Ugh! Not being
able to run has made this a frustrating two weeks, but I've managed
to pull through--and without losing too much weight or muscle mass.
I've been using the time off to focus on my diet and to learn some
new recipes. My New Year's resolution to give up all meat (except
fish) was fortuitous, and I've made other positive changes as well.
My diet has always been pretty good, but I now eat even more
vegetables, nuts, and beans. The biggest change is that I now make
almost all of my own meals, including lunches at work. Some of my
typical meals are lentil soup, black bean soup, hummus with
vegetables, all kinds of smoothies, muesli, various types of nuts,
and lots of salads (especially spinach). A couple of days ago I
started making my own bread, made entirely from whole grains.
For those of you who have never heard of a bread
machine, I urge you to check them out. All you have to do is
pour in the ingredients, press a button, and then wait a few hours.
The machine does the rest. I usually spend fifteen minutes or so
pouring in the ingredients before I go to bed, and then I have
steaming hot bread waiting for me for breakfast. If you live here
in Japan, you can find a good bread machine (they're called "home
bakeries" in Japanese) in Best Denki or any other electronic
appliance store. I purchased National's
1.5 kin model.
One of my major concerns in making these changes has been efficiency: I hate to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and I especially hate wasting time during the week, when I'm busy with work. I save a lot of time by making a big pot of soup and a huge batch of hummus on Sunday. During the week, I just fill my thermos with soup and a container with hummus and then toss in some sliced up vegetables and nuts. Salads--which I sometimes make at work--are fast and easy, too.