What I'm Reading This Week #13

Haaaa-deeeeeeeeeeee (Minnie Pearl style and if you don't remember who that is, you're probably at the wrong blog.)

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Welcome to the last Friday of March and Easter weekend.  I hope you had a great week and are ready for a nice holiday weekend.  The Mr seems to be finally turning a bit of a corner with his sickness.  He went to the pharmacy to get an official Covid/Flu test that are more accurate than the home tests so if he needed meds he could get them and thankfully just a cold.  Because he knows that colds for me are a multi week ordeal, he's been kind enough to take extra precautions and I've cleaned handles more than I did in 2020.  (I think the incentive is more that he wants his Easter bunny on time 😉)  

Now let's hop to:

A Quick Note About Recipes

Hey y'all!

I could've sworn that I had a recipe page here at one time but it wasn't until a former Sparkie swung by last week and asked if I had a recipe page that I realized I didn't!  😬  I went through the archives and pulled all of the healthier recipes and put them up on a page in case anyone wants them all in one place.

I plan to start doing recipes a little more when it pops in my head to grab a camera and I hope to remember to update that page when I do.  

If you feel so inclined, head over to the new Recipes page and give it a peruse!

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Visits and Wheel of Ick Weekend Recap

Goodbye weekend...we barely knew ye.  

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It was different.  We started things off by meeting my cousin but not where we agreed.  We were supposed to meet at a park but of course some light rain moved in.  This isn't an issue for us because we relish being in a park, umbrellas popped and alone because people are wusses and act like they're in the bloodline of the Wicked Witch of the West and will melt if a droplet hits them.  I got a message did we want to meet there or at their place since it's "rainy and gross."  Sigh.  I guess I know what the non-asshole answer is to that.  Sigh.  

What I'm Reading This Week #12

Howdy y'all and happy Friday.  I don't know about you but I'm ready for the weekend.  It's been an emotionally exhausting week on many fronts and I've got some stuff I need sorted out that will unfortunately keep me in that mindset until I get some paperwork together and in order.  I'm hoping maybe a week or so if I can push through but I'm not putting a hard deadline on it if I need an extra week.

After talking, the Mr and I decided screw Shrek, and I had my last appointment with him yesterday.   It was not pleasant as I told him from the beginning he is NOT to touch anywhere around my neck and that effer snuck one in quickly and I was pissed.  So even if I hadn't made that decision, that little sneak attack sealed his fate with me.  The fact is, he's not using the shockwave right.  He's using it over my socks and this man's ego will not allow you to point out that every single manual or video shows it being used with ultrasound gel directly on the skin.  I've never been able to get a clear shot of the name of the machine he uses but I know what the outside looks like and we found a version on Amazon that looks identical and was basically the cost of 4 treatments.  The Mr has wanted to use it for his shoulder so even if it's a piece of crap that breaks in two months, it's still cheaper than going to a schmuck that doesn't even use it right.  So I will go back to my guy and have him do the manual manipulation on the calves/feet and the Mr and I can do shockwave maybe three times a week.  I've got a shoulder impingement that is impeding my ability to get stronger and I'm hoping it can help with that too.  

Now let's help ourselves to:

Poof There It Went Weekend Recap

I hope you read that in the style of

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Good Lord, just when I thought a weekend couldn't go any quicker, there went ours.  It was all over the place.  Thursday, I finally found a place to book for my 50th birthday.  I wasn't going to do anything, we really can't afford it given the other places we're going but the thought of sitting here in our demon neighbor hell listening to barking dogs and slamming on a milestone birthday would push me over the edge.  It's already going to be a hard one.  The one I thought she'd be here for buying me joint and muscle cream, my first pair of readers, some smart ass card that I wasn't ready for when I turned 30 and 40 and told her 50 is when she could rag on my age.  I spent all last week looking for an acceptable place, away from people and it looked like we weren't really going to find it.  I couldn't help but think of hers because I remember planning her 50th birthday party for 9 months.  The secret emails, finding the perfect songs from her record collection to play, getting candies from her childhood to put on each table in baskets (people were talking about that for weeks), inviting people from high school, co-workers new and old, friends and family.  I know I won't get that and honestly, without her, it doesn't feel like the way I always thought it would even if I did.  So I found a place with a horse farm in the front yard.  The Mr and I were happiest when we had to quarantine at a place next to a horse farm and it brought us a lot of peace.  So here's hoping it's peaceful and not a sweltering hot minefield of horse manure since that seems to be default mode over the past year.  That relieved a good amount of pressure that we were both under and I never want to look at VRBO again.

