I was awakened at midnight by an earthquake! It was centered 1 mile from me so we certainly felt it. It was 3.6. Over quickly but left my heart racing. Dh promptly went right back to snoring while I was up for quite a while.
Starting packing last night for my cruise. I need to try dresses on tonight (from my closet) to see what fits. I was discouraged when I tried on a pair of shorts that I had a feeling might be tight-- they didn't come close to fitting. Guess that will be my goal this summer-- to get back into those.
My original plan (I use the word plan loosely) was to "allow" myself to gain a few pounds on the cruise up to my redline. However, I've been over my redline so that plan backfired. However, I was .4 under this morning-- guess I can go crazy now!?
Dh put the puppy crate together last night. Dewey was quite interested. Charlotte was eyeing it very leerily!
Good Friday, which actually didn't begin so good, as I had a restless night again, having put on too light a nightgown and blanket for the chill that descended after our 60-degree day. And I was hurting everywhere. The imbalance caused by the injured leg means the outer tendon on the "good" leg is sore, my shoulders hunch inward and my neck gets sore, the small of my back gets sore, not to mention my quads, calves and the back of the knee behind the embedded plate.
And also weigh-in: 142, even, pre-intake and outtake. No idea if this is due to portions increasing, more carbs, lots of diet Pepsi yesterday or inflammation from all that soreness.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Asparagus, red pepper and spinach egg bake; home-made banana & prune muffin; double portion of blueberries with cinnamon & yogurt
Snack: Apple pie Quest bar
Lunch: Baby kale salad, roasted vegetables, goat cheese, half an avocado, walnuts, Craisins
Dinner: Baked catfish nuggets with herbs & breadcrumbs, roasted cauliflower, steamed asparagus
Dessert: Frozen Dark Chocolate sugarfree Jell-O pudding cup
Today's Exercise:
At the gym: 20 minutes on the recumbent bike, again hill climb program, resistance retained at seven, went a little further; same upper body routine with the seated cable rows added, lat pulldowns kept at 80 lbs. I was moving around gingerly feeling lame everywhere today. Not a good morning.
Michelle - those darn earthquakes always keep me up the rest of the night. Have a great time on your cruise and feel beautiful in whatever you wear!
Saefc- be sure to give your healing body a break now and then, if nothing more than to lower the resistance on the bike and add more gentle stretching. Healing isn't linear, after all.
jayzee "Healing isn't linear" seems so obvious to me now, after reading it in your post. I keep trying to put my injuries "on a schedule" to heal and they don't seem to understand that.
Things will heal when they choose to with some help from me. WOW! I will keep that in my mind from now on.
Thanks JZJ. I needed to hear that this morning. My weight is up over 2 pounds overnight putting me well over my redline. It's my last work day, then home for some bikram with dh, then to pack. I had a bad headache yesterday and took tylenol-- all anti-inflammatories seem to make me gain weight for some reason, so I'll try to blame it on that.
Saef-- JZJ had good advice for you too. Healing isn't linear. What a smart thought. Much of our life isn't linear....
Happy Friday to everyone! Happy Good Friday or Happy Passover depending (or both in my case).
Easter Sunday, waking up late, or so I thought -- but my elderly preprogrammed clock radio had simply remembered the former date for daylight savings time and set itself ahead by an hour. This may mean that today I feel just a little bit behind and a little bit overwhelmed all day.
No weigh-in.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; home-made banana & prune muffin; blueberries with cinnamon & yogurt
Lunch: Kielbasa, kale and chickpea soup
Snack: Small tasetless sliced MacIntosh apple
Dinner: Prime rib, steamed broccoli, mushrooms, sweet potato
Dessert: Frozen Dark Chocolate sugarfree Jell-O pudding cup
Today's Exercise:
Trying a leg day with low weights
20 minutes recumbent bike, same setting as before; squats with a 14-lb ball; leg press at 60 lbs; step-ups with 10-lb dumbbells; hyperextensions with 15-lb dumbbell; deadlift with a 60-lb barbell; bodyweight glute bridges; seated calf raises with 20-lb dumbbell on each thigh.
