Fitness Friday

Or, not-so Fitness Friday is probably what it should be called. This week has been a difficult one for activity and healthy eating. I flew into Cleveland on Saturday afternoon. Aside from the beers I had with my family, I made some pretty good food choices. On Sunday, I made almost no food choices. I woke up in the middle of the night with severe chills, nausea, and body aches. It was miserable. I ended up sleeping all day until about 2:30pm, at which time I had to pack up and head to Cleveland with my family.

My mom had to be at the Cleveland Clinic at 5am Monday morning for her surgery, so we planned to go to dinner and stay at a hotel Sunday evening. I forced down just enough food at dinner, but it really wasn't much at all. I was not looking forward to sitting in a waiting room all day if I was going to have these body aches and nausea, and to top that all off, now I was having stomach cramps.

My apetite had still not returned the next morning when we scoured the food choices at the hospital. Even the usually appealing smell of Starbucks coffee was making me want to stick my head in a garbage can. I ended up with a sub-par breakfast sandwich from Au Bon Pain that I picked apart and choked down out of necessity. Luckily, about mid-morning while looking for something else to hopefully eat, I found something that actually appealed to me. Unfortunately for my diet, it was a pudding parfait. D'oh. But it was something and it didn't make me sick and, well, so there. After that I was feeling better. No aches or chills and the nausea had subsided. I was left with the stomach cramps, still, but those had become manageable.

The choices I've made with my food have not been entirely smart since feeling better. While I found myself trying to make better choices at the hospital during my mom's stay, I can honestly say I wasn't making the best choices. Then, when it came time for my respective dinner dates on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I made the best choices... but best for my taste buds.

Tuesday night was Melt with Erin for a massive grilled cheese sandwich with pierogi and sauerkraut; one half equalling approximately 8 million calories.

Source: dlayphoto.com via seriouseats.com

Wednesday night was at Luxe with Hannah. We shared the Belgian fries (which come smothered in brie fondue with bacon jam and jalapenos.) My meal was the garlicky baby clam pizza with lemon, olive oil, ricotta, Italian parsley, and red pepper flakes. We may also have gorged ourselves on dessert. Oops.

Thursday morning brought all of this to a halt, thankfully (but only kinda thankfully) when my mom called to say she was being discharged from the hospital. I hopped back on the healthy train by making my favorite spinach & feta turkey burgers with caprese salad. I doubled the recipe so we'll have leftovers for days and no reason to eat junk.

So far, I'm not making time for activity. With my mom home, I'm her full time caretaker. She can't get up from sitting or laying down without help, and needs someone to get her pretty much everything, so leaving her alone while I go find somewhere to work out isn't an option, and I don't really mind. I'll get back into it when I get home, so for now, I'll just do my best to eat as healthfully as I can.