Today I am tired and sore but glad to be so. As I was working on my diagnosis I didn’t want to muddle my chronic pain symptoms with exercise related pain so I held off of any hard training. This means its been a few weeks since I did a serious swim- really since the QUAC swim. QUAC was awesome but it was very tough to recover from. I think because I was going through other stress and the gnawing pain in my ribcage (which in itself is a stressor) it made the recovery more difficult.
Anyway, I wanted to be able to tell my doctor for sure that the pain I was feeling was the chronic pain, not something from exercise. Also with labs and doctors visits I had to be careful to get my work hours in and that left less time for exercising; however, after a promising week of results with my thyroid medicine I felt like I was ready to get back to training. As much as I moan and groan about workouts I really do miss them when I can’t do them anymore. Especially swimming.
Today I met with my swim coach for the first time in over a month (crazy how fast the time goes!). He gave me a good workout- 1500 meters with intervals (250m fast, 250m slow, 200m fast, 200m slow…all the way down to 50m). It was intense and my arms felt heavy but it was awesome!
There is something about diving into the water that I find so therapeutic. There is a peace in the white noise of water that I love. You can scream under water and nobody knows. I find the minute I dive in my mind becomes clear and the repetition of the strokes allows me to mull over the problems in my life. Most importantly my body floats away, the pain with it. I don’t feel like a heavy girl in the water. I feel like I am flying!
It was great to get back in the water! Tomorrow I meet with my trainer, thursday swim with my friends and Saturday I am taking boxing lessons! I’m so excited about that! Yes, I’ve always wanted to take boxing lessons! There is a gym in Salt Lake that teaches boxing classes just for women. http://www.boxingisforgirls.com. I think it will be awesome. I took self defense at BYU and loved it. So, take notice and don’t tick me off in the future. I will be trained! 🙂
I got my first bountiful basket this Saturday! It was delicious! I’ve been enjoying the oranges this week and all the yummy vegetables. I made corned beef and cabbage on Sunday and that was yummy (my fridge is now stuffed with crockpot meals I’ve made the last few weeks!). Today I had a steak. My mother can not make steak. Cooks it to death. Once I learned how to make it right I love it! Its expensive and high in calories but for an occasional indulgence Ok. Especially after my intense swim. Don’t get too worried because with all my delicious veggies I made a massive salad to go with the steak!
There is something better about carefully selected produce. You don’t really realize it until you try the good stuff and there is such a difference. Yesterday I had dinner at Anna’s and she made ginger ice cream. With the fresh grapefruit and orange sections the citrus and ginger combined well, creating a delicious dessert.
My friend Kate and I decided we will do the baskets every other week. For $20 how can you go wrong? (We split the box equaling $21.50 per person). This week they had special pineapples to order. Hope they will have something like that next week. Yum!
Rachel's Musings 
I love Bountiful Baskets as well! I get a basket about once an month and discovered recently that I actually like brussells sprouts. If you have any good recipes that use a bunch of vegetables, will you email them to me? Thanks!
I will definitely share my recipes. I have been thinking about compiling a book of healthy recipes I’ve gathered in the last year or so. Lately I’ve been hooked on slow cooker recipes.
I’ve never cooked brussell sprouts but I bet they are good! I was hoping to get one thing in the basket that was a little more adventurous but everything was pretty normal. It’d be fun to get a strange turnip or something I haven’t tried.
Do you get the organic basket or the regular? We got the organic this time but all of the baskets looked good. My friend and I are going to do it every 2 weeks so it will be fun to see the offering next week. Kind of gives you something to look forward to. Like Christmas every 2 weeks!
I steamed the brussell sprouts and they were pretty tasty. It helped that they were fresh, and not the frozen kind. I always get the regular basket. I’ve heard from other people that the regular basked has alot of organic produce in it. There always seems to be some interesting item in my basket. Last week there were Jerusalem artichokes, which I had no clue how to eat or prepare. It is fun to try new recipes and eat a variety of fruits/veggies that I wouldn’t think to purchase on my own.
My friend and I decided to do it every 2 weeks. I’m excited for next Monday to see what the offer is. This week they had pineapples so I’m hoping it will be something like that. We got the citrus addition this first time and it was amazing.
I really hope I get some new things. I think it would be a fun adventure.