Lace em up...

Lace em up...

Saturday, January 16, 2016

New year, new blog, blah, blah, blah...

Photo taken January 15th.


I put off writing my first blog post much longer than I anticipated. I figured I'd start writing when I began boxing. Alas, the boxing has not started yet. It will in the next couple of weeks. Right now I am nursing an injury. Don't ask me how I did it, but I popped a rib. I've been having this pain from my neck right into my right shoulder blade and down my right arm. It got so bad that it was keeping me awake at night. I trained with it all this past week. Even did a pretty strenuous upper body workout where I finally belted out 9 full military style push-ups. I failed on the 10th. I swear my trainer was happier than I was at my accomplishment.

Anyway, the pain got almost unbearable yesterday and I went to see my acupuncturist/chiropractor/physiotherapist. She did a thorough examination and determined that I popped a rib out just below my neck. I'm not sure what the heck that means, but she popped it back in and grounded me for the weekend. No gym. I feel a ton better today than I did yesterday. But I have to consistently ice my shoulder and rest. She warned me it will happen again if I don't heed to her instructions. So I listen. Reluctantly. I hate listening...

I suppose I should update you on what I've been up to the past month. I weighed myself for the first time in 3.5 months to find I had gained 7 pounds. I hyperventilated at the prospect and then freaked out to my trainer. Tony said that he told me that this would happen. I do not recall this conversation, but apparently it happened back in June when I first started training with him. He told me that he's surprised I didn't gain more considering how hard I've been training. But I don't want to gain bulky muscle, I want to gain lean muscle. I'm not going to lie. My ass and legs are pretty huge. That's where I carry all my muscle at the moment. And Tony and I always have to agree to disagree in this area because he believes I can't lose anymore fat and I insist I can. I've got back fat and hip fat that can still go away. So where does this leave me? Macro counting and cardio. That starts once the boxing begins.

I actually started running again. Just 2-3 times a week and short distances. I'm using running for cross training now. Never thought I'd see the day where running would be my secondary exercise. Before I was injured, I was at the gym 4x per week and running 2x per week. Once I'm good to go again, I need to book a private boxing session with Kingsway Boxing Club then I begin group classes with them for a few weeks. After I'm done those, I'll likely resume boxing classes at the same club I train with my trainer at. Since this is not my year to box for the Fight to End Cancer (I'm slotted for 2017), all the training I do is out of pocket. My gym's boxing club is much, much cheaper and I can still get licensed through them if I want to. I just might.

My brachioplasty (upper arm lift) is still healing. My left arm is almost normal, my right arm is still swollen and hard in spots. I go to see Dr. Patterson in a couple weeks for a follow up. The last time I saw him, he assured me everything would absorb in time. I just need to be patient. So I apply the scar cream and rub the lotion on my arms. My lipo is still numb where the fat was sucked out (that sounds lovely). Those areas are still slightly swollen too. And again, I rub the Q10 lotion all over my thighs religiously as per Dr. Patterson's instruction.

Included in this post are my 2 most recent body pictures. The top pic shows my giant thigh muscles, which I'm actually pretty proud of. And below, my resting abdomen. No flexing, just standing straight with my loose skin and stretch marks. That pic was taken this morning. My trainer told me last week that he's noticed the most improvement in my core strength of late. I'd have to agree. Floor exercises that were a challenge in the past are pretty easy to get through now. There's a good and bad side to that. The good is my abs are getting super strong. The bad is that Tony says I need to be challenged more. This just means, core is going to get crazy difficult again. We're going to start TRX now. This is just going to get harder. I never back down from a challenge...

I weigh 177 pounds and wear size 10 pants. Hard to find pants that fit properly on
account of my legs and butt...