If you are wondering where I've been and you don't follow Facebook or talk to me regularly, I've had a HORRID case of bronchitis. As always, Readers, there is a story...
On Sunday April 17th, Trainer texted me shortly before our workout and told me to meet him at the high school track instead of the gym. I immediately replied back "NO!!!" I expected him to not respond, but he told me he could meet me at the gym. As scared as I was I knew this day was coming and I had just better get it over. Having talked to a high school friend earlier that day and telling her that Mike had been threatening me with running the stadium stairs she said, "He better wrap you in bubble wrap first." My mom was terrified at the thought. She is scarred from past emergency room visits. Anyway, to the stadium I went with my husband stopping by on duty. I don't know if it was support or to laugh. I had called him on my way and told him where my life insurance information was just in case. Onto the track with a lesson on only running in the outside lane I was off. Didn't take long at all for my lungs to feel like they were ON FIRE! Having not felt well the whole week before I had avoided the gym and thought the burning in my lungs was a result of the allergies which had been plaguing me and a lack of working out. I finished my laps around the track and my pushups. Mike tried to get me to do some chin ups off the side of the bleachers. That didn't work out so well. We were both frustrated. We moved to the stairs.
Ever the encourager, Mike told me he was going to do these with me. He also told me he had done them earlier in the week and could barely move for two days after. "This is really good cardio." With Mike running much faster than me up his side, I ran up the stairs. Having his own experience with my clutziness, Mike had cautioned me to come down the stairs slowly. No worries. By the time I arrived at the bottom after my first trip, I was sure I was a loser. I was breathing so hard, my lungs were on fire, my legs were burning, and I was light headed. I grabbed onto the rail to catch my breath before going back up. So for every three trips Mike made...I went one. My final number was ten. Mike kept telling me what a great job I had done. I was ready to cry. How could I have been working out for almost a year and be so weak? I got in the car and my legs were shaking so hard I could barely drive. I had to reposition myself in the car to push on the accelerator. My muscles weren't working right. Ten minutes later I arrived home and puked. If I had said in the past that I had almost died from a workout, I was totally mistaken because this workout was kicking my butt. The only way I could get my legs to quit shaking was after sitting in a hot bath for an hour. Then the coughing began. I was coughing so hard I was crying.
Monday morning I woke up and felt like I had been hit by a truck. I left work early to go to the doctor who listened to my lungs and said, "CRAP TAMMY!" He was in disbelief that I had worked out the night before and not ended up in the ER. Now part of me was relieved. This explained why I felt so awful during the workout and after, but then reality pulled up and I started to cry. "But I only have two weeks left in my doctorate course work and I have this, this, and this due! I have to feel better QUICK!" Doctor agreed to treat aggressively. I spent the next day and a half in bed. Barely made it through work on Wednesday...stayed home on Thursday and then there was Friday at the end of which I ended up with the ER doctor. He was arrogant, but very compassionate and said that in addition to bronchitis I had a sinus infection and they weren't responding to my Z Pack and inhalers. A new antibiotic, two new inhalers, and another round of steroids and I was out the door. During this time, my dear friend dropped off an herbal product at the house. She's in the doctorate program with me and realized the situation I was in.
It's hard to say if it has been the new prescription drugs or the herbal stuff, but I do feel better. Now the toughest part is that the doctor says I can't go back to the gym before Thursday. I'm feeling better and VERY fat. Steroids for two weeks? Really? Do you know what that does to the scales? They don't go down that's for sure. Even when I didn't eat for five days...they went UP!!! And even when I was sooo sick and insisted to my husband that the only thing which would make me feel better was ice cream and he wouldn't go get it, the scales still went UP!!!
That, Dear Readers...is how the stadium was a near death experience for Bunchy...I feel like I'm back to square 1, but I really can't wait to start working out again. I feel like a slug!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
That's So Last Year!!!
I'm feeling frustrated today so it's a great time to blog....bahaha!!!
I did it. I went at this diet with a vengence this week. No holds barred. Chicken breast and asparagus or green beans for lunch. Either chicken or turkey and a vege for dinner. Mixed in a few protein drinks. Started my day with oatmeal and blueberries. Denied myself lots of food and four days later I am the exact same weight. So here's how the conversation started tonight at the gym...
Mike: "How are you Tammy?"
Me: "I'm grouchy"
Mike: "Why?"
Me: "They're building onto our school and the construction moved inside the building today. They were cutting metal. Then they were building walls inside. It was noisy. And some of the adults were getting on my nerves."
Mike: "We're going to run sprints to warm up. 10"
Me: "And let me tell you what else. I've been on this diet for four days and I haven't lost a pound!"
Mike: "Tammy it's not easy. How long have I been on my diet? 6 months!"
Me: "But Mike you lost weight the first week."
Mike: "Tammy I'm a guy and you're a girl."
