Workout: P90x chest/back
Weight: 129.4
I'm back to weighing myself everyday because the amount of water I'm retaining is driving me crazy. My weight fluctuates sometimes 4lbs over night. So I'm weighing and actually graphing it this time to watch for an overall trend.
I've been keeping up with my swimming 2-3x/week and some sort of resistance training 3x/week. Since being entirely gluten free, I've gone back to p90x and have done well with it - in terms of the pain issues I was having in my shoulder and elbow. My swimming has improved a lot. I feel much more comfortable with the front crawl and I'm more fluid and faster with it. Previous to last week, I was good if I did 1000yds in 35 minutes. I'm now doing 1000yds alternating breast 100yds & crawl 100yds in 30 minutes.
I've been almost completely gluten free now for a couple of weeks and I can tell. I have been sleeping much better and deeper at night, my aches are minimal and usually associated with the difficulty of my resistance workouts... therefore they are more muscle aches than joint aches. Last Monday was the first time I did p90x chest/back after a few weeks off from doing any kind of pushups, and I was SORE until at least Thursday. But my shoulder and elbow have calmed down a lot - my shoulder is still weak and still hurts a lot while doing pushups, but its not as debilitating.
However.
Last night we took the girls to Dairy Queen and had ice cream. I was not thinking. I have been so good with being gluten free - I've had GF pizza from aurelios, I've had GF pizza from Trader Joe's (better and cheaper than aurelios), I've been very careful and I've felt the difference. But I didn't think about it and the cone of my ice cream cone has resulted in a horrible night and day. Last night I woke up at 2:30 and if I slept at all between then and 6:00 when I finally got out of bed, it was very minimal or very restless because I felt like I was awake the entire time. Today, my shoulder and elbow are on fire again after my workout, my hips are terrible and my fingers are terrible. It is amazing to me how that little bit makes such a huge difference.
I am glad that it happened, though, because we are going on vacation next week and I've already been contemplating just giving in and dealing with the consequences of eating gluten while we're there. But this reminder is setting my mind straight. I will continue to be as careful as possible while there, because this is not worth it.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Thursday February 7, 2013
Workout: 1100 yds swim
weight: ?
Went to the gym this morning and swam. Alternated 100yds breast / 100yds crawl. It was enjoyable - I'm definitely getting faster and more fluid with my crawl stroke. I did 100yds backstroke (frog style) as a cool down, which is so relaxing.
I had a small square of ghiradelli dark chocolate yesterday. Before I bought it I looked at the ingredients and soy was bolded. I figured it wouldn't be an issue. But I did not sleep well again last night. And when I say that, I mean I sleep most of the night, but I can tell when I wake up (at 4:45 for no reason) that it was a restful sleep. Hard to describe, but I feel it in my eyes. Other than chocolate the only other thing that I ate that could perhaps be questioned was a corn tortilla. But I don't think that should be an issue.
My neck is also achier than it has been in the last couple of days.
Today I had half of a Corner Bakery salad with minimal dressing. The salad itself is fine - chopped salad: greens, bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, tomato. From what I read online, all of their salad dressings are GF, so hopefully (fingers crossed) i won't have a sleeping issue tonight. Hoping that whatever I had yesterday was not enough to have to work out of my system over several days.
weight: ?
Went to the gym this morning and swam. Alternated 100yds breast / 100yds crawl. It was enjoyable - I'm definitely getting faster and more fluid with my crawl stroke. I did 100yds backstroke (frog style) as a cool down, which is so relaxing.
I had a small square of ghiradelli dark chocolate yesterday. Before I bought it I looked at the ingredients and soy was bolded. I figured it wouldn't be an issue. But I did not sleep well again last night. And when I say that, I mean I sleep most of the night, but I can tell when I wake up (at 4:45 for no reason) that it was a restful sleep. Hard to describe, but I feel it in my eyes. Other than chocolate the only other thing that I ate that could perhaps be questioned was a corn tortilla. But I don't think that should be an issue.
My neck is also achier than it has been in the last couple of days.
Today I had half of a Corner Bakery salad with minimal dressing. The salad itself is fine - chopped salad: greens, bacon, bleu cheese, avocado, tomato. From what I read online, all of their salad dressings are GF, so hopefully (fingers crossed) i won't have a sleeping issue tonight. Hoping that whatever I had yesterday was not enough to have to work out of my system over several days.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Wednesday February 6, 2013
Catch up
Last week, I swam on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I did not workout on the other days as I was really trying to focus on eliminating gluten from my diet and sleeping. The last time I had gluten was Sunday January 27th and it has taken me this long to start sleeping better and feeling better. I could tell I was beginning to sleep better by the weekend, but last week I was still very achy in my neck, hands, fingers and hips.
