Ssssssssssssurgery

Well today was knee surgery day, and except for the massive pain in my Rt knee I'm doing okay, the worst part was throwing up on the way home because I literally had nothing but crackers and applesauce to even throw up since I hadn't eaten since 9pm last night, my doctor is estimating that by 3 weeks I should be running again so in the mean time I will be doing only upper body exercises ( kind of what I had to do when I fell and hurt my hip) like ab arms and back, thankfully I still have Brian's weights so I can use those. I'm determined not to let myself get lazy because of my knee surgery. I've also got time on my hands to make my new workout plan and calendar, as well as finishing my budget and plan for Hawaii (I'm a planner lol) Pinterest is going to be my very best friend for the next couple weeks ha ha. 

PS I hate my crutches

Ohhhh water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.......

So after years of having the Nike+ running app myself Brian FINALLY downloaded it today and sent me a friend request...ha ha well he must be feeling like a champion because he challenged me to run 30 miles in 1 month starting tomorrow and well I accepted it. If I win this I will have bragging rights for quite awhile....This makes me actually glad that I passed on running today because well it wouldn't have counted and I would be sore tomorrow and not feel like going that far. I am still a little bit sore and possibly might have a small onset of shin splints but i'm going to make sure I stretch at the gym tomorrow before I go running so that way I don't make it worse. As for other things in my life i'm really struggling with my diet, like really really struggling, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't want a cupcake, a slice of cake, a candy bar, a soda or something bad for me that I really shouldn't be having in the first place and idk when I see recipes like avocado chocolate peanut butter brownies that are way healthier all I can think of is eww it's gonna taste like avocado, BUT I thought that turkey instead of ground beef would taste bad and well it didn't. My personal trainer used to tell me if I needed some chocolate to have one hershey kiss. That's it, no more. All the exercise in the world isn't going to help if I can't get my diet in check. Now I am making healther choices then I used to but lets face it going all organic is SUPER expensive. But today I needed to buy some new butter that's healthier and I actually found out that Land O Lakes makes a butter with Olive Oil as its base (one of the healthy oils, except you cannot use it for cooking ie raising the temperature of it) Most of the other butters contain canola oil which is a definite no no. It's amazing how much you can learn about things if you really sit down and read about them and its even more amazing when you go to the grocery store and realize just how bad the things you used to eat were! One interesting way the book i've been reading puts canola, vegetable, and corn oil into a simple perspective, they are like plastic and you don't want plastic inside your body. I'm trying to steer clear of using cooking oil but if a recipe does call for it I will be using coconut or sunflower oil instead of the traditional oils that I have been cooking with for forever. It's simple substitutions that make the biggest effect, cauliflower replaces potatoes yet tastes the same maybe even better than mashed potoates, chicken or turkey instead of red meat (sad I love my steak but it will just be less in my life, more of a celebration meal instead of a 4x or more a month meal) more fruits, more water. I've always been afraid of trying new things yet when I finally do 9/10 I like them. The biggest shock was how bad soy actually is for you, well let me rephrase that, soy that has been alterered aka GMO, soy in small amounts is good like tofu or edameme but when you eat soy in excess your body cannot process it since it contains isoflavones which your body doesn't know what to do with when you have 3-4x the suggested amount. I never realized just how many things are soy based now because they claim to be healthier which they are but in small doses. Another reason why soy can be hazardous is because the fact that it is heavily exposed to insecticides. Soy also can block the bodies absorption of essential minerals. But enough about that, one thing that I am thankful I never have to give up is my love of lobster, they do suggest rock instead of maine lobster which I can deal with, also salmon (not farmed and be careful because a lot of farmed salmon is actually dyed to look like wild alaskan salmon!) So i'm not giving up my favorite meats and it doesn't mean I can't have a steak every once in awhile, I think the fact that I eat it medium rare is also better because there is less exposure time on the BBQ which we all know has carcinogens. Either way a salad here or a piece of fruit there is not going to make me skinny just like a burger and a basket of fries isn't going to make me fat overnight. Well that's all for tonight, stay tuned for some awesome recipes and major meltdowns when I go through withdrawls (yes we all have food withdrawls don't deny it) i'm determine to expand my nutritional horizons and not let the tv, aisles in the supermarket or my skinny friends who eat whatever they want bring me down.....lol

Motivation Monday: Freeeeeeeeeeeeeezzing my buns off!

