after dinner snack? sure!

so i am verrry hungry and want a snack. actually i want junk. thinking about rooting through cupboards. then i remember there is watermelon in the fridge. here's what my nutrient intake for the day looks like before the snack:

low in potassium, e, and iron (among other things), which always seems to be the case. but look at the numbers after i add a slice of watermelon:

who knew it was so nutritious?

oh, my brain

i'm in classes all this week - asl immersion! - and boy is my brain tired. i keep thinking of a presentation i saw on diversity, taking about how brains run on glucose. i haven't been doing a great job of eating enough (our breaks are so short! only 30 minutes for lunch!), we had a tiring night on monday (i had asked tg to make dinner since i was taking the kiddo swimming, but he forgot - so after 45 minutes of wearing ourselves out in the water, i then had to scramble to make dinner for a cranky kid, and we ate late), so our mornings have been disorganised, and i've been forgetting my supplements.

a couple of weeks ago i was in a terribly foul mood, and forgetting my supplements, and i made a concerted effort to remember my supplements, and everything in life seemed that much easier. my mood improved.

anyway i've been in terrible spirits this week - overtired and overwhelmed - so i'm going to make sure that i do! not! forget! to take my vitamins and fish oil. and see if it helps as it has in the past.

we had dinner out last night - "family pizza night" at the evergreen brickworks, $3 gets a slice of pizza and some straight-from-the-garden salad. that helps too.

you'd think i would have learned by now!

challenge of the week: coffee

i drink too much coffee, there's no way around it. and my current schedule (with the commute, i'm averaging 12 hour days every single day) is making me supertired, which makes me want more coffee, which makes it harder to sleep. i'm not cutting out altogether though, as that would just be setting myself up for failure.

so the challenge i've set myself this week is to stop drinking coffee after my morning dose is done.

i typically make a pot of coffee at home (and i've experimented with making half-caf, doesn't work), have a cup there, rest goes into a thermos which i take with me and finish en route or at my desk. i had gotten into a habit of refilling from the office coffee pot when the thermos ran out. now, i'm making a point to fill my water bottle at the beginning of the day, and drinking that instead of coffee.

so far i've done ok this week. and, i've been taking my magnesium an hour before bedtime. and i've noticed i'm sleeping better. i think it's working!

Hot hot hot!

Well I haven’t done any cycling in weeks, I’m afraid. I had a grand plan of taking my spare bike up to the subway stop near the kiddo’s pre-school, and then at least cycling that chunk of the journey. But when I dragged the bike out I found it needs new tubes, and it has been too hot and humid for me to ride anyway! My little lungs can’t cope.

We have managed to go swimming a few times, though. I don’t get to swim as much as just run in the water, but running in water is pretty taxing, I think. Let’s call it “resistance training.” although really, it is mainly “trying to fulfill the always be an arms-length from your child rule.” He is faster than I!

Anyway on this record-breaking temperature day, which may or may not end in a thunderstorm, we took our lunchtime yoga class up the many steps of Casa Loma to the gardens of Spadina House. And there, in the shade of a chestnut tree, did some cooling breaths as the breezes swept around us. It was lovely! Can’t think of a nicer place to be, or nicer way to get some exercise on a hot day.

more downs, and ups

i have been sadly off the bike for a couple of weeks, due to school being out and the kiddo being back at his old preschool which is waaay uptown, which has changed my commute time from a daily 30-40 minutes by bicycle to 3 hours of driving + public transit. yuck. and, because it's summer time and the heat makes people crazy, i was involved in a minor fenderbender last week (smart guy thought it would be a good idea to cross a solid line & pull into oncoming traffic to pass me as i made a left turn), which thankfully did no real damage, but did cause my back to say "what's this? best we go into spasm!" resulting in me staying home from the kiddo's first ever camping & canoe trip.

so the good news? well, it got me taking my fish oil again (which habit i'd gotten out of, due to eating breakfast in the car), which seems to have helped. also had a great yoga session the other day, outside in dappled light, and a giant earthworm crawled across my mat. i swear, it was the healthiest earthworm i have ever seen.