Monthly Archives: May 2016

Adventures in #bootlife

Having a stress fracture at the end of my senior year of college stinks, but I decided to not let it affect my life! (Minus the whole no running/walking/most exercise thing but minor details…)

I’m trying to have SOME fun with it (as seen here). I’m thinking of it almost like Flat Stanley (did anyone else do that? For classes, one student would get him for a week and take him on adventures, taking photos of the adventures). So this week, where did boot go?

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Thursday, I rounded up a big group and friends and went to Senior night, a night out for the seniors to get together.

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Friday, we (the boot and I) went to a sorority mixer. Since #prevet, I suggested an animal theme and somehow that actually went through. Not complaining.

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It was a fun night, spent with lots of friends!

Then, Saturday was the perfect day. It was so much fun. Despite a late night, I was up pretty early as per usual and decided to head to Crossfit, since the WOD was reasonably foot-modifiable. My workout ended up being 5 rounds, 2 min rest between rounds, of the following:

2 min assault bike

15 strict pul ups (I used a band for the strict, but worked in some no banded kipping. I can now string 5 kipping together, and pre-injury it was only 3!)

1 min assault bike

10 ring rows

10 strict press

It felt good to get moving, and I fell those pull ups now!

Since I sometimes call this a food and fitness blog, not just #bootlife and #stressfracture, here was my lunch:

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GF avocado toast, leftover dill salmon (our chef makes the best salmon ever), greens with Italian dressing, and apple/beet/dijon salad.

Then, the main event! My friend somehow managed to convince his professor to let him use his beach house for the day/night! A group of us made the hourish drive, but with good conversation, it flew by!

This is the view from the window.

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First stop was the beach! Luckily there was a nice path leading down to the beach. After a minor sand incident last week, this time I came prepared. I brought a drawstring (this is key) garbage bag to put over the boot to keep the sand out.

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Worked like a charm! As a we were walking along the beach, a big wave came up to knee height, but my boot stayed dry!

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Despite rain earlier in the day, the weather was perfect. The beach house even had a private beach! We also had no cell signal or Wifi, which was a strange yet refreshing experience.

We spent about 2 hours hanging out at the beach before heading inside to make dinner.

My main task was chopping up and sautéing the peppers and asparagus.

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As well as pan-frying the chicken. I actually surprised myself by how much I actually am capable of cooking, and how much I actually know about things. Maybe it’s comparative! When cooking with 3 boys, sometimes you have to be the voice of reason.

For example, we bought some wine to go with dinner, and I pointed out we didn’t bring a corkscrew. They immediately thought we should just hit the top of the bottle off. I suggested we check the fully stocked kitchen for a corkscrew. Guess what? We found one! Haha!

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For dinner, we had chicken (which I made with olive oil and garlic salt), gluten free spaghetti with marinara and the veggies I made, corn, and tortellini with pesto.

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I seriously cannot get enough of this view.

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It was honestly such an amazing day. I ended up driving back around sunset that night instead of staying because I had an early morning. These people have been my friends since freshman year, and I don’t see them nearly enough. It was the perfect senior spring day.

Sunday was another great day. My dorm did a wine tasting trip to Napa! The bus left at 9am, and we arrived at the first winery at 11.

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Our first stop was V. Sattui. We had some time to walk around before our tour. They have a really nice deli, with delicious cheeses!

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A winery tour in a boot was one of the more challenging things I’ve done, I have to admit.

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Cat sighting!

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Thankfully, we got to sit down for the tasting.

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My favorite was the Sauvignon Blanc. I am not a red wine girl, I have to admit.

After our tasting, we had lunch at the winery. I had a turkey sandwich on lettuce.

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The highlight was dessert for sure though. It was creme brûlée, served cold. I’m not always a huge fan of creme brûlée, but this was delicious. It was a little eggier than a lot of creme brûlées, and seemed less fatty, which I liked a lot more! It also had strong vanilla bean flavor.

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Stop #2 was Robert Mondavi, one of the big founding wineries in Napa.

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I actually liked this tour a lot more. The tour guide was funny, and very informative. In addition, we got to see more of the process.

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Our tasting took place in the barrel room!

