Pain Pays

Sometimes it really is best to rest an injury and give it time to heal.  Sometimes the old adage "walk it off" is appropriate, depending on the nature of the injury.  Yesterday when I woke up my foot hurt bad but I swore I would do JJ's as soon as I woke up so I did them.  At 9:00 a.m. on my first 10 minute break I did ten more and it hurt, but when I stopped doing them and walked into the kitchen for water I was surprised to find that my foot hurt less than it had before I did the JJ's.  At 11 a.m. on my second 10 minute break I did 50 more, then more at 1 when I went to lunch and more just before my break ended at 2 and then 50 more when I got off work.  By the time I did my last set of 50 right before bed I was barely limping at all.  This morning, no pain.  It's still super bruised but the swelling is mostly gone and I feel no pain at all.

I guess it's like the PF.  Stretching it in the morning hurt but, ultimately, helped it heal overall.  I'm now thinking maybe I had jammed my toes and the jumping jacks helped stretch them out.  I did that with my thumb once playing softball and my dad grabbed it and yanked on it and I was SO PISSED at him for doing it (I was like ... 7, tops) but it instantly felt better.  Odd sometimes how our bodies work.  I'm glad I'm not down for recovery though - I was going to be really pissed if I woke up hurting this morning.




Food:
108 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
3 oz thinly sliced prime rib
>>over poached eggs, toast
>>tomato slices, and salsa
1 homemade turkey chili dog
1 calorie free virgin margarita
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,202






Activity:
Jumping Jacks: 50
Walking: 2.8 miles

Broken

Last night I decided to try to do some more planks to work my abs and just as I got into the position for a front plank, my feet slipped backward on the carpet.  I dropped to my elbows in an attempt to catch myself and, instead, succeeded in hyper-extending two of the toes on my right foot.  I instantly hurt like hell and I rolled to my side as fast as I could to alleviate the pressure from them but it was too late, the damage was already done.

They started to purple within 20 minutes and it's actually the bones in my foot right by those toes that hurt, not the toes themselves.  I figured I could sleep it off and be fine by morning but no such luck.  I woke up in the middle of the night to investigate a loud noise (the cats knocking Vladdy's choke chain off the counter and onto the tile floor) and pain shot half way up my shin when I tried to stand on it.

This morning it's a little bit better, I was able to do jumping jacks as soon as I got out of bed, but it hurts pretty bad.  I had to just grit my teeth and force through them to get them done.  This close to pseudo-marathon time I can't afford to be injured.  I'm kinda pissed at myself.  I probably should have realized that my ab muscles were too sore and tired from the previous day's workout to support me in something as demanding as a plank.




Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
1 homemade wrap
>>6" flour tortilla, salami, provolone, and franks
1 white grapefruit
1 glass red wine
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Daily Caloric Intake: 875




Activity:
Jumping Jacks: 350

You Know When...

Everyone ever heard Jeff Foxworthy's "You might be a redneck if..." jokes?  Well I have a new one, maybe they're not jokes but they should be entertaining none the less.

You know you've had a good workout when...

"You have to bend over in order to pull your shirt over your head because you can't lift your arms."
"You try to chug water and it makes your ab muscles hurt so much that you gag on it."
"You start to stand up and your thigh muscles tell you to piss off."
"You have to wake yourself up every time you want to roll over in bed."

Now you try!




Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 healthy choice lunch
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 fish burrito
1/2 serving sunflower seeds
1 oz beef jerkey
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Daily Caloric Intake: 981




Activity:
Jumping Jacks: 200

A Choice to be Made

I made some bad choices yesterday that I need to account for.  First of all, I chose to sit on my hiney while my food was cooking instead of doing jumping jacks.  Then I chose to sit on my hiney a little longer even after I finished eating lunch.  Eventually I opted to get up and do some lifting but by the time I made that decision my lunch break was more than half over so I didn't get nearly as many reps done as I'd wanted to.

At football last night I chose to sit on my hiney and freeze it off when I should have gotten up and jogged around the park.  It would have been good for me and it would have kept me warm but nope ... bad choices.

