Knees Up Mother Brown

I enjoy working out so much that I increased my intensity even though my knees were hurting. Well, that turned out to be a bad idea. I now have something called PFS: Patello-femoral Syndrome. My knees hurt so bad I actually had to start limping, so I decided it was time to get to the Dr. This is really cramping my style and slowing me down. I can't even go down the stairs without cringing. I tried to treat it myself with glucosamine, MSM supplements and omegas etc just like the good google said. None of it helped one bit and now I have to take RX strength Naproxen which makes me dizzy and messes up my stomach. The whole point of this health kick was to become healthy and less dependent on pills. Between my allergies and my knee pain I'm back up to a handful of tablets every day, again and go to Physical Therapy? Cheese and Rice!

So while my body tries to catch up with my ambition, I have taken down my cardio and kept up my food log to keep my portions in check. It's too easy to lose focus on the diet when exercise is not part of the daily routine. I do feel discouraged though. I'm back up to a 40 hour work week, toddler in terrible 2's with 2 year molars coming in, I'm surrounded by unfolded laundry, and then there's the cooking and cleaning full time since my husband's job had picked up and he's been working the late shift almost every day. Life is stressful enough and now I can't move around without pain and all I want to do is get a 20 minute run in for the day. I'm trying to be positive and stay the course, but it's very tempting to give up and go back to the pizza and ice cream. It's so much more time efficient than grocery shopping, hand washing/slicing organic kale and grilling chicken.... now my sink is full of organic dishes UGH!!!

Hopefully the pain will subside soon and I can work my way back up to speed walking and jogging again. I really enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment from running. It's a much better feeling than emptying the dishwasher or sorting socks.

On a positive note I had a follow-up MRI last week with a postcard reply which read "nothing new, come back in 6 months." So that is a no-news-is-good-news result for me :) If you're wondering what an MRI is like, just imagine a Faint song is about to start and you have to try to remain perfectly still....but the song never starts it just continues to sound like it might at any moment. That goes on for about 45 minutes or so.

Here is a picture of someone who's energy never seems to run low. We had a beautiful Easter Sunday together. One of the best days I've had since before my diagnosis. Makes me feel officially back to life!

I Hate Myself for Loving You

There is a 60 minutes segment causing a ruckus online today. Is Sugar Toxic? This video/article goes into detail about how glucose and HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) is 75% of the cause of the leading illnesses in our nation today. Why is this significant to me? Because supposedly its common knowledge that cancer tumors feed on sugar. I am in the market to lower my risk of recurrence and this is one of the major factors in that goal. Read: High Sugar Levels Can Lead to Relapse.

I can feel your eyes rolling. "Everything will kill you these days," you moan. "Live for today, you could die tomorrow!" Well, that may be true, but getting hit by a bus may be a lot more inviting than slowly dying of cancer or living through chemo treatments to stop the cancer from spreading and going under the knife more than you would prefer. Go ahead and read the refuted study commentary and judge for yourself. Common sense says: "Everything in moderation," but consider this: I have been working out for over a month and have yet to lose more than 5 pounds. "But Peggy, *heavy sigh,* you are surely gaining muscle and weight loss takes time, duh." Yeah, I'll agree with that, but then my trainer switched me from a high sugar/high carb diet onto a high protein high fiber diet, I lost an entire pound in 2 days. I even cheated on the first day with a giant piece of pizza and beer. She also raised my calorie limit to 1500 vs the traditional diet calorie count of 1200 which I always stayed below in hopes of meeting my goals faster. There is no denying that I was only working out  every single day to feed my ongoing sugar addiction since I finally saw results as soon as I changed my intake habits. Cutting calories simply wasn't cutting it for me. I was starving and dizzy from cutting too many calories and fat grams.

So as tedious and sometimes tasteless as it can be, I have been packing lunches of salads with kale, portioning nuts and greek yogurt for snacks, munching on hummus and eating lean chicken and fish for dinner. Super time-consuming, but I know I will detox soon and my cravings will eventually fade. I still eat carbs, I'm not extreme, but my sugar intake is super low, my carbs are from the right places (brown rice and fruit etc) and I know long term it will make me better inside and out :) I'm trying desperately to pass my habits onto my family. My husband is resisting and has been sneaking ice cream sandwiches into his belly, but at least he has the decency not to gobble them down in front of me. My daughter is making excellent progress:

 Thats right, folks; those are Green Beans... And a moose.

I have been struggling with a little knee and ankle pain from jogging, but I power through and use my elliptical instead. My devoted pal has asked me to do the Komen Run with her, but she has been working out for a lot longer than me and every time we exercise together she leaves me in the dust. I am really proud of her though, and definitely hope to make the next one.