Friday, November 16, 2007

Friday Quote Day

It's always something.
Roseanne Roseannadanna


The astute among you will note that I haven't mentioned exercise in a couple of days. I'm glad to report that my feet are healing well. I'm down to just calluses now, and while I don't think they'll go away completely, I'm able to walk – and probably run – with ease. I'd intended to resume running after Thanksgiving, but I might give it a try sometime this week.

In the past week, I've had random pain in my left arm/shoulder/bicep. It seems to migrate and is sometimes excruciating. Like in the middle of the night when I turn over in my sleep in just such a way as to create a piercing stab, painful enough to wake me up.

Dr. Internet is as baffled as I am. It may be a muscle tear or strain, caused by either rowing or lifting. But I think I would have felt something during the activity, which I didn't.

What's odd about it is that sometimes I don't notice it at all, and then I'll go to open a door or lift a coffee mug and bam! [I'm channeling Emiril here.]

My new BFF is Aleve. Actually Aleve is my old BFF, but I've come to appreciate it even more this week.

To compensate for not being able to exercise, I've been watching what I eat like a college football official watches the field of play. [Except the one in Arizona last night who missed a 15-yard facemask violation that would have put Arizona within field goal range. But the Wildcats pulled off the upset anyway, which is good for everyone ranked lower than second but higher than seventh in the BCS. That would include West Virginia. Heh.]

In addition to eliminating alcohol from my diet 17 years ago – and alcohol pretty much was my diet back then – I also stopped eating sugar, only to begin again five years later. Did you read that? Five years sugar-free! This past Monday, on my AA anniversary, I decided to give it another go. It's not like I was chowing down on sweet stuff day in and day out, but I found that on a day I ate sugary treats, I wanted more, more, more. It might as well be crack. At least that's how my body reacts to it.

As an experiment, I bought a bag of Hershey's Kisses and put them in an open candy dish in the living room. I haven't touched them since I put them in the bowl. Now I realize Hershey's Kisses aren't the be-all and end-all of chocolatey goodness, but they're little and relatively harmless and easy to eat. And I've passed them by all week long.

It's kinda crazy, starting a sugar-free lifestyle right before the holidays. I've long thought I should give it up again, but couldn't summon up the mental effort to follow through. Crazy or not, somehow now it feels like the right thing to do.

Finally.

3 comments:

Crayons said...

Hi Knitter

I come to you via Maspik Teruzim's blog.

Congratulations on your 17th anniversary. That's a momentous occasion.

It's funny that I happend to read your post this morning. I'd been off of sugar for 7 weeks. I didn't really miss it and I felt great. But somehow I slipped back to putting sugar in my tea. And then it was accepting a hand-delivered cookie at work. Then it was a little bag of peanut m&ms. And now I feel gross. I'm so glad you wrote this.

I'm having this last bit of sugary tea this morning and then I'm going to jump back on the wagon.

Laura N said...

First, I am so sorry to hear about your injury. That just sucks. I hope it heals quickly.

Second, 5 years sugar free?! Holy crap, that's amazing.

Third, going sugar free again and feeling good about it is also amazing.

Fourth, buying Hershey Kisses as an experiment is a freaking hoot. You are a strong woman.

Fifth, holiday food is so overated. Seriously, you feel like crap after you eat it and then you just want more 3 hours later. So going sugar free now is a pretty brilliant idea.

Especially if you can nonchalantly pass by those Kisses for an entire week. Wow.

Hope your weekend is happy and that pain goes away soon!

mehitabel said...

Hershey Kisses don't tempt me--I just tossed the leftover Easter ones! I've been on more of a salt binge lately, and here I used to be a total sugar freak! I usually manage to start trying to diet just before the holidays, which is really a setup for failure. This year, no diet, just being careful, and my major source of sugar will be the sweet new baby in the family!