Over this past year I have been having neck pain and headaches. 3 visits to my primary care physician, a visit to a ND, 1 ill-fated attempt at an elimination diet, and 1 headache journal later -- my primary care physician noticed I'd lost a significant amount of weight over a 6 month period. That compounded with my job's characteristics (lots of driving, lots of sitting in meetings, and lots of walking with a computer bag) lead her to believe that the cause of my neck pain and headaches was more than likely musculoskeletal.
She suggested several things:
(1) Yoga. I hate yoga. But I'll try it. I'll try anything at this point.
(2) Gain weight -- at least 1-2 BMI points. I don't know how to do this since I've never paid attention to my weight.
(3) Massage. Now that I can do!
So I am embarking on some life changes to help ease my neck pain and headaches. Since there is not much I can do about my job characteristics (beyond working on my posture and buying a lumbar support pillow for my car...I suddenly feel old), I am working on some small changes I can control to improve this situation.
I am fairly sure I missed the day or course in high school when we learned about nutrition. I'm not saying I've been unhealthy. But I wouldn't say that I have been intentionally healthy. There are some obvious rules-of-thumb that I can spout off:
(1) Everything in moderation. Eat when you're hungry; stop when you're full.
(2) Balance your meals -- protein, carbs, fats... Have a variety of colors in your meals. Blah blah. (This gets into the grey area where I start to NOT know what I'm talking about.
(3) Proper and appropriate calorie intake -- if you are training for a marathon, you should be replenishing the calories you are burning (along with other things, like electrolytes).
Beyond those more basic rules-of-thumb, I am basically clueless. So here's to a journey of learning more about nutrition to support my training and overall health. And if my tendency to procrastinate is any indication -- it's going to be a bumpy ride! :)
My first commitment: be vigilant in using ALL of the veggies from my CSA box that we have delivered every 2 weeks. This week's lesson in cooking is brought to you by SPINACH!
A quick google of spinach tells me I'm in for a real treat -- it's packed with zinc, niacin, fiber, protein, Vitamins A, D, E & K -- and tons of other good stuff. Where has the been all my life?! (I'm kidding. I love baby spinach in salads...and that is about it).
Since I'm not much of a cook -- thank goodness for Pinterest and Google for making recipes just a click away. I figured I'd look for two different meals to incorporate the spinach. After spending admittedly too much time surfing the internet, I settled on trying to make spinach pesto (this seemed daunting -- I've never made pesto before) and a green smoothie (my friend has been trying to sell me on her recipe for a while now and I'll admit I was skeptical, but I am now a believer!!). After looking around at different recipes, below is what I put together:
Spinach Pesto
1/2 Cup of spinach
3/4 Cup of pine nuts (but I am told any nut will work)
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/2 Cup of grated parmesan cheese (you could probably do less, or a different kind of cheese)
1 lemon -- juice and zest
1/2 Cup of olive oil
I dumped everything in my CuisinArt except the olive oil -- blended it all together while slowly pouring the olive oil into the the mix. I put the sauce over pasta and it was delicious! Great, healthy (in my non-expert opinion) meal to cargo load before a long run.
Green Smoothie
Handful of ice cubes
1/2 Cup of greek yogurt (I'm a fan of vanilla)
1 Tablespoon of peanut butter
1/2 - 1 Cup of Vanilla Soy Milk (or some other liquid to give it a drinkable consistency)
2 Bananas -- cut into chunks
SPINACH - I just dump in a couple of handfuls to fill up the blender
I put that all in my blender in that order, blended it together until smooth, and poured in a glass to enjoy. It's my favorite breakfast of late. I'm looking into some other additions to increase the good stuff -- but even getting this far is a huge step for me! So I'll take my wins where I can get them!
It's all a process. And being at the beginning of this one, it feels overwhelming and hard to know where to start and if I am even making any progress at all. But if this is anything like other challenges, it will be worth it. Just one step at a time. I wonder what will be in my box next week...
My first commitment: be vigilant in using ALL of the veggies from my CSA box that we have delivered every 2 weeks. This week's lesson in cooking is brought to you by SPINACH!
A quick google of spinach tells me I'm in for a real treat -- it's packed with zinc, niacin, fiber, protein, Vitamins A, D, E & K -- and tons of other good stuff. Where has the been all my life?! (I'm kidding. I love baby spinach in salads...and that is about it).
Since I'm not much of a cook -- thank goodness for Pinterest and Google for making recipes just a click away. I figured I'd look for two different meals to incorporate the spinach. After spending admittedly too much time surfing the internet, I settled on trying to make spinach pesto (this seemed daunting -- I've never made pesto before) and a green smoothie (my friend has been trying to sell me on her recipe for a while now and I'll admit I was skeptical, but I am now a believer!!). After looking around at different recipes, below is what I put together:
Spinach Pesto
1/2 Cup of spinach
3/4 Cup of pine nuts (but I am told any nut will work)
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/2 Cup of grated parmesan cheese (you could probably do less, or a different kind of cheese)
1 lemon -- juice and zest
1/2 Cup of olive oil
I dumped everything in my CuisinArt except the olive oil -- blended it all together while slowly pouring the olive oil into the the mix. I put the sauce over pasta and it was delicious! Great, healthy (in my non-expert opinion) meal to cargo load before a long run.
Green Smoothie
Handful of ice cubes
1/2 Cup of greek yogurt (I'm a fan of vanilla)
1 Tablespoon of peanut butter
1/2 - 1 Cup of Vanilla Soy Milk (or some other liquid to give it a drinkable consistency)
2 Bananas -- cut into chunks
SPINACH - I just dump in a couple of handfuls to fill up the blender
I put that all in my blender in that order, blended it together until smooth, and poured in a glass to enjoy. It's my favorite breakfast of late. I'm looking into some other additions to increase the good stuff -- but even getting this far is a huge step for me! So I'll take my wins where I can get them!
It's all a process. And being at the beginning of this one, it feels overwhelming and hard to know where to start and if I am even making any progress at all. But if this is anything like other challenges, it will be worth it. Just one step at a time. I wonder what will be in my box next week...
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