Injuries and Constipation...

I know... fun topics eh?

I haven't posted in a while for a few reasons (including the two that are at the top of this post). Round about mid month my foot started hurting again.

I have had Plantar Fasciitis in my right foot for going on 3 years now. Its a repetative stress injury, very much like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, that causes INTENSE pain in my right heel when I stand or walk or do anything else weight bearing on it. If I just sit here on the couch it feels just dandy. I've had a string of treatments, oral anti-inflams, cortizone shot in the heel (holy fuck that was more painful than having an OB's arm stuffed up my vagina and into my uterus pulling a 7lb baby out by the feet) and other such things. I am happy to say that I will not be having another cortizone shot. I went back to the lovely foot doctor who sent me off to PT. SO... now I'm in PT twice a week and my orders are to stay off my feet as much as possible (lovely), no weight bearing exercise AT ALL (I can lift as long as I'm sitting on my ass), icing twice a day and never ever ever walking around without my shoes with orthotics on (except in the shower). Fun eh?

To add insult to injury... lack of movement tends to have a slowing effect on my digestive system so I've been dealing with pretty much chronic constipation for the last 2 weeks as well. All the fiber pills in the world don't seem to be helping, so I'm doing my best to eat nothing but steel-cut oatmeal, high fiber fruits and veggies, very little dairy (except that fresh mozzarella I had with one of the tomatoes I picked from my garden the other day... YUM!) and no red-meat... just chicken and fish.

Under normal circumstances that would be a recipe for easy weight loss... but without the activity... its just not doing much. :(

I am going to try to get at least one long bike ride in this weekend... Sunday probably. But other than that and PT... its been pretty grim on the activity front.

So, there you have it... constipation and injury... two things that will fuck up any fitness related goals faster than you can say their names...

I just had a thought... maybe I should pick up some of that "alli" stuff... what with the "uncontrollable urges" it causes and such. :D

Weekend Update

it was hot. and that's all I have to say about that.

HIIT - I believe in HIIT with a passion. I made more progress fitness/running and fat loss when I was doing HIIT than I ever had before. The problem I have right now is that the HIIT I love doing is running based (on the treadmill), and being banned from running has really hit me to the core and made it VERY difficult to get motivated to do it at all. I am going to try to do 20 minutes of HIIT this week on the eliptical to see if it works for my feet or not.

I am not doing BFL right now, but I've always believed in the eating plan and exercise plan as a way to get started and stay motivated toward fitness. I believe in the 40/30/30 ratio (protein/carbs/fat) for health and wellness and I TRULY believe that women should try as hard as possible to eat as much organic and hormone-free food as is humanly possible, and take a prenatal vitamin (the extra folic acid and calcium are a benefit to all menstruating women).

( are ya listenin' to me preach? hahahah!)

The problem I've had is that even though I believe in all of those things, I haven't been very good at following thru with anything other than the organic, hormone-free food goals. That ends today. Today I began taking my prenatal vitamin again, and starting in the morning I will be tracking my food on fitday.com again and pushing toward the 40/30/30 ratio that I know I do best on.

And there you have it.

Exercise this weekend was not focused - I did a lot of housecleaning but the heat really did keep us inside far more than I would have liked. Today, however, I did the Beginners lower body split again and ran the stairs in my house 20 times. I think the legs are gonna feel it tomorrow.

Goals for Tuesday:
Take my Vitamin
40/30/30 (record EVERYTHING in fitday)
Call Dr. HappyFeet about my heels
Call Subaru Dealership for a/c fix
Upper Body and some sort of cardio (20 min +/-)

Day 6

Nice Work, Laura and Jill!!

Fourth of July was fabulous, tho a bit on the light side for activity. We did ride bikes as a family (and thus low intensity) for about 2 hours that day which was so much fun and such a great time that I'm counting it even if my HR wasn't off the charts.

Yesterday Mike and I went to the Y together in the evening and spent about 1.5 hours in the weight room doing full body workouts. I can't remember everything I did but here's what I do remember - 3x10-15 of each exercise:
Lat Pull, Bench Press, Leg Press, Leg Extension, Good-Girls/Bad-Girls, Standing Shoulder Press, Lat Row, Rear Delt Row, Standing Tricep Cable Pushdown, Arm Extension (also a tricep exercise), Preacher Curls, More Lat Row, Low Back Hyperextensions, A few free-squats with just the bar in the power cage (YAY!), and Calf Presses.
Today I feel fabulous... later today and tomorrow may suck.

