5th wheel out for fun

I wrote an entire blog about my night out last night, my Whole30 sins and plans for my last day off.  

Don't you hate it when your hard work is just deleted magically.  

Well, it included Tera, whiskey, bacon covered shrimp and meal plans with my kids tomorrow.

I just hit the highlights.

The picture above reminds me of my friend Tera if Karen was blonde and only waving a finger.  

Don't be jealous.

Blog on...............

Almost Normal

Yesterday was a great day!  I felt almost normal.  I'm off narcotics so I was able to drive today and get a few errands done.  It's tricky driving but I'm cautious.

I had a late breakfast/lunch but it sure was delicious!

A bed of spinach with FOUR pieces of bacon, 2 eggs and some hamburger with onions and peppers.  

Total Whole30 and completely delicious.  I had a hard time finding the right bacon that was nitrate and sugar free and I finally found some today so I bought 4 packages.  It should last me until Saturday.

Wednesday I made my 3rd batch of almond milk using my nut sack (teehee).  I added some unsweetened cocoa and the result was pure heaven.

I also made a smoothie with the almond milk for dinner.  Not the ideal Whole30 meal but I was craving something cold.  I used sunflower seed butter and some coconut milk so I got some fat and protein.  I also added lots of spinach, to give me some veggies.

Whole30 is going good and I'm feeling great.  I'm tired of some of the cooking and decided to go ahead and eat as many fruits that I want.  It doesn't end up to be too much and I don't think I'll have any problem finishing up the next two days.  After my 30 days I'll recap and reveal decide what my future nutrition plans.  

I was able to clean my room and move on out to the couch for any rest. I ran some errands and then rested my foot.  Then I spent some time catching up on little things around the house.  It felt good to not be in bed all day.  

Icing on the couch.

Waiting for my ship to sail.  :)

I also blew up my new stability ball!  Yeah! I'll start working on upper body and core work today at exactly one week post op.  I don't want to completely loose all my strength.

She's a beauty!

Overall my foot feels fine.  I get a twinge of pain occasionally but the pain is actually better then before the surgery.  Of course I have my foot completely immobile so that helps.  After they unwrapped it and I just had a sock on I felt like my arch wasn't being supported like it has been for at least the last year.  So of course I put my SOLE insert into my boot and it has been feeling great.  

ALSO...big day, I know.  I went to REI to cash in my dividends check  (4 bucks baby) and use my 20% off to get another set of inserts for my new shoes.  I'm set up for the day I can start transitioning out of the boot.  

Do you love smoothies?

Which ones are your favorite?

Blog on...........

Followup

Yesterday I went to the Podiatrist to get my post op visit.  

Podiatrist

It's the only picture I have of him.  I'm sure he'd be thrilled.

Sitting without my boot waiting to have the dressings taken off.  

After they take off the dressing they wash your foot.  Easter theme - I like it.

Then I paused to take pics.

If you look closely on the right lower pic you can see the ONE stitch that I had.  He took it out and steri striped it.  

So far so good!  I'm following his instructions to the T.  I will wear the boot constantly for another week and on next Friday (two weeks post op) I can take off my boot for one hour one day, the next day 1 1/2 hours and so on.  While I have the boot off I need to have a good stable shoe (Already have them with NEW inserts) and take it easy.  I will go see him again after I've been integrating walking for one week.  I'm thrilled so far and he stated that he found a lot of scar tissue right where some of my worst pain was and was able to remove a lot of it. 

I know your dying to ask.  How do I sleep with the boot?  I switch to my old PF boot that I can't even walk on but the positions my foot perfectly.  It's clean and helps with the ick factor.  Sleeping with a boot on is less the comfortable but I'm willing to give it a shot for a while!

Modern Medicine.....amazing!  I'll know how well it worked in the next two months but not having pain every day is a start!

Blog on..............

