Archives

Be Thankful for Your Body…One Year Ago Today

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.

img_0254

(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?
img_8870

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!

img_8873

Just another day at work. This is Holly.

img_8877

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

img_8878

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.

img_8886

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.

img_8887

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?

What to Eat on Days When You Feel Like Eating Everything

Do you ever have those days that you just feel like eating everything? Not so much that you’re extra hungry, but you just feeling like EATING?

I tend to feel like that if maybe I haven’t been making the best food choices lately, or haven’t gotten enough exercise in. Or not enough sleep.

After eating copious amounts of cake toppings on Thursday, after a very mild morning Crossfit workout I felt my self returning to the pantry post-smoothie bowl.

IMG_8418

Since I wasn’t particularly hungry and was more just craving the act of eating, I decided to try and be mindful about it, and offer some tips here on the blog.

For lunch, I had leftover lemon chicken rice soup again.

IMG_8420

Instead of having something bread-y on the side, I decided to opt for more nutrients than volume and lightly roasted a massive amount of kale with some avocado oil and nutritional yeast. I seriously felt so good after eating this—sometimes massive amounts of greens make me feel like a rockstar!

IMG_8421

Because the homemade salted caramel sauce was delicious, I made a little ice cream bowl for dessert, but tried to keep it a little bit on the lighter side by using chocolate Halo Top and not getting too crazy with the caramel sauce.

IMG_8422

I was feeling restless as well, so that afternoon I decided to get out of the house a little bit. First, I went to GNC to pick up some protein powder. I have mixed feelings on protein powder and definitely go through phases with it, but I’ve been enjoying smoothie bowls post-workout lately and wanted to up the protein content. Plus, I was curious to try the new Quest protein powder. (Ok, I guess at this point it isn’t really that new…) I picked up a few packets of salted caramel protein powder, plus some of the Flapjacked muffins that you microwave. I’m excited to try those!

I was planning on making a higher volume/high protein snack of a protein shake (milk+protein powder+ice) for a snack but my need for a nap caught up to me and all I wanted to do was sleep, not even eat.

I ended up hitting the track for a little speed work that evening as well. I’m trying to ease my foot back into things, so I did some 400 and 200m repeats, totally 1.25 miles. I haven’t run anything remotely fast lately, so I took it what felt like fairly easy, especially on the first couple. Here’s the crazy thing though. I wasn’t pushing the pace and it didn’t feel too hard, but I was curious where I was at so I timed a couple. I was right about where I was when I was doing all my track training for a class project (improving my 400m time) last fall. I timed a 400 and I think it was only 5-10s slower than my fastest time…and it felt easy. Um, what?

IMG_8424

Granted, it was probably 40 degrees warmer now than then, but jeez. So my friends: cross training is a thing. It works. If you’re out due to an injury, don’t be discouraged because you don’t lose nearly as much as you think! (That being said, certain muscles haven’t been used like this in a while and I’m still sore 3 days later..)

I forgot to take pictures of dinner, but we got The Counter. I made my own burger with a chicken breast, gruyere, tomato and lettuce, avocado, and garlic aioli on a GF bun, with a side salad. My family and I also shared sweet potato fries and garlic parmesan fries. They were delicious, but I woke up the next morning remembering why I don’t usually eat a lot of fried food…

I attempted a healthier-ish dessert to go with my caramel sauce. I wanted some type of cakey thing so I mashed up banana, cocoa, egg whites, and chocolate chips, and microwaved that. I topped that and some low fat vanilla frozen yogurt with caramel sauce, it everything was delicious!

IMG_8425

Snacks later that evening included protein chips and a granola bar—trying to keep it on the healthier side.

IMG_8426 IMG_8427

I meant to write this post earlier this weekend, so expect a weekend recap in a little bit!

What do you eat on those days when you feel like eating everything?