In honour of Wednesday (I know, a special day), I’m starting things off cutesy.

Why not?

• buy yourself flowers

• eat beef for breakfast?

• pull off the road to snap some photos

• try to look like a Spice Girl?

So that might have been an indication of some of my activities today, but I’ll give you a rundown anyways.

The day started with a morning run with Sarah. We played around in the park (think attempts at dips, pullups, bench jumps, pushups, etc.) and ran on the trails for a bit. Short, sweet, sweaty, and in good company–all the good things I need from a workout these days.

I was rushing around to get to my hair appointment on time–I totally got sucked into mobilitywod.com and hung out in my squat for too long I guess–and only had time to sort of snarf some of that breakfast (leftovers) before heading out the door. In the past, I had a really hard time eating half a meal, going, and finishing it later. I’m not even sure when the shift happened but I guess I realized: eating is on a continuum. One day leads into the next. Bad news for dieters who think they get a clean slate every Monday after a weekend of bingeing or for someone who’s hoping to forget the burger and fries they ate for lunch–but it’s the honest truth. Whether you’re in recovery, trying to lose weight, want to be healthy, or WHATEVER–when you get real you don’t have to worry about being too hard on yourself. All the meals you eat add up, all the meals you don’t eat also add up. How you eat over the long term is important–and an approach that sees that the effects of things (restriction, overeating, eating the wrong foods, etc.) are cumulative.

I got a little off track there. Speaking of things adding up, today one of those things was my nut consumption. This afternoon, after a lengthy sit at Starbucks/Chapters reading magazines and drawing oh so much inspiration for story pitches (I sent one, wrote down about 10 others, dove into a bunch of new magazines, and left with the resolution that I really want to start ANOTHER blog–but not right now), I made an impulse trip to Sarnia. I miss my mom, the drive is beautiful (see pumpkin patch photo above–I took the long way!), and I didn’t have much that NEEDS to be done around here (don’t tell my laundry). My tummy grumbled by the time I got there so I made a pit stop at Bulk Barn. I grabbed some nuts, realized how pricy they were, grabbed a few less, and noshed away. I don’t really know how many I ate, but that’s the general trend with these things. They’re easy to eat…without the shell. I got excited today when I saw that they had them in their shells so I also bought a bag. Not prepped with a nutcracker, it was still an opportunity for thought: if I had to crack these open, would I eat so many handfuls? Does it really matter if I’m overdoing it on nuts? Won’t I just be fuller longer?

What I know is this: I’m feeling better already after about a month of this paleo-ish eating. The last week I’ve tried to step it up. I haven’t touched gluten since last month and I really don’t miss is. Nut butter, though, was one of the things I put out of my house when I did my clean sweep just because I was eating so damn much of it.

Dinner tonight was squash, spinach, and chicken.

Cue more nutty thoughts.

I wanted a topping. Something recognizeable, real food, all that good stuff. Answer–maple syrup? vs. almond butter? My favourite food might quite possibly be squash or sweet potatoes with almond butter. So I went with that, trusting that there’s more nutrition in the nut butter (even if I was still thinking about how many nuts I’m eating) than there would be from the maple syrup.

Logical? Delusional? Nutty?

Anyways, I’m putting the nut question out there because it came to me. That’s not to suggest that lots of other good thinking didn’t go on. Today is only day 3 of the challenge but the trip to Sarnia was awesome for seeing my mom (albeit short and sweet) but also for the thinking time. No music, country roads, and thinking about what I want to do this fall/winter/year. I’m feeling inspired by fall–so stay tuned for an autumn full of posts–and I think it’s time to wrap up the summer and move into this new stage. That comes with lots of fear, but like I’m committed to doing this month, I’m focusing on what’s strong–the opportunity, the space, the freedom–instead of what’s wrong–the change, the unknown, etc.

My plans now involve organizing all those ideas I had this morning, perhaps heading to a yin yoga class (something I find challenging is calming my mind down in these classes!), and going to bed…cuz I’m pooped! I guess that’s what a full day of fun will do to ya…

Do you eat a lot of nuts?
What did you do today for the heck of it?