Last week did not go like I planned. Have I ever said that a week has gone according to plan? But this went south real fast in my first run of the week which was a drastic contrast to the awesome run I ended week 19 with. Maybe that should have been a sign? Who knows.
I did make it to my gastro last week to finally see about the left side pain that’s been nagging me since January. He’s scheduling a CT and politely recommended a few dietary changes, haha. Is it sad that I’ve just become used to the side thing?? Actually I prefer the side pain over the migraines. 😛
Monday- Rest As awesome as Sunday’s run was, I was cognizant to the fact that I was running faster than I should have been and I am only 2 weeks past a marathon. I figured running would probably be stupid so I just did a few of my PT exercises and squats/ lunges. Plus I had a headache again.
Tuesday- 1.5 miles I headed to the lake path hoping to try for some speed work. It might not have been the best idea but I was feeling like some 400’s. Things started to go wrong in the first 100 yards. I always walk the first 1/2 mile of my runs but I was keeping pace with someone on the path and it was awkward. Instead of running ahead, I like power walked to get ahead and then stay ahead and something in both my hips just felt wrong. I figured I would walk it out. No dice. It just kept getting worse… I tried to run and whimpered out loud. I felt like my legs weren’t connected to my pelvis correctly. What the hell? I thought about pushing through but this was straight up pain so I turned around and hobbled to my stretching bars then my car.😒
Wednesday- Holy migraine hell. Are you kidding me?? This is getting old, not only did my head hurt, now my jaw hurt. Oh and my hips still hurt.
Thursday-2.5 milesShouldn’t have done that. My head still hurt but the hip pain had faded slightly and I really wanted to run. I kept moving forward in hopes that I just needed time to warm up but it just hurt. I finally grew a brain, turned around and hobbled back to my car.
Friday-Nothing Work and a little bit of stretching and rolling. I stopped sitting in my recliner- I think it’s making things worse. Oh and I still had a damn migraine.
Saturday- Rest I slept in knowing that the smart thing would be to take the weekend off, both for my head and my hips. I ran some errands then took a nap in the afternoon. On the ground. Funnily enough- that helped my head more than I could have guessed. (Better not have jinxed that)
Sunday- Rest More of the same. Sleeping in, stretching, rolling, and all tv watching is happening from the ground, usually with a foam roller not far.
4 milesfor the week, if they even count. I knew May wasn’t going to be great mileage after Big Sur but I didn’t think I was going to fall apart. Grrrr.
I am so looking forward to a 3 day weekend. I have so many things I need to do. My car has reached a ridiculous level of dirty again. And I probably should get in a long run. Seems like a smart thing to do with a race next week.
So I bought a new sports bra. Realized it was past time to replace some of mine but the store had very few in my size. Guess it’s a popular size? The only color they had was white, kind of boring but whatever. Then I wore it. Makes no sense but I felt weird having my straps show. Purple, coral or flowers and I have no problem but something about the white made me want to cover it up! That doesn’t even make sense!
My stomach has been an asshat of a different level this week. I was having a pretty good month- still sick everyday but having a good month- but this week the right side has been hurting abnormally. Not cool. I’m pretty good at ignoring pain and it’s nothing too severe but it’s not a normal spot. Boo.
I’m debating seeing a movie this weekend. I’m on the fence about the new Pirates movie and can’t decide if it’s worth the expense. Part of me also wants to go car shopping. nothing wrong with my car, I’ve just had it for 3 years. That sounds bad I know but this is car number 10… no 9. Crap, I’ve lost count.
Random- Did you know that Luffa’s are a vegetable? I had no idea. I feel like I know nothing now. So you shower with a vegetable? Huh?
So other states have winter storms with names but California never has. Mostly because we rarely get storms out here. We get earthquakes. Well, last week California got their chance at a storm with a name- Lucifer paid us a visit. Talk about over dramatic. But in all seriousness, Friday was kind of like all hell breaking loose. Flooding, landslides, sinkholes, etc. The drive to work was sketchy at best with next to zero visibility between rain and fog and that was before I encountered the crazy wind. Debris was all over the road, I really missed owning an SUV. I was rerouted in work town due to downed power lines. We ran without power for 3+ hours at work. At one point, the entire town was out of power. Trees were falling left and right, including our parking lot. Work is one building over from the police station and one block up from the the fire department- I have never seen that much non-stop activity before. One news report said that there was a new emergency call every 2 minutes. All state parks and beaches were evacuated and closed due to falling trees. Roads were closed for flooding all over the county. And this was calm compared to some of California.
