Table for One.

 

Last night I made SkinnyTaste Italian Spinach Meatballs for dinner. Absolutely amazing. Best meatball I have ever had in my entire life, healthy or not. I didn’t deviate from the meatball recipe at all, except I made only half of it and I added fresh basil as well as parsley. Knock out hit. Making my sauce I was able to use a tomato fresh out of my TopsyTurvey Tomato Grower! It’s a tiny “patio breed” of tomato. It tasted great in my sauce! Isn’t it adorable? :)

The meatballs were too glorious (sorry, I didn’t take pictures) for my usual sit down at the coffee table in front of the TV routine. They deserved much more than that. While cooking I was listening to some music, Band of Horses to be exact, and I left that playing and I sat at my bar table. 

Beautiful, isn’t it? My brother made it. Yep, I said “made it” not “put it together”. He used scrap pieces of wood. The same wood was once an entertainment center in one of my old apartments, before that I’m sure they were someone’s bi-fold doors. The man is a genius. He put a lot of love into it. My sister also bought me the bar stools, so it’s kind of a double-love table.

I never sit at my table. Isn’t that terrible? I eat alone most of the time, so it just made sense to take my food to the living room. I sat at the table last night and enjoyed every bite of my food. It was peaceful. It was as if I could feel my mind unwinding from the day without distraction. While I may not sit there every night, this is definitely something I am going to repeat very soon.

After dinner, I took Chaser for a 2 mile walk! He didn’t appreciate it, he’s lazy, but  I appreciated his exhaustion when a little thunderstorm blew up when we got home. After our walk, in a great mood, I even painted my toenails with a sparkly purple color nail polish that a Drag Queen left at my house many moons ago and I did laundry! I don’t believe any of the above things would have been accomplished had I just done the normal sit in front of the coffee table and watch TV while eating dinner. Eating dinner at the table changed my entire evening. Just that 1 little thing.

This leads me to my question of today: Where do you eat?

The Spouse.

 

I was going to share my recipe for spaghetti today or talk about my workout schedule some more. I am doing really well this week, so far, I was going to write about that too. However, some recent discussions I’ve read in blog posts got me started in another direction.

The Spouse. Mr. Unlikely Success Story. Mr. Tonyne (he hates when I call him that, so I like to :) ). Jeff.

God’s gift to women? I’m not so sure…but he is a good man and I love him very much. My husband has an esophageal condition known as Barrett’s Esophagus. On top of this condition he also has esophageal strictures and a severe nut allergy. The nut allergy, is manageable, however the other two make it very hard for my husband to eat. Basically anything he eats has to be liquid by the time he swallows it or he can get choked. So, if you imagine doing that yourself…it’s difficult and nearly impossible with some foods. Because of this condition, my husband is underweight. Going out for dinner is next to impossible for him and he eats very, very slowly. He feels uncomfortable eating around people because of it.

If that isn’t enough (and trust me, it is!), my husband might quite possibly be the pickiest eater alive. I can’t tell you the number of times I make a Green Monster, asparagus or any vegetable other than broccoli to hear him say behind me “That’s nasty.” Has he tried most of this stuff? Probably not, but this is who he is and I knew that when I married him.

My recent lifestyle change has made meals almost impossible for us to share. He eats a lot of processed food because it’s convenient and quick since it takes him so long to eat. I cook him chicken and dumplings occasionally, but for the most part we eat separately. We also work different schedules, he runs a bar at night, I run a maintenance department in the day.

Our marriage is different that way. We are both very independent individuals. We love each other and try to make sure and put focus on the time we do have together, but when it comes to things like my races or successes, he’s not always around to share them with me. Most of the time, I’m alright with this…sometimes, I’m not. Do I feel jealous sometimes when I read about couples doing this together and fully supporting one another? Absolutely. I would never say Jeff is not supportive, because that’s not the case at all. He doesn’t flinch when I need new running shoes, a new healthy living gadget, cookbook, etc. He listens to me when I talk about a new recipe or training schedule.

He’s never visited this blog, he knows it exists of course, but how does a weight loss/healthy living/cooking blog interest him? I get it. Does it hurt sometimes? Yes. Do I want him at the finish line of my races. Yes. But I understand too. If I was limited and held back by a health condition, would I want to have someone’s health successes constantly in my face? Probably not. I feel bad sometimes because I am so excited about my new life and I talk about it incessantly, much to the chagrin of those around me I’m sure.

One of the points I wanted to make by putting myself out here so personally, which is really hard for me, is that the blogging community is such a fantastic source of support and encouragement for me. My friends and family are great as well, don’t get me wrong they listen to me drone on A LOT (Jeff included), but here I can talk about the changes I’ve made all I want. You can either choose to read about it or choose not to. I know that someone somewhere is waiting to hear my race recap or read my recipe from dinner last night. Not all of us have that super interested, living the same lifestyle spouse at home and that can be hard.

What it comes down to is we do this for ourselves, first and foremost. Yes we do it to be around longer for the people in our lives, but if you are making a lifestyle change you have to do it for YOURSELF. YOU are important and YOU are worth it.

Those of you out there that feel alone, like you don’t have a support system, you do. You have it right here. The Health & Wellness blogging community is made up of some of the kindest souls I’ve ever “met”. I am really happy to be a part of it.

I think that’s enough for today. I just want to tell you all again how much it means to me when you read and comment. I try to read and comment on as many blogs as possible because I know that the encouragement we get from our blogs or our online support system (whatever it might be) might be the only encouragement some of us get that day.

Tell me 1 thing the blogging community has given you, if you write a blog or not, just 1 thing.

You can do it!

I have chosen to make my journey with health and wellness public. Sometimes very public. I talk about my down falls, my triumphs, my fears...all of it. I'll tell anyone who will listen. For me it's not about fame or glory, I don't relish in the attention (although it is quite nice, I won't lie) like an attention hungry drama queen, but I do it so I will have someone that will say to me "You can do it!".

On the days when nothing is going right and all I want to do is bury myself in a cheeseburger and wash it down with a pizza, I know that through my blog someone will say "No Tonyne. Just take a deep breath." Or when I am thinking about doing a race I know that someone will believe in me enough that it will give me the courage to register. Living life in balance isn't always easy for me, I walk a fine line every day of going back to my "old ways" of laziness and eating whatever I want. Some days are harder than others.

Sometimes we all just need someone to tell us "You can do it, I believe in you!" Who couldn't use more of that in their life? Take some time today to tell someone that you are proud of them, that you believe in them. It could make all the difference.



"You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins." Jim Stovall