The Song of Health

So, yesterday I was a munchie machine. I ate only healthy foods, but I had a slight hankering for a cigarette around 9:30 in the morning and my belly knew it was missing something. I ate and ate all day, but I ate really healthy foods and I tried to slow down and stop way before I went to bed. I need to make a point of remembering that breakfast is exactly what the word entails.   A Break of a Fast.

Alright so, I walked on the treadmill again last night for 30 minutes. it stated that I walked 1 mile and a half. It’s so much fun being able to hop on that treadmill, begin a movie and get my exercise for the day. It’s not everyday that I feel like walking all around the mountain with the puppies. It’s gorgeous here and I am sure that as soon as the weather gets a little better the door to the mountains around will call my name.My mood was just fine yesterday, I woke up listening to Shawn McDaniel. He is one of my favorite Christian Artists today. I really don’t like much Christian music, as I am a bit critical of the elements of style.  I had three classes and was inanely excited about each one. I am really loving this learning experience and I hope that next semester I am open to having another amazing schedule. I’d really like to take a science course next semester. I know I need to get Math out of the way, but I dread it. See, Math is not my forte. I can test high in every subject across the board. Genius brain, except when you put a math book in front of me. I don’t understand  that err in thought. It bothers me on some days, but I am faintly getting over it. I am very intelligent in every other field and numbers are easily transferred in and out of my synapses.

By the way – this is day 4 without a cigarette at all and day the 7th or 8th day of not smoking. I quit on either the 18th or the 19th of January. YEAH! Oh, I can’t wait for the vocal cords and the lungs to fully heal.

Alright, On with the eating schedule:

Yesterday I ate:

A Banana and Peanut Butter Sandwich on Whole Wheat

A huge cup of Coffee. My drug of choice at the moment.

A Colby Jack Cheese Stick

I had a blueberry and almond snack after class

I then proceeded to have another cup of coffee

and a protein bar – they are soooo yummy and they fill you up. Very satisfying and a pick me up for your brain

I then ate Panera Bread for lunch. At which, I ate:

A  1/2 Veggie Sandwich consisting of: tomatoes, cucumbers, Gorgonzola cheese, cilantro hummus, red onions on a Tomato Basil bread ( I did not care for this sandwich! The cilantro almost kicked me out of the booth I was dining in)

A  1/2 Caesar Salad with fresh lean chicken slices, romaine lettuce, 4-5 bread blocks  and and a bit of the red onions from my sandwich.

Drank water

small wheat baquette

I left and ate an apple on my way to work

Then while at the blastest bakery I’m working at I ate – a small red velvet cupcuke (very small) and a broken creme horn

I got home and ate a little hummus and bagel crisps – ehh about 6 or 7.  and ate half of a lemon bar. Yumm!

I finished my evening with a kiwi and hit the hay. Yumm, Yumm. I have got to leave out the Bakery stuff, so I can make this blog sound good. haha.

I then jogged on the treadmill and burned about 200+ of those calories. And drank 2-3 glasses of water before hitting my bed. It was a good day. Ike’s face over the Skype was such a pleasant surprise.

So, weeks are going to be considered Sunday through Saturday. This week I have already walked/jogged about 6 miles at a 5% incline. I’m so excited!! hehe.

Screw that smoking stuff. It’s nasty any way. Kiwis taste much better

Today I ate:

A Colby Jack Cheese Stick

A Hot Pocket Breakfast Sandwich – although I didn’t want to – lol. 14g frams of fat and like 300 Calories. No Fiber, No Nutrients.

2 Cups of Coffee

1/2 Chicken Salad Sand on Whole Wheat

A Protein Bar made from Whey Protein containing 15g of Protein and 3g of Fiber. Very low in Saturated Fats, although alarmingly high in fat – 170 Calories. Very Satisfying

1 – 1/2 cups Butternut Squash

A Salad made from Spinach and Organic Greens with a pinch of Parmesan Cheese and Cheddar Cheese, Salt and Pepper drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar

A Heaping Tablespoon of Hummus with 6 bagel chips to eat with it. Bagel Chips coming in at 130 cals.

A half glass of wine

2 cups of water – which now I have to pee

a handful of blueberries

a handful of almonds

I then exercised for a little over an hour. Walking about 4 miles. Burning about 600 Calories. Lovely. I walked at an incline of about 6 %

I watched Half of Botany of Desire by Michael Pollen a book I have been dying to read for about 5 months.

