Sunday, September 20, 2009

Listening and crunching numbers

As human beings, we are made up of mind, body and spirit, and those three bodies work together to keep us in a state of wellness. They communicate to each other in a language that is beyond words, and when one becomes imbalanced through a deficit, it sends up warning signs to the other two bodies through things like pain, illness or extreme desires. Wellness is a matter of listening closely to the signals that each of these three give . Simple enough on paper, but in real life it can become hard to do because of actions and activities that make up our role in this thing we call life. Such may be the case with my knee. Yesterday , after a day of rest it was alright until I stood still on it for more than 30 seconds, and then it rewarded me with shooting pain. Considering I did NOTHING to bring about this painful condition, I am rationalizing that perhaps it may be my bodies attempt to tell me that I should be focusing on a different kind of exercise. While walking is good, it does not address the area of my greatest need, which is my abdomen. It is seriously out of shape. It never was in the greatest shape in the fist place ( Think abs of Charmin), it got seriously compromised in a year with two major surgical procedures ( exploritory surgery and a C Section involving a vertical incision) and a pregnancy involving an 11 lb 14 oz , 23 1/2 inch baby. Volume wise, he could have been a respectable twin delivery. These things have left my abdomen in a serious state of...well lets leave it to say not good. It puts pressure on my back , which then throws out my spine and joints, causes issues with every organ below the waist AND makes it difficult to find clothes to wear. In the buisiness of life , when I get time to exercise my mind screams walk, and I do. Perhaps my knee is trying to remind me that I really need to concentrate on something else. I have heard belly dancing moves can be excellent for toning this area. I think should investigate these through YouTube.

Breakfast yesterday was the house Saturday favorite- oatmeal with toppings. Old fashioned oats with brown sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon, olive oil, almond butter, goji berries, ground flax, crasins and coconut- 400 calories. Coffee with creamer accompanied for another 35- so 435 for the meal. I have my meal allowance set at 466 calories and snacks at 300, so this is on target.

Lunch was grabbed and brought home to make a semi homemade meal that was fast. A McDonald's grilled chicken sandwich, a fat free sugar free medium iced coffee, carrot, celery and two hydroponic cherry tomatoes for 530 calories. The iced coffee put it over at 90 calories, but I was really needing a lift and I really like the taste of McDonalds coffee ! It did not blow my day though. Sub total so far 960. At 2000 calories, a respectable level.

Afternoon snack was a honey crisp apple, snack pac pudding and 100 calorie pack of almonds.I was not completely hungry, but I knew I needed to snack to keep my metabolism constant. These 290 calories were the planned way to do this . 1250 for the day so far

Dinner was another "love dinner" for my son and I . Hubby was at the wedding, and son and I did what we could to make the evening special- it's a tradition in this house. Dinner was a grilled cheese on a Thomases Lite muffin, Terra Chips, celery, carrot and broccoli, a cup of homemade veggie soup and a raspberry shortcake made with 2 desert shells, a cup of frozen raspberries and ready whip. The dessert was his choice, and a far better one than his old love, gelatto ! This meal came in at 600 calories, mainly because I still had so many to go to get to 2000 calories. By the time we finished I was full and kind of tired of eating, but at 1850 calories I was going to need a snack later. Perhaps the fact that this meal had so much fiber in it factored in that feeling.

Later in the evening I was getting a little rumbly , so I grabbed the planned snack for the night, except I grabbed the wrong brand of fiber bar. 260 for this snack combo, which put me at 2110 for the day. I am not going to worry about it because the weekends tend to be a little higher in calories and activity than the rest of the week , and according to the menu plan most of my days are going to be closer to 1850 than 2000, so it will balance out through the week.

2 comments:

Denise in NE Ohio said...

hey Di, my son tore the ACL in his knee and he was standing still! Just suddenly fell to the ground with stabbing pain. (well, he was playing bball but says he was just standing at the moment the pain hit) Specialists wanted to do surgery and said he couldn't do sports like snowboarding etc...they were wrong. He had nothing done but wore a brace for about a week. He's been fine ever since. could this be your problem?

Di said...

It is possible, but after mucking about with belly dancing moves and finding instant relief to my knee, I think the cause is a nerve being pressed on because of bad muscles in my back and stomach. I can relate to your son's knee injury doing nothing- I broke my foot stepping on the gushy part of an empty bleach bottle ! Weird things happen when things in the body line up just "right" sometimes.