Friday, September 6, 2013

Exercising While Injured

In the past, I'd always shied away from exercise while recovering from an injury, but today, I decided to just do it!!

I hopped on the recumbent bike and guess what happened... The recumbent bike did NOT hurt or strain my calf muscle at all!!  I biked for 30 minutes and even went up a couple notches on the resistance.  Today, I stayed off my feet all day.  I don't know if it was the best thing to do, but the pain and stiffness in my calf has subsided greatly.  Hopefully, as I continue to baby this thing, it'll be better be completely healed in a couple weeks.  Today's workout stats:  30 minutes/4.5 miles.

I did a bit more research and I think I'd call this a Grade 1 Calf strain.  Here's one of the articles I read...  "Dealing with Calf Strains"

I'm going to be cutting back on my portion sizes while I recover from this since I can't even walk as much as I was before.  I'll still be doing resistance training, just skipping the calves for a couple weeks.

Tomorrow is weigh-in day.  Here's to hoping that my injury hasn't reversed my progress.  This is a "one day at a time" journey.  I'm not going to get there overnight and I'm certainly not going to reach my goals without a few challenges.  This is one of those times.

My only issue is slowing down enough to heal, but not too much to lose momentum.  Finding that balance will be the key.


Finding the Balance

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Short post...

Well, I'm just gonna check-in real quick today.  My calf was stiff and hurting all day today.  Since the workout for today was lower body, I just did quick quad, hams, & abs sets.  Most stuff (like standing) made my calf hurt more.  Motrin and ice baby, oh yeah.  And a bit of sports creme to work it from the outside in.

Food intake was just ok - splurged a bit for dinner, but had fairly light calories all day.  Water intake wasn't great and I didn't even realize it until I got home from work and still had practically a full bottle.  I guess I need to eat "drier" foods to make me thirsty.

Started my thyroid med today.  Then had stomach cramps and a headache for the rest of the day and just felt... weird.  Let's see if it happens again tomorrow.

And so I leave you with a Thursday funny...


Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Do you stretch BEFORE working out?

I never have, but it appears I may have to now.  Today, I was not really looking forward to the C25K work out, but I still wanted to do it - if that makes any sense.  So I got everything all ready.  Water bottle - check!  HRM on and working - check!  Good to go!!  Check check!!

Started off doing a warm-up walk at 2.8mph for 5 minutes.  Next, I started jogging at 4.5mph.  I started feeling the lung burn and wondered if I was going to have to cut it back to 30 seconds instead of a minute.  But no, I was already 55 seconds in - why stop now?!?!  So, back down to 3.0, then 2.8 for the 90 second walk.  Then 7 measly seconds into the jogging portion, something stabbed a hot poker iron into the back of my left calf!  Ok, not literally, but it sure felt like it.  I couldn't even walk it off at 2.0 mph.  So I stood on the outer rails of the treadmill and waited for it to stop.  I walked (barely) over to a chair and sat.  I tried massaging the calf muscle a bit, but the pain didn't subside.

I hobbled up the stairs and grabbed the ice pack out of the freezer and a couple motrin.  Sat for a few minutes with my leg up and the ice pack under my calf - feeling extremely frustrated.  Uugggghhh!  Why?  Why now?  Seriously?  Those are the thoughts going through my head.  For the first time in my adult life when I actually WANT to run, I can't?

So, the old me - the one who use to work out like crazy, drop the weight, then gain it all back again because something in life happened that made me lose focus - that person, would use this as an excuse.  THAT person would say "Well, screw it!  Apparently I'm just meant to be fat."  And quit working out altogether.  And quit eating healthy just for spite.

But this new me - this person who is determined to, come hell or high water, lose weight and live a healthy fit lifestyle - THIS person will not quit!!  I WILL NOT QUIT!!

Maybe I went too fast too fast.  I felt ready, but maybe the ol' body wasn't.

Maybe I shouldn't have tried to go from 5 years of barely running to walking for only 5 months then trying to run again faster than before.

Maybe I shouldn't run on a treadmill where I can't change my speed at the drop of a thought.

Maybe I should try warming up, then stretching, THEN running, then walking, then stretching some more?

I'm not sure what the problem is, but I know the solution is NOT to quit.  I'll baby my calf for a week and keep taking motrin, then try easing into it again.

I'm still frustrated, but at least now I have a plan.  Oh and turns out, as I'm writing this post and researching pics, that maybe it's not my calf per se, but possibly the achilles tendon?  Here's a pic... green spot = size and location of my stab wound pain.  Center of the back of the lower leg, I was thinking calf, but who knows?

Feel my pain?

Outside of that, my day was good.  Ate well and still drinking water.  Have I mentioned lately that I haven't partaken of the Weekly Wednesday donuts in SIXTEEN WEEKS!?!?

Also, I started taking the new meds I mentioned yesterday.  I forgot the thyroid pill, I'm going to have to set a reminder at work and on my phone for that one.  I'm so accustomed to taking meds at night that it's going to be difficult remembering a morning one.

I wish the doc had never told me that I should be feeling tired.  Today, while I did only get 5 and half hours of sleep last night, I felt tired all day long.  You think it was psychosomatic?  I do.  Somebody, please tell me that I ought to feel completely energized and the doc is full of crap.  Maybe I'll start feeling all hyper lol!!

Well, that's it for now.  Hope your day was happier than a camel on Wednesday =P


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Lab results are in...