Last night I slept really, really well - deep, restfully, only woken up briefly by the dog. Prior to the last 2 nights, my sleep was not that way - I felt like most of the night I was in that half sleep/half awake feeling. I didn't feel rested at all. I was waking up randomly every night once or twice and having a hard time getting back to sleep.
Over the last 2-3 days I've noticed my neck pain (arthritis) is gone. My fingers do not hurt, my hips do not hurt, my wrists do not hurt. My elbow and shoulder pain are less.
If this blood test does not show a sensitivity to gluten, I will be shocked. Shocked, I tell you. My food journal and observations seem pretty clear.
At the end of last week I pretty much felt sorry for myself and mourned the loss of gluten. No more pizza. No more granola (actually, Jan 27th wasn't my last gluten... I mistakenly had some in granola on Wed and then there must have been some in the salad dressing I had at the Karners on Saturday). Its going to be hard to eat out at a restaurant, etc. But based on the difference I feel in my body, I'm willing to give it up.
Over the weekend I decided I needed to get serious about actually TRYING to lose these 5-7 pounds that I gained over the summer (my beer weight). So I started counting calories again on Monday and have hit the workouts hard. I'm staying below 1500 cal/day and working out everyday.
Monday - deck of cards + 2 miles on the treadmill
tricep dips, burpees, weighted squats, super skaters (ran a mile before & after)
Tuesday - 1050 yds swimming (35:00): 500 breast, 500 crawl, 50 back
Today - deck of cards + 2 miles
tricep dips, weighted sumo squats, lunges and twisted mountain climbers
I've gotten better at the swimming. Prior to saturday I was consistently swimming 1000 yds in 35ish minutes. Saturday I swam 1000yds in 30 minutes so I did an extra 200 yds. I love it now and really look forward to it. Its great to see progress, too.
Starting weight (Monday February 4th): 131.2
Going to the Dominican Republic on February 23rd - hoping to be a lot closer to 125 by then!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tuesday January 29, 2013
Workout: 1000 yards swim
Weight: 132.2
Did not workout yesterday. I slept so horribly on Sunday night that I opted to sleep in a little yesterday morning... which means that I was awake from 4:45-6:00 and then dozed off until Nora woke me up at 6:30. I really have to believe this is a gluten issue. I was doing well last week and as the week went on the more days without gluten I had the better I was sleeping. Then on Sunday - because I knew I was getting the blood test on Monday - I just gave in and had pancakes and a couple of pieces of pizza. And then slept terribly again that night. And my wrist and fingers of my right hand and my neck hurt a lot. My weight has jumped 4 lbs in 2 days. It has to be the issue. I got the test yesterday and Dr. Steve said it takes about 3 weeks to get the results, but I am firmly committed to getting the gluten out of my system. He said he had a lot of gluten issues - headaches were his primary complaint, but he also had recurring tendinitis that wouldn't heal. After 3 months off of gluten he no longer had issues. Hmmm - sounds familiar: tendinitis in my left ankle, my right knee, my right shoulder, my right forearm.
Joined the gym this morning and swam 1000 yards. Takes me just slightly over 30 minutes to do 1000 yards. I did:
300 yds breast
100 yds crawl
100 yds back
100 yds breast
100 yds crawl
alternate 25 back/25crawl for 200 yds
75 breast
25 crawl
Weight: 132.2
Did not workout yesterday. I slept so horribly on Sunday night that I opted to sleep in a little yesterday morning... which means that I was awake from 4:45-6:00 and then dozed off until Nora woke me up at 6:30. I really have to believe this is a gluten issue. I was doing well last week and as the week went on the more days without gluten I had the better I was sleeping. Then on Sunday - because I knew I was getting the blood test on Monday - I just gave in and had pancakes and a couple of pieces of pizza. And then slept terribly again that night. And my wrist and fingers of my right hand and my neck hurt a lot. My weight has jumped 4 lbs in 2 days. It has to be the issue. I got the test yesterday and Dr. Steve said it takes about 3 weeks to get the results, but I am firmly committed to getting the gluten out of my system. He said he had a lot of gluten issues - headaches were his primary complaint, but he also had recurring tendinitis that wouldn't heal. After 3 months off of gluten he no longer had issues. Hmmm - sounds familiar: tendinitis in my left ankle, my right knee, my right shoulder, my right forearm.
