Monthly Archives: December 2015

2015 Recap (or How I Did On My Goals)

Posted on December 31, 2015 | 1 comment

It’s the last day of 2015! The year went by super quickly and I can’t believe it’s New Years Eve tonight! First, I want to wish you all a happy new year. And if you are going to be out drinking tonight, please don’t drive.

Now it’s time to look back at my 2015 goals and see how I did.

The first goal that I set for myself was to do 175 workouts this year. Technically, at the time I’m writing this post it hasn’t been completed yet. But that’s because my 175th workout will be at 12:15pm today! I can’t believe that I made this goal! I had so many setbacks with being sick and injured and it seemed impossible for a while. But I really planned it out for the past few months to make sure I got in all the workouts that I needed and I got it done! Not only did I do my 175 workouts (by this afternoon), I made giant strides in my workouts. I’m lifting heavier and my form is so much better. I’m not just working out more, I’m working out harder and smarter. Those are important accomplishments to remember too.

My next goal was to have 4 home cooked dinners a week. This one I kind of failed at. I definitely got less take out and delivery than I have in the past, but I ate a lot of prepared and frozen meals. I guess it is the lesser of two evils, but making dinners myself would have been much better. I think saying that I would cook 4 dinners a week at home were a bit ambitious, but when I started bulk cooking I really thought I had found the perfect solution for me. But then life got in the way and I didn’t do it anymore. While I think that bulk cooking might be great for me, I need to figure out a better way to do it. Maybe only bulk cooking one part of the meal and then mixing it up will be better for me. Or only cooking 2 or 3 meals at a time and not 4 or 5. I’m not giving up on this idea, but I think I need to do some more baby steps.

Next on my 2015 goals was to be down to 2 main day jobs not counting babysitting and the film festival. I’m pretty much there with this goal. I have my 2 main day jobs both from home and I’ve added another sporadic day job doing box office work for an old boss of mine. But technically, I’m down to 2 jobs and I’m finally getting into a more stable place financially (although I’m not making as much as I’d like yet).

Next on the list is something I’m very happy that I was able to accomplish. It was getting into an improv class this year and I finally did it after having it on my goal list for several years! I’m so glad that I took the class at UCB and I keep checking the schedule to see if there is a 201 class that fits into my schedule (nothing yet and I technically don’t have the money yet). But even though I’m not signed up for 201, I still got the first class done and got over my issues with going back into an improv class!

I had also hoped to have traveled more this year. That goal was kind of accomplished by going to Napa and a couple of family trips to San Diego, but I don’t really think I can successfully check this one off the list. I’m taking steps on making sure I travel more in 2016 (I’ve already got 1 trip planned with my mom) but I know that I didn’t do as much traveling as I hoped to do in 2015.

And my final goal for 2015 was to keep blogging, which clearly I did!

I’d say that while I didn’t accomplish everything that I had hoped to do in 2015, I really did get a lot done and I definitely view 2015 as a successful year!

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Was I Bold? (or Recapping How I Did With My Word Of The Year)

Posted on December 30, 2015 | 2 comments

For this year, I decided to do a word for the year for the first time. I was inspired by my fellow bloggers and decided to go for it. The word that I had decided on was “bold” and I really felt like it was the perfect word for me to use for 2015. Now that the year is about done, I’m looking back at my year and trying to think if I was bold.

I worked hard to remind myself to be bold when I could. I used the word as the background of my computer and used a similar graphic without the word as the background on my phone and iPad. So I was constantly reminded of it. There are still times that I feel like I can’t or won’t be bold, but I think I made a good effort at it.

Bold

The place where I think I was the boldest in 2015 was my acting career. I took new risks in my auditions and wasn’t afraid to make a wrong choice. I know that making an incorrect choice is really better than no choice at all. I decided that I was going to make each character strong in my mind and go with it full force. I know that not all my choices were right (and I didn’t book much this year), but I know that casting directors will remember me for being prepared and taking a risk. So many auditions of mine are in offices that I’ve been in before, so I know that they like me as an actor. It just might have been in the past that the part wasn’t right for me.

