INJURED!!!

I'd like to blame everything but myself for being unable to run for at least three weeks. Truth is it's probably a combination of things, both my own and outside factors. I've been running weekly for a year now (usually 3-4 times per week). I've added cycling on my off days the last two weeks. I wrecked my bike the day before my event this weekend scraping up my left side and bruising just about everything.

The day started out fine. No pain, no worries....this 5k obstacle course was going to be a piece of cake. About half way through dodging the zombies my foot started to feel achy. I chalked it up to my shoelaces maybe being a little too tight - no big deal. About half way through, however, that ache got worse and worse to the point where it was throbbing at the finish line. I quickly changed out of my drenched clothes and trail shoes and noticed immediately the red area across the top of my foot. Something was definitely up. No sooner had I removed my shoe than my foot started to swell. Not good.

I iced and elevated for two days and when it wasn't any better on day three, I went to sports med. Three x-rays and $50 later and they can't "SEE" anything, but the doctor still thinks it's a stress fracture and wants to do an MRI. Well, I'm still paying for two surgeries and hospital stays from 2011 and am not about to pile on more debt now that I'm also taking on student loans. I turn down the MRI and take my chances. He says no running for 3-4 weeks. That much I can (reluctantly) do, but I will continue to walk and strength train. I've come too far to backslide my progress and with my Super Spartan a month away I can't just give up on exercise now.

The hard part is my schedule. I have Mudathlon this weekend and another obstacle 5k next weekend. I've invested too much into these and don't care if I have to walk the whole thing. I'm hoping I can immobilize my foot enough through bandage and KT tape that it won't worsen my situation. I can't recommend doing what I'm doing, medically speaking. For me, however, the heart of healing is the spirit as well. Optimism and determination go a long way in healing and if I'm to get better I can't be confined. I NEED to be moving, to be active, in order to be happy. Let's just hope my stubborn attitude doesn't extend my recovery time.

A Little Bit Off Normal

In today's world, "normal" is a vast inclusive range in which the vast majority seems to fall and yet feel excluded from at the same time. "Normal" refers to our happiness, our job, our family life, our diet, our weight, our hobbies, and the list goes on and on. One thing that is quickly becoming evident in my journey to being fit is that what doctors and lab tests call "normal" may add up to something completely ABNORMAL.

Case in point, I've had insulin issues for the last decade. Not diabetes, mind you (although my grandma is diabetic), but my body makes too much, dubbed "hyperinsulinemia". Because there's too much in my bloodstream, the body has become "immune" to receiving it and efficiently processing the glucose it is there to convert (insulin resistance). In any case, modern medicine's solution was a glucose inhibitor frequently prescribed for diabetes. Again....I'm told over and over that I do NOT have diabetes but have had to take it for the last decade.

In addition to the blood tests to find out that little gem, I was also put through tests for thyroid and cortisol. Both came back "NORMAL" but in the low range of normal. So what does that mean? I was justified in feel off - fatigued, losing my hair, stressed out, knowing my body was "off" somehow, but lab tests still said it was within the fringes of what medicine considered normal. So, I accepted the professional medical opinion. I resigned myself to the outlook that while it was low it was still "normal" so I was find and was just being overly sensative to feeling "off". No matter how little I ate or how much I exercised the weight just would not budge.

Fast forward to today. I had my metabolic assessment at Lifetime Fitness. A little health and fitness test to determine where your body is in health and the best track of diet and exercise for you to pursue. What I found out is that over the last year of dieting and exercising, I have managed to reverse my glucose and insulin issue through diet & exercise rather than relying on pills. I have lowered my cholesterol and triglycerides to low and healthy levels. In fact, the only issues that remain are my HDL and adrenal function are low. The fatigued, stressed feeling holding me back originally is still the thorn in my side.

I've read the symptoms and natural remedies out there and I'm hoping it will be manageable by further altering my diet to focus on increasing lean protein and further limiting carbs, but all these years of trusting a doctor telling me I was "normal" has led to it being the one thing holding me back. I hope that I get these two numbers where they should be and the weight just starts melting off. I hope that it will be the answer that "normal" doesn't always mean "normal" because it would be an amazing accomplishment to show that modern medicine in all their over-priced tests and prescriptions couldn't fix what old-fashioned hard work and self-reliance is able to correct.