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So, if you’ve been following the twitters you know that my delightful husband, The Engineer, was away on business last week and while away, he injured his knee and had to have emergency knee surgery in Colorado Springs, CO. The surgery was on Sunday, he flew home on Monday and I’ve been watching over him since then.
Well.. yesterday we took him to his first PT appointment and our wonderful PT ( I mean it… WONDERFUL. LIVE SAVINGLY WONDERFUL) decided that before he did any work on the Engineer’s knee, he was going to has him checked out for blood clots. They say that there are three things that cause clots (besides lifestyle choices): Injury, Surgery, and Flying. The Engineer had done all THREE in the last 72 hours.
Thank God we had him checked out and had an ultrasound performed because they found that the two big veins behind his knee were completely blocked with multiple clots. Had they not known and he performed the PT as prescribed, they could have loosened a clot and .. well.. we won’t go there.
So the day that was suppose to be a 2 hour PT appointment turned into a 8 hour trip ending at the ER.
Here we are… we know there are blood clots in the knee but we’re still up beat. I mean.. the check-in to the ER was so smooth and quick!!
He decides to test out the floor space in the triage room. At one point he was even using one of his crutches as an “air guitar”.
It’s all fun and games until:
- The ER doctor gets stern with you and your husband for not taking things seriously
- You’ve been in the ER for 4 hours and the last time you ate anything was 6 hours prior to that
- It’s cold, your tired, your husband is tired and uber cranky, and you just want to figure out what’s going on
Finally, the ER doctor told us that since the clots are below his knee, he at less of a risk of having one migrate to a vital organ than if the clots were above his knee. They told us to wait until the admitting Doctor came to check on us to release us.
TWO hours and 2 Buddy’s BBQ plates for dinner later, he finally got released.
They put the husband on blood thinner, gave him strict instruction to “TAKE IT EASY” and sent us home.
Where we are now. Cleaning up the DRV and taking it easy.
I promise.. I’ll try to do better …. with this whole blogging thing.
Until then.. Wordless Wednesday… because it’s cheap and easy.
I'm sorry.. were you using this??
Buster.. as a baby!
So.. yeah… the Engineer is out of town for the weekend (he’s on his way to Hotlanta to chair Lux’s bachelor party). I hate when the engineer is gone because I never ever sleep well. So, I’m going to have to pack my weekend full of busy-ness in order to not focus on the fact that OMG I could be totally kidnapped by mean men and held for ransom or shot to death in my own home bring a botched robbery attempt I’m being left home alone.
Now.. the title of this post. So you know that I’m all like ”I know I need have to lose weight, especially the 15 lbs of post-wedding weight (darn the good food in Belize) and while disc golf is helping get us out of the house, it’s not enough” right?? And in a bunch of my of my bloggy blog readings, the mention of a single DVD keeps coming up. It’s like the latest fad. Did Oprah do a show on this and I somehow missed it?? Because EVERYONE is talking about it. You bloggers I follow religiously stated it was a great workout. It was fun, fast, easy, they weren’t too sore afterward, and it was ‘totally’ worth it. So I bought it from the world wide Amazon last week and it arrived yesterday.
Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred
So the idea is that this is a 20 minutes a day, 7 days a week workout. It’s based on interval training and follows a 3-2-1 system (3 rotations of – 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minutes of Ab work). There’s also a 2 minute warm-up and I think some sort of cool down. There are 3 levels you can choose from as you begin to progress into the program. All you need are hand weights and a floor mat. That’s it. DVD, hand weights, and a floor mat — check.
When I got home yesterday, the disc was waiting for me and the boy was off at the driving range.. so I thought… “Meh.. why not”. Now.. I love love love the Yoga Booty Ballet system. It’s a workout you can do barefoot, which I totally dig. But I checked the back of this DVD and all the pretty pictures showed the super skinny fitness models in shoes, so I dug out a pair of clean tennies (my new ‘free’ pair that I scored from Lux’s former roommate got trashed after 3 straight days of disc golf.. which reminds me.. those so need to be cleaned) and some socks, grumbled a bit about having to wear shoes and socks and popped the DVD in the player.
