Comfort food is no longer my friend: Week 10

This past week was the first week it was cold in Denver - and by that, I mean, there were morning lows below freezing. Of course, then during the day, it would get warm enough that I looked like an idiot in my winter coat, but hey, I totally needed it while roaming around before the sun came up. And with this, came a myriad of ... everything.

The Good: My PT has started to really challenge me. For awhile, I felt stagnant in my progress, but the past few weeks, she's been giving me new things to do, and I love that. This past week was the first week I felt a little bit of DOMS from the new work she gave me. And I loved and hated it at the same time. Also, my chiropractor emailed me just to check up on me, which I thought was so kind. I really lucked out with health care providers in Denver. I also got to meet up with lost Loopster hairgirl and her husband, who are both so much fun.

The Not-Really-Good-But-Not-Really-Bad-Either: With the cooler temps, I found myself in a comfort food overload. I made chili, gluten-free cornbread (scratch), gluten free chocolate cake (box) and macaroni and cheese; I drank lots of beer (for me); and then there was the comfort food potluck at work. Oye vey.

The Bad: with all the comfort food and lack of vegetables, I felt really icky most of the week and therefore slacked on my workouts and my energy just plummeted. Not a really fun way to feel for an entire week. Of course, that just made me want more comfort food.

The Ugly: My resting frowny face all last week. I seriously don't know what my deal was. Frowny faces aren't a good look for me.

Here's how the week unfolded:

Sunday
PT
25 minutes on ex bike
Brunch, chili, cornbread, cake

Monday
stretched
mac & cheese, cornbread, cake

Tuesday
"snow day" AKA work from home in my sweat pants
stretched, The Stick
chili, cake

Wednesday
PT
new exercises: single leg press
walking lunges
single leg squat off of step
mac & cheese

Thursday
stretched. and took the Stick to my leg and butt. that is it.
work comfort food potluck: chicken strips, steak fries, shrimp etoufe, nachos and cake

Friday
Had planned to do 30 minutes on the ex bike, but at 22:30, the fire alarm went off at work. So, I just went home.
work potluck leftovers

Saturday
PT
20 minutes on the elliptical
smashburger & hot chocolate from Caribou coffee

An unexciting week 9

I don't have a whole lot of anecdotes this week, so I'll skip it. Things are going well.

There is this, though:

Shorty's gettin' low. Next up: Apple bottom jeans and boots with the furrrrrr.

Sunday
I didn't write it down right away, so I legit have no idea what I did.
I think I just took Jeff for extra long walks that day. And tried to remember to stretch.

Monday
PT, followed by stretching
5 miles on ex bike in 15 minutes. I don't believe this is the actual distance I went, but I've realized the bike compensates when you are on a harder level. Apparently, you get rewarded for that stuff.

Tuesday
I was really, really tired from work that day, so I said, "Eliz, go home and snuggle with the dog. And don't forget to stretch."
I snuggled with the dog. Forgot to stretch

Wednesday
PT - Snow was falling that morning, so I left extra early for my 8AM appointment and got there at 7:15. Luckily, there is a coffee shop across the street, so I enjoyed some coffee and watched the snow fall. My therapist was actually late, so I got on the bike while I was waiting for her and found this scene hilarious:

coffee and biking. why not?

2.7 miles on ex bike ... maybe like 17 minutes? I forgot.

Things really got switched up this time around - I'm doing dynamic warmups! So here's the current list of exercises

Quad, hamstring and hip flexor stretches
Use The Stick on quads and IT band
Warmups: 
High knee pull
Figure 4 stretch
Standing quad stretch
Frankenstein walk
Walking hamstring stretch
Airplanes (warrior 3)

Single leg bridge 2x12
Side lying lateral raise 2x12
Planks 2x30s - on the first one, I accidentally set the timer for 30 minutes. Oops.
Hamstring curl on ex ball 2x12
Lateral band walks 2x20
Single leg step up 2x15
Calf raises 2x15
Leg press 2x12
Leg curl 2x12
Squats 2x15
Single leg balance 2x45s

I also did 1.1 miles for Col Cupcake's Veteran's Day celebration, but didn't blog about it ... for various reasons. That I don't care to share. Military holidays are weird for me lately.

Thursday
Upper body weights
4 miles on ex bike (20 min)

Friday
PT
20 minutes on elliptical (1.5 miles)

Saturday
1.75 mile walk with Jeff (40 minutes)

The Two-Month Mark: Week 8

My last baseball mention. For now. With the Royals' big win in the World Series, and all the subsequent celebrations in Kansas City, I had a huge case of homesickness during the week. The only thing I wanted most of the time was just go to back home and to stay home. It was overwhelming at times. It also took me nearly a week to decide on which championship t-shirt to buy. There are too many choices and I just want them all!