Monday- Rest After the previous days long run, my legs were a little tired so I stuck to the day off in between workouts plan and rested. As I drove away from what looked like an amazing pink sunset and decent temps for once, I couldn’t help but think that I should have run.
Tuesday- 3.1 miles The slowest, most uncomfortable miles ever. My stomach was being a total asshat but I forced myself to run anyways. Or I tried… if you can call it that. I couldn’t tell you the last time I ran that slow. It was definitely not a confidence inspiring run. What I haven’t mentioned is that my stomach has been a complete asshat these past 2 weeks. Pretty much everything I eat makes me sick, boo.
Wednesday- Rest After the previous day’s farce, I wasn’t even going to attempt it.
Thursday- Rest- More asshat-ness from my stomach. Yay. This time I listened to the cues from my body and just put my running gear back in the car and drove home.
Friday- Lucifer–yeah, no running.
Saturday- 4.5 miles I had planned on running my long run but the break in the storm wasn’t as long as the weather app said. Boo. Then when I did head out, I could not get it into gear. I was so sluggish. Even downhill; I slowed down downhill- who does that? I know there’s a ton of moisture in the air which is not making my asthma happy but man I saw some numbers on the watch this week that just depressed me. So I tried not to think about it.
Sunday- 8 miles– I slept like crap the night before so when my alarm went off to get up and run, I slapped that thing off, rolled over and went back to sleep. I figured I would see how many miles I could squeeze in before the storm came back in the afternoon. I won’t lie, I kind of wanted to skip the whole thing. I told myself I could cut it short if I was absolutely miserable. I was thinking about it during mile 2 but I kept pushing on. Mile 3 picked up the pace a bit, same with mile 4. Mile 5 saw some rain, a hill and a mini wall. I slowed down but kept going. I also let myself be distracted by a cute little house for sale. Mile 6 was better but I knew mile 7 had a big hill. Oddly, mile 7 was the exact same pace as mile 5. I did an out and back loop kind of thing that put me just past 7 at the bottom of my driveway. I had a sudden burst of energy so I ran past so I could hit 8 miles. For a run I didn’t really want to do, it ended up being the best run all week!
15.5 miles for the week and actually 3 running days. Now if I could just cross train. 😛 The miles went up and in some ways it was a better week then last week. Have to look on the shiny side right??? Now if I can just keep the momentum going and not backslide. Which may be hard, I admit I am struggling with all this rain. There is still more to come. I think I can, I think I can.
When your doctor sounds completely bewildered by your test results it means one of two things. Either it’s time to find a new doctor or you’re just extra special. I haven’t quite decided which one to think yet. Maybe both.
If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ve heard me whine, moan, complain about my stupid stomach. Actually I usually call it something much more colorful, it has a few nicknames. Speaking officially, it’s gastroparesis with a side of GERD. Or is that the other way round? GERD was diagnosed about 12 years ago, and gastroparesis about 5. It was all handled pretty well until June 2014. Things since then have been one giant flare. Which has brought on numerous tests, multiple medicines and some more dietary restrictions. Yay. I’ve run too many medicated races in the last year+. Not ok.
I’ve tried to not complain too much on the blog in the past couple of months but I think I failed. I have been quiet about how rough things have become. My left side pretty much aches all the time. I’ve been retaining water, air, something- who knows- to the point that I look puffy and swollen most of the time. And people have started to comment on it. I’ve been waiting for someone to ask when I am due since half the time I look pregnant. Trust me, I’m not. But my new stretch marks say differently. Any pictures you’ve seen recently have all been taken from very odd angles to try to hide it. I am once again living in dresses. And my running shorts have turned almost scandalously short. Not ok.