Truthfully, he might have said something else after that, but I just started running. I was even grouchier. If I could grow the piece of anatomy that makes it easier for a man to lose weight don't think I wouldn't try it.
New exercises like jumping jacks while holding weights. I ask...what's wrong with regular jumping jacks? Those were last year is the answer I get. Seriously. This phrase comes out of his mouth with more frequency the closer we get to our year anniversary of working out together. What worked last year doesn't work this year all of a sudden. The most challenging exercise for me tonight was to hit a pushup from a squatting position and then jump up toward the ceiling. It's kind of like a frog hopper with a pushup involved. After trying this a couple of times, Mike told me I could be on the special olympics. Gee...thanks!
I spent Tuesday night with my massage therapist. She does somatic massage. For those of you that have had a massage this is not the relaxing kind where you are passive and falling asleep. You are active in this massage. My knee was hurting and the last time I was there she had told me we needed to do some work on my legs. Perhaps this was one of the most painful experiences of my life. She wasn't even using full pressure. It was scary painful. She kept telling me to breathe so I wouldn't pass out. She said my IT bands were way too tight and that I needed to tell my trainer this and I needed to make sure I was stretching before and after the workouts. In case you are wondering the IT band runs from the outside of your hip to just below your knee where it connects with the Tibia. It is a tendon. When these get as tight as mine were it causes low back pain and butt pain, and leg pain, and knee pain. She told me to make sure my trainer knew this. I texted him immediately to let him know. So tonight we ended my workout by him stretching the IT band. Incredibly painful, but so incredibly relaxing at the same time. It was an amazing experience. Now I have to train my husband on this type of stretching. We also stretched my hamstrings and my quads. Same deal...painful, but wonderful at the same time.
What Trainer and I did decide is this...no more cheat meals. Those are finished. Have to treat the body like a machine until it responds to me. I have to add eggs to breakfast so I have protein. I'm mad enough at this point about not losing weight that I'm gonna give it a go and see what happens. Trainer Mike says this will work so I'm trusting him.
I did it. I went at this diet with a vengence this week. No holds barred. Chicken breast and asparagus or green beans for lunch. Either chicken or turkey and a vege for dinner. Mixed in a few protein drinks. Started my day with oatmeal and blueberries. Denied myself lots of food and four days later I am the exact same weight. So here's how the conversation started tonight at the gym...
Mike: "How are you Tammy?"
Me: "I'm grouchy"
Mike: "Why?"
Me: "They're building onto our school and the construction moved inside the building today. They were cutting metal. Then they were building walls inside. It was noisy. And some of the adults were getting on my nerves."
Mike: "We're going to run sprints to warm up. 10"
Me: "And let me tell you what else. I've been on this diet for four days and I haven't lost a pound!"
Mike: "Tammy it's not easy. How long have I been on my diet? 6 months!"
Me: "But Mike you lost weight the first week."
Mike: "Tammy I'm a guy and you're a girl."
Truthfully, he might have said something else after that, but I just started running. I was even grouchier. If I could grow the piece of anatomy that makes it easier for a man to lose weight don't think I wouldn't try it.
New exercises like jumping jacks while holding weights. I ask...what's wrong with regular jumping jacks? Those were last year is the answer I get. Seriously. This phrase comes out of his mouth with more frequency the closer we get to our year anniversary of working out together. What worked last year doesn't work this year all of a sudden. The most challenging exercise for me tonight was to hit a pushup from a squatting position and then jump up toward the ceiling. It's kind of like a frog hopper with a pushup involved. After trying this a couple of times, Mike told me I could be on the special olympics. Gee...thanks!
I spent Tuesday night with my massage therapist. She does somatic massage. For those of you that have had a massage this is not the relaxing kind where you are passive and falling asleep. You are active in this massage. My knee was hurting and the last time I was there she had told me we needed to do some work on my legs. Perhaps this was one of the most painful experiences of my life. She wasn't even using full pressure. It was scary painful. She kept telling me to breathe so I wouldn't pass out. She said my IT bands were way too tight and that I needed to tell my trainer this and I needed to make sure I was stretching before and after the workouts. In case you are wondering the IT band runs from the outside of your hip to just below your knee where it connects with the Tibia. It is a tendon. When these get as tight as mine were it causes low back pain and butt pain, and leg pain, and knee pain. She told me to make sure my trainer knew this. I texted him immediately to let him know. So tonight we ended my workout by him stretching the IT band. Incredibly painful, but so incredibly relaxing at the same time. It was an amazing experience. Now I have to train my husband on this type of stretching. We also stretched my hamstrings and my quads. Same deal...painful, but wonderful at the same time.
What Trainer and I did decide is this...no more cheat meals. Those are finished. Have to treat the body like a machine until it responds to me. I have to add eggs to breakfast so I have protein. I'm mad enough at this point about not losing weight that I'm gonna give it a go and see what happens. Trainer Mike says this will work so I'm trusting him.
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