Tag: Lifestyle Change

Gail’s Green Touch:Transforming the Front Porch with Kale

Craig

In a quaint neighborhood where each house boasts its unique charm, my late mother Gail’s residence stood out with a front porch that was both eye-catching and inspiring.

It’s not just the vibrant colors or the meticulous arrangement that caught the eye, but the unusual choice of her decorations – Kale.

Gail, was a longtime Annex resident and a creative soul, who had taken to using kale, a leafy green cruciferous vegetable to adorn her front porch.

This choice was not only aesthetically pleasing to her but also spoke volumes about her commitment to sustainability and health.

The Aesthetic Appeal of Kale

Kale, with its deep green hues and ruffled leaves, adds a touch of natural beauty to any setting. Gail skillfully arranges the kale alongside other plants, creating a tapestry of green that brings life to her porch. The kale’s robust nature means it can withstand various weather conditions, making it an excellent choice for outdoor decoration.

Health Benefits of Kale

Kale is more than just a decorative plant; it’s a powerhouse of nutrients. It’s packed with vitamins A, K, and C, along with minerals like calcium and potassium. Kale’s health benefits include improving bone health, aiding digestion, and contributing to a healthy heart.

Sustainability and Environmental Consciousness

Using kale as a decoration was a testament to her commitment to sustainability.

Kale is easy to grow and maintain, requiring minimal resources.

This porch choice appeared each fall around Thanksgiving reflected a deeper awareness and responsibility towards the environment, promoting a lifestyle that is both eco-friendly and health-conscious.

Personal Reflections

As I stood on Gail’s porch, admiring the kale decorations, I could not help but feel a sense of admiration and puzzlement.

The kale, in its simple elegance, represents a lifestyle choice that’s both healthy and environmentally conscious.

Looking down at my stomach, I was reminded of the importance of healthy eating and living, a lesson subtly imparted by the kale-adorned porch.

In conclusion, Gail’s use of kale to decorate her front porch was not just a testament to her creativity and aesthetic sense but also a reflection of her values.

It’s a unique blend of beauty, health, and environmental consciousness that inspires and reminds us of the simple ways we can incorporate these healthy eating choices and elements into our lives.

Have you had your eyes checked lately?

Craig

How is your eyesight?

Do you need glasses to drive at night?

I used to but don’t anymore.

Every two years I drive down to Toronto to have my eyes examined by my optometrist.

I was one of his first patients when he opened his practice in downtown Toronto in 1987 at the age of 25 years of age.

Quite possibly the best decisions I had ever made.

I look forward to my visits to get my eyes examined for several reasons.

The cool machines I look through to check my eyes are fascinating to me. 

I especially like the one that blows air in your eyes to check for glaucoma with the little farmhouse in the back room.

Plus I get to chat with my optometrist Jerry who I’ve known for 30 years.

We talk about family and sports for an hour first before he examines my eyesight.

He always asks how my eyesight is doing. 

It’s really a rhetorical question because he already knows how my eyesight is before he checks me.

I always ask him how his eyesight is doing.

Not only are we the same age but we also have the exact same vision.

There was a big difference the last time I went to see him from the previous time.

 I had trimmed down and made some drastic changes to my life.

He told me that he had good news and bad news about my eyesight.

The good news was that my eyesight had improved.

I laughed and asked “ how is that even possible?”

He explained that pressure exerted on the optical nerves to my eyes had become less because of my weightloss.

And I wouldn’t’ need glasses to drive at night anymore.

I found that difficult to believe after driving with glasses for almost 30 years.

But he was right. I didn’t.

How is the optometrist always right?

Then he gave me the bad news.

I would need glasses to read in the not so distant future.

It was fascinating to learn that losing weight could actually improve my eyesight.

That was something I was not expecting to hear on my visit.

Your eyesight is important.

Having your eyes checked regularly is an important part of health and fitness plan.

I look forward to my next appointment.

Life is meant to be lived

Craig


Before I moved to Collingwood, made a lifestyle change and lost 125 Lbs,  I was a single parent who worked for a large publishing company in Toronto. 

It was a very stressful job with endless deadlines.

My life was also very stressful.

I had a young son at home who refused to go to school.

I did not exercise and had unhealthy dietary habits, very unhealthy as I learned years later.

My commute to the office every morning involved stopping at Timmys to pick up a extra large double double and a 24 pack of Tim bits for the trip.

Or sometimes it was a nice big muffin from Country Style.

That was after I had already ate breakfast at home which usually was left over pizza and some OJ.

Afterall, I needed energy for the eight hours of sitting in a chair staring at a computer screen that lay ahead.