It also finally clicked that my side is affecting my sleep. I may be a night owl but normally when I do fall asleep, it’s next to impossible to wake me up and I always stayed in the same position. Curled up on my left side, always. I’ve tried to sleep in other positions but always ended up back on my left side. I haven’t been able to sleep on my left side in months. Grrr. Oh and my side talks. Seriously everyone at work has heard it. Sometimes it sounds like a whale. At least that’s what a coworker used to say. Other times a plane. And not in the I’m hungry, let’s growl way. It moves too. Yay me.
So when the doctor ordered another CT scan, I was torn about it. As much as you want answers, you also don’t want anything to be really wrong. It’s kind of a catch-22. I’ll also say that the results could have been so much worse. But words like collapsed and mass are not things you want to read on a medical report. Or hear from the doctor who sounds completely confused. So now I wait while they are requesting yet another test to try and figure out what is going on. But I can’t just wait.
I haven’t had the best luck with Atkins. Partly because it was a little tricky and partly because I cheated too often. It was an interesting 3+ months. I also didn’t like that a lot of the options that were “low-carb” had an ingredient list 5 miles long. And most of them were words I couldn’t even pronounce. Also, I can not get into Quest bars, I don’t understand the fascination with them. That consistency is just odd. It was a little too easy to eat crappy food as long as it fit within my carb limits for the day. If you ask my mother, Atkins made me worse. My side’s hurt longer than that so not true. She also questions if I should be running at all. Doc didn’t say to stop but I also didn’t ask. I figured I would stick with 3 days running and slow down my easy runs. That’s not a lot.
🙂
So for plan b (or is it plan f now?) I am wading into the Paleo waters. I’ve mentioned it in passing before but never followed through. Now I am really going to give it a try. Baby steps, but I am going to try. The plan was to start this week but if you read my last post, you know I cheated more than few times last week. Instead I started this week with the Slacker version of a reboot. Starting Sunday, breakfast and lunch were all fruits and veggies via smoothies. Dinner was usually more veggies. It was surprisingly easy. Except for Wednesday night, I had a serious case of the munchies. All I wanted was cake or ice cream. Seriously, if the fair wasn’t in town and making traffic crazy I might have headed to the donut shop. Thankfully, it passed. I wasn’t expecting miracles but I don’t feel worse, maybe just a little more even. So, I’m calling it a win. My mother told me I looked less puffy today. 😉
On another note, since last week I’ve cut my Diet Coke intake in half. Slacker say what?! Normal for me was 2 a day. Now those 2 were 32 oz. One in the morning and one around 2:30. I only drink soda at work or when I’m eating out. I don’t even buy it for home. Combine those sodas with my usual over indulgence in water and I drink a lot of liquid throughout the day. 😃 I still commute so I added black coffee in the morning to keep me alert. Baby steps, right? I don’t think I will ever give soda up completely. It’s my one vice. Seriously, it tastes amazing after a race.
Now my challenge is to get through the weekend without backsliding too much. I also need to double check my list for my first paleo grocery trip this weekend. I can do this right? Can I get through cookie Friday?! Will this help? I have no idea but at least I am doing something while I wait. I’m not even aiming high, I would like to follow the 80/20 rule with this new plan. Mostly because pizza, and the previously mentioned Diet Coke.
Thanks for listening to me whine.
Any Paleo tips?
What’s your vice? What one food could you not give up?
On March 30, on doctor’s orders I started the Atkins diet. Yes, I know exactly what you’re thinking- “but, wait, all the yummy carbs!’. Ok, now I want a donut. Anyways, moving on. I may have spent one last weekend indulging in all the things I was about to lose. 🙂 I also bought one of the books, the newer ones- The New Atkins Made Easy. The original book was published back in 2003 and from the free preview I downloaded online, it read more like a science book. I didn’t want or need all that- I didn’t need to be convinced, I was doing this because I was told to.
If you’ve been reading awhile, you’ve seen me talk as nauseuam about my stomach and it’s stupid-ness (gastroparesis). This is not the first time I have been told to limit my carb intake, however this is the most severe it’s been. But as this current flare up has now gone on for almost a year, I made a sad face and told the doc I would do my best.
So in brief- Atkins is a lifestyle change that believes that a lower carb intake will help weight loss and help with some recurring or long term conditions. This is where my doc comes in. He suggested it, so I figured I would give it a shot.