Easter Monday, which is a holiday for my U.K.-based brethern, but quite the opposite for me, as I've got a presentation to give on WebEx and an interview to run this afternoon.
Weigh-in: 142.5, pre-intake, pre-outtake
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; steel-cut oatmeal with apple slices; cantaloupe & yogurt
Lunch: Spring mix salad with quinoa, mushrooms, chickpeas, cashews and goat cheese
Snack: Hard-boiled egg with a light red shell
Dinner: Prime rib, steamed asparagus and broccoli, sweet potato
Dessert: Quest bar peanut butter cups
Today's Exercise:
At the gym: 15 minutes on recumbent bike, hills, resistance upped to eight; then trying Workout A of Ice Cream Fitness, but with the reduced number of reps and sets used in the "cutting" version. With just five reps, I increased the weights a lot, like 35-lb dumbbell for rows, 30-lb dumbbells for bench presses, and 22.5-lb dumbbells for curls (poor form, not much range of motion). I don't think that Ice Cream Fitness is for me. The reps just feel way too low.
Tuesday, a day with far too much going on: Three meetings, a physical therapy appointment, my car inspection, a carpenter coming to repair the guest bedroom floor and an appointment with my therapist in the afternoon. My mother's pleased: What a busy, productive day! Me, I want to scream.
No weigh in this morning.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; steel-cut oatmeal with apple slices; cantaloupe & yogurt
Lunch: Spring mix salad with roasted vegetables, two hard-boiled eggs (a green one and a blue one), walnuts, goat cheese, hummus and Craisins
Dinner: Ham, steamed cauliflower and green beans, sweet potato
Dessert: Quest bar peanut butter cups (which actually have more calories than Reese's, though far more protein and far less sugar)
Today's Exercise:
At the gym: 30 minutes on recumbent bike, hills, resistance dropped to seven.
At Physical Therapy: 12 minutes elliptical hill program, leg press/calf press 4x12 each, alternating single-leg curls 4x12, alternating single-leg leg raises 4x12, adductor/abductor machine 4x12, 10 minutes walking on treadmill
Wednesday, waking up feeling determined to escape my apartment, where my mother sits behind me while I'm trying to work, making small talk and asking questions, and two Albanian carpenters are replacing warped floorboards in the guest bedroom, and stuff from the guest bedroom is strewn all over the living room, my bedroom and the hallway. So I drove to CT, to my office, for the first time since November.
Weigh in: 143.1, post intake and post-outtake. Weight's been creeping up all week. It's from dining on ham and prime rib, and Quest bars.*
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; steel-cut oatmeal with apple slices; cantaloupe & yogurt
Lunch: Spring mix salad with black-eyed peas, roasted green beans and eggplant, tuna and sunflower seeds
Snack: Bartlett pear, finally ripe
Dinner: Prime rib, roasted cauliflower, steamed green beans, mushrooms
Dessert: Quest bar peanut butter cups
(*Which doesn't mean that I've stopped eating either of these foods, as you'll see here.)
At the gym: 20 minutes recumbent bike, hills, up to eight. Then trying Workout B of Ice Cream Fitness, doing 5x5. With just five reps to hit, this makes me daring and I pick up heavier weights than I'd ordinarily try, which is a good lesson in how I underestimate my own strength. Still, I don't think I'll continue this program. Oh, and I walked home feeling so sore.
Why is it that when I go to bed exhausted, if I awaken early, I can't get back to sleep? My mother came in from the casino around 4 AM, and I just gave her my bed, since hers is reduced to a mattress on the living room floor while the carpenters finish off the guest bedroom. Now it's 8:21 and I'm tired and dry-mouthed, but I need to rework a document, conduct a one-on-one and an interview on WebEx, be trained on an Excel spreadsheet macro and attend a physical therapy session.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; steel-cut oatmeal with apple slices; cantaloupe & yogurt
Snack: The last Bartlett pear
Lunch: Spring mix salad, roasted vegetables, walnuts, goat cheese, hummus, Craisins
Dinner: Ham, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, steamed green beans
Dessert: Quest bar peanut butter cups
At Physical Therapy: 12 minutes elliptical hill program, super sets of 12/15/20/20 bodyweight squats and crunches, alternating single-leg curls 4x12, alternating single-leg leg raises 4x12, adductor/abductor machine 4x12
Saef- after I finished NROLW, I did Stronglifts for a few months, which is very similar to Ice Cream though with fewer exercises per lifting day. It is basically a 5x5 program (5 sets of 5 reps), where you add 5 pounds to each of 5 different exercises every week (except for squats, where you add weight twice a week). Don't discount it too quickly- it made me MUCH stronger fairly quickly, but also ended up stressing my joints a bit too much, so I gave it up in favor of a more balanced approach again that incorporates body weight moves and more "accessory" exercises. I've heard good things about "Lift Like a Girl" (put out by Nia Shanks) but it's not free (of course, neither is NROLW).
