Since we talked last...

 What is today? Oh yeah, Saturday. No, I really had to check. 

I'm happy to have been busy making tarts for Angie's fundraiser. The count is now up to 7 delivered, and 2 more ordered. I dropped off another $134 this weekend. 

For the most part it's going well. I have gotten into a rhythm making thin apple slices and keeping them in two big bowls of water as I go (so they don't get brown), getting just the right temperature for my dough so it comes out nice, and I've even started conversation with an Apple butter maker to get some homemade apple butter (I had no idea what I was doing and ended up with NOT apple butter both times I tried it. My suspicion is, like everything else these days,  use your air fryer?)

The only issue I had was my delivery plans. I forgot to check the weather and scheduled drop offs during a blizzard. Yep. Me the one who has every detail figured out didnt think to consult with Mother Nature. She smacked me down Sunday with a patch of ice. My feet went up and my backside went down. Total damage; sore wrist and a twisted ankle.

It's coming back to normal now, been nearly a week. But I had to give up Iaido for three classes and only did the advanced half of Tai Chi this morning. (Those single whips were no joke!)

I spent a little time on Youtube videos the other day looking up Ted Talks about obesity. Because I am obese and I dont want to be.  I think about it twenty times a day. Except for when i'm eating badly, then I dont think about it, obviously. Bad cycle to be in. 

There were some surprises, actually. 

Dieting is a no no. You just yo-yo. 
(I'm a poet and dont know it. )

One lady said no dieting, but focusing on getting as many veggies in your body as you can.  She said to think about the slow and easy life - cook meals at home, take an hour or two, grow your own garden and eat from it, get the easy proteins like plant based - beans, peas, etc - and fish is easy to catch so get some fish in your diet. Leave the hard to catch food alone most of the time, unless you have friends to go hunting with (cows, other red meat). It was a good way to picture how to eat. 

Another focused on exercising, how we need to do resistance work every day for 20 mins (think free weights) and we need to sweat so work hard at it, and we need to STRETCH. He described why our backs hurt, because we cant even touch our toes let alone go 5 inches beyond them, we can pinch more than an inch, and we carry our weight around our middles. So then all this is being carried by not very strong stomach muscles and our backs get all this work, too much for those back muscles. And he recommended we would be more successful if we worked out daily, in the morning, if we set a reason to do this for. What's my reason? I want to be able to get on the floor with my future grand children (and grand dogs) without problems. 

A third one, barely related, had a nice message. She asked us to consider What If there was nothing wrong with you? Could you have more confidence and courage around you've been passionate about? What if it is what it is, just that, no judgement or blame, what if you could just embrace who you are?  Look for the story about the guy who actually likes being alone. Not having to make himself feel wrong, he slept through the night for the first time in years. 

And then one on the topic of emotional eating that rang true for me. She mentioned our portion sizes are so skewed in restaurants, finding food that keeps me satisfied, having go to meals and snacks. Over hunger can kick off emotional eating. What drives us to food? It's easy, legal, and the effect is instantaneous. Face your stuff, dont stuff your face. Learn what is coming up for me, an experience, a belief, a loving memory, or a trauma. What you need to do is consider what food you go to for comfort. When did I first have that food, who gave it to me, how did it comfort me? What other ways can I meet that need? Find what drives you to food and face that. 

I thought about applying what I learned. 

So I got out of bed, grabbed my 3lb weights and did something called One Arm Dumbell Rows. This required me to kneel one leg on the couch and put my hand on the arm of the couch, then lift the weight by pulling my other dangling arm up and down. Otis the dog was very concerned. He sniffed the weight as I lifted and was ready to pull it away from me if I asked. I chuckled. 

Then I got down on the floor, with my yoga mat ( I haven't done yoga since my kids were little) and I did Bicycle Crunches. I intended to do 3 sets of 20 but my lower back disagreed and I got one set of 20, and 1 set of 10 before I had to stop. 

This was just a small chunk of the strength exercises I looked up, wrote down, and added pictures (because I had no idea what the names actually meant).

Again the dog tried to climb on the mat with me and I had to keep pushing him away so I wouldn't get slobbered. It was hard enough without that! lol

Finally I stretched. I'm 5 inches away from my toes, so that means I have about 10 inches to go if I want to go 5 inches beyond. My back asked me whats up. I merely went as far as I could without pain and held it for 60 seconds. Then I did a few other stretches. Last one, I swung my neck around and my entire upper back didnt like that. Had to go slow. When did I get such tight muscles? Ugh. 

I marveled that I actually did the exercise though. And laughed at Otie's reaction. I plan to do the next couple of strength exercises in the bunch tomorrow. And stretch again. 

I had a library book on hold for me, so I braved the cold and the parking garage downtown, to get to the library. I learned I dont like change and will resist it. So when the parking garage was installed, I refused to go, even though it's free for the first 2 hours. But a book I wanted was waiting for me. 

I had to go up 3 floors to find parking because there was some private ice skating event by the Farmers market. They had ice sculptures too. 

I tried to find the path to the library but downtown has been rennovated, so I had to wander a little to find the library door since some of the path was blocked for the event. I got my book and then went down to the Farmers Market, which ends at 1pm, so I was at the tail end. But I wanted to get a look since i hadnt been there since the city's rennovation began. The market was the same, but the prices had doubled. That was too bad because I was thinking about the eggs. 7 dollars though, I didnt have it. I did buy a little jar of sweet chili powder to try. And I promised I'd come back next week. So because of all this i got a nice walk in and was able to avoid any ice as I hobbled along. It was bitter cold, but because I was surrounded by foodies, I was happy. I made my way back home without incident. 

Now I'm rocking in my chair, enjoying the quiet, and now that my blog is done will resume reading my book. Ahh!

Enjoy your weekend folks!

V. 

Those Ted Talks: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUzn8L_2CNA  (Kathy Campbell | Obesity: the modern famine)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bE5XLGNPF0 (Renee Jones | Lose Weight and Keep it off: Emotional eating)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K60xHx836T0 (Ogie Shaw | Winning the Mental Battle of physical fitness and obesity)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF5XztmijhQ (Susan Henkels | What if theres nothing wrong with you)