The Health and Wellness Edition

#2) Learn to Bake Bread:  I made that one really good loaf of bread  in April, so technically I learned to bake bread and can check this off my list. 

When I added this to the list  at the beginning of the year, we were in the habit of buying a loaf or two of bakery bread every week, which I would eat toasted with avocado or dipped in soup. We were also in the habit of buying a box or two of Triscuits every week, which I would keep at my desk and eat by the fistful.

Not only did I annoy my coworkers with the incessant crunching, every afternoon about 4:00 my stomach would bloat up like a balloon. I started researching the connection between wheat and bloating and AH-MAZING--when I quit the Triscuits the bloating stopped. And my coworkers started speaking to me again. .

I also stopped buying loaves of bread. Don’t get me wrong--we’re not gluten free in the least. We still drink beer almost every day and eat pizza about once a month. I still buy Trader Joe’s whole wheat pitas, bagels for Donnie, and the occasional pack of buns for veggie burgers. And after a long run I love nothing better than a foot-long Veggie Delite from Subway. You may not believe it after reading this long list of my favorite wheat products, but I’ve noticed that I feel better overall when I eat less wheat.  

This is a long-winded and borderline hypocritical way to explain why I haven’t bothered to bake any more bread.

#30)  Give up Diet Coke:  Diet Coke has been easier to give up than wheat. It’s been months since I’ve had one. The only way I could be convinced to drink one now would be if Lisa Leake posted that Diet Coke is the antidote to wheat belly.

If I use that standard, I’d say I’m as likely to drink DC again as I am to shop at 5-7-9. Related story:  I bought a sweet maroon homecoming dress there in junior high and then spilled Diet Coke all over it.

#29) Build a Stand Up Desk:  I’m starting a new job next week, so I passed the standup desk that I had built onto a coworker. I would have taken it with me, but I had scavanged the parts from the supply room and therefore GOVERNMENT PROPERTY.  

Because the desk was adjustable, I got into a routine that looked like this:  

8:00-9:30:  Stand

9:30-12:00  Sit on ball

12:00-2:00  Stand (for digestion after lunch)

2:00-4:00  Sit on Ball

4:00-5:00  Stand

I started by trying to stand all day, but it was hard to concentrate on my spreadsheets when my knees hurt. Also I am too short vain to wear flats, so that doesn’t help.  

#6) Study Yoga:  My yoga practice this year has taken me to the Cincinnati Yoga School, the Covington Yoga School, Modo Yoga, Yoga Bar, Move Your Hyde, and the Bikram Yoga studio on Red Bank.  Because I’m cheap, I mostly I relied on Groupons and  community classes (supplemented by free online yoga videos in my attic).

Because the Groupon fine print limits deals to “new students only” I knew that eventually the Groupon train would run its course.  So last week, I finally pulled the trigger and bought a full-price pass to Move Your Hyde.

After nearly a year of practicing yoga, I still can’t hold a handstand without falling into a panicky “Bridge”. But I definitely have a greater awareness of what’s going on in my body. I can feel individual muscles, bones, and sometimes even my organs. I learned to breathe. And focus. All of which makes up for the fact that my “Bird of Paradise” looks like a broken corkscrew and I don’t have enough rhythm to do “Standing Splits”.  

BTW, if someone had made me do yoga when I was a young gymnast, I probably would have gotten past level 1:

My best trick was falling off the balance beam.  

#1) Run a Half Marathon: Word on the street is you’re supposed to do minimal running the month or so after a hard race.  Like an off-season.  

Unfortunately for me, my running strategy is “run what’s in your heart” and my heart has been telling me to “run, KK, run.”  It’s getting colder though so I have the feeling that sooner or later my heart is going to be telling me to put on my pink sweatpants and sit cross-legged on the furnace vent for several hours a day.  

There you have it.  The health and wellness edition.  

Brought to you by Kay Kay, WebMD.

-K.