Back at it after ten days away

Well, after ten days at the cottage and one on set, I am back to the daily grind. And a sinus headache. I was sick before we went away, and felt blecch again on our return, so I figure it has to be allergies. I’ve started taking cetirizine again, which seems to be helping.

Our time away was filled with all sorts of treats. I made three batches of cookies at the cottage—not counting the brownies and shortbread I made before we left town—as well as peach pie, marshmallows, pancakes for breakfast on at least four occasions, and other treaty stuff like popcorn with melted butter. Yum. There was also a fair amount of time spent relaxing with books and knitting.

But we did also eat a fair amount of healthy stuff: fruit, veg, and meat purchased from farm stalls. And, went swimming and for hikes and even a (short) canoe trip.

So, maybe it all evened out? I certainly have no intention to go back in time and try to track my input & output. But my first day back is looking pretty good nutrition-wise:

And I remembered my vitamins!

a good day, nutrition-wise

well i'm coming down with something, currently lurking in my sinus and making me feel headachey and nauseated, but i managed an almost perfect day nutrition-wise yesterday, so that's something to cheer about!

so far, so good

since noticing a strong correlation between my crabby moods and forgetting to take my supplements, i've been making a really concerted effort to remember them every day without fail. which has meant a few pukey days where i had a handful of vitamins on an empty stomache, and there was one day on the weekend (thank goodness i was home) when i was feeling like a supergrouch and thought vitamins! and took them that very minute.

it may be just the placebo effect, but if it works, i'll take it. and it seems to be working. i've had a couple of really stressful days at work (if only everyone would listen to me and me alone, and do my bidding at the drop of a hat), but have been able to bear them with something resembling grace.

in the interests of posterity and illumination, i take a b complex, c (500 i think), 2x ferrous gluconate, e (200 or 400, depending on which bottle i pick up at random), and 2 teaspoons of carlson's best norwegian fish oil with natural lemon flavouring (i tried norwegian gold capsules before and they did nothing for me, but carlson's makes a difference). in the winter i take vitamin d as well, but considering the burn i got at the pool on the weekend (normally the kiddo and i swim in the evening, but on sunday we were swimming for 3 solid hours in the afternoon) i think i'm getting my daily dose from the sky.

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.