Well hello everyone! Happy Monday! Okay not really but today is Motivation Monday, and what a busy Monday it's been! Today my goal was to do 6.0 miles, unfortunately I didn't hit that due to freezing temps and my boyfriend not dressing properly lol (he wore shorts!) I did make it 3.45 miles today which I am proud of since it was the second time I ran in cold weather, its defnitely not something for the faint of heart, I thought for sure I would warm up after running a full block but it didn't matter how far or fast I ran I could not get warm!! My joints started aching and my lungs felt like they were going to develop frost bite so I walked more than I ran thats for sure but I did speed walk and cardio is cardio and i'm still lapping everyone on the couch thats for sure! I do so much better when its hotter out when it comes to running. Okay so now that we have the exercise part covered I can finally say that I finished my motivational board that I saw on pinterest, it's not exactly the same but I think it'll help (i'm a visual person) I also put small fitness goals on it so that way when I reach one I can rip it off and put a new one up....Now the question is what rewards should I do for myself and how many should I do and finally what should be the circumstances for those rewards ie workout at gym 20/30 days or something like that. Now that my board is finally done it's on to the next project, gathering healthy meal plans and putting them together on a calendar so that even though I can't do any meal prep i'll have a stable plan and no room for deviation. Do I still want a cheat day? Yes! Will it be a total day? No! I am I taking charge? I'm working on it! Ha ha. So as you can see from the pic i've hung my teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini (still can't believe Brian found one!) as well as some fitness quotes, removable fitness goals and an area for pounds lost. Not sure where i'm going to hang it up but i'm very excited I finally finished it!

 If you guys have made yourself a motivational board share it with me! I love to see everyones different ideas on them!

Week Recap

So this week was pretty good, I worked out 3x (more than i've done in quite awhile!) I turned 29 on tuesday (I don't feel 29?) Got a new coach purse for my birthday! and I can still say i'm a little sore from the last workout on Thursday. I was hoping to workout yesterday or today but yesterday I ended up helping my dad split wood, and today well I wore my workout clothes to church because I figured hey lets go workout right after church! Nope Brian said he wanted to eat first and well I started yawning halfway through church and haven't stopped since, I haven't slept good that last few days and now it's starting to get to me, all attempts to take a nap have failed so here I am blogging away......I really wanted to go for a run this morning but the fact that I did horribly in 28 degree weather I felt that running in 18 degree weather would be even worse, yes it may be an excuse but I don't do good in cold weather, even my underarmour turtleneck wouldn't help! I really need to invest in some ear muff type headbands too because my ears were beyond frozen! So tomorrow Brian and I will be running before I get some errands done, as for tonight I split up the massive amounts of turkey and chicken that I bought at safeway yesterday into single serve portions that I can just grab and defrost for dinner and even though I love me some turkey taco salad (having it tonight) I need some new recipes I have made spaghetti but pasta isn't a good thing and well I know of turkey meatloaf and stuffed bell peppers but I need more, i've been hitting the pinterest boards to get ideas and now I just need to get them on paper, and for real I think I might need to invest in a mini freezer because I barely fit in all of my single serve chicken and ground turkey. There is literally no room in our fridge/freezer its redonk. Anyways in a completely off topic subject what do you guys think about bikini competitions? Several of my friends have now done them and I'm not sure if it would be a good motivator for me but i've always wondered about doing one.....Not one to follow the pack however I would hate to do it and people think I just did it because several of my friends did it, not to mention if I paid the registration fees, bought the $200 swimsuit and got to the end and wasn't where I should be, its not cheap! You need a trainer, nutrition, swim suit, and a lot of other extra little things which means its really expensive and I don't exactly have an extra oh lets save $500 laying around right now. So maybe that means put it on the back burner for now and see how you are in a couple months... Anyways meal prep is done and i'm going to enjoy my super tasty dinner and relax.....

Freezing Temps Can't Stop Me

Alright so the week is winding down and i'm feeling pretty good about it! Not only was it my birthday (yay!) but i've worked out 3x already and the week isn't over yet :) I was absolutely freezing on my walk to Starbucks for my free birthday drink which was totally worth it and I even got my little walkers high when I decided to deviate from the route to make it longer, what did suck however is that I somehow paused my Nike Running App so it didn't correctly calculate the distance but I know it was over 3 miles roundtrip to Starbucks and back. walking and running in 28 degree weather is definitely not as easy as it seems, and although Brian bought me a sweet under armour turtleneck that actually has mittens and a breathing strip on it it still didn't help because it kept slipping down while I was running not to mention the weird or maybe awestruck looks I was getting LOL. After it was over I went into the gym and finished my workout off with some arm, ab and leg exercises, I definitely have a little bit of a workout high and it feels good to have one again, I feel like I found my motivation again and well now its time to keep going! I want to be 125 by the time i'm 30 so i've got less than a year to do it now!

