Blood Work.

Clint Eastwood in Blood Work.

When I had my first new doctor visit last month, he ordered a bunch of blood work, naturally. One of the nifty things you can now do at the place where I get mine done is view the results of the tests online before your next office visit. I'll be seeing my doc again this coming Friday but have been curious about how bad some levels might be and wanted to prepare myself for the conversation I'd be having.

It turns out that I don't think things are so bad. Almost everything came in a normal range, including my cholesterol (yay!). But, there were a couple red flags that I could speculate about, but will leave up to Dr. S. to interpret and diagnose. My glucose was on the high side (like pre-diabetic, this is not new), and something else to do with my liver, which I am guessing is because I have so much fat on my body and which I am hoping will not be something serious as long as I continue on the path I am on. I will see what the doc says about all this and I pledge to do what he tells me is best for my health. I want to feel better!

See? This is becoming so much more than just about my weight or vanity. I literally have no choice but to stay on this path for as long as I live.

***

I had a good weekend and accomplished a lot – house cleaning, gardening, and two walks around my neighborhood. I did these things in lieu of the gym workout I had scheduled on Saturday morning, having decided that weekend morning workouts don't really work that well for me. I usually end up feeling super tired all day, and taking a nap or just lazing around. I finally figured out that scheduling my training sessions on weeknights is far superior – I come home, relax for a while with my partner, and then sleep like a baby. It makes much more sense. That way, my weekends are free and open to catch up on stuff that needs catching up, and I can take half hour walks on each weekend day, too.

It's been all about figuring out how to fit this lifestyle into my life and tweaking it until it works for me and my little family (my partner and four cats, by the way). Restructuring it like this will also allow me to easily get FOUR activity days in a week instead of just three, which is awesome. I'm making progress! This week on Pact, in fact, I've committed to four "gym" days, the usual seven days of tracking food, and... get this... 23 fruits and veggies! That's up from 21 this past week. I'm feeling chuffed indeed.

On that note, I'm going to leave you with one of our favorite recipes that also happens to be pretty darned good for you. It's a stir fry chicken dish that's very easy to make, not to mention very delicious. The original poster uses ground chicken in her version, but I've always just cubed the chicken breast into one inch chunks and it works fine (I usually end up "cutting" them in half with the spatula as they are cooking, so they are even smaller in the end). If you love garlic and basil, this is a dish for you.

Thai Basil Chicken

You should definitely add more basil than you think you should – it cooks down quite a lot! Oh, and, I usually end up using a bit more chicken than the recipe states. I don't measure by weight but end up using three trimmed boneless skinless breasts, and it's perfect. By the way? Four little hot chiles is more than enough if you like hot and spicy food, which we do. Personally, I think the six that are called for is overkill. :)