Kerplow!

OK peeps…who is good at designing little logos and such?  Clearly I am not equipped for these sorts of things!  LOL.  Hence my ghetto attempt at creating a superhero-style logo for Project Energize.

Can anyone help a girl out?

Today’s focus was on the Health portion of the Project.  Specifically, remembering to take my vitamins and calling my doctor for an appointment to yet again discuss my neck injury and the possibility that I have a mild ulcer.  I’m happy to report I choked down all three of my glucosamine supplements, two multivitamins, and two calcium chews today.  As well, I actually got through to my doc’s office and have an appointment on Friday.

Success!  Baby steps people, that’s all it takes.

Today’s to-do list:

Half-caf and water to start the day…

Plain yogurt (I’m a convert…yet another one of us that happily enjoys plain yogurt without that feeling that I’m eating yucky health food…that’s not to say that I don’t like vanilla better though!), with sliced banana and a crumbled Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffin…

Egg salad sammich for lunch!  With light mayo, green onions, chopped pickles…all on toasted whole wheat with baby spinach…deeeeelish!  Oh and baby dill pickles.  nom nom nom.

This afternoon I started feeling pretty blah.  My neck started acting up (of course!) so my plans to join a few of the girls for a FitMix class tonight got nixed, which bums me out.  I should’ve known better than to plan something like that, but I want to try these things too!  Booooo. 

I perked myself up with a cup of decaf tea, a chocolate almond granola bar, and a POM smoothie!

 

Pretty basic.  Into the blender:  1/2 banana, couple of tablespoons of plain yogurt, big glug of POM juice, matching glug of vanilla Almond Breeze…

A little on the thin side, but tasty!

So my stupid neck and I are now off to tackle a bit of cardio at the gym.  I wish I’d gone mid-day but I thought I was going to that class tonight.  That’ll learn me!  Elliptical here I come.

Achey Old Lady

Aside from healthy food porn, exercise, and discussions about oatmeal another common theme among health/food/fitness bloggers is injuries.  Aches, pains, strains, you name it.  We all seem to have something wrong with us.  Funny how the healthier and more physically fit we are, the more we seem to have wrong with us!

My main complaints…

- lower back pain – this one manifests itself in different ways at different times.  sometimes it’s just that, lower back pain…other times it creates a shooting pain in my bum, or reaches up my back.  it’s been a constant battle since I was about 15.  Chalk it up to height, growth spurts, and posture.

- neck pain – there is not a moment ever that my neck isn’t stiff and achey.  for the most part I just ignore it, but some days I can’t even turn/tilt my head…I spend a lot of time stretching my neck hoping for the one day that something just pops and everything loosens up.  I’m pretty sure that day will never come.

- shoulder/arm pain – two years ago I developed a shooting pain in my elbow.  with some chiropractic magic it seemed to go away.  figured it was just another side effect of my loopy back.  last year it returned…with a vengeance!  no warning, just wham.  pain that made my eyes water…when I was doing something as simple as sitting still!  two different chiropractors could not figure it out so I tried massage.  it helped and I don’t cry in pain anymore, but over a year later my shoulder still hurts all the time.  a sports medicine doctor says it’s related to my neck and that it will probably always be like that.  She recommended more chiro, more massage, and maybe physio.  Ya, who can afford all of that?

I have gone to a chiropractor regularly since I was 16.  In my mid-twenties I took a few years off…when I went from a standing job to a desk job a lot of my issues were alleviated.  But after being at a desk for several years the issues (and some new ones!) returned so I went back to treatments.  Any time I try not to go, I don’t make it more than a couple of months…so now I just go twice a month regardless of whether anything is currently ailing me.

- achey joints – this is the newest pain in my body.  mainly my pelvic joints…especially if i sit curled up too long, I can barely unwrap myself.  when I walk or run more than 15-20 minutes I can feel it in my hips…like bones rubbing together.  this is the one that makes me feel like an achey old lady.  on weeks when I’ve worked out a lot I can feel it in all of my joints.  when the weather changes I can feel it in my hands.  after a bit of self-diagnosis I’m pretty sure it’s the onset of osteo-arthritis.  Oh joy.  Gone are the days of arthritis being an old person’s disease.  At least I caught it early and can hopefully nip it in the bud.

Glucosamine Chondroitin is going to be my new BFF for the next 2 months.  After some easy internet research and chatting with a few real life people that have had similar issues with joint aches I am hopeful that adding this supplement to my daily menu will help repair the cartilage in my joints and help to alleviate the discomfort.  The recommendation is to take it regularly for 6-8 weeks to ensure healthy results…so I said to FH before he left that hopefully when he comes home I won’t be an achey old woman anymore!

Do you regularly visit a chiropractor, massage therapist, or other physical therapy specialist? 

Have you had to turn to vitamins, supplements, or other “medicines” due to body pain? 

Did your ailments present themselves before or after you found your way to a “healthy lifestyle”?

