can I interest you in a shot?

not THAT kind of shot, though maybe that would help ;)

Nah...I'm talking about the wretched horrid kinda shot (like the one pictured to the right here) that will make a grown woman cry for her mama. Here's the deal...I'm still having mega hip pain courtesy of the tendonitis I somehow contracted (cuz it's a communicable disease, don't ya know?! haha) in my right hip 3 months ago. I've been on turbo anti-inflammatory meds for 2 months now. I don't mean to sound ungrateful to them...I know they have tamed the beastly pain on many occasions and some days they have even temporarily made the strain disappear. They are just not doing the trick full time AND they are not something you can be on full time because they have unpleasant side effects plus potential dangers. Lately, though, the ol' hip has been particularly bad. It's tender to the touch. When I sleep, I have to be careful how I'm laying down so as to not aggravate it. When I walk, I can feel a pulling sensation. When I run, it's magnified 20x. I push through it, don't get me wrong, but once I finish the run, I feel handicapped for the rest of the day.

Is there a solution? Tendonitis is kinda tricky because the best way to heal it is through rest, but when you are training for a half marathon (and then a full once the half is over), there really isn't time for rest, so then what?! I stretch, I use Epsom salt baths, I ice, I use menthol patches, and I use a hand held massager on it. All of these things help...temporarily...sorta like a band aid. My ortho offered up another solution...he said I could do a steroid injection. This kinda scares me and so it's been in the back of my mind, but only as a last resort. My mom has been encouraging me to go this route because she doesn't want to see me get further injured and because she knows I've had some residual effects of the hip pain (like overcompensating and thus ending up with left knee issues - it's a domino thing).

So, where does that leave us? I called the doctor today to ask a few questions. I wanted to know how immediate I would feel the effects of the shot, how long I had to wait before resuming physical activity, and how long I could hope this injection would cure my ailment. I'll be honest, I wasn't too terribly happy with the answers. I was told I will feel fabulous when I leave the doctor's office because of the numbing meds they will give me to not feel the pain of the shot itself. Later, apparently, it will hurt before it will feel better. Oh great. I was then told to lay off my running for a week or two. EEEEEEEEEEEK! A week or two?! This hurts me worse than the hip pain, y'all! It's like this giant fear of falling 5 steps behind where I am. I was also told that it can possibly cure the problem OR I might have to come back for another injection after a few months or a year. I'm trying to put things into perspective, though. Like...now is the time to do this...the nurse said they can squeeze me in next Wednesday (yay Cinco de Mayo) and that gives me a week to recover because I return from my vacation on Wednesday, May 12th. This means if I am feeling better, I can do a long run on that Thursday morning AFTER my trip (since I'll still be on vacation FROM WORK). If I'm not feeling well enough to do this, I can still hope for a Saturday or Sunday run.

So much for my last post and worrying about trying to get in the 9 miler before I leave for Mexico. Looks like I ought to go for the 9 this weekend instead...heck, I ought to go for two runs this weekend to make up for my extreme laziness (apparently called recovery) post injection. =/

I'm a sham (wow).

Don't I look all ready for my run? It's all a lie, I tell you. I'm a sham in the evenings, no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise. Why oh why am I incapable of a solid run after work, y'all?!

Remember a couple of blogs ago when I basically confessed to being a morning person and a night person and then getting lost in the afternoon? Okay, maybe I didn't word it quite so...normally. I'm pretty sure I said something about catching early bird worms in the a.m. and partying like a teenager at night and then being a grumpy butt 33 year old all afternoon long to compensate for the two extremes. Maybe my performance anxiety is as a direct result of this issue?

OR...maybe I just suck. Did we ever think about that one?

I would liken myself to a gazelle during my Saturday morning runs and an elephant during any weeknight run I've attempted. Okay...maybe not a gazelle because I'm so not that graceful, but you catch my drift. It couldn't have been the burden of the day upon my shoulders because it wasn't a stressful day. It couldn't have been that I didn't have enough energy (food) in my system as I typically run my Saturdays on either my South Beach pancake or H.E.B.'s Heart Healthy Whole Grain Oatmeal either in blueberry or cranberry. Today, I had my almond butter and sugar free orange marmalade sandwich on double fiber whole wheat bread for breakfast. For lunch, I had a South Beach tortilla with refried black beans, grilled chicken, 2% Monterey jack cheese, and light sour cream. Then I ate my Kroger brand Carbmaster yogurt. I didn't eat anything before I ran because my plan was to do 3.8 miles and I had a late lunch, so I wasn't hungry and felt that eating something would have made me want to throw up.

