Life in Technicolor

This Week's Recap:

1. Taxes - Done, and with several hours to spare! Woohoo! Paid some to Federal, getting some back from State.

2. Healing - Still in progress. 4 more weeks, I hope. Still using the bone stimulator.

3. Doctor's/orthopedics visits and Rehab United - Back to both in two weeks.

4. Marathon - Switched to the half. See #2.

5. House - Clean. I had someone else clean it.

6. Work outs - A lot of upper body bands stuff, push-ups, abs work, plus some squat matrices within reason.

7. Nutrition - Back to tracking. Trying to stay with in 1500 calories per day so I don't turn into an Oompa Loompa due to the lack of running. Will fine tune the macros later. Calories first.

8. Sugar Free Jello - A lifesaver.

9. Muscle Milk - No longer works for me. I broke out immediately, even though it's lactose free. *sigh* Back to square one and soy protein.

10. Daytime TV - Still sucks.

11. Dreams - Been having some weird ones. I had a dream I was a shopping at Macy's in Chicago, went to the top floor, but could only get to the first floor by getting on a water slide. In another dream my PT Bryan carried me across a football field while I was sitting in a Igloo ice chest. The crazy thing is that I've stopped taking pain meds 2 weeks ago, so I can't use the drug excuse. Analyze if you wish, but on the surface it seems I have travel issues, but how in the heck did I end up in an Igloo ice chest?

Yeah, I look *just* like this when I sleep. *cough*

12. Lentil stew with brown rice and warm, crusty bread - It's what's for dinner.

Wednesday's Song:
Winner - Justin Timberlake

PEACE

Who Are You?

I've been released from physical therapy. My range of motion is great and (as of this morning) I had little to no limp. It's not to say that I'm completely back to normal and can hit the pavement, as I'm still sore and still healing. I'm just a little closer to, perhaps, doing a walk/run. I also finished up one more lab workup today. I hope that is the last time I have to visit the lab for a while.

With the elections nearing, do you find that phone calls to vote one way or the other are constantly making your phone ring or filling your answering machine? I've just quit answering the phone. We have caller ID. If I don't know the number, I just don't answer, and the answering machine will pick up the call. I realize this could be bad if someone I really want to hear from is trying to get in touch with me, say a friend who has moved out of state, and I don't recognize their number. On the flip side of that, if it's important, they can leave a message. It seems that most calls have been pre-recorded political messages.

Yesterday's song:
Heat Wave - Martha and the Vandellas - She Do Run Run

PEACE

Gotta Keep Moving

• Range of motion
• Walking
• stretching
• measuring range of motion
• more walking
• walking correctly
• ultra sound massage
  
• Bone density tests results

Yeah, I had physical therapy this afternoon. Everything is progressing and my range of motion is great, according to my therapist, R. However, pain just goes with the territory. Pain will come and go. I'm just waiting for the pain to go away more than come back. R was able to access my bone density tests and my numbers are all in the normal range, which is good, but leaves the question as to why the injury happened in the first place. I'm guessing there will be more testing. I see R in about a month. I still feel so far from running, though. I feel so doughy...













In yesterday's post, I had mentioned something about my grandson putting toys away. This task is still a work in progress, but we're getting there. It's currently much better than walking through a room that looked like a tornado hit it. You all know what I mean! *wink*


Yesterday's song:
Just My Imagination - The Temptations - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Everyday

Since I had mentioned my breakfast of Cocoa Krispies yesterday, I'd like to interject something about my breakfast choice and portions.

Have you ever read the nutritional facts on a box of cereal? Each serving size is a little different from cereal to cereal , but a serving size of Cocoa Krispies is 3/4 cup, which is 120 calories, and 160 caloreis with 1/2 cup of vitamin A & D fat free milk. I eat the recommended serving with plain soy milk, and that's about 50 calories for a 1/2 cup, making it 170 calories.

170 calories for Cocoa Krispies cereal (with soy milk), and a large mug of coffee with soy milk and sweetener, perhaps a half/whole banana or other fruit, and we're looking at around 300 to 375 calories for breakfast, which is not too bad. It's not perfect, but not bad. I get to have something crunchy and chocolate is involved.

On the left is an average sized bowl from my dish set and can fit at least 4 cups of cereal. On the right is a 3/4 cup Pyrex bow, the recommended serving size.


It's not hard to figure out that most of us probably eat cereal out of a bowl from our every day dish set. My son does. Some bowls are probably smaller, but they are still not as small as the 3/4 cup sized bowl. Most of us are probably unaware of the extra calories we're getting just by not paying attention to portion size. Do the math. By using the larger bowl, we're getting in at least 3 to 4 times more calories than what the recommended serving size is. That could be around 800 calories just for a bowl of cereal with milk. That's a lot.

I often hear "I don't eat breakfast" from many people. Not eating breakfast isn't great, either. You're more likely to over eat later on in the day if you don't have breakfast.

