Twenty Days of Silence

My last blog post was 20 ago, and so much has happened since then. Well, OK, nothing exciting. But lots of little things. I will only write about three tonight. Deal with it.

I graduated physical therapy. After several appointments and consecutive days without pain, I had my final appointment. They didn't officially discharge me in case I need an additional appointment or two when I start running again, but I have no more scheduled appointments. As much as I enjoyed those 30-minute torture sessions, I'm happy to have a little more free time in my evenings and return to regular workouts. On that note...

Because I'm accident-prone, my therapist and I agreed it would be best for me to participate in their bridge program. Where I go to PT is actually a dance studio, a PT office, and a personal training center all under one roof. Therefore, I can start working with a personal trainer who has direct access to my PT records and my therapist, who is right there in case something starts bothering me during a session. And even better, my insurance covers $150 of the $200 fee which gets me eight 30-minute sessions or four 60-minute sessions. I opted for the eight, and my first session was supposed to be last Thursday...

Except last Thursday, I started feeling horrible. I didn't get to work until 10:30 because I felt so awful, and when I did arrive, I was soaked through my clothes in a cold sweat despite driving with the windows down in the 30-degree weather. Clearly I had a fever and had no business being at work. I wrapped up a project and left around noon, and proceeded to die for the next six days. I thought it was my 17th sinus infection, but it just kept getting worse. I had every symptom imaginable - sinus congestion/pressure, sore throat, runny nose, headache, fever, chills, fatigue, body aches, cough, no appetite. I spent the entire weekend in bed. But when I woke up on Monday, the pain was also in my chest and that worried me. So I made a doctor's appointment and fortunately it turned out to be from the coughing - my lungs were completely fine. She said I have the awful viral infection that's been going around and that antibiotics would be useless. I told to keep doing what I'd been doing - Sudafed, Mucinex, ibuprofen, cough drops, Vicks VapoRub, vaseline on my Rudolph nose, and lots of rest and fluids. I woke up this morning feeling like hell, but was finally able to get myself going.

I finally returned to work this morning at 10 (mornings are hard when you can't breathe for the first two hours after waking up). I had no itention of working the whole day but I started to feel a lot better as the day went on. I am now stuck with a runny nose, brutal post-nasal drip and thus a mucus-y cough, but otherwise feeling much much better. However, I originally rescheduled last Thursday's training session to tomorrow, but I don't want to end up sick again this weekend, so I postponed it until next Thursday. Let's hope nothing comes up then!

I normally feel really guilty when I miss work, but not this time. This is the sickest I have been in a long time, and I knew I needed to take care of myself. I can work through a cold or when I'm really tired, but this was a lot worse than that. It doesn't help that everyone has been really negative at work lately, so I honestly didn't want to go back. But I did want to feel better, so there ya have it. I am so looking forward to a four-day weekend this week. Thank you, Easter Bunny!

Speaking of the Easter Bunny, I gave up meatless Lent 10 days early. Yup. I don't give something up for Lent because I'm a practicing Catholic (I'm not anymore). I give something up because I like to test my discipline  And well, five weeks of no meat was long enough. On the first day I ate meat, I had antipasto salad and buffalo chicken. The next day, I had a gourmet cheeseburger. And the rest is history. I still don't eat meat every day (I follow meatless Mondays), and I usually eat salad for lunch, either with tuna or no meat, and I'm usually so tired by dinner I eat something small. So it's not like my carnivorousness (carnivorism?) is out of control. I just got sick of not eating meat when I like eating it, and usually make healthy meat choices. I can't wait to indulge in some bacon this weekend.

The 40-Day Vegetarian

I don't consider myself a practicing Catholic anymore. Religion just doesn't fit into my life, at least not right now. I do work for a Catholic school (where being Catholic or even Christian is not a requirement of course, that would be illegal), and I enjoy some of the traditions. Lent being one of them.

I have given up something for Lent for as long as I can remember. I'll never forget the year I gave up candy, sweets, chocolate, and ice cream. I was tiny back then, yet I still lost about 10lbs, which was actually disgusting to think about - losing 10lbs in only 40 days from cutting out sweets? Someone has a sweet tooth. Anyway, that was probably the hardest Lent give-up I've ever done. This year is likely to be harder.

I have decided to give up meat and poultry for Lent. I would never become a vegetarian for good. In fact, I don't think there's any one food group I would ever give up. I believe in everything in moderation. However, I'm trying really hard with food and exercise and not seeing the results I had hoped for yet, so I decided to give this a go.

So starting tomorrow - Wednesday, February 13 - I am abstaining from meat and poultry (beef, pork, and chicken are the only types of meat I eat). I am still going to eat seafood (fish and shellfish), but obviously that will get old if I eat too much of it, so I bought tons of beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, and vegetables over the weekend. Now I need recipes! Please share.

Note: If you're wondering why I am still eating seafood, the reasons are simple. First, I've giving up meat for Lent. For Catholics, who abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, meat is defined as land animals only. Also, I am not confident enough in my cooking abilities yet to rely solely on legumes and tofu for protein - I feel like I would cave in and eat a cheeseburger if I couldn't have fish. Besides, the fish I eat is very healthy and rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

I had fasting lab work yesterday for my annual physical on Friday. I peed in a cup and had a few vials of blood taken, so I'm sure she'll be looking at my lipids (cholesterol & triglycerides), blood sugar, CBC, thyroid (duh, we know those numbers already), etc. Hopefully my cholesterol is good, but it skyrocketed after I started taking a beta blocker for my rapid heart rate caused by Graves'. I haven't had it checked in two years, so I'm anxious about the results. My diet for the last two months has been quite good, so hopefully that's offsetting the medication's effects. And hopefully I can start weaning off the medication as my exercise intensity increases and my resting heart rate drops.