What did I do now?

I've been a little off about posting this week, and for good reason!  Or at least I'm going to tell myself that.  You see, on Tuesday I put my car in a ditch.  It didn't seem to be that big of a deal, almost no damage to the car and I thought there was no damage to me.  I felt fine until I went to the gym on Tuesday night.  I first noticed that my knee didn't feel quite normal when I tried to stretch before class and couldn't lift my foot behind me to stretch my quad.  I knew it was my bad knee anyway.

Wait.  Back the truck up, we need some back story here.  In 2003 I had a pretty bad accident that involved me running an ATV into a fence post and hurling my body toward the ground at 30 mph or so.  The impact caused the bones in my leg to slam together, which in turn crushed my tibial plateau.  After weeks of waiting for the swelling to go down, the doctors put me back together with a cocktail of my bone stuff, some donor bone stuff, a metal plate and eight screws.  With about six months of physical therapy, I’ve been back to doing just about any activity I desired, including high intensity aerobics classes. 

Now, back to 2011.  Tuesday night I was stretching and noticed that something didn’t feel right.  I chose to ignore it and go through with class,  even when I felt a little discomfort while warming up.  Even when I thought I might be noticing a little more pain the usual I pushed through it.  By the time class was over my knee was swollen and I was having trouble walking.  But still on Wednesday I decided to wrap it myself and go to work.  By the end of the day the swelling had grown and was now noticeable in my leg and foot.  So Thursday morning, (after going to the dentist to get two fillings) I went to my doctor, who promptly sent me to ortho. 

Thankfully, the x-ray showed that there was nothing broken, and no problems with the 2003 fix.  Then we, they, the PA decided not to do any further tests that day.  After I left (with my Celebrex and Vicodin) I wished I had been a little pushier, since I’d really like to know what actually happened.  Instead I’m left to speculate with the help of my general doc.  Best guess is that when I hit the bank in the ditch my leg either crashed into the dash or door, or bent in a way that sprained a ligament.  Nice and specific, isn’t it?  Hopefully when I go back in three weeks I can be better about getting the information I need like; when can I go back to the gym? and what activities should I avoid? 

In the meantime my menu plan has gone out the window.  I am still hoping to make enchiladas, but it may get moved to next week.  I also just found a great sounding recipe for a way to use up the last of the leftover turkey, which obviously needs to be done soon so Sunday’s dinner may get bumped as well.  Maybe I’ll take advantage of this time of convalescence to catch up on some blog reading, blog planning and even writing!  Of course if my posts don’t make sense, I’m going to blame the pain-killers! 

Eat better and exercise smarter.

On Wednesday I mentioned a new fitness class I was attending. I’ve considered classes before, especially when I was shopping for a gym to join, but I’ve never been sure about joining a class because I was afraid I would fall behind the rest of the class. I feared my current size, shape and weight would keep me from “fitting in.” Frankly I was afraid I couldn’t do it. In the end, I decided to join a gym with a less expensive monthly fee that only offered cardio machines & weights.

Then a friend of mine at work came up to me and showed me a catalogue from a local community college. The college was offering eight week fitness classes through various gyms in our area for a price considerably less than a two month membership. After looking through our options, we decided to go for it and joined a Tuesday/Thursday class of Body Attack™ that began this past Tuesday. I have to say I was right about some things, but wrong about a lot. I was right to expect to find a lot of thin, athletic bodies in the class. I was wrong to think I couldn’t keep up. And sure, I felt a little out of place, but I found that you hardly have time to look around and notice the other people in the class because you’re working so hard. The first night, the challenge was learning the moves. When I got done (and more importantly when I woke up the next day) I didn’t feel that tired or sore. I realized I hadn’t pushed myself as hard as I might have, using the excuse that I was overweight and couldn’t handle it. But last night, I didn’t stop until I couldn’t push anymore. Even then I made sure to carry out all of the low impact/low intensity moves with conviction. I wanted to keep my heart rate up, I wanted to reap the benefits this class was promising! I know each time I go back it’s just going to get better.

So… imagine my defeat when I stumbled across this article this morning: Exercise is NOT the Key to Weight Loss by Jon Herring.  After reading this I went in search of more supporting evidence I traveled over to WebMD and found Exercise and Weight Loss: 5 Truths by Miranda Hitti.

Seems to me it still comes down to calories in vs. calories out. As explained by MayoClinic.com,

Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. So if you cut 500 calories from your diet each day, you'd lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). Exercise along with cutting calories helps boost your weight loss. Exercise is also important for maintaining your weight and not regaining weight. (click here for article) 

Personally, I use the POINTS™ system from Weight Watchers to track the amount of points I earn through physical activity and the amount of points I’ve consumed. It helps me see what I’ve worked for and then make a conscientious decision about whether or not I should eat those points or leave them. At least now I know why I crave Dill Pickle Potato Chips after Body Attack class!