Day 158: Obstacles

"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it." ~Michael Jordan~

Today was all about not letting my sore hip keep me from continuing my exercise program. In the past, fear would consume me and I'd baby it for an excessive period of time. A few years back I had an incident where I literally could not walk on it. It happened suddenly one morning and I had to use a step stool as a makeshift walker all day. That is no exaggeration and although it scared me quite a bit it cleared up within a day. It only happened that one time and it doesn't bother me very often so I don't really worry about it a lot. I think it flared up now because I'm walking a lot more and at faster speeds or because I sat on my butt too much on Saturday ! Anyhow, it's feeling much better and I decided last night that even if I couldn't tolerate my normal workout today I would at least put in the same amount of time at a walking pace that I could tolerate. That would be me working around the obstacle ! One thing I can't do is stop exercising because I've worked too hard to get where I am. If I sit on the sidelines for too long it'll be that much harder to get back into the game. That is one thing I know very well about myself ! Last night my mom reminded me that when I was very little I had one foot that turned in and had to wear special shoes. So now we wonder if my hip issue is the result of some congenital anomaly that I've had all my life ? I've always blamed it on my weight and I'm sure that hasn't helped.

Good news ! I was able to get my workout in tonight without pain ! I also started working on being able to rotate the hip outward by trying to bring my left foot up to get my sock off. Didn't quite make it tonight because it caused pain, but I'm going to keep trying. My workout didn't seem nearly as hard tonight and I barely broke a sweat. This could be due to the 2 day break or it could be because I focused a little more during the max incline at the end. I found that bending my knees a bit and lengthening my stride slightly made a huge difference ! When you think about it, you don't climb a hill without bending your knees so I was doing it all wrong ! It felt so good to be back exercising .. never thought I'd be saying that !

Breakfast was a 2.1 ounce 180 calorie cinnamon roll with toasted marshallow mocha coffee. Second cup was French vanilla. Morning snack was a 155 calorie vanilla shake with peanut butter powder. Lunch was a 4 ounce 230 calorie meatball parmesan melt with raw carrots. Afternoon snack was 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (80 calories) and a snack cup of diced peaches (80 calories). This left me 475 calories for dinner and an evening snack. Dinner was a 220 calorie chicken fettuccine alfredo with riced broccoli and a sprinkle of romano cheese. I'm not a fan of the riced broccoli on it's own (not much flavor) but it's wonderful mixed into an entree ! Same goes for the riced cauliflower. Evening snack was a 3.5 ounce 130 calorie ice cream sandwich. Calories for the day are 1075. 

Weather started out nice today, but as predicted the rain moved in by about 1 pm. The only good thing about the rain (for me) is it's helping the grass grow in my yard. It's not a good thing for Lake Ontario which is already at a record high level, so we really need a drought to move in ! Last night it was 86 degrees in my bedroom so I went ahead and put the air conditioner in the window. Lifting and moving it from the spare bedroom was not easy and I thought about something I had read online that compared weight lost with different objects. It said that a 5000 BTU air conditioner weighs about 55 pounds and considering how heavy it felt to me it really brought the weight I've lost into perspective. I thought about how it would feel to carry that air conditioner around with me all day every day. Now to get rid of the second one I am still carrying ! 

I'm glad to be back on track with both my meals and my exercise. As I've said, eating out is such a slippery slope when you can't accurately determine calories. Because of that it's so important to choose the healthiest options you can find, even if that means passing up something that you really, really want. Honestly, I thought about having some bread with my meal on Saturday but I resisted that urge. No one at the table would have said a word and no one would have judged me, but I knew that bread was calories I couldn't afford. It's not like I can never have bread, because I can, so I don't feel deprived in the least.

Next up is a hot shower and my warm cozy bed ! It's been a long day and I'm tired.