I also took a MultiVitamin, A ZInc, A

Vitamin E and Beta Carotene 25,000 IU

Now, I’m having a hard time falling asleep

1) because I wasn’t able to finish the 2nd half of the Botany documentary

2) because (I’m supposing) I ate almonds and blueberries and walked 4 or more miles before tucking my buns into bed.

Hopefully working at the Bakery won’t turn my buns into complete honey buns. Haha.

You’re supposed to laugh.

p.S. I am a 23 year old, 63 inch tall, white female who weighs in at 141 pounds. According to some calculators my BMI is right at the Normal Limit before entering into overweight and my Body Fat Percentage is at 28.5%. 30% is considered overweight. Oh, I’m pushing it. lol.

I’m going to try and make this blog as interesting as possible, considering it is about one of the most trivial – yet important topics on the face of this earth. The wellness of an individual is often underrated, especially in America. I am trying to instill a sense of wellness or health (per say) into my daily life. To somewhat make Wellness my goal through many practices that are supposed to bring about health. Wellness meaning the over all wellbeing of my person. Mentally, Physically and Spiritually. I think that all of these things have some kind of inherent link and I’d like to divulge in such.  I am going to try to see if I can have a world in which my life is well balanced in all three.

I quit smoking a few days ago. Thursday would have been three, but I broke down and smoked a cigarette from the ashtray of my car (disgusting) and then proceeded to ask a friend for a cigarette. I do believe that I am at a bit of an advantage point in my life for quitting smoking. I just moved to the top of a mountain on which I am about 15 miles from town. I do not know anyone yet in this town except for members of my family whom are all smoke free. My aunt has a treadmill in the basement and there are trails leading to the spring  that feeds most of the water for her homestead. I am truly blessed to be here at the moment. I am also newly attending college at a Community College and I am working for a small, artistic bakery in town. The Community College does not allow smoking except for in your personal vehicle and I haven’t met anyone that smokes at the bakery yet. The cards are in my favor. So, if  Thursday would have made 3 days – I have been almost 96 hours without smoking a single cigarette and within almost 7 days I have only had 3 1/2 cigarettes. I laugh as I type that, knowing that it was so hard not to lie about that number. It’s amazing how disgusting cigarettes have become in the lives of Americans.

I have noticed a significant increase in my energy since I have abandoned the nicotine. My lung capacity has already improved, and the first couple of days there was a slight lingering feeling as if a yawn was about to take place, but yet it never did. At first, I did not know how to expel the new found energy so I began to indulge in more frequent sexual behavior – until I realized the source. My brain was getting more oxygen and I was unfamiliar with the new allotment of time and energy. I quickly realized this and went for a jog. I ran 1.86 miles and felt wonderful! Truly wonderful. My skin was tingling, and that irritable edge was so quickly nullified that when my Aunt returned home – I didn’t even wander off to my room. I wanted to chat and talk to her about this new found wonder of energy. Mind you, I’m 23. I should have this energy. but smoking caused my singing voice (trained muscles since age 5) to almost completely deteriorate. I couldn’t sing the octaves I was familiar in and my once 2nd seat First Soprano voice was now a raspy alto voice, reminiscent of early jazz musicians = almost the likes of a feminine Louie Armstrong. I used to be able to hold my breath for 3 laps across the swimming pool underwater, but now was frightened even to try. I used to run a mile in under 7 minutes, and now the thought of running made me tired.

I also suffer from Acne. I wash my face every day and night with a Clinique Acne Solutions System that has worked in the past. I still suffer from acne. I have red patches under both cheeckbones. Slight blemishes around the side-fronts of my chin and sometimes acne is found  around the front of my ears, where my cheek meets the ear. I didn’t really aquire this acne until the age of 20. I also began smoking at age 20.

This blog is really a tracking of outside entities and health changes in my life. I’d like to better my singing voice, my overall health and track my physicality, mental wellness and spiritual life. Each day I will report something from each group and keep a track of my exercise for that day and the foods I have eaten. Have I nourished my mind with knowledge from books, movies or internet sources? Have I enticed my senses with spiritual or religious concepts? Have I tickled my taste buds with berries or earthy grains? And how does all this effect my wellbeing, my mood, success and relationships. Let’s find out shall we.