So, I would spend up to two hours each day in my car driving to and from my job and then eight hours sitting in my chair working. 

Usually I would have a few more cups of coffee at the office drink a few cans of pop eat chocolate bars and pizza. 

Typically our office would hold pizza lunch meetings.

I couldn’t even go outside to walk because I had to work and sit during my lunch hour. 

That is a lot of sitting.

And to make matters even worse when I would arrive home I would open a beer and eat pizza or have a big t-bone steak.

One morning while I out for a walk before going to the office.

I started to feel a pain in my chest.

But I drove up to the office anyway, and had my coffee and Tim bits along the way too.

When I arrived to the office and sat myself in my chair to start work, the tightness in my chest got worse and was even having difficulty breathing.

I decided to inform my Manager that I was not feeling well and had to leave.

They were not happy to hear that and reluctantly let me leave the office.

My father met me at my home in Toronto and drove me over to the emergency department at Toronto general. 

I proceeded to admit myself to find out what the problem might be.

The nurses stripped me down and attached diodes all over my chest.

not long after that the doctor came to visit me.

He told me that my blood pressure was 300/220. 

That was more than twice as high as blood pressure should be.

I said “so what”.

He told me that technically, I should be dead, but I wasn’t.

I was lying naked in a hospital gown in a waiting room on display to everyone who entered the hospital.

I was even waving at the people as they entered.

immediately the doctor gave me a high blood pressure pill to lower my blood pressure. 

I told him that I didn’t want the blood pressure medication but he told me I had no choice.

They took chest x-rays and urine samples to examine.

I was finally released from the hospital 12 hours after being admitted.

It was not an experience I ever wanted to experience again.

That was the day I started to take blood pressure medication to lower my blood pressure.

It was also the beginning of a seven month long journey to find out if I had something wrong with my heart.

During the next seven months I had  my heart ultrasounded, had a heart stress test, an angiogram and a test that took images of my heart while inside a CatScan like machine. 

They slid my body inside the machine and rotated my body around to take pictures of my heart. 

Thankfully they did not need to insert any wires into my penis. 

The day finally arrived that I had my follow up appointment with the Chief of Cardiology to get results of all my tests.

He was a tall Polish man about the same age as myself but much thinner and fitter than myself.

I suspected that he did not drink double doubles and eat a box of Timbits on the way to the office every morning like I did.

He shook my hand and told me to sit down in a chair.

So , I asked him, “how’s my heart doc?”

He smiled and replied “Well Craig, you have the healthiest heart that I have ever seen!”

I was not ready for that answer. 

I asked him to repeat what he said just to make sure I heard him

correctly.

All the rock concerts I had been to  in my life had also caused my hearing to be less than what it should.

That was the best news I had ever received from a doctor.

His recommendation was to lose weight, a lot of weight.

I asked him how I will be able to lose the weight. He told me that it was up to me to figure it out.

He shook my hand once again and said it was nice meeting me and that he never wanted to see me again. Have a great life.

I certainly did not want to see him ever again either.

What a difference a decade can make

Craig

Happy New Year!

It’s hard to believe that it’s 2020.

It’s going to be the best decade ever.

The last decade was a life saver and a game changer and will only get better.

Back in 2010, I was a 46 year old, unhealthy and overweight graphic designer living in Toronto.

My daily routine consisted of going for a short walk in the morning and then driving to the office to sit in a chair all day.

I would have a big bowl of oatmeal and eat a dozen or two TimBits with an extra large triple triple before arriving at the office.

The hour long drive was stressful so the drive through was my best friend.

There certainly were no chocolate avocado smoothie’s or green juices for my breakfast back in those days.

I had reached 300 pounds

And by 2010, I had reached 300 pounds, was wearing big and tall clothes with a 44 inch waist to prove it.

Exercise and proper diet were not part of my life like they are now.

It is now January 2020 and I am healthy and fit 56 year old man with a 32 inch waist, weigh 175 pounds with a BMI of 24.

I no longer take a plethora of medications when I wake up in the morning

Wearing skinny jeans and slim fitting shirts has become normal.

I am now an entirely different person, in more ways than you can imagine.

In 2015 I started to take yoga classes and then spinning and circuit training classes. From there how to eat clean and do juice and vegetable cleanses.

That is when my weight loss really accelerated.

My pants fell right off

One day my pants literally fell right off while I was walking out of the yoga studio. I needed to go buy new pants and a belt that day.

And in 2020 and beyond I plan to continue to get healthier and fitter.

Staying motivated to get up and go to the gym every day is hard work.

Keep investing in yourself. After all, you are worth it.

Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Staying positive, having attainable goals, a personal trainer and a proper support team in place to achieve your fitness goals is important.