Not only was I being bolder in my auditions which allowed me to leave the audition room feeling better, I was bold in my actions outside of performing in the acting world. I never would have thought of running as a SAG-AFTRA delegate in the past, but this year when I was asked to do so I said yes before I could talk myself out of it.

Running as a delegate wasn’t always easy (some of the hate messages I got still are stuck in my head), but I’m so glad that I did it. I met some amazing people and I really had the best time at the National Convention. I’m actually sad that the National Convention isn’t every year. I don’t know if I’ll run for local or national board in the next elections (I’ve got plenty of time to think about that), but there’s no question that I’ll be running as a delegate again. The education that I got about the union during the convention was invaluable and I know that it will make me a better union member for it.

I was also bold in working on overcoming my eating disorder this year. I got a new therapist and I’m now trying medication to help me win this battle. I’m still in the depths of my battle and it feels at times that I will never get over my eating disorder, but I’m done being a victim of it. I’m working hard at it and hopefully sometime soon my hard work will pay off.

Finally, I think I was bold in my social life. Not in the sense that I was bold as a person at events but in the sense that I stopped being scared of saying no to an event and staying home. While I’d love to go out every time that someone has a fun event, sometimes I need to be at home for the evening. I might be tired or not feeling well or I might just not feel up for it and don’t want to force myself to go. But I don’t care anymore about missing things. Sometimes I wish that I could go, but I’m not feeling like I’m missing out on things as much as I did in the past. So saying no is a bold choice.

I’m still finalizing what my word for 2016 will be and I’ll be sharing that next week. But I’m really happy how I embraced bold as my word for 2015 and the results that I got from it!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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My Christmas Eve and Christmas (or A Late Night Target Run)

Posted on December 29, 2015 | Comments Off on My Christmas Eve and Christmas (or A Late Night Target Run)

My Christmas plans were pretty low-key this year. I was going to have some friends over to watch movies and we were going to order Chinese food. Nothing too special, but I was looking forward to a fun and relaxing day at home with some fun company.

On Christmas Eve, I enjoyed a workout in the morning and then really didn’t have much as far as plans go for the rest of the day. I went to the grocery store (where it was insanely crowded!) and then spent the afternoon reading and watching some stuff on Hulu and Netflix.

Then just after dinnertime when I was watching a show on tv, my tv died. I’m not sure what happened. All I know is one second it worked and the next the screen was black. I could turn the tv on and off, but the screen stayed black. I couldn’t get the menu to come up or the input to change (so it wasn’t a reception issue). I looked up what I could online and nothing looked good to me. It seems like one of the graphics cards inside of my tv might have broken but I wasn’t going to spend money trying to find out.

So at 10pm on Christmas Eve, I headed to Target prepared to deal with all the last minute Christmas shoppers. I picked Target because they were pretty much the only ones open that late and they had a tv that would work for me in stock (and I needed a working tv for the movie day the next day).

To my surprise, Target was emptier than I’ve ever seen it. I’d guess that maybe there were under 10 shoppers in the entire store. So it was pretty easy for me to get to the electronics section and get a new tv.

Target

Not only was the store empty, but the tv was about 30% off! I wasn’t expecting that at all based on the prices online so that was a nice surprise. I used the money that I had leftover from paying my 2014 taxes to buy the tv (it wasn’t an expense I planned for or really had in my budget). That money was originally going to go toward another acting class, but maybe after I pay my 2015 taxes I’ll have leftover money to do that.

I spend the rest of my Christmas Eve night getting the new tv set up and the old tv out of the living room. It’s a much bigger tv than I’m used to, but I think it looks nice.

New TV

On Christmas, I started my day by baking some cookies to bring to all of my neighbors. They are super easy meringue cookies and they are very fast to get together (they just take a long time to bake).

Christmas Cookies

Then it was time for the traditional movie and Chinese food day. It was perfect and lazy and exactly what I wanted to do.

