May 242011
Breakfast
1/2c oatmeal, 1c milk, 1 apple, 1T peanut butter, cinnamonLyn
I’m settling back into a routine after my long weekend away at Fit Bloggin’. I’ll have some more details about the conference soon.
Meantime, I’m in rehabilitation for my knee. My physical therapy started last Wednesday. It continued today in the water. The physical therapist on Wednesday suggested that I have therapy 2-3 times per week and that one time per week should be in the water.
Today was my first water therapy. Even when I tore my ACL in 2004, I didn’t have water therapy. So, today’s session was all new. It started with warm water. The therapy pool is very warm. I didn’t ask what the temperature was, but I am guessing it was around 90 degrees.
After I got used to it, the heat felt good. I did find myself wishing I had brought water with me to my session. I worked with a physical therapy assistant named Jessica. It was interesting. During much of my session there was three of us. Jessica sat in a chair by a computer and kept track of our exercises and timed us as needed.
The pool was divided into 3 sections. There was a 3 foot, 5 foot and 7 foot deep section. My exercises included things like walking back and forth, walking backwards, walking sidewards, squats (which are much easier in water since you don’t actually move all of your weight), knee kicks, etc. Most of the exercises probably have names, but I don’t have a cheat sheet. My session ended with a few exercises in the deep end with a floatation belt. This part included things like bicycling.
I liked the therapy and hope to be able to practice these exercises in the JCC pool this week.
Next up: a few minutes on the Nu Step and a segment in the pool in the morning.
I’m back from Fit Bloggin’ and the conference was AMAZING! I’ll be highlighting the conference in my next few posts. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a few photos. More details to come!
I’m away at Fit Bloggin’ this weekend. I wanted to take this opportunity to share a couple of my favorite sites.
100 Days of Real Food is a site all about a family who took a real food challenge for 100 days. They actually have done 2 of them. She blogs about the rules, mini pledges, recipes, budget and more. I’ve already made the banana bread, corn tortilla, whole wheat flour tortillas and crackers. If you are interested in eating less processed food and more “real” food, you should definitely check out this site.
Kath Eats Real Food is another favorite site about real food. Kath blogs each day about food. She’s a registered dietician and enjoys creative yet usually simple meals. I’ve tried many new foods after seeing them on her blog. It’s been very inspirational to me. Kath and her husband Matt are about to open a Great Harvest bakery and many of her recent posts involve their progress. Her photography is outstanding and I always enjoy reading about her adventures in and out of the kitchen.
I am away at Fit Bloggin’ this week, but I wanted to share this website about Sugar. I saw it posted on Twitter earlier this week.
About 3 weeks ago, I decided to quit eating refined sugar and white flour. At the same time, I stopped eating artificial sweetener. I’m allowing myself honey and maple syrup, which means if I want anything sweet, I need to make it myself.
It’s been amazing to see just how many everyday foods contain sugar. It’s really challenging to find anything processed that is “sugar free”. I think the Sugar Stacks website does a great job of showing sugar in a way that everyone can understand.
As I get ready to head to Fit Bloggin‘, I thought I should tell my weight story. Life Lyn Style is just over 4 months old. I started this blog to help me be more accountable with my food and exercise. Since starting the blog, I’ve met many other bloggers (virtually) and have been amazed at the number of “fit blogs” that exist. The web is full of other people just like me who are trying to better themselves and live healthy lives.
I’ve been overweight most of my life. I remember being called “big butt” as early as elementary school. I remember joining Weight Watchers for the first time during my senior year of high school. At that point, I needed to lose about 50 pounds. I came within 9 pounds of my goal, and then I started college.
At the University of Akron, I had unlimited access to the food court. At that time, this consisted of a pizza place and McDonald’s. I ate all of the time. Looking back, it’s amazing to me just how much crap I ate during college. My weight ballooned to around 260 pounds. For the next 8-12 years, I weighed between 250 and 280. I also have been a Weight Watchers member several times over the years. My weight was fairly consistent. I also tried to not let my weight get in my way. I’d like to think that I’ve been successful. I know that it has held me back here and there, but I don’t focus on that. I’ve done 12 week-long bicycle rides. I’ve walked 2 marathons and a couple of half marathons. I met my husband Stephen while on one of the bicycle rides. Since I met him in 2003, we’ve had 2 children. With pregnancies came more weight gain. The OB appointment before my daughter was born (Nov 2009), I weighed in at 344. Yikes! That is such a huge number to type!
Shortly after Sally was born, I rejoined Weight Watchers at 326 pounds. In the past 18 months, since Sally was born, I’ve managed to get down to the 280’s. I’ve been consistently there for a few months now. Recently, I dropped my Weight Watcher membership since I wasn’t able to attend the meetings with two toddlers. With over 100 pounds more to go, I try to focus on real food and exercise and know that the rest will come.
This is turning into a crazy week. I ended up with my first physical therapy session at 7am this morning and the Cleveland Clinic main campus.
I met with Brian and had my evaluation done. The first physical therapy appointment is always a mix of evaluation and figuring out what exercises need to be done.
Now I have about 5 exercise to do 2-6 times a day. Most of them I can do while multitasking which is good. After my therapy appointment, I got scheduled for my follow up appointments at the JCC office. This will be convenient for the kids and I. The physical therapist suggested a couple of pool sessions so I can learn exercises to do in the water. This should be good since I have never had any water therapy.
It was also suggested that I do either the recumbent stationary bike or the Nu Step at this stage. So, at the JCC, I did 30 minutes on the Nu Step. This was NOT cardio. This was a range of motion exercise, very slow pace activity. There was no sweat involved. 30 minutes was actually too long. My knee was pretty sore when I was done and I shouldn’t do things that aggravate it. I’m really supposed to be mostly resting and icing, but it’s hard for me to sit still.
I’m taking a few days off from my food log. I’m still sticking with no refined sugar (honey/maple syrup ok) and no white flour. I also haven’t had any artificial sweeteners. It’s been over 3 weeks. Besides not eating enough vegetables, my food has been pretty good. It really is just a matter of time. Fit Bloggin‘ starts tomorrow in Baltimore and I will be gone until Sunday. I plan to photograph at least one day of food to share with you when I return.
I’m excited to meet everyone tomorrow and have a great time this weekend. Extra thanks to Stephen for taking 2 days off work to take care of the kids and make the Fit Bloggin’ trip possible.
The kids and I headed to the JCC today. My knee was sore and getting used to my brace is exhausting. I really felt like I had a good workout just getting into the JCC and walking down the long hall to the fitness area and Kid Kare. The kids needed to play and I spent some time on the phone. It was time well spent since I now have physical therapy starting tomorrow instead of June 1st.
After we left the JCC, we headed to Fairlawn for a stop at Great Harvest to stock up on bread, Earth Fare to check out the new store, and WalMart since Nick was out of Pull Ups.
It was a busy day. I’m exhausted and PT is at 7am. I’m now trying to prep for tomorrow while resting my knee.