Leg Issues

Because of the pain I've been experiencing in my left leg and ankle, I haven't been walking since Sunday. I need to get a medical opinion before I hurt myself even worse. Last night, I had some time to kill so I was walking around the mall a bit. I don't think I even walked a mile and my leg and ankle were hurting, very sharp pain in two particular spots. The more I research, the more I'm afraid I have two stress fractures. I'm going to see a doctor Friday, since I have off work. I'm so upset that because I pushed myself to exercise more and harder just that ONE day, I may possibly have to avoid my walks for a month or two. I'm really hoping it's not stress fractures, because I enjoy my walks and I want to get the most out of the nice weather (even though it's still raining most days of the week lately). Plus, we're going to a convention in a few weeks and I'll be walking all day long.

Which brings me to my next topic: goals. I had set a goal to get under 400 by this convention coming up in 2 weeks. I haven't weighed myself in a week and a half, and when I did last, I was 409. I was also hoping to be under 400 by my appointment with my surgeon Tuesday, but that goal was based on my 9 pound loss right after my fill. I don't know if I'll make it to my goal in 2 weeks. I really have to dedicate myself to this or I won't lose weight. I'm too happy with eating and being full that it's hard for me to say no to myself. Especially if I get a bad diagnosis Friday, I'm going to have to concentrate on my eating and cut my portions. I can't rely on my band to do that since I still haven't found lasting restriction.

Yeah...

I fell back into my usual pattern of if I'm not exercising and not eating the greatest, I just don't post. I hadn't taken a walk since I hurt myself last Saturday, until today. I meant to a few times, but between rain and just not wanting to, it didn't get done. We had Subway Thursday (not too bad), Buffalo Wild Wings Friday (I had the sampler appetizer instead of getting the usual appetizer + main dish, which helped, but still over 1000 calories), and I just HAD to have McD's yesterday (Mac Snack Wrap and McFlurry) and today (2 cheeseburgers and McFlurry). What on earth has gotten into me? It's like I just jumped into a well the last week and I have no desire to get out.

Today I did get out and walk, I only did a mile though because I felt sleepy in the heat and I was very very sluggish. I'm trying to figure out why I'm so lethargic lately, and I did jog twice, but my legs felt so weird, very weak and wobbly. My lower left leg was hurting just a tiny bit as well again, which worries me. This just means I really need to make an effort to get walking again, I have never felt so physically weak since I started walking/exercising all those months ago.

I also need to go back to NO fast food, unless absolutely necessary--no more satisfying cravings. No more cookies with my lunch, no more Taan flat things to supplement my lunch. I'm going too far out of my way to please my stomach instead of the scale.

Also, I really have to give up tortillas, completely. Unless I'm so so careful, they just keep giving me problems with getting stuck, no matter how much I try to deny it and keep trying to eat them. Sigh.

Yup, That Was A Bad Idea

After my stupid idea yesterday, my left ankle, the front of my leg above the ankle, and my right knee were hurting yesterday and today. I decided to take today off because, worst case scenario, I could have a stress fracture and I don't want to make it worse--even if it's just soreness, it wouldn't have been a good idea to work it again today. DH's coworker (who is a Marine and a gym rat), suggested to take two days off to let it heal, so tomorrow is out too. It's funny, most of the time I try to get out of walking, but now that I -can't-, I want to and I miss it.

DH picked up a new cookbook called "Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery" by Patt Levine. I haven't looked at it too much yet, but every recipe has nutrition information, portion size for LB, bypass, and DS surgeries, and instructions for puree and mushy stages. Pretty cool. I'll let you all know when I find some good recipes!

Really Really Bad Idea

First off, I didn't post yesterday because I gained 3 pounds. I really don't understand how, because I watched what I ate most of the week and rarely actually finished my dinner every night and I walked a total of 9.5 miles this week. I think it may have been bad timing when I weighed myself (couldn't go number 2 beforehand...), but it's really no excuse. I didn't walk Thursday because it was pouring outside, and yesterday DH and I had some errands to run after I picked him up from work. Then, around 12:30 AM last night, a friend was visiting and we had pizza. I had a handful of boneless buffalo wings and 3 pieces of pizza. The worst part was that I wasn't even hungry.

This morning, I tried to make up for it. I did 3 miles, running at EVERY 1/4 mile mark, WITH weights, but no water. Shortly after I passed the first mile, I started getting really exhausted. After 1.5 miles, my right upper arm/shoulder started hurting so bad from carrying the weight. At that point I stopped doing reps with the weights, but I didn't have a choice but to carry them anyway. And I kept doing my running intervals because crazily enough, I didn't feel so crappy when I was running. Probably kept my mind off the exhaustion for those 30 seconds. By the time I got back to my car, I just collapsed in the seat. I was walking sooo slow from the car back to the apartment when I got home, and now I don't want to move from my chair.

So, lesson learned. I can't take my weights if I'm doing 3 miles. If I'm going to do running intervals for 3 miles, I have to take water. It probably would have helped too if I had something to eat before I went out walking, it was about 9 AM and I hadn't had breakfast yet.

