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Eating To Heal
I have to say, as an active person, being sidelined with an injury blows. But there is a silver lining here. I hope because I am a healthy active person, my body will be able to recover better.
If you’re wondering what the hell I’m talking about, I had an accident on Friday and needed reconstructive surgery on my elbow. Detailed recaps here and here.
There are two things I am worried about right now:
1) That one of the screws in my arm is coming loose and I’ll need more surgery to fix it. I’ll find out Friday for this one.
2) The piece of bone the screws are in was completely shattered. If this bone doesn’t heal properly, it will have to be replaced with a piece of prosthetic. More surgery. Only time will tell on this one.
So basically, I want to do anything I can to avoid more surgery. I want to make sure healthy cartilage is growing and the shattered pieces are healing. I want to take care of my joints to decrease the high risk of arthritis I now have.
There are a lot of ways to do this. My mind of course goes to one thing: FOOD.
Thus I present you…
Foods For Healthy Joints
This isn’t just for the injured. Being physically active is hard on your joints. Not being active is hard on them. Being human is hard on them!
My focus is on things that will help build healthy cartilage. That’s the flexible connective tissue in many areas of our bodies, including in joints.
Eggs
Whole eggs contain Vitamin A which help form and maintain tissue. They also have Vitamin D which helps with calcium absorption.
Dairy
I only really like yogurt, cottage cheese and regular cheese, so that’s what I’ll be sticking to. For the calcium – duh!
Oranges
The average sized orange has more than the recommended daily amount of Vitamin C. Most used for fighting off colds, Vitamin C is also essential for repairing cartilage. It’s also used in forming tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. Because it’s a water-soluble vitamin, you need to replace it every single day. Other foods high in Vitamin C include strawberries, cantaloupe, potatoes and leafy green vegetables.
Tofu
High in magnesium and calcium. Foods high in magnesium stimulate the production of calcitonin, which increases calcium in the bones.
Tuna + Salmon
Check out this tuna, hummus and havarti pita I assembled today ALL BY MYSELF. I was quite proud of my one-handed masterpiece :) These fish are high in essential fatty acids, which lubricate the joints. Will definitely be key once I start my physiotherapy.
Protein
Okay so, this isn’t really for joint health. But protein, B vitamins and iron keep me energetic and in good spirits. I like to think this helps my body heal. My sister’s delicious homemade chili made with local organic beef has been perfect.
Water
Water also helps lubricate the joints. I’m also paying close to my hydration levels seeing as I’m taking a lot of medications. I don’t want any kidney or liver damage!!
Last but not least, I would like to have a moment of silence for my budding biceps. Brah.
Seeing as I won’t be able to do weighted movement with my elbow for several months, bicep and tricep exercises are a long way off. The only joint required in those moves is the elbow. Goodbye arm definition… I hope we someday get to meet again…
Sweet and Savoury
Aaaaand I’m back! ;) Contrary to popular belief, healthy living bloggers are not super-human. That includes ditching my nightly rambles for SLEEP. And to pack a day’s worth of food and a gym bag (which, bytheway, takes close to 30 minutes each night).
You didn’t miss much yesterday, except for possibly the best turkey burger I’ve ever had at a place called Relish. However, I’m not upset this went un-photo-documented. Just gives me an excuse to go back!
I did take a picture of a pretty tasty bar yesterday…
I had a Nature’s Path Optimum peanut butter bar with a couple boiled eggs for breakfast.
Nutrition info is here. Paired with the eggs, it made for another filling and “balanced” breakfast. I haven’t been overly impressed with these Optimum bars in the past, but this flavour was really good. Would definitely buy it again :)
Okay, now on to present day! Fun fact: I went to the gym before work Monday to Friday this week. I usually take a day off, or do a DVD somewhere in there. But since I’m out of town doing personal training classes all weekend, I wanted to get my harder workouts out of the way. I usually like to take a rest day every three days, so my body is definitely feeling tired today! Getting close to 8 hours of sleep every night helps though ;)
Warm-up: 20 minutes on the treadmill. I don’t feel like typing it out. I started slow, then got fast, then got slower, then got faster. Intervals.
| Exercise | Weight | Reps | Sets |
| Front squat push-press | 30 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Superset: | |||
| Good morning | 50 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Barbell squat | 50 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Superset: | |||
| Barbell bent-over row | 40 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Incline push-up | bodyweight | 10 | 3 |
| Superset: | |||
| Assisted pull-up | 75 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Dumbbell bench press | 20 lb dumbbells | 10 | 3 |
| Superset: | |||
| Dumbbell lunge | 15 lbs each hand | 10 each leg | 3 |
| Dumbbell shoulder press | 15 lb dumbbells | 10 | 3 |
| Superset: | |||
| Barbell preacher curl | 20-30 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Dumbbell tricep extension | 15 lbs | 10 | 3 |
| Alternating: | |||
| Plank | bodyweight | 1 min | 2 |
| Hamstring curl on ball | bodyweight | 10 | 2 |
| Prone jackknife | bodyweight | 10 | 2 |
As you can probably tell, it was a full-body weight lifting day. My “DOMS” is not so “delayed” today – I can already feel my hamstrings!
I had a full morning of meetings at work today, so I chowed down before taking off.