First Day Back

As much as I loved my trip and wish I'd had more time for my family and friends, I am sooo happy to be back with my own kitchen.  I know I could have bought more “me-friendly” groceries or made better restaurant choices while I was away, but I didn't and that's something I will work on.

Due to sleeping in way later than I'd planned I didn't need breakfast today.  I did preset the coffee maker to brew so I attempted a couple of cups of joe but didn't finish either of them.  Water was definitely my drink of choice. 

   

About an hour after I got up and got to work (I'm not way behind but I'm certainly not on top of things either) I decided it was time for breakfast...er, well lunch actually.  :)  Oh, Liberte Svelt vanilla yogurt how I missed you!  In the bowl was 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/4 cup raw oatmeal, 6 huge fresh blackberries, 4 fresh strawberries, and 4 chopped almonds.  Deeeeelish.  The raw oats are my new favorite yogurt mix-in for sure!

Dinner was the leftover Amy's soup and veggie quesadillas I mentioned in my previous post.  No need for an afternoon snack since my meals ran so close together.  I did take in a lot more water and my vitamins and calcium supplement (I forgot to pack these on my trip).

After dinner I returned to the computer for a little more work, some photo sorting (450 vacation photos...eeeeek), and some blogging.  I then put my computer to work offering me a downloaded class of Yoga for Back Pain.  Bliss I tell you, just bliss!!  A week of couch surfing and missed workouts has left my back and shoulders screaming for attention.

Oh routine, you are a good friend.  :)

Vitamins - Calcium

Not too long ago I mentioned my disdane for swallowing horse-pill sized vitamins and supplements, and my excitement over finding gummy multivitamins for adults. Well, in addition to those I also recommend a yummy Calcium supplement.

I found Mega-Cal Calcium Soft Chews quite some time ago, and although I liked them I stopped buying them because I found them to be quite expensive. However, after realizing that it's actually more expensive to buy regular calcium supplements and never use them I started looking around for a chewable option again. I landed up right back at these same Mega-Cal Chews, but this time spent some extra time reading the label.

The recommendation is to take one chew twice daily to get your recommended daily calcium requirements, but after some thought I realized that one per day or even every other day would be fine for me because my diet generally includes a variety of dairy (and leafy greens, fruit, etc) that fulfills at least part of my recommended requirement. So that's what I do. I take a chew each day unless I've already had a couple servings of milk or cheese or yogurt...on those days I just skip it. All of a sudden the 60 piece container lasts a lot longer!

I bought a dual-pack at Costco (much cheaper for sure!) which has a container each of the Chocolate and the Caramel flavored chews. For fun, I dumped them both together and stirred them up (they are wrapped in non-descript individual wrappers) so now it's a surprise what flavor I'll get each time. Funny enough, I'm always hoping for the Caramel...it's so yummy....a little vitamin treat!

Vitamins

I always mean to take my vitamins but I have to admit that they always fall to the sidelines and I think it really has to do with my disinterest in standing at the bathroom sink with a handfull of oversized pills every day. The only one I ever take with any regularity is Vitamin C because it's chewable and tastes like tropical punch. I should also be taking a multivitamin and a calcium supplement because I don't usually get enough calcium from my day-to-day dairy/veggie intake. I once bought those chocolate flavored chewable calcium squares, which did the trick, but they are like 3-4 times the price of just buying the pills so I tried to switch back. Didn't work.

Recently I saw an ad in a magazine for chewable gummy multivitamins for adults and was really excited until I noticed the ad stating they were only available at Target. Boooooo. However, while wandering the aisles at Costco the other night I found them. VitaFusion MultiVites. For about $12 I got a bottle of 200, so that is just over a 3 month supply....about on par pricewise with most any good multivitamin.

Now if only I could find a reasonably priced calcium alternative!

Yesterday I hit up the warm yoga class at Breathing Spaces with Angie and Farm Girl again. I loved it even more than last time...so invigorating and relaxing all at the same time. We all got 10-class passes so I'm looking forward to going again and also trying out another type of class. So fun!

Today I plan to hit the gym for one hour of cardio, then come home and do the Shred.

I remembered to weigh in this morning (forgot last week)....I am down 1.6 from two weeks ago but that just puts me back to where I was at the start of the month so I'm still working on another 2-4 pounds. I'm guessing the pack of peanut butter cups I ate last night probably isn't helping! Aside from that and a few drinks on Friday I have been really good this last week though so I'm planning to keep it up!

Today's menu...

- 1 cup coffee
- Organic Daybreak cereal with unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
- 2 x fresh Medjool dates
- 1/2 banana
- quesadilla made with small ww tortilla, 1 oz skim mozza, sprinkle fresh parm, bacon bits, green onions, tomato...with salsa & light sour cream
- baby carrots & celery stix with hummus
- homemade seafood chowder with toast
- ff vanilla Activia yogurt with blackberries

(approx 24 points)