Simple Health Week Five: Printable

Welcome to Week Five of the Simple Health Challenge. 

I can honestly say that this challenge is really changing the way I think about food and what I eat. 

I was feeling really sick all week and I focused on water and whole foods. Veggies and most of my "quality food" spots were easy to fill as I made big pots of yummy soup absolutely loaded with fresh vegetables. But the fruit... didn't get a single piece. I don't count cranberry juice. But if I had, then I ate one fruit per day. 

What has been really clear to me after logging my foods this way for a month is how low quality food edges out room in your stomach - and palate - for higher quality foods. If you have a bagel for breakfast, you just don't have room or the desire for a piece of fruit, handful of nuts or some yogurt. 

My goal continues to be to turn that around, keep myself fueled with high quality foods and not leave room or desire for poorer choices. 

This weeks printable:

This week's challenge, in addition to having one small adventure, is to aim for one 'perfect' day where you fill in all the boxes. 

Last week our family managed our small adventure but I was too ill to do the OBB squats and push-ups challenge. 

HERE IS THE LINK for the downloadable file you can print at home. 

Good luck this week!

Simple Health Week Four: Printable

So sorry this is late. We've been out of town for the past eight days and I'd imagined I'd have time to take care of blogging and such while away. Instead, I barely touched my computer and had tons of fun soaking up the Southern Florida sunshine.

Wynwood Walls

Bus Tour

Pool

We spent loads of time making new friends and getting to know Florida culture. It was amazing.

But...

As you can see, I abandoned trying to track my foods pretty early in the week. But I did make a point to order whole-ish foods when possible and to add a simple smoothie (not one of those juice and sherbet extravaganzas) to each day. I also misplaced my markers. LOL.

So, new(ish) week. Time to get back at it. In the real world, every meal doesn't come with craft beer.

The last two weeks of, "under reacting to problems' has been absolutely life changing. I'm making it a goal for the foreseeable future.

As for that step goal... slaughtered it! I clocked 17K-21K of steps per day. In dressy shoes no less. To quote my Grandpa, "my dogs are barking!"

This week's challenges are:

 One small adventure (zoo, hiking, museum etc.)

 Do the OBB Squats and Push-Ups challenge 4x this week

Here is the link to the printable doc

Let me know if you're joining me this week. 

Simple Health Week Three: Printable

We had a REALLY tough week family-wise. I pretty much threw out my high cards if you know what I mean. But I did make an effort to drink water and not exist solely on coffee and sugar. It wasn't pretty. Since only good, quality foods count, there are a lot of gaps when I ended up grabbing a bagel at Panera. It's Sunday morning so I still have all day to fill in - maybe I'll finish strong :)

Look at those yummy new challenges this week! Yay!

Here's the download link:

DOWNLOAD

Simple Health Challenge Week Two

Welcome to Week Two of the Simple Health Challenge. You can read more about it on last week's post HERE. As promised, each week has a new printable chart to fill in as you eat and move and complete the challenges.

You can start any time so please, jump in and join me. 

There are a few minor changes. The stars (bonus food) are now earned for no screens after 9:00 PM and no eating after 8:00 PM. 

Also, a second challenge was added to the week:

Under react to problems. 

Lets see how that goes :)

Last week I ate more fruits and veggies than the entire month of December and I made sure to go for walks even on my rest days. Overall I consider it a huge success even though I didn't have a single 'perfect' day.

My philosophy is to never make the same mistake twice. So if I came up short on veggies on Wednesday I had to get the vegetables on Thursday but missing something else would be okay. 

You can download the latest printable chart here.

Any Day Diet Challenge

Hey everyone, as predictable as leaves changing color in the fall, the desire to improve your health in January is a strong one. It's something I've been working on since last summer but January is always a kick in the pants to level up your efforts.

But I'm not a real big fan of any one diet. I tend to cobble a lot of ideas together into on cohesive (to me at least) idea of what 'healthy eating' looks like.

This year I made myself a plan that is scalable to as little or as much as you need. For example, mine says, "120 Day Diet" because our trip to St. Croix is about 120 Days away. If you were using it you could say, "Seven Day Diet" as anything is possible for seven days. Or 21 Day Diet as there's always jibber-jabber about habit-forming and such being a 21 Day thing. My point, it can be whatever you need it to be.

Here's the basic  Simple Health plan. Print a sheet each week. Fill it out as you meet the objectives.

(click to see it bigger)

I included a bribe in there... did you see it? You can exchange not eating late at night and turning off your screens for booze, candy and chips. Because realistically, a diet without a glass of wine or the occasional cookie is doomed. DOOMED I tell you!

Each week there will be two challenges. One is to have a small adventure i.e. do something fun. The second one will be announced each week. It will be diet and exercise focused for the most part. For the first week there is only one challenge as I thought getting used to the chart is challenge enough.

I think it's pretty self-explanatory but if you have any questions let me know and I'll answer them as well as I can. 

This plan suits whatever you fancy; vegan - no problem. Paleo? Check! Pescetarian? No problem. Only eat white foods... might be tricky. 