I guess I should mention at this point that I don’t have the best knees. The ice skating injury of 2005 did horrible things to my knees and the extra weight I carry around daily doesn’t help. So when the workout is only 20 minutes and 19.5 of those minutes require either jumping (and therefore landing — because I haven’t mastered the ancient technique of hovering), bent-knee standing leg work, and/or remaining in a constant squatted position… well.. those of us with mildly faulty knees get their asses kicked. Which, by the way, is one of the cardio moves: Butt Kicks… cause you love to literally kick your own ass while working out. Yep.. Jillian… nothing encourages my chubby butt to continue to use your masochistic workout program more than a workout that forces me to literally KICK MY OWN ASS!!!
I went into the program with a thought “it’s only 20 minutes… what could I possibly not put up with for 20 minutes?” Oh.. you followers of the “30-day Shred” program…. YOU LIED TO ME! This was not fun. This was NOT.FUN.AT.ALL!!
Now nothing the DVD forced me to do was “hard”. Everyone can do a push up, jumping jacks, and squats. The whole workout is easy to follow, albeit challenging toward the end. After 14 minutes of up, down, up, down, squat, stand, kick your own butt….. the last 6 minutes is pretty pressing. The ab section is a nice touch. But it’s the whole package put together that I really didn’t care for. The 2 minute warm up was some mild stretching, but definitely not enough to really ‘warm’ you up properly, especially in the knee area (dude.. you spend alot of time bending or on bent knee in this program and the jumping up and down is hard on the knees too!). “Well, that was Meh”, I think.. “Surely it gets better than this”. The first round of 3 minute strength training consisted of push ups and squats with a bicep curl. Effective, but nothing spectacular. The first 2 minute cardio section was jumping jacks and jumping invisible rope. On the plus side, my heart rate was up, but … UGH!! I get the whole “make it easy, make it functional, and make every move count” premise. As lazy Americans, I understand the idea that if you can only devote 20 minutes to working out, you have to be efficient. But just because it’s 20 minutes doesn’t mean it has to be boring.
By the time we were done with the second 3-2-1 rotation, I had an alarmingly high heart rate, my knees were a bit angry with me, but I was bored. Like… “OMG when is this going to be over.. I can’t do another jumping jack because it’s unbelievably boring and you’re boring, and you yelling about ‘lazy people who only want to work out for 20 minute’ is boring (Off topic: why did you make a 20 minute video if you’re going to shame people who only want to do 20 minutes of exercising a day?), and my house is boring, and your stupid fitness models are boring, and I wonder what’s on TV tonight.. oooh.. I think the new CSI comes on .. OMG I’m so bored with this DVD” boring.
I was more than a little bummed that the cardio pieces were so dull. Jumping jacks don’t interest me like fancy aerobic footwork does. I get the easy of a jumping jack.. it’s just that there’s no challenge in it for me. I, like many 28 year olds who have A.D.D grew up with Reebok step aerobics, need to move! I don’t want to spend 20 minutes jumping up and down in one spot..it’s boring. I need creativity!!!
Now.. I’ve always been told that body shock, especially in the fitness/workout sense, is good for you but can make you sick. Like “vomit in the trashcan at The Rush fitness center because the personal trainer thought it would be fun to see if you could keep up with the big bad basketball players she was interval training” sick (My coworker and I didn’t go back to see her again. There is something fundamentally wrong with your personal trainer telling you before you even get your shoes laced “be prepared to throw up today”). JM even mentions toward the end of the DVD “that knot feeling in your midsection.. that’s your body telling you it’s working.. you’re stressing it and training it…..”. No JM: Breathing, blinking, swallowing… that’s my body telling me it’s working. The knot in my stomach? That’s my body telling me that quite possibly this is not the workout for me and that if I don’t stop ’stressing’ it out, it’s going to cause me great pain in the near future.
I’m not a watcher of The Biggest Loser and until yesterday, I had no idea who Jillian Michaels was. What I do know is that I HATE this DVD. Ohh.. being the semi-nonquiter that I am.. I’ll still try it again. I’m making myself continue to use it for the next week. I’m hoping that trying it barefoot might make it a bit better. If I still hate everything about it in a week, it’ll probably go to the ’sell at the used book store’ pile. If I can tolerate it after a week, it will likely go in the workout rotation.. right after Richard Simmons’ Disco Sweat. It will never be my go-to DVD for a quick workout. I guess I’m partly to blame here. I know that a person needs to work out more than 20 minutes a day, especially those trying to lose weight. So buying a DVD that promises “Lose 20 lbs in 30 days” for “only 20 minutes a day” and expecting it to be entertaining is really asking too much.