And The Results Are In

So I have good news I got the results of my Thyroid and Diabetes screening, both came back normal, which is great but still leaves me with the wondering of what is with my symptoms then??? My doctor believe that the tramadol is causing the excessive sweating because that is one of the side effects of the medicine. (didn't know that?!) As for the fatigue and muscle aches it could be a Vitamin D deficiency and the sensitivty to cold? No idea......I wish I could say its because i'm too skinny and I have no fat to keep me warm but we all know thats a lie. So anyways i'm still a little bit in the dark but I am definitely happy my thyroid is normal and I don't have to go on medication. So it looks like I need to get back up on the vitamin horse and take charge of it again because lets face it you really DO NEED vitamins.I used to be a stickler for them and then I just all of sudden was like blahhhh I don't want to take 6+ pills every morning and now i'm suffering the consequences of no longer taking them. Aside from that I re-started my gym membership and did my second workout of the year (yes i'm a little slow out of the gate but it's tough to get a good workout when all the resolutioners are in the gym packing it for the next couple weeks until they fade out again) The last workout I did I made the mistake of fasting and only eating banana bread before I went to the gym so although I worked out it wasn't my normal level of workout that I try to strive for. Today was different, I could feel a difference as my body trembled and shook with every second during my plank, I can say that i'm going to feel it tomorrow which I guess is a good thing since it's my birthday and well who wants to work out on their birthday? I probably will just go for a short run depending on the weather since i'm still having that extreme sensitivity to cold. I spoke with my doctor more and unless the tramadol is the reason for the sweating then she suggests running a CBC and a PPD, which I definitely don't need again! Last one was horrible, found out that i'm allergic to the testing solution now because i've had it done so many times, so in future I either have to get a chest xray or a blood test to determine if i've been exposed to it. Needless to say I hope the Tramadol is what is causing the sweating and that once i'm off of it completely I won't have this problem anymore because it's really embaressing, I used to think it was just because I was fat and maybe dehydrated which didn't make much sense with how much water I was drinking. Either way i've stopped my tramadol and i'll update you guys to see if the symptoms persist or not....

The Good The Bad And The Ugly

So in an attempt to reign control on my eating and dieting habits and not to mention the fact that I will be 29 on Tuesday I decided it was best to finally take the big plunge and get my cholesteral tested, I also got a diabetes screening (not too worried about it but we shall see) and finally got my thyroid tested. My thyroid and diabetes screening had to be sent out so I won't find out until next week whether or not I will need to be put on medication. But as for the lipid screening or cholesterol screening for those not in the medical world It wasn't the worst possible outcome but it definitely wasn't the best! My total cholesterol came back at 218 (100-200 is the desired range) and my LDL came back at 149 (10-100 again being the desired range) so yes for you math wizards out there I need to drop 18 points off my total and 49 points or more off of my LDL, the good news is that my HDL or good cholesterol is sitting pretty at 59 and my Triglycerides are at 50 so i'm well within the standard ranges for those. So what does this mean for me and my diet? It mean's that I have 6 months to shape it up or I will be put on medication and since I already may have to be put on medication for my thyroid (heard it's not really something you can avoid and since I hate the symptoms i'm having i'd rather be on it!) I really don't want to add another unneeded medication especially since I can make it better with diet and exercise! So I can either see this as just the kick in the butt I need or I can choose to keep eating the way i'm eating (yes I can always eat healthier) I am also slightly hoping that perhaps it is my thyroid that is keeping me from being able to lose weight, i've been at it for awhile with different options and well I go down a pound or two and then I go back up and beyond my starting weight then back down and back up, not to mention the extreme sentivity to cold followed by horrible sweating episodes it not fun, yesterday while I was trying on bridal gowns for the bridal expo I will be modeling in I could feel how sweaty and cold my back was and well not to TMI but today was just another example, freezing in the morning on the way to my 7:30 pap appointment and then as soon as I get into the room and get undressed and start talking to the doctor about my symptoms I start sweating for no reason! the room was only set to 71 but i'm pretty much sweating like it's 90 degrees in there I would love to not do that anymore because lets face it thats just not attractive at all. LOL I went into MA mode and as soon as she left the room and I got changed I wiped the table down with the sani-wipes, changed the table paper and threw away the stuff that could be disgarded, when the Nurse Practioner came back in she was like you couldn't help yourself huh? I just laughed. I didn't want to say well I wouldn't want anyone to clean up my sweaty mess especially your male MA so i'd rather do it myself. Anyways so hopefully if it is as simple as hypothyroidism then I can get on medication and start feeling better! But as for the cholesterol thats completely in my hands and as Brian just said on the phone he's going to have to watch my eating habits a lot more closely then he has been. Well thats the end of this day, i'll update you when I get my test results back from the other labs and let you know the next step! One happy note was I did finally get back into the gym which of course was packed with the resolutioners (at 10am on a Friday????????) I didn't get a thorough workout in because it was so packed and well.....fasting for 12 hours the night before and then only eating a slice of banana bread after I did get my labs drawn probably wasn't the best idea because I felt like I could of fainted at the gym....and nobody wants to be that person!! Well thats enough for today so i'll keep you guys updated as soon as the rest of my labs get back to me! Looks like i'll have plenty of time to get to re-reading my perfect 10 diet book and highlighting the parts of it I need to!