When we got home I chose to take a nice long soak in a hot bath after helping my mom with some computer questions when I should have done some more exercises and yoga.  I will begin my weekly weigh-ins again soon and I'm worried about them.  Not knowing has been almost as crappy as knowing every week but not getting anywhere.  How am I going to feel knowing I've been working out every single day if that damn scale still says 230?




Food:
140 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving leftover goulash (the last of it)
6 oz lean steak, broiled
1 cup spanish rice
1 last piece leftover birthday cake
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,162






Activity:
Jumping Jacks: 100
Walking in circles: Had a dr. appointment today, walked circles outside while waiting
Barbell Curl: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Press Behind Neck: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Tricep Extension: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Crunches: 200
Planks: 3 @ 10 seconds each
Side Planks: 3 @ 10 seconds each
Barbell Bench Press: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Dumbbell Butterflyes: 50 reps @ 10 lbs per arm
Knee Push-Ups: 100
Front Leg Lifts: 10 (last thing I did, ran out of steam)

Deadman's Party

Snackers in his costume w/the candy

Yesterday morning I woke up and put on some black sweat pants and an orange sweater and didn't even remember that it was Halloween until Snackers said something 30 minutes later.  I forgot again, quite quickly, as I entered one of the busiest work days I've had in a long, long time.  I finally got around to taking a lunch at 2 p.m. that was 12 minutes long and then I was back at my desk working again - oblivious to the fact that it was my favorite holiday of the entire year.  When I got off work I was a little depressed because it just didn't FEEL like Halloween to me.

I started to put on my costume anyway as Snackers and I started discussing options for where we could go or what we could do to make the day feel more like it should.  He decided to grab some take-out from the burrito shop and I turned on the Ghost Hunters Halloween Live special that I like to watch every year but the sun was still up (partially) and it just wasn't as fun as it usually is.  When the first trick-or-treaters arrived we opted to sit out front for a little while to pass out candy and then it happened ... we were filled with the Halloween spirit.  Our little neighborhood was PACKED.  The streets were so full of people that it looked like Mardi Gras!  We went through 160 pieces of assorted candy from those big variety bags (two bags of 80 pieces each), 50 boxes of junior mints, and 30 packets of Smartees.  We were getting hit in groups of 20 - 30 kids at a time.  A pick-up truck drove by so full of kids that it bottomed out going over a speed bump and then it parked and all the kids piled out and started running door-to-door.

Contacts, a wig, and fangs, I love Halloween!

When we ran out, the first time, we came in the house and started to tear the kitchen apart looking for more because it was only 6 p.m!!!  We'd been handing out candy, not letting kids take it from the bowl, so we know they were only getting one piece per kid yet we'd gone through 240 pieces of candy in less than an hour!!!  We found airline peanuts and pretzels that our flight attendant friends give us - huge bags with 50 packets per bag so we broke them open and filled the bowl again.  We also opted to turn on some tunes like "Dead Man's Party", "Monster Mash", and every other Halloween song that we could find on YouTube, hooked them up to the woofer, locked up the pets and left the front door open so that the tunes spilled out into the street.  Then we had our own little party, dancing to the music while passing out candy.  Everyone LOVED the orange paint we did in the living room and one guy even asked if we were going to "paint it back tomorrow". lol  aka he thought we did it just for Halloween.  Nope, we just like the color.

2 hours: 200 packets of pretzels, 150 packets of salted peanuts, 5 packets of honey roasted peanuts, 2 packets of Lorna Doon 100-calorie snack packs, and a lil' Debbie Snack Cake later we were out again and this time there was nothing left in the pantry but Ramen Noodles and Peanut Butter so we put a sign on the door saying we were out, turned off the lights (the universal parent-to-parent signal for 'don't knock on my door please') and called it a night.  We closed up shop just after 8 p.m. but the streets were still packed until well after 10.  Next year we'll have to buy candy a few months in advance before the prices go up so that we can afford to get a lot more of it!!!




Food:
120 oz of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 serving leftover goulash
1 fish burrito
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Daily Caloric Intake: 958




Activity:
Barbell Squats: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Press Behind Neck: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Curl: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Reverse Curl: 50 reps @ 20 lbs
Barbell Lunges: 25 reps each leg @ 20 lbs
Walking: 1 mile