We interrupt this small blogging hiatus to bring you a brief announcement:
I’m Sorry.. I Totally Suck!
It’s just that well…
- I was abducted by aliens and taken on a trip to a galaxy far far away..
- I had to fly to Vegas to finish auditioning for the circus
- I was leading a safari in Namibia
- I was fulfilling my duties of acting as J-Lo’s body double (Buahawahahahahaha)
- I got lost playing Hippy Disc Golf
- I found Jimmy Hoffa while playing disc golf and had to listen to him explain the meaning of life
- I repainted my entire house and am currently hand carving my new dinning room table (how Jesus-like of me)
- I lost my keys and didn’t know how to get back into my blog
Ok.. so none of that happened. But things have been stressful.
Layoffs at work.. more to come. Sooo….. you know… I’m just .. um.. reviewing my options escape plans savings account balance resume. No biggie (I’m totally FREAKING OUT!!! OMGWTFOMG Who wants to be laid off in this market!?!?!?!?). I am/was completely shocked/bummed that my first boss got laid off last Wednesday. I can’t say more at this point.. but maybe soon.
Then my office partner-in-crime has accepted a new job in a new state, which not only makes me unbelievably sad (but happy for her!!) but also a little stressed about how I’m going to make it thru the work days now??? Who’s going to help me with get over the bouts of snarkiness and frustration? This is a seriously concerning situation. Current mode of survival: Denial.
I’m not really digging my job right now. Le sigh…
Lately.. I’ve been having insanely crazy dreams. I think I will blog about that later
The Engineer and I have thrown ourselves into the new world of Disc Golf. Seriously… we’re hooked. I’m spending alot of time on the disc golf course. To bad there’s not money to be made there.
Fall is quickly closing in on us here in East Tennessee. The leaves are beginning to change and weather is getting more tolerable. Soon, the mornings will be very brisk.. requiring me to get up 10-15 minutes earlier than usual in order to not have to drive down the road with my head hanging out my driver’s side window, a la Ace Ventura style, because I can’t see out of my frosted over windshield because I didn’t have time to defrost it defrost my front windshield. Anything that gets me out of bed early deserves a “Meh”.
I’m still on the fence about hosting my own blog. I really want to and I’ve even decided on the hosting provider and I’ve purchased my own domain.. but man… the work involved is mucho grandios and quite frankly.. I have issue blogging 3 times a week, let alone having to deal with all the hosting issues.
My “To Do” list continues to grow. With weddings and holidays and winter, in general, approaching… there is so much still to do before the end of the year. I’m trying not to stress about it… I’m not being successful in that venture.
For some reason this year, I’m digging on the candy corn.
Since Lux and Tink are getting married on 11/1 in the ATL, we (the engineer and I) will not be home on 10/31. I’m happy because that means that this year I won’t have to buy candy. Last year I bough 10 lbs of premium candy (you know. .the good stuff: M&Ms, Snickers, Milky Way, Nerds, Sour Patch Kids, etc) and STILL had to buy another 5 lbs on Halloween because someone (I’m looking at you DH) ate all the candy before the kids even started Trick-or-Treating. On the bad side.. I’ve been trying to make our house the ‘go-to’ house for in the neighborhood for Trick-or-Treating and now.. I have to take a year off. Bummer.
My hankering for a puppy (a Boston Terrier puppy to be exact) has returned even stronger than before. Every time I mention it, the Engineer gets more and more irrate with me. The other day, I told him “it’s a puppy or a baby” knowing full well that I was off to buy a puppy. He looked me deadpan in the face and said “bring on the bambino” OMGWTF… As if dude. We’re totally not ready for a kid. Although.. it would get me out of kitty liter duty for a solid 11 months.. OMGWFT..
I still want a puppy.
I’m super excited that pomegranate season is right around corner.
Yeah.. so that pretty much sums up my week last week. Blogging wasn’t on the list because.. well.. I just didn’t have the energy.
I promise to be better this week. Maybe