That's a lot of days

Let's just make this very clear.  Laying around is not my "deal".  If I ever become a narcotic addict that just lays around and watches TV then you can safely assume my body has been taken over by aliens or even worse, I'm a zombie.  

I'm really not cranky, I'm just not comfortable.  My stomach hurts and I really want to get up and do stuff.  I did walk around Costco once and was able to re-supply my Avocado's (YUM!) and eggs (essential!).  I've moved to just ibuprofen, which has controlled the pain just fine with some ice and rest.  I'm also on my last set of new jammies. It's actually a nightgown.  Loving them.  

Biggest reason I want to stop taking narcotics/percocet.

Sorry, I just love this picture.   Hahaha

She does look distressed AND lady like.

credit

We all know this!  Or do we?  OK, I'm sure there is a soul without a soul (just kidding) that has never been constipated.  If you have never then this is how it feels:

credit

Luckily things are "moving" OK for me, but the slight case I had with the first 3 days of narcs set my happiness back 5 days at least.  How drug addicts do it, I have no idea.  Maybe I should start selling Colace on the down low....

Lets move (teehee) on to a better subject.  

Whole30

I made this last night and had plenty of leftovers for today.

 Sweet potatoes and mushrooms

Hamburger, onions and peppers.  Of course I added Curry, it's my favorite spice right now.

This month has gone by pretty fast.  Sticking with the Whole30 is much easier when I am busy and can stand for long periods of time.  It does take a lot of prep but the hardest part is my snacking.  I'm laying around, watching movies and taking narcotics.  That is a trifecta for snacking.  I ate too many nuts, fruits and the worst was dried fruits.  They were so good and I love to snack.  I don't think it's fare to completely judge the month long challenge today but I'm glad I did it and will keep up until Sunday.  I enjoy the idea that most of the food I'm eating is organic and fresh, the one thing I don't like is the limit that I have with fruit and I have a hard time with snacks.  

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My daughter came to visit me after work.  She rides her bike, I provided her with some reflective gear.  The vest is a classic from previous Ragnars.  Fits over lots of layers of warmth.

I also took lots of pictures of my messy room. Thank god for a king size bed.  Plenty of room for snacks, videos and clothes.

I'm thinking of painting my standing mirror to match the dresser.  I'm also not all the way done with decorating....or am I?

Do you snack more when your bored?

What is your favorite snack?

   Popcorn.  I could eat it for days.

Blog on...............

Day 24....day 2...

Today was pretty crappy.  I don't want to be negative but craptastic was pretty much the theme.  

I feel much better now that I had a bath.  

I

It gave me the chance to actually appreciate my tiny little old house tub and having long legs.  Is this the way I'm going to have to bathe for the next 2-3 weeks?  Well, at least I can stay fresh.  Fresh is good and fresh makes me less grumpy.

Plus my breakfast was insane it was so good.  Leftover beef stew with two eggs, over easy on top. 

I think it's impossible to keep the grumpy's away when your on your 4th hour of CTS.  CTS's are learning module's that I have to do for flight nursing.  While they are informative, we do the same ones every year.  It's how you feel when you go to skills day every day (if your in nursing) for forever.  Plus it teaches me about things like hypoxia.  Hypoxia?  I better know about that.  

So I did a little facebooking while I watched.

But I did learn how keeping fit is helping me with my job.

Boom.

Whole30.

It's going OK.  I'm sticking to the foods I'm suppose to but I've eaten way too much of the nuts and dried fruits.  But that was just for about a day and a half and I'm cutting it back down now.  I made lots of stew and warming it up and serving it over lots of fresh spinach is amazing.  

Foot.

It's fine.  It's better then I thought it would be.  It's difficult to lay with my foot up for so long, but that part is almost over.  I've started halving the one pain pill I was taking every 5 hours and I will probably be off all narcotics by tomorrow.  I'm not a big fan of them.  They give me night sweats, I can't sleep while I'm on them and well, that make everything STOP.  Constipation.  Yep, I said it.  So irritating.  