Joined the gym this morning and swam 1000 yards. Takes me just slightly over 30 minutes to do 1000 yards. I did:
300 yds breast
100 yds crawl
100 yds back
100 yds breast
100 yds crawl
alternate 25 back/25crawl for 200 yds
75 breast
25 crawl
Friday, January 25, 2013
Friday January 25, 2013
Workout: Deck of cards - 20:00
Weight: 129.0
Forgot to blog about yesterday - went swimming again. I kind of lost count on how many total yards I swam. It was at least 1000, but could have been as high as 1150. I started with 300 yds of breast stroke and then tried to work on my front crawl. It is hard work - I have no idea how people just do lap after lap after lap without resting after each 25yds to catch their breath. Maybe I'll get to that point some day.
My body was tired last night. It doesn't feel like a hard workout at the time, other than the breathing, but my body is wiped later in the day.
Today I got up and did another deck of cards workout - jumping jacks, crunches, deadlift squats, tricep dips/speed skaters. I started out with the tricep dips, but I think my whole right upper arm is jacked up. The first set was fine and then after 3 on the second set I couldn't do anymore because of my elbow, so I switched that suit to speed skaters. It was a good workout. Wasn't as good as Wednesdays but it was fine.
I'm going to do my best to rest my arm/shoulder for a couple of weeks. I'm going to continue with swimming/running and the deck of cards workouts. I had thought about doing yoga on my off days, but even that, I think, could strain my shoulder with the downward and upward dogs especially.
Next week I'm going to try to go get the blood test.
Weight: 129.0
Forgot to blog about yesterday - went swimming again. I kind of lost count on how many total yards I swam. It was at least 1000, but could have been as high as 1150. I started with 300 yds of breast stroke and then tried to work on my front crawl. It is hard work - I have no idea how people just do lap after lap after lap without resting after each 25yds to catch their breath. Maybe I'll get to that point some day.
My body was tired last night. It doesn't feel like a hard workout at the time, other than the breathing, but my body is wiped later in the day.
Today I got up and did another deck of cards workout - jumping jacks, crunches, deadlift squats, tricep dips/speed skaters. I started out with the tricep dips, but I think my whole right upper arm is jacked up. The first set was fine and then after 3 on the second set I couldn't do anymore because of my elbow, so I switched that suit to speed skaters. It was a good workout. Wasn't as good as Wednesdays but it was fine.
I'm going to do my best to rest my arm/shoulder for a couple of weeks. I'm going to continue with swimming/running and the deck of cards workouts. I had thought about doing yoga on my off days, but even that, I think, could strain my shoulder with the downward and upward dogs especially.
Next week I'm going to try to go get the blood test.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Wednesday January 23, 2012
Workout: Deck of Cards - 25:00
Weight: 129.2
After doing a minimal amount of googling last night, I think I have a strain on my bicep tendon that attaches the tendon to the shoulder. And quite possibly a strain to the tendon that connects the bicep to the elbow at the bottom end. So on the diagram below it would a strain to #10 and #4. Those are the exact places that I'm feeling pain and stress. It could also be tendinitis in those places - I'm still unclear about the difference. I don't believe it is a pull or a tear as I don't have bruising or irregular shaped muscles. However, it is tender to the touch in both of those places and also painful when using my arm in certain ways. #4 is painful when I do things like cut into a hard fruit/vegetable - using my arm as a lever basically. So when I cut watermelon, or pineapple, or butternut squash (before any of them are peeled). #10 is painful when I raise my arm laterally or out to the side and often starts aching when I've been doing a lot with the computer mouse.
source
Yesterday I accidentally broke my gluten fast by tasting a cookie bar that I had made for the girls. I didn't realize it until I had eaten 1/2 of one. And because I had already broken it, I had a flour tortilla at Dave's folk's for dinner, and realized today that I believe commercially made taco seasoning has gluten in it. All of that has been enough for me to decide to go get the blood test. I'm driving myself crazy over here and I want to just know something definitvely so I know what to avoid. My hands and wrists are very achy. My hips are achy. My knees are achy. I can't recover from any kind of tendinitis anywhere. So I'm going to discontinue p90x, except for the legs workout and I'll omit the back exercises. I think I'm also going to go back to doing more yoga, I just haven't gotten a dvd that I really love and feel like I've had a good workout with it. But I think I need to just recognize and acknowledge that I need to stop the craziness - if something is hurting me, I need to stop doing it. This is taking a big hit on my pride.