The last thing I had to do after Christmas that related to my last minute tv purchase was to get rid of the old tv. Obviously since it was broken I couldn’t sell it or donate it. So I had to go to the e-waste disposal site in LAX to get rid of it. It isn’t super close to me, but the drive has a pretty awesome view so I can’t complain.

Ocean View

While I would have rather not had to get a new tv suddenly, it really did work out well for me. I’m sure that any other day I would have been at Target anytime soon it would have been very crowded. And I doubt that the discount I got on the tv would have lasted much longer (I think it might have been a deal leading up to Christmas). So if my tv had to break randomly, it was a pretty ideal circumstance for me and now I have a nice big tv for all my future movie days/nights at my house.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Shopping

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Some Holiday Workouts (or Back On The Treadmill This Week)

Posted on December 28, 2015 | 1 comment

For Christmas week, my workout schedule was a bit funky. This was due to my work schedule being weird (we unexpectedly got Christmas Eve off when we were told before we had to work) and Orangetheory not being open on Christmas (which I totally get). But even with the weird schedules, I still managed to get my 3 workouts in this week.

After being on the bike all week the week before, I decided to try to the treadmill and see how it felt. Fortunately for me Monday was an easy treadmill day. The treadmill time was very short and I think the warmup was actually the longest I spent on the treadmill without a break. That was a great way to ease back into the treadmill and I was so happy to not have the shin splint issues I was having before.

My Wednesday workout was a bit tough. The class did do the treadmill blocks back to back so I was on the treadmill for about 30 minutes straight. While between blocks we got to cool down a bit (3 miles an hour instead of 3.4), it was still a long time on the treadmill. I was terrified that the shin splints would come back then, but they never reappeared. I did take things a bit easy, but I was still pushing myself a bit because I’m so close to my pre-calf injury speed. I really want to be back to where I was, but I don’t want to hurt myself.

Since Orangetheory was going to be closed on Friday, I did a workout on Thursday. Originally I scheduled it to be after work, but since my work day was cancelled I got to go in the morning! Bruce was the coach for that class and he wore the Santa hat that I got for him last year.

OTF Christmas

It was a run/row day so the time on the treadmill wasn’t as bad as the day before. That was good because I was so tired from the workout on Wednesday. With the shorter treadmill blocks I didn’t have any issues with my shin splints or calf, but my hips were starting to bug me after a few rounds because of the incline we were using. So I lowered the incline and things felt much better.

With all the focus on the treadmill this past week, it would have been easy to ignore working on my floor work. But I tried really hard to focus on the floor when I was there and forget about the work I had done on the treadmill.

I was able to use the 20 pound weights for a lot of things this week. I was using them for squats (which I’m used to doing), triceps work, and hammer curls. The 20 pound weights are still a bit tough for me, but I’m starting to notice that a lot of the time the 15 pound weights don’t cut it for me anymore. They are feeling light at times and I know that if they are feeling easy it’s really time to push myself more and if I need to move down to the 15 pound weights partway through the block, I can do so then. But I’m working on starting higher on the weights and going down if needed.

I was originally planning on working out this past Saturday, but there were some things that were potentially going to be conflicts. So I just stuck with my 3 workouts for the week and was happy with that.

The end of the year is almost here and I’m almost to my workout goal for the year. My next workout blog post will be after I’ve hit my 2015 goal and after I’ve announced my 2016 goal (and have gotten a workout or 2 done with the new goal)!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

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900 Posts (or My Next Milestone Is A Big One)

Posted on December 25, 2015 | Comments Off on 900 Posts (or My Next Milestone Is A Big One)

First of all, if you celebrate Christmas I hope you are having a really great Christmas! If you are Jewish like me, I hope you have a great Jewish Christmas! I’ll do a recap of my Christmas day next week, but I just wanted to do a quick thank you post to you all!