Weekend Recap Coming Tomorrow

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Kind of in a mental spot right now and don't have the brain power to throw together a post right now so I'll see ya tomorrow.

Happy Monday!

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What I'm Reading This Week #11

Top o' the morning to ya, this Friday before St. Patty's Day. ☘️  We're halfway through the month somehow so if you had beginning of the month goals you wanted to meet in an area of your life, are you still on track?  I had my deep tissue massage with a woman who used proper pressure this time which was awesome.  I still could've stood a little more but it was good and I'll likely go to her again.  I had my appointment right after with my chiro, not Shrek.  Since his office is right next to the shockwave dude, I had a post-it ready and when he closed the door I flashed it.

"FYI - you have set the bar for chiropractors unreachably high..."

He smiled- I flipped it over.

"Are you SURE you don't do shockwave therapy!?"

He laughed and said he loved it and how I kept it on the downlow.  I showed him the pain drawing I presented the brute and said "if I'd come to you with this, how would you have proceeded?"  He said it very obviously looked like a posterior chain issue and stemming from my usual trouble spots.  He said while my plantar fascia is affected, he didn't think it was presenting as plantar fasciitis.  I asked if the shockwave was a waste of time and he said some people respond really well, other people it does nothing or very little.  He said it can't hurt but he wouldn't go past the 6-8 typical protocol.  He had me lay down on my stomach and checked my calves in the exact way the brute did only two days prior and told me they were absolutely fine and said "oh wow, yeah...LOTS of adhesions in there."  I KNEW IT!!!!!  I knew I wasn't crazy.  He did some release on my problem areas, where I ASKED for it with the other guy, and then asked if the other guy was adjusting my feet.  I said no, so he did my ankles and I told him I was going to finish out the shockwave with the other dude then come back to him.  He said he was going to look over my x-rays at lunch and because the other one was out the beginning of the week, I would go back to my guy and have him work on me again then do my next shockwave Friday.  That'll be #4 under my belt so 2-3 more after that.  I'll schedule those and tell him that I'll see how things improve.  I DO NOT want him adjusting my ankles.  The LMT told me she'd been adjusted by him a few times and he was aggressive and she hasn't been back.  When my guy asked how it was going I raised my eyebrows and shook my head and said "he's a bit aggressive" and he smiled and said "I get that feedback a lot from people who toggle back and forth between us."  So yeah, my time with that schmuck is limited.  I will say that after our walk, I didn't have quite as much pain so I'm hopeful my guy will get me where I need to be.  

Now let's get to: 

Struggle Bus Midweek Check In

Happy hump day everyone!  I hope your week is going well.  

Y'all.  I don't know what da heck is up with this week but it can kiss my dimpled azz.  Saturday just really got to me and Sunday was the first time in 5 weeks I didn't drink my 25 oz water before getting out of bed.  It set a tone because I didn't reach my water goal for the day either which was about 30% less than it should've been.  I didn't do my bike that day either, which is optional Sunday anyway but still.  Monday wasn't a whole lot better on the water front coming in at about 80% of my goal.  That was mammogram day for me and vein day for him.  I had to laugh at the tech who was 67 years old and politely let me know she wasn't going to do the amount of pressure I requested and how she never heard of such a thing.  Really?  Have you heard of unnecessary callbacks, lady?  Have you been on the receiving end of them twice and gone through the death spiral for a few days??  But that's not why I laughed though.  She told me I've obviously lost weight since the last time I was there which I knew that wasn't true and said "why do you say that?"  She said the contour of my boobs were different and showed me the difference from last year to this year.  Well my sweet friend, after checking, I'm actually up 13 lbs from last year so time for you to head to the eye doctor.  (The sneak peek at the comps allowed me to see all is well on that front.)  I'm guessing it was the droopy arm fat area that really gave her the tip off but its less desirable to say "I see you have a built in bat suit from weight loss."

