There Will Be Days Like This

I woke up today feeling like I'm sick. (I'm not.) I even took a Covid test to make sure. 

My thumbs hurt. My elbows hurt, My knees hurt. Everything hurts. I feel foggy and tired. This body is an unfamiliar landscape. Is it a setback? A landmark? A trail marker? I'm not sure, but there will be days like this along the way. I've had them before, earlier on, but I'm flowing with ketosis so I'm not supposed to feel this way, at least that's what they tell me. But the coach is likely in her 30s and I am in my 60s, so for now I'm chocking it up to driving through life in a vehicle that has a lot of miles on it. The tune up is a bit slower.

On days like these I notice that the more I'm up and moving around, the better I feel. It's tricky, though, because while I'm still in bed, I'd rather stay there and think I might need to. A warm shower might feel good, but I swam yesterday, had a steam and a shower, so I'll skip a shower this morning. I don't want my skin to fall off. As we age, our skin seems to like daily showers less and less. 

I texted my body-building daughter and asked if it's normal for a body to still be hurting a week and a half after starting to swim, four workouts later? I've given my muscles plenty of recovery time, after all.

"Yes, absolutely," she said.

She went on, "Basically it's little micro tears in your muscles, as they are rebuilding themselves to be able to perform better and become stronger. It's totally normal, and you will notice less soreness eventually."

"When?" I said, "I'm grumpy."

So, there it is. Mindset again. I'm laughing with myself a little bit. I've got a carafe with lemon and basil infused water and I've prepped today's protein. I'm reimagining chicken Caesar salad. I've got the chicken breast pieces in the fridge soaking up some flavor ~ salt, grated lemon peel, grated garlic, and cracked pepper. I'll cook them when I get home from work this afternoon. I'm using Primal Kitchen's Caesar dressing. It's pretty good, and it's clean and comes in glass. They've got a bunch of flavors, so as time goes by I'll pick up a few more. I don't want to become dependent on them, though. They're still a processed food. 

I've been trying some new recipes this week. It's a new goal, to make this way of eating sustainable, which for me means beautiful and delicious. I have been playing with Taco Tuesday. Each week, I come up with a new taco variation. This week I made an adaptation of a recipe I found in a Paleo cookbook, chorizo-spiced meatballs. I made the spice blend from spices in my pantry and fridge (red spices should be kept in the fridge). It's mixed with tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and worked into the ground pork with the hands. Then into the oven at 425 for 20-25 minutes. With my oven, I think I'll take the temperature down to 400 because the bottoms burned a little. Not much, but enough to let me know that I need to adjust the temperature. Ovens can vary, so the first time you try a new recipe, you need to assess for that.

I've pulled out an ice pack for my lower back. I have great chairs in my kitchen to use for writing with an ice pack. I'm feeling a bit like the Ghostbusters movie when the guys cross the streams and everything explodes. There's a bunch of things going on in my body today that are tangled up and making it hard to discern what's what. So I'll do what I know is good - ice for the back after the chiropractic adjustment, muscle rest and recovery after swimming yesterday, drink lots of water, stick to my food guidelines and to making things beautiful and delicious, avoid OTC medication, rest when I need it, and do my deep breathing. Enjoy the beautiful flowers on my kitchen table and the birdsong outside my window. 

 

The Green Wilderness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience. 

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.