Adjusted Reality

So I’m super behind.  I now owe the internets a cruise recap (ffs, haven’t even had time to go through the pictures yet, and I’m only halfway through, thank goodness for notes I wrote or my little goldfish brain would forget what I did!), and now an awesome birthday weekend recap.  The short version is I ate awesome food:

…and drank good wine:

…and got purdy flowers:

…but now it is time to get back to business.  Because yesterday, we got this guy a new bike…

…and when we rode it, I felt like the little yippie dog trying to keep up with the german shepard, my legs and lungs were NOT ready for a 12 mile outside ride.  I can only imagine what running is going to be like.

So it’s time to get back to business this week.  I’m not sick, I’m not injured, and it’s time to rock.  This week, it’s back to normal, non-babypants workouts, if maybe a little lower intensity (I don’t want to kill myself, but I need to get back into things)

Here’s the PLAN:

Monday: swim (need one more day of low intensity, I feel like CRAP after all the birthday indulgence)
Tuesday: run
Wednesday: yoga
Thursday: bike
Friday: off
Saturday: long bike ride, or medium ride and run outside
Sunday: off

This might shift around a bit as I’ll be trying to hit it outside as much as possible, I just want to make sure I get 4 good quality workouts + yoga this week.  Distances, paces, times don’t matter.  I’ll start worrying about that next week.

The next couple months is getting busy.  Potential spring schedule…

March 19th – Warrior Dash
March 26th – Du Loop
EDIT: crap, just signed up for… April 17th – Rookie Triathlon
April 30th – Hell Run
EDIT: crap, also want to do… May 14th – Muddy Buddy
May 21st – Gladiator Games 5k and Obstacle Course
May 28th – Spread your wings adventure race
June 11th – Shammies and Koozies – ride and float

Mostly fun races, but I am looking to beat my time at Warrior Dash, Du Loop, and GGs (though it’s my overall 5k PR – so I will have to work at it).

I also really, really need to keep on this weight thing.  Oddly enough, I feel like I LOST over the cruise, and GAINED this last week, and I felt LESS bloated there.  So it’s definitely not dairy, gluten, wheat, or any of the regular offenders that I’m allergic to, as while I didn’t PIG, I definitely didn’t eat my normal rabbit food.  I did eat lots of stuff that wasn’t light, diet, or low fat, so maybe there is something there… hmmm…

This week, I’m back to tracking, and attempting 1500 calories a day.  I am also waiting to weigh until Wednesday to get some of this birthday bloat away.  I am, frankly, too chicken to do it today.  So there.

Aight, more later, at least one of the recaps this week, and back to life and reality.  Happy Monday!

I’ve been here…

…and there, and a little bit of everywhere.

Three quick notes, and I’ll be back with the cruise recap later.

1.  While I’ve given myself the week to get back into things before I hit the scale, I don’t feel like I’ve gained.  My pants fit the same.  I actually felt like I looked decent in my swim suit today – like, almost *better* than I did before vacay.

2.  While I didn’t eat like an angel, I only ate like an asshole for 2 days of the cruise – mostly because I was feeling sorry for myself and I also wasn’t drinking, so it probably evened out calorie-wise.

3.  I managed to throw out my back again and get a minor cold (hence the not drinking and feeling sorry for myself  for a few days – above), but it totally did not ruin my vacay.  I took things a little slower than expected but y’know – that’s just the universe telling me that’s what I needed.  And it felt good.

This week, it’s all about getting back into the swing of things.  The moment I got home, I craved good food like sprouted grain bread and tuna and veggies and fruit and hummus and the like and that’s what I’ve been nomming.  My back is still not 100%, so I’m trying to stick with what I know is ok – 30 mins on the elliptical/30 mins swimming per day, four days this week, maybe with some yoga in there.  And less if my back shows signs of not being ready to do even that.  Food-wise?  Tracking calories, and trying to stay around 1500 avg per day.  Seems sane to me!

Until next time, campers.  Hope you’re having a lovely week!

I’ve been pretty much injury free since I started getting healthy again.  Sure, a minor back strain here, foot issue there, but nothing that’s kept me down for long.  I figured the back issue would keep me down for a day or two.

