I went to an all new chiropractor yesterday. This one was not on our teachers' discount plan, nor was he recommended to me. However, he does use the machines to make adjustments instead of manual manipulation (less painful), and he advertises in my school newspaper (of which I am the sponsor.) Of course the biggest reason I decided to go to him is that he was willing to take a new patient!
After my first visit, I have to say I think I may finally be barking up the right tree with my back problems. Dr. Morton spent time talking to me about my issues and seemed to be knowledgeable about my type of pain. After a cursory exam he was able to identify four problem areas (three of which were also identified by the lady who Rolfed me.)
He then did a more thorough exam on a table and was able to correctly pinpoint the exact point on my spine where my pain originates. He said he could feel two bones that were not fitting together correctly. He also told me the exact name of my shoulder problem and said my hip was misaligned. He seemed confident that he could help me with these things.
The only bad thing is that he is twice as expensive as the other chiro I went to. I guess you get what you pay for. I'm going back Monday. I'm going to try this course for awhile and see if i can get some results.
Today there are all kinds of uncomfortable, painful feelings in the area where he did my first adjustment. I asked him why he only worked on such a small area (right shoulder and blade) when so much work needed to be done. He told me the body needs time to adjust to the changes. I guess he was right. I'm now glad he didn't work all over my back.
Hey, check out my new haircut!
In sad news, the "3" is no more. When I averaged my weight for the week, I was only down a smidgen for the week, so I am back up above 4. I delete all the daily entries for the week and only keep the average weight as my Saturday weight. Hopefully I will see the 3 return around Tuesday. (I'm always up on the weekends due to eating out.)
I really hope this slowdown is not a result of my not tracking my food. I'm really trying to eat the same diet. It seems the same to me, but it could be easy to become un-mindful, you know? just yesterday, I picked up some french fries for my dog (don't laugh) and indulged in a fountain soda, which i rarely do. It's a slippery slope.
I'm heading to the veg market today to get lots of green things. That's my biggest weakness--not enough green things. I won't buy them unless they're top quality, which means I often leave the store without them. What can I say? I've got standards!
Thanks so much for all your energy effort to get me to break through the Line of "4". Today's scale read 153.6, which is the first time 153 has ever appeared on my scale in 20 years!
I did some measurements yesterday, and they're slowly creeping down, but not nearly in as dramatic a fashion as I would like. I actually grabbed the giant roll of belly fat and yelled at it, "Why won't you just leave?! Can't you see you're not wanted here!?"
I checked my BMI for the first time in Idon'tknowhowlong. I'm at 26.5, down from 36 a year ago. I'm still considered overweight, and I really want to move out of that category. I mean, really.
Today is Snow Day #2 here in the Deep South. We get a light dusting of snow and it's a free vacation! Four day weekend Woo! Yesterday I caught up on all my recorded shows on the DVR (Medium, Top Chef, Ugly Betty, House, Gilmore Girls, Veronica Mars) all day while making phone calls to deal with unpaid medical bills.
I went to a power yoga class a noon to compensate for all my sloth, then went home and loafed some more. I did something to my neck, however, craning to see the teacher during some floor work. Now I can barely move my neck. Stupid.
Anyhoo, I'm going to try to get out of the house today and actually do something productive with my time. Maybe . . .
Have any of you ever had One of Those Weights that you just couldn't dip below no matter how hard you tried? Mine is 154 lbs. I reached it back in early December for the first time and I have been bouncing between it and 160 ever since. I smooth out my weight graph by doing an average every Saturday, so you guys don't see the crazy see-sawing, but it is there.
Last week I had two days in a row at 154.0. I was so excited! 153 just had to be right around the corner! Then we went out for a fabulous dinner Friday night. Saturday? 154.6. Sunday? 154.6. Monday? 154.4. I lifted weights last night, so naturally my weight was up today. 155.4. GAH! Will I ever see 153?!?!?!
That number is especially poignant for me as it was the lowest weight I ever attained on WW on previous diets. So, if I can get below it, i will be THE THINNEST I HAVE EVER BEEN. I really want to be able to say that I am THE THINNEST I HAVE EVER BEEN.
