Some Random Happenings

It seems like every time I get on track with exercising I have some sort of physical set back. Maybe I jump into the new regime too quickly, choosing to do that exercise four times a week, or maybe it’s just bad luck. Whatever it is, it’s annoying. I hate that my body can’t keep up with my mental determination, because as we all know, that mental determination doesn’t come around often and when it does, it doesn’t always stick around very long.

Last Wednesday, my ears hurt. Like hurt to touch. It wasn’t an ear infection type of pain; it was more of an outer, physical pain. I couldn’t put my finger into my ear. I cringed when I turned my head because it pulled on my ear and shot pain through it. I decided it was because of my ear plugs. Ever since I got my swim cap, my ear plugs have hurt my ears. It’s because of the way the cap lays on my ears. But I thought I had fixed that problem by no longer covering my ears with the cap. So when this pain came on suddenly, I thought it was just my ears adjusting to being so beaten up by the cap/plug combo.

But the pain just got worse and by Saturday morning it was affecting my hearing. Hannah stayed over Friday so we could go to the Farmer’s Market in Ligonier (which was amazing even though it lacked in produce), and she suggested going to MedExpress. I was going to go, but I was going to go later, after she left, because we all know how boring those urgent care (or emergency room) waiting rooms can be, so I was thrilled when she was willing to wait with me.

Turns out I have a bad case of swimmer’s ear. I got ear drops with steroids (to help the swelling), and was told no swimming for two weeks. My goodness. I was hoping to ease myself back into running, and it would have been easier to do with other activities to rely on, but now swimming, my “safe” exercise, is no longer safe! This happens quite often with me. A few summers ago I got into a really good exercise groove and then hurt my back doing ab exercises in a kickboxing class. The summer before that I was bicycling all the time and in the midst of people telling me how great I looked (which meant the exercise was not only fun, but effective!), I hurt my foot in a weird gas station incident and I could no longer bicycle. I just don’t get it.

And to make things almost worse, I twisted my ankle yesterday during my bike/fishing trip. It was pretty painful at the time, but it feels okay and there is no swelling (other than the usual). But since that makes a pretty good segued, that trip was pretty cool. I think I will have a decent amount of poison ivy (next time I will wear pants with my bathing suit underneath for wading in the water to fish), but even with that it was pretty cool. We rode about 14 miles overall and stopped 3 or 4 times to fish. Clay made some cool rod-holders that he attached to our bikes, so we looked pretty official. I didn’t take my camera, so I have no picture to share, but they sort of look like this:

As for the holiday eating, I failed miserably. I thought I did okay, as I didn’t use all my extra weekly points, but when I evaluated what all I ate, I realized I didn’t do very well at all. Some of my disappointments included a large (and delicious) pepperoni roll, a large amount of (again, delicious) macaroni salad, and two ham and swiss stromboli pieces. Now, the swiss cheese was low-fat, but there was a lot of it in each piece. And then, the most ridiculous food-related decision I made this week, was getting a hot fudge sundae last night, the night before my weigh-in. Granted, it was fat free custard and sugar free hot fudge, but I was not hungry and had already had a 2 PP Fit and Active chocolate bar, which satiated my need for anything sweet. But I got the sundae anyway, because I couldn’t say no. Argh!  There were successes, too, and I am proud of myself for them. One major one being that I went to my parents’ house on Friday and didn’t eat like a jerk. I made a salad for a snack (usually I would have went for the leftover pizza in the fridge). I even jogged a little bit with my four-year-old niece. She did pretty good.

Today is weigh-in and I know I gained. I weighed myself this morning, when I always weigh the least, and even then I was up a pound from last week. But I will accept it and move on. This week I will get in at least two runs and two bike rides. Today will be a running night, and I will not let myself get hurt this time, dammit!