Life just gets in the way sometimes

Bless me readers for I have sinned. It has been almost a month since my last post.

When we last spoke, I was just beginning my third week of the paleo eating challenge. For a lot of people it finished last Thursday, after 30 days. I had a bad weekend a couple of weeks ago so decided that I should make good by continuing on the challenge up to 6 weeks. I have to admit, that with one thing and another (baby with a throat infection, a bug that was far too gross to talk about in polite company, and just a bit of laziness on my part), I've been a bit 80-20 since then. I'm trying, I really am, but it's not easy.

Still, I think my takeaway from this can be that no matter what happens, or what life throws at you, it is actually possible to still make good choices even if they're not perfect. Here's an example - the other night, after a busy day, our baby was struggling to get to sleep. By the time we finally settled her neither of us had the energy to deal with cooking, so we phoned the local takeout and in 20 minutes time I was tucking into a chicken matsuman curry. I'm counting this as a good choice as my plate mainly consisted of chicken and vegetables in a coconut sauce. Ok, so there were a few potatoes, and I had some rice too, but believe me, at 9pm when you're starving, you try resisting all those lovely carbs!

I've also not been very consistent with my workouts either. The hubster has been so great and supportive, with getting home from work early so that he can take over baby duties while I head off to the gym, but his work has been a bit crazy lately, and so has the weather, which has thwarted any of his attempts to get home on time for me to get out. And now he has had to go to Auckland for a conference and I have a stupid headachey faceachey cold and don't even feel like leaving the house, even if I could.

This is turning into a big whingey bag of excuses. That wasn't my intention, believe it or not! I'm sharing this as I think it's important to show that no matter how much you want to do the right thing for your health, life just gets in the way occasionally. But while I'm at home feeling sorry for myself I can make lots of hearty comforting (paleo-friendly) soups and keep myself happy scouring the internet for some new trainers - mine have definitely seen better days. And Donny promises me that my lifting will improve when I have the right shoes.

And talking of lifting, I'm having a great time learning all of the different lifting techniques. Not all of them are easy - I lack a certain amount of flexibility, but that will all come in time. It's something I've never done before so I'm pleased that I've come as far as I have in such a short time. It's less than 3 months since I started CrossFit, and already I've learned so much.

One other success that I thought was worth sharing. Earlier this week I had no idea what to make for breakfast for me and the baby so I mushed up a banana, whisked in an egg, some almond meal, cocoa powder and chopped prunes, and baked them in a mini-muffin tin. Hey presto, yummy tasty mini breakfast sweetness - I ate four! As someone clever once said, necessity is the mother of invention.

Oh, and one final thing, and this is a biggie... my blood pressure (which regardless of how much running, etc. I have done in the past, has barely shifted from its unbelievably high reading) is actually starting to look a bit more, well... normal. I can't give you an official answer as to why this is yet - still seeing an endocrinologist about why it was high in the first place, but we'll see what comes of this, and I'll be tracking it at home too. I'm still on my medication, but my last reading was too low, which means I may be able to at least decrease my meds.

CrossFit 1 - plain old cardio 0.