I spent the entire day Saturday in bed with a migraine. I'm starting to think my body gives them to me to force me to take a break. When I have them I can't watch TV or use the computer much. I can't do housework or go shopping. All I can do is sleep or lie around thumbing through magazines and thinking. It's true down time. If I can stop freaking out about how much work I'm not getting done, it can be a welcome respite. I usually have to ban DH from the room because he makes me laugh and that's the most painful thing I can do with a migraine (seriously).
This went on into Sunday. I was able to get up, but it was still there lingering, warning me not to overdo. I did manage to do some housework and watch some TV. I went to an afternoon yoga class that is not fast-moving. It's more of the slow, painful-long-holds kind of class. I may not have enjoyed it, but I needed it. I hadn't been able to exercise much all week due to grading research projects and the migraine.
So, while I was lying in bed I decided to try to make a list of positives. I really have a problem with only focusing on things that need to be "fixed." I needed a different perspective. Here are some of the items I came up with:
I have the best dogs--they are cute and sweet and don't tear stuff up much. (I'm not real big on my cats this week--maybe next week.)
I have a stable career and income, even if it gets on my last nerve sometimes.
I may not know what's wrong with my back nerves, but I do know I don't have herniated disks. That knowledge has got to be worth something.
I have made amazing progress in yoga. I made a list of all the poses I can do now that I couldn't do last spring. It was a quite long list. I was spurred to do this during my personal training this week when I went into bow pose and could reach my feet. "Since when could I do that?" I thought. I've had a lot of those moments.
I eat an amazing diet of healthy foods that I really enjoy and can afford (most of the time). After struggling for decades with weight, I now really know what it takes to keep it off. Education is what it takes. Not dieting is what it takes. I lost two pounds this week not dieting!
My DH and I are about to embark on the life phase called Parenthood. This is totally our choice and (we think) we are ready. We feel lucky that we found the right person, time, and place to make this happen. For some people, this happens accidentally, but for me I thought this day would never come.
At 38, I'm healthier than I've ever been and feel I have put so many negatives behind me. Ten years ago I was miserable and I set out to totally change everything about my life (career, love life, body)--and I did. In a way, this isn't the end of a one year journey, it's the end of a ten year journey. Now I can start the leap that is the rest of my life from firm ground.
How's THAT for positive! That wasn't so hard. It just took a concentrated effort on my part--doesn't come 'natural.
Now that my DietPower has crashed, I haven't been tracking my food for a few days. This has made me uncomfortable as I have relied on that constant detailed feedback for months. Mostly, I use it to decide what to eat for dinner. In the afternoon I see what I'm lacking in (or over in) or the day--protein, carbs, etc.--and adjust my dinner plans accordingly.
This has been especially useful for Ultrametabolism because the recipes have many ingredients and DietPower allows me to enter a recipe to apply over and over without having to enter in the individual ingredients every time. That would just never do.
Even if I manage to restore and repair my software, I will have lost my recipes and will have to enter in all the Ultrametabolism recipes all over again, which will take hours and hours. I'm just not sure I'm willing to to that. Is it worth it?
At this point do I really need to track my food? I know it's really helpful to do so, but does my success depend on it? Ultrametabolism does not require any tracking. I just have my own minimums for protein and certain nutrients I like to shoot for. Without the program I really won't know where I am with those things.
Pen and paper just won't cut it. I don't know the nutritional breakdown of the dozen ingredients in every recipe in order to be able to track properly. I'm not interested in even trying tracking that way. Back when I used to track that way, I was tracking exchanges and calories, but that's not what I'm doing now. I know from the stats on my program how much I tend to eat every day, so that's not really an issue. I'm more interesting in tracking the nutrition, which I need the program to do.
So, should I just let it go? It certainly would free up time in my day to not enter in everything I stick in my mouth. Plus, I know that once I have a baby (just around the corner), I won't have time for all that. However, I know I would like to track nutrients during pregnancy. As you can see, I'm conflicted.
I have really thought about my medical situation up one side and down the other. That appointment yesterday was my THIRD opinion. I pushed him for more answers and told him it wasn't possible that my pain wasn't a result of nerve damage. He got so irritated with me that he just shoved a scrip for steroids in my hand. (I'm not going to take them.)
His attitude--as is the attitude of most doctors I see--is "if it doesn't fit in my box, I don't care." He just looked at my case deep enough to see that it didn't fit into his narrow specialty, so he just wanted me to leave. He didn't care what the cause of my pain was. He didn't see that as his problem.