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And more beautiful Napa scenery:

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These past few days have been amazing. it’s hard to go back to reality, especially with only 7 days left of class in my undergraduate career! I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I think part of that is the uncertainty of next year. But let’s not even touch that topic with a 10 foot pole!

What did you do this weekend?

WIAW: Then Vs. Now

Happy WIAW!

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Since my little #TransformationTuesday series is the day before WIAW, I thought I’d include a little themed WIAW action alongside that. This week, we’re going to look at Spring of Freshman year vs. now. (Original here.)

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Preworkout:

Then

Power Snacks mentioned later.

Now:

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GF pumpkin banana bread from the freezer, plus 2 tortilla chips while it heated up.

Breakfast:

Then:

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Dining hall biscuit, pear+hard boiled egg, gummy vitamins ( still take these, don’t take stylized pictures!) and midmorning cappuccino.

Now:

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Breakfast on the go before squirrel watching (for a research project). Aesthetic level=0. 2% plain fage greek yogurt, Trader Joe’s reduced sugar blueberry jam (SO good), and sunbutter.

Lunch:

Then:

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Salad with added hard boiled egg.

Now:

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Make your own sandwich: I made half with egg salad and half with smoked salmon and herbed dill cream cheese. Roasted butternut squash and purple potatoes on the side, plus fruit salad. Went back for more fruit and squash! Sidenote: I LOVE fruit salad that includes bananas!

Afternoon snack:

Then:

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Now:

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More leftover roasted squash and fruit salad, and a piece of dried mango.

Dinner:

Then:

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Garden burger over salad, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted carrots, and cabbage.

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A roll with jelly, butter, and peanut butter. Dessert of vanilla soft serve with pineapple and granola.

Now:

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Out to dinner with the family for my mom’s birthday. Goat cheese and beat salad with mint vinaigrette (love that idea!) with grilled chicken. + a few of my mom’s amazing fries. I took about half the lettuce and some of the beets home for lunch tomorrow!

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+ a scoop of peppermint fudge ripple ice cream.

Post-Dinner Snack:

Then:

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Snack 1 is a bar, snack 2 was dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, and the creation on the right up there. Dorm room cooking at its finest: sunflower seed milk, unsweetened coconut, and a mashed up ripe banana. Served with a square of dark chocolate, and sunbutter.

Now:

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A few bites of these roasted sweet potatoes (that picture is the whole container. I did not eat the whole container). And GF chocolate chip cookie because you don’t pass that up.

It’s really funny to look back on this. I think every single meal included an item I can no longer eat (gluten/nuts/coconut). Funny how that works! I think looking back that was actually one of my healthier days of that time period as well.

And lastly: photos from dinner! Since you don’t pass up an opportunity for photos when you look presentable.

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Favorite ice cream flavor. GO.

I like things with fudge swirls. Love Baskin Robbins Gold Medal Ribbon (caramel swirl, chocolate and vanilla ice cream), but Tin Pot’s TCHO chocolate cannot be beat.

#TransformationTuesday: The Story That Was Left Off the Blog #1

Hey guys! I have a different type of post today. This is something I’ve had on my mind and in my thoughts for a while, and that I’ve also been excited to share with you.

There’s been another sort of journey over the past 4 years that was eluded to but maybe not always totally transparent: my health and fitness journey. I feel like I’m finally at the point where I’m confident in myself and who I am. I am happy. I enjoy what I do, what I eat, and how it makes me feel. But honest, it’s been quite a ride to get where I am today, and I’ve struggled a bit over the past 4 years.

If we’re being honest, reading old posts sometimes make me cringe. But it really is a testament to how far I’ve come. In this little mini-series, I wanted to dive in and be real about where I was, and where I am now. I feel like i am at a place where I can look back and reflect, because as I said before, I am happy about where I am now. These posts may be raw. They may show some pictures that were deemed not suitable for the blog in the past, and were scrapped in favor of more flattering angles. But I hope someone can maybe get something out of this. I know when I was struggling with my college weight gain, I looked for bloggers’ success stories about how they found balance again.

For many many reasons, I am not going to be sharing exact weight numbers, but I may give + or – numbers.

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After just over 3 years, I found myself +30 pounds from when I stepped on campus at the beginning of my freshman year.

Now, I’m +6.

Honestly, my body is completely different than when I left home freshman year, those +6? Probably not important. I have no goal, I’m not trying to lose more weight, I’m just going to see where my body wants to be.

