Progress and an "Old Beginning"

"Never hurry. Take plenty of exercise. Always be cheerful. Take all of the sleep you need. You may expect to be well."
-James Freeman Clarke

Hubbard Training Systems' client and guest blogger, Jo, follows up to her previous posting:

Let’s see – last I blogged, I was a bit frustrated with my knee and my setback. I have made lots of progress since that point. I would love to report that I have achieved patience, however, as I noted before, patience is not an arrival but a journey. And OH what a journey.

Slowly but surely I am regaining strength in my leg with balance and stability in my knee. I have achieved full range of motion as well. For the most part, the pain is gone. On occasion I over-work (I know – hard to believe from this patient person) my knee with too many reps, too much weight, or just too much activity….and then there is some rebellion. Pain, albeit uncomfortable, is a good thing. Without it, my thick head would never get the message that I’ve done too much. Happily I can easily dead lift (just the first part of a dead lift) 85 pounds and tomorrow will ramp that more. Hopefully next week I can do a full dead lift – not sure what weight. I walked the Race for the Cure 5K (plus a mile to and from our car) without my knee brace. Even tho we walked two dogs and had a stroller and my 42,000 closest friends, it was still 5 miles with no major issues. I can do the one-leg deadlift/balance now with a 26lb kettle bell for 3 very slow reps without falling over. So, progress is being made, and I can feel that ligament being worked.

This “old beginning” will be another attempt to incorporate Dan’s nutrition guidelines. There is some point in my brain that simply hates someone else to tell me what to eat and not eat. I do not like anyone to micromanage anything I do, especially eating. My husband actually talked to Dan and is beginning to log his food intake – so I guess I will to. Chuck does not mind micromanaging himself (or others), so he rather enjoys the task. We both logged our food for yesterday and found we came up way short on calories (which I suppose explains my hunger at bedtime). We hard-boiled two dozen eggs, and planned a couple meals already for the week. We ate fish two nights in a row – and I guess again for tonight. I feel scaly already.

The reason I call this phase an “old beginning”, is because I’ve been here before. I can’t remember how many times I’ve tried to decrease my carbs, increase my protein, count my calories, and log my food. It’s been almost 9 months since my first session with Dan, and this is probably my 5^th attempt to “do this.” Every other piece of the puzzle is easy for me – going to the gym, drinking a gallon of water a day, eat mostly lean foods and a balanced diet, plenty of fruits and veggies….but the increased protein and decreased simple carbs – ENGAGE EMERGENCY BRAKE! Did I mention that I hate to be micromanaged? In fact, just sitting here typing somehow launches that little internal battle that has me discussing with myself whether I should just stop this “nonsense” and enjoy whatever the heck I want or stick with this plan so I can accomplish my goal. I mean seriously – I’m a couple months away from turning 46, I’m not overweight, I go to the gym, I’m a “good girl” with my food most of the time – what’s the big deal? On the other hand, I don’t like the jiggle factor; I swore I would never wave at my children long after I stopped actually waving.; I am annoyed at having indents and bulges where they do not belong. I want to lose this body fat and flab the right way rather than diet alone. I want to change my behavior – my attitude – my body. I want to learn to work within the limitations of my body – my natural limits (age) and those otherwise-imposed (surgery scars, hernias, back issues, fused wrist….etc).

So – the journey continues – toward patience, healing, strengthening, micromanaging (bleh), losing, gaining…..growing.