Day 9 and Thoughts on Ryan Gosling memes

DAY 9. Yesterday’s lunch was the dreaded oatmeal. With my creative use of spices, it wasn’t bad, though it will never be my favourite. I made an awesome dinner which made me completely forget lunch though. Stirfry with bok choy, broccoli, green onions, snap peas, zucchini, black beans and prawns with a side of brown rice. I spiced it up with some Chinese five-spice, cayenne and chilli powder. I tried a little bit of Bragg’s seasoning sauce (a salt-free seasoning) on the rice which tasted exactly like soya sauce! So good. I'm getting hungry just looking at this post now. Dammit.

As it was pretty slow at work yesterday, I spent most the day at work on Pinterest, trawling for new recipes and inspiration. So many wonderful ideas and delicious photos of raw food. Pinterest is probably one of the best resources a person could have when starting on a healthy lifestyle change. If you have not already joined, do so immediately. I mean, where else are you going to get memes of Ryan Gosling encouraging you to workout??

The other day, after my change room meltdown over the Spanx, I found myself thinking about how I got here. It would be easy to blame my weight gain on how I was raised and all that (I think Gen Y has a thing about blaming their parents, more so than other generations). My dad was a single dad, he raised my brother and I from a young age, and he did a great job. Sure, there were a lot of meat and potatoes, spaghetti nights and such, but he also got us out moving. We used to go cycling along the seawall every Saturday afternoon when it was nice, he took us down to Grandpa’s boat and we would bugger off and run around the docks, he’d take us to the park after dinner or for a walk, and enrolled me in soccer and softball for ten years. Perhaps all the food choices weren’t always the best, but he did promote a generally active view of life. As a young girl, I was always more stout, but looking back on it, I probably wasn’t overweight, just on the heavier end of normal. The pounds definitely started packing on during university. I was working a part-time job to pay for my tuition, but I still had some extra cash, and bad food choices were all over the place. Forgot my lunch? No need to worry! Chinese food from the student union building, baked-potato pizza from Pie R Squared, burgers and fries from the Pit Pub, and of course, the world-renowned UBC cinnamon buns. Combine that with the stress of a full course schedule, commuting by bus for 2-3 hours each day, a part-time job that started at 5 am some days, and a night or two a week of having drinks with friends (and inevitably the McDonalds trips that occurred at the end of the night)… we’re not talking about freshman 15 here, more like freshman 50… or 80. After university I never made it my first priority to get healthy or even change the bad habits I was making. Stupid really, as I have missed out on so many more wonderful things by being overweight. I want to go back to 18 year-old Katharine and warn her that in 10 years, she’s really going to be regretting some of those decisions. I don’t want to go through my entire twenties without having done the wonderfully stupid things you do when you’re in your twenties, like bungee-jumping and sky-diving. I want to wear a bikini without shame or embarrassment. I want to think about starting a family in the next couple years without worrying about complications or being a poor role model to my kids.

All I can say is that I am so grateful to Team Fitness for this fresh start, so proud of myself for taking these first steps, and so appreciative of all the support from my family and friends. Definitely feeling the love J