Thursday, February 13, 2014

What's New in 2014

Hello! Only like 6 months since my last post. Did you miss me? I say/think this everytime, but I really really wish I blogged more. I like the idea of it, I love having a written record of things that are going on in my life at certain moments in time... there is just something about it that seems like work. I think that if I had a private blog, journal style, where I could just write whatever was on my mind I would find myself using this medium more often. But then I couldn't have just any ol' person read it so that is where the dilemma begins. I enjoy being able to reach out to friends, family, and strangers alike to have people know what is going in my life. I just wish I could have the best of both worlds. Maybe I just need to throw inhibitions to the wind? I recall doing that once on my first blog when I was in London and was criticized greatly for it. So maybe not.

Since I haven't written for ages, I thought I would update everyone on the goings-on of my life as of now. I recently joined the local community center/gym to get my fitness on. I've been a member for a week and a day and I've been 4 times. I think that's pretty good so far, lets hope I can keep up the momentum. This particular gym is great because it has 2 pools, a river for walking with and against current, exercise equipment, weight machines, a cycling studio, a climbing wall, a fitness class studio, and more.

My latest obsession has been Zumba. I had a friend/co-worker in Texas that tried to always convince me to go to Zumba with her and I always said no. Wow I'm kicking myself now! I wish I would have listened, but I was so worried about making a fool out of myself I would make excuse after excuse as to why I couldn't go. Little did I know is that 96% of the people in the class are simply following along to the instructor, the routines are pretty straight forward, you don't have to be totally spot on, and it is SUPER FUN. The hour long class goes by in what feels like 20 minutes. Never have I liked exercise (except for maybe swiming) and I was almost brought to tears the first time I tried Zumba as exercise has always been such a chore for me. It was almost a weight off my shoulders knowing that exercise and me could be friends, for at least 3 hrs a week anyway.

I was also encouraged to know that my endourance wasn't too shabby after being on an exercise hiatus for more than a year. I was able to do the elliptical level 4 resistance for 20 minutes without feeling like I was going to die. Muscle memory at its finest!

Another thing I've been doing that's new, which kind of goes hand in hand with the fitness element of my life is a new eating philosophy that I'm trying to adapt, which is the Paleo diet. This way of eating tries to emulate the way our ancestors ate, with no processed or refined products. So no grains of any sort, beans, sugar, processed snacks, etc. Some say no dairy while others include dairy, so I'm including it. I've been fairly successful with cutting out breads and grains, but sugar is another story! I have a full fledged sugar addiction and it's a tough one to break. The nice thing about Paleo is that without having white potatoes, breads, or grains as side dishes I've had to go outside of the box when it comes to vegetable preparation. We get a Bountiful Basket every week which always has a surprise assortment of fruits and vegetables forcing us to eat lots of veg with meals every week. We typically go through at least 4 heads of romaine a week! Lots of salads up in here. I've even discovered to love Brussels Sprouts by preparing them this way: Brussels Sprouts and Bacon from Nom Nom Paleo. We use turkey bacon (as I still do not eat any mammals) and make a balsamic reduction. So good! We are still trying to make a slow transition to more and more Paleo style meals. Paul is having a harder time cutting out bread than I am, but I'm having a more difficult time cutting out sugar, so we both have a ways to go.

In other food news, I started a cooking class at our local community college called Cooking Around the World. It's for 6 weeks every Tuesday for 2 hrs and each class has a themed country or cuisine. My first class was this last Tuesday and the theme was Thai. We made a Thai chicken basil stir fry and a banana coconut desert. I was originally thinking the dishes were a little too simple for my liking but I learned a very important thing that first day: It doesn't have to be complicated to be delicious! And I learned some important knife skills, plus got to meet some new interesting people. I'm very much looking forward to the next class as we are learning about Indian cuisine next!

I'm trying really hard to convince my boss and the corporate folks where I work that it would be a good investment for them to pay for me to do a 9 day course in San Francisco at the end of May, beginning of June to get lymphedema certified. This is a big thing in the OT world, as it makes me extremely marketable in our area. There is one other lymphedema certified OT in Coeur d'Alene (that I know of) so I could demand the big bucks. I may have to pay for half of it myself (total cost including hotel, food, tuition, time off work is over $7k!) but it would be worth in the long run. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I haven't been reading many books as of late since I have about 20 magazines backed up from the summer that I have yet to read. I was hoping to get through those first and then read both books and magazines from there on out but I just haven't been in a reading mood lately so I've gotten nowhere. It takes me about a month to get through one magazine these days, which is not good when I have a subscription for 5!

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I'm not too concerned about how we are going to celebrate it this year. We are both so busy (me with work, gym, cooking class, etc; Paul with work and classes for his computer science degree) that I'm just looking forward to watching a movie on the couch with the puppies. Nothing fancy.






Speaking of puppies, Kobe and Stella say hello!!

1 comment:

  1. Even though we've talked about a lot of this, I enjoyed reading it. And the pics of the puppies are cute! Congrats on starting some new things (or getting back to some old ones) that will make your life better! Happy Valentine's Day!

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