But most importantly, remember to have fun.

Back in the Saddle

Craig

It’s been 10 weeks since I fell off my bicycle and injured myself.

It has not been fun sitting alone with an ice pack on my my leg lump for 90 days, taking stitz baths and going to sleep every night at 8pm.

Healing process has been painfully slow.

At times I wondered whether I was even getting better.

I would never have thought that falling off a bicycle could cause such a serious injury, but it did.

After three months, I have finally turned the corner and starting to get and feel better.

As crazy as it sounds, I have become healthier and fitter during the time I have taken off from yoga, circuit training, working out and spin classes.

Being healthy has helped to have a faster injury recovery time.

I’m looking forward to returning to my exercise schedule and getting on with my life.

Yoga changed my life

Craig

Yoga helped me change my life
Before and after photo

There was once a time not long ago when I would be sitting staring out the window of my local watering hole on Queen Street or from the picnic table in the park where I spent afternoons doing my multimedia work while waiting to pick up my son from school.

I would see people walking or biking past carrying their rolled up yoga mats.

Being a die hard hockey and football fan my entire life, I thought yoga was a sport for women but,  I was wrong…

Once I moved to Collingwood, I met a woman who was a yoga instructor. She was the first yoga instructor I’d ever met and suggested we attend a yoga class together.

I was very reluctant because of my closed-mind and limited beliefs about yoga but decided to give it a try and took my first yoga class in January 2014.

It was not exactly what I had expected it to be, it exceeded my expectations and I loved going to this place, lie down on a rubber mat and do strange movements with unusual names like Happy Baby, Cat Cow, Downward Dog or Shavasana! A place where I could get a quick nap in seemed like an awesome place!

Not long after I started practicing yoga, I began to notice that I was losing weight, my thinking was clearer and more focused, my mood had improved, my balance had improved. Something was happening to me by coming to yoga classes, something great.

I had found a cool place to go where I could clear my mind, meet women and get healthy and fit and I was accepted. It become a part of my daily routine and was a great place to go each morning instead of my regular routine.

What I didn’t realize until many years after was how grateful I was to the woman who took me to my first yoga class when I was overweight and in desperate need of a change to my lifestyle.

Changing how I thought about yoga lead me to experience new things, opened my mind, my body to relax, breathe, stretch, be in the moment, meet new people and challenged me in ways I could never have imagined and it was helping me lose weight.

Once I had improved at yoga, I joined a more advanced yoga class and from there I noticed people taking spinning and circuit training classes and signed up for those and loved it. The classes were high energy, fun and full of amazing people, just what the doctor ordered.

That lead me to become a personal trainer and help other people like myself to lose weight and make changes to their lifestyle.

If you have never tried yoga before, I seriously recommend that you do.

Yoga changed my life for the better and it might do the same for you.

Dead Man Walking

Craig

When I was 48 years old I was overweight and needed to have my wisdom teeth removed.

I don’t know if you’ve had your wisdom teeth removed but it’s one of those life experiences that I never wanted to experience and had avoided.

Luckily for me at that time I knew a parent from my son’s hockey team who just happened to be a Dental Surgeon. He offered to remove my wisdom teeth and I gladly accepted his offer.

On the day of my surgery, the nurse took x-rays and then escorted me into the surgery room and administered anesthetic.

The Dental Surgeon went to work but after a few minutes, I woke up and looked up at the doctor while he was pulling a tooth out of my mouth with a big pair of pliers.

The kind doctor looked down at me and said “Craig, you are a dead man walking and there’s a good chance you will die before before the age of 50 if you do not lose weight.”

He made me promise that I would have to make a serious effort to lose weight or he would not finish operating.

I reluctantly promised that I would change my life and lose weight and he finished removing my wisdom teeth.

That was a day that changed my life forever.

 

 

 

 

 

Lifestyle change is worth it

Craig

In 2012, I made a lifestyle change and moved from Toronto to Collingwood,Ontario on the shores of Georgian Bay.

I have lost 125 pounds, no longer take high blood pressure medication, am healthier and more physically fit then I have been in my entire life.

Many people have helped me along the path to health and wellness and there is a lot of learning involved but the main decision to change comes from deep inside.

Lifestyle change will probably change your body overnight and will mean altering many things in your life that you have become used to.

If you or someone you know is considering making a lifestyle change to lose weight and get healthier and fitter, it is the right decision to make.

Go for it and never look back, keep an open mind, be grateful, embrace change and never let anyone change your mind.

What you have decided is the right decision and great things will follow, along with feeling very hungry and tired and not being able to walk for a few days because of sore muscles.