day 4. what's that??

mmm, tea

I ate the granola I made last week again, and again I noticed that my stomach hurt. Too many occurrences for it not to be coincidental--yep, I'm reacting to whatever gluten contamination is in my oats. Drat!  No fair.  However, I will obtain GF certified oats, and make more granola--this time PUMPKIN. Watch for it.

But, when I finally woke up enough this morning and felt a bit better, I decided to do a barre3 video for 30 minutes, which was pretty nice--L even came out and did part of it with me (since I disrupted his sleep and all).  Anyway, after finishing my shower, I poked my abs a bit, and I saw it: my oblique muscles, showing through. Whaaaat?  Never in my life have I had definition in my abs, and there was a bit of something starting. Amazing!

The other thing that popped into my head, however, when I was looking in the mirror was that I was happy with my body. Since I've often bashed myself in my own head and generally wished I was different (oh, my pear shape! my long arms and legs that fail to fit clothes properly!), this is a pleasant change.  In fact, I have to say that I have very rarely thought negatively about my body in the past couple of months, mostly since I started doing more yoga and began barre3. A regular yoga practice in addition to regular strength training has made me feel strong and confident and proud of my body and what it can do.  Sure, I don't have a totally flat stomach (and probably won't ever, or at least not anytime soon), but I like how my body looks and how even when it's changing, it's still me. And better than those ab muscles: being able to hold boat pose LIKE A BOSS.

Tonight, I'm ending my day with a bit of turmeric tea.  Turmeric has been attributed with a bunch of potential health benefits (some seem a bit overstated, but some seem reasonable), one of which is calming inflammation. With all this work I'm asking my body to do, I figured I'd best take care of it, and if drinking a delightful turmeric tea helps my muscles repair themselves and calms my digestive tract, then I'll give it a go.  Plus, it's pretty delicious.  

stir up the honey, add some hot water, squeeze in the lemon.

I made this batch according to Heidi's recipe (from 101 Cookbooks), but I think the next time, I'll add a bit of ginger, or maybe start grating some fresh ginger into the brew--ginger also has anti-inflammatory properties, and it happens to pair nicely with the flavors of turmeric, honey, and lemon.

day 3
Breakfast: yogurt and the cursed granola, then leftover veggies and an egg
Lunch: spring rolls with veggies and tempeh and delicious spicy almond sauce, raw banana oat bars
Dinner: A riff on this barre3 recipe, except instead of spinach, I used arugula, and I threw it all over a bed of lettuce and put a bit of sriracha on it.
Snacks: an apple, celery with sunflower butter, barre3 bar, dates + sunflower butter (still a little snack heavy, but I felt more conscious of my foods today)

exercise: 30 minute barre3 workout, 3 mi run, yoga

PS: I saw that there's a new 40 minute video posted that looks really, really fun, so I'll give it a try tomorrow!