Monday, August 18, 2008

Sitting on the Fence thinking about Food and Thought while Living my Physical Potential

I can't believe I haven't posted here in over a week. I left for St. Paul last Thursday and I was able to get quite a bit of work done in the airport, editing the photos I took about how to clean and store fresh veggies, and although I never got around to writing that blog post on my trip, it was my intention to get it done when I got home, first thing. Now here it is, Sunday, and as I sit down at 5am to finally cross it off of my "to do" list, and somehow all of the pictures I took are gone.....no where to be found....at least for now, I'm moving on.

So I guess it's fitting that all week I have been thinking about merging my 2 blogs back together into one. I like my blog to look full and exciting, not to mention I kind of like my life's journal to be all in one place. So why did I seperate them to begin with? ( I started writing this Sunday morning, for my Food and Thought Blog, and just now getting back to it Monday morning deciding to finish it for this Blog)

I started Food and Thought because I wanted to express my thoughts about the craziness of food and eating away from the judgement of some people that read my other blog for the KB training information. I don't consider my eating habits to be a struggle, a fight, or a flaw, more of a mystery than anything, and sometimes I feel like trying to solve the mystery and sometimes I don't. My eating habits are just that...habits. The way I eat food is a habit I'd like to re-establish in another way and I am doing just that, by making different choices that bring me closer, and to, living my life feeling good inside and out.

When I was fat, food never gave me grief, I just ate, and ate and ate, whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted, I accepted the trade off. I was happy, for the time, living in my mouth and ignoring the rest of my body until my body started giving me grief. In the last year before I started regaining my health I thought I was developing IBD (irritable bowel syndrome), and that was no fun! Still I didn't think of the possibilty that it was connected to my obesity or the foods I was eating, I blamed it more on my age...can you believe that? It wasn't until I lost the extra weight that all of my physical ailments disappeared...completely! No aching feet, no knee or back problems, no heartburn, acid reflux or snoring, lol.....no IBD! Who knows what was going on that I didn't know about, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, etc..

I also started Food and Thought because I love preparing, cooking and eating food. Through some miracle I was able to find ways of cooking and preparing all of my own foods in ways that helped me lose 120 puonds of extra bodyweight in about a years time and I wanted to share my experience. I didn't learn to cook until my 30's, before that I rarely cooked any other meat besides ground beef. I had never roasted a chicken, much less made homemade chicken stock, practically weekly, and my own soups exclusively. I had never made a salad that included anything but lettuce, tomato, maybe some canned garbanzo beans, and bottled dressing. I had never cooked or eaten or even purchased foods like cabbage, kale, brussels, beets (or certainly not beet greens, one of my favorites). I had never cooked a winter squash, much less could tell you what one was. I couldn't tell one fresh herb from another, I could go on and on. I am so passionate about fresh live foods that I want every one to eat this way.

I started Food and Thought because I thought these two subjects were seperate from my training, and now I see they're not. I recently changed the name of my blog from 'Rediscovering Strenth' to 'Living My Physical Potential'......I rediscovered my strength....lol.....I'm strong, that I know....so it was time to move forward. I originally was going to rename it 'Living My Athletic Potential', and I'm able to live my athletic potential because of my kettlebell training, but also because of the changes I've made in my diet, therefore my health attributing to my ability to establish fitness. It's all connected. It's all me. This is who I am and this what I do.

I have lots to say, based on my experience. I have lots of hope, based on my experience, and I'm living proof that anyone and everyone can realize their athletic potential and live their physical potential everyday. It's never too late to experience your potential.

Potential; the inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being.

Potential is not perfection. Potential is not perfection.

I posted this twice, trying to delete it from this blog, but failing and deleting it from my other blog...I know I confuse myself sometimes, anyway.....I'm just going to leave it in both places because it's taken me 2 days to get this out of my head, so I guess it deserves two posts, lol!

2 comments:

MJ said...

Tracy,
I enjoy reading both of your blogs. I particularly like the recipes! I struggle to improve my eating habits and I get some really good ideas from you. How do you do brown rice in the pressure cooker? I usually buy Success Brown Rice because it's fast, but I'm thinking I could probably get better results in the pressure cooker in the same amount of time.
Thanks!
Mary

Tracy Reifkind said...

Mary,

I decided to keep both blogs, posting recipes and techniques here on Food and Thought. I need to make some adjustments....and of course, I'll write a blog post about it, lol!

I haven't been able to make "fluffy" brown rice consistently in the PC because it doesn't let any steam out, in fact I've only been successful once (but it doesn't matter, I still use all of the rice...fluffy or wet). I forgot the ratio I used, I think I had to decrease the amount of water by 1/2 c., using 1 c. rice to 2 c. water, instead of 2 1/2 c. water. It only takes 15 min. in the PC, and with practice I'll get it just right, Im not worried, lol!

Thank you for the kind words.