Category Archives: Fitness

Fitness Friday – Shoulder Injury

Fitness, Weightlifting

So this happened:

20131213_ff_shoulderinjury1

It’s all downhill after 30, kids.

Honestly, I know it doesn’t look like much, but so far it’s knocked me out commission for the past four weeks and it’s driving me crazy. Like the old person I am, about four weeks ago I felt a really sharp pain in my shoulder while reaching for a pen at work.

😐

I was not impressed.

I couldn’t help myself from Googling the symptoms. So, like everyone else who thought looking up their symptoms on the internet was a good idea, I came to the conclusion that I had cancer. Well… that or I’d torn something in and around my rotator cuff. After a week of pain so bad that I was holding my arm tucked tightly to my body for fear of hurting it even more, I decided it was finally time to see my family doctor about the problem. At this point I wasn’t able to lift my arm over my head without extreme pain.

The doctor narrowed right in on the pain point and suspected it had something to do with my rotator cuff. I went for an ultrasound and xray the next day and was given a referral to start physiotherapy immediately.

The results came back after a week or so. and thankfully I didn’t have a torn rotator cuff (or cancer, for that matter, thanks Google.). What I did seem to have was a cyst in my rotator cuff region with a lot of fluid around my bicep tendon which was causing inflammation. The physiotherapist had already pretty much suspected that I had tendinitis in my upper bicep after the physical tests he’d done on me, so it was nice to have some reassurance that it wasn’t anything worse. He believes the cyst will get reabsorbed into the body as he works on healing the tendinitis. He tapes me up every time I leave, and surprisingly, that little bit of tape seems to do wonders for arm movement – I almost have full range of motion back in my shoulder with little to no pain.

Unfortunately, this has meant no weight lifting or gymnastics for the past four weeks. It’s been frustrating, to say the least. I had finally gotten to the point in lifting where I wasn’t looking like quite so much of a chump with a barbell across my shoulders doing squats! And I was finally bench pressing more than just the bar itself! Thankfully, I’ve been able to continue playing soccer and keep up with my running, so my exercise hasn’t come to a complete standstill. With the way things are going though, this should be almost completely healed in a few more weeks. *fingers crossed*

Fitness Friday – Where I Started Out

Fitness, , ,

So let’s take a quick break from the makeup, and start with a visual.

196-149

Over the past few years  I’ve lost 47 pounds. At my heaviest recorded weight, I was 196 pounds and as of writing this I’m 149. My current “ultimate” goal weight is 140 pounds before I re-assess what I want to look like, or what kind of condition I want my body to be in. (For reference, I’m 5″3″.)

For me, it wasn’t looking at pictures that did me in. It was standing on the scale one Christmas break at my parents’ place when I read 196 pounds on the screen. I couldn’t believe it. I had an inkling I was “heavier” but since I hadn’t weighed myself in probably 5 years, I had no real concept as to what “heavier” was. I’ve never been small by anyone’s definition: I have football player shoulders and I usually have a decent combination of fat and muscle on my body. Throughout high school I was “thick”. Not fat, not slender, but just… thick. At the time, I was figure skating about 4-5 days a week, 3 hours each session. I also played soccer on my high school and competitive city teams. As a result, I could eat pretty much whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. At a guess, I was around 140-150 pounds at this stage in my life.

This became a problem when I quit figure skating at age 17. Suddenly I was no longer able to absorb the calories I was downing, and yet my appetite was still voracious. I was still playing soccer, but since that was seasonal (April till November), it wasn’t enough of a calorie sink. By the time I started university at 19, I was about 165 pounds. I promptly gained the “Freshman Fifteen” by eating cafeteria food day in and day out as a result of living on campus with a meal card. I returned home after my first year of university weighing 175 pounds. I lost about 10 pounds that summer, but put it all right back on during my next year of school.

By the time I finished university, to right before I got married, I somehow managed to pack on another 20 pounds or so. I was still playing soccer, but over time I was becoming less and less active as I was playing more and more World of Warcraft. It was at this point that I decided weight loss was a requirement since I didn’t want to see 200+ pounds on the scale.

175Since I was still somewhat active, it became a matter of watching what I ate. The first 20 or so pounds came off predominantly from cutting down portions (No, I didn’t need that second burrito!), however I also picked up running during this time. The best thing I ever did was pick up a Nike+ foot pod and sensor for my iPod. Tracking and monitoring my runs was hugely motivational. It also showed me that I couldn’t run nearly as long or as far as I thought I could and so that became even more incentive. We started out running 1 or 2 kilometers and eventually built it up. Finally hitting 5k was a relief as that’s what I felt I should’ve been doing all along.

I’d say it took about 10 months or so to lose 20 pounds. That doesn’t sound like a very fast loss rate, but I was happy with it and it was sustained loss too. I would occasionally vary up and down 5 pounds if I wasn’t careful with what I ate but never any more than that.

About a year into my exercise and weightloss routine, I stumbled across My Fitness Pal. Previously, my wonderful husband had been keeping track of all my calories, but it was time consuming and a bit of a hassle. My Fitness Pal was life changing. I’ve been logging calories on that bad boy for about two years now and it never gets old – heck, it’s even kind of fun! Feel free to add me on MFP – my user name is Nikachelle.

Over the last year or so I’ve dropped another 25 pounds, and am pretty pleased with how I’m doing. I never actually thought hitting 150 pounds was a reasonable goal, and now I’m shooting for an even lower weight! As I continue towards my goal weight (140 lbs.), I’ve been keeping up with my running and have added gymnastics and weight training to the mix while continuing to play soccer. I’ll have regular updates on my exercise plans and my progress as it happens. Thanks for reading!