Exercise non-guilt

Hey my friends!

As I mentioned previously, this weekend involved lots of physical inactivity. The first heat wave of the summer always tends to knock the energy right out of me, but I positively relished my three days of cooking, reading, and getting ahead on work. But it also lead to some reflecting…

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Now what I’m about to say is just my opinion. I’ve noticed a lot of people in my life and in the blog world have experience with exercise guilt, and the reason I’m bringing it on my blog is because I feel like I have a different perspective. If you don’t feel like reading, then feel free to scroll ahead to some lovely pictures of corn bread!

Though I am well-acquainted with the guilt monster, I can’t say that I’ve ever dealt with exercise guilt. I think we all have different ways that we evaluate our bodies and whether or not I’ve moved a certain amount each day hasn’t really affected how I view mine. Growing up, I played outside, I lived in town where we walk most places, and I occasionally made my way to the gym. But I wasn’t cognizant of how being active made my body better in any way.

Even when I started reading fitness magazines as a teenager I didn’t think any of the content really applied to me. Call me crazy, bu I’ve always been pretty skeptical of how doing 60 squats three times a week could somehow morph me into a Beyonce lookalike. Whenever I’ve “worked out”, it’s never been to achieve something. It’s usually because I just wanted to move. If my butt got a little perkier, then cool.

Three years ago I started having pain symptoms that are now a “normal” part of my daily life. One major side effect of this the serious physical limitations of my body. During the worst stretches I was either on the couch or in bed twenty-four hours a day for weeks. I know this sounds like a nightmare to a lot of people, but I’m so grateful that during that time not once did I think about losing my mileage or getting out of shape. I missed moving around, but I never felt bad about it – what could I do?

I also think about the many people in this world with severe physical handicaps, including some of the people I’ve volunteered with. I never heard them express feelings of guilt because they weren’t more mobile.

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I’m not knocking exercise by any means. I credit a lot of my pain improvements to physical therapy and that is certainly a form of exercise. I would never say that exercise is unhealthy. I guess what I want to offer to anyone reading is that there are other ways to measure our bodies than by how much movement we get each day. Sometimes I see the most awesome, smart, inspiring women deduce their entire self-image to how many miles they ran each day. It makes me so sad!

At the end of the day, our body is just a vessel for all of the wonderful things we carry around inside of us! I know that even though my body doesn’t do what I’d like it to most days, I am still the same person. I can still love and learn and have a sense of humor. And I wouldn’t trade any exercise goal for those abilities.

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I’m not trying to preach to you all or anything, and I hope it doesn’t sound that way. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me and that’s 100% okay! We all have a unique life experience that shapes our view on things and this is mine. I just wanted to share my perspective.

But now I’m turning it over to you guys, because I’m really interested to hear YOUR thoughts! Specifically, do you think that some people get too wrapped up in activity level as a way of measuring body image? How should we be thinking about things differently?

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Before I depart, here are smeats from yesterday.

Pretty typical food for ninety degree weather.

Cornbread and (lots of) watermelon.

Favorite salad combo.

Carrots for studying.

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Then there was the…oatmeal?

Banana protein oats in a cashew butter jar.

I had made these a couple of days ago and stuck them in the fridge because I changed my mind on what I wanted. I ate them cold for dinner last night and it was great.

Have a happy Tuesday!

Jam of the day: The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”

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Cornbread and the Oregon Trail

Howdy!

Since I now have access to amazing local eggs, there is one recipe that I’ve been jonesing to make: cornbread.

I’m sure there are plenty of great eggless cornbread recipes out there, but polly’s cornbread requires eggs and her recipe is my favorite.

I probably could have made a Sunday dinner out of cornbread alone, but I also cooked up some snobby joes, another favorite.

Bon appetit!

Why yes, that slice of cornbread is bigger than my face, thank you for noticing.

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While I was eating dinner, I was chatting with one of best friends and we started talking about The Oregon Trail. Not the actual trail, the computer game. And I mean the 2-dimensional first edition where you spent 90% of the time watching your little wagon cruise across a green screen representing grass.

I actually played this in school (for what, history class?) and I remember being pretty into it. How could I not be, being bombarded with breaking news like “Ellen has a broken arm” or “Jack has cholera”? Of course I took this very seriously – their lives were in my hands! And don’t get me started on the anticipation of fording the river.

I’m pretty sure The Oregon Trail died out and was replaced with scary games that I don’t know the names of but probably don’t hold a candle to Mary’s dysentery. I guess times were a lot simpler then*.

*In elementary school in the early nineties I mean, not on the actual Oregon Trail.

Jam of the day: Queen “Bicycle Race”

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Holiday weekend foodfest

I’ve just been reading and eating my way through this lovely holiday weekend. Even though I’m at school, it truly does feel like I’m on holiday. Even the students who are here went home for the weekend so it’s just me! Okay not really, but it feels like it.

I’m also using these three days as an opportunity to get ahead on some work. Therefore, on certain upcoming weekends where I do want to/need to go home, I won’t have to take school with me.

But truthfully, 95% of my time has been spent reading, cooking food, and eating food. I’ve been reading my book on the sofa because I recently learned that you’re not supposed to do anything in/on your bed except sleep (I can see where this may be a problem for some people). Apparently it helps your sleep because it “trains” your body to associate zzz’s with the mattress. I don’t know if it works, but it can’t hurt!

The lack of variety in my daily activity means I don’t have much to show for myself except food. So here’s some recent eats (Friday and Saturday I think?):

I’ve had a bit of a Kamut puffs with fruit addiction.

With almond milk and cinnamon, of course.

How’d that get in there?

Spinach salad with carrots, broccoli, garbanzo beans, and sunflower seeds.

Watermelon, cut by me!

Refreshing raw ‘fu.

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I also made a huge bash of refried beans using an onion, a green pepper, a zucchini, and…broccoli stalks! I ate the first half with brown rice tortilla chips…

And the other half with the broccoli crowns.

I was a little nervous about using the stalks, but I texted my fellow bean lover and she assured me it would be okay! I didn’t even really notice them. But I hate to waste food, so I was glad to use it up!

What’s your most creative way to not waste food?

And happy holiday weekend to US readers!

Jam of the day: Grateful Dead “Fire On the Mountain”

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