Be Gentle With You

My mother was here all day, and we worked hard.

One of the exterior doors of my house only had this tiny concrete pad, not big enough to even leave a pair of muddy shoes on because the door swings across the whole thing. My mother knew how to fix that! So, she did some measuring, we did some shopping…and digging and kneeling and leveling and aligning and sweating and apologizing to all the worms we displaced…and we have a nice, bigger landing. Now, in the 2^nd picture, you can see that we have spread sand in/on the cracks. We are waiting til the sand dries a bit before I sweep, sweep, sweep it back and forth across the cracks and it fills everything in to keep it solid and sturdy.

What does THIS have to do with Whole 30? Well, I was feeling really great the other day, so strong and danc-y. So, I guess I had high hopes for today, to be able to work hard in the sun and notice that I had more energy or strength than usual. It just didn’t happen that way. I was just as weak as usual, just as sore of a back as usual. There is nothing anywhere in the Whole 30 program that says your normally weak muscles will be super strong with lots of stamina…just because you ate meat, veggies, fruit, etc. for the last 11 days. There is nothing that says your back won’t hurt if it has hurt all day every day since 48 and you were 13 years old. It’s just that I have been feeling so great on regular going-to-work days that I kind of psyched myself up for today.

I don’t feel defeated or discouraged at all. I just had a reality check. My lifetime of not working out is kind of being highlighted now that I’m attending to my food intake. I am purposefully not exercising during this 30 days. Since it is not my habit to exercise, I have decided that even thought I feel like going for a walk or doing some ab work (because I can see slight changes in my body, which motivate me to exercise), I’m not doing it because I want to know what is affecting any changes I may experience. I had my blood work done on Day 1 of Whole 30. I want to know if this food regimen affects my cholesterol. I want to know if it affects my arthritis and sleep. If I start exercising, that will affect things, and I am dead serious that I want to know how food affects my health.

My intention is to attend to exercise when I have reintroduced the various food groups I am eliminating – and have a pretty good handle on how these affect me.

At the end of this physically demanding, very hot and draining day, I found that one of my strawberry plants is producing beautifully. I ate the first ripe strawberry from my garden this evening…and my dogs were jealous.