I've been eating my cereal out of the 3/4 cup sized Pyrex bowls for about 8 years. It's not just the cereal portions I watch, it's the portion sizes of just about all foods that I eat. I don't need to physically measure out every thing I eat, but I visually know what a portion size is. In the beginning, I did measure, but after about two weeks I was OK with eyeballing everything.

I'm not limited to Cocoa Krispies. I like raisin bran, Rice Krispies, Cheerios (plain), corn flakes, Chex, etc... I like most cereal. I'm not a big granola fan, but I'll eat it if that's what we have. I'm also not limited to cereal and do not have cereal every day. I adore breakfast foods in general, but I'm careful to watch the carb/fat/protein ratios as well as caloric intake. It's super easy to go overboard with the fat content of a lot of breakfast foods. I also eat breakfast EVERY DAY. It's a great way to get those carbs in about an hour prior to running.

I had PT today. I'm slightly more flexible today and I practiced walking. My PT also put me on a recumbent bike, with a tiny bit of resistance for 5 minutes. I still have so far to go.

Yesterday's song:
Late At Night - The Iguanas, Buffalo Tom - Barbie2be

PEACE

What Is Hip?

Today was my first physical therapy session. My physical therapist, R , called my name in the waiting room, and as I got up to walk toward her, she kept looking around. Apparently, she was expecting to see someone much less mobile. She was impressed with my progress thus far. Today was more of a Q and A session, and I had to go over my story once again, since the bare bones (no pun intended) are in the chart with preliminary information provided to R -- only that I had surgery on my femoral neck/head (in the hip). She did a few stretching tests, and I'm pretty flexible, considering everything. There's just a one area I really need to work on. I have a hard time crossing my right leg over my left leg. She gave me some stretching exercises as homework and told me to continue what I'm already doing, which is the high weights/low reps weight exercises, walking, and swimming. She did want me to continue to keep using my cane, just so I don't throw off my other hip. I see R again next week.

I've made a nice little discovery at our local grocery store. Garlic olives. I know that olives are one of those things that you either can't stand or really like. I've seen many people pick off the olives from their deli sandwiches or slices of pizza. I like olives, but they're not something I usually seek out. Black or green, they're usually a garnish or after thought to a salad, pizza or sandwich, or the green ones with the little red pimentos in the middle just for martinis. While I was waiting for my husband to order a deli sandwich, I happened to stroll near the exotic cheeses and the salad bar section. The sign for garlic olives just stood out to me, so I just had to purchase a container full. I didn't even test them. Once I brought them home and was able to eat a few, I was pleasantly surprised. I couldn't just sit there and eat a whole 16 ounce container full, but a few at a time are great.

On my honor, I promise to brush my teeth, use mouthwash and/or eat a stick of minty fresh, breath freshening gum after I eat my garlic olives.

Yesterday's song :
Yes, We Have No Bananas - Spike Jones and His City Slickers - Barbie2be

PEACE

Work In Progress

I had a chance to sit in my sunny backyard and actually read an entire magazine article without drifting off to sleep! Woohoo! Progress! My next feat is to read an entire chapter of a book my boss brought to me while I was in the hospital. I also made an attempt at using a cane today. The walker is cumbersome, but it does offer support when I am super tired. I did OK with the cane and I hope I can slowly ditch the walker. Besides, the cane belonged to my grandfather. It's a bamboo cane and has a lot of character, and is way more cool than the walker.

On Saturday, there was an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune about a mime class at Grossmont College. It turns out my daughter is in that class and was quoted for the article. She didn't say anything thought provoking, but she had her 2 cents in the local paper. Her quote was "Mime is a lot of hard work." My daughter is a dance education major, and this past year she has ventured into different territory such as costume design and mime class to fill in the gaps of credits she needs.

Yesterday's song:
Rest Stop - Matchbox Twenty

PEACE

I'm Walkin'

I've finished one round of PT exercises this morning, which was 5 leg extensions, 5 pelvic tilts, being up and walking for about a 15 minutes with the walker - which is also good for the arms, and hip abductors/aductors - I can only do a couple. I'll do another round tonight. It really doesn't sound like much but I'm still super sore, even with pain meds.

For the next 4 weeks I need to have my blood checked at the lab because I'm on a blood thinner. I went in to the lab yesterday. When I was called to the cubicle, the tech had this perplexed look on his face when he saw me. He said "What's wrong with this picture?" "You have a great body but you're using a walker?" "Old people use walkers, and you're not old." Nice compliment, though, but I have a feeling I'm going to be doing a lot of explaining having the walker. It's really hard to be under 80 years old and make a walker look cool. My son's friend suggested that we trick out the walker with racing fins. I expect to be using the walker for a short time, and I can deal with it.

Since I won't be running in the marathon, I offered to volunteer at the 23.5 mile track club tent. I can do something as long as I have a place to sit. I'm taking my son with me.

Yesterday's song:
Down But Not Out - J.J. Jackson

PEACE