This is my 900th post. I seriously can’t believe it. I know I’ve said this at every milestone, but I’m shocked that I’m still able to do this! When I started this blog, I thought that maybe I’d be able to keep it up for a year. Or if I went longer, I’d end up not posting 5 days a week. But for 900 posts, I haven’t missed a day no matter what (I’m sure eventually something will come up that causes me to miss a post, but I’m doing everything in my power to prevent that). I don’t know if I’ve ever really stuck with something this consistently this long (except maybe my acting career). And now it’s to the point that if I’m not blogging because it’s the weekend, my days don’t feel complete.

I’ve had some low points with this blog. There are days that I have no idea what I could possibly write about. There are things that I don’t want to write about and eventually get the guts to do so. And there are things that I have to share but wish I didn’t have to. And there are posts that I write just as a response to something and I get into a rant.

But there have also been some really amazing moments. I’ve found workouts that I love. I’ve met other bloggers who have inspired me to make Finding My Inner Bombshell better. I’ve become more open with my eating disorder and I’m getting help (and better help than I’ve ever gotten). I go on fun adventures not just because they will make good blog posts but because I want to experience more fun in my life. And I think that I’ve become a much happier person. I never knew that all of these wonderful things could come to me just because I sit at a computer and write about my life every weekday.

I’ve said this before, but I never knew how this blog would become therapy for me. And you all don’t judge me or try to convince me I’m doing something wrong. You all love and support me for who I am, and that’s invaluable to me. I wish that everyone could have the type of support that I feel. I know that if I had this years ago, life would have been much easier for me. I’m no longer afraid to be me because someone may reject me.

I wish that I could give you all holiday gifts as a thank you because you being my readers has been a gift to me. With my next big blog milestone being 1,000 posts, I’m hoping that I can do a really great giveaway to say thank you to you all.

But for now, all I can say is thank you for following me and my story for 900 posts. I hope that you’ve enjoyed my journey so far, and I can’t wait to share whatever comes up next in my life!

Here’s to the next 900!

Giant Bottle

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Moving Forward With Therapy (or Educating Myself)

Posted on December 24, 2015 | Comments Off on Moving Forward With Therapy (or Educating Myself)

I saw my therapist the other day. It had been a while since I had seen him and there were several things I wanted to discuss with him. First, I wanted to make sure that none of the pain that I’ve been dealing with lately have to do with my medication (they don’t). I also wanted to show off the happiness checklist that I had worked on since our last session. I think that he’s still shocked that I am keeping this up, but he’s encouraging me to keep going.

The main thing we discussed of course was my experience so far on Vyvanse. It’s a mixed feeling for me. I feel that it is making a little bit of difference, but it’s not as much difference as I would like or expected. And while I do have prescription coverage on my health insurance, it’s not cheap to be on daily medication. The main thing I told my therapist is that I don’t feel like I’m ready to give up on it yet, but I’m still torn on my feelings. He knows my hesitation with upping the dosage because there’s only so much you can take in a day, but his recommendation was to increase the dosage a little.

Before, I was taking 20mg twice a day (morning and lunchtime). Now, I’ll be taking 30mg in the morning and 20mg at lunchtime. So far, it’s going really well. But that’s how it is every time I start a new dose. My body loves the feeling of it because it’s an increase, but I can’t keep increasing it forever. I’m hoping that this dose will continue to work past those first few days, but I’ll have to wait and see what happens. I am having other positive side effects from the medicine, so that’s good. My panic/anxiety disorder has gotten much better and more manageable (the opposite of what usually happens on Vyvanse). I also have more focus and can concentrate on work without being distracted as easily.

The other thing I discussed with my therapist is that I’m really working on taking a more active approach to battling my eating disorder. I don’t think I’ve really been passive, but there is so much more that I can do and I’m going to make an effort at it. I’ve downloaded some apps that are designed for people with eating disorders to be able to focus on the disorder and keep things objective and not subjective. Part of these apps is a reminder to eat. While you’d think that I wouldn’t need a reminder to eat, forgetting to eat is a big part of my problem. It’s mainly lunch that I forget and by the time I remember I’m starving and want to eat everything in sight. So having a reminder to eat is helpful.

