Adaptability and Moderation

 I have talked a lot about nutrition and fitness on this blog. These things are really important to me. They enable me to feel good inside and out and live a full life.  But sometimes things happen that are out of our control. I have been suffering from patellar subluxation for the past few years.  That combined with arthritis in my spine which I was diagnosed with in my 20s means that there are some forms of exercises that I want to do but don’t feel good to my body. Four weeks ago I started a new fitness program that I’ve never tried before. It is a 6 week program but 4 weeks down and I’m feeling it. I have both knee and back pain which have been gradually getting worse these last few weeks. So as much as I absolutely hate giving up on a program, I need to listen to my body and my body is clearly telling me to stop. 

But, that doesn’t mean I’m going to just stop working out. No way!  I’ll just try a brand new program and see how my body feels with that one.  My equipment came today and I am ready to push play on a new 9 week program tomorrow morning. I won’t be deterred by a small setback because that’s all it is...a SMALL setback. I’ll just find something else that works for me and keep moving. 

In addition to moving my body daily I’m also eating according to my cardio metabolic eating plan. It’s amazing how much better firming up my nutrition can make me feel. That doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy a treat now and then. Today, I made ice cream!  I’ve been craving it because of the Geico commercial. Scoop, there it is!   I’m trying to pay closer attention to ingredients in the food that I’m eating.  My goal is to try to eat more foods with less ingredients and ingredients I can pronounce. I looked at some ice cream we had in our freezer to see the ingredients.  Milk, cream, sugar.  Ok.  So far so good but then cellulose gum, diglycerides, polysorbate, phosphoric acid.  Say what?  I stopped counting at 25 ingredients!  So I decided to make my own. I used only 3 ingredients. Heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. In 10 minutes I had made a delicious treat.  It fits into my eating plan, as does everything in moderation.

Fitness and nutrition are a lifelong journey not a destination  I finish one workout program and I don’t stop,  I find another one and keep moving forward.  You’ll notice that I don’t ever say I’m on a diet.  It’s not a diet.  Diets end.  I’m on a journey, so I have an eating plan.  It is a way of eating that I can sustain long term.  Do I fall off the wagon occasionally?  You bet!  But, I get up, dust myself off and hop right back on that wagon.