I Think I've Found What I'm Looking For

It was a very productive visit to the hand specialist yesterday and I think he's diagnosed the problem. After pressing on various areas of my hands and wrists, he found I have inflammation of the tendon sheaths associated with the index and middle fingers of my right hand and (less so) the index finger and pinkie of my left hand. He also said I have something called trigger finger which is when the inflammation of the tendon sheath causes a finger to become bent, stiff and to pop when straightened. This has been happening to my right middle finger at night when I'm sleeping.

His solution was to inject a steroid into the base of the two fingers in my right hand. Painful, you ask? Why yes, yes it was. However, it seems to have helped almost immediately, although I was told it might take several weeks for the inflammation to die down completely. So hopefully I'll see even more improvement over the coming weeks. He also wants me to go for physical therapy on the left hand and my wrists to get some ultrasound for the remaining inflammation and then some stretching and strengthening exercises. It seems I've been overusing my hands, mostly with all the computer work I do, and maybe somewhat with the weight training. The computer work I can cut back on since about 30% of it is simply recreational. Not cutting back on the weight training, no sir, no how.

Things are going well with the diet. I had a minor blip of binging Wednesday night after dinner (hungry, oh so hungry) but I was back this morning with a 1 lb loss (231 lbs). It seems I get gnarly about the fifth day of dieting so I'm thinking it might be a beneficial to have a planned "splurge" every fifth day after dinner to take the edge off so I don't have unplanned binges that make me feel bad about myself.

But it's time to go out for a walk...so later, alligator.

One More Trouble Off My Mind

I had my EMG yesterday. Helpful hint: If anyone offers you a free EMG don't take it. That is one sucky test. Not only do they stick needles in your limbs (in my case, hands and arms) but they jolt your muscles with electroshock. Totally not fun.

Anyway, after all that gritting of teeth, I got good news. I have no neurologic problem that's causing my hand and wrist pain. In other words, no carpal tunnel syndrome. That would have sucked because the only permanent solution to that is surgery. So this morning I see a hand specialist and that's the last train stop on the line. If he can't tell me what's wrong or what to do then I just live with this.

Another update to come....

Consistency Is The Key

I continue to feel good and I am amazed by that. Amazed and very happy. After months of daily pain, either my hands and wrists are really feeling better or I've learned to live with it with the help of Motrin (I suspect the latter). I finally am having the EMG tomorrow which will tell me if I have carpal tunnel syndrome or not. And I have an appointment Thursday morning with a hand specialist so I hope to have an answer as to what is going on and whether anything can be done about it.

So now I'm training through the pain, which is less but still there, and I'm pushing myself a little bit harder because I'm tired of feeling like I'm not making much progress. Today's workout was good. The rack pulls finally feel comfortable at the weight level I've been doing and I'm increasing reps at the bottom of the reverse pyramid. I'm working harder on my hip thrusts, using 40 lbs for 12 reps on all 4 sets today. My core feels so much stronger. I did the elevated planks on the ball with my feet narrowly apart and it was tough but solid.

I'm so looking forward to what Rog has in store for me next week.

My diet is good. I'm sleeping pretty well so far and don't feel depleted or deprived. Hungry, yes, but managable. My goal is to stay consistent and only take a break on Chistmas Day. Thank goodness I work from home now and don't have to deal with all the office parties and treats sitting out.

I Have Thoughts

Another good day. I slept like a rock after all the activity yesterday...a full morning of grocery shopping and a hard workout at the gym. My legs had that full heavy feeling you get after they've received a good amount of stress.

Cappy was looking at me longingly all morning, so reluctantly I bundled her in the car to go to the dog park. I limited it to a slow trudge around the perimeter, enough for her to burn off her energy and enough for me to stretch the leg muscles. I came home to put a beef stew in the crockpot, make a batch of pumpkin muffins and watch the Bears trounce the Vikings (8-3, booyah!).

So...I titled this post "I Have Thoughts". What thoughts? Crossfit thoughts. WHAT?!! Yes, I've been rolling this around in my head for a while, that maybe I should explore what Crossfit has to offer. I've been hesitant to say the least because I've heard some not so good things about it but I've also seen lots of fans on the paleo sites. I'm thinking it would be beneficial because there are movements I would never do because I wouldn't learn them on my own for fear of injury. Things like the snatch, cleans and pull-ups. Even deadlifts...I think one of the reasons I injured my back was not really knowing if I was doing them completely correctly. Crossfit would be beneficial because I would be able to learn these things with the help of a coach who is right there correcting me. My fear is that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the competiveness or advanced workouts that younger, fitter people can do.

There's a Crossfit gym about 10 minutes from my house and they have classes at 5:30 am which would be perfect. And a mobility class on Saturday. They require a two-week, 6 class intro before letting people take the open classes. I'm thinking perhaps I could do that intro class so I can figure out if it's something that would work for me and learn some of the moves in the process. I'm talking to Rog about it tomorrow to get his opinion on maybe taking an intro class in February. It would definitely be a challenge and hopefully I'd be up for it.

A Good Day

I had a really good day today. I'm back to tracking calories, 1950 for today. I feel clear and committed to get this weight loss job done. I had a great workout. My squats are getting so much better. Today I did my assisted squats with one hand on the bar and the other holding a 10 lb plate. I was able to get down to parallel with just enough assistance from the bar to get through the bottom-most sticking point. My core feels much stronger and although my back gets a little sore every so often, I don't worry about it as much as I did a couple of months ago. All in all, things are progressing quite well. Now I just have to stay consistent with my diet.

This Is What You Get When You Don't Pay Attention

You get to start over with a new life and a new identity, just like this was a witness protection program. I love starting over. Maybe that's why I do it so often.

So it's the day after Thanksgiving. All is quiet around my house. My son left to go back to Michigan. I briefly braved the Black Friday crowds. And all of us are still digesting the food babies we made yesterday.

I had such a great day yesterday. Thanksgiving is the one day I happily spend making food all day long. It's a way that I express my gratitude for my husband and son by making food with heaping helpings of love. But the end of dinner, I'm exhausted but oh so happy seeing the pleasure on their faces. I wouldn't trade it for a instant 10 lb weight loss.

And even though I ate like there was no tomorrow, I did something that I never done before. I went to the gym and worked out on a HOLIDAY!!!! A freaking holiday. And it was AWESOME!!! I had the best workout I've had in a while. Everything was hitting on all cylinders. I even felt so good, I did a metabolic finisher at the end. I was inspired by the Girls Gone Strong who posted a finisher on their blog. Of course I didn't do the exact finisher they suggested. Theirs was KB swings, KB squats and KB snatches. I couldn't do a snatch to save my life so I changed it to KB swings (15 reps), KB goblet squats (10 reps) and KB one arm rows (15 reps each side). I did two sets in 5 minutes. Discretion being the better part of valor, I left it at that, not wanting to risk ruining things with an injury.

I still need to get in a walk today, my third of the week, but it's really cold and windy so I need to work myself into it. Tomorrow is the gym and back to my food plan again. I'm going to start cutting my calories from 2000 to 1800 by 50 calorie increments over the next few weeks, getting me through the holidays. I don't think I'm going to make much progress as far as my weight goes until after the holidays, simply because I never really do. All I really want to go is get myself used to the calorie level I'll be at for the next few months and learn some more hunger management techniques. I tried the one Rog and I discussed last week, about pre- and post-workout food, and it seemed to help (see awesome workout above).  I'll experiment some more with that and with meal/macro changes to see what works best.