This is my story.

Part 1 will be Freshman year, 2 sophomore, 3 junior, and 4 senior. I hope this series resonates with someone out there who experienced similar things.

When I began my freshman year, I was in the best shape of my life. I basically spent the summer before college working out, because I enjoyed it and didn’t have much else to do! I also wanted to be ready to walk on to the rowing team.

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(Move in Day)

Leading up to this point, I had always been a really health conscious, if erratic eater. I considered sugar to be the plague (although I struggled somewhat to avoid it), and I was used to controlled meals, especially for breakfast and lunch, since they were often packed.

When I started rowing, I dropped a few pounds. Partly due to exercise, partly due to some muscle loss. I had been weight lifting regularly for several years prior, and the novice rowers didn’t really lift. Freshman 15? What Freshman 15?

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At the same time, my eating habits were declining, which caused endless stress for me. I spent a lot of time feeling disgusting. I got into the habit of eating a big pancake breakfast with my team after morning practice, and I would crash HARD mid-morning. That, plus lack of sleep! Practices start at 5:45am, so I was perpetually sleep deprived (and getting my butt kicked in classes).

When I went home for the holidays, I was a stressed mess and gorged myself. School stress, rowing stress, freshman year adjustment stress.

Christmas break was especially hard. I was miserable because I was only home for a week or so because I had training camp the day after Christmas, so I was sad to miss time at home. Again, the stress directed itself in my eating habits, and I ate so much junk that I felt not only terrible, but stressed about the junk.

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(Effortlessly ran a sub-25:00 5k, have been killing myself trying to beat it ever since!)

By the time I made it to training camp, I was a little heavier than when I left for college. I started my blog around this time.

I started the new quarter optimistic, but things quickly spiraled out of control. My classes were so hard, and rowing was crazy. It was a 5 hour a day time commitment, and I quickly fell behind in classes. I was extremely sleep deprived, and due to the high volume of our training load, likely clinically overtrained. Food was becoming more of a struggle, because it was both an outlet for and a cause of stress. I’m not going to link to posts, but if you look at the early 2013 posts in my sidebar, you can get a sense. I felt out of control. My life felt out of control. I was a freaking. mess. Then things came crashing down. I came down with mono, and was the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. I had mono, stomach flu, strep throat, a cold, an ear injection, and a sinus infection, at the same time. I couldn’t eat. It was a struggle to get down a piece of dry toast ever morning to take my medicine. I was taking 32 pills a day, because I needed Tylenol and Advil around the clock to control my raging fever. I did not so much as sit up in bed for 3 weeks. (I went home.)

Naturally, all the weight I gained was gone. I was weak, I hadn’t moved in a month. And my body was still so, so out of whack.

In addition to that, I was no longer rowing, so I was no longer constrained by rowing since I stopped when I got mono. Between those two things, I entered some type of manic state for the first 3 weeks of spring quarter. I didn’t sleep. I stayed up until 3am talking and hanging out, and I was up at 7 to go to the gym. My eating habits were insane. I had zero control, and ate an absolutely absurd number of yogurt bowls.

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I was having fun with college life, but I was putting weight on at an alarming speed. In several short weeks, I was up 20 pounds. I didn’t recognize myself. I didn’t feel comfortable in what I had become. 296105_10151513830477449_1921496723_n

In addition, thanks to mono, I was super out of shape, so I had way less muscle than in the past. I carried most of the weight in my arms and stomach, and was just so uncomfortable. By the end of the year, I was ready to go home, reset, and take a break.

This post actually is a pretty decent overview of my freshman year, but a bit of a rosier outlook.

That summer, I started to find some control and some balance but I still struggled.

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I was about +20 from arriving at college. I was looking for a cure, for answers. I briefly tried Paleo. I briefly tried Whole30. Nothing stuck.

But I did make progress. I started Crossfit that summer, and ran my first half marathon. I was no longer in my super crazy end of freshen year state, and I showed up to college at the beginning of my sophomore year fitter and saner, but still not satisfied.