Remember the 12 hour fasting lab work I mentioned before?  Well, the results are in...  I haven't done any research on this stuff yet, but i think some of it makes sense.  I don't have specific numbers, or at least, I don't remember them, but all of these are "borderline" - meaning that I'm not quite into the range, but I'm within like a few tenths of a point from it so I might as well be.  That about clear as mud?

Anyway, the word is that I'm slightly anemic - low iron; vitamin D deficient; and like a tenth of a point from hypothyroidism.  Given all that, the doc is like, "so, you must feel pretty tired a lot."  Uh, no.  Not really.  But apparently each one can make you feel tired - put 'em all together and I must be dragging all day along, right?  Well, still no.  Maybe I just got use to it?

The answer to all this?  Supplements - vitamin D and iron.  The hypothyroidism thing needs another pill.  The doc also mentioned that all these can affect metabolism.  Hmmm, interesting.  I did tell him that I've been working on getting healthy and working out and such.  I'm still averaging 1 pound a week.  He thought that was great.  I'm like, huh?!?  He says that 3-5 pounds a month may seem slow to me, but it's really good and it's more likely that I'll maintain easier once I reach my goal.  That was encouraging.

Oh and the original reason for going to the doc was to get help for super dry skin due to being here in the high plains desert of Colorado.  Every time I go back to a humid environment, it clears up instantly. What is surprising is that the vitamin D deficiency could also be related to living here.  Even though we get like 350 sunny days per year, it seems that people here at this altitude tend to be deficient in vitamin D.  I'm thinking I should just move back to the south!  Two problems solved!!

Next for me is looking for natural alternative remedies to the pills because I really hate taking pills!!  Maybe if I find a bunch of foods with vitamin D and iron?  I have no idea what can correct hypothyroidism, but hopefully losing weight will help.  Oh speaking of that, my sugar levels were also at the pre-diabetic stage.  I think weight loss will definitely help with that one.

One the bright side though, my bad cholesterol is down 10 points from last year and the good stuff is up!!  YAY!

And finally, for the health and fitness portion of our show today...

Food - good, water - ok, workout - done EARLY!!!!  Woot!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Food intake this weekend was off the charts!!  Well maybe not too off, but quite a bit off at any rate.  But, we knew that was going to happen, didn't we?  My birthday was awesome!  And I think my daughter enjoyed hers too.  We shared an choc/van ice cream cake.  It was soooooo good!  

I'm slowly reigning the food back in though.  Today I had a piece of whole wheat French toast and some ultra thin bacon with a small glass of milk and a cup of coffee as well.  I had to go shopping today, so I made my list while turning my nose up at a few of the Week 4 selections and making substitutions for sales and whatnot.  I ran some other errands then went to the grocery store.  Guess what I'd forgotten to do first?  Eat.  I realized this about halfway into my grocery shopping.  So, my normal grocery bill is around $100 a week depending on what I'm restocking.  This week, it was slightly higher - possibly due to the lack of food.  I didn't shop too much off list, but the good news is what I did get was on sale!!  YAY!!  

After shopping, I got home and put away the cold stuff, then immediately grabbed the daughter and out the door we went to grab some lunch/dinner - it was almost 4pm!  Why else do I call it lunch/dinner?  Well, because I ate enough for two meals, I may as well call it two meals, right?  We went to a Mexican restaurant and had... do I even need to say it?  Yep I do - chips and salsa!  This time, though instead of grabbing for the whole chips, I went for the smaller pieces.  I always have ice water now - I don't know if it's the cheap skate in me, the calorie watcher, or the disliker of all things soda, but water is it.  I was under pressure when ordering because I'm always helping my daughter figure out what her pickiness will tolerate.  When the waitress asked if we were ready, we had just decided what SHE would have, so I said YES!  I don't like putting off the ordering of the food because you never know how long it'll be before they come back!!  So, I covered my unpreparedness by asking questions about what comes on this or that and then ended up with a beef enchilada (very small), what has to be the world's SMALLEST tostada with shredded chicken (it seriously couldn't have been more than 3 inches across), with black beans and finally a beef empanada.  I didn't finish it all, but even with the small sizes, I was very pleasantly full.  No room for dessert, but no need for dinner tonight either!  

Once we got home, I decided I needed to walk some of that meal off!!  So I threw a leash on Coal and off we went.  I used the Map My Walk app and after 40 minutes, we had walked a 2 mile loop.  Nice little after dinner stroll.  

Map My Walk/Run/Ride apps are really cool.  But when searching for something else today, I came across their website.  I'm really impressed with these folks.  You don't even need the smart phone apps to plan your walks now!  You can create a free account on their website and then create a route using their map of your area.  It's so easy, just click on the map to make a starting point and then click along the route you want to use.  It even has an option for elevation gain so you can see the hills along the route (and maybe plan away from them when necessary).  This is from my phone, but here's the route from today's walk - the website looks very similar...

The little "tail" on the left was an oops!
We can't go that way due to a big concrete
drainage ditch - no fun to cross.

Ok, enough advertising for Map My Walk - they aren't paying me!!  

One final note, I've decided to give my kids new names for the purpose of this blog and for their own privacy.  I figure it's better than always referring to them as "my son" or "my daughter" or "my teen" or "my picky eater".  So from this day forth, my son will be called "Drew" after my dad who passed away many years ago, but will live on in my heart forever.  And I gave my daughter the opportunity to pick her own name and she came up with "Claire" - hmmm, interesting.  So Drew and Claire it is.  They are my blog children =P

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Labor Day Weekend!  

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...