I absolutely love Timehop. I sadly had to delete a lot of pictures from my phone due to space issues, so I don’t get to see a lot of things that come up, but I do see posts or tweets, so I see my blog posts.

Exactly one year ago, I (partially) dislocated my shoulder.

(And in true Aurora fashion, I had no idea how serious and how far it was going to set me back at the time.)

I couldn’t lift my arm up. I couldn’t straighten my arm because the weight of my arm hanging down was too painful. Going through the x-ray scanner at airport security was interesting…I couldn’t raise my arm up so of course I got flagged for a pat down!

My shoulder was messed up. I spent the following week in Hawaii, unsure if 1. my shoulder was actually in place and 2. if I was going to need surgery to repair. Thankfully, it was in place, and I didn’t need surgery.

It was 2-3 months before I could even squat, because I couldn’t hold a bar. At the same time, that next month I was so incredibly sick with my gastroparesis (at that time still undiagnosed), so I can’t imagine I would have been getting too crazy anyway.

I let my shoulder rest. I let it heal. I did my physical therapy, and slowly started getting back into things. Then I worked my butt off.

This time a year ago, before my injury, I couldn’t really do pull ups. Maybe a kipping here or there, on a really good day.

Today, I knocked out this workout:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

pull ups

wall ball

hang power clean

I hopped on the pull up bar with the biggest smile on my face. I teared up a little at the end. I literally built my shoulder up from nothing, and worked my butt off to get where I am now. My shoulder isn’t 100%; if I do a lot of overhead stuff day after day it gets creaky, and I don’t know if handstand push ups or pul ups from a dead hand will ever happen (kipping allows my shoulder to be in a better position). But I’m sure as heck proud of where I am now. A whole lot can change in a year. I definitely never pictured myself typing up a blog post, a year later, about how I could bust out pull ups, while sitting in my bed in St. Louis.

I am so, so thankful and appreciative of what my body can do. I don’t think pull ups are something I will take for granted. I’m amazed every single time I do them in a workout. I feel so lucky for what I can do, but I also realize how hard I worked to get here.

Take some time to appreciate your body. Let your injuries heal. Don’t be stupid—it may seem like the end of the world at the time, but look where I am now.

Since we’re on the topic, I wanted to give a quick foot update. It feels great! When I work it a lot (jumping or running), it feels weak but not painful which is HUGE, especially given I walk 5-6 miles a day around the zoo. That being said, I think I’ve managed my recovery extremely well. I took everything in baby steps, and was careful not to rush things. Right now I’ve worked my way up to 3 miles. I have no intention of going further than that for the next month or two. I’m hoping to work up to a 10k for Thanksgiving but I’m not going to push it. And I decided at the time of the injury that I wouldn’t do any distance for at least a year; it’s just not worth the risk. I’m going to stick to 3 miles for a long time. Maybe the 10k Turkey Trot, but otherwise 3 miles is a solid place to be. I don’t want to point fingers at all, but I have seen other bloggers with stress fractures return to running heavily pretty soon post-injury, and have recurring problems. I don’t want that. I want this to be it for good!

On the topic of serious things, I owe you guys a couple of posts. One is an update on my stomach condition, and the other is the final post of my #TransformationTuesday series. Things have been pretty crazy lately, but I do still plan to follow up on those.

Enough of the serious talk now. How about some food+animals? Sound good?

My friends, it’s time. I haven’t gone head over heels for pumpkin yet, but we can start here. Honestly, I didn’t love this is yogurt because the flavor was too subtle. My favorite way to eat it is by the handful, but I think the cereal would be delicious in a rice crispy type of dessert.

Tip: look for this at Target!

Just another day at work. This is Holly.

I might actually be getting a little tired of spaghetti squash. I seasoned the squash with garlic and mozzarella.

It has still been blazing hot here lately, so I suggested my roommate and I take a trip to Ted Drewes, amazing frozen custard that originated in St. Louis. I got vanilla with hot fudge and it was amazing and smooth. Better than Rita’s, for sure, probably better than Shake Shack too.

Dinner post Crossfit today was a frozen meal, a tamale. I really love tamales, and was tired of spaghetti squash, so I added some spinach, ate it with carrots, and called it dinner.

I’ve been craving chocolate like crazy the last couple of days, and instead of stuffing my face with less delicious substitutes, I decided the smart thing to do was just buy some at the store and satisfy my craving, because a little chocolate is definitely healthier than a lot of random things! Plus, I needed to buy tissues. My allergies have been CRAZY lately; I’m allergic to something blooming. I had to take heavier duty allergy medicine last night which was unplanned, because I couldn’t stop sneezing. Sadly, I took it later than ideal and was definitely a little dopey for the first part of the morning!

And now I’m off to make a spin playlist for this weekend!

How have you dealt with injuries?