Taking Better Care of Myself

After weeks (months?) of letting my health take a backseat, I went to a new-to-me doctor recently for a physical. I left with a pretty long list of marching orders that reminded me why I've been too busy to take better care of myself!

For starters, she told me to walk 15 minutes/day. It's been a good goal to stretch for, but some "old" running injuries (plantar fasciitis and a sore ankle) have flared up again. *sigh* She gave me a new blood glucose monitor, but the pharmacy has had difficulty getting me the correct test strips since running out of the samples that came in the monitor's box. She also wants me to buy a blood pressure monitor for home, but I've procrastinated after looking at the long list of possibilities on Amazon alone. (How do you know which one is best?! I think I'll look at the pharmacy and ask the pharmacist for suggestions.)

The doctor also wants me to look into a diet program like Weight Watchers. I've done Weight Watchers before with some success, but always regaining later. My issue with WW now is that I don't have time for the meetings, which cost money (which I'm using to pay for grad school and otherwise trying to save!) to attend. Some would argue that the "group therapy" approach to weight loss is helpful (it often is!) and that paying for something adds an extra element of motivation to the effort. I've decided to go a different route though, returning to SparkPeople.com. The website offers lots of information, teams (groups with similar interests), and a point system for clicking on different articles and such AND for fitness minutes. You earn virtual trophies for moving up the point ladder. The website also offers food, exercise, and weight tracking.

I've also made an appointment for my annual mammogram, always not-fun but oh, so important.

I return to the doctor in 2-3 weeks for a follow-up on her marching orders. How will I do? Stay tuned!

First Race Casualty

It looks like I'm going to have to ditch Saturday's 4 mile road race! &^+.}^!!(*&@! I've done a little internet diagnosis and seem to have a groin pull as a result of a long(er than I'm used to) 5-mile run/walk with a group on a Saturday, followed the next day by a hard-run 5k road race (which I ran in 35:30, a new PR for me!). That muscle area hasn't been the same since. I tried running again on the treadmill a couple days ago, and didn't make it but a couple of minutes.

So....I'm back on the elliptical machine, which doesn't cause me pain like running does, and have an appointment with a sports medicine doctor next Tuesday. (What kind of "-ist" is a sports medicine doctor--anyone know?) I'd hoped for a quicker appointment, but that was the earliest available in the local group of sports medicine doctors), and the soonest I could see my regular doctor is the day before, on Monday, as she's out of town. *sigh* I can WALK, it's just not comfortable, and if I've been sitting down for a while and need to get up and walk, ouch, ouch, ouch!

I'm trying not to be a baby about this and take advantage of cross training, but I am sticking my bottom lip out a little. I'm also avoiding my running podcasts for some reason. Could I be jealous of the podcasters because they're getting to run while I'm sidelined? Hmmm, not sure if that's totally it. Maybe I'm just being cranky, not being able to get in to see a doctor, not knowing what I can do to get well yet. Well, I do know from the internet to rest (okay, so I'm being a little impatient there), and use ice (gee, that's a little tough in that area). I am looking forward to hearing from a real person how I should proceed to get well and stronger for running.