Adrian for the win!

My husband has always been very supportive of my weight loss and he showed everyone just how awesome he is today :D

I was back at my usual Wednesday evening weight watcher meeting tonight after reaching my 200 lb loss mark last Monday in Fairfield. It was great to reach the goal, obviously, but it didn't feel as real until I told Joni, my awesome leader. She is the reason why I keep going to Wednesday night meetings even though with my schedule Monday nights would be easier. Her and the entire crew there- Carol, Judy, and Pam are fantastic too and always make me feel great weighing in no matter what the scale says. The whole dynamic of the group that goes to the meeting is so fun and it just doesn't feel the same without everyone there. Joni has said it before and she is so right. That's why you have to try out different meetings if you don't feel like you
"click" with your leader or group.


So....we are finishing up the meeting and Joni said she had a special activity and needs a helper and she asks me to come up front and sit down....and then proceeds to put a crown on my head and hand me a wand with a 200 star on it. I was in shock...it was a big celebration for me and my weight loss!! She gave a me a huge hug and when I turned around, there was ADRIAN with a beautiful vase of flowers and balloons!!! I couldn't believe it, I almost started crying I was so happy. Then she opened the floor for people to acknowledge how I have motivated them and ask me questions. It was awesome!! The ww team gave me an awesome ww power food cookbook with messages and signatures from everyone, including Mr. Bill (a previous receptionist). I love weight watchers and my husband is awesome! :) He emailed my leader so they could organize this whole thing- so fantastic! I'm so blessed to have so many supportive people in my life. Just earlier today I was feeling stressed and my sister was of course supportive and fantastic, as always. And I have so many other friends and family members that have been supportive of me the whole time. Much love! <3

Sometimes your body says no!

I'm really trying to embrace my motto every day- "No more excuses" but sometimes...it's not about excuses so much as just recognizing when I need a break.

As most of you know, I had a bad bout with tennis and golf elbow earlier in the year that really affected my weight loss. Heck, it affected my entire life. It was painful to open doors, go grocery shopping, lift pretty much anything... Not to mention my workouts were curtailed to an extreme amount because I not only had elbow pain but also a lot of neck and shoulder pain that made most high intensity exercise painful for solid 3 months. Imagine neck pain so bad that simply wearing a high impact sports bra felt like an elephant was sitting on the back of my neck. Yeah, not pleasant at all...

So about 3 weeks ago it flared up again beyond just soreness but started to really hurt again in a different way, but still painful. So I started up the routine again- icing, ibuprofen, and extended stretching. Thank goodness it's not nearly as bad as before and I've been able to continue working my legs and running.

I went to my doctor to get it checked out and he was worried about me having developed rheumatoid arthritis. After panicking during the walk over to the hospital, I had x-rays taken of my elbow- thank GOD no bone spurs or other evidence of arthritis. Luckily my doctor called with results within 24 hours- I'm so happy with this new practice I've been going to. I was seriously scared- that is not something I want to be dealing with, especially at 26. So I just started taking a joint supplement. I figure I beat my body on too regular a basis to not help it out a little.

To make my pity party that much worse I woke up Thursday morning (while in Pittsburgh) with the worst calf tightness I've ever had. It started as what I thought was just charlie horses but even after stretching the tightness only mildly calmed down. It basically felt like my calf muscles were rocks and just wouldn't relax. I skipped my pre-race run I had planned and stretched off and on all day that day and Friday....to basically no improvement. Emily suggested using a foam roller and Jen suggested heat- so I tried both when I got home Friday afternoon.


What an innocent blue foam pad this looks like- I never knew it could be used as a torture device! Thank goodness to youtube in it's all knowing power for showing me how to use it on my calves. After cringing and bitching my way through 30 minutes with this thing I wanted to throw it through the window and chop off my right leg.....but when I stood up, I realized it did help. It allowed me to find where the main tightness was and through some isolated massage my calves finally have calmed down. After limping for 2 days, I finally felt like I was returning to normal again.

But the end result- I totally bailed on the 5k Jingle Bell walk/run on Saturday. I could have gone and walked and hobbled my way through it but when I woke up and stretched my legs were still hating me. So after walking outside and realizing it was -20 deg I went immediately back to bed and slept another 2 hours.

And you know what? It felt bloody fantastic. I NEVER sleep in. But I came to terms with my body telling me to CHILL OUT and I did just that. It was glorious to be lazy for just one morning. I did drag my lazy butt out of bed about 10am and then stumbled over to the gym an hour later to foam roll, stretch, and sit in the sauna to heat my muscles some more. I did like 100 cruches so I didn't feel like I was wasting away and then walked back home- and could walk without limping! yay!

So today I did a simple fast walk on the treadmill for half an hour, stretched and enjoyed the sauna some more. Tomorrow is back to my normal routine (hopefully no pain!) with a killer workout with Emily. I just hope that this rest is what my body needed and it's ready to get beat again!