The Good: Things seem to be going well. I started using weights on my lower half - leg press (80 lbs) and leg curl (40 lbs). They are a far cry from what I was doing wayyy back last December, but I'll get it back. I'm just happy to be doing more than body weight squats right now. I've yet to test the hip again with swimming, but I have plans to do that next week, since I have Veteran's Day off and have extra time to hit the gym after physical therapy.

The Bad: It's hard to be in this point of recovery. Saturday, when I was at the gym, I was stopped by one of the trainers and invited to join their free circuit workout they host. I smiled and said, "No thanks," and of course, that was not enough. So then I had to yet again explain that I had hip surgery and wasn't able to do a whole lot of exercises. Of course, the guy was immediately understanding and even came up to me later to talk to me about it a little, but I hate having to bring it up to strangers.

The Ugly: Again, nothing!

The "In" Club: Once you have any type of injury, we always seem to have people coming out of the woodwork who had the same experience. I'm finding myself in the same situation with this surgery. It's an odd little club I've joined.

Sunday
PT
10 min on elliptical (0.75 miles)
25 minutes on ex bike (5.4 miles)

Oh and there's the part where the Royals clenched the World Series and I stayed up way too late, loving every social media post about it.

Monday
25 minutes on ex bike (4.5 miles)
stretching

Tuesday
stretching

Wednesday
PT appointment first thing in the morning
new exercises: leg press & leg curls (wa-hoo!)
5K on exercise bike in 14:20 - imagine running that!

Thursday
1 mile warm up on exercise bike (8:48)
Chest and shoulders weights
1 mile on elliptical (11:50)
stretching

Friday
skipped the gym so I could hang out with these people:

Saturday
PT
5 miles on ex bike in 17:45
0.75 miles on elliptical in 10

World Series Week (Recovery, Week 7)

My life was totally scheduled around the World Series this week. Workouts, phone calls to Mom and Dad, grocery shopping .... it all revolved around when those games took place. It has been so fun, particularly since the Royals have been so exciting to watch. As I write this, game 5 is on ... and I have a mini bottle of Asti just waiting to be opening when the Royals get their last "W" for the year :)

Memories: Monday was Marathon Monday .... in Ireland. My momma got particularly nostalgic about it and even sent me an email, talking about wonderful memories. I responded, "Love you, too, Mom." There are very few days I would choose to live over and over again, but the day I did that 26.2 definitely is, under-dressed and all. I would love, love, love to be able to do that race every year. But it probably wouldn't mean as much then, would it?


The Good: Recovery is on track. There wasn't anything exciting this week, but no news is sometimes good news, right? Every now and then I catch myself doing things I haven't been "approved" to do - like when I got excited about something and started jumping or when I was crossing the street at a 4 way stop and started to job a little because I was keeping a car waiting. Each time I had to remind myself to not do that. I'm sure it wasn't bad, but it's also something I don't want to make a habit out of. Some people are aggressive with their recover (like Lolo Jones), but I'm not trying to qualify for the 2016 Olympics. So I'll be conservative.

The Bad: Things felt a little more sore than usual this past week - I assume that is because I chose nearly back to back days to try new things (elliptical Thursday, long walk Saturday, swimming Sunday), so I felt like I had to take a few extra days off. I need to remind myself that there is nothing wrong with a regular exercise bike. I have simply used it so sparingly in the past (why use that when there is spin class??) that I have a hard time using it regularly now. But that will change. I just have to be patient.

And not stupid.

The Ugly: Nothing! So thankful there has only been one ugly week so far.

The Confusing: The worst part of this entire process has been dealing with insurance and short term disability. I'm sure it's routine for insurance companies to require extra documentation and to make sure that there isn't someone else who has to pay for it, and I'm sure lots of short term disability companies use weird and confusing (and in my opinion, SHITTY) calculations to determine your benefit, but it just makes me want to scream, "WHY ARE YOU STRESSING ME OUT? DON'T YOU REALIZE I JUST HAD SURGERY?!?!?" It's maddening and confusing.

Sunday
I spent two full hours in the gym - nearly 1 hour being very thorough with PT exercises, about 20 minutes total in the pool (700 meters), then showering and finally stretching again. I could not believe I actually spent two hours there.

Monday
PT exercises

Tuesday
Had planned to get some elliptical time in - I wanted to space this out from my long Saturday walks and my Sunday lap swims, but my hip was really bothering me, so I forced myself to rest. It was really hard to not do it, but I made it. And then I chuckled to myself as a wrote this, because who has to use willpower to not workout? People recovering from hip surgery, apparently.

Wednesday
Physical Therapy day - my hip was still really bothering me, which just made me frustrated.
PT didn't seem to concerned - I'm sure this is typical at this phase, but damnit, I want to be perfect. We didn't add any new exercises this week.

Thursday
Back, Bis and Tris, followed by 5 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes on the exercise bike.

Friday
PT exercises
25 minutes on exercise bike

Saturday
complete rest day - although Jeff did get two long walks, as opposed to his normal one