An injury interfering with my fitness program and how I'm healing... and a GIVEAWAY!

This week has been pretty hectic, since it we were back to school after a week-long Thanksgiving break. It was much needed and now I'm counting down the days until Christmas break! Late, I've been filling my days (and tummy) with Starbucks. A tall, Skinny Vanilla Latte. Yes, this has a lot of sugar (13g) in it but it also kicks a with 9g of protein at 100 calories. Not too shabby for the holiday treat!

While I always log my food, I am EXTRA diligent lately. Why do you ask? Well, I was doing my TurboFire HIIT workout on Black Friday and I ended up rolling my ankle. Coinicentally, I had just ordered new sneakers for myself for Christmas, as I knew my other pair were losing their support. I KNEW I was bound to roll my ankle if I didn't replace those shoes. My ankles are pretty weak because of past injuries like this that I didn't treat properly when I was younger. I'm an old hand at it now, so I spent much of my weekend RICE-ing. If you aren't familiar with RICE, it stands for:

• Rest
• Ice
• Compression
• Elevation.

RICE is what many healthy professional recommend if you injure yourself like I did. Of course, that doesn't replace seeing your doctor! I learned about RICE in health class during my freshman year of high school. :) Clearly, I was listening!

I also have a brace that my doctor gave me from the last time I sprained my (other)ankle. Between RICE and the brace, I am healing SO quickly. Which makes for a happy girl!

Since my ankle is sprained, and I don't want to do further damage to it I've been focusing my fitness efforts on other areas. Hello, (girlie) push-ups, pull-ups, etc. :)

It's not quite where I want to be, but SOME progress is better than NO progress! Since my injury, I've been using the following programs and tweaking as needed if something would aggravate my ankle.

• TurboFire Core 20 
• Turbo Fire Tone 30
• Turbo Fire Sculpt 30
• Turbo Fire Abs 10

• P90X Shoulders and Arms
• P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps
• P90X Chest and Back
• P90X Ab RipperX

If you are interested in starting your own program, or if you simply just having questions and have NO idea where to start CONTACT ME! :) I would love to you discover your own fitness, become stronger, healthier, happier and reach YOUR goals. Remember, your goals are YOURS. Each person's level of fitness is different, and each body looks different. I want you to be YOUR best. :)

GIVEAWAY

Now, I have a SPECIAL surprise! ::::drumroll:::: It's a giveway from Zevia! I absolutely LOVE Zevia, and checkout my review of their products. Zevia is a natural soda sweetened with stevia. To enter the contest, do the following:

• Comment below and tell me why you want to try Zevia! If you've tried Zevia before, tell me why you love it and what is your favorite flavor!
• Please include your name and email, so I can contact the winner for your shipping info.
• Deadline to comment is Saturday, December 7th 2013 at 11:59 PM cst. 
• For an extra entry, "Like" my Facebook page.

Busy times... Fitness updates

Whew - I've been INSANELY busy lately, but yes I'm still here. :) Between grad school and my own homework at the end of the semester, and teaching with rounding out the end of the semester there - I am one crazy lady. I have several new recipes (new to me, at least) that I will post soon! Homemade granola, anyone? Yes - that happened.

I'm ROCKING out my P90X/Turbo Fire program. It is crazy how strong your body gets! P90X Plyo is probably my favorite workout. It kicks my butt, but I get so excited when I see it on my schedule! It is the "mother" of all P90X workouts, because it works you so hard and is a major calorie burner! I LOVE IT! There is one exercise called "hot foot" that was always a killer for me. Partially because it was hard on the leg that I injured ( see my post on Injury and Set Backs), and because it just took so much strength and balance that I didn't have - plain and simple. There I was in my workout and I saw it was "hot foot" time. UGHHH - then the next thing I knew, I was doing it! And doing it right without problems, mind you. Just that small feat showed me just how far I have come in my fitness.

What feats (big or small) have showed you how far you have come in your own journey?

And it's only Tuesday...

Do you ever have one of those long days that just drags on and on? I've kept pretty busy today, but now I've just hit a wall. I could seriously crawl in bed, right now. But, it's only mid-afternoon. I still have to go run, do some homework, and make supper. Anyhow, enough of that!

I ran on Sunday, after the race. I planned on getting in a long run before Soaring Wings, but that didn't quite pan out. I guess I pushed myself a bit harder than normal, because the pain from my old injury was flaring up. I got in about 3 miles and then hit the weights. I spent the rest of the afternoon icing, and watching TV. :)

Did you notice my ugly legs? Scars from other running incidents. Oh, goodness. I should just live in a bubble or wear a bubble suit.