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(Hawaii right before school started)

In terms of my sanity, I think freshman year was the biggest journey. It is interesting to look back on old posts from that period, and feel what I was experiencing. Lots of frustration. Lack of control. Stress over what I was eating. Labeling foods as good or bad, trying to restrict the bad, only for that to backfire in my face. Eating junk and feeling terrible. As I said before, feel free to check out the archives in the side bar for more details. I think I definitely struggled with eating in a dining hall too. Muffins and pancakes were my weakness, and they usually left me feeling yucky. Once I had them, I couldn’t stop, and things spiraled. I remember one instance where I was supposed to be going for a run, but stopped halfway through to go eat muffins in the dining hall! (How things have changed….#glutenfree)

Stay tuned for next’s weeks #TransformationTuesday, a recap of sophomore year!

What has your health and fitness journey been like?

Post-Biochem Fun

Hello! I have lots of fun to share today. Before that all starts though, I want to share the recipe for last week’s soup!

Zucchini-Watercress Soup

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Served with homemade bruscetta. I am loving the green soups this time of year! I also think my lemon phase may be giving way to a Zucchini phase. I really want to just throw grated zucchini into everything, and have yet to put it into anything. Maybe my next quick bread will be zucchini! I’ve had my eyes on this recipe for a while now…

Back to the fun. When Biochem ended on Monday (not sure if I mentioned it, but I finished my semester off campus class Monday! Yay!), I felt like my Senior Spring could finally commence. From here on out, there isn’t anything too crazy. Well, minus the take-home test that needs to happen tonight…

This past week has been awesome. Everything senior spring should be.

Thursday, I went to the SF Zoo with my Ecology and Evolution of Animal Behavior class, and we learned about the animal enrichment program at the zoo. I’m currently knee-deep in animal enrichment right now with a research project, so that was cool to hear about! After the presentation, we had some time to wander around the zoo.

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Check out the baby monkey!

Another highlight? Returning after missing lunch at the house to find GF pancakes with REAL maple syrup in the fridge for me 🙂

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After walking around the zoo though, my foot was DONE. It’s not the broken part that hurts, just my heel. Plus I’ve acquired some nice shin bruises from the strap.

Friday night was exciting. We had our Special Dinner party at my house, and the theme was “Roth Vegas.” (Our house is Roth.) I invited my sister as my “date” which was fun!

But what I was really excited for? Las Vegas themed….I decided to have a little fun with the boot and make the most of it.

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It was lots of fun! We got to play blackjack with giant cards too.

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I nailed my first round!

The lights were a ton of fun. I got comments on them all night, and honestly I think I’ll do it in the future if i go to events. Plus, it helps people not step on my foot if it’s crowded. For the lights, I just ordered some LED battery powered fairy lights on Amazon.

The food was delicious as well. Highlights include both gluten free chocolate chip cookies (warm!) and gluten free brownies. I definitely had a cookie stomachache the next day!

Saturday morning, I didn’t do too much which was nice. I did a low key gym workout: pull up work on the assisted pull up machine (I am 10 lbs away from a strict pull up! So close!) and a Blogilates video. I left feeling awesome though!

The main event of Saturday was Frost, an annual concert Stanford puts on. They bring in an artist every year, and this is the first year I’ve gone. The headliner was Fetty Wap. I actually know Fetty Wap! Woop! I haven’t known the artists the past few years. I credit this year’s knowledge mostly to the fact that I’m a spin instructor, and it’s my job to know exactly what music is up at the moment. I like Fetty Wap, but I think a lot of his music sounds the same. The opener was Sage the Gemini, which I also knew thanks to spin. Hard to listen to the music without picturing a hill climb!

On the way to the concert, my friends and I stopped at Trader Joe’s to get a little picnic. For some reason, my friend wanted carrot juice (you could bring in unopened liquids.) Pretty sure we were the only ones bringing that in! On the menu also was bread, cheese, avocado, strawberries, and chocolate. We had picnic blankets, and settled in a spot in the shade to start. I actually ran into another friend on the way in, so I enjoyed time with her as well!

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I thought Sage the Gemini was really good. It’s weird to go to a rap concert though; the only concerts I’ve been to are punk rock types of things.

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We moved closer to the stage for Fetty. I didn’t know the lesser known songs, but it was fun all the same!

Sunday morning, I went to a spin class in a studio downtown. It was good to get the blood pumping! Afterwards I made the highly questionable decision to walk to Bare Bowls for an Acai bowl. It was only .3 miles, but that was definitely too far for a boot, which I realized about halfway there!