Nothing new here – cottage cheese, maple extract, cashew butter, frozen berries, Grape Nuts. The cleaning lady nearly gagged when she saw me eating cottage cheese for breakfast. Don’t knock it till you try it!
I had the most delicious sandwich waiting for me after emerging from the conference room.
Maple smoked salmon, laughing cow cheese and blueberry jam. The maple flavour in the salmon is really strong, and it was awesome with the jam. I’m having fun with all these sweet/savoury pairings!
Polished off with probably my favourite apple of all time.
The aptly named red delicious.
Remember Fatty February? Well it’s still in full swing!
Having just two hardboiled eggs every day has helped with increasing my fat a lot, plus, they’re mega filling. The full-fat cheese doesn’t hurt either ;)
I recreated my nut-butter chicken for dinner tonight.
Except tonight, I stuffed it with bacon peanut butter.
Sosososo good. Kind of another sweet/savoury combo. I love how salty the bacon makes the peanut butter!
Dessert was a vitamin.
Well, technically a mineral. I can’t do horse pills, but I also wanted something a little better than the aspartame tablets I got last time.
I’m okay with it because they’re so small.
And not that bad tasting either! For those of you who’ve recommended online stores in my quest for my vitamins, thank you! However, I have a strict no buying food products online rule. This is mostly because shipping to Canada is bananas. I spend enough on food that I don’t want to get into the habit of spending even more online. Plus, I’m old-fashioned. I like to be able to touch something before I purchase it.
Also bought:
This has helped my eczema in the past, so I’m praying for a miracle. My skin has gotten much worse over the last few weeks, including new red spots on my legs, eczema on my arms, and what looks like hives. This on top of daily baby oil, shea butter, calamine lotion and anti-histamines. I know, I need to go to a doctor. I need like a magical fairy god-doctor or something. I love that I can go to the doctor for free. I don’t love that I can’t make an appointment with one because there are so few of them around here.
Anyways, this weekend is my second and last weekend of personal trainer classes. I’m commuting about an hour to another city on Saturday and Sunday for them. I believe this weekend will include fitness testing and more mock training including creating our own training plans. Not gonna lie, I’m frightened! I need to find some training confidence stat. It would be so much easier if I could practice on non-experts instead of my fellow trainers!!
Well, that should be enough to make up for two days of random rambles. I will be back tomorrow, maybe with my fitness test results. Wish me luck!!
Question of the day: What’s your favourite sweet/savoury combo? I think turkey and cranberry sauce are made to be together. Apples and cheese are another good one!
Things I Learned This Month – February 2010
- It’s hard to blog after Canada kicks butt winning a record 14 gold medals aaaand beating out the US in the gold medal hockey game :D
- Topping custard oats with a soft-fried egg, salsa and cheese is absolutely amazing.
- Sometimes I like resting my body on Sundays, mostly so I can torture it better throughout the week ;)
- Showering at the gym almost every morning means I don’t have to scrub my bathtub as often.
- Elvis might have been on to something. Bacon Peanut Butter is delicious on top of banana.
- As Danielle eloquently put it, “Consider fatty feb to be fatty forever.”
- Protein powder is amazing when mixed with just a little water, whether eaten straight up as protein cookie dough or used as a spread on a peanut butter protein sandwich.
- Sometimes small steps forward turn into giant leaps. Moving from my cozy province to a giant city 14 hours away doesn’t scare me in the slightest. Finally, I’m EXCITED!!
- Being who I truly am attracts the right kind of people into my life.
- Even though Western Creamery is owned by my favourite yogurt brand, it just doesn’t live up to Liberte.
- Homemade granola is better than store-bought. Seriously.
- Peanut butter puffins do not live up to the hype, but I will still munch the box away.
- There is nothing more healing than a wild weekend with my best girl friend.
- I am perfectly content being on my own, but I miss living with other people.
- I need to take more supplemental vitamins.
- But I also need to check the ingredient list of said vitamins before deciding to ingest them everyday.
- The expectations I place on myself are ridiculously high and unwarranted. Often the pressure I feel to succeed comes from within, and not from outside sources like I trick myself into thinking.
- There is something wrong with me when, at the age of 24, I refer to university students as “kids.”
- Treat Monday is possibly the greatest invention ever.
- But there is a reason why I’ve never tried blondies before. It’s hard to stop at just one!! (or, erm, two)
- President’s Choice The Decadent semi-sweet chocolate chunks are superior to all forms of chocolate chip.
- Being well groomed is expensive. Hair straighteners, nail polish, fancy eye liner and hair goos, it all comes at a high cost.
- I needn’t be scared to cook with high-fat foods like olive oil, butter, nuts, full-fat cheese and even egg yolks. My body craves them!
- Sweet potatoes need to by slow-roasted. Go. Do it now.
- Actually, everything tastes better slow-roasted.
- And sometimes the only spices you need are salt and pepper. Why mask the flavour when you can enhance it?
- Weight lifting makes me feel amazing. Cardio may burn the calories, but weight training has me waking up every morning feeling good about myself (and mega sore)
- I need to be an active participant in my own life. It’s pointless to just let things happen when I can make every day in the meantime one worth remembering.
Question of the Day: What did you learn this month?