My plan for today is to either ride my bike 16 miles (to Oshkosh and back) or spend an hour or so getting medieval on the practice wall at the tennis courts. Its gonna get hot ("It's hot. Damn hot! Real hat! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking.") and humid on Saturday and Sunday so we may go for more air-conditioned gym time rather than spending too much of it outside.

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm really not paying a lot of attention to nutrition thru this. It gets to a point where you know what you're eating and what it is nutritionally worth, so I eat a lot of lean protein and fresh veggies (oooh and my tomatoes are starting to ripen, I've eaten 2 cherries so far!!!)... and call it good... when I'm ready I'll get back into posting on fit-day to follow more closely my ratios (40:30:30 is my usual goal)... but for now, I'm just getting active and that's a very good place to start.

Day 3 of July Challenge

I have to work tonight. I work part time at a local nursing home and I work basically every other weekend on the night shift. I have to work tonight because everyone is required to pull a holiday shift every year and 4th of July is the holiday I pulled. The good part is that my shift is the night BEFORE the holiday, so after a few hours of sleep we'll still have the rest of the day and evening to play.

The challenge is going well. Yesterday I did Krista's beginner lower body workout which consists of Squats, Straight Leg Dead Lifts, Calf Raises and Good Mornings. I did most of the exercises unweighted (not the dead lifts) and I am still sore as hell today.

Today I ran over to the gym and did Krista's beginner upper body workout (lat pull, shoulder press, 1 arm row and bench press) and then 30 minutes on the eliptical. My legs were able to workout some of the soreness and that felt good.

I've probably mentioned that I'm not a fan of the scale... it is a useful datapoint in a lot of ways, but right now I'm just being discouraged by it... so I'm going to forgo it for as long as possible. A set weight has never been my ultimate goal so much as a level of leanness and a level of fitness and since the scale will tell me neither of those it can go jump in the lake for now.

I keep trying...

to write a final post... to sign off for good, but I can't seem to make myself do it.

I guess that means I'm not done yet... maybe there is something more I need to say... something more I need to do with this site.

The last few months... and really the last 2 years have been a time of extreme transition and trauma and recovery for me and my family... my health and fitness has improved and declined like the changing of the tides.

Injury, physical and emotional... upheaval, revelation, just... everything imaginable and then some. I'm not going to get into it, but what I've realized as I return to myself and return to the object of my fitness... that without leaning on proper nutrition and exercise I have truly done myself a disservice.

Krista's rant in April or May was about stress and how she went thru some amazingly HUGE stresses over the last year but was able to maintain a level head and even keel primarily due to the fact that her nutrition and workouts were her coping mechanism. She poured her anxiety into her workouts and she fed her body as tho her life depended upon it (when, in reality, it did).

I have picked myself up, dusted off some of the pieces and am in the process of putting them back together and the two parts of my hopefully fast acting epoxy will be my nutrition and exercise. I WILL lift. I will eat as tho my life depends upon it. I am, for the first time in literally years, extending a challenge.

I don't know if anyone even reads here anymore, but I did get an email recently from 'Jill,' after she had been reading thru my archives. So, Hi Jill! Thank you for the push to post again and for the encouragement and the realization that I can still have an impact. Yes, I'd be happy to answer your questions, Jill... I'll respond to your email shortly.

So now for the challenge:

July: (yes, starting today)

Every day I will do some form of strenuous activity. Today it was tennis with my husband for an hour. Work will not get in the way, the summer will not get in the way. This is my opportunity and my life.

Join me. Count off 31 days with me. 31 days of purposeful, strenuous, heart-pumping activity... I don't care what you do, as long as you spend at least 30 minutes doing it. I will be biking, swimming, playing tennis, lifting weights, using the cardio equipment at the gym, etc... anything I can think of (except running because I'm still banned from that by my freakin' podiatrist)... and it will be fun.

The plan is to do Krista's Beginner Split workout Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and filling in with other activities the rest of the days of the week. Weekends will probably be mainly tennis because I can do that with my family... And there is no limit to how much activity you do... the more the better, I say.

Make it fun, make it a challenge, remember that your life depends on it. I will.