Kitchen Sink

It clogged up as it does about every 5 years.  I had an awesome company come out and he gave me a 50 dollar discount so I only had to pay about 285.00 to get it all cleaned out.  I mean really, I am growing money in the back yard!  But at least I was in town.

Great things did happen today (besides a bath).  I started watching Arrested Development last night and today I finally understood something that I just didn't get before!  

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6858255

Team Never Nudes did a video that I watched and I just didn't get why they were called Never Nudes and wore jean shorts.  AHHHHHHHHH

Do you watch Arrested Development?

Start right now if you don't.  

Then you will understand and you will laugh.  If you don't laugh....you are having a horrible day.

Overall I'm doing just fine.  I'm a little lonely.  I had a great friend call me last night and it made my day.  I've had multiple texts that have been helpful.  

I've watched 5 movies and have 3 to watch tonight.  I still have some homemade almond milk left and plenty of Kombuchi to keep me "regular". Plus a few more seasons of Arrested Development!  

Tomorrow I'll blow up my new stability ball and start some upper body work to keep things TIGHT!  I only have 6 more days of WHOLE30!!  This will be easy and I'm thinking of having one day off and to keep going.  Why not?  I love the food and it's great for me!  

This post is really all over the place, but so is my head.  Maybe it's the cute new jammies. 

Yeah, I'm bored and getting a decent picture with new jammies is a challenge.  

What is your favorite Netflix show?

I watched Mad Men and now Arrested Development.

I get worried about getting addicted to a show and spending too much time watching it.   It is nice to have something to watch when there is nothing else to do!

BLOG ON...........................

National Ab Month Recap

Better late then never....or is it out of sight out of mind.  

More of out of sight out of mind with a splash of guilt.  

I really do like challenges.  My favorite saying, "Challenge Accepted".  Thanks Barney Stinson.

Thinking I need this shirt.  Stat.

My ab month went OK.  I feel like I did my Ab work just about everyday and I even tried a couple of new Ab workouts.  The most disliked workout was the Victorias Secret Ab Workout.

The reverse crunch was just miserable and some of the moves seemed to have too few reps of some and too many of others.  I may have just been having a bad day but I threw the workout away.  

My favorite new workout was with the stability ball.  

I bought a ball for up in Rock Springs for my ab workouts up there and last week I bought another ball for my house.  

The challenge itself wasn't my biggest highlight but I did work hard to try and do SOMETHING every day.  A lot of traveling, stress and super busy work schedule didn't help.  But then again, doing these challenges help us get in better habits.  Lets face it, life just gets crazy!  Running and working out seems to be the thing we don't do when we get busy when in all reality it should be the first thing we do.  It doesn't have to be a huge workout, but getting some exercise during the day, even when I'm super overwelmed always helps! 

Another thing I need to work on is pictures.  I can hear ALL my friends saying in unison, WHAT???  I do take lots of pictures but I have such a hard time taking pictures of myself or more specifically my abs.  I would have liked to have seen the progress and how it helped.  I know it did, but it's hard to tell without before and after. 

The same thing with the Whole30.  I weighed and measured myself on Day 1 and will at the end, but it would have been nice to have pictures.  I guess that will be another challenge!

As far as Whole30 goes, I'm on day 24 and I've done great!  Not a cheat!  Not even really tempted.  The house doesn't even have cereal, pasta or bread in it anymore.  When I had my surgery yesterday my son was able to bring me good Whole30 food.  I had chopped up lots of veggies and made some meat the night before so there were options.  

Yesterday I threw this in the crockpot:

Nom Nom Paleo's
Beef and Tomato Stew

This is her picture off her website.

Oh yeah, it's going to be delicious.  I got the recipe from the Nom Nom Paleo recipe app.  Mine is cooking away and I can't wait to taste it.  It smells heavenly!

What's for dinner at your house?

Do you struggle with challenges?

Blog on............