Hey friends! Thank you for all your interesting and thoughtful comments on yesterday’s blog post about Why I Don’t Recommend Whole30! I appreciated that most of the comments were very respectful, even if you didn’t agree with me. Always happy to listen to other opinions! 🙂
Anyway – if you’re a fellow northeasterner, you were probably also snowed in yesterday!
Matt and I still ended up working all day, but it was fun to do so at home together, at least. 🙂 We did bust out for a chilly short walking break though! We were hoping for pretty fluffy snow but this was more of a slushy, icy mess. Yikes!
For lunch, we made some cupboard meals – an Asian-y noodle soup for Matt and a tuna sandwich for me. 🙂 I mixed the tuna with hummus, dijon mustard, and sauerkraut, and topped it with some greens. Delicious! Plus some leftover string beans and a pickle on the side, because sandwiches always make me crave pickles.
I also had a clementine to cleanse my palate post-meal. 🙂
I enjoyed a rest day from formal exercise yesterday but spent some time rolling out my feet and stretching my ankles while working at my standing desk! Paul from Capital Energy Training had me do these moves during one of our recent sessions and I’ve been trying to keep it up because I find my feet have been sore after long runs lately. Basically, Paul explained that most people’s feet grow weak and inflexible due to being underused/stuffed in shoes/idle under desks while sitting all day. To compensate for our weak feet, our back, hips, knees, and shoulders often pick up the slack. He sees a lot of stiff ankles, tight Achilles tendons, toes that won’t bend/spread, and immobility in the small, stabilizing foot muscles, all of which can lead to chronic injuries and pain elsewhere in the body. Interesting!
Here’s a little test he suggests trying: while barefoot, try to push your big toe down as you lift the other four toes off the floor. If you can’t, that’s a sign that the muscles in your feet are not as strong as they could be, and your ligaments and tendons are tight. This inhibits the ability to plant the toes and push off — a basic action that affects the height of your jumps, the speed of your sprints, and how quickly you can make a lateral cut. Another tip: to assess ankle mobility, put your bare feet together and try to squat; your butt should hit your ankles. If it doesn’t, your ankles are too tight. Um, yep – hand raise on that one!
I will leave you guys with links to a couple old fave recipes that have recently gotten photo updates so I wanted to re-share them! Behold my Mexican Sweet Potato Fries (awesome side dish) and my “Cheesy” Vegan Mushroom Quinoa (makes a great really fast and easy dinner – and packed lunch the next day)!
Have a great day!