As far as hydration goes...well we all know I struggle with this, but I made an effort to drink throughout the day...probably not enough, but well it never really is, now is it?! Stupid greedy body! =P

Basically, I did 2 miles of running and then walked the remaining 1.8 miles. I just gave up. I quit. I'm a loser. I don't give up and quit on my Saturday runs. Why do I give up and quit on a weeknights? Why is it an option? It shouldn't be unless I'm hurt, for the record. I think I need an attitude adjustment. Where is Jillian Michaels when you need her??? She scares me.

I need to solve this issue STAT. You see, I leave for my vacation on a Saturday morning. This is bad for my training because I won't be able to get my 9 miles in. I figured out two possible solutions. Either A - I need to go to bed on that Friday @ 8pm to rise and shine @ 4am to go to the gym and attempt to do 9 miles on the dreadmill OR B - I need to somehow someway run the 9 miles after work on Friday night. Neither option is seeming very do-able right now given the fact that I've never done more than 1 mile on the dreadmill and that I suck at evening runs and that will be my first attempt at 9.

Yes, yes...I know I sound like a royal whiny mcwhiner. What are your struggles?

here we go a yoga-ing

Well, I yoga-ed last night. Wanna talk about 6 degrees of separation, but like a warped version that only I would come up with that doesn't have 6 steps and probably doesn't even make sense? How about this one for ya? When I first started my weight loss journey back in July of last year, I knew I needed to hit up both diet and exercise. At first I tried Zumba classes, but we didn't get along very well. Sure, it is a most excellent work out. Yes, I felt muscles ache I didn't even know I had. Most definitely I sweat my booty off, BUT it was stressful because I just couldn't get the moves down. I'm not so good at following the leader when it comes to anything dance-like. After that, I went to water aerobics. There, I "ran into" my biology teacher from high school. Isn't that odd?! She recognized me from like 18 or 19 years ago. She said it was my smile. Apparently I really know how to light up a room. She said she remembered me being a good student. I remember barely passing her class, but whatever. Anyway, our instructor was Marcia. Marcia kept trying to get us to leave water aerobics a few minutes early so that we could attend the yoga class with her. Yoga intimidated me, so I passed (as did everyone else). Then came the winter and I dropped out of water aerobics to pursue my running. The only gym time I do is either ellipticalling or bike riding in the wee hours of the morning. Imagine my surprise when the Monday night instructor couldn't make it, so Marcia was subbing for her. Imagine my disgust when my new yoga mat smelled like formaldehyde. There you go - I had a link to water aerobics in having the same instructor for both AND I had a link to both high school biology AND water aerobics with the formaldehyde...sorta. That's like a sign or something, right??? I need to go back for more abuse most definitely, right?! Not so fast.

I learned that I apparently have no core strength at all. I always knew I have terrible posture, but this was just like kickin' a girl when she's already down (cuz there are mirrors, so you have to witness just how bad it is). My balance is on the same level as a 1 year old who is learning to walk. Did I forget anything? Was there anything I was good at? Oh...I could handle the cow and the cat pose.

I did like all the stretching. I did find the music to be relaxing (when I wasn't stressing about not being able to do some of the poses). I also know that practice makes perfect and that improvement doesn't happen overnight, so yes...I will be yoga-ing again. I don't give up so easily, after all.

and I said to myself, what a wonderful weekend

What a wonderful weekend it was!!!!!!!!! Let's recap it, shall we?!