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I got an mini classic acai bowl without the granola since it has almonds. It’s made with cashew milk, but I think that’s actually ok!

The honey on top is key. I definitely need to make it back soon!

The main event for the day was an engagement tea for a friend. I get major #wingmancred, and I am so happy for her! I picked out a little cookbook for her.

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The tea place was super cute!

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They even had a GF afternoon tea option! Warm GF scone with clotted cream and jam? Count me in!

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Strawberry sorbet for dessert.

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It was so great to catch up with everyone!

But now it’s back to reality. I’m currently slogging through a Genetics take home test/banging my head against a wall. I cannot believe I will be a college grad in 3 weeks! Where did the time go??

Also, stay tuned, because I have a little mini-series coming up on my health and fitness journey through college, to where I am now! #TransformationTuesday

A Lesson in “Vincibility”

This post is one that has been on my mind for almost 2 weeks now. And to be honest, it probably would have sounded a bit different had I written it then. Now, I’ve come to terms with my injury. But let’s work through this anyway.

So, I have a stress fracture. I’ve never broken a bone in my life (minus a fractured pinkie but that’s a story for another day). I’ve had a plethora of foot problems, but nothing like a stress fracture.

Sometime near the end of last quarter I believe, I noticed that my foot was hurting on and off. It didn’t feel serious at all. I remember walking around Seattle and being a little concerned that it was bothering my walking. I remember running the Hellyer 5k and thinking it was odd that my foot was hurting a bit, but I thought it was because it was cold and I wasn’t warmed up.

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Honestly, the pain was pretty minor and I thought it was a bruise or a sprain or something.

Fast forward to the Cherry Blossom race. My foot was hurting for the first several miles and suddenly I had the feeling: “I wonder if this is a stress fracture.” I don’t know why I had that intuition, but quickly forgot about it because it wasn’t bothering me much.

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I kept going along my life. One week it was a slight annoyance but I was still doing everything, the next I couldn’t walk. I truly believed I had a stress fracture then, and made an appointment immediately for an x-ray. I don’t know why I was so sure I had a stress fracture, but I guess the body knows! I knew almost nothing about stress fractures prior.

Then cue a frustrating process of waiting days for an MRI without further instructions (an x-ray doesn’t really show stress fractures, it just suggests where they might be, unless they are super severe, I believe). My x-ray was Tuesday, I couldn’t get an MRI until Friday, and I got nothing but radio silence from my doctor in terms of the results of the MRI. Meanwhile, I limped around for over a week while I waited, in quite a bit of pain. Finally, after no response to my calls or messages, I just made an appointment so I would have to be seen! The MRI showed a clear stress fracture in my second metatarsal, and I FINALLY got a boot. This makes me pretty angry that I had to wait a week for it, because it felt so much better with the boot, and that is a week I could have been healing! I was given the sentence: 6-8 weeks in a boot, an x-ray in 4 weeks to see how it is healing.

This could also be a little lesson in self advocacy. That’s something I’m general not good at, but felt I did pretty well with here. I went in the first time and essentially said, I think this is a stress fracture, I want an x-ray, and then despite lack of response I went in again to get answers.

That’s the story, but that’s not the point of this post.

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I know teenagers are known for thinking they are invincible. Honestly, I never felt that way. I was almost always healthy, and never had serious injuries, but I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t take risks, I just lived my life, as it was, and that was healthy. I did what I wanted, which I was reasonable about, and my body never really rebelled.

College has been a big fat lesson in “vincibility.” No, I’m not invincible. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m no longer a teenager and am entering the older, more delicate stage (yes, I realize I am still very young but it’s relative) of my life, but man. I’ve never had a serious injury before in my life (minus stitches), and within the past year I’ve had 2. I’ve been the sickest of my life once (mono), and chronically ill fairly significantly another time. I’ve been to more doctors in the past 4 years than ever before.