What I'm so furious about is that after all these months and thousands of dollars, I still have no diagnosis and no direction to go in. After all my time, money, and effort, I don't know any more about my condition today than I did on September 9th, when this first occurred.
The doctors all seem to abdicate responsibility. Even though I'm paying them to deal with my problem, they keep throwing the ball back in my court. I'm the patient, damnit! I don't KNOW what to do! That's what I'm paying THEM for!
A co-worker suggested I start over with a different Internist, one who is a little more dogged. I got two recommendations from co-workers and called them both. Though both were on my plan, them both refused to take appointments from new patients. The same thing happened in November when I tried to see chiropractors. It seems that I can't even get in the door with anyone but an unrecommended stranger. I just don't want to go that route after all the money I've already flushed down the toilet.
It seems almost surreal that someone with my intelligence and resourcefulness cannot deal with a simple medical problem. What I have can't be so bizarre and rare that it can't be treated! I honestly, do not know what to do next.
The only good news is that I've been avoiding eating out and the scale is going down daily. I think my body is in the zone right now and I predict I may plow through the 150s in the next few weeks. :::crossing fingers:::
Thank goodness I don't have to track anything on Ultrametabolism because my DietPower crashed and my internet went out at home so I can't fix my DietPower. So, I can't track anything I eat. I don't know how many calories I'm eating. Oh, well. As long as the scale keeps moving, I'm not going to worry about it.
So I'm hiding out in a darkened classroom trying to compose myself. I just returned from my long-awaited appointment with the orthopaedic specialist. It's been four and a half months since I first experienced the nerve pain in my back. No doctor has been able to tell me what's wrong.
I went in with a detailed list of what triggers the pain and the history of the situation. He didn't look at my list. He tested my strength and looked at my MRIs and X-Rays. He then declared that there is nothing wrong with me. He even dared to suggest that I was mistaking nerve pain for muscle pain.
I pointed out through my tears that numbness and tingling 24/7 are not muscle related and loss of feeling in my hand is not muscle related. Not to mention that I've experienced both kinds of pain and can tell the difference.
He said if I had a pinched nerve in my spine he would be able to see it on the MRI. He said he did not know what to do for me and gave me no hope or next step.
What am I supposed to do now? Just live like this forever? I told him that having muscle knots all over my back was a clear sign that something is wrong and a doctor--some doctor--should be able to determine what that thing is. Oh well. Nothing to operate on. Not his problem.
I have really been fascinated lately by my Ultrametabolism book. I've been going back and reading the earlier chapters that I skipped over to get to the eating plan part.
For those of you who don't know, the Ultrametabolism eating "prescription" is based on how foods interact with your genes. This is a new science that has only come about since the human genome has been cracked.
Lately, I've been reading about fats. The book talks about how the public is completely misinformed about fat in general. Dr. Hyman, the author, says that one does not need to eat a low fat diet to lose weight, lower cholesterol, or prevent heart disease. It only matters what KIND of fat we eat.
He says that 1.) eating cholesterol does not raise cholesterol 2.) eating saturated fats like dairy and meat fats does raise cholesterol 3.) eating monounsaturated fats like olive oil and nuts improves your cholesterol. Eating man-made hydrogenated fats, like trans fats, are horrible. More on that later.
There's also the issue of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats. (I'm talking about this from memory, so forgive me if I get this a little mixed up.) We need a certain ratio of these all throughout our bodies for it to work optimally, but especially in our brains, which is 60 percent fat. Since the advent of processed foods in the 20th century, our diets have been flooded with Omega 6s from vegetable oils, like corn. We now have a radical shortage of Omega 3s, which are crucial for our brain neurons to function. We need to eat wild fish, flax, walnuts, and Omega-3 eggs to get these into our bodies.
Dr. Hyman says not eating enough fat can lead to heart disease, cancer, dementia, and early death in general. So many people just have this "eat less fat" mantra going through their heads, which is truly dangerous to their bodies.
