORITE thing to do with us older kids was to play the “twist game” and whoever had more cream won. I can still see her pudgy hands reaching out to “twist” her side. When I played dolls I would always make my mom mini-van and it would include a cooler I would have specially installed for soda and would have chips for when I was doing mom stuff in the car. In middle and high school I remember eating BOXES of Little Debbie’s no problemo! Or having Wendy’s cheddar melt on my way home from school and then eating dinner at home so mom would not know I had eaten already. At the beach I was downing Krispy Kreme's in my bikini and my mom’s college friend looked at me and said someday you will die before eating like that in a bathing suit. Food was not an unhealthy obsession….just was something more for fun! With my history, I have become known for my die hard Diet Coke or Starbucks or Chik-fila dedication…..and that is not necessarily a good thing.

One day it started to matter….and that day is a hard, hard reality. Luckily my mom had started her healthy journey for both herself and us long before that day hit for me. She had a variety of lower digestive issues and was at her wits end…. suddenly coming across a long lost friend who had a crazy solution - Juice Plus. Juice Plus is a whole food nutrition product - literally capsules with 17 fruits and veggies encapsulated. She knew we had our fruits and veggies - but certainly not 17 of them daily and with all the benefits it seemed like a good safety plan to fill the gaps of what we weren’t eating. Because no matter how good we were - NO ONE in my family was chowing down on some kale. To help afford it for ALL of us my parents cut out soda and some junk food. That was over a dozen years ago and since then they have not looked back and in fact only gotten better.

It improved our family health which motivated more study into what good nutrition can do - and we have found it helps with not only our body and immune system but your mental health, your appearance, your sleep, your exercise. My mom was on a roll of learning and now sharing…. there is always more to do, but to say we have a plan B through our Juice Plus keeps everyone at ease. And for me? Well at least the hospital diet was only adding to my a**and not my arteries!

This post is not sponsored by Juice Plus or my mom…it just seemed like the right time to address what I use when my health journey has gone a little wayward! For more information check it out here. I also use their meal replacement shakes for lunches, especially on the go.

So what am I consuming besides my Juice Plus this week - I am focusing on balance, portions (no seconds) and WATER WATER WATER. Last week with all the travel and back and forth and hospital I specifically could not drink as much water as I wanted as bathrooms were a little uncertain…but I am back at it this week and can instantly feel the positive effects. That is PROGRESS PEOPLE!

So there we are - some progress, some backslide - all part of the journey….thanks for being on it with me!