The shoulder in the fall was sort of a freak accident type of deal, rather than an overload/overuse type of injury, but still. I keep joking to my friends, since my birthday was last week, “I’m 22 now. I’m so old, my bones are already falling apart!” But honestly, sometimes it feels that way. What’s most concerning and puzzling to me is how this injury happened. I was training for a 10 mile race, on top of Crossfit and teaching spin, but that’s nothing I hadn’t done before. I’ve done 6 half marathons, why now? And now I’m forced to take a step back and think about what went wrong, and what the future looks like. The most important thing for me is to make sure I heal properly, and don’t re-injure it. Honestly, I don’t really care about not running right now. I see people running and think, “huh.” The drive to heal is so much stronger than my love of running.

I have to realize that I’m breakable. I have to be smart. I have to take care of myself. In college, that’s something that’s really easy to forget. In the health realm, you can’t never sleep, chug caffeine, eat junk, and expect to stay healthy. It’s not sustainable. When you have fewer restrictions on what you can and can’t do, it’s easy to make the fun decision instead of the long-term, self-care decision.

And this is where the post takes a bit of a turn from where it would have gone had I written it 2 weeks ago.

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First, I think I should say that if the Cherry Blossom race was the cause of it (which I’m sure it was definitely not the sole cause), then honestly, worth it. That was an awesome experience, and probably a once in a lifetime type of deal.

Before I even went into my doctor’s appointment, I had gone through the various stages of grief and acceptance about my injury, assuming it was a stress fracture. I spent the first week gimping around (before the boot), wishing I could run. When I was given my 6-8 week sentence, I was crushed. Very little in terms of exercise (my doctor’s advice in this realm is some anger for another day), and the knowledge that I’d be graduating in this boot. You graduate from college once (well, sort of), and I would get to walk the stage in a boot. ( I shouldn’t use the conditional here: to be clear, I WILL get to walk the stage in a boot.)

The first couple of days with the boot were a little difficult. Stairs. Biking. It rained the first day I had it and had to bike to 4 classes.

But after a few days? Honestly, it basically doesn’t affect my life, or what matters. Biking is fine now. I can handle going down stairs (I can’t bend my ankle in the boot). Granted, my method is a bit high risk, high payoff, but I have yet to have issues!

I’m very mobile. I’m teaching modified spin. I go to my classes. I can still workout (more in a moment). I can go out with my friends and have a good time. I can enjoy all the graduation festivities. The only thing it really affects right now is my squirrel observations, because I have to hike up a hill and that’s just not pretty.

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More on that picture in an upcoming post!

My foot needs to heal, and I’ve accepted that. I’m taking it easy, but I’m not letting the boot take over my life. Sidenote: it’s also been a fantastic distraction that I’m graduation in 3 weeks…wait what??

In terms of workouts, I’m surprisingly having a bit of fun with them. I’m being forced to be creative, and do a lot of things I normally do. Running is out, about 70% of Crossfit is out, and spinning isn’t exactly recommended, so I’m limiting it (but it does feel fine on my foot). So what am I doing?

I’ve been doing some weightlifting with deadlifts. These are the only weight lifting movement I’ll do standing, and they are ok only because all my weight stays on my heels. (And I don’t go very heavy.) I’ve been playing around with some of the weight machines at the gym, which I NEVER have used, and have found some fun things. I’ve been going to my Crossfit gym a few days, sometimes to ride the assault bikes, because the way my foot is positioned, they’re a little bit less sketchy on my foot. I’ve been working on pull ups. I’m consistent with my ability to kip, but my goal is to get a strict pull up by the time the boot comes off. Plus, I’ve been doing the pull ups in the boot, which has a little weight to it, so when it comes off I expect to shoot right up! I already feel stronger with my pull ups after 2 weeks of working on them. I’m actually pretty close to a strict, so here’s to more hard work!

I’ve also been doing a crazy amount of abs. These are 100% safe, no risk for my feet, so I’ve been doing some basic ab workouts I’ve done in the past, plus some Blogilates videos. My core is already way stronger! The fun thing about abs is you improve so quickly! I also plan on doing some of non-abs Blogilates videos. I did a killer butt one the other day and am feeling it. So basically I’m going to have killer abs by the end of this injury, right? That’s how it works?

Basically, despite things, I’m in a pretty good place. This is my new normal. Ever since getting the boot, my foot basically hasn’t hurt (not that I’ve tried walking on it.) The biggest struggle is the secondary pain the boot causes in the other parts of my foot, and trying to not get a stress fracture in my good foot, because it sometimes hurts too.

Here’s to health, and here’s to the future!