Well, I have to tell you about my dinner on Friday. This is the first race where I knew I couldn't have pasta, or anything else gluten-full. After scrounging around in my kitchen for a bit, I realized I had rice pasta. All of the sudden, I had it; a very clean and filling supper!

Rice Pasta with an Avocado Cream Sauce

Ingredients
Rice pasta, spaghetti
1/2 Avocado, mashed
1 TB Parmesan cheese, grated
2 TB milk (almond, cow, whatever suits you)
3 oz grilled chicken breast, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Prepare pasta according to the instructions. In a separate sauce pan, add avocado, cheese, and milk. Heat ingredients on medium heat, stirring often. Once the ingredients have heated thoroughly, they should form a sauce. Add chicken to sauce and heat. Top pasta with cream sauce and enjoy!

Back in the game

Ok, time to catch up! On April 21st (3 months to the day of getting injured) I was finally able to run! I was on the elliptical, eyeing the treadmill. I just told myself, what the heck, go for it! I ran pain-free for the first mile. I ran a mile and a half and probably the last quarter had my leg achey. I was just so excited! I'm sure I looked like, "incredibly photogenic guy," because the guy a few treadmills down kept looking at me. I was crazy-smiling runner girl! It was great though. I don't think anyone can know or fathom how happy I was. I hate to say it, but I cried when I got in the car after leaving the gym. Now, I follow that up with I haven't ran since. I was pretty sore afterwards. I think I pushed too long (mileage-wise) and I wasn't ready. Its great to know I can run, though.

Orthopeds and Leprechauns

I had a check up with my orthoped yesterday. I probably have another month before it's completely healed, but it is healing well. My doctor thinks that I just can't be a distance runner. I think he is wrong. :) Maybe I'm just stubborn, but I REALLY do think if I train on the roads, vs mostly on the treadmill I'll be OK. I think that's where I messed up. I'm really working on eating more nutritious stuff; I feel like a hippie sometimes. I've been shopping a lot in the "tree hugger" section at Kroger a lot. I've found Kind bars and those are really good! I also got some Good Belly juice a few days ago and I really like it! Trying to cut down on sodas is hard because to me it gives me a swift kick in the butt when I'm dragging at work. I think its just a mental thing, though.

For St. Patrick's day, J and I made a "Leprechaun's Cake." I found the recipe on pinterest. I couldn't get the colors as bright as I wanted, but I guess the coloring was watered down from the batter. It still turned out good! I used a sugar-free cake mix, egg whites and substituted apple sauce for oil. I've never done those tradeoffs before but it turned out great! I did use a regular, whipped icing.

Once we got all of the batter ready to bake.

Here is the taste-tested end product. YUMMMM.

Injury and set-backs

Ok, I’ve took some time off. I lost my momentum, really. I was injured on a run on January 21^st. Nearly 4 weeks later, I was finally diagnosed with a stress fracture. That explained a sheer inability to walk, function and sleep. In my mind, it is sort of like a being injured in the line of duty. If I were a soldier, I’d get a purple heart. In training, you get rehab. You only get medals if you finish a race. I’ve been doing some yoga to keep up my strength and doing the stationary bike. I LOATHE the bike. I’ve been itching to get back out and run, but it all got worse this weekend. Yesterday was the Little Rock Marathon. It was AMAZING! All of the runners (young and old) all of the energy from the runners AND those cheering them on. It was just incredible. I was SO happy to be there! The guy I’m dating was running in the marathon. It was so amazing to see all of those people working for their 26.2. My heart broke when I saw an older man (maybe in his 60s or 70s) that was taken off on a 4-wheeler. It looked like he had injured his ankle. I know how upset I have been to have been injured on week 14 of training. I can’t imagine the devastation of an injury during the race. Needless to say, my guy did a great job on his first marathon! He finished in 4:48 (that’s our guesstimate). Guesstimate because, he was slow getting to the start line and he forgot his CHIP. How? How? How? Also, his iPod wasn’t working. That shows how tough and determined he is, though. All of those factors working against him and he still finished with a decent time. That’s a much-deserved 8lb medal! I was on the fence before about a 13.1 tattoo, but after the trials and pain of injury (physically and emotionally) I think that will be one, hard-earned and well-deserved tattoo. I think a REALLY pretty 13.1 would be perfect. I think any 13.1 would be pretty at this point! I’ve already signed up for another half later on this year. My 2^nd to train for, and God-willing, the first one of me to run in AND finish.