Day 576 - Rest Day

Tomorrow morning I go for my Cortisone shot and I and supposed to take it easy, so having a rest night tonight.  I will likely be sticking with just doing some walking for the next few days until I get a sense for how I feel after getting the shot.  I am hoping it helps to relieve the pain some.

Day 575 - 4 mile walk

I went for a walk again tonight.  Weather was amazing and I really enjoyed the chance to get outside.  I just wish I could have been running instead.  It's hard to be out there walking and be passed by so many that are running on the trail.  Eating continues to go pretty well, but lately my protein level is at about 100 grams, so a bit lower than previously.

Day 574 - 4 mile walk

I went for a 4 mile walk after work tonight.  I still have some soreness in my back, so if I was previously questioning the need for the cortisone shot, I have since changed my mind.  I am very much looking forward to hopefully getting some relief so that I can get back to some real workouts.

Day 573 - Yet another rest day

I'm resting a lot lately, but that seems to be the right course for allowing my back to recover.  Tomorrow I'll likely just go for a walk to at least try an burn some calories.

Day 572 - Another rest day

I feel like such a sloth not being able to workout.  But, I definitely feel a bit better today.  I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm wondering if I'm jumping the gun with trying to get a cortisone shot at this point.  I'll decide on Monday since the doc is supposed to call me with an appt. time on Monday.  At least I'm doing okay with my eating still.

Day 571 - Rest Day

I had my Dr. Appt. today to review my MRI results.  The doctor says I have some degeneration, but it's not severe.  I now have a cortisone shot scheduled for Thursday and have instructions from the doctor to avoid any workouts that cause pain.  Well doc, that's pretty much any workout right now :-)  So, it looks like I'll be sticking to walking until things improve.  I weighed myself this morning and I now weigh less than I did a week ago.  I'm now back down to 138, so I continue to lose muscle mass.  I'm not happy about that, but also realize that it's more important for me to heal than it is for me to continue to workout and cause more issues.  It's time for me to get very serious about the rest necessary to recover.

Day 570 - Walk

I went for a 4 mile walk again tonight.  I was hoping to do Yoga, but decided against it until after I have the Dr. Appt.  Besides, the weather was great and I wanted to be outside.  it takes me almost an hour to walk 4 miles, so it's a good thing I have an audio-book to listen to.  Eating this week is going pretty well.  They had free pizza at work for lunch today, but I resisted the urge and went to subway for a 6" ham sub instead.

Day 569 - Rest Day

My back was so sore today that I had to take two Ibuprofen today.  It's amazing how well that worked at taking away the pain.  It's easy to understand how I got into the mode of taking that so often before.  I sure hope I can get the Cortisone shot on Friday.  Hopefully tomorrow I won't be so sore so that I can try to do Yoga, but I'm going to make sure to not over do it between now and Friday.

Day 568 - Walk

I went for a 4 mile walk after work and I did it at a quicker than normal pace.  I got the 4 miles done in about 50 minutes or so.  I got word back on my MRI results and the doc says I have deterioration in at least one spot of the spine.  No surprise there.  So Friday during the exam we're going to discuss a cortisone shot.  Here's hoping it helps because this soreness is getting old.

Day 567 - Tai Cheng & Ab Ripper

Well, I've given Tai Cheng a fair shake, but I don't think it's the right program for me.  I particularly don't like how all of the instructors in the video are facing the camera which requires me to reverse everything I see in the TV.  I suppose I could just pretend it's a mirror and do it backward, but I still don't think that going to keep me doing this :-)

I also did Ab Ripper tonight and that actually went pretty well.  My neck and back are continuing to feel a bit better.  It's not healed yet, but every day it feels a bit better.  No doubt I messed it up but good and just masked it with pain meds for way too long.  Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.  I keep thinking I've learned, but apparently not.

Day 566 - Rest Day

It's Sunday and it also happens to be my Dad's 85th birthday (at least it will be this week).  We're heading up to Pennsburg to celebrate with him by going to out to breakfast.  Then in the afternoon it's off to church, so it's going to be a pretty busy day today.  I weighed in again today and am still maintaining weight, but I can tell that some muscle is being lost.  I can tell by how my clothes fit.  I am so looking forward to getting back to doing workouts like running and Plyocide etc.  I feel like such a sloth right now.

Day 565 - Walk & X2 Yoga

I got out for a 3 mile walk this morning.  This afternoon I also did X2 Yoga, so I'm feeling pretty good about getting two rounds of Yoga in this week.  Next week I have my follow-up appt. with the doc and I'm hoping to be able to get back to some light workouts.  I still have some tightness in my neck, but it's slowly getting better.