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Roller Coaster Weekend Recap

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Where da hell da weekend go!?!  My weigh in got me ZERO and unfortunately, I wasn't shocked by that given the sheer amount of inflammation and pain I was in from that assknuckle adjusting me.  Is a chiropractor supposed to literally huff and puff after he's tried to twist your back into submission?  That guy did.  I'm going to have to tell him tomorrow to back the hell off.  I had the worst nerve firings afterward in my thighs and I've never had that before.  It kept me from sleeping and I can't take anti-inflammatories because it basically voids the shockwave response.  I finally relented at 3am and applied magnesium foam only up top so I could finally sleep.   I know he's trying to open the SI joint but I'm not down with forcing it to the point my heart rate is 113 BEFORE I even go in when I'm usually at 62.  The only good to come out of it is he's out Friday and said I could go to my guy (I'm sure he's tired of being reminded I was his patient first) to keep working on the joint.  When I was checking out, I told her I needed to coordinate an end of week trigger point massage with MY guy at the blessing of Shrek and the only thing we could coordinate was Thursday when Shrek is still in but if you think I'm missing that opportunity, you're nuts.  I saw him come to get another patient and he smiled and said hi to me (I wasn't sure he'd remember me since it's been over 4 years) and I swear I almost cried!  So my thought is to walk in and say "are you SURE you don't know how to use the shockwave machine???"  I'm going to ask if he's looked at my file at all yet and hoping he says no.  If he does, I'm going to show him my little drawing I gave to the other guy and say "let's pretend I didn't go next door for shockwave therapy and I came back to you to show you this.  I want to know how you would approach treating this."  I want to see if he immediately goes to the SI joint also or if he sees the trouble I've been having with my calves and says those need addressed.  My goal is to get the shockwave stuff out of the way, see how much insurance is going to charge for this stuff since we're on a different plan now and make my way back to my guy.  In the meantime, I'mma BEG him to learn the shockwave or get his own machine.  I hate this other schmuck but I have no choice but to go to him for the shockwave therapy so I have to continue seeing him whether I like it or not.  He's supposedly worked on the back of many big name rock stars but guess what, I don't give a crap what Metallica wanted, I would like you to actually listen to what I'm telling you.

What I'm Reading This Week #10

Well heidi ho there virtual neighbor and a happy Friday to you all!  I hope this isn't too riddled with typos as my proofreader fell asleep.  I had my appointment Monday for deep tissue massage and shockwave therapy.  The massage was weak.  I hate when tiny little people are LMT's.  When I say I want deep tissue, I mean you'd better be doing some friggin' digging in there and getting some adhesions on their way.  Oddly the most painful part was her touching the tops of my feet which felt like she was ripping the skin off.  I told her politely that wasn't comfortable and she was like "okay" then proceeded to do it again several times on each foot.  I thought 'you know what, if my heel goes into her face, I warned her.'  So I will never mention my feet again.  

Then it was time for the chiro.  Sadly, my chiro does not do the shockwave therapy which I'm incredibly upset by as I trust him implicitly.  The guy who does do it has always given me a super creepy vibe and is one of those dudes where if they reported on the news he had bodies in the basement you wouldn't be the least bit surprised.  He was 20 minutes late which didn't start things on the right foot with me.  I gave him a little drawing I did and he's like "where did you get that?"   I said I made it and I find it easier to explain things when there's a visual.  He was one of those people that is hard to read, has a dry sense of humor, likes to quiz you and these are all things I'm not a fan of.  He wasn't quite as creeper-y as I viewed him before but I made it clear I was NOT there to get my back cracked, I'm here for the laser...please drive through.  He started babbling about how plantar fasciitis doesn't usually present in both feet (funny...the 1,587 articles I saw said it can and does) and it's usually a problem higher up the chain.  I said if it was too high up the chain, we were done because nope, not cracking anything above the hips.  Again, I felt like he (along with the previous week's schmuck) was NOT listening to me when I told him I've had problems with adhesions in my calves.  He felt them and said one was a little taut but they felt fine.  Funny, I've lived in this body for 49 years, they're not fine.  The next thing I know, I'm getting a lower spine/hip x-ray.  

