Muscles, Mimosas, and Misery

It turns out I'm pretty awful at naming things.  I have been pondering for an hour over what I should name this blog.  Health and Life is a good name, but a common one.  I even looked up this wonderful website on how to name your blog.  I managed to take up a whole piece of paper with a lot of phrases that don't make any sense or have no relatedness to my blog.  I think my favorite name is "The Afflicted Scientist", but outside of the afflicted part I can't make it relate.  For now, Health and Life will remain my blog name. As far as weekly progress goes I suspect I will meet two of my goals.  I have done my leg strengthening exercises three days, and I have tracked using Lose It!every day.  I almost didn't track Lose It! today because I thought I would go over on calories.  Going over on calories is not a good reason to not track.  I entered in everything and was only about 20 calories over, so it really wasn't bad.

I was talking with my husband last night, and we both made the decision to jump back into fitness.  The challenge will be especially difficult for me right now because of my knees, but I think its doable.  I'm going to use Lose It! to track my food and calories.  I have actually been doing this for a few weeks but I have been pretty inconsistent.  I have also found some seated arm and core exercises I can alternate with.  I also will be doing my physical therapy strengthening for my legs.  Depending on how my knee feels, I may try swimming some this week, but that fully depends on how much my knee hurts. My "Before" picture.   Now, to make my progress measurable I will set some goals.  I'm starting with goals being fairly easy to reach. 1) Do physical therapy exercises 4 times this week. (Sunday 6/28-Saturday 7/3) 2) Do core or arm exercises 3 times this week 3) Track with Lose It! for all 7 days. Links for those that are intereste...

This may become my new place to rant.  I am again left feeling frustrated for not being able to exercise.  I keep thinking about the person I was.  At least, the person I think I was.  I try to track calories and unless I am careful I go over.  When I was running, I never had to track calories.  It would have been next to impossible for me to go over on calories.  I miss being in my twenties. I finally know what is wrong with my knee.  I have patellofemoral ambulatory disorder.  Basically, there is a groove on your femur where patella tracks.  The groove on my femur is very shallow (almost non existent), so my patella doesn't track.  When I walk my patella rubs on the lateral condyle of my femur.  This causes irritation, which causes swelling, which causes pain.  I received a cortisone injection in my knee.  If you are ever about to have one of those, they hurt like hell.  I would rather sit through my five hou...

I've been wanting to write for a while, but just journaling hasn't felt right.  This seemed like the best blog given the subject matter I have been mulling over in my head.  My life has changed a lot over the last few years.  I graduated college; got a job, and am getting married.  The back injury took years to fully recover.  I now have illiotibial band syndrome, but this should be getting better with some physical therapy.  I know for a long time I have had body image issues.  I looked through some old photos on facebook and found one of me when I was TINY.  It was probably at the peak of my physical health.  I probably weighed 125-130 pounds.  Anyways, I remember duct taping my stomach down when I first tried that dress on.  Really?!  Now, 30 pounds later I still feel that same way.  I feel very uncomfortable in my body.  I keep thinking about losing weight, but then I don't.  I don't have the right motivati...

Today I am very frustrated and depressed.  I was planning on using my old Bellydancing stuff for a Halloween costume and realized just how much weight I have gained.  My back is injured again (can't feel my left foot) so I can't run.   Just generally depressed.

So, school took over there for a few months.  To be more precise, school kicked my ass for a few months and was down to sleeping only an average of 4-6 hours a night.  My current philosophy is that if I don't have enough time to sleep, I don't have enough time to work out.  Unfortunately, my diet went to hell also.  I'm trying to pinpoint the area of where I get messed up the most. I know I have a sweet tooth like you wouldn't believe.  Given the choice  I would probably live on cookies and ice cream.  My other main diet are problems are a little more complicated.  A lot of it is time related.  If I'm running behind in the mornings or in general I don't have time to eat breakfast, pack a lunch, etc.  This leads to me eating fast food or junk food from a vending machine.  Now I could get a salad at a fast food place, but salads tend to be more expensive when I get a burger and soda for $2.  Of course, I can get a week's worth ...

I got in 1 kettlebell workout and 2 runs since Wednesday.  I was going to do another kettlebell work out tonight, but work and homework got in the way.  Overall I would say I'm doing a decent job with it though.  Still better than doing nothing!!  I decided to have some delicious veggies tonight.  I once got steamed broccoli with peanut sauce from The Grit in Athens (a delicious vegetarian restaurant).  I'm imitating that tonight.  I steamed my own broccoli and bought a package mix for the peanut sauce.  I'm sure making the peanut sauce from scratch would be even more delicious, but a girl only has so much time.  I'm also having a baked sweet potato for some extra content. Broccoli cooked well is great, but I would have to eat SO MUCH to get full.