Why Knee Pain was Such a Blessing

Knee Brace like mine

I am a self-help book, life coach fanatic.  I listen to and read Martha Beck, Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Iyanla Vanzant, and Mark Sisson (although he wouldn't call himself a life coach) to name just a few.  I've come to learn a very important lesson.  Listen to your body.  Today I was listening to Martha Beck's Follow Your North Star, and a lesson that jumped out at me (among many others) was that your body is the best tool you have to tell you whether or not you're on the right track.  You always have it with you and it gives you such detailed information if you listen to it.  And although feeling ill or in pain might not feel like a blessing, your body is trying to tell you something.  And if you listen, your life might change for the better.  I had an "Ah ha" moment when she discussing this.  For some reason recently my knee has been giving me slight twinges of pain.  It's okay because I know that my poor choices in diet, although they are getting better are bringing on some old pain from an injury a few years ago.  So when I was listening to the audio book, the knee twinge was happening and it brought me back to when I hurt it.  I ran two half-marathons in my life.  The first was with Myia, and since paddling was getting super competitive we decided to make running our major choice of exercise.  We did a great job of slowly building up to higher mileage and I think 10 miles was my longest before the half-marathon.  Those runs felt amazing, I always felt super energized afterwards and my body felt great.  I was also skinny and not having any knee pain at that point in my life.  My plantar fasciitis was also in remission at this point.  I ran the half-marathon, but I think I started off too fast, probably it was the excitement of the crowd of people and it being a race.  So I think I ran the first half and started to walk and then did a walk/jog to the end.  Not too bad.
The next year (or the year after?) Ananda and I did the half-marathon, same course in Kailua.  This time I had run a few times, but definitely didn't train like I had for the first one.  I hadn't felt like it.  I was still paddling, so I was exercising, getting in good cardio, just not running.  That year the half-marathon felt great! I obviously didn't win it or come anywhere near the top 25% of runners, but I ran the whole thing at a reasonable pace.  Of course at about mile 10 my knee started to hurt and I "ran through it" like us athletes are wont to do.  Needless to say, my knee never fully recovered.  A combination of not running enough and not stretching enough (try ever) really put stress on my knee.  I would start running again to get back into shape then every time my knee would hurt I would stop again.  I started to regain weight.  I went to a podiatrist who had no concept of sports injuries and told me I would never run again.  So I didn't for a good 6 months.  I rested, I swam and hiked some, I wore a knee brace and I searched the internet.  I finally figured out that I had a common injury among runners that we get when we overtrain with running.  Our muscles in the legs get super tight and if we don't stretch them out enough (or at all) it ultimately pulls at the tendon's hold on our knee.  Now I know about it, but it never totally goes away.
So why is this a blessing?  I would have told you to shut the hell up if you had told me it was a blessing in disguise or some such nonsense at the time.  I might have used some expletives and most likely would have flipped you the bird.  Today though I realized that it ultimately has changed how I exercise.  And how EFFICIENT at exercising I have become.  The first exercise I got into that didn't hurt my knee was kickboxing with Master Smith at Smith Taekwondo in Kaneohe.  That was freaking awesome!  Those workouts were some of the best in my life!  I tried to get all of my friends and my mom to try it out.  I was in super good shape, muscular but not bulky and so strong!  And I only went twice a week.  2 hours a week and I was super fit!  The only problem and ultimately why I changed sports is that I didn't actually want to get in the ring with people and fight.  I had absolutely no desire for it, I only wanted to workout for fun, but I felt like I was being steered in that direction.  Next I tried Taekwondo at the YMCA.  That was super fun, but it wasn't competitive enough.  I started to not look forward to going to the workouts and started to gain weight.  It wasn't as efficient.  I went to two 2 hour classes, but I didn't get as much out of it.  I got my orange belt and quit.  But I was on the right track.  Right now I'm doing Crossfit.  I'm not married to it, but it's hitting me on all levels of motivation, efficiency and fun!
If I hadn't hurt my knee I would have continued to depend on running as my main source of exercise.  It kept me skinny basically and gave me enough of a cardio workout, but it took so much time!  I felt like I had to run all the time to stay in shape.  And my knee wouldn't allow me to do that anymore.  My knee being hurt led me to figure out how to gain the most benefits from exercise without working out forever.  It also led me to Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint and his theories on how much you need to exercise.  I don't follow anyone on faith alone, I have experimented and have found that it's true.  Lift Heavy Things twice a week, Sprint once a week and as much as possible throughout the week, Move Slowly.  Also throw in Play whenever possible.  So much more fun and I spend way less time "working out" then I ever did.  I feel like I'm having a good time.  Even if I'm not looking forward to Crossfit cause I'm tired or cranky or it's early in the morning it's such a short workout that I can just tell myself to get it over with.  (Afterwords I'm always in a good mood and energetic, but it gets me going to look at how short the workout is.)
Conclusion:  My knee told me I was doing the wrong thing for my body.  I was overusing one form of movement.  I needed to find more efficient exercises.  It led me to less time working out and more time having fun.  (It now also tells me "no seriously, cut the grains out of your diet")