Sunday Sick Day/Weekend Rant

So let me start out by saying this has been a rough week, I started coming down with a bad cold after seeing dozens upon dozens of patients who were sick. When I got home Thursday I knew it was coming on and by Friday I had full blown chills and a runny nose, Brian had to practically swaddle me on Saturday to try and warm me up (didn't work by the way) anyways Friday I got a call from my boss, she asked me how I was feeling and after I told her she said the sentence that would certainly change everything for some time to come.....I'm sorry but we are letting you go, So yes 15 days shy of my 90 day probationary period I am now unemployed, (and thats not the worst part) So you see i've been paying for my insurance out of pocket since 2012 I have a super high deductible but I only needed it for my prescriptions and just in case I got really sick or injured. Well since Obamacare came into effect I found out my plan would no longer exist after December 31st, no big deal right? I mean I had a job that was going to provide me full benefits with no out of pocket cost, so when my insurance sent me a letter notifying me that my plan was being terminated and if I wanted to get a new plan I would have to contact them or I could not respond at all and it would simply go away once January 1st hit. And of course I chose the not going to contact them option, so now here I am with no insurance and no known date of when not only will I get a new job but when I will have insurance, lets just figure it takes a month to find a job, then I have to wait 3 more months to get insurance, so thats 4 months with no coverage period, that means no birth control and no pain medication.....Oh wait it gets better, so in a quick haste I figured I could go back online to apply for a plan (simple right? Wrong) you can no longer print applications directly from insurance sites, you submit a feedback form and then someone will contact you to help, I even went on coveroregon.com (second big mistake) and first tried to submit it online but of course I was told I needed a PDF plug in to view the site on IE, which of course I have so why won't it work? Then I figure ahhh i'll just print out the application.....then I see that its 14 freaking pages long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh and the cherry on top of everything you ask??? I paid $88 a month for my insurance with a high deductable, and while there are no plans close to what I have the best one for me (I need one with moderately priced OV's and low Rx costs) is $145!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF I qualify for unemployment thats more than I would make in a week on it. Now of course there are funding options available but what I don't get is why make obamacare, if insurance was affordable everyone would have it! But now it seems its even more expensive and when I do qualify for it how much are they going to pay for??? If I don't get it fast i'm going to get taxed on it and well thats a whole other rant. Okay end of rant, back to my cold. So Saturday I was planning to go to the gym and I made my January workout plan a couple days ago and was ready to put it into action but I tell you what by the time I got to Brians and we were supposed to leave I felt absolutely miserable, much like I do today, I stayed home from church, tried to sleep it off but couldn't and now here I am ranting in my blog about being sick and not having health insurance....On the plus side of being let go I have an opportunity to work out more and really get into the rhythm of going to the gym, I even made motivational goals, 20lb loss equals the Polar FT4 watch I want and so on and so on, once I hit 60lbs I am taking myself on a $250 VS shopping spree (who wouldnt want that????) Thanks to my bestie briggie for the idea!!! I'm also going to have time to finally go through the hundreds of healthy recipes on my pinterest boards so that I can starting making better meals and figure out more ideas for meals since I pretty much am in a food rut. I am also planning on starting to run in molalla since again I have a lot of time on my hands. and lastly my bff Briggie has decided that we will become gym buddies and work out on wednesdays when she is off work (she is also a morning workout person so that helps so much! Score!!) So while I have my down time i'll be working on my monthly workout routines so that way when I do get a new job i'll already have them done and I can just make a smooth transition from month to month, Hawaii is coming and I need to be bikini ready!!!!!!! Alright well stay tuned for yummy recipes and my results from my new workout routine!