I’ve also started listening to a podcast about binge eating disorders. I’ve only listed to a few episodes so far, but I’m really enjoying it. While some of the stories aren’t exactly stories that I can relate to, it’s helpful to hear what other people have done that may or may not have worked. It gives me ideas of things to try to help myself.

I’ve also gotten a couple of books about binge eating disorder to read. I’ve had some of them for a while but never felt motivated to read them (I only felt motivated when I bought them). So I’m starting with “Brain Over Binge”. I’ve heard lots of good things about this book, so I’m hoping that it will help me a bit.

With all these new things that I’m doing to work on my eating disorder, my therapist has decided that unless I feel like I need to see him sooner I don’t need to be back for six months. This is definitely a big step and even though I know that I can see him sooner if I need to, I’m hoping that I can make it through six months on my own and feeling ok about things. I’ve already scheduled my appointment for six months from now so I don’t accidentally schedule something else that day. And I’m going to be continuing my with happiness checklist so I’ll have six months of tracking to bring to my next appointment.

I have no idea if after six months I’ll continue with the Vyvanse, but I have to say that I feel more positive and that getting my eating disorder under control is closer to me now than it ever has been.

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Posted in Food, Health, Tough Stuff

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Last Happy Hour Of 2015 (or A Speedy Catch Up)

Posted on December 23, 2015 | 2 comments

My friend Rayshell and I have been trying to do monthly happy hours, but our schedules lately have been so busy and conflicting. We wanted to make sure we got in one more happy hour before the end of the year, and we both happened to have Monday evening free! So we scheduled a happy hour hangout immediately before either of us ended up booking something else we had to do on Monday!

We met on her side of town (which sadly took me forever to drive to due to rush hour, holiday traffic, and the rain), but all that driving stress was gone when I got there. We met at El Torito Grill (we go there a lot) and while I was a little bit late, Rayshell didn’t seem to care too much since I drove to her side of town.

I had brought her holiday card with me to happy hour (it saved me a stamp) and Rayshell gave me a bottle of wine! I was totally not expecting a holiday gift, so that was a pleasant surprise!

As soon as we ordered our food, I got to hear all about the trip that Rayshell and her fiancée just went on! It sounded like she had an awesome time and it made me start thinking that I should plan another trip soon. We also discussed her wedding and the upcoming bridal shower and bachelorette party. She’s got so much about her wedding already figured out and under control, so I know that it’s going to be an amazing party! There’s only a few more months before her wedding, so I’m getting really excited for all the festivities and to be celebrating Rayshell and Paul (her fiancée).

When Rayshell asked me about what was going on in my life, I had some things I could tell her about Thanksgiving and work. But I really didn’t have a ton of fun updates to talk about. I really wished that there was more going on in my life right now, but my days are pretty full and I’m not focusing on the fun things as much. I’m working on fixing that and I’m thinking that next year will be filled with more fun adventures.

We didn’t stay at happy hour too late. It was raining and while the patio we were eating on had space heaters, it’s was pretty cold. And I had told a friend of mine that I could get them at LAX and take them home after they returned from a trip.

I’m so glad that even though Rayshell and I didn’t manage to do happy hour every month, we did do a pretty decent number of them this year. Both of us are busy with our lives and since we live on opposite sides of town (a big deal in LA), we don’t always get to see each other unless we make the effort. I know that we will continue our happy hour tradition next year as well (the next happy hour will be on my side of town) and I’m looking forward to having more exciting things than work to update Rayshell on!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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There’s No Problem With Orangetheory (or My Side Of The Article)

Posted on December 22, 2015 | 4 comments

A little over a month ago, I got an email from a writer from Refinery 29. They were doing a story on Orangetheory and wanted to hear about my experience! I was so excited that someone wanted to talk to me about my workouts and agreed to a phone call with them later that day. I actually got the email while at Orangetheory so I mentioned something to the studio owner about how I was being interviewed and he seemed excited for me as well.