It goes without saying that I'm not a doctor or dietician. Use at your own risk ;-)

You can download and/or print this week's file HERE.

A Race Report of Sorts

Blue Lake Runs sounds like the symptom of an algae bloom, no. 

Kinda like Montezuma's Revenge, just less subtle. 

This race report was never meant to be. Yesterday I woke up, made some art:

Went to Panera, picked up bagels ate way too much cream cheese, washed it down with a vat of coffee and  threw on some workout clothes. You see, we were going to one of Chris's races and I wanted to go for a bike ride along the waterfront once it was all over. This time of year I wear tights and such under my bike skirt so I don't freeze. It looked rainy and cold so I threw on the whole kit - sports bra, layers, tights, socks, runners.

And then my back went out reaching for my helmet and I was stuck draped over the stairs while everyone the family bustled around packing the car. We drove an hour across town out to the lake with me grimacing in back spasms. They went from constant to waves to bad moments here and there. By the time we arrived I could walk just fine but I was madder than a wet hen. Mad like a two year old you just took scissors away from. Limits have a way of pissing me off.

So we got Chris checked in for packet pick up and I was pondering how I was going to get 35 more minutes of exercise for my challenge this week. The race start time was ten minutes out, people were stretching, the bathrooms had finally cleared. Then it hits me *DING* Run the race. 

Now what needs to be noted here is that I have ran a little over not at all in four years. I did the first day of C25K in July and a year and a half ago I goofed on the treadmill irregularly. That's it. I bike ride (Never cycling, no ice-cream with cycling. Bike riding gets ice cream.) go to Aquafit and do a weekly weights class. But no running. So this was... unexpected. 

My logic was:

1. Everyone needs a measured baseline to improve upon.

2. People with bad backs can't run. I'll show Spiney who's boss! *shakes fist*

3. Racing is probably more fun than spectating. 

So I plunk down my cash (and hornswoggled my smalls into running too) throw my coat and phone in the car and head to the start line. It is HOT. Where is the drizzly cool I signed up in... um... six minutes ago??? Dude announces one minute to start and I realize I've potentially made a grave mistake. 

Does cross training even translate into cardiovascular... errr.... potential?

The horn sounds and instead of stressing about all the things I didn't think of, I run. And about 9 minutes later we cross the 1 mile marker. WOO-FRIGGIN-HOO! Oh yeah, I'm a rockstar. I forgot, running is FUN. WHEE! 

Then I get leveled by a back spasm, walk. Back spasm. Walk. Then we start running again. I had margarita shot bloks with me and since they're 'cramp busters' I reasoned back spasms are a sort of cramp so I chomped two. Hurt my new dental work but gave me a little hope. 

We ran, and ran and ran and then the two mile marker finally appeared. Not pretty. 

I am clearly an idiot. 

But I look behind me and a whole lot of folks were struggling too so I was in good company.

Somewhere between 2 and 2.5 miles I get a niggling in my brain that there is something missing from my fist. My running companion. Hmm. What could it be? Thinking. Walking. Thinking. Running. BAM! Asthma attack. That's right. I always run with a death grip on my inhaler. My inhaler that I left at home by my bed. *

 I start trying to take calming breaths while propelling forward and saying sweet gentle encouraging things to my lungs. And I got it under control, barely, around 2.8 miles. Only a third of a mile to go.

But I was spent. Heat, no training, back spasms, bagels, asthma. To be honest, at this point my smile was fake. Then we see Chris (he finished 23:39) and it would have been embarrassing to walk with the man watching. So I make some feeble attempts to run again and start wheezing thin and scarily and he knows run/walk intervals are all I had (safely) left in me.

We ran and walked the last bit and dashed across the finish line strong. I averaged a 12 minute mile which, considering all things was good enough. 

I had the kids take a picture with us all giving the finger to Spiney. B. was mortified beyond belief. He's a good kid and we all agreed with the sentiment. 

Here I am at the finish of my unplanned, un-trained-for, totally unprepared race. 

You can see my kiddos in the background. 

We stayed around for the ribbon ceremony as Chris got 4th in his age group. Imagine my surprise when they call out my name as 6th for women 40-45. The boys and I decided right there that the bar must have been set pretty low. But I got my ribbon (I feel like a prize pig at the fair) and it was a great, funny, horrible. bizarre, exciting day.

Last spring my eldest and I were setting goals. We decided our physical holy grail was to be fit enough that if an opportunity presented itself on the spur of the moment we would have what to took to play too. I think, in a small way, that is becoming a reality.

* Why no inhaler? Well, let me tell you. Two weeks ago Chris did a triathlon and when we were driving home I realized he was really punchy. We were on this winding wooded backroad with no where to turn off and get a bite to eat. He's eating an apple and he goes to throw the core out into the woods. But he didn't wait for the window to roll down and he punched his fist through the glass, shattering the whole thing, blowing glass through the whole car. Scaring us shitless. We pulled over at the first turn out, cleaned what we could and drove home, carefully. Then we emptied the car as it was completely unprotected until the glass guy could come by. So my inhaler was in the house with all the other car stuff. 

