Why the delay? Well, a lot has changed. I decided mid- last year to make the move back to my home(-ish)town of Toronto. Work did not have any issue with me transferring offices, but it required a lot of organizing, packing, logistics, nightmares, and unpacking. After a bittersweet goodbye, I left the Windy City behind with fond memories and amazing friends. In the end, I love being closer to family and old friends and still able to visit new(er) friends in Chicago.
Around Christmas I started thinking about more changes and over the course of the next few months made the decision to go back for my MBA. Around the same I started having some pretty serious health issues. And was working 80+ hours per week. I was busy... not blogging.
Where am I now? Located in London, ON (another move!) having started my accelerated MBA 2 weeks ago at the Richard Ivey School of Business and diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. I am heading back to the employer post-MBA so there's no stress on the job front, but it's definitely been a change in lifestyle. The diagnosis has been a huge wake-up call for me about the manner in which I have been treating my body. While the verdict is still out on why some people develop Crohn's Disease (I do not have a family history), I realized how important it is to treat my body FAR better than I had been. As a consultant and a food lover, I have spent 3+ years sitting at a desk for many, many hours per day and then eating rich, unhealthy foods with little to no exercise. Over the past few months I have tried gluten-free, vegetarian, dairy-free, etc. while trying to figure out what would help me feel better. The answer is - no one diet is going to work for me. No single food type irritates my gut. What I have found is that when I make the conscious decision to eat well, I feel better. Not all the time, I still require daily medications and will likely require them for the rest of my life. There's a strong probability that even with the medications I will have to have surgery to remove part of my bowel. I cannot control all the variables in my life, but where I can make a difference in my own quality of life, I choose to do so.
I signed up for a personal trainer at the gym - yesterday was my first day in the gym and he kicked my ass. Apparently I have never done a squat correctly in my life and I still don't think I have even after him correcting me over and over again last night. I've talked with him about focusing on weight lifting with him while I will do cardio on my own (since I'm already comfortable with it). I'm really looking forward to working with him for the next few months.
Wake up call #2 - included in my training package was something called the "bod pod" which is a much more accurate measure of body composition. I'm tall (5'10"ish) and not generally considered overweight (153 lbs.) I've never had anyone tell me I have to lose weight. Turns out my body fat percentage is almost 36% - WOAH! This is wayyy higher than I've ever heard (and in the unhealthy "excess fat" range). As perspective, if you just calculate my BMI off of height and weight you get 22, completely in the range of normal. That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm working on it. I'm building muscle mass. I'm back to cooking with whole, organic foods for myself. I'm hoping to get back to sharing some of those foods with you.
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