It’s Thursday evening, almost a week since it happened, and I have been advised by my chiropractor not to run until AT LEAST when I get back from vacation.  Yeah, this sucks for me just about as much as you would expect.

Let me back up and tell you my tale of woe.  Then, I’ll share the silver lining/good news.

Last Thursday, I made two boo boos.  First of all, I accidentally got through one group power song with 2.5 lbs less on one side of the bar than the other.  I also tried to go too heavy on the last song, and I think it made me compromise my form.

Friday, I my back started feeling a little strained, I just played a little DDR instead of my normal workout, rested, and relaxed.  We had a hike planned the next day, so I was hoping it would go away.

Saturday, I was pretty stiff.  I figured it would be a bad idea so we put it off until the next day.  Went out and had some drinks, and generally had no back complaints.

Sunday, I felt a little stiff again, I could have toughed it out, but we decided not to.  Figured I’d rest one more day and hit it hard on Monday.  The plan was to work out EVERY day this week hard so I could feel justified taking Sunday off (didn’t want to worry about the logistics of trying to carry workout clothes in my carryon).

Monday, still a little pain, so I walked on the ‘mill and stretched and skipped the crunchtime class.  I felt wussy.  Little did I know it was going to be the hardest I would work out this week.

Tuesday, I woke up in AGONY.  My back seized up so badly I couldn’t even lift myself to get a heat pack under my body.  White hot electric pain.  I had things that I couldn’t miss at work, so I worked from home from bed.  It took me hours before I could get up to pee.  I was in varying amounts of pain all day.  I loosened up so I could walk around later but I definitely wasn’t going anywhere.  I was convinced I had a strained back and a rib out with what hurt.

Yesterday, I woke up hurting, and called a chiropractor in the morning and got an appointment.  She took x-rays, zapped me with electrodes, and by the end, felt better.  At work, I tried to move around as much as possible and sat on my yoga ball all day (which seems like it would be torture for a back in pain but it was AWESOME – I don’t know if I”ll be going back to my desk chair at all).  By the end of the day I felt pretty awesome.

Today, I woke up in *some* pain, but it went away quickly.  I didn’t have to gingerly get up, it took me a second and stretch, but it was all good.  I spent the day mobile around the office and the yoga ball, and went to the chiro.

The bad news: I have a small amount of arthritis mid-back.  Nothing that’s hurting me right now, and with attention, it never will.  Also, my neck is still very much screwed up and she said it’s something that also needs continued attention.

More bad news: I am not cleared to do any running or hard biking until I get back from vacation.  Everything else, I’m to listen to my body.  I won’t know how long I need to stay off the hard stuff until she determines how I’m responding to treatment.

The good news: As I said above, everything else I am cleared for.  She even encouraged me to swim.  And drink alcohol.  Yeah, I know, I think I have found a chiro that understands me!  She wasn’t thrilled with the idea of ziplining or tubing, but said that as long as I listened to my body I’m all good.

The silver lining: This is a forced rest.  Every time I get myself to rest, I come back better (it’s just TORRRRRTURE).  Maybe this happened for a reason.  I certainly wouldn’t have gotten to a chiro until I got to a real bad pain point like now, and it spurred me to start to correct some things that might have gotten to be major issues.  Also, is it possible my body was so out of wack that it’s retaining weight?  Sure, why not.  Will taking care of these issues make me a better athlete?  Probably.

Although I’m trying to stay positive about it, it is a bummer.  I mean, yeah, being in pain sucks, but just to be advised that I *shouldn’t* do stuff makes me wanna.  It will probably be a while before I skip a workout just because I don’t wanna.

However, I can’t deny – I’m going on vacation soon, I’m getting the majority of this taken care of before it so I won’t be in pain, and life is good.  Only thing I’m missing out on as of yet, is my out-of-the-country run.  The rest is just up to how I feel.

Ok, time to go pre-pre-pre-pack.  I’m such a freaking dork!  And I love every minute of it!  Think healthy thoughts for me!

Question time: what’s the worst injury you’ve had?  How did you come back from it?  How long did it keep you down?  Did you ever go against your doctor’s/chiro’s advice?