What is your body telling you?  Will you listen with patience and love instead of judgment?  Could be the best thing you ever do for yourself.

Fitness When We Feel Like It

Isn't it funny how we will talk and talk and talk about how great our fitness is while we're doing good, but then when we're not doing so great, we sit silent.  If you're wondering why I have not blogged in so long it's because I haven't had much good to say.  I had surgery on my left ring finger on February 15 and was unable to use that hand for a good 2 weeks.  I'm not sure why I didn't blog about the Swamp Romp that 5 of the ladies and I ran on February 20.  It was freaking awesome.  Keysa and I made iron-on shirts for our team the Bacon-Wrapped Squatches.  I made bacon belts by painting on red pleather that I happened to have lying around.  I also made Anna a cape from a sheet bought at Salvation Army.  The course itself was 5 miles through the mud and swamps at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base.  Tons of fun.  Got very dirty.  I simply wrapped my hand up in a plastic bag and used my elbows to leap over obstacles. 
After the swamp romp I did run a few times, and Keysa, Anna, and I, plus now Ananda have been doing our own modified version of a crossfit workout on Sunday mornings.  Mostly though, I've been eating too much junk and drinking lots of alcohol.  It has been fun, and I don't regret it, even though my belly is now straining against my pants again and the acne on my face has exploded in numbers. 
I am making a commitment from now until the Warrior Dash at least to eat better.  Not strict paleo, but primal again.  I can go back to crossfit on Thursday and maybe even Wednesday depending on how my finger feels.  It makes a huge difference when you've done a hard core workout.  When your muscles are all sore like mine are, from the workout we did yesterday, it is a constant reminder that you're trying to eat better.  My snacking today has been a minimal after my big egg and veggie breakfast.  Plus the only thing I brought to snack on was water and dried dates.  You can only handle so many of those, ya know?  I am going to finish off my Zia's leftovers from last night for lunch and then when I hit the supermarket later I am going to be very picky with my choices.  The chips leftover from the superbowl are finally almost gone and I don't plan on replacing them.  I may look into buying some kind of rice snacks.  I know for sure I can't handle wheat.  I am so addicted.  I can't have pretzels, I'll eat them all.  I can't have bread, it sets off this chain reaction in me to search for any kind of food with sugar in it.  It's kind of crazy.  I feel like I should find a Grains Anonymous group to get some support for my problem.  I seriously should start counting the days like a true addict.  My name is Mary and I am a Grain Addict.  It's been __ days since my last slice of bread. 

Crossfit Makes Me Want to Barf, Or Maybe it's the Alcohol

Keysa and I hit up Crossfit Kailua again this morning.  I was worried it was going to be the same old workouts, but I was wrong.  Very wrong.  Luckily I think when the guy in charge sees people that have been there before he is going to mix it up a little.  That's good and bad news, because today we did Burpees, Thrusters and a run with the damn medicine ball.  They must do the run with the medicine ball to get you to not ever want to do an intro class again.  It's not the run itself or the weight, it's the size of the damn ball.  There is no comfortable way to hold it while you run.  So you shift it from side to side, put it over your head and on your shoulder... Hold it behind your back and two hand it in front of you, it's really just a mess.  I could barely do any thrusters and burpees, maybe cause I'm a wuss or maybe cause of the amount of nasty (delicious) food I ate last night.  Maybe both.  Before we started I had a stomach ache.  While we were exercising, I wanted to vomit.  Afterwards... yeah, still wanted to vomit.  But the thing that's cool is that you're in and out of your workout pretty quick, dead tired, you know you worked out, there is no question about that.  I'm sure it will make me better at Tae Kwon Do, unfortunately I can't afford both.  This is one of those times I really wish I was rich.
I ended up going to Crossfit on an empty stomach this morning, which was a good idea, cause I probably would have barfed.  For lunch I had some of my delicious slow cooked chicken stew.  I really need to practice getting the bones out of it though, cause I thought I did a good job, but I keep finding little pieces.  There's nothing grosser than chomping on a bone in your soup.  Also, today I added some Red Hot hot sauce and Primo Taglio Cheddar Cheese.  Quite delicious.
I also had a chance to Skype with my beautiful sisters, Anna and Arin and Arin's fiance Andrea.  And their dogs.  And took my dogs to the vet for their "pedicures" (read- nails trimmed and anal glands expressed) and bathed 'em.  Good day so far.