Atkins has 4 phases-
Phase 1- Induction- 20g carbs
Phase 2- Ongoing Weight Loss- 25g-50g- for some people higher
Phase 3- Pre-maintenance 60-70g
Phase 4-Lifetime Maintenance 80-100g
For perspective- the normal recommended intake for carbs is 180-300g.
At each phase, you can add in more foods that were previously restricted. Like fruit and some starchy vegetables among other things. Now Atkins is primarily geared towards weight loss, I didn’t really care about that so I started at the higher end of phase 2. Now I won’t complain about weight loss if it happens but that is not the end goal here. My goal was to aim for an average of 40-50g per day allowing 2 cheat meals a week that should not send my daily limit over 100. If I stuck to that, my weekly average would be around 64g of carbs. Why cheat meals? Because Pizza. I cut way back on the pizza intake but I am not cutting it out completely.
That’s real food, maybe I can do this
I read the whole book but was slow in finishing it so sometimes I was a little misinformed. Like the time I was so proud during family dinner because I substituted broccoli for the pasta in Spaghetti. Too bad I didn’t realize that the sauce could hide a ton of carbs! Oops. It took me a while to join the website. But since it actually confuses me that’s not such a bad thing. I downloaded the app but really just stick to the Lose It app for keeping track of daily carb intake. I also decided to keep some notes about this little experiment was going.
Week 1-
Didn’t do the best grocery shopping, snacking is kind of hard. Also dinner is hard but not as hard as I thought it would be. I had a moderate headache for the first few days. Running felt hard but doable, so I just tried to take it easy. I was so tired, I had thought about cutting back on soda this week too but there is no way I would have made it through the week. It kept me from becoming a crazy person. I think I figured out how to eat out most everywhere except Mexican food. Friday night was an accidental/ intentional cheat at Taco Bell. I am usually not a fan but they had a new item that was pretty good but super carb heavy. Oops! In plus news, I dropped 5 pounds in 4 days. Not the point of this whole experiment but interesting none the less.
Weekly Average- 72g- not too bad
I can add salt, sweet!
Week 2-
Started off so much better. I did a better grocery shopping the prior weekend so I felt more prepared. Monday and Tuesday were great, on track counting wise. Wednesday evening was my first weekly cheat meal but that was fine. What was not fine was the cheating on Thursday evening, Friday evening, all Saturday and Sunday lunch. Umm, yeah that was bad. So bad. I still had a headache most of the week but stomach wise I felt ok. I learned that if Lay’s are in the house, I have zero self control. But on the upside, I pulled off Thursday’s 11 miles on only 15g of carbs. This was the longest run since the dietary changes took places. Until this I wasn’t sure I could pull this off, let alone at the pace I did.
Weekly average- 106-going the wrong direction
Week 3-
Started the week out well, fell apart by Thursday. Why do I have such problems later in the week? I do feel like I feel better when I restrict more but it’s hard. I really want some damn potato chips. My mother asked if feeling better was all in my head and I said well that would work too. 🙂
Weekly Average- 90g
Week 4-
SLO race week. This was a problem. I felt conflicted between following the new plan vs the common consensus of carb loading prior to a race. I couldn’t decide what would be better. In the end I consumed more carbs than the past few weeks and it was not a good idea.
Weekly Average- 130g– Ouch
So that was month one. Even knowing that I need to buckle down and really commit to this to see if it helps, week 1 of month two has been a failure. I do fine while at work. I have actually started eating breakfasts again, I figured out snacks and I look forward to my lunches. I figured out how to eat at most of the restaurants I frequent. Even pizza, replaced a large pizza and bread sticks to share with a medium pizza and a salad to share.
This is awesome, have no idea where it came from but I want it.
I start each week with resolve but stumble hard by the end. Last week, cookie Friday proved too much temptation. I hadn’t really had many since Christmas but Friday I ate way too many. Ugh. I think the diet is helping but it’s hard to tell since I have no follow through by the week end. I have a little less than 2 months before I go back to the doctor, so I really want to try and stick to it to see how it goes. Plus I don’t have a half until mid July at the earliest, so now would be the time to figure this out. Beside the other alternative is some heavy duty antibiotics that will break the bank if my insurance doesn’t always kick in like they have warned me. Expensive like the cash price could be a down payment on a car. 😦 So Atkins and I need a little more time together. 🙂
