Author: Grace

It’s been about three months of blog-writing and this is my last post.

My main complaint three months ago was that of back and shoulder pain.  This has improved significantly over the months through a combination of chiropractor visits, stretching, and yoga.  I still have some soreness from time to time but not nearly as often as I used to.

As for fitness, it’s been a constant struggle to keep motivated and my workouts have been on and off.  I’m currently on another “off” phase.  Despite this, my fitness assessment last week showed improvements over my assessment in June, albeit minor improvements.

One thing that has been a bit of a concern for me is the fact that I have been sick quite often this year.  Nothing serious but I’ve had a cold about three times in the past year.  My latest ailment is an allergic reaction to i-don’t-know-what.  I woke up on Monday morning and my face was very swollen.  It was so bad that my eyes were almost swollen shut.  I also had a rash all over my body.  The swelling in my face has since gone but the rash is still here after five days.  I’ve been taking antihistamines and that has helped somewhat.  The problem is that I don’t know what I am allergic to so I don’t know what to avoid.  I had an allergy test done some years ago and the only things that came up were cats and dust.

Thanks for reading!

I’m back from a vacation to London, England.  I had a great time visiting friends, shopping, eating, etc.  The dog in the photo is Raul and he belongs to my friend, Laura, whom I stayed with in London.

A friend of a friend in London had H1N1 (now recoverd) so I was conscious of that and I carried a bottle of hand sanitizer with me at all times.  I was avoiding certain foods (trying to at least) before I left to London that came out positive during a food sensitivity test.  I didn’t manage to keep this up during my stay in London, allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

I guess like many people on vacation, trying to maintain healthy habits was not my priority.  I drank very little water in order to avoid dirty public washrooms but drank more wine than usual (you can’t go to England without going to a few pubs), and indulged in over-eating including late night, post-pub friend chicken.  Before my vacation, I did a decent job avoiding potato chips which is one of my favourite snack foods.  But in London, I succumbed to the temptation and munched on prawn cocktail flavoured chips (very yummy) almost every night.  My justification: we don’t have that flavour in Canada so I must enjoy them as much as I can while in London.

After a week of jet lag and gaining too much weight, I am trying to be more disciplined about what I consume.  Starting today, I will try to avoid wheat and gluten.  I also developed eczema while away.  Perhaps the eczema was the result of the climate but I have a suspicion that it may be due to what I was eating.  Nevertheless, despite the weight gain and the eczema on my face, the trip was worth it.

I’ve gained a few pounds over the last few weeks.  Hoping to lose it so my clothes will fit more comfortably.  The weight gain may be due to the fact that I stopped going to the gym.  However, I think it is more accurate to attribute it to food intake.

We are ingrained with the belief that the key to losing weight is to exercise.  Research is now showing that the importance of exercise in a weight loss plan has been overstated.  The key to losing weight is diet.  Obviously exercise is important to stay healthy but if one is hoping to lose weight, rethink diet.  Exercise alone may not provide results.

This makes a lot of sense to me.  A strenuous workout may barely burn off the calories from that doughnut you had as an afternoon snack.  So if the goal is to lose weight, the workout would have been in vain.  Just something to think about for people who like to reward themselves with a treat post workout.

I’ll be on vacation for the next two weeks so blogging duties will fall to Shierley herself.

Although I haven’t actually weighed myself recently, I”m sure I’ve gained a few pounds in the last few weeks.  This is not really surprising as I have been eating more than I should be and I have stopped exercising.  Will need to be careful.

Last week, I wrote that I am supposed to avoid cheese and bread.  It is not really working out well.  Obviously need to work on my willpower.  I went out to dinner with some friends last night for pasta.  It is close to impossible to avoid cheese and bread at an Italian restaurant.  I decided to have one piece of garlic bread.  Then another.  Then another.  I’m sure I ate the most bread by the end of the evening.  After dinner, one friend invited us to his apartment for drinks and there was a lovely selection of cheeses.  I tried to resist for a while.  Then I reasoned that it would be offensive to the host if I did not eat some cheese after all his hard work of going to the store, carrying the cheese home, and placing them on a plate.  I did not want to be a rude guest so I ate the cheese.