Yoga

I'm going to round out this week with a yoga class at the Y.  It's been a while, hopefully I won't embarrass myself too bad.  I am the proud owner of some new t-shirt yoga pants I made last night, though, so it shouldn't be too bad.  I may stop at the Salvation Army afterwards and grab some more XL or XXL t-shirts.  These pants are super comfy and only took me a little while.  I've got to field test them today, then I'll make a few more if they're good for stretching.  I didn't even finish off my edges.  Last night when shopping I picked up a 90% cacao chocolate bar.  I had one square of it and that was perfect.  It's just bitter enough that you don't want to down a whole bar, but it satisfies that craving.  I'm starting to enjoy a lot of my food in much simpler form.  My coffee black, my chocolate more and more cacao and less sugar.  A good rare steak, a burger with a fried egg on top.  Veggies with salt and nothing else.  This year has been an awesome wake up call for me, to pay attention to my food and what exercise I'm doing and WHY.  I've learned to question conventional wisdom in all of it's forms, from what popular doctors say to do or take, to what religious leaders in different religions tell you to do, to what the government tells us to eat, to what exercises are good for you and why.  I've been questioning everything and trying to get to the root of it.  Why is it important?  Do I need all of this excess?  Is there a way I can simplify it and have it be just as awesome/tasty/effective?  Turns out most things in life can be way simpler and just as great.  Okay, on my way to yoga.  Have a great afternoon!

Update: Yoga was cancelled because the instructuor was having a tough day.  She was crying and I can only assume that something happened recently, she thought she could teach the class, but she was crying and couldn't do it.  So, I hiked the pillboxes.  I did the whole thing on my own for the first time, all the way around to the end of the Loop and back to the parking spaces.  The pants were fine except that if you are going to use t-shirt pants for hiking/jogging/running, you will want to add a tie to the waist.  As I got sweatier the pants got a little looser and they started to fall down a little.  Not too much, but enough for me to be hitching them up every once in a while.  The fold of material held my keys well when I rolled them up.  I ended up rolling down the waist band a whole bunch so I could pull them up easy every time they sagged a little.  Good pants, great I'm sure for yoga, some modifications necessary for running/jogging/hiking.

Here's where I got the initial pattern

Day 11 of Challenge

Well, the magical quality of my challenge is long past.  The first couple of days there is usually that psyched up feeling of yeah, I'm doing something awesome!  Then there's the next couple of days where your body changes if your challenge involves any big difference in health or diet.  Then the plateau comes.  I have hit that point.  The other day I couldn't help myself and had a taste of this cake from Costco.  That was the only time I've broken form in the past 11 days.  Otherwise, I've been doing really great.  Now it's just same old, same old.  The magic is gone.  At least I don't have dreams about eating cake or cookies or milk like I used to back in January.  That was rough!  Anyone who did the original Whole 30 challenge with me in January can attest to how horrible those dreams are.  The guilt!  I don't have that anymore.  I know that if I eat something like that my life will not end.
This latest challenge, I have discovered over the last few days, is not actually about eating 100% paleo or strict anything.  It is a way for me to learn how to eat healthy and remain that way at a stable pace.  This past year I have gone from strict paleo and skinny to alcoholic binge cake eater and 140, and up and down, and up and down... and now I'm trying to even it out.  I want to learn how to eat awesome and not be an asshole.  That means that sometimes your office will have something like Boss' Day, spend a lot of money on a cake, and be offended if you don't eat some.  Usually that would result in me being an asshole and refusing any, or having a small piece, and then a bigger piece, and then a BIGGER piece and then go home and drink and snack because, what the hell, I ate bad all day anyway, didn't I?  On Monday I had a small piece of cake.  It stared at me for the rest of the day because we had a meeting in the room with the cake.  Then I had another small taste, and then... I stopped.  I went home and ate some almonds and raisins.  I made my planned steak and salad dinner.  I didn't raid the fridge for dessert, although I have some 86% chocolate in the freezer for those times that I'm feeling a little desperate.  I have maintained and I think that lesson is even more important for me this time around then losing a lot of weight because I'm eating better.  I don't want to be the yo-yo dieter.  I want to always eat awesome.  But I want to be able to have a gin and tonic or a glass of wine.  Can I have both?  I think it's probably possible.
The other thing I've noticed over the course of this challenge is that, unfortunately, it's looking like Tae Kwon Do is not enough exercise for me.  Last night I had what used to be an intense workout for me and today I'm not tired or even slightly sore.  I'm no masochist, I don't enjoy the pain post-workout, but let's be honest, I don't want to be semi-in shape.  I want to be really in shape.  I'm thinking that I am going to test for my orange belt in November, maybe test for my green belt in January.  By that time I'll definitely be done.  I might not even continue after my orange belt.  I may switch to cross fit.  I don't really want to be that guy that changes sports like they change their underwear, but the truth is I need to find the right sport that meets my standards.  It needs to be a hard, challenging workout.  It needs to keep me entertained (nothing really repetitive or boring).  I need to have some friends with me.  And I need someone (a coach) to tell me what to do.  So far I haven't found any sport that has met those standards.  I would love it if my friends wanted to do volleyball or Tae Kwon Do, or Kickboxing, but they don't.  I love Tae Kwon Do in general, but it's often not challenging enough for me and they don't compete.  Which is good, cause I don't want to get punched in the head, but at the same time, I need something to push me forward.

