Needed reminder

Sometimes life has to bring out the really big guns to wake us to our own stupidity. 

Having both DH and myself injuring a tendon in a space of less than three weeks is what drove me to look for things that might have made us more susceptible of such injuries. The prime suspect, as usually, was nutrition, or rather the fact that we had been neglecting the nutrition density of what we ate for months in favor of just gobbling up things that needed no work, as in convenience food and candy, all the while ignoring the veggie stores in the freezer. 

After I twisted my knee simply carrying a - not even heavy- shopping bag up the stairs, we both have started on a supplement regime with vitamins, minerals, and gelatine to feed our tendons. The effect has been amazing for both of us. Less fatigue, more energy, smoother skin, general improvement of how we feel. And for me, having the pain in my knee go away after just four days. DH, too, reports less pain in his shoulder joint. 

Weight-wise, nothing has moved yet, but DH claims I look less bloated in my face. 

And, surprise of surprises, DH, who usually is a devoted lover of all things chocolate, has himself suggested we should stop purchasing such things for him, which would also put myself out of temptation´s way. 

So that´s the plan: no more pre-prepared snacks and convenience food. No more bread and white flour. Rice and pasta must not be the main part of what´s on the plate. Instead, plenty of vegetables. I´ll continue the supplements, plus at least twice daily protein shakes and plenty of water. 

I´ll see if that gets things moving downwards again.

Oh, and the air pollution expert claims to have found sky-high levels of terpenes in the furniture in my old office. I don´t know if that explains all of the symptoms I had when still working in there, but I do know that terpenes are retained in the fatty tissue of the body, so that would match my suspicions I had about the reasons for my regain. 

I hope that I can get back to recondensing now that I am no longer exposed. 

In any case, I´ll insist that they remove all furniture from that room, air it out and then measure again- the smell in there is nothing like turpentine or wood which would be the likely sources of  terpene so I suspect they haven´t found all of the problem yet. 

And I´ll keep on keeping the windows open as often as the weather permits. 

Julia

Foursquare

Four square meters. That is the open space in my living room that was liberated by ditching the last of the IKEA armchairs plus the guest bed. As they only pick up big pieces of trash once a month, they had been languishing in the cellar awaiting pickup day. Yesterday, very carefully of course not to put too much of a strain on my knee, we put them out in front of the house. I actually expected them to be gone before the pickup truck arrived. Well, that didn´t happen. They were obviously not looking attractive enough for anybody to carry them home. Which is sobering when I consider that I had actually been hesitant at first to throw them out. Anyway, the trash collection took them this morning. 

Watching from the kitchen window how they were compacted into the trash lorry made me a bit sad. Then again, I am glad that I have reclaimed the space they occupied in our flat. 

Come to think of it, I spent the twentieth part of our rent every month on making room for something that others wouldn´t even pick up for free.

And there are more such white elephants still around taking up space and making the apartment look crowded and small. 

The couch, which has been temporariliy relegated to the guestroom in place of the bed, is a prime such candidate  Two more square meters beckoning to be liberated. We are actually only waiting for our respective injuries to heal before dragging it downstairs. 

The living room minus the old easy chair and the couch appears twice as roomy as when they were still in there, even with the new easy chairs in place. 

One step after the other, we are improving on the way we live. And I keep being surprised at how small a step may sometimes translate into a dramatic improvement. 

On the weight front, unfortunately, no such luck. I have been supplementing with gelatin and resistant starch for several days, hoping to get my digestion and my joints back to working properly. What that brought me was a three-pound gain. I just hope that it´s a matter of the body adapting to being refed and will go away again. Meanwhile, it´s sheer frustration. Pants growing tight again ( yup, the bigger ones I hesitated so long to buy), shortness of breath, and of course that bum knee. 

Looks like it´s one more time my body shows me that it won´t do what I want it to do. 

If only that would stop. 

Before I get back to where I never wanted to be again for good. 

Julia

The Law of Three

Bad luck always comes in packages of three. That´s at least what they say hereabouts, and it looks like they are right. 

After the trouble with DH´s shoulder, which still isn´t back to functionality, and that pesky cough I caught, yesterday, I was carrying some groceries up the stairs to our apartment when my left knee decided in mid-climb that it had had enough. Which means that I am, per today, hobbling around on crutches and just hoping that I did not tear anything. As the pain is already less than what it was when the injury had just happened, I just hope it´s only a pulled ligament that may with being careful heal by itself. 

Being careful, in that case, also means having to cut my usual lunchtime walks short. That, in turn, means even less exercise, which is annoying as I am still trying to stop that upwards trend in my weight. After three weeks of maintaining, I have by now gained back another two pounds that won´t budge. While that may be due to lack of sleep, my regular eating patterns have been falling by the wayside, too, during those last weeks. That the extra weight is probably to blame for my knee acting up, requires no special mention. 

All in all, I think I have been neglecting the feeding of DH and myself for too long once again. Lack of time, lack of energy, and lack of motivation meant grabbing for something convenient and fast instead of something healthy way too often. It should be a red flag for me that I did not have to restock our frozen veggies on the last Costco-equivalent shopping tour. Usually I take at least three or four of their seven-pound bags because that´s at the very least how much we usually eat in a month. The fact that we did not use as much last month means I haven´t been cooking very often. 

Shame on me.

DH, too, has been taking his frustration to town with a bag of chocolates or two to the detriment of his waistline. 

No one to blame for the weight gain but us. 

Knowing what to do is one thing. Actually doing it, unfortunately, quite another. 

I just hope that my knee will be calming down enough by tonight to allow for me to do some cooking without having to balance pots, pans, knives and crutches. 

Never give up. 

Julia