I’ve had too much back pain and been too tired to keep up with the plank challenge. I only got a little more than halfway to 120 minutes. I hope they’ll do the same challenge next year because I would really like to have another chance to make it.
The first day of Autumn was this week, and with it came cooler temps, which was excellent, and rain, which wasn’t so great, but it wouldn’t be Fall without some rain-induced back pain now would it? *Sigh*
This has been an extremely stressful week, and my body is letting me know. Things are getting a bit better and more manageable now, so hopefully, my body will calm down with some self-care this weekend.
I didn’t back home from my trip to visit my family until late in the afternoon, so I didn’t get a chance to make my egg muffins for the week. WOW, did I feel the difference in energy! I went back to relying on a bar and yogurt for breakfast, and I was tired all week.
Today, I made 2 batches of egg muffins, and I have enough of the ingredients to make a 3rd batch tomorrow if I have time. 1 batch went in the fridge, and the other 2 will go in the freezer. It’s going to be a busy month, and I don’t want to be caught without a healthy breakfast again.
My energy and mood have been better all week, and I haven’t had a single craving for junk or wanted to get fast food for dinner. Those are huge wins in my book!
I’m still working on phasing out the processed foods, but I am starting to run out of them in my pantry and fridge. I need to find a snack that isn’t popcorn, but is crunchy since I have yet to find anything that isn’t celery and doesn’t contain some kind of vegetable oil. Please leave suggestions in the comments!
I don’t really know how, but having a couple of veggie egg muffins in the morning instead of yogurt and a granola bar has given me more energy throughout my day. I have the yogurt in place of my usual lunch snack, and that seems to be helping, too. I get all the way to dinner without being hungry or tired, and I’m eating fewer calories overall.
Since such a small change has been so helpful in my day-to-day life, I’m now working on phasing out processed foods that contain vegetable oils from my dinner. Lunch is going to be the most difficult for me to change, so dinner is the better option to work on next.
This week was better than last, but still stressful.
I’m reading a book, The Fatburn Fix by Catherine Shanahan, after reading a news article by the same author about vegetable oils and how they affect our bodies. It has inspired me to make a couple of changes to what I eat, and I hope that will help me, along with all the other things I’m doing, to start pushing the scale in a more favorable direction.
One of the changes I’m going to try is to make veggie egg muffins to eat for breakfast in place of my usual yogurt and granola bar.
This week was very stressful and trying, and I didn’t always make the best choices for myself. However, I did give my body the time to sleep more by going to bed earlier, including last night. I plan to take it easy this weekend.
I had my appointment with a spine specialist this week, but of course, the VA didn’t send over my medical records like they were supposed to, so the specialist couldn’t do much for me beyond ordering new X-rays and doing a basic physical exam.
The X-rays turned up a couple more things wrong with my back, so I’ve gotten to the point where I’m fed up with the VA and their subpar medical care. My plan is to get better health insurance through my job when open enrollment comes around next month and then start going to doctors outside of the VA, depending on what it is (basically anything beyond annual exams and vaccines).
On a brighter note, I signed up for the Summer Charity Challenge. This Summer, we’re doing planks, and the minimum is 120 minutes. My health coach gave me a link to a short plank workout, and it’s perfect for the challenge. The spine specialist said planks were the ideal exercise to increase my core strength without hurting my back, and she was happy to hear that I’m doing the challenge. I’ve added my time to the stats below.
This was a rough, stressful week, especially at work, and working overtime didn’t help. I’m relaxing this weekend, as much as I can, but I do have a couple of things to do in the backyard. Hopefully destroying some weeds will be satisfying, especially while listening to an audiobook.
