be healthier

lost 7 pounds and have been brushing my teeth twice a day :)

but I just don’t know how to find the energy. The irony is of course that if I did manage to start working out and eat healthier, I might just get more energy. But I don’t know how to get there.
It seems I’m living my life from crisis to crisis. I keep thinking that once the current crisis is over, I’ll start living, start exercising, start doing more of the things I want to do. But then the next thing hits me. I have kept thinking that once I find a solution for Agatha, once I got over the first grief of losing her, once I was out of the worst financial disaster, once I knew I had a job for at least a few more months, once Cora gets over the surgery complications, once she is healthy, then I can relax and get back to my life. But well, Cora is still not healthy it seems, my financial future looks terrible, I only have a job for 4 more weeks. And it’s all wearing me out.
The thing is, I keep wondering, is my life just a constant disaster zone? Or is everyone’s lives like this, but there is some secret way of enjoying life even in the middle of trouble that I haven’t discovered yet? I do try, I try to stop worrying and find good things in the middle of everything, but it’s all wearing me out.

I try to make more food from scratch, but just looking at the recepies with the long lists of ingredients that I need to buy and prepare makes me give up. And I do start exercise routines, but after a week or two something happens, and I fall out of them again.
It’s not like I’m extremly unhealthy at all, my weight is within the healthy range, I am conscious about what I eat and generally make reasonably healthy choices, and even though I don’t work out, I do a lot of walking.
But I’m feeling the effects of all the stress, too many easy food solutions and lack of exercise now. I don’t like that I have suddenly developed several allergies that don’t run in my family at all. I don’t like that I’ve gained about 5 kilos. I hate the lack of energy all the time. And my back has started to hurt. Last night, the muscles in my back hurt so bad I had to get up and take a painkiller to be able to sleep. Not good.

I keep planning to start exercising, but by the time I’ve got home from work, had dinner and walked Cora, it’s already quite late, I’m exhausted and I end up collapsing on the couch instead. Sigh. I need to break out of this, I can’t keep putting my life on hold until the problems go away, because there is no sign that they will. But how?

is that the skin problems I had have almost disappeared. Which is of course great, it was really bothering me.
The bad news is, that means I actually do react to chocolate, nuts and juice, the three things I have eliminated from my diet. Argh! Argh! I love all those three things, how am I ever going to survive without them? Argh, argh, argh!
It´s not like I get very serious or dangerous reactions to those things though, so I can probably have just a little bit every now and then. Plus, the reason I´m not suppose to have those things is the content of nickel. There is nickel in lots of other types of food, so I could maybe be able to have some nuts for instance if I manage to cut back on other things with nickel on the same day to balance it out. Which would be good for my health, being a vegetarian, not being able to have any nuts at all is not really good.
Sigh though. Sigh.

In the last few days I have made a big discovery, I thought I was of about average health.
Now I am discovering that I am actually pretty unhealthy.
My food, exercise, social contact, spiritual sense of self and lifestyle activities could all improve.
I guess I have two choices I can remain the same or I can change. Change is not the easiest option.
I want to live life.

I had started riding my old college mountain bike several weeks ago. I just LOVE bicycling. It is the most fun I have ever had exercising. Anyway, my old bike began to show the effect of years of neglect as the chain snapped, the rear freewheel (cogs) needed to be replaced, the rear wheel was cheaper to replace than fix the bent axle and new tubes and tires. I decided that instead of fixing that one right now (I still plan to fix it up) I would just get a new bike. I went a bit overboard but it is only 6 months membership to the gym so I think I will get my money’s worth. Now the wait until my size/color/model arrives next week!

I always make all these grand plans about how I’m going to get in shape and lose weight and be fabulous and nothing ever manifests. I need to start with small stuff.

• walk to work
• stop visiting the coffee cart in my building
• related to the above, have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast instead of a scone and latte
• pack a lunch instead of eating out

I really have to drink lots of water to beat the heat

I’ve done some allergy testing now, and it turns out I’m allergic to nickel and one kind of pollen. So I thought, fine, I’ll avoid jewelry and things with nickel in them. But no. There’s nickel in food, lots and lots and lots of food. The doctor gave me a long list, and told me not to go nuts and cut all of those things out of my diet, she said she usually doesn’t give out the list because people tend to cut out all of the items on it, and end up not getting enough vitamins and minerals. But she gave me the list anyway “since I seemed like an inteligent person”. OK, thanks for that, but how am I supposed to know which things are the worst, what to cut out of my diet and how much of those things are too much??
Finally, I managed to get her to tell me that the most important things are anything sour, like juice, lemons and oranges, and (Eeek, eeek!) Chocolate. Sigh. The rest of the list though, I have no idea how to relate to. Many of the things on there are absolutely essential foods for vegetarians, like beans, lentils, nuts, cereal and lots of fruits and veg. Sigh. Maybe I’ll just do the two things she suggested for now, which is more than enough to work on really, and see if it helps.

Then there’s all the products like lotions and soap, I’m not supposed to use anything with perfume or artificial colours. At least that’s what she told me. She then told me to bring some products I had bought so she could have a look. I spent a fortune on new products, only to have her yell “What?? You bought this?? Are you nuts? It contains lemon acid!! And Aloe Vera!! Of course you can’t use this!
Well, how the h-e-double hockey sticks am I supposed to guess that aloe vera is bad for me?? And it’s absolutely impossible to get her to be more spesific about anything, so guessing is all I can do. ARRGGHH!

My last trip to the dentist cost me an extra $70 due to my lack of flossing. I have always brushed faithfully but until I found the little “floss on a stick” stuff I have not had a good flossing habit. 3 weeks now and not a single skipped flossing.

I have managed to lose about 20 lbs and 2” from my waist in 2.5 months by diet changes but was fluctuating around a plateau. I decided to add some exercise to the equation. Breaking out my old college bicycle has been a fun experience. I started riding well but the last 2 weekends have shown that old bike’s lack of maintenance. Last week the chain broke about 10 miles from home. Today the rear tire blew out about 5 miles from home.

Hopefully I will have all my replacement parts in this week so I can be back on the road next weekend.

Anyway, bicycling has been the most fun exercise I have ever done!