Chunky Wooden Houses

Hello Everyone. Sorry for the light posting schedule, I have pneumonia. And it's our birthday-birthday-anniversary week (his 45th, my 41st our 19th) so the universe has conspired against me posting regular craftiness. 

I'm so tired. Wow. Like breathing in and out is completely, devastatingly exhausting. Hope this passes super-fast.

Did I mention we also are having our floors replaced this week? 

It's kind of a good news/bad news joke as all five of us are in our master bedroom because the main floor is torn apart. It's good timing as staying in bed is pretty easy but bad timing as we're all here... together. I hope listening to me cough and sleep isn't too hard on them. Trying to feed a family of five from our bathroom while sick is a challenge. Wanna see the set up?

Kinda works. It's amazing what you can cook in a keurig. LOL And the crockpot is my best friend. Last night we had chicken taco bowls... which is pretty amazing considering all the extenuating circumstances. It was delicious and smelled terrific.

Now... On with the show!

Back in December I made these chunky wooden houses and I'm just itching to make more. They are so much fun. 

To begin I took some old wood from our garden that had been weathering for years and unscrewed the boards. Then my husband sawed them into house shapes. To do this SIMPLY you just draw an X somewhere on the board from side to side. When you cut along the lines, you get two houses, each with a peaked roof. Just occurred to me that a picture might be worth all the above words, don't mind my sharpie drawing on my youngest math scratch paper. I'm sick.

The colored in bit is the wood that gets wasted. 

Paint a base color. If you like how the wood looks (like the one in the front) leave it exposed.

Add contrasting roofs and sides.

Embellish with paper and bibs and bobs from your stash. 

Some of the details were glued on with matte Mod Podge (like the music paper) and the larger ones were attached with a glue gun. 

All the sequins were nailed in. I took extra care to make sure the nails were all catawampus  for interest. 

It's a great way to use up little pieces left from other projects.

Interweave has a tutorial for these wooden houses in their Art Lessons (that I didn't follow, but it's very good.) Karen Michel's are much nicer than mine. Check them out :-) I totally swiped her wire flag idea - so cute!

Do you have a favorite? 

I've noticed that people seem to gravitate to certain houses over the others and it's fascinating to me to see who likes what.

Christmas Thank You Cards

Hello Everyone. My computer has been on the fritz and then in the shop for most of the last four weeks and it's so good to be back. I could not figure out how to blog with my phone. I don't know how some of you do it. 

I have a ton-o-backlog on things to share but first I thought I'd start with Christmas Thank You cards as we all probably need them right now. I haven't sent mine but today is the 12th Day of Christmas so I don't consider them late… yet.

I've never made Christmas thank you cards with festive holiday paper… it just seemed odd.  Christmas is over.  But it's already strewn about  and making a mess of your crafty space and it kinda works so… 

Over on the MishMash blog I saw that Michelle had added a typed sentiment under a "Winter Wishes" element that said, "and I hope you feel better soon." Which was brilliant. So I grabbed my dribs and drabs left over from the holidays and added little thank you addendums to them. Love!

***

I thought I'd share this not-very-sexy but motivating health thing I'm doing. When it comes to eating right, I prefer to look at my week instead of any given day. That way you don't have to panic if you have a nutritionally questionable dinner on Monday since you might have a powerhouse veggie soup on Tuesday. 

A lot of food theory stresses the importance of variety in your diet and it's something we're focusing on. I jot down what whole foods we eat and try to make sure each of those columns are lengthy. This is last week. We're still coming off of Christmas junk food so I know we can do better but it's not bad. 

 

What I love is that it's easy to see we were pretty skimpy on the fruit (lots of veggies though) and legumes so this week I'll make sure to add some into the menu. It's a terrific system.

As this is our second week I made one small change; I separated whole grains and starches into two categories. Our goal would be to have the 'whole grains' list exceed the 'starches' one.

I'd love to hear how you are mindful to keep variety in your diet and if you send thank you notes for Christmas presents.

Warmly,

~~~Nicole 

Motivational Beaded Spoons

Years ago I read the Spoon Theory and thought it was an excellent metaphor to explain what life is like dealing with chronic pain and managing your energy and abilities for any given day.

That inspired me to make some decorated spoons to give to loved ones as a friendly 'extra spoon' for days when they needed one.

*SOLD*

And then I was hooked. Suddenly spoons didn't just seem to be something to give to 'Spoonies' but to anyone who needed a little inspirational reminder. 

Something you could hang in a window, in your car, on the tree… and read the message on it whenever you needed encouragement.

Available on Etsy

The more I thought about spoons, the more it became clear that spoons are one of our first memories of nourishment and of being cared for.

Available on Etsy

Available on Etsy 

Available on Etsy

I hope you enjoy these spoons and you pass one on to those you care about.

Warmly,

~~~~Nicole