One Month of Our New Plan Under Our Stretched Belts

Well, it's officially been a month since we started back to regular tracking and a new to us approach.  The approach was basically taking 11% off of our TDEE maintenance calories, making sure we got in a gallon of water per day (for a woman who could barely choke down 16 oz of the stuff, this was quite the goal), making sure to get in at least a walk on high cal days as well as cap them.  We also tried to make a 100g per day protein goal if possible.  (That was about a 30g jump for us which can be harder than you think.  By no means were we wanting to resemble anything keto.  Not our thing.)  We got a cheap but well reviewed smart scale that gave us our body fat and other metrics.  I have to say this was CRUCIAL determining our starting point for TDEE maintenance calories.  Without it, if we hadn't had that metric, we would've been 500 calories off which would've been catastrophic.  

Road Trip Goes South Weekend Recap

G'day all and a happy Monday to you and yours!  Let's get into this recap, shall we?

Friday night we were trying to decide what to do for the weekend.  I got roped in by some rando account to save a featured pizza place that visually reminded me of Peqoud's in Chicago.  Since we were doing the usual hem and hawing I blurted that place out.  He agreed, and we decided on trying the final location of a bakery that may or may not be similar to his childhood bakery that closed unexpectedly two years ago.  Okay, sounds like we've got us a road trip!  I looked on Cronometer and logged what I figured we'd have based on pics to get an idea of calories and off to bed we went.  There's one problem with that.  When I am thrown into a last minute travel situation, I get anxious, regardless of how close it is and my body laughs at the idea of sleep.  The last time I looked at the clock was 5:30am and I woke up at 7:30am.  Awesome.  The Mr grabbed the mail from the day before while I got ready and what would be the only highlight of my day came...

What I'm Reading This Week #9

Welp, we made it y'all!  Tis Friday and the first one of March.  It's been a full month back on track and trying to make new habits.  I'll do a separate post on my thoughts on everything there but we're continuing these habits into the new month.  I did up my step goal to 7000 this week M-F.  When I say steps, I'm combining both steps from workouts as well as floor bike.)

These were our workouts for the week:

Sat- walk historic old town (13,900 steps)

Sun- LIIFT4 Legs 50/50

Mon- walk at park (+floor bike) (10,800 steps)

Tues- LIIFT4 Shoulders (+floor bike) (8400 steps)

Wed- WATP 3 miles (+floor bike) (12,000 steps)

Thurs- walk park (+floor bike) (11,500 steps) 

Fri- will be floor bike only aiming for 7000 steps

Next week we will add a chest and tri's workout after a walk.  Both of our strength ability has suffered greatly from the break we took from strength training and it's still nowhere near where it needs to be.  The Mr has to hook my bra for me my left shoulder hurts so bad.

I'm still struggling quite a bit with the plantar fasciitis and locked up calves so I'm basically forced into medical intervention because my own methods are not working at a pace I'm happy with.   After getting hit with deposits for this year, our property taxes being due, insurance being due all within the first two months of the year and now the Mr's second half of his leg vein journey about to begin, pennies needed to be saved where they could.  As I looked up shockwave therapy for PF, my IG feed started to get ads for intro rates at various chiros in the area.  At $200-250 a pop that is NOT covered by insurance, if you think I'm above traveling to a few different ones to see what doc I like best, you'd be wrong.  So I have looked up the average amount of time for sessions to make a difference which can be 3-6 and have scheduled 3 of them, having done the first one on Wednesday.  I'll sit through what is the equivalent of a timeshare pitch for a $49 intro rate for a session.  I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for Monday then two more shockwave sessions the next two Wednesdays.  This stuff has been available in Europe for like 10 years and our jackass healthcare system is like 'nope, it's experimental.'  SERIOUSLY!?  I'll likely have to schedule one or two more massages in there to break up the adhesions from my off balance gait as well as the fall I took last May on vacay where both of my shins hit and I think it began pulling everything downward as it laid bone over the shin injuries.   Just praying between the two it does something.  I can't take the pain anymore and feeling like my body is putting a lot of energy toward healing (slowly) and less on my weight loss.

Edit:  That's how it should've gone.  How it actually went?