Tags
broken toe fitness, broken toe weight gain, fitness, healthy, how to get back on track, plant based diet, vegetarian, Yoga
Hello folks!
It’s been SIX long months since I last posted on here. I am incredibly excited to be back now with a re-tooled vision of what this blog means and the kinds of things I want to convey and will be posting. It’s evolving as I’m evolving. As I mentioned in my last post – way back in March – I decided to take a hiatus from blogging for an undetermined amount of time. Since that time, I’ve moved cities, started a new job, really gotten into yoga, have slowly started to pick up running again, and remain a liiiiitle too addicted to chocolate and sweets (but I’m still on that kale grind!).
So, how will this blog be different? Certainly this blog will be less daily-food-diary (which is the entire shtick on my moniker…oh wells) and more of an exploration of my fitness journey and my attempt at eating a clean and almost entirely plant-based diet. Whereas I mostly started this blog last year out of boredom (I had made a drastic life change by quitting my job of four years….with no plan. I know, ma, I know.) and liked taking pictures of my food and sharing it, I am now returning here with a renewed sense of vigor and passion for a holistic vision of health. I want this blog to be a space to share my journey and express my frustrations/excitement/disappointments/insights as I learn about fitness, food, and beyond that, love and life.
While the breadth of this blog will be much more sweeping than it was before, it will definitely remain focused on fitness and health. As for specific goals/activities? Here’s a list because lists are always the best.
– Advance my yoga practice (be able to finally invert, master more advanced arm balances, increase my flexibility)
– Run my 5k (in November) in 24 minutes
– Become a better, faster runner overall
–Try new physical fitness activities (spinning, barre, fusion bar/yoga/pilates, etc.)
– Drop from 20% body fat (current) to 15% body fat (last time I was here was maybe 2 years ago)
– Eat a plant-based whole foods diet 85% of the time: I am already a vegetarian but I tend to go overboard on processed foods for certain stretches of time. I hate the way it makes my body look, feel and perform. I am what I eat, and sometimes that’s incredibly green and lean and other times it’s incredibly ramen-y and chips-y. Yes, ramen. And, no, I’m not in college. I want to really focus on health and nutrition rather on the cycle of health/restriction –> eat tons/exercise that I can sometimes easily fall into. Rather than calorie count, I want to say I just ate a healthy meal that will make me stronger and better.
There it is! I’ll expand upon each of these topics in upcoming posts but a comprehensive list is a great starting point to assess the gap between where I am and where I want to be.
And this little toe went to the…
Now, on to one very specific reason I came back to this blog — injury. About two weeks ago, I managed to fracture my toe (embarrassingly, doing something fitness related) and have not been able to do much in the physical activity category since. Per my doctor’s orders, I am walking around with a boot and cannot exert pressure on / bend the big toe-foot joint. That’s for at least another two weeks. And you know what? I AM GOING CRAZY.
1) I like to own my laziness. If I don’t go exercise, at least I CHOSE not to rather than having a lame foot and being told not to.
2) People can sometimes be wonderful and kind and others can be equally heartless. Give me your subway seat! I’m not gonna ask but you seem like a really fit, healthy young man who isn’t carrying the weight of a small army in your five bags and wearing a boot on your foot, stumbling around. Oh, no? You’d prefer it if you were able to sit while you listened to arctic monkeys on your fancy iphone 5s? Okay.
3) I managed my weight through exercise. A lot. Unable to exercise, I now realize how bad my diet has actually become.
So, with my broken toe, I have gained 5 pounds or so. Before that, I had been slipping anyway and had gained 5 pounds. It’s not pretty guys. There were yummy leftovers in my office kitchen yesterday. I grabbed a sandwich, chips and one of those deliciously baked fresh soft big cookies, and went to town! Consumed another cookie of another variety later in the day. Normally, this would be okay (well, more tolerable is the appropriate label) because I could run an intense HIIT and call it a day. But you know what the terrible thing about having a broken toe is?
You guessed it, you can’t really run!! Well, my extensive googling tells me that stubborn and fitness addicted folks have done it, and while some claim it’s okay, others regret their idiotic decisions which led to their now more severely injured foot.
To be sidelined when I plan to run my first race in November (a quick 5k) is pretty disheartening and frustrating. However, I’m determined to not pick up those cookies and cross train so that I can be in tip top shape for whenever I am able to resume running. I have a follow up doctor’s appointment in two weeks, so fingers crossed for then. My body fat percentage, as I mentioned, is up to 20%. My goal is to get that down a few percentage points and to lose about 10 pounds but more importantly, to lean out my thigh and upper arms, and to tone my belly.
I’m excited to be back blogging and hope that you’ll return to follow me on my fitness journey!
CHEERS!
Em
Yep. I Ate That. 