My brother is one of those, and I worry about him. His father had triple by-pass at 42, so he eats low-fat everything to try to prevent heart disease, but he doesn't eat vegetables or whole grains. Dr. Hyman says this is the worst possible combination for causing high cholesterol. In fact, he says eating processed carbs are way more responsible for raising cholesterol than any fats that we eat. It's just the way our bodies work. We think that fat is the culprit (and some fats are), but processed carbs are the real villian.
I have to get to work now, but later I want to talk more about the different types of fats and how they interact with our genes. Later!
On my continuing mission to heal my own problems without paying a physical therapist, I bought this thing called a Miracle Ball. I had read about something similar on a massage technique website link to working with "trigger points", aka muscle knots.
I have big problems with trigger points. The misalignment that is causing my pinched nerve is also wreaking havoc with the mucles in my back and shoulders, causing them to shorten and knot up. My massage therapist could make great progress with them, but they would come right back in a few days. My DH would try to work on them at home, but he just couldn't provide the right amount of pressure to make a real difference.
Since I had to give up my massages for awhile due to paying Diane for personal training (can't afford both!), I started looking into how to alleviate the pain. Diane had recommended the website which had the link that I found about massage balls used in physical therapy. The great thing is that the subject (me) can do the massage without help. You use the ball to massage yourself and apply pressure to relieve pain.
I picked up the Miracle Ball at a bookstore because I had a Christmas gift certificate. I have to say it's really working! There are tons of exercises for relaxation in general, which is great, but I went straight for the ones targeting my problem areas.
I put the ball between my shoulder blade and spine, then drape my body over it. I rotate my arm around, which makes the muscle massage itself. The pressure forces fresh blood and oxygen into the muscle, which is what breaks up the knot.
The first time I did it was excrutiating, but each time I do it, it gets better. Now it actually feels good! I'm also doing this under my arm to get my shoulder to open up a little. Diane also has me work with slightly bigger versions of these balls to loosen up the bands around my hips. That's tricky.
I know some of my yoga teachers recommend similar exercises using tennis balls, but they are too hard for the tender muscles I'm working with. For regular muscles, however, I bet they would be fine.
If you have muscle knot problems and can't afford a massage therapist, check it out! It really works.
Well . . . all right. The joint is really jumping here at ashleyb's corner of Extrapounds. I've had one post in four days. I think that's a new low. I think I'll take this opportunity to ramble on about crap noone cares about . . .
Good golly I'm sore! My butt is killing me! I went to an advanced yoga class Monday since it was the holiday. I decided to check out this teacher I'd always heard was a human pretzel. I just wanted to see what it was like. I was fully prepared to sit out half the class.
I managed to keep up, but my quads were shaking half the time. It kind of felt like Day One all over again. It was fun, though. She kept the movement constant--great cardio workout. I get the feeling that it was a pretty easy class for her, as there was no major contortion.
Yesterday, however, my glutes and general hip area were screaming. I didn't need a massage; I needed cortisone shots. I hadn't realized I was pushing myself so hard nor that I was quite so out of condition. Yikes.
During the class, however, I spent some time looking at the instructor and thinking about her body condition and how much I would like to attain it. Could I? Really? I know Tawa Chihuahua never thought she could ever be where she is today, but she is. How far can I/ will I go?
I tend to think of my body in relation to progress made. "I'm this far from where I was." But what if I stopped thinking about where I was and only focus on where I want to be? What would happen?
I was reading this article in Yoga Journal about the philosophy of starting over and how to let go of things that aren't working. I was applying the concept to my job at first and how I want to rethink my curriculum. It talks about kind of putting all your "materials" back in the pot, shaking them all up, and dumping them out to be arranged from scratch. That's how you take a fresh approach. That's how you start over.
Then I started to think about this in terms of my body. Could I just view my body that way--as raw materials? There to be arranged and formed the way I see fit? Maybe I don't have to think about improving on the form I have now. Maybe I could make a whole new form. With enough time and effort and the proper nutrients, I think I might could look like that yoga teacher. Why couldn't I? We have the same basic ingredients to our bodies, right? Maybe I won't be able to do some of the amazing Gumby-like feats of yoga she does, but I could come close.
Without going all Frankenstein on y'all, I just want to stop thinking of my progress as having limits. I want anything to be possible. If one more person tells me I've lost enough weight and I should stop now, I may go Kung Fu on their ass. I want all my body has to offer. Is there any reason I shouldn't have that?