More randomness – I’ve kinda had writer’s block and these are the only things that are flowing.  I hate to go all radio silence, so this is what you get.

Considering the options:

So I ain’t getting any skinnier.  It really hit me when I had to pull out the slightly larger shorts for the cruise.  Not that it’s a travesty (to be honest, I’m in between both sizes and I figure the comfy ones will be better for vacay – while I know tighter is better for ) this upward trend must be nipped in the bud.  I had REALLY, REALLY hoped to be about 10 lbs lighter by now.  I’m stuck here in the 167-170 range.  And now I’m heading in the month o eating pitfalls (cruise, birthday, Zliten birthday).  I need to regroup and get my head on straight.  I need to now, really and truly, shift my goal to maintenance, not loss, and pick it up again in about a month.  This month, I focus on the bloat and getting my body back into stasis.  Here’s the plan:

I got a homeopathic remedy for bloat and some probiotic supplements from the hippie dippie grocery store today.  While I’m sure it’s just in my head – I already feel less bloated.  We’ll see how I continue to feel, it usually hits me pretty bad late night/early morning.

I’m setting aside some dough and going to bite the bullet and get a nutritionist for a while.  While I’m still fighting it because, well, fuck, I lost 110 lbs myself without paying anyone thxuverymuch, if it’s causing me this much strife, then I need to do something.  And (I’ll cover this more below), I CAN afford it without cutting out anything.  I’m going to do some research, but I will probably end up just using the one at my gym (I do like her little blurb – she’s into moderation).  Any ATX folks with recommendations (or advice about online services – I’m totally down for that too, doesn’t have to be face to face), I’m all ears.  It actually feels very cathartic to finally admit I need help and commit to it, I tend to be stubborn and proud about shit like this, when I actually don’t need to be.

For the cruise – the plan is to get activity each day, but no timing/pacing/whatever goals.  I don’t think that will be hard at all, there are a billion things to do both on board and on our shore excursions, I think I’ll have to be coerced to STOP moving.  Food – while I don’t want to go crazy, I also recognize this is one of the awesome parts of the vacation.  The goal is one desert per day, try to fill up on the healthiest food I can at breakfast/lunch and taste the not-as-healthy stuff.  Dinner – all bets are off.  If you’re serving me a 4 course meal, I am going to enjoy it.  Overall – just because it’s there does NOT mean I need to consume it.  If I’m hungry, eat.  If not, don’t.   The highest I’ve weighed in recently has been 170.  I would like to be 170 or less when I get back.

For the next few weeks, I plan to try out the “veggie fast” for the first few days of the week.  Considering I have my birthday, then Zliten’s, then an out of town trip to run the Warrior Dash… there is not a full week window anytime soon.  I’m figuring a few days of real clean eating can help balance out some of the crazy.  The goal is at least 2 days/week.  We’ll see how it goes from there.  The goal is both to cleanse, and to see if I have any weird, new food allergies.

I think that’s about it.  I don’t want to throw too many things at the problem right now, in spite of that being in my nature to do exactly that.

Traaaaain:

I am a tale of two Quix’s.  I am torn asunder at both being excited that I have had some leeway in my workout (4 days instead of 5 this week? Eh, no biggie.  Or…I don’t feel like running today, think I’ll DDR), and I really have enjoyed feeling like I’m getting WAY better with biking and swimming, but I’m also feeling a little lost without a race to train for.

In March and April, I really need to sit down and plan for the rest of the year.  I think May will probably kick off seriouspants training for a sprint tri, and it will be all training all the time until I finish up for the year.  I think, while I’m sure there will be some 5k – and maybe 10k action, I need to have some quality time to focus on getting faster, and I just haven’t been into it this winter. I think I went a little too crazy on my NY resolutions.  I dunno if I can PR all these races and still lose the weight I want and also have a life and some downtime, so something’s gotta give.

I’ve been too enamored with getting better swimming and biking and conquering hill running (though I do admit I am cursing up a storm in my head during the workouts).  I swam a 14 minute 750m last week.  My average speed is creeping up on the bike from 15 mph to 17 mph.  Running is kinda taking a back burner right now, and it’s ok.