As soon as my phone interview started, I knew that this writer really didn’t want to hear about my Orangetheory experience. She saw my post about when I tore my calf and was asking questions about how the workout caused my injury and how they wouldn’t help me or offer me modifications. I think that any of you who are regular readers on here know that is not the case at all. Orangetheory is the first place that took my hip issues seriously and was willing to work with me to figure out how to still get in a great workout. I wasn’t happy about the interview and told some friends how I felt like she was reaching for a story that didn’t exist. But I figured that after the writer spoke to me that she wouldn’t include me in the article anymore because I was not injured because of my workouts.

Well, yesterday the article went live.

Refinery29

The article now has the click-bait title of “This Gym Chain NEEDS To Address This Important Issue”. But there really isn’t an issue that I can tell in the article. The writer went to one class and wasn’t happy with the modification options she got (she told me during our phone interview that they showed modifications but they weren’t exactly what she needed and she didn’t ask for any more help). She got the impression that nobody gets modifications and interviewed me about my injury and another member about their involvement in the weight loss challenge (I won’t be discussing what the other member talked about since I don’t know them).

The author made is seem like I had a white out of pain, complained, and my coach did nothing. That’s not how it happened at all. I’ve had white out pain issues since 2005 with my hips. Pre-surgery, I was having them dozens of times a day on average and on my bad days I’d have them with almost every step. I’m still having them 2-3 times a day, but that’s such a huge improvement over what it’s been. So the white outs don’t worry me too much.

When I tore my calf, I took a single step on the treadmill, felt a pop in my leg, and had a white out. I immediately went over to the bike because I knew I didn’t want to be on the treadmill anymore. The coach came over to me and asked if I was ok. I said that it was hurting to walk and I showed her the bruise on my leg (we had no way of knowing that was a sign of a torn calf because it looked like a normal bruise). My coach gave me modifications so I wouldn’t have to use my legs a ton for that workout and encouraged me to go to a doctor to get checked out before working out again.

While I didn’t go to a doctor, consulting with my parents helped me realize that it was a torn calf. All the things I was reading online said that doing low or no impact workouts can help fix the muscle sooner because it will keep blood flow going. I knew this from after my hip surgery because my surgeon told me that if I could go back to the gym as soon as possible, I’d have an easier recovery. And I was in the gym with my dad on the recumbent bike about 24 hours after my hip surgery. I did low impact workouts while I healed and shocked my surgeon about how fast I recovered. So why would I do anything different with a torn calf?

All the coaches gave me modifications if I asked and encouraged me to take it easy or rest if I needed to. They helped me figure out good stretches to do to help and encouraged me to do more foam rolling. They also helped me realize that getting calf sleeves would help my recovery and my future workouts.

But they were not the ones pushing me to be back in class right away. They understood that I wanted to be there because I had a routine and momentum and didn’t want to fall back into my old habits of only sporadically working out. In the past, I’ve used injuries as excuses to sit on my couch and do nothing. I’m not going to do that now.

From the comments on the article so far, it seems like most other members agree with me. Orangetheory is for everyone at every level. Yes, you might have to ask for specific modifications (as I’m quoted in the article, you have to be your own advocate and can’t depend on others to know what you need). But they have been the most flexible workout program I’ve ever been a part of. They are not scared by the fact that I’m heavy, not in the best shape, and have lots of physical issues.

I’ve dealt with trainers who don’t want to push me because I’m having a tough time, but I need to be pushed to be better. I’ve been in classes where they are so scared by my hip issues that they don’t give me a modification in fear that their modification will hurt me. And I’ve been in group workouts where I’m talked down to because the teacher assumes that I don’t understand what’s going  on and need everything dumbed down for me.

At Orangetheory, they respect me for who I am and what my goals are. They will push me and if I say that I can’t do more because of a particular reason, they will back off then but push me in other parts of the workout. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We are all in the workout to be pushed because we don’t push ourselves on our own.

