RUN!

Just the right amount of blue in the sky, feathery cotton candy clouds of hope, a skyscraper of realized dreams, an open road to endless possibilities.

Close your eyes, breathe, RUN!

Happiness. ♥

Supplemental Stretches

As I was organizing my physical therapy receipts, I noticed that although I’ve been in therapy for 3 months now, I’ve only actually been to therapy a total of 21 times. That’s just an average of about 1-2 per week, very different from my therapist’s suggestion of 2-3 times per week.

I know being busy with other things is hardly an excuse, especially since in almost all situations health should be the top priority. Besides, how can you continue being busy when you’re not 100% healthy anyway? Another excuse I find myself using is that I’m not well enough to go out. Although valid at times, such as when my ankle is swollen and I can’t walk, as long as I can walk to the train station, not feeling well enough should not be an excuse. So now I promised myself that save for exceptional situations (life-and-death, or I’d-probably-get-fired-if-I-don’t-do-this), I will stick to my M-W-Sat morning therapy schedule.

My therapist also said that keeping the muscles flexible and from becoming too tight is also key to decreasing the pain from the spinal and ankle osteoarthritis, and would help him do his job more effectively - correcting my tilted cervical spine, my lower back scoliosis and tilted pelvis, and realigning my upper and lower leg.

Here are some of the stretches he taught me, demonstrated in these ExpertVillage.com videos.

For the lower back - Rotator Stretch:


For the lower back - Knees to Chest Stretch:


For the lower back - Quad Stretch:


For the lower back - Cobra Stretch:


For the neck and shoulders - Shoulder Stretch:

Banana Blueberry Muffins!

After a few months hiatus from baking, I'm back in business at last!

I was still up this morning at 5AM, so I decided to try baking some easy banana blueberry muffins. I used this Betty Crocker recipe, with a few tweaks in the ingredients. As the readers suggested, I substituted 1/2 cup of the 2 cups flour with oats and added a teaspoon of vanilla. I also added a dash of cinnamon in addition to the nutmeg. For the sugar, I made it a mixture of half white and half brown sugar to give it a more caramel like sweetness.

The muffins turned out perfect! The top was crisp and the inside was moist and fluffy. A perfect breakfast on this easy sunny Sunday morning.

Baked Swordfish

I read here that fish, apart from being a good source of protein while on a weight loss diet, can help relieve osteoarthritis pain. On my grocery run this afternoon, I saw some fresh swordfish fillets at the supermarket earlier, so I thought it would be a great idea to bake them with tomato salsa.

I made a fairly simple salsa of tomatoes, onions, thyme, and the juice of one calamansi. I seasoned the fish with salt and pepper, and wrapped it in aluminum foil together with the salsa. I baked it for around 20 minutes at 170C.

Fast and easy, filling but light on calories!

When I Grow Up

Played a "What do I want to be when I grow up?" game, thinking of other things I could do for a living.

I could...

1) Write for a living - Because I believe owning TWO copies of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is enough to call myself a "writer".

2) Take photos for a living - Because I believe having a Flickr account and watermarked photos are enough to call myself a "photographer".

3) Cook for a living - Because I believe having an oven and a successful batch of brownies is enough to call myself a "chef".

4) Teach Math for a living - Because I believe the TC7 experience is enough to call myself a "mathematical genius".

5) Be a plain housewife - Because I believe I have just enough aesthetic prowess to trick a rich good-looking businessman into thinking I am trophy wife material.

Haha, the things an idle mind can come up with.

On Life Forcing Me To Slow Down

Sometimes, when I feel myself getting close to sadness, I look around at the beauty just waiting to be rediscovered from the sidelines, and I smile and think to myself, "Slowing down is not all that bad after all."

When life goes wrong, nobody in the world can force you to NOT be sad. Just don't discount the possibility that there are still a multitude of things that can make you smile, even for just a while.

*** Saw these outside the hospital after my PT session yesterday. I miss doing my Project 365. Hmm, thinking of resurrecting that dead project hehe. :)