So you know that I hung out with friends on Friday in celebration of Greggy-D's 30th birthday because I wrote a whole blog about my pizza gluttony. =D

Here's the rest of what this weekend had to offer:

I woke up Saturday ridiculously early because I'm apparently an 80 year old early bird special in the mornings and a teenager who can stay up to all hours in the evenings. No worries, kids...it all evens out to a 33 year old grumpy ass in the afternoons. I was already dreading an 8 mile run on the dreadmill since by all accounts (ABC weather reports) it was gonna be raining all morning. Imagine my shock (and delight) to see that it was a most glorious, beautiful sunshiny day! No dreadmill for me! Do you think that my early to rise and shiny-ness meant an early run? No, no...that would just make too much sense and I'm not quite that logical so early with little sleep. Instead I pushed it and got a WAY late start. I geared up in my Nike attire (love that stuff), added a visor because I don't do well with sunglasses on my runs and I didn't want to be all squinty, and headed out for 8 miler #2. I decided to explore unchartered territory. You see, with my Garmin, I was able to leave the familiar 1.27 mile path and extend it to 1.85 miles by way of running around a lake that is an extension off the path. Just off the path around the fishing lake, there is a Greenway leading you to Collins park with softball fields. This one is a bit hilly, so that makes it a bit more of a challenge, but it was quite peaceful and this changed the distance to 3.8 miles. Honestly, it was just fun having a new path to run!

After my run, I had all of 20 minutes to drive to my house, take a shower, throw on clothes, and meet my family for family lunch which was at Red Robin this week. I opted to order their Lettuce Wrap Your Burger. It is a cheeseburger wrapped in lettuce instead of a bun and it comes with a side salad instead of fries. It was quite tasty. My mom and I were going to go see Disney's Oceans, but that was BEFORE it turned out to be an amazingly gorgeous day outside. I asked her if she would mind if we rain checked (ha!) the movie and if I came over instead for some fun in the sun (in the pool). She had no problem with that (yay)! I went home and got my dogs and went to my parent's house. Now you all know that Penelope is completely blind and she is still recovering from surgery. She gets scared outside of our home since home is her comfort zone (despite being at my parent's house millions of times). My mom told me to bring her because she wanted to work with her. So, I took Delilah outside with me to burn off some of her energy (consequently, when I get back from Mexico, Operation: Boot Camp Delilah begins) and my mom did her thing with Penelli. Later, my mom put Penelli down for a nap and came out and joined me and we had nice mommy/Kimby time! Yay!

Later, I went back to the house and caught up on some shows on my DVR, then took an Epsom Salt bath to kill some of my aches and pains. I then ice ice babied my hip (it needed it bad) and read some of my book. It was an awesome day!

Then came Sunday! I kinda tossed around the idea of running some this morning, but when I woke up (ridiculously early again) with sore thighs, I decided to bench that idea. Instead, I bummed around until it was time to get my massage. Oh how I needed those knots to be removed from my body and thankfully, courtesy of Sarah and her magic hands, they are. She has also been trying to convince me to try yoga - insisting that it will help my body to relax and not allow it to get so many knots. She succeeded this time because after I left her, I went to Target and bought a yoga mat. I looked up the schedule at 24 Hour Fitness and will be attending my first class tomorrow night. Eeeeek - I'm very nervous - this is VERY far outside my comfort zone.

After Target, I headed to Los Cucos to meet Amy for lunch. It's been a while since I've seen my Amy, so we caught up on our respective dating woes. It's tough out there, y'all. I really need to write a book - it would be a comedy (of errors). Then, of course, I got a work call and it required me to have to go up to work (thankfully work was just up the street from where we were eating). Then I went home, grabbed Delilah, took her to her vet appointment for her shots, then to my parent's house for more swimming. I also got to read more of my book - I'm loving it - it's called Secrets of a Lady by Tracy Grant. Then I hung out with the parentals for a while.

*Sigh* Too bad I didn't get any housework done. =/

How was your weekend???

I *HEART* Pizza

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore (for a big pizza pie, at any rate)! Pizza used to be one of my favorite foods, did you know?! I mean honestly, what's not to love? Depending on how you order it or make it, it's an all-inclusive kinda meal - all four food groups in one delightfully tasty treat. Mmmmmm.....

Being originally from Chicago, I do enjoy my Chicago style pie. Whenever we visit the ol' relatives, we almost always manage to sneak in some Lou Malnati's. The last 2 times I've been to Chicago, we somehow didn't have the time to partake in the gluttony. I can't say I was heartbroken as it probably would have been difficult to watch everyone eat it and that is definitely something not on The South Beach diet.

When I was in Chicago for my annual management meetings back in November, however, some of us were hungry one evening and so my brother ordered some regular pizza and had it delivered to the hotel we were staying at. I always admit that the only cheating I do on my diet is full fat cheese in restaurants versus reduced fat (since that is rarely, if ever an option). I ate the cheese/sauce off the pizza leaving the crust behind. That's the only "pizza" I've had since I started my life style change in July with the exception of my own little low carb / low fat / low calorie version I created.

