Step Away From the Cake

Nala, the baby of the family, has severe arthritis in her left knee and a partially ruptured ACL. She is on total rest and pain meds for the next 10 days. It's really sad because she's a very strong, active dog and she loves taking walks and playing. Also, because she can't go on walks, her brother Rocco can't go either (oh sure, try to take one without the other, there will be mass rioting and general chaos). She is not a candidate for surgery due to the extensive arthritis. Not sure what's going to happen if this doesn't work. Poor Baby!!! However, in the interest of synchronicity, I have been wracking my brain for the past week trying to figure out how I was going to get swimming in. I want to go in the mornings (I'm checking out the Y tomorrow) but I always walk the dogs in the morning. I figured I'd just walk them really early and in the pitch dark (at least till it starts to get lighter earlier). Now I have my mornings free and I believe she'll...

Do love the weekends. This one will be kind of busy but that's okay. It's my first weekend of the new year and I have lots I want to accomplish this year, so it begins here. Synchronicity : A meaningful coincidence. Yesterday morning I was reading the newspaper and there was a column on being different (I won't go into details and it was different from the way I took it) and I thought to myself, "Self, I used to pride myself on being different. I enjoyed standing out from the crowd. I don't seem to do that so much anymore. Hmmmm" Cut to later in the day. I received Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness the other day (finally!!!) and have started reading it. One thing that hit me right off the bat was this: " The American College of Sports Medicine's recommendation for getting adequate exercis is to walk 30 minutes, at least three days per week. This recommendation was not designed with you in mind; ... Your fitness level has already progressed...

I have done something to my back. My sciatic nerve is all a twitter and it's just driving me crazy. I have "issues" with my lower back but over the years we have come to terms. It acts up and I have some things I do to calm it down. Well this time it's not working and it's pissing me off. I just hate when the rules of the game change and no one tells me!! But it's not really that bad so I can deal... On the food front however, I made a huge mistake last night. I'm working out my hypoglycemia and overall it's been going well. Yesterday afternoon I had 1 piece of dried fruit (a major no-no) which set me up for sugar cravings later in the night. I decided that I could have a bowl of cereal before bed and the sugar crash would happen during the night and therefore not bother me. WRONG!!! I woke up this morning starving!! I mean really, really starving. I ate a banana and had a cup of coffee (both small no-nos). That helped for about 20 minutes. Then I went...

Thursday is my absolute worse day!! When the alarm goes off on Thursday morning I generally shut it off and roll over. By Thursday it's just too damn hard to get out of bed. But this morning that didn't happen, in fact it didn't even cross my mind. I was so proud of myself!! I got to thinking, mayber there is an Action Hero buried in there somewhere!!!

I battle demons on a daily basis and I'm sick and tired of it. I want to exercise, train, workout, whatever the hell you want to call it, and I feel great when I do. Yet every single morning when the alarm goes off my initial reaction is, ahhh, screw it, not today. I have to battle this every single stinking morning and it gets old fast. Luckily, once I come half way awake I can debate with myself and most days manage to drag my butt out of bed, but it's not easy and I hate that I have to go through this every morning. I know others go through this too but most folks claim that after a while it becomes easier. With me it seems that it never becomes easier; in fact it gets harder. Ugh!!! I HATE THIS!!! One of the problems, I think, is that I'm not a natural athlete. There might be an inner athlete hiding somewhere deep inside, but I think it sleeps a lot. Bold did a great piece on his Action Hero. How he can reach deep down and draw on something that's there. I don't...

It's amazing how quickly I start to feel really, really good when I do the right things. I've been exercising and eating right since Friday and I am already feeling just awesome. Today was another good day. I got up and did my Core Performance workout, I decided to take it a little easy since I was still a touch sore from Friday. This evening when I came home it was time on the bike trainer and a very, very short run. I felt just awesome. My eating today was absolutely spot on. I'm back on Core and really enjoy eating this way. I don't have to weigh or measure things and it really doesn't take a whole lot of thought. I like it and I feel great when I follow it. Today was my first day back to work. It wasn't too bad. Another unit in the building broke a water pipe so they had to shut the water off while they fixed it. Well, let me tell you what, a lab can not run without water - it's impossible. When I left at 5 they still hadn't got the water bac...

My pit bull, Nala, has arthritis in her hips and it's been kind of cold lately so it's really bothering her. She has her own blanket which we cover her with at night, and it just came out of the dryer. Isn't she cute laying all cuddled up in her blanket?? Of course, she can't let the other dogs see her; she does have an image to maintain, she is a pit bull after all.......

My last day of vacation - bummer. Tomorrow it's back to work and back to the grind - bummer. Oh well, it's been fun. I was supposed to do a 5k this morning but I got out of bed and was really having a hard time moving so I decided to skip it. After moving around for awhile though I was feeling better and really felt like doing something. I think that year's ago someone told me, when you are sore to do some light activity, that helps move the lactic acid out of the muscles. So I decided to give it a try and a bike ride seemed the easiest thing to do. I went for an hour bike ride, real slow just spinning, and it was great. When I got back I jumped on the treadmill for 15 minutes. My boss, who is 60 years old and has done 23 Ironman, swears by bricks. She says she always runs after a bike ride even if the run is only 15 minutes. She swears that this training strategy has helped her more than anything else. Okay, she also swears by double bricks but that comes later. So I decid...