I know that my blog doesn’t get the attention that Refinery 29 gets. But I want to make sure that my side of the story is heard and not just the bits and pieces of the interview that the writer has decided to share. If she included my entire interview, it would have included much of what I said here. I praised Orangetheory for being for all levels and for not being scared to work with me. I said that it was a coincidence that my calf tore in class because it could have just as easily torn getting in or out of my car that day. And I said that I went back to class right away because I wanted to, not because I was pushed or tricked into it.

To my Orangetheory family, I hope you know that the article does not reflect how I feel about you at all. I love that you guys have become my workout family and that you all care about my well-being (as well as everyone else’s). You guys make sure that everyone working out has a great class and feels like they had the best workout ever. I don’t think that you caused my calf injury or didn’t give me all the help and support I could need. You guys really are the first people who make me feel like I’m an athlete and not just someone lumbering through a workout class. Thank you for being there for me, encouraging me, and making me realize how strong I truly am.

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Default ThumbnailWorkouts With Modifications (or Dealing With A New Injury) Default ThumbnailInjury After Injury (or I Swear It’s Not Because I’m A Klutz) Default ThumbnailWeek 1 Of Orangetheory (or Wow, I’m 1/8 Of The Way Done With My Challenge!) Default ThumbnailTransitioning Back To Normal (or Going Slow) Default ThumbnailWeek 3 Of Orangetheory (or Pushing Myself Even In Extreme Pain) Default ThumbnailMaking Ends Meet (or Needing a Side Job to My Side Job)

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A Week On The Bike (or Ending My Year By Taking It A Bit Easy)

Posted on December 21, 2015 | 2 comments

Since the week before I started to have some horrible shin splint issues while working out, I decided to go a bit easier on myself this week. I didn’t want to hurt myself more by testing myself on the treadmill, so I did all my cardio this week on the bike.

The bike is fine. I used it for a while after my calf tear so it’s not too odd for me. But I’m not sure if my body position is affecting the heart rate monitor or if I’m really not getting my heart rate up as high as I should on the bike. I couldn’t worry too much about the heart rate this week since I knew the bike would be the best option for me.

We had some run/row work (so bike/row for me), and that helped to make the bike feel more normal. But despite the lack of increased heart rate on the bike, I still did as much as I could on all other aspects of my workout.

Rowing after being on the bike is a bit funny. My legs don’t feel right so I wasn’t able to get my wattage as high as I know I can. But I still successfully completed all my rows (most were sprints but there were some distance ones). The transition between the bike and row isn’t as smooth as the transition from treadmill to row, but since I don’t plan on being on the bike long-term I’m not allowing myself to focus on that too much.

Besides the odd cardio, I’m feeling really great about my workouts this week. I was really pushing myself a lot on my weights and I’m getting closer and closer to using the 20 pound weights for most of my work. I’m doing squats, deadlifts, pullovers, and bicep curls with that weight. But my lateral arm work is still a weak point so I was using 12 (or sometimes 10) pound weights.

It’s tough to know when I should push myself with the weights. When there are too many reps, it’s not easy to go with the heavier weights. And I know that I can have multiple sets of weights at my station so I can use what I need to, but I’m so focused on the workout that I don’t like to switch weights in the middle of a set. Just like how I was weirded out by upping my weights, I need to get over my issues with having a bunch of weights at my station.

On the straps, I was able to do some things that a few months ago would have been close to impossible. I did reverse lunges with front hops this week, and before I would have done a set of lunges followed by a set of front hops to make things easier on me. But I was able to do the set the way that we were supposed to without modifications. We also did a new move (called a golf swing) on the straps and I was feeling very successful at that move (I still feel it in my abs).

On the floor, I’m still struggling with several ab moves. If my legs have to be lifted or in the air, it can be extremely painful on my hips. So I’m doing a lot of boring regular sit-ups or crutches as my modifications. I was able to do a rotating hip dip from a plank this week (it was the first time that I had to do those) and it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. Hopefully that means that my core strength is getting much better and that the stronger core is protecting my hips more (which it’s supposed to do).

