Motivation for the week

What a difference an productive/enjoyable/relaxing weekend makes. I feel so much more motivated to kick of the week on a good note rather than fall into the Monday blues, both at work and from a personal perspective.

The crisp Saturday morning shined bright and was the perfect send-off for the local farmers' market. We put in our winter meat CSA order, bought some farm-fresh eggs and vegetables, and marvelled at the beautiful, colourful ears of corn.

Last year in California, the weather pretty much sustained farmers' markets all year round. It's a very different story in Illinois, and while it makes the winter sadder for me, at least I have next summer to look forward to. 

A few more errands in the morning was followed up an hour of training at the local Wushu school. I'm finally feeling like my body is getting back into the groove and the tiny, little muscles all along the shoulders, hips, legs and ankles are finally co-operating with me again. 

As a reward for training so hard, I baked Tim Tams! Not really. Well, I did back Tim Tams but not as a reward, but for a bake sale at M's work. They turned out to be a lot of effort, and are nowhere near as attractive as the commercially available ones, but I like to think they're even better because they're made with love (and certainly not because you can't buy them here in the USA without spending a fortune).

Sunday kicked off with a circuit morning workout which is always more fun when M decides to join me in the apartment gym, followed by the chore that is house-cleaning. Lunch and shopping with new friends at the outlet stores to stock up on clothes for the 'cooler ' months (puffy jackets seem de rigour for winter) followed by more baking capped the weekend. 

All that, plus fitting in some yoga and Rosetta Stone Portuguese lessons means I feel accomplished, but rested. Not a bad mindset heading into the work week. 

Time for a few work calls, then a sweaty workout, and more work calls. Monday, you're going to be awesome. 

Experimenting with Meals

I’ve lost count of the number of blogs I’ve started then stopped after a few months (apart from EdiblePosts which is still trudging along with a lonely post every month or so). Started because I really just wanted to write. Stopped because I had too-high expectations of how often I would write and internal conflicts on what I should write about. So the remedy is to simply write about what pleases me. That generally revolves around food, fitness, travel and all the hobbies that are baubles that hold my attention for a brief period of time (or quite a long time if they’re especially shiny).

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a master of nothing, but an experimenter in plenty of different fields. Which is what makes life fun to me.

One such example, after reading a few of Michael Pollan’s and Mark Bittman’s books on eating and cooking, my newest experiment is to eat vegan before dinner, then eat without food-group restrictions for dinner. I’m on Day 2, and the experiment is somewhat contaminated already by a lapse in vegan-ness in breakfast for Day 2.

To be honest though, breakfast was still vegetarian (eggs) and M cooked it for me I have no reason to complain at all. So far though, my ‘as according to plan’ meals have been looking like this:

Breakfast: oats in flaxmilk with berries, nuts and flaxseed + a vegan protein powder and greens smoothie

Lunch: massive salad with vegetables, grapes, and beans

Dinner: a meaty stew (as a nod to the cooling autumn weather)

All supplemented of course by a steady supply of coffee and (new!) teas. Tea shops are my candy store. Farmers Markets are too, but that’s a different story.

I’ll be travelling for work for 2 days starting tomorrow though, so I’ll keep on track with both food and workouts as much as is sensible. Life is a balancing game of good nutrition, movement and managing stress though, so I refuse to let myself be stressed out if I ‘slip-up’ in any way.