I’ve been going to a lot of doctors recently. Nearly every doctor makes you step on a scale, no matter what you are there for. The last scale I stepped on had me at 165 lbs. That’s about 20 lbs over my healthy weight by most standards. I feel it in my face, and I see it in pictures.
Time to get back on the health horse.
Today I did some things that will help with that. I cleaned my apartment. It was pretty cluttered. And I hadn’t done my dishes in a while. It’s hard to cook healthy food, or any food, if you don’t have any dishes to put them on.
Right now I’m making muffins. That might not sound like much of a health kick, but I have a hack that makes it a little healthier. Buy a muffin mix. Instead of the water and oil, put in a can of pumpkin. I still put in the two eggs too, so they stay together better. Plus I don’t mind a little extra protein in my diet. Now I have breakfast for at least a week! And if I’m craving something sweet, these will be better than the other sweets I usually buy.
I also bought ramen noodles. They’re cheap, and they’re easy. I can jazz them up as much as I want. They only take three minutes to cook once the water is boiling. On a really easy night, I drain off the water, add olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Maybe a little pepper too. Maybe even an egg. Again, better than the drive-through alternatives I buy if I really don’t feel like cooking.
On a night where I have more time and energy, I can steam veggies and grill fish and add those in.
I bought noodles for work too. One of my recurring issues is not taking lunch to work. So I’m famished by the time I get home, which makes food on the fly sound like a good idea.
I have yet to ride my bike to school since the few times I did at the beginning of the year. I may give it a go after the Thanksgiving holiday. By then I should be healed enough for the 10-mile round trip every day. I could probably do it now, but it will be hard to get into a routine with all of the doctor appointments.
Basically I need to get back on track with taking care of myself overall. My diet has been crap. I haven’t been exercising much. I was working too many hours. All of this goes back before the accident. The accident just puts it even more into focus. And seeing that number multiple times on the scale helped with that too.
I’m not at the point where I’m in love with taking care of my body (and mind). It comes in spurts. Most often it feels like a challenge.
But I also know I don’t want to go the path of my dad. He started smoking cigarettes when he was 13 or 14. He ate unhealthily and probably drank too much. He didn’t exercise. He died when he was 53.
I don’t want to go the path of my Great-grandma Dangler. She lived to the ripe old age of 97. But for as long as I could remember, she complained. She complained about her aches and pains. Her doctor appointments. That is the thing I remember most about her.
Instead, I want to go the path of my Great-grandma Iler. She lived to be 100. Up until close to the end, she danced at the Senior Center. She bowled. She lived a full life. And she definitely had her health issues. She had a pacemaker. She had breast cancer. They just weren’t her focus.
In the last few months of her life, she wasn’t herself anymore. But until then, she was … Well, she was Tillie.
If I’m going to live to a ripe old age, which the women in my family tend to do (both of the mentioned great-grandmothers were my mom’s grandmas), I want to be like Grandma Tillie. Carrying my aches and pains with grace, while still dancing. Or maybe riding my bike instead. Hell, both.
But I don’t want to slowly kill myself with eating shitty food and not taking care of my body.
I guess ultimately, I want to do what the meme says. I want to fall in love with the process of taking care of and loving myself.
It’s a work in process…