I’ve got 2 more weeks of workouts to go before the end of the year and I’ve got 6 workouts before I hit my 2015 workout goal. I feel pretty confident that I will reach my goal this year (thanks to many weeks in a row of 4 workouts to make up for the lack of workouts earlier). I still can’t believe that by New Year’s Eve I will have done 175 workouts. That seems insane to me! Without a doubt, 2015 will be my most workout filled year so far (I’m not counting when I was in elementary/middle/high school with PE classes). But I’m looking forward to topping this record in 2016!

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Default ThumbnailManaging My Setbacks (or Taking My Time With Adjustments) Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan) Default ThumbnailBalancing My Workouts (or Doing Some Planning) Default ThumbnailNew Year’s Workouts (or Ending 2016 and Starting 2017 With Orangetheory) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Bike Work (or Working Through Nausea and Pain) Default ThumbnailA Week Back On The Bike (or Focusing On The Good)

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Weird Health Issues (or I’m Just Falling Apart)

Posted on December 18, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve been dealing with some odd and annoying health issues lately. I have no clue what happened to me or if these things are even related, but I’m getting really sick of all this.

Of course, I always have the issues with my hips. Those are never ending and while they are annoying, it’s expected. I’ve got my painkiller routine down to a science and I’m pretty good at managing my pain. And I’m still recovering from the calf tear, but again I’m getting good at managing that too. But those are health things that I plan will affect me pretty often.

Right after Thanksgiving, I started having the strangest pain in my right arm. It started as dull pain in my shoulder, elbow, and top of my hand. Then it turned into my arm and hand being numb each morning for a while before regaining the feeling in it (it’s similar to when your hand falls asleep but lasts longer). This has been affecting me quite a bit. My painkillers don’t really touch the pain and not having feeling in my arm in the morning isn’t good. I’ve learned how to put in my contacts with my left hand and I sometimes have to wait a bit after waking up before getting dressed for the day.

I’ve mentioned this pain to my parents, but they agree that if I went to the doctor right away, their response would be to wait and come back if the pain is still there in a month or so (very similar to what I was told originally with my hip). My mom recommended an anti-inflamatory supplement and to take fish oil or flax oil (I had a bad reaction to the fish oil so I’m taking flax oil). The pain is still pretty bad, but isn’t slowly feeling better and I’m numb a little less every morning.

I thought that would be it for now, but then a few days ago I started having problems with my right eye. It’s nothing too bad (just watering a lot and my contact lens feeling funny), but when you’ve had back to back health issues the littlest thing can annoy you.

I still haven’t been to the doctor yet because the arm pain has been less than a month, but I’m starting to think that I might need to go in to see if this is something I should worry about (when I google it nothing good comes up). I’m normally very on top of my health issues, but that seems to be more when I know what caused something. Right now, everything I’ve got going on is a big mystery and might not be related to each other. I’m trying to wait it out, but I’m impatient.

Of course, I’m betting now that I’m writing this post somehow all my weird things are going to disappear within a day or two. It’s like when you take your car to the mechanic to get it fixed because you hear a weird noise and when they look at it the noise is gone. I joked to my parents that I’m falling apart in my not-so-old age, but I’m really just hoping that these are very random and unrelated things and not something I need to worry about.

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Default ThumbnailHaving Health Paranoia (or I’m Sure I Am Just Fine) Default ThumbnailBeing A Bit Paranoid (or Trying To Believe I’m Not Having More Health Issues) Default ThumbnailBack To Focusing On Health (or Back To Back Doctor Appointments) Default ThumbnailCan’t My Body Have A Break? (or Back To Back Issues) Default ThumbnailRunning For Cancer (or Health Supporting Health) Default ThumbnailWorld Mental Health Day (or Seeing So Many People Be So Open)

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