The Jungle Gym

Didn't write this morning because I was too busy out and about being awesome.  I made a spur of the moment decision at 6:15am after a brief dog walk that I should go for a run.  I donned the vibrams and took off.  The sun was just rising and I decided to sprint as fast as I could to the closest park.  It's only about 2 blocks away. I then proceeded to kick the jungle gyms ass.  I creamed the monkey bars with my pullups, whipped the castle bridge with my squats and climbed the shit out of the swirly ladder.  The swings took a total beating with my super pumps (aka swinging on the swings).  I climbed a tree, planked and pushupped, dive bombed from a bench and leapt over the chain link fence.  After that I got a quick sip of water and tore off down the road back to my cave.
Get off your ass.  This workout was superfun.  I'm exhausted, all of my muscles are sore, I got to work on time and I'm in a great mood.  Highly recommended.

P.S.- No animals or jungle gym equipment was actually hurt during this episode.

Quick Lunch Break Blog

So, today is my birthday. I did not lose the weight that I had been hoping. I know this is because I didn't really make the weight loss a priority. I allowed myself to eat junk and often. I continue to make myself lunch and have stayed consistent for breakfast. It's still that point of time between work and paddling- and then dinner and dessert. I eat a lot of calories at those times. I have consistently been tracking my calories. I got off track for a few days this week, but went back and filled in the calorie counts. I'm sure it's not as accurate as when you fill it out the same day, but this is the most consistent I have been with calorie tracking ever. I have been known to give up very quickly. I like my training log and how simple it is.
For my birthday I asked Nate for running shoes, and he got me a good pair. I also got a few pairs of really great fit-dry running shirts and shorts. I should have splurged for a bra. I will probably do that with some of my birthday money. I am going to put together a birthday hike instead of a birthday party. That way even if I eat a ton of cake, it won't matter quite as much. I'm not sure which hike I want to go on yet. I'll have to look a few up and see what looks best.
Goal for this week-
Drop back down to 138 (from 140)
Run two times in the morning.
Schedule- Tonight- paddling, Thursday- running (early morning or afternoon), Friday- paddling, Saturday- no workout, Sunday- OHCRA Championships!, Monday- paddling and running after practice, Tuesday- running (early morning or afternoon)

Running Times

Quick post for today. Wanted to report in that I have not, I repeat, have not met my goal of drinking one bottle of water every day. How pathetic is that? I am renewing this goal for the upcoming week. I will drink water every day.

Denby and I ran the Lanikai loop yesterday. I clocked us at 26:43. That's pretty good for my second run around the loop in a while. We started and finished at the boat ramp. I'm going to continue to clock us so I can see if we're making progress.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to take a picture of Titus today in his new life jacket. Yesterday Nate and I took Titus down to Hawaii Kai during low tide. We bought him a life jacket that has handles on the top, so you can actually pick him up out of the water. We put it on him and had him swim, and he actually did really well! He didn't struggle like he usually does, the vest held him up so he could paddle. He usually panics, and has hated swimming for that reason. Plus, I don't think he's very buoyant. Anyway, I have to take a picture of him in his swim gear, it's really cute and really, really funny.

I took a picture of Titus in his jacket!

Here Nate is showing how you can pick him up with the handles.