Weight: 129.2
After doing a minimal amount of googling last night, I think I have a strain on my bicep tendon that attaches the tendon to the shoulder. And quite possibly a strain to the tendon that connects the bicep to the elbow at the bottom end. So on the diagram below it would a strain to #10 and #4. Those are the exact places that I'm feeling pain and stress. It could also be tendinitis in those places - I'm still unclear about the difference. I don't believe it is a pull or a tear as I don't have bruising or irregular shaped muscles. However, it is tender to the touch in both of those places and also painful when using my arm in certain ways. #4 is painful when I do things like cut into a hard fruit/vegetable - using my arm as a lever basically. So when I cut watermelon, or pineapple, or butternut squash (before any of them are peeled). #10 is painful when I raise my arm laterally or out to the side and often starts aching when I've been doing a lot with the computer mouse.
source
Yesterday I accidentally broke my gluten fast by tasting a cookie bar that I had made for the girls. I didn't realize it until I had eaten 1/2 of one. And because I had already broken it, I had a flour tortilla at Dave's folk's for dinner, and realized today that I believe commercially made taco seasoning has gluten in it. All of that has been enough for me to decide to go get the blood test. I'm driving myself crazy over here and I want to just know something definitvely so I know what to avoid. My hands and wrists are very achy. My hips are achy. My knees are achy. I can't recover from any kind of tendinitis anywhere. So I'm going to discontinue p90x, except for the legs workout and I'll omit the back exercises. I think I'm also going to go back to doing more yoga, I just haven't gotten a dvd that I really love and feel like I've had a good workout with it. But I think I need to just recognize and acknowledge that I need to stop the craziness - if something is hurting me, I need to stop doing it. This is taking a big hit on my pride.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Tuesday January 22, 2013
Workout: 1000 yards - swimming
weight: 129.8
Went to The Core and swam this morning. I got in the pool around 11:20 and had swum 1000 yards by 11:55. I don't know what that means or if its good, but I felt like it was a good workout. I did 250 yards breast, 50 yards crawl, 50 yards back, and then I don't remember. I do know that I ended the workout with 250 yards breast stroke again. I wasn't able to do much more than 100 yards of crawl at one time. It was very tiring for me. I worked hard at turning my hips, but I found that as I got toward the end of the lap and got more tired I started sinking and would have more difficulty with the hips and breathing. Its going to take a lot of practice, but I'm excited that I can at least complete a couple of laps... when I tried to swim at the high school last year I had no idea what I was doing and couldn't make it more than 2 strokes without giving up. It is definitely tough for me - by the end of the 50 yds, I was wasted - every time. Like upset stomach wasted.
Today my right shoulder/bicep, wrist and hand are hurting really bad. I think because of the burpees I did yesterday - there is a plank position in them that caused me fits. So I will eliminate those next time.
Thinking that I won't be able to do arms/shoulders tomorrow because of the pain issues I have right now. I will do a deck of cards workout again in the morning.
weight: 129.8
Went to The Core and swam this morning. I got in the pool around 11:20 and had swum 1000 yards by 11:55. I don't know what that means or if its good, but I felt like it was a good workout. I did 250 yards breast, 50 yards crawl, 50 yards back, and then I don't remember. I do know that I ended the workout with 250 yards breast stroke again. I wasn't able to do much more than 100 yards of crawl at one time. It was very tiring for me. I worked hard at turning my hips, but I found that as I got toward the end of the lap and got more tired I started sinking and would have more difficulty with the hips and breathing. Its going to take a lot of practice, but I'm excited that I can at least complete a couple of laps... when I tried to swim at the high school last year I had no idea what I was doing and couldn't make it more than 2 strokes without giving up. It is definitely tough for me - by the end of the 50 yds, I was wasted - every time. Like upset stomach wasted.
Today my right shoulder/bicep, wrist and hand are hurting really bad. I think because of the burpees I did yesterday - there is a plank position in them that caused me fits. So I will eliminate those next time.
Thinking that I won't be able to do arms/shoulders tomorrow because of the pain issues I have right now. I will do a deck of cards workout again in the morning.
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