Day 564 - Tai Cheng Week 2 & Ab Ripper

Today I did day 1 of week 2 for Tai Cheng.  It allowed me to combine a couple of moves, so it was a bit more interesting.  I also did Ab Ripper today.  My back was sore from all of the foam rolling yesterday, so I iced it and that helped a lot.  I had the day off from work today and did a bunch of running around, but it also meant that I was able to get the workout in earlier than usual for a Friday.  It was too hot today to go for a walk.  Hopefully I can do that walk tomorrow.

Day 563 - Recovery & Mobility

Did some foam rolling and stretching tonight.  It helped my back to do this.  Tomorrow I plan to do Ab Ripper.

Day 562 - X2 Yoga

I got in a nice round of Yoga tonight.  My back continue to feel better each week that I continue to let it rest.  Almost no pain tonight while doing the routine. 

Day 561 - Rest Day

No time or desire to workout, so today is my rest day.  I'll be back at it tomorrow.

Day 560 - Tai Cheng Day 6 & X2 Ab Ripper

I finally got through the first week of Tai Cheng tonight.  Now I get to start to combine some of the moves together in coming weeks.  Thankfully.  I also did Ab Ripper, which was a good workout, but I also felt it on my neck with all of the strain associated with it.  I'm icing it down right now.  Hopefully tomorrow I will feel well enough to get another round of Yoga in tomorrow. It's too warm right now to go out for walks (90+ degrees).  My eating continues to go well.  I'm doing okay at staying at 2200-2300 calories and I weighed in this morning at 140 (according to my scale).  Which means I still weight about 143-145 or so.  I've held that weight now for more than 8 months now.

Day 559 - Rest Day

I woke up this morning with some tightness in my back from doing yoga yesterday, so as the day it progressing it's starting to feel better.  As usual, no working out today since it's Sunday.  I'll be back at it tomorrow doing things that I'm allowed, but I definitely need to get a session of Ab Ripper in since it's been a while.

Day 558 - Walk & X2 Yoga

I started the day with a 4 mile walk and I did X2 Yoga in the afternoon.  My back is definitely feeling better today, so the Recovery & Mobility yesterday did help some.  Doing Yoga today was a lot less painful compared to the last time I did it.  I did some pullups before doing yoga tonight.  I'm not supposed to, but I couldn't help but do a few before doing the yoga workout.  I was able to do 16, so I'm hopefully not losing too much muscle yet.

Day 557 - Mobility & Recovery

My back was really sore tonight, so I decided to do some stretching and foam rolling.  Here's hoping it helps.  It seems like it's going to take forever to recover at the slow rate this muscle is healing.

Day 556 - Rest Day

My neck is pretty sore tonight, so I'm giving it another night off.  Messing with loading the canoe on the truck last night didn't help things with the recovery.  I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for recovering from this muscle issue in my neck.  It just seems to be taking a really long time to get back to the point where it's not hurting any more.  I keep telling myself that I need to be patient.

Day 555 - Rest Day

I had a lot going on tonight, so no time for a workout.  I'm planning to do Ab Ripper tomorrow.  I checked my weight and I'm staying steady at 140, so I'm happy about that.

Day 554 - Walk

Tonight I went for a 4 mile walk.  That sure does take a lot longer than going for a run.  I am getting so impatient to get back to normal workouts.  But, good news is that my back is starting to feel better as each day passes.

Day 553 - Tai Cheng Day 5 & Ab Ripper

During lunch I went for a short walk around the park.  In the afternoon I went and got my MRI done, so that I can get some info from my doctor.  My back was feeling a bit better today, so it seems that resting it lately has been helping.  Ab Ripper put some strain on it tonight.  I could feel it getting tight again after the workout, so I have Ice on it for a while.  Tai Cheng was again a very short workout, but I found "Push" to be an interesting move that made more sense to me tonight, so I have some hope for the Tai Cheng going forward.

Day 552 - Rest Day

Today was a good relaxing day.  As usual, no workouts on Sunday.  It seems my back is feeling a bit better today than it had recently.

Day 551 - Tai Cheng & Ab Ripper

Tai Cheng so far is a bit of a disappointment.  I was hoping for something like Yoga that incorporates Tai Chi moves, but so far it's just foam rolling and a few minutes practicing a specific move.  I sure hope it gets more interesting in the future weeks because this is pretty boring so far.  Ab Ripper went well.  I am so looking forward to being able to get back to X2 and running.

Day 550 - 4 mile walk

I spent the majority of my day off driving my Dad around to visit a different nursing home in West Chester.  My back was pretty sore today, so I decided to just do some foam rolling tonight and I did a 4 mile walk.  Tomorrow I'm hoping to do Ab Ripper