Recovery Muscle Soreness is NORMAL

Busy weekend this past weekend. My dad came over and we got all the debris out of the bathroom and I cleaned my garage. Tossed a bunch of stuff in the dumpster before the guys putting in my tub have it picked up. Then I removed a bit of wallpaper glue (wallpaper is down). Sunday the Wildlife Center and some more glue removal.

And my back muscles are sore. I know I just had surgery less than 8 weeks ago, I get this and completely understand it. Most of this soreness is just general I haven't used these muscles properly in years kind of pains. The hard part is knowing what kind of pain is actually "normal". And when I'm overdoing things. It's been so long since I've had "normal" pain and I'm not sure that I recognize it well. This weekend was good because I know that everything I did was within acceptable lifting ranges and this should be considered "normal".

I have to know that I don't have to be terrified that every time I have soreness that I've re-injured myself, because I haven't. I have to know that when I say something hurts (like my erector spinae muscles that were ruthlessly pulled aside during surgery) that other people will worry that I'm somehow damaged again and I'm not. When in reality those muscles are just gaining strength again and like any muscle gaining strength I'm going to feel muscle soreness. You feel it in your biceps after doing a trillion bicep curls, I'll feel it where my muscles are weaker and are still gaining strength too. It's the normal process of building strength and muscle regardless of the location of the muscle.

I'm not damaged and doing normal everyday things will not suddenly damage me. I can ride my bike this summer and lean forward while dragging the bike trailer behind for my little guy. I'll soon be able to run/jog again. And hell, tonight I'm going home and doing some kickboxing on my heavy bag even though I swam a mile this morning (And new PR at 38:15, better even than pre-surgical best).

I just hope my family and friends stop looking at me like I'm going to fall over dead because I live an active fun and enjoyable lifestyle. I'm not that breakable. And I hate HATE when people make me feel like I can't live my life because I'll hurt myself. That is just not true.

Take away here, I'm awesome :). And I feel spectacular. And if I was allowed to run a marathon right now, I'd totally feel up for it!

Weekend Plans?

The weekend is almost here! I work till 11, so getting there. Tomorrow I'm bringing my little guy to story time at the library. Dr. Seuss on the menu for the little people :).

Then off to clean up the garage and the debris left behind from my most recent project before the dumpster is picked up. Hoping I can do this all myself still being post recovery but I'll just take more trips and carry less weight. 

Saturday night Grandpa is heading over and I'm making up some bacon cheeseburgers for all of us. And then inspect the work that's been done of course!

Sunday I'd really like to get away from the house for a bit, get someone off my mind for awhile. Waking up thinking of someone who isn't thinking of you kind of sucks in the mornings. So if it's nice I'd like to head to the nature center and maybe feed the geese first thing after breakfast. Then they also have an indoor area if it's too cold.

Family meeting with my daughter and her dad in the evening. It's very nice to be able to co-parent so well with my daughter's dad. Never once a fight in the 17 years of her life. We don't agree on everything by any means, but sometimes things are how they are at one house and different at another. Remaining consistent was something we both always tried to do to the best of our abilities and she's turned out to be a pretty amazing girl. 

Not any working out planned for the weekend, tomorrow would be a weight lifting day but the gym daycare area is only open for 4 hours and story time is right in the middle of that. Plus with all the clean up of debris, I should get enough "lifting" in for the weekend anyway!

Have a good weekend everyone!

In Recovery! Return to Blogging!

So some of you may have been wondering where I went. I spent about a year being nearly unable to walk but still managed to get to the gym a little anyway. So this January I had back surgery. A microdiscectomy at level L5-S1, herniated by 14mm. I'm seven weeks post op about and at week six I was allowed back in the gym!

Most important thing, despite pain and agony and near death, I still did the Tough Mudder last year. Biggest priority of the year and only thing that was going to stop me was death itself :).

I'm back at the gym and swimming 3 days a week. I managed to maintain swimming last year till about October before I couldn't do that anymore either. My mile record pre-surgy was 39:00 in a saltwater pool. This Monday, 6w6d post op, I was only 40 seconds shy of my pre-surg PR!!! 39:40
Three days a week will be spent in the pool indefinitely. Two days swimming a mile, mid week water aerobics.

Other awesome news, I'm allowed to lift a total of 30 lbs, though I started with 20, two ten pound dumbbells for my first week and decided to stick with that for week two. Upping that at 10 lbs every two weeks though my doc said never with the bar across my shoulders at more than 50 lbs as a lifetime restriction. For this first 6 weeks, Super set 1: wide squats, narrow squats, and deadlifts. Super set 2: Bench press and chest fly's. Super set 3: Split squat, shoulder press, and overhead tricep extension (with just one dumb bell for that last one). All at 15 reps of two sets. Then of course the pull up/dip station with a 70 lb assist for now. Taking it easy you know ;). After that over to the stepper and doing boring boring step ups forward, backward, lateral. My right hip is much weaker than my right and it will take time to get that rebalanced strength. Those are also all 2 sets of 15 reps. 

Followed by the stationary bike for 30 min steady state or intervals depending on my mood. Then stretching for 10-15 min. I used to end with yoga but the scar tissue is currently too irritated to do that. So basic everything stretching. 

At week 10 I'll be allowed to run again starting at half a mile and upping no more than half a mile a week. Training will begin for my 10k this summer and my first half marathon this September followed by the Tough Mudder two weeks after that! 

