On The Mend

I've been on the couch since Thursday afternoon nursing a sprained knee. Picture me tripping over and ON  a dog. Who does that? I laugh because it's pretty ridiculous. Thursday was the worst of the pain, Friday was better and today, while it still hurts a lot to bend my knee, I can move much better. Luckily, I've had these two to keep me company:

I've been keeping a food journal these past couple of days and would like to move that documentation on the blog. I always say that though so we'll see what happens!

Yesterday mid-morning I was starving and needed something quick, easy and filling to make. My friend Courtney's Tamale Pie came to the rescue! Oh my, this was glorious and so darn easy...

To make this all you need is a roll of prepared polenta, diced tomatoes, salsa (optional), black beans (one can), salt, cumin, garlic, green onions and cheese. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Crumble warm polenta in the bottom of a medium to small casserole dish. Top with black beans. Sprinkle with salt, cumin, and garlic. Add a layer of diced tomatoes (I used 3/4 of a very large can), then sprinkle with seasoning again. Finish with green onions and cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.

I ate two plates of this and another serving a few hours later with a turkey sandwich. Snacks included three clementines, a bite of turkey, and a little feta. I drank tons of water. I'm drinking about 12 oz. every hour which I believe is helping with the injury swelling. I like to think so at least.

And then later on in the evening I made vegetable fried rice and ate about a cup.

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This morning I gave myself a little spa treatment. I was feeling gross and restless and desperately needed to shave my legs. The miracles of a hot shower!

I had a banana in the early morning and then made this plate before noon:

A slice of oatmeal bread with butter, three slices of local/nitrate-free bacon, and scrambled eggs with feta, green pepper and green onion. And more water!

I'm working really hard not to eat outside of hunger. Some days are better than others and I'm finding comfort and control in a daily food diary and weekly weigh-ins. Yesterday was a hard day. I wanted to snack on everything, and I just had to sit with it. I remind myself every day that it will get easier. Admitting that it's not going to always be effortless is important to me. At some point yesterday I wanted to eat so bad that I was literally biting down on my hard plastic straw and I knew then, that these are the hard days of breaking a habit.

I think before I would have thought that my desire to eat more was caused by being bored, lonely, sad or deserving. I would have believe it was because I wasn't getting enough of one type of food or another. And the more I do it and the more I practice, the more I realize that I'm beating a bad habit and nothing more than that. I'm breaking a 20+ year habit of eating despite of hunger.

Today is much better, I am getting restless though. I'm making sure to move every hour and to stretch my legs to prevent them from getting stiff. Do you guys have any recommended exercises that I can do for the next week or so while I'm on the mend? Something that I can do at home with my upper body and good leg without impact on the bad knee? I'd love to hear!