4 posts tagged “health”

I woke up the first day of the year, really wanting to write a recap of my year.  I skimmed back through the first months of last year because I thought I would have done something in a small way then, and I didn't.  So next year, I'll have this to look back on and see where I've grown.  Anyhow, I fought with myself on how to present it.  I fought with myself to sit down and actual type over the course of a few days it so that I had this remembrance to look back on.  And then I fought with myself on how to end it because there's so much to it, and so much more in my life I could be introspective about...

The biggest things that I am proud and/or excited about of this year are my reading, cooking, listening (music/podcasts), knitting, gaming, and watching.  So much that I wrote whole posts on them.  Some of the other things that I did this year were also very fun or important to me, but they weren't worth a whole post!

I blogged this year.  

After knit

This was done mostly here on Vox.  Sometimes, my blogging just took the form of updating my media lists for books and movies, because I just didn't have the time or energy to write real posts.  I also added some delicious links to my main blog (automatically), got a facebook account to track friends there, and did private posts on my livejournal.  

I also moblogged this year, continuing to carry my camera phone with me everywhere and taking random pictures to remind me of things we did.  Even though a lot of these turn into self-portraits, I don't mind.

I took pictures with both my phone for easy moblogging and my camera.  My camera photos are mostly of family events or special things, and many of these are not in Vox yet, just iPhoto.  But there are a lot of knitting photos in that pile, as well.  Those, I used the FlickrExport to send to my Flickr account (which I've by now caught up with the limitations of a free account) so I could use them both on Ravelry and pull them into Vox as needed.

I dealt with my health this year. 

I made conscious decisions to do things to reduce my stress level and help my CFIDS/Fibromyalgia.  Even though this was one of the worst years in the last 5 years for my health, I feel slightly better at the end of the year.  I also made a set of visits to the dentist to have fillings done, even though it's still very scary to me.

I traveled this year.

Ca trip palms

We started out the year in California on our trip last Christmas and so we had a long drive for that trip.  Then in June, I went to San Francisco for work.  Also in June, we visited the beach with the whole Locatis family.  In July, we flew down to California for a friend's birthday and had a wonderful time with friends and family.

We also did exploring local places.  We spent a bit more time learning what was here in Vancouver that we hadn't seen, and went to the Farmers Market many times over the course of the late spring-early autumn, which is also a nice chance to walk around Esther Short Park.  We visited new restaurants in the area, which is very adverturesome of me because I  usually stick with the same things I know.  And we went to the fancy theater, Cinetopia, several times as well.  Some of this, I got a chance to Yelp about, and other things I just read reviews before visiting to see what other people thought.

We went down to our favorite outdoor mall, Bridgeport Plaza several times, and once down to the Woodburn Outlet mall.  At least one time to Washington Square in Beaverton, as well.  We enjoy window shopping the most out of going to these places, and usually my reasoning for going has to do with the food that's nearby.

We even ventured into Portland more than we have in the past!  We visited the Pearl district a number of times to go to PF Changs and surrounding area including Powells, and made it to the Saturday Market further down from there.  We made it to an outdoor art show at one point, too.  And multiple trips to Pioneer Place were nice for going to the closest Apple store and more.

I spent time with family this year.  

We participated and helped with Megan's wedding in February, and that was a big wonderful event.  Our trip to the beach with everyone on the Locatis family side was a good chance for us to relax together.  We spend many weekends getting together through the year, with dad or one of us (usually dad) cooking for the whole group.  We visited with E's family after the new year, during several trips when they came up to visit at the beginning of the year, and then when we went down in July.  One of the fun things this year has been to watch Leah and baby Leonard (my niece and nephew) grow, and do fun things for them.  We've also had a lot of fun playing games together throughout the year with both sides of the family.

I met up with friends this year.

I have a really hard time reconnecting with people from my past.  This year, I took time to meet up with a friend from college, and even more amazingly, a friend from high school.  Even though I was super nervous, both meetings went so much better than my nightmares lead me to believe they would.  It makes me think I'm not as awful with people as I think, and maybe I'm starting to heal from past situations a little too.

But mostly, I've just learned how to be Kristine.  That's always a challenge, to be myself.  And this year, I grew more comfortable in that, even though it was another year where I had to say that I was in the 30-40 age range on questionaires.  I embrace my ISTJ-ness and do things consistent rather than trying to be something I'm not.

Thanks for bearing with me through this series of posts, even as the days of the month moved faster than my typing.  

My favorite new trick for shopping and planning is to take a piece of printer paper and fold it in half.  On one side, I write my meal ideas, and on the other side, my grocery list.  The meal ideas are divided into boxes with the main dish and any side things that go along with it.  I try to write more ideas than I need and then E and I narrow it down, and then I have more for next week.  My grocery list is roughly written up like the order of the store, but that is easier said than done when filling it out. :)  In the middle of the page, I put my coupon envelope.  I've been trying to clip more coupons to save money, and the easiest way to keep track is to actually write the coupon list (with expiration) on the outside and then cross them off as I use them and it can be used as many weeks as I want.  Also, before I start writing my list, I evaluate what is most on sale that week at Safeway and try to plan meals around that.  Between that and the couples, it is a nice money-saving idea.  So this whole thing is working super!

