Rest Day

The other day my good friend Chris called and told me that his wife's parent's house had burned down and that her brother was badly burned and was in critical condition at the UVA hospital. This morning when I woke up, I had an update that her brother would be discharged today and was coming to stay with Chris and his wife for a few days.

After hearing this news via Facebook, I decided to go to the grocery store and get supplies for a pasta salad dish that I like to make for dinner parties. So off I went to Whole Foods to get the ingredients as well as our normal supplies. I got lots of great, healthy foods which is the first step to eating right. More on that in a moment.

I came home and made the dish and then went over to my friends house. I arrived about the same time as Robyn's brother. He was actually doing pretty well all things considered. His hand had been burned very badly and his face and chest was also burned. His lungs were also damaged but he was up and around. He had improved immensely from that first day. We will continue to pray for his recovery. Once he is healthy, he will have to figure out where he is going to live as the house was a total loss.

After I got back from my friend's house, it was late afternoon and I had yet to do my daily workout. Unfortunately I had woken up with some pain in my left knee. It was in a different place than usual and I was not sure what it was from. It seems like I have woken up the last couple of days with this kind of pain and I think as my knees feel better, I am able to move around more in the bed at night and the subsequent tossing and and turning is causing me some discomfort.

So I decided to take my wife's advice and clock a rest day for today. I had started an Advil regimen that morning and decided I would simply make it a pill popping day of rest. I even worked in a nap. I did not skip the ice though. Icing my knees is always helpful.

I wanted to comment on my New Years goal of eating healthier. I have been striving for 5 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. I have also cut out caffeine, sodas, high fructose corn syrup, and unhealthy snacks. I look at nutrition labels more than ever trying to cut down on saturated fats and sodium and to make sure this is no HFCS. There is so much sodium in many of our packaged foods. One way to avoid this extra sodium is to stay away from packaged foods and stay away from restaurant food. So this is what I do. I don't buy it so it is not in the house. And most of our meals are made fresh as to limit preservatives and other added ingredients that offer no nutritional value. Also Whole Foods does not sell anything with high fructose corn syrup in it so I don't have to worry about that when I shop there. You would be surprised how much of our food in America has HFCS in it. Next time you go to buy bread, check it out and see if you can find bread that does not have HFCS in it.

The more I eat healthy foods, the easier it is to do. Now that we have been eating healthier foods, restaurant food has become less appealing. Just the thought of eating the foods that we used to eat sort of grosses me out. When I want a snack, I eat an orange or an apple. If I am feeling sluggish, I drink a glass of orange juice as a pick me up. And it actually works.

So far I am mostly meeting my New Years goals and it feels good. I am cutting my risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other diseases. My body feels better and my brain feels sharper. Also once I get back into peak fitness, I am hoping that my new diet pays off in that realm as well.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be well rested and ready to get back to working out hard. There is still snow on the ground and more on the way but in a month, it will be near the end of March and usually in Richmond, that is the beginning of the spring season. I want to be ready and whatever I can do to be ready, I am going to do it.