My Whole30 is going ok (Day 22). I really miss cheese. Have I said that before? Its true!  The best thing about today is I only have 8 more days to go. I can’t wait, but I have to admit I feel great! I go right to sleep every night and wake up rested. I feel good all day, although I have to eat the right combination of foods to stay full until the next meal.  Those pesky things like not getting enough water, having lunch on time (often I’m out and about) and I’m over-hungry when I get my meal ready. I really don’t find many restaurants where I can order a W30 meal. I went out this weekend and had a bunless hamburger with bacon (probably not W30 approved) and avocado. I should have also ordered a salad but had a late lunch and wasn’t that hungry. It caught up to me the following day…  I have found a few snacks that I can put together for a light meal like green olives, plantain chips and veggies. It’s not perfect but it gets me through.

My Phoenix W30 friend told me last week that her sinus problem she has had for 2.5 months suddenly went away. Coincidence she asks? She’s not sure but she’s nervous about going off the W30 and adding in a food that may have caused her sinus problem to stick around for so long.  I reminded her the foods are added as slowly as you want, and in her case, that should be carefully done. I mean, she was going to a specialist because she was so concerned about her health. It would be amazing if it was food related and she can fix it without medication. We shall see!

This week’s game changer for me – earlier this week I stepped off a curb that apparently was taller than I expected, landed hard on my heel and pulled or stretched my Achilles. I had an immediate sense of “oh crap” and continued to limp across the street. My apparent lack of attention to the depth of this curb had to do with my last-minute decision to catch the streetcar. I hadn’t noticed it coming but it rounded the corner and was in my reach. Now I couldn’t even walk fast enough to get across the street and the additional half block it would take to catch the dang thing. So instead of getting a lift about 15 blocks, I slowed down, took a breath and powered myself along the path.

These are the small things in life that put a halt to the best-laid plans. There would be no extra walking this week and as it turned out, I stayed home the entire next day to ice and rest my injury. By the second day I could tell it was already less painful but I probably won’t be walking for exercise until next week. That is a bummer. 

I handled this setback fairly well in my opinion.  If I had some sweets at home, I may have indulged – but I don’t have anything like that here. I did eat a few portions of plantain chips, thank goodness I only had a partial bag! Other than that, I got through the first day of injury and spent some kitchen time cooking  the second day plus ran a few errands. I limped slowly across the parking lots and through the grocery store. It was a good reminder not to criticize anyone who seems to be in less ideal physical shape than myself. I think we often get in that mode, at least I do. I am a confident walker and while I’m sure everyone I “pass” may not be injured, there is always a story there.

I call those stories the turning point…  I remember after I retired from my job, when I would go to my old office to meet a friend often I would run into other people I used to work with. Almost everyone who was over 50 seemed to have aged more than they should have. Most of them had put on weight which likely meant they were moving less and eating more unhealthy foods. What was interesting though, almost everyone one of these people would look at me and tell me how great I looked, and that retirement must agree with me.  Its always great to hear others think you look good (or better) than before, but I think in my case it was simply because I continued to be active and took extra time to cook and eat whole foods.  The only change I felt happened with my retirement was my stress level was lower and I was getting the additional sleep I was lacking while working a full-time job with a lot of responsibility.  I will take the new lifestyle!

Somewhere in The Netherlands, while on a week-long bike ride. Biking to work may lead to a fun-filled vacation!

As far as the turning point goes, here’s a good story. I was always the “bike champion” of my company, at least at my building location. Bike champion meant I would encourage others to ride, participate in monthly meetings and seasonal events. One day a woman around my age asked me about biking to work as it was something she was interested in trying. I gave her some information and told her to check back with me if she needed anything. I have been known to volunteer to ride to another person’s home in the early morning, or meet on a weekend to check out the best route. She made the decision at some point that she would NOT ride to work on her bicycle and about six months later I noticed she had put on considerable weight. I’m convinced that if she had decided to try biking to work she would have felt so much better and made better decisions about her lifestyle, and thus might have avoided that additional weight gain.  Even if biking to work wasn’t meant to be, thinking and planning are a step in the right direction. Something else likely would have come up and would have been her ticket to success. Just a thought…

Here’s to making those turning point decisions good, positive ones!

#whole30, #myhappinessproject, #retirement, #turningpoint