The good thing was that the people out at 9 AM are much friendlier than the rest of the day. Everyone smiles and says hello. With about 3/4 of a mile left, I noticed a big difference when people started getting snootier and ignore the other people on the trail.

Ugh, Tough Walk

I don't know if it's because I haven't used my weights in over a week, but tonight's walk/run was hard on me, I was out of breath for a good portion of it. My muscles also got tired a lot faster during my weight reps. I'm soooo exhausted, but it's good, because it means I worked hard tonight. It takes me about 45 minutes to do the 2 miles when I do my running intervals, versus my usual 52ish minutes. Not bad. I finally have something of a routine:

0-1/4 mile: 60 reps of pulling my arms up in a V from my waist to shoulders.
1/4 mile: 30 second run
1/4 - 1/2 mile: 30 reps on each arm of bicep curls
1/2 mile: 30 second run
1/2 - 3/4 mile: 30 reps on each arm, arms hanging down and swinging, pushing back further to work the muscle on the back of my arm (hard to explain)
3/4 mile: 30 second run
3/4 - 1 mile: 30 reps on each arm of lifting straight up (shoulder to full extension)
Turn around at 1 mile, 30 second jog right away, and start over.

Sorry I don't know if there are any names for some of these, I just kind of made up the muscle workouts depending on what worked my muscles well.

I was a little off on food today. I wanted a "real" breakfast (not oatmeal) so I got a ham, egg, and cheese on a roll instead of a wrap. Now, I don't know why, because I knew I didn't need it, but I got some potatoes as well. I still have a pre-lapband brain in regards to thinking I need more food to get full than I do.

I ate half my sandwich and maybe 3/4 of the potatoes and knew I was full enough at that point. But, me being the stupid me I am, I ate the rest of it. Thankfully, I didn't feel sick and wasn't painfully full when I was done. However, I didn't eat my lunch until 3:30, and I wasn't even hungry then, I just wanted to make sure I didn't get too hungry later on during my walk. I also had 2 small cookies at work, which I don't know why, because I wasn't hungry. I never take the cookies when my boss is in the room, because last time she saw me doing it she asked how my diet was going, and I don't need that. So I think I just take advantage of when she's not in the room, whether I really want a cookie or not (we have a "community" snack area). I did resist having a vanilla bean Frappaccino, which saved me 250 calories.

I'm just really glad I got my walk in, it seems lately I only get it in on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then don't have the urge to finish the week.

Pretty Good Day

I finally called my doctor (when my appt. was 3 weeks ago) to get my lab results. ALL of my tests were normal (blood sugar, thyroid, liver, etc etc) and my cholesterol is still a wonderful 154. Even my doctor is jealous of my cholesterol. I don't remember if I posted about this, but she told me when I was there that if she were to go out in the waiting room and point out who had the highest cholesterol in the room, she would have picked me, but she's continually amazed at how low it is. Meanwhile, my mom weighs somewhere between 120-130 and her cholesterol is over 200. Crazy world.

I went to the potluck tonight at my support group. I was a little nervous to see the dietician there, because I don't go to her anymore and I'm pretty sure she knows I fought to have it that way. It's nothing against her, the $75 cash every session just wasn't worth the knowledge she repeated that I had in my original surgery packet.

At first I was worried because nobody was taking my Oreo fluff, then I realized that people didn't take ANY sweet things the first time. Apparently I had skewed views of what a bariatric potluck would be--one trip to the food line and that was it, so I originally took a little of whatever I wanted and planned that that would be it. Everyone else went back for seconds and dessert. THEN the compliments came flying in! Everyone was surprised how good it was, even the dietician had a second helping of it. Some people had 3 helpings. Everyone kept asking how to make it, how good it was, etc., but the best compliments were the 3 people who told me they could never have it in their house, because it goes down TOO easily and they would be too tempted by it. But those same people said they would definitely take it to a function where other people would be eating it, because there wouldn't be anything left to take home! I was pleasantly surprised at how well received it was.

I plan to get my walk in tomorrow since I have time to kill before DH gets off work and it's not supposed to rain.

Ahhh, three days in a row

Yesterday I walked a full three miles! I'm so proud of myself that I can do it pretty easily. The only reason I don't do it everyday is because sometimes I just want to get home to DH or it just takes so long and I get bored.

Today it was storming right before I got off work, but it stopped raining when I got out. I took a risk and started walking, but it looked like it was going to start storming again, so I planned to do one mile. It seems like I can NEVER just do ONE mile. Got to the 1/2 mile mark and decided to keep going since it didn't start raining again yet. Then, a few minutes after that, the sun came out, almost like a reward for doing my full walk. I feel like I put more power into my muscles today as I walked, it was nice. I didn't finish any faster, but I feel like I got a better workout. I didn't run because the trail is blacktop; it was really slippery being so drenched from the storms today. I also didn't take my weights in fear of rain.

Tomorrow is my support group meeting's summer potluck and I'm taking low-fat Oreo fluff, made with crushed up reduced-fat Oreos, Cool Whip Free, and fat-free, sugar-free white chocolate pudding. I used to make the "regular" version a lot for picnics and such but I haven't tried it with low fat foods, we'll see how it works out.