Cory's Quest for a Healthier Life

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:( Homesickness sucks. What I do when I miss home/family/old friends is read a sad book (yes, I have a designated book for that) and cry my eyes out for an hour or two, then go to bed. No use fighting it because if there was, you be doing it already. It´ll happen less and less often though. Sending hugs.
 
I'm sending you hugs too Cory. Make a call, hear some loving voices.We all have sad days but it will get better honey. :grouphug:
 
Thanks for the support, guys. I really needed it yesterday.

Today was much better, with the exception of a three hour meeting at work. I went to zumba tonight and it was fantastic. It's the class taught by the same guy I went to on Saturday. He brought back up dancers tonight, so it kind of just wound up feeling like a night club. And I KILLED. IT. I was just in the right frame of mind where I wanted to move and the music was hitting me right. But it was a late class and I'm exhausted, so I think I'm going to go to bed now.
 
Oh, Cory. I'm sorry you had a sad day, hun. I'm glad the others were here to give you virtual hugs! And I'm super glad that the following day was better! Hope things are still looking up for you.
 
Sounds like an awesome class! Good to hear you've already got a regular highlight in your new surroundings.
 
I'm still here and trying, I promise! It's just been a really busy couple of days. My brother and his girlfriend came to visit me over the weekend and that was really nice, but made it difficult to update here. I've been killing it the last week or so. Yesterday was 4th day of zumba in a row. Today would have been number 5, but I'm having some pain and inflammation in my IT band and decided to take the night off. I don't know if the pain is from overuse, or the face that I've been foam rolling it the last couple of days and it's just sore from that. Maybe a combination of the two. I'm taking aspirin to bring down the inflammation tonight and hopefully tomorrow I can go back to zumba. I hate to miss because I like it so much, but I'd rather take one day off now than continue while I'm hurting and potentially have to take weeks off for a more serious issue.

Also, I was looking through my fitness pal and realized that I've had at least a 1000 calorie deficit every day for the last month and most days are close to 1500-2000. A few have even been around 3000. This might be partially why I'm feeling run down today. I'm not eating enough relative to the exercise I'm doing. So tonight I decided to be kind to myself. I'm going to order some kind of takeout and eat however much of it I want. If that happens to be all of it, then that's ok. I'm not going to log activity today, nor am I going to log food. I think I should be able to take this day to be over my maintenance level and not focus on the deficit. It would probably do good things for my metabolism too, considering I've basically been heavily restricting for the last month. I hadn't realized my deficits were consistently that large until I looked at them all in a row today. I think I'm going to need to find a way to incorporate some more calories into my day to day diet. It's not that I don't eat. I actually eat a lot and only really get hungry right after the gym. It's just that what I eat tends to be light in calories relative to how filling it is. I'll have to think on this. There is such a thing as going too low.
 
Massive deficits AND ceaseless exercise can´t work in the long run; I hope your back feels better really soon!
 
Ok, just because i'm a nerd and it interests me, I want to talk a little about the issue I've been having. I think it would be valuable because there are a lot of people on this site who are new to exercise and/or exercise a lot. What I've got going on is called IT band syndrome. Refer to the pic below. Your IT band is connective tissue that runs from your pelvis, along the outside of your thight, to the shin bone.
View attachment 23665
If you use your legs a lot, or have done a lot of repetitive motion for a long time, scar tissue can form and cause the IT band to essentially get stuck on the surrounding bone and tissue. When this happens, the band pulls on your hip and knee. Below are some common pain patterns that people with IT band syndrome experience. Mine manifests as the one on the far left, with pain in my upper gluten and down the outside of my leg from the hip to the ankle.
View attachment 23666
If you experience pain along the outside of your knee/thigh/hip, it is most likely IT band syndrome. It's a good cue to take a rest day and an anti-inflammatory as well as consider getting a massage or foam rolling to help break up the scar tissue.

So, onto my update. I realized that I didn't report on my stats last weekend. I was down to 246.2 from 247. So, only a 0.8 lb loss, but I did notice my waist measurement decreased by three quarters of an inch so I'm happy. With my rest day and taking an anti-inflammatory the last couple days, my IT band symptoms are greatly reduced. I went to zumba last night and am having little to no pain this morning. Today is my scheduled rest day, so i'll probably try to do some light housework.
 