• Pear Apple Omelets (allrecipes, added apples for some of the pears) with grilled hash browns on the grill.  Unique, but it got a little burnt on the bottom (my fault, not the recipe) so I'd be mre careful in the future.
  
• Mexican meal, including burritos with rice, fajita grilled veges (peppers, onions, bit of fresh garlic), grilled chicken for me/grilled fake chicken stripes for E, and homemade corn chips out of corn tortillas. Served with a pina colada like drink out of pina colada mix, pinnapple, and coconut milk
• Macaroni and Cheese (family fav on theredkitchen) with carrots (allrecipes, with lemon zest and plum jam instead)and rolls (allrecipes, added cheese). Gooey bars (allrecipes, modified for what I had on hand; less cream cheese, added sweetened condensed milk, added nuts and coconut, and less powdered sugar as suggested in the comments) for desert.  This meal took some coordinating, but it was sure good!
  
• Pita sandwiches. Muffuletta spread (previously tried from Simple and Delicious)and tofurky sausage for E, turkey sausage on mine.
• Big salads with lots of veges and meat, and pitas with cheese broiled on top
• Pasta salad (family fav on theredkitchen) with hawaiian cheesy bread (previously tried from Simple and Delicious) and raspberry smoothies (vanilla yogurt, raspberry/pineapple/orange sherbert, freshly frozen raspberries, and sprite).

For lunches, I've been eating fruits and veges or leftovers.  We did eat out a little more over the last week + because it was our anniversary and some other things went on.  We've got a nice stockpile of good leftovers because of making a bunch extra Pasta salad tonight, and one more big meal planned for this week.  Next week, or this weekend, I think we'll have a trip to Costco in store, and there is one meal in particular I like to have after that trip, and maybe I can find more good on-sale things and some new frozen fruit for smoothies too (besides the normal stuff we need to go for: laundry soap, TP, light bulbs, ya know)

I'm looking forward to continuing on with this (posts taggeed "meal planning"), it's really fun for me to look back at what I've made and share with my friends here :)

One of my goals in being healthier includes getting back to eating breakfast.  I had been doing a pretty bad job at remembering to do that.  E sometimes comes home for lunch early, so if I get a late start on my day, I don't want to eat breakfast only to have lunch 2 1/2 hours later or something!  And I like having the time to eat lunch with E, so skipping that isn't as nice of an idea.

One thing I have found I'm enjoying, and it gives me more energy for the day, is a new one at our grocery store, Weight Control Oatmeal.  I really didn't get it for the weight-control reason, but because it's got 7g of protein and 6g of fiber, and one packet is 2 services of whole grains.  It's also got considerably less added sugar than their other versions.  That's pretty good stats!  My mom recently informed me that her doctor said cinnamon was really good for you (the paper she gave me says "one teaspoon taken with food can increase the metabolism several times over", and it's also supposed to aid in digestion), so I've been adding extra cinnamon to my cereal, along with a handful of raisins, both before it's cooked.  (this is not an ad by any means, just my experience!)

I'm still having a hard time getting downstairs and not getting caught up with other tasks I want to do early in the day, but I'm sure trying harder to remember.  Even if I can do this a few times a week, I think it will help with my overall health.

Do you have any good tips on your fav breakfasts on a week day? :)

One thing I've been researching lately is the idea of getting a George Foreman grill.  I've personally been thinking about how nice it would be to make my own grilled chicken on top of a salad, or a chicken salad sandwich without using those little cans.  And then when we were at the beach, I used a griddle for making french toast, and that was so nice that I wouldn't mind having that option.  The G5 with 5 interchangable plates is looking awful good so that it could do more than just the normal grill does.  Then it would do waffles, too, and even though we have a waffle maker, this might be nicer and it's only one appliance to move around.

Since E's a vegetarian and I'm not, I can think of way  more things that *I* could use this for than him, but I've seen recipes for paninis and quesadillas that had me thinking.  He thinks he could grill vege-meat, too, so that might make for some nice ideas.  I'd also love to try grilling vegetables, like zucchini and peppers and stuff like that.

I'm trying to feel more health conscious, and so I think this might help give me better options for lunches than just a cheese sandwich and chips every day (okay, it's not every day, but I'm just not making the most varied choices at this time!)

Do any of you have a george foreman grill?  What do you use it for most?

Note to self: a couple of lists of recipes I found on about.com: indoorgrills indoorgrills2

Listening to: Gavin DeGraw's I Don't Wanna Be, Nickleback's Next Contestant, Anna Nalick's Wreck of the Day, K's Choice's Virgin State of Mind