So far the plan is:

-Warrior Dash (mud run), March

-Du Loop (duathlon), April

-Hell Run (? …not yet signed up), April

-Too Cool (6 hour adventure race), May

-Sprint Tri (not yet picked one), July

-Olympic Tri (not yet picked one), Sept/Oct

-Dirty Du (trail half marathon/camping/duathlon), Nov

-Another for reals half marathon in there somewhere (maybe wait til ’12 and do 3M in Jan?)

-An out of town race somewhere

-Various and sundry 5ks, 10ks, fun runs.

However, right now I’m not even thinking about any of this, because I decided to lift heavier in my weights class, and threw my back out (owwww).  I can actually almost pinpoint it in the clean and presses I was doing at the end with too much weight and ended up with bad form.  It’s not so painful that I’m bedridden, but it’s VERY stiff in the morning and loosens up as the day goes on.  I expected it would be better by now (started Friday nite and of course now it’s Monday morning), and am dosing on ibuprofen, icing (my back, trying to stay away from icing on all the crazy cookies and cake :P), and water, with small doses of icy hot and massage.  Any other suggestions?

Happy News:

Review and bonus time has come around at work and we did AWESOME!  I got a significantly higher bonus than expected, to the point where I just kinda stared at it with my mouth open.  No complaints there!  Also, I got a very fair review with actual points to work on the next year (that made sense), which made me happy.  What made me happier?  I got the raise I asked for, plus some.

As for the bonus plans, Zliten bought himself a new laptop (which I *may* end up getting too, mine is over 4 years old…), we’re getting him a new bike that’s more in line with the quality of mine (instead of a 79 dollar target bike), and I decided with mine I was going to do the nutritionist thing, and also apply it to my race entry fees next year and not feel a lick of guilt for any of them, no matter how expensive.  The rest will go into savings, go towards paying off the last bit of college loan, and also for cruise spending money.

It’s nice to be at a point in my life again where quality of life is more important than really pinching pennies.  For example, we’re starting maid service soon (just wanted to double check that we were actually getting the proper raises expected).  It is worth it to me to pay someone to do that, instead of the combination now of living in filth/spending weekends and evenings cleaning up.  I’m also hoping it will train us to keep things picked up, since we’ll have to pick up anyway before they come by and clean.  Same with the nutritionist thing… I could continue to struggle, or I could fork over the cash to let someone else try for a little while.

So, that’s life in a nutshell.  Questions of the day: any suggestions on how to un-fuck a back that sore (it’s my mid back – like right above the small)?  Any nutritionist recommendations or advice or relation of past experiences (I have no idea what I’m getting into here)?  Would you use an online nutritionist or would you rather have face to face time with someone?

Also: I’m finding less and less time to attend to my RSS reader.  I *have* been able to keep up with twitter though and end up reading a lot of blogs this way.  If I don’t follow you on twitter, I would LOVE if you would leave me your twitter handle so I could follow you.  Or you can find me – quixotique. 😉

Speaking of love… HAPPY VALENTINES DAY.  I had one REALLY YUMMY truffle yesterday, otherwise I’m staying away from the treats and just trying to feel the LOVE.

Random Shite Post Incoming!

99 Red Quix Balloons: or TMI-ville

Anyone ever feel like they’re bloated?  Like, a lot?  Not just that time of the month, or after eating a bunch of beans, but way more often?  I’ve been feeling that a lot lately.  I’m not sure if it’s something I’m eating, or if my body is out of whack, or what, but it’s pretty damned uncomfortable!  While it’s true I’ve gained a little weight, 15 lbs (and honestly SOME of it has to be muscle) shouldn’t be taking me up 2 pants sizes, and it’s not affecting me other places (I have LESS fat on my legs I think and the gals, they haven’t grown).  I definitely feel like this coat made me look like!!!

I spent some time looking at both ways to cure bloating and cleanses.  Now, I’m not in any condition or have any desire to fast or just drink lemonade all day, but what piqued my interest is the fruit and veggie cleanses out there.  Some are very detailed (time and servings), and some just give you lists (eat as much as you want of fruits and veggies, eat a few servings of whole non-wheat grains, eat one serving of fish, etc), but it sorta sounds like it might be a good idea.  My insides are feeling BLEH even without eating (much – I had a well deserved treat on Sunday) sugar.  I’m thinking start on a Sunday and carry it through Wednesday initially?  Maybe 1-2 days a week or every other week after that?