In more personal news, I was in a great deal of pain nearly all of 2015. I left my very verbally and emotionally abusive ex in 2014. I made some bad choices and attempted to work things out with him very briefly this past year. Part of that was giving up. Depression caused by the pain made me have very little motivation or care much about what happened to me. He threatened to punch me and the police were called. He'd been physically violent with me before and I wasn't going to end up someone's punching bag. We were done. Truthfully we were done before we started. I knew he was not what I wanted and only tried because I felt like I was supposed to. The only thing I can be glad about with trying again with him is that I kept separation even during the trial, he moved back into my house but in a separate bedroom. It didn't take long even with that separation for him to attempt to control me again. I always want to believe people are better than they are and that they learn from their mistakes and wont hurt me again. Truth is people are who they show you they are. 

I've been doing everything as a single parent since my son was born basically and I met someone who I thought was ok with this shortly before my surgery. That person seemed to be everything I wanted and was looking for. A guy who takes care of his kids and cares about what happens to me. Someone who values fitness and clean eating. Who lives his life in a way that meshes well with mine. Someone I could picture growing with and decorating Christmas tree's with every year. This ended, but confirmed two things for me. I do very much know exactly what I want and I don't have to accept less. Ok, I learned something else too, my son is not a complication, he's the best part of me.

I am for the first time in years pain free! And fully happy. It's a good day to be alive :). 

My 80/20 Rule

When trying to loose weight, 80% comes from nutrition. The other 20% comes from everything else. This of course is a general rule and there are always exceptions. Like when I was young. Because then I could loose weight eating a bunch of stuff, but then I was doing about an hour of cardio a day (mostly intervals) and weight lifting like crazy. I was playing a ton of DDR, running miles (never more than 3, but daily it adds up), and biking lots and lots. Oh, yeah, and swimming a ton of laps (trying to help my back). Most of that was all on the same day.

So, now that I’m not doing hours of cardio, I’m starting to see the light that nutrition does matter. Who would have thought!

So I've been reading around about nutrition and the general consensus is that 80% of weight loss is nutritionally related. That not eating enough can slow you down just as much as eating too much as well. Not eating enough slows us down, less twitching, less miscellaneous movements… And of course eating too much just gives us excess calories.
Then also about calories and weight loss… If a person is eating double the calories they should be (sort of an exaggeration here), and cut down their calories by 25%, they are still in a caloric surplus. For anyone math inclined, say I’m eating 4000 cals a day, I’d gain weight steadily. Now if I cut that by 25% I’d be eating 3000 per day. I’d still be gaining steadily even though I dropped my caloric intake.

It is important to know what your maintenance level is to be able to eat the right amount of calories. Just cutting calories doesn’t really do much if you don’t know if it’s enough or too much. There are online calculators for this on pretty much any food tracking site. I personally like the daily plate.

So, if nutrition is our 80%, the rest of weight loss is everything else. It’s how much exercise we do. It’s whether we choose to sit or stand, walk or run, sleep or play a game with the kids. All those random choices in a day to take the easy way out or to take those few extra movements do add up. Taking the far spot at the grocery store might only burn an extra five calories, not nearly as much as a mile run, but it does beat burning zero extra calories. Toe tapping during lectures, being fidgety, all those things add up. Of course, some of us who do crazy amounts of intervals, cardio, and other stuff might bump this 20% category to 30%, and those of us with desk jobs and who do a mere 30 min workout here and there- well then nutrition might play a larger role and the “extra’s” might only add up to a measly 10%.

I'm so getting old if I have to worry so much about nutrition! I remember the good days when I ate everything in sight and lost weight :(.

Do more, be active, live life :)

On The Way Home From 2013 Mudder

I've blogged about our awesome team before. 

But this is me, driving home from last years Tough Mudder in the back of the van. 

Completely untouched image here, no editing at all. Can you see the exhaustion? I can :).

And I cant wait to do it all over again!!

Tomorrow AM, we're driving down and kicking some butt :). 

Here we come 2014 Mudder!!! 

University of Wisconsin Trail at Dusk

We've been to the UWGB trail before. It's quite pretty. As before, this trail is stroller friendly for walking or slow jogging, not so sure about if you're running. It's a bit over 4 miles and is quite pretty. It goes along the water and through the forested area as well as along a more prairie area with a nice field of clovers (which are edible!). This was a gorgeous trail in the afternoon and beautiful again nearing dusk.  

I wandered this trail around dusk a weekend or so ago. The trail closes at dusk according to the sign so I barely made it in time, not that I saw any officers around. 

This is the picnic area where there is a nice parking lot. I plan to come back to watch the sunset before it gets too cold out here in this weather! 

1000 Islands

Thousands Islands is a nature reserve in Kaukauna. I've been here before. I visited here with Grandpa Muddy and the path in the lower woods I would say is NOT stroller friendly and parts of it are baby carrier friendly. 

This stairway is the way to the "upper woods" of 1000 Islands. The stairway is probably the most baby friendly part of the path. These pathways would probably be best for kids who listen well and can walk pretty well, like the 8 or 9 range or a very well behaved 6 or 7 year old. The outer loop of the trail is about 2.25 miles with a few trails intersecting back and forth so you could make this quite a good hike. 

Who can resist a selfie in the woods???

This is Baby Muddy and myself. I had just gotten done with an overnight shift and figured a quick walk was the best thing to do before going to bed. We did not see even one bit of wildlife because... ahem... someone... ahem baby boy... was being VERY loud! Baby Muddy was very excited the morning of this walk and squealed all the way to the end of the path and back. He had a great time!

Baby and I walked this path below. It's the Valley Bike Trail and runs 1.25 miles. Because even in the carrier, I couldn't walk the trails of the upper woods with Baby Muddy, we stuck to the bike path. The bike path would have been stroller friendly with the very well packed crushed stone/gravel pathway. Though the bike path ran along some homes, it was still quite a scenic walk in the woods.