Friday, rainy and remorseful. I missed Pilates last night, out of exhaustion and to keep my mother company, as she's departing today. These four walls cannot contain her fury: The Albanian carpenters refinished the repaired section of the floor with a high-gloss polyurethane, when the rest of the floor has a matte finish. Looks like half the floor was rained on and has a puddle on it, and the other half is dry. They've got to come back and redo their work. But on Monday, I'll be in CT wearing pinstripes, doing a luncheon interview of a job candidate and my mother will be at her home, getting her taxes done. So this is postponed indefinitely till I can reschedule.
Weigh in: 142.7, pre-intake and pre-outtake. It's goodbye to the Quest peanut butter cups, at least for now.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; steel-cut oatmeal with apple slices; cantaloupe & yogurt
Lunch: Spring mix salad with roasted vegetables, the last three Easter eggs (one yolk, the others whites only), walnuts, goat cheese, Craisins
Dinner: Prime rib, steamed broccoli and green beans
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar (which has about 60 calories fewer than the peanut butter cups)
At the gym: Warmup 20 minutes on the upright stationery bike, random hills, dropped to six. (Here's a wakeup call: I tried pedaling with the left injured leg only, with resistance at one, and couldn't manage a full revolution.) Then I did workout 1A of Bret Contreras' Strong Curves Beginners Workout. (I think it's called "Booty-full Beginners.")
I don't mean to switch around in workout programs like an unfocused ninny, but I gave it some thought, and decided that with an atrophied left leg, Contreras' glute and leg-focused workout might be a better choice than Ice Cream Fitness, at least right now. Andrea, it's really good to hear your opinion on these different programs. I really like following programs and routines, which work well with my mindset and liking for structure and measurable progress. And I've made notes of the programs that I hope to get to next. I follow Nia Shanks on my Facebook feed (yeah, one thing that Facebook is good for) and keep meaning to get into one of her programs -- she's great!
i went to bed a tiny bit hungry every night this week and got my weight back where I want it (126). Next Tues Wed Thurs I'll be trapped at a state-led meeting in Anaheim with all of the attached eating dilemmas. A cooler full of salad, chicken, yogurt, fruit, etc ought to help. But it's still hard to resist the pastries and cookies when I'm sitting and bored all day.
Saef, keep it up with the one-legged pedaling. You'll improve quickly. I haven't felt very motivated to fit in extra exercise at home this week and I really need to get back to it. I'm being forced to sit for long stretches at work and my calorie burn is down
Saturday, determined to keep moving, to use my free time well, after several hours in the gym that have left my hamstrings as sore as my quads were a few weeks ago.
Yes, Alice, I'm working every day to regain muscle in that leg. Funny, putting on muscle meant something different to me before the accident. Now it's all about being able to function, to walk & climb stairs without tiring.
Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Spinach and mushroom egg bake; steel-cut oatmeal with apple slices; cantaloupe & yogurt
Lunch: Spring mix salad with roasted vegetables, chunks of beef and goat cheese
Dinner: Seared tuna steak brushed with black bean sauce, steamed asparagus and green beans
Dessert: White chocolate raspberry Quest bar
At the gym: Warmup 20 minutes on the upright stationery bike, random hills, upped the resistance to seven. Then workout 1B of Bret Contreras' Strong Curves Beginners Workout, followed by a Pilates mat class.
to heal and they don't seem to understand that.
