d_p_pank’s BodyBlog

I’m almost walking. I’m still struggling with the full ROM but so far I’m reducing the pain meds almost completely. My humbling experience is using my left leg to guide my right leg through seated flexion and extension. Not fun, but my swelling is down to the point where i almost can see some quad definition. I’m dying to get back to the gym to at least do upper body seated machines for the next two weeks until i start doing PT on the leg.

 Due to my limited activity I have minimized my eating. That included yesterday. No turkey, stuffing, mashed potato and gravy and sweet potato concoction for me, instead seared filet and a few tempura shrimp. I felt much better avoiding all the carbs.

Anyhow dying to walk so then I can drive. That’s drving me crazy.

OK in lieu of the gym I have put 4 hours a day into my cpm machine. Nothing like having a passive motion machine move my leg for me. I’ve been able to begin placing partial weight on my bad leg. My new goal is to be able to somewhat walk by this time next week. My right quad is now pretty much contracting without me thinking about it, if only I could get the swelling to go away.

Anyhow, it isn’t that bad, I’ve been able to review all my old Smallville seasons and catch up on the current one. Here to sticking to the core foods and taken it easy for just one more week. I’m also waiting for the functional brace to come in and the weight bearing joint bending to happen on its own.

OK in lieu of the gym I have put 4 hours a day into my cpm machine. Nothing like having a passive motion machine move my leg for me. I’ve been able to begin placing partial weight on my bad leg. My new goal is to be able to somewhat walk by this time next week. My right quad is now pretty much contracting without me thinking about it, if only I could get the swelling to go away.

Anyhow, it isn’t that bad, I’ve been able to review all my old Smallville seasons and catch up on the current one. Here to sticking to the core foods and taken it easy for just one more week. I’m also waiting for the functional brace to come in and the weight bearing joint bending to happen on its own.

That’s the degrees of bend in my knee. I’m still loving my little Kodiak cooler and my cpm machine. I’ve been sticking pretty much to my core foods. I’ll be ordering my produce again online this week so I can stick to the basic foods. Just prepared the chicken for this week. I’m enjoying my drugs so I’m ok with just chilling.

My exercise for the next week will be with my cpm machine. Todays magic number is 56 degrees. Here’s hoping the ice and the taking it easy really pay off.

The rebuilding has occurred now for all the therapy. I’m enjoying my ice cooler today and the drugs.Here’s to patience.

I find going out with friends to be a challenge sometimes. I think I hit that point where I can have fun with the people I’ve always hung out with, it’s just I don’t find the fun in drinking the entire night or eating yummy fried food. Here’s the kicker. We went to a place that was a little more high end that even had a pretty complete menu. Me being extremely careful with what I ate went for the mahi mahi with roasted red potatoes with a side salad. The mahi was blackened and heavily seasoned so it was mostly ok except for the part where it was rinsed with some of the establishments H2O. I’m glad I tried sipping their H2O so I knew it was a water taste and not bad fish. The salad would have been better if they just plucked the weeds from the ballpark next store.

Anyhow my point is. . .if  you are going to bitch about being overweight and how you are not happy about what you look like, take 5 minutes and replan your nights entertainment. I like to get a good buzz going every now and then, but I’ll typically be going for either a high end specialty beer or one of Napa’s reds. Not the sweet tasting mixed beverage with the sugar and the shot. I guess that’s all a personal choice. I did have a good time hanging out, I’m just not a believer in the eat, drink and get fat approach. I prefer to enjoy life and be merry.

My other favorite part of going out was watching all the smokers pool outside the establishment now that the entire state finally went smoke free. I understand it’s an addiction both physically and mentally, but after a while of spending half a night away from most of your friends wouldn’t you feel like you missed out on something?

Regarding getting up. I did make it to the gym today, even though spinning was cancelled I did get in my last full leg workout before snip and insert day. I made sure to do all the things that weren’t machines that I won’t be able to touch until sometime in 2009.

I do have my food planned out for my next two weeks on crutches. I even have a pot of soup frozen so I can heat and serve instead of allowing my non-cooking or unhealthy cooking friends and family from fattening me up too much while I’m less than mobile.

I really struggle with Monday. I usually break my workouts into parts instead of one clump at once. I never know how crazy the gym will be after work on Monday’s so I usually force myself to do the lifting before I go to work and save the cardio for prime time TV. I did get up for the legs, all presses this morning. I survived the office with packing a my lunch bag, topped off with cardio tonight. Much easier as the TV’s had the NHL on VS. and Heroes. Makes cardio go!

 If only getting indoor practice time for my team were this easy, I might actually be able to coach my team to use skill instead of playing all out defend against the better teams we face.

Oh can’t have everything.

Ok, I’m glad I made it to spinning class yesterday and then found the energy for a good chest workout. Spinning is the closest thing to running I should be doing right now. I don’t want to have to much swelling/inflamation going into surgery. Today is supposed to be my last day for all the NSAID’s with my pending surgery. Ice is my friend again. Definitely had a major eat whatever day as I ended my day with a post-coaching hawaian pizza split while watching the Pens v Islanders at the local sports/pizza joint with my hockey friends. The good part is I had fruit on my pizza and only had a small Coke. Beer and Pineapple are an odd combo.

I did make it through the entire chest workout and even fit some ab and tricep work. I’m trying to make this next week as fun as possible since I realize my mobility will be limited until around Christmas.

The winter grey is here and I was really thankful for soccer to be played indoor last night. My team never likes the cold weather and were extrememly mis-matched skill-wise last night. My team is basic travel team and they were matched up against a cup-level select team last night. They only lost 3-2 so I tried to explain to them that they played very well. It was the third goal that forced me to realize they needed to pull back and work on frustrating the other team as the other teams midfielders were all able to dribble through the defense. It’s always fun to tell a bunch of 10-11 year olds that our formation is going to change mid-game. I had no other options as my slower defenders were getting beat too easily by the other teams fast footwork.

I have added a yoga type static stretching warm up for my team as the facility we play at has no real warm up space for 10 kids on 8 teams at the same time. So far its worked as I’ve been using this time to reinforce what I expect them to do when they step on the field.

I’m really on a kick right now as I’m expecting lessened activity in less than 2 weeks.

1. Sticking to a healthy nutrition plan. I made soup again last night while watching the election returns.
2. Fitting in at least 45 min of cardio a day. I’m typically breaking my workouts into an AM and PM or lunch.
3. Hitting legs every third day. I need to have my right quad/hammy/calf combo ready for the new graf.
4. Coaching. I enjoy passing on my athletic knowledge to those younger. I’m also learning the importance of teaching others how to best utilize their individual players to create a successful environment for their players.
5. Oh killing my arms so they are ready for two weeks of crutches.
6. Trying to stay sane. . . .

Number 6 is the biggest challenge right now. I’ve stored up on DVD’s and TV shows I need to catch up on during the first week, however I need to reprogram my brain to take things slow all over again.

Here is my one election issue that I’m still not settled on. . .why is Healthcare an issue? Why do we worry about it in just terms of Healthcare? Living a lifestyle where I do my best to make sure I’m in good health, I get frustrated by all of our high cost health care issues. I’m hoping we take this health care issue to the next issue. Let’s create a nation of Wellness, not just health care.