I take a low carb small tortilla (either Mission or South Beach brand) and I add some diced fire roasted tomatoes (out of the can). I then add 2% Italian cheese blend, turkey pepperoni, and if I'm feeling a little zesty, I throw on some green olives. I then sprinkle a bit of Italian seasoning on top and throw it in the oven on 350 degrees until the cheese is all melted and the tortilla is all crispy. It may not be the real deal, but it's pretty darn tasty for a healthy-ish substitute.

My friends have all been AMAZINGLY supportive of my quest for a healthier me. They are soooo cute about always making sure I will have options wherever we are going to eat. It's Greggy-D's bday on Sunday (the big 30, to boot) and he decided he wanted an ol' fashioned pizza party at a place called Star Pizza down in Rice Village which we celebrated tonight. Mellie Bellie called me up on Thursday night to "break it to me". See...this is how thoughtful my friends are...they are worried about my diet when it's their birthday celebration. I pride myself on being quite adaptable, though, so I said no worries...I can always find something to eat anywhere I go. A few minutes later, however, I called my Meliska back up and told her how excited I was because while scoping out the menu to decide on a salad, I noticed that Star Pizza offers up a whole wheat crust option. Eureka!!! I can eat whole wheat crust, my little buttercups!!! Kim had herself some real pizza! What a delectable treat - a perfect way to celebrate Greggy-D's entrance into the wonderful world of 30 and a fantastic way to carbo-load before tomorrow's 8 miler part deux. I decided on the small veggie pizza and I only ate 1/2 (which was plenty). Broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, and zucchini were generously covering every inch of my pizza (I opted out of the green pepper since I don't do cooked peppers EVER). It was fabulous! After dinner, we walked over to an ice cream place called Amy's Ice Creams. They had such interesting flavors like avocado and lavender. Had I not been fully committed to my plan, I would have totally tried one of those just to be wild and crazy, but alas...I brought a South Beach Fiber Fit chocolate bar with me and ate that instead. Let's hear it for preplanning!

You know what??? The only thing that was better than getting to eat my yummy pizza tonight was the fact that I got to enjoy that experience with such fantasmic company! =D

cHoCoLaTe STAT!

It's been almost 10 months since I began my journey of living a healthier life - mind, body, and spirit. Believe it or not, the diet part has been the easy part. I have been in complete control since I embarked on my South Beach journey on July 6th, 2009....that was until yesterday. Something happened...I lost it! I had a food meltdown...well...sorta. Here's how it went down...

I was tired from having a VERY restless sleep the night before courtesy of a post-op Penelope. This made me VERY edgy at work all day long. Pretty much every little thing annoyed me and so there was this intensity about me that caused extra anxiety and stress. On top of all that (and this is totally T.M.I. and for that I apologize, but it's that time of the month. So, I wanted chocolate. I wanted lots and lots of chocolate. I'm talking extreme amounts of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory kind of chocolate. I decided that after work, since I needed groceries anyway, I would go to H.E.B. and peruse the sugar free cookie section for some chocolate decadence. What to my wandering eyes should appear, but countless choices of boxes of cookies with the serving size being ONE FREAKING COOKIE. Who just wants one little stinkin' cookie? What is that gonna do for me? I wanted to eat the whole bag. Forget the fact that the sugar alcohols would cause a whole new set of problems...I didn't even care...I wanted cHoCoLaT STAT! I couldn't go through with it, though. I then decided to head to the baking aisle.

There are these Guittard extra dark chocolate chips I adore (pictured to the right). The serving size is 30 chocolate chips and I treat myself to them every once in a while since dark chocolate is allowed on the South Beach diet on occasion. I grabbed them and hugged them to my body. I'm pretty sure I was coveting them, in fact. As I started walking up the aisle, it dawned on me that I was so out of control for chocolate that there was no way I could open up the bag and only have my usual 30. Heck, I wouldn't be able to have only 60. I just wanted to shove handfuls of the dreamy creamy happiness in my mouth and wash it down with ice cold milk. Nope...couldn't allow this, so I put the chocolate chips back (very reluctantly). I can have them another day...once I've regained control over this beast raging inside me.