:( sounds unpleasant, hope you´ll stay painfree if you increaase your activity level slowly. Good job trimming down your waist!
 
I looked up more info on this as I am having pain atm. I'm going to get it checked out. Hope you come right soon Cory.
 
My IT band feels great today. My knee was a little stiff when I got up, but no pain. Definitely an improvement. I've been foam rolling and that seems to be helping things a lot.

Yesterday was good. I had Greek yogurt and a tangerine for breakfast, Fuddrucker's chicken tenders and a side salad for lunch, and chicken tortilla soup for dinner. I also went to zumba and had a blast. Originally I had planned to eat some leftover meatloaf and kale for lunch, but some people at work were going to go out and invited me. I'm trying really hard to meet people and make some friends in my new town, so I felt like I couldn't say no. I looked up the nutrition information of the restaurant we went to so I could make sure to order something I was comfortable with. That actually wound up being fried chicken tenders with a side salad subbed for fries. It came to around 650 calories. You know what amazes me about restaurant food? Some of the things you think would be the healthiest/lowest calorie are actually the worst. One of the ladies in our group ordered something called the Southwest Salad. The other guys asked why she wasn't getting a burger or a sandwich and she said she was trying to lose some weight. Because I had looked up the calorie info before I came, I knew that salad has about 1500 calories in it. That's more than almost everything on their menu, other than their largest burgers. She would have been better off getting a small or medium hamburger with fries. I didn't have the heart to tell her because she seemed so proud of herself for making a "good choice." Moral of the story folks: don't assume a salad is your best bet. If your restaurant offers their nutrition info online, LOOK AT IT.

So I'm going to zumba this morning. Saturday classes are always really fun. Ha. I just realized I say that about every class, just about. I don't generally eat breakfast on Saturday mornings because I hate being full for zumba. I'll probably have either the meatloaf I didn't eat yesterday, or leftover tortilla soup for lunch, and then baked fish with a baked potato and some kind of steamed veggie for dinner. Today will be under 1500 calories. I might try to buy some nuts or something when I go shopping to bump that up a little bit.

I'm also looking forward to tomorrow. The male instructor at zumba that I mentioned before, let's call him M, apparently helps to host something with some other zumba people once a year called the triple threat event. You buy your ticket, then go and dance for like 2 hours. I originally wasn't planning on going because I really don't know anyone and I struggle sometimes in social situations where I'm not comfortable. After thinking about it though, I realized that doing things like this is how you make friends. It's a little outside of my comfort zone and I'm a little nervous about the duration. 2 hours of zumba is a lot of zumba. The most I've done before was 1 hour. I'll probably be wrecked by the end of it. Originally I'd go to another instructor, we'll call her A, on Sunday morning. But I think I'm going to have to skip because I REALLY doubt I can do a total of 3 hours of zumba tomorrow.
 
Cory, this move is doing you lots of good. I'm glad you have found these Zumba classes & are making steps outside your comfort zone to make new friends. I admire you for it. I'm looking forward to hearing how you went with the 2 hours :)
 
I think it's great that you are pushing yourself a bit to socialize. You made a reasonable decision for food so no harm there and anyone you meet during 2 hours of zumba will be health conscious.
 
Cate, the two hours was a lot of fun. I actually managed to dance the whole two hours as well, which was kind of a personal challenge for me. The day after my knees were a little sore, but that's mostly because the floor was uncovered concrete and I do not have the right shoes to accommodate that.

Quercus, unfortunately I carpooled. There was supposed to be a party type thing after the dancing was done, but the people I carpooled with didn't want to stay for it so I didn't actually get to meet anyone new.

Ok, time for me update from last Sunday. Super late, I know. Last week I lost 2.6 lbs and have been soda free for over a month. I also think I lost something like half an inch on my waist.

This week is going ok. I've done zumba every day since last Friday, with today being my rest day. I'll go tomorrow as well. Food has been good for the most part, with the exception of today. TOM came to visit. Now, this is a good thing because this is the third month in a row TOM has come to see me. It's a good indication that my PCOS/hormones are under control. All the exercise is doing me good on that front. BUT. It's really inconvenient because I got super hormonal today and thought it would be a good idea to eat a restaurant portion of fettuccine alfredo and a bunch of garlic knots. This is the first really bad day I've had in more than a month though, so I'm not going to let it bother me.
 
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