The one thing they agree upon is to do light exercise each day (walking, yoga, etc), so I probably need to forgo my silly tri prep workouts and lifting, but it’s only for a few days.

Also, if I feel great after that cleanse, I probably have some sort of food allergy or something that doesn’t agree with me.  Coffee made me bloated, so I gave it up (even decaf).  I definitely feel the same way I did before I gave up coffee.  The only significant daily change I’ve made is Go Lean w/almond mile every morning for breakfast – so I’m also going to give that up next week to see if it helps (of course, right after I found the right kind of almond milk at Costco on the cheap… and bought a case… ).

I also read up that my bacteria might be out of whack, and am going to try to get some probiotic supplements and worst case, try a colon cleanse.  I know people who have felt GREAT after them.

I’ve been really frustrated with both my weight, but more so with my freaking tummy (honestly, if I could have a flat stomach at this weight, I don’t think I’d see any reason to lose more), so I gotta try something.  Also, I’m sure if my body is out of whack in other ways, that might be making life hard in the weight loss dept.  I for sure need to get this in check before the race season.

Anyone have any experience with either cleanses or detox?  While it sounds a little extreme to me to maintain for a long time, you can get 1200+ calories in with these cleanses, it’s just all SUPER HEALTHY stuff.  I couldn’t eat that way forever, but it doesn’t trigger RED FLAGS like the other ones do.

Snow Day!

Last week, we had SNOWPOCALYPSE 2011!  Here in Austin we actually got SNOW.  That stuck on the ground.  Some of it ALL DAY.  Since we in Central Texas freak out about this, and the schools closed and the roads were way slippy, work was cancelled so we got to stay home and play in it.

I know we’re wimps, but it ended up being a fun day.  We watched TV, made snowmen, ate Panera for the first time (yummy mediteranean sammich, chicken noodle soup, and an apple – talk about healthy options), shopped around a bit (on a weekday… so decadent…).

The pictures on this post were some of our snow day pics.

Costco was even not a miserable experience!!  We had a nice bike ride (inside – and by nice, I mean I left a puddle of sweat on the console…)  and then settled on game night and pork noodle stir fry – we played Farkle and Life.  There may have been some rules involved with taking shots if the spinner landed on a certain number… but whatevs 😉

Boat Boat Boat!!!

So, we’re getting close to our cruise.  I am FREAKING out, I’m so excited.  7 days away from winter?  Yes PLEASE.  I also have made a list of everything I need to pack (still deciding on dresses for 2 of the nights), and I think I’ve pared down to 7 pairs of shoes I need.  I could easily bring about 10-12.  I know, I’m ridiculous.

I’m really looking forward to DOING this cruise.  Zliten has made it clear he’s very content to sit by the pool with a book, and that’s fine.  I am going to make use of the rock climbing wall, ice skating, in line skating, jogging track, pools, and ship activities.  Also, instead of just getting off the boat and wandering around like normal which is exciting to me for all of, oh 15 mins before we either find a bar or something, we’re doing shore excursions. I think I linked them both earlier, but one is a zip line and snorkling all day adventure, and the other is a jungle tubing excursion taking you through ruins.  I’ve done the lay about all day, drink all night thing, and I think I’m over it.  Not that there won’t be those days, but not ALL of them.

Also, I’m bringing my running shoes, because I want to run in another country.  I’m thinking Honduras.  It’s the one where we don’t have a shore excursion planned, and supposed to be the most temperate.  The logistics should be interesting though – where will I run?  How long?  I figure it will probably just be a mile in a touristy area so I’m safe, but we’ll see.  My first out-of-country run!  Woohoo!

I’m also REALLY excited because when we get back, my birthday is soon, then Zliten’s, and then it’s spring and my MOST FAVORITEST TIME in the ATX.

So yeah… how’s your week going?  Looking forward to anything?  Have any un-bloaty tips?  Cleanse stories?  I’m dying to hear them!