Next stop was the pharmacy section where the diet bars and drinks are located. I was looking for something with whole grains (healthy carbs), lower sugar, and the ability to satiate this fierce craving. Then I saw it...a Kashi Go Lean Chocolate Turtle Roll. Was it the best choice? Well...no, I mean the best choice would have been a piece of fruit or a sugar free pudding or a low carb yogurt. Was it a good choice given the circumstances? Absolutely. I felt completely other worldly (and not in a good way) and instead of falling off the deep end, I reeled myself back in the boat with one serving of something that would not / did not / could not blow my diet.

Phew! That was a close call, y'all! =D

Post Surgery Penelope (my little Frankenpup)

sleeping in a very awkward position

total Frankenpup pose

Last night I did my preparations for Penelope's surgery. I removed the two dog bed covers for washing. I took Delilah's dog blanket out of her cage for washing, as well. Lately, Penelli has had some kind of curiosity about the cage that she never seemed to express before...I'm wondering if it has something to do with the security it offers. I vacuumed the rugs and swept the floors...nothing I don't do every week, mind you, but this time it was done with a sorrow in my heart and a tear in my eye. It's not like anything was going to be different with our situation...I mean her eye was not functional anyway...the damage was already done...the surgery will remove the pain. I know all of this intuitively, but well...we all know that rational thought and emotions don't always go hand in hand.

For the most part, she has adapted to her blindness very well. It's quite impressive, actually. I am the one who winces in pain whenever she hits a wall or a piece of furniture. I am the one who desperately wants to take her collar in hand and guide her through from room to room, but SHE is the one who wants to do it all by herself. The beagle is notorious for being a stubborn breed, but this is much more than that...this is survival instinct kicking in and her knowing instinctively that she MUST figure it out for herself. She doesn't give up easily, either, for that matter. On Saturday morning, she jumped off the bed and got very confused about where she was in the bedroom. You see, she always used to jump off my bed on the one side, but once she went blind, I have been training her to jump off the other side because there is a dresser on the initial side that makes me VERY uncomfortable. She kept running into the wall trying to get out of the bedroom and wouldn't listen to my encouragement and she wouldn't allow me to guide her, so eventually she just went under the bed to escape the bedroom. In some ways, her grand exodus made me laugh...in other ways it made me cry.

I took her to Eye Care for Animals yesterday to determine when we would need to do surgery. Initially her appointment was scheduled for Wednesday, but on Friday I called to request pain medication for her and for the appointment to be moved up because I knew that surgery was going to be needed this week. I could tell she was in pain. They provided me with pain meds which was a really good thing because when we went in for the appointment, we found out the pressure in her eye was reading at 58 mmHg. Normal range for dogs is 10 to 20 mmHg. This means she has been experiencing horrible migraine headaches. We set up surgery for today.

I dropped her off at 8am. Of course, I broke down and cried once I left her. It was that whole pathetic cry she did that put me over the edge...you know the one...the "I can't believe you are gonna leave me here...come back, come back" cry. I called my mom and she calmed me down. Moms are cool that way.

When I didn't hear from them by 1:45pm, I got kinda nervous, so I called them and they told me she was still in surgery and would be out soon and they would call me once she woke up. Around 2:30, they called me to say she was a bit dazed and confused, but all was well and I could pick her up between 4 and 5pm. In September, when we went through this same surgery with her left eye, she was insistent that a red Corvette in the parking lot was our mode of transportation home. She kept dragging me to that car despite all my efforts to regain control and lead her back to our navy Tahoe. This time around, she didn't have the ability to mandate our escape vehicle....I thought about scoping out our options, but alas...a security guard was circling the lot. ;)

I picked her up around 4:45pm. Dr. Millichamp came out and told me that on the flip side of this small mole that was on her eyelid, they found a tumor. He said while he was "in there", he went ahead and removed the tumor. He saved the tissues and they could send them away to the lab to find out if they are cancerous if I so choose. I don't choose to do that. There really isn't a point. It won't give me peace of mind to know one way or another as if it did turn out to be cancerous, I would not pursue doggie oncology for her. What gives me peace of mind is knowing that my one true love is no longer in pain and that the two of us can enjoy the rest of her years together, come what may.

***side note: they had to shave the fur around her right eye for the surgery which is why it looks so bad...it will grow back and she will look normal***