Getting back on the workout habit after being sick is genuinely humbling.
I hadn’t been sick in over a year, so when a summer cold knocked me off my feet for a week and a half, I did not handle it gracefully. It wasn’t COVID, just a regular completely unremarkable summer cold, but my body hadn’t been sick in a year so she was dramatic about it. Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, the works. I went from running and lifting 5 days/week to doing absolutely nothing for a week, and it made me feel weirdly fragile in a way…
So I’ve been easing back in. Little runs, nothing dramatic, just enough to rebuild the habit sustainably so I don’t go too hard too fast and fall off completely. I’ve been a runner since middle school, cross country, and running is my “me time”. it’s where I think through everything, where I go into a sort of flow state that I genuinely can’t replicate anywhere else. It’s that one hour of the day that’s completely mine 😌.
But here’s the thing about running after a 9-5 EVEN WHEN YOU LOVE TO COOK…the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook. But I especially don’t want to smell like food after my shower. I just want to be clean, winding down, and with my partner in crime who has been my absolute rock through everything I’ve been juggling lately. Quality time, good food, no effort, maybe a little candlelight. That’s the dream. I’m a simple person.
So when I found a rotisserie chicken carcass in my fridge after using up all the meat, the answer was obvious. Growing up, wasting food wasn’t an option in my house. We’d never be “done” with dinner until every single grain of rice was gone! So imagine the idea of throwing away a carcass…
The BEST thing you can do with a chicken carcass, the thing that makes the most of every last bit of it, is pho. I actually prefer pho to ramen! It’s light, clean, and pure in a way no other dish can replicate, and when I’ve been sick and living on soup for a week, it’s the exact kind of nourishing, gentle thing my body has been asking for. Start the Instapot before your workout, go run, come home, shower, and by the time you’re clean and settled, dinner is ready and you didn’t have to do a single thing after the gym.
So remember, starting small still counts. And this is as small as it gets!
So let’s make these together ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken, with meat removed and shredded for the topping, carcass saved for the broth
4-6 cups of water
1 onion
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