Haaapppy Hump Day! I AM so happy because I just found out last night that will be attending my first ever healthy living conference this August! I will have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful healthy living bloggers who I have been following forever, meet fellow blogging friends, learn about how to improve my blog, talk about healthy living and food, and soak up every other bit in between! I am on cloud 9 seriously. I cannot wait. WOOOO!
**********
Yesterday I briefly mentioned how I will be gearing my workouts towards lower impact activities, at least for a couple of weeks until I get my colitis under control. I notice that my body doesn’t respond well recently to running and jumping which makes sense as I am putting a lot of impact on my body (organs included I guess). This might explain my not so beautiful half-marathon experience.
I absolutely will continue to be active through this all. My activities can include: walking, biking, yoga, elliptical, swimming, strength training and more. I will just be limiting my running and jumping exercises for a short time.
Let’s talk about yoga for a second shall we? I haven’t always been a huge fan of it, and I think the one of the reasons why is because I’m not good at it. I am embarrassed to say as a former dancer that I can no longer touch my toes without bending my knees and have lost all flexibility whatsoever. Well, what’s the best way to get better at something? Practice.
Yesterday, I flipped to OnDemand yoga on the TV and found a workout called “Gentle Yoga.” That sounded nice, and guess what? It was nice. It was a little slow moving at first which is something one has to get used to when you’re used to doing majority cardio type exercises. I focused on my breathing like the woman was telling me to do, and took the 36 minutes to really relax and stretch and listen to my body.
Wow. If I can actually let myself be patient enough to ease into yoga, I think I could really benefit from it and even enjoy it! I would love to regain flexibility and I KNOW yoga would help me with this. Also, I believe that if I can learn to manage my stress more effectively, including yoga and breathing exercises, I can heal faster. I am really hoping to try and add yoga into my weekly routine. Maybe start off with a goal of one time per week, see how I am liking it, then increase to two times per week. Huh, I like this idea! A fellow blogger Courtney at Sweettoothsweetlife, started a June Yoga Challenge and although I’m a little late on the ball, I just may join in. I never thought I would say it.
After my relaxing yoga, I headed out for an easy 30-minute walk, and then it was time for breakfast. Do I even need to tell you what I had? You could look at my last whole entire month of breakfasts practically and learn real quickly that breakfast was indeed a bowl of Cream of Wheat cereal mixed with cinnamon, stevia and just a touch of brown sugar. This is my ‘makes my tummy feel fine’ breakfast and it’s a must on days I have to work; for now at least.
We had a potluck meeting at work over the lunch hour and I didn’t snap any photos mostly because my plate wasn’t very colorful or pretty. Continuing to stick with the low-fiber meals, I managed to find a few options that I was able to enjoy: tuna noodle salad, turkey wrapped mozzarella (courtesy of moi), and a piece of the most fabulous homemade lemon blueberry bread.
I had an evening shift at work and managed to munch on five handfuls of peanut butter M & M’s (my absolute favorite alongside Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups OMG) throughout the course of the afternoon. I ate a banana around 5:30 which held me over until I got home at 7:30. I’ve mentioned this before but whenever I work later, I can never figure out what sounds good to me for dinner when I am home. I am in deed hungry, but I just can’t put my finger on what it is I’m hungry for. So I usually end up having a few small snacks.
I began with a piece of toasted Spelt Bread from Trader Joe’s with peanut butter and jelly.
After that I moved on to a small serving of Fage Non-fat Greek Yogurt with maple syrup, a half of a pair, and one more spoonful of peanut butter. That would have to do. I crawled into bed and read my book but the strangest thing happened to me last night…I could not get tired for the life of me. I read and read and read and instead of getting my normal droopy eyelids after about five pages, I just got more energy as I went along. At about 11:00 (already one hour past my bedtime), I decided I should shut off the lights and try and sleep. I laid in bed for almost 3 hours before finally falling asleep. Then, every time I woke up in the middle of the night I felt like I was ready for the day and full of energy. Is this what insomnia feels like? I didn’t like it. I hope I survive my day today, keeping in mind I am off the caffeine. Yikes.
Recipe Time!
Moving on….I mentioned this past weekend that I was busy in the kitchen whipping up a batch of pureed butternut squash soup. Well, here it is ladies and gentleman. Enjoy!
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (makes about 4-6 servings)
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 3 cups butternut squash, skinned, seeds removed and cut into cubes
- 1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
- 3/4 cup celery, chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 48 oz. reduced sodium chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp dried sage
- salt and pepper
- Preheat oven to 350°F. If you have an option for convection roast, use that, if not standard 350 roast or bake is perfect too.
- Lightly grease large baking pan with olive oil; place squash, carrots, celery, onion and garlic on pan; use hands to stir and coat veggies with olive oil.
- Roast or bake in oven for 25-45 minutes. Baking times vary greatly depending on cooking method (convection roast, roast, bake, etc.). You should be able to pierce the carrots easily with a fork when roasting time is complete, and onions start to take on a sweet scent.
- On the stove top, in a large soup pan, add vegetables and broth; cover and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes then reduce to simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add thyme and sage; stir.
- Using an immersion blender or standard blender, puree soup until smooth.
- Return to pot; add salt and pepper to taste.
- Spoon into bowls, garnish with fresh herbs and serve with whole grain bread or croutons.
After the soup was cooled, I ladled the soup into 6 Ziploc baggies and froze them for an easy and healthy meal in minutes.
Have a great day!
Join the challenge!!!! 🙂
It’s not too late? Then I will! 🙂
What book are you reading? 🙂
Also, I feel ya on the yoga thing! I keep telling myself I am going to take advantage of any one of the FREE lifetime yoga classes and I never seem to go. If anyone can benefit from yoga, either the flexibility aspect OR the mental aspect, it’s moi.
Also, wanted to let you know: there is a health/wellness fair and farmers market happening right by my work tomorrow (centennial lakes). It’s being sponsored by places like whole foods and corepower yoga (they’re doing giveaways for whole foods gift certificates, corepower yoga certificates, etc). I think the fair is going on from like 11-3, and then the farmers market is from 3-7. I’m not sure what your work schedule is, but thought you might be interested!
Oh that sounds awesome! If I didn’t work I would so be at the health/wellness fair in a heartbeat. Thanks for the info kalkal!
A list of vendors for the farmers market: http://www.ci.edina.mn.us/content/facilities/centennial_lakes/farmers_market/vendors/index.htm
Thanks for letting me know where you bought the bread I need to get some but Trader Joe’s is not very close so its a purposeful trip )
Yea it’s not very close for us either so when we go we make sure and stock up on some of our favorites. I think Great Harvest Bread carries spelt on certain days throughout the week, you could look into that too. Have a great day, Carol!
Pingback: My Day of Small Meals « Beautifully Nutty