Nexus

Healthy Resolutions

I don't just make resolutions at New Year ... in fact almost never make them then. I do make them in September - and constantly reaffirm them throughout the year. Here are the ones I try to follow now ....

Drink lots of water (and no coffee during after I leave the house in the morning)
Take a healthy lunch to the office (to avoid having to go to the cafeteria at the office which has way too much temptation)
Go to the gym everyday and have a balanced program for cardio, strength and flexibility
No junk food (well - almost none and chocolate does not count)
No processed food (as little as possible - I do allow canned tomatoes or beans and try to buy organic)
Five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day (usually raw)
Floss
Spend some time meditating/journalling every morning and night.

There items are pretty well habit now with some slip ups.
This website is a great source for healthy vegetarian (Vegan actually) recipes.

Budgets

I have recently put myself on a budget in order to save for my trip to Africa next year - more on both the Africa plans and the budget later. But, while doing some research relating to budgets, I came across this blog called 'Get Rich Slowly'. I read some of the posts and found some interesting topics and tips. I am not a finance/money sort of person at all. But I did have some financial ephiphanies - I don't know which came first - the budget or the ephiphanies. Budgeting may be boring, but I work way too hard for my money to waste it or spend it on stupid things. Especially when it has the power to allow me to do the things I want to do if I spend it wisely. That topic is worthy of many blog entries, but for now I just want to post the link the the blog I mentioned.

Looking for Exercises for Specific Muscle Groups?

I found this site today while looking for exercises for a specific muscle. It looks excellent and allows you to search for exercises based on what equipment you have available. A photo, description and degree of difficulty accompany each exercise. It is worth a look.

The fun (and lessons) of Aging

I am sitting here with an ice pack wrapped around my knee as I write this ..... I've had a couple of injuries over the last couple of years. A muscle pull in my hip, a sprained ankle and now a torn meniscus in my knee. None of them have been fun and all have grounded me for a period of time. I've seen many therapists for treatment of all three injuries. Along the way I have also learned quite a bit about injuries and their rehabilitation.

There was an article in The National Post today which was quite interesting and talks about the type of injuries that 'boomers' are likely to experience and why. Read it here.

It confirms what I have been thinking about. I am now looking at my latest injury as a wake-up call. I think my knee problem was caused by muscle imbalances that resulted from a lot of running and not enough strengthening of the opposing muscles - in this case - my quads. In the past I balanced this out - by accident - by doing a lot of cycling and taking spinning classes. The fact that I did a lot of stretching also helped. In the last year, I had not been doing as much gym work and when I did go to the gym, I concentrated on doing upper body muscle groups. And I was doing a lot of running earlier in the year when the injury occurred.

As a result of this wake-up call (and scare) I am going to be more faithful about balancing out my gym workouts. I have found a good physiotherapist with sport specific training and will be getting him to help me balance out my workouts. I know my quads are weak and will be concentrating on this area but still want the advise of the physiotherapist.

Stretching - I am back to stretching every time I go to the gym - which is 7 days a week right now. I've been putting a lot of emphasis on stretching for the last few weeks and I do really notice the difference.

My expectation for retirement and beyond is that I want to keep doing my activities and sports until the end of my life. If I don't get smarter about how I train now, that will not happen. That is my big lesson and take-away from these injuries. I think we all have our weak spots and mine is going to be my physical health. It is definitely worth investing the gym time to maintain muscle health and flexibility.

Halloumi Cheese

I finally know what all the fuss it about ..I have been hearing about and seeing halloumi cheese mentioned in cookbooks by mainly British writers for ages. Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and Nadine Abensur are all devoted to this stuff. This cheese has not been widely available in my area - at least in mainstream grocery stores. But Loblaws (President's Choice Label) now offer this cheese. I bought some on the weekend and finally tried it tonight. It is wonderful!

To prepare it - fry (or grill) it in a dry frying pan. Thin slices. Two minutes on each side. I found if sliced really thin and let it really brown it seems to bring out the flavour. In Nigella's book, she suggested mixing some chili sauce into olive oil as a condiment. I used sambal oelek in olive oil - it was good.

I like this a lot - it is always described as 'chewy, squeeky with a polystyrene texture'. Pretty accurate. I would definitley buy this again. It would be really good as an appetiser at a dinner party.

UPDATE ... try this at your own risk! It is the stuff of cravings - take my word for it. You will make one batch, eat it, and be right back out in the kitchen cooking more. Fab. Make the chile sauce a bit strong - it should burn your mouth. Goes well with the salty, rich flavour of the cheese. Yum.

My New Gym

I joined a new gym a few months ago. I live within a 15 minute walk (or 3 minute drive) to one of the University of Toronto campuses that has an amazing fitness facility. It is huge and 3 stories - the third story is an indoor track. Unfortunately I can't use this right now (other than to walk) but it is a great feature. They have a bank of 10 rowing machines - enough for them to run a row fit class. There is also a really nice pool. The pool is really my reason for switching to this gym - with the knee injury, pool running has been one of my main cardio workouts. At first, I resisted the idea - I thought it would be cold and boring. I soon found though that I love my time in the pool. I come out of there so relaxed. It is also a good workout and not tiring. The water allows you to work hard but not really feel it. Weird. After pool running several times a week for several weeks, I decided I wanted to learn to swim properly so have been taking lessons and have added that to my activity list. I guess this was the hidden good point to my injury - I was initially quite bitter about not being able to run but - I've adapted.

So ... back to the gym. Being an institutional gym as opposed to a commercial gym, the gym has a different focus. They really promote community programs. There are special olympic teams that work out there, cardiac recovery programs run by the local hospital as well as pro sports teams (The Toronto Argos) This makes for a lot of energy around the place which I love. It inspires me. Funny, today one of the personal trainers who works at the gym told me that I inspire her - so I guess we find our inspiration anywhere.

The one drawback is the large number of kids - of course - you just forget what the level of conversation is like for university aged kids. I told my friends one long weekend this summer that I knew where all the keggers were and which ones had the best girls! I finally bought an iPOD.

Reading & Travel .... (and reading about travel)

I read constantly .... I have the type of job where I read for a large part of the day (and spend the rest of the time talking about the material read). I read two newspapers a day. I read a multitide of magazines - some fun and some serious. I always have several books on the go. Every evening I spend some time writing in a journal and then read (or dip into as I really think of it) anywhere from a few to many pages of 'inspirational' books. But you know, as much as I have always loved fiction, I absolutely can no longer read fiction. I try .... I read book reviews and purchase novels that really interest me. I start them ... eventually they sit, mostly unread on my table until I finally pack them away - embarassed I have neglected to pick them up again and finish them. I think I see every abandoned book as a failure.

Lately, the books I have been reading are travel books and memoirs written about lives lived in other countries or travels in other countries. This seems to satisfy, at least a bit, the overwhelming urge I have to take off to exotic places.

I have always loved to travel. It goes hand in hand with a sense of curiosity and love of learning. Travel satisfies both of those urges and inspires an interest in new things. It is impossible to take a trip - any trip - and come back without some new inspiration or interest. The last few years though I have been mainly returning to familiar places. Not that this is a bad thing ... when I go to either London or Barbados I feel I am going home. I could live in London and I have lived in Barbados. I love both places deeply. But it is time to branch out. I have vowed to myself that as of 2008, it is time to start traveling again and time to step out of the familiar.

I do have a trip to London in October .... planned and booked before the vow. Once I made this decison, I started researching. I research not because I have to have everything planned, but rather because it allows me to learn about places. I first thoght of South America - I definitely want to go there. But I somehow landed on Africa as my next destination. I'm having a lot of fun reading about different possibilities in Africa. The more I read, the more completely fascinated I become. I've been renting any movies I can find that are set in Africa ... just to watch the scenery. For the travel starved, movies are a good way to transport yourself for a bit.

Blogs are another way .... my friend Kelly is partly responsible for this latest urge to travel. I was lucky enough to be on a couple of Kelly's travelogue emails and of course read her blog entries. So, I also vow to start writing about the daily discoveries and meanderings the my reading takes me through. I hope to use the internet extensively in this.

I also plan to sit by the little stream near where I live that has become my favourite meditation spot and let the universe speak to me. That might sound flaky, but I find if I shut off some of the noise, the universe actually does speak. It might tell me where I need to go to find what I'm supposed to find.

Time to Catch Up

As usual when I look at the date of my last post, I wonder why my posts are so infrequent. That thought is always followed by the urge to start writing regular posts again.

I have had a quiet introspective summer. I've done lots of long walks and lots of examining and thinking. Fitness and sports always figure largely in my life ..... due to an injury I haven't been able to run for about 6 months now. Putting everyting in perspective the injury is pretty minor - torn knee cartilage. The diagnosis was long in coming - it took 5 months, 4 different chiropractors and 2 sports doctors to finally get the correct diagnosis. I was very relieved to finally know what was (is) causing the problem - I found out about a month ago. By that time I could hardly walk - I was treating it all wrong having been told first it was a Baker's Cyst and then a muscle in the back of my knee. However, once I knew what the problem actually was, and started a recovery program for that, it started getting a lot better. So now I am doing most things again except running. Lots of gym work is strengthening the area around the knee. This will help with the recovery once I have surgery - not sure when I'll get in for surgery but I hope sometime later in the year. I think skiing will be out for this year.

You know, as wonderful as the summer has been here, I am looking forward to autumn. I love crisp fall days and wearing fall/winter clothes. I always feel better put together in the winter. There is just someting about high, heeled black boots that makes everything look better.

I also have a trip scheduled to London in October. This is the other reason I am happy to finally understand the knee injury - for a while I thought I would have to cancel the trip. Anyhow, as long as I avoid stairs and take it somewhat easy, I hope the knee will hold up.

I realize the other problem with not posting anything for 2 months is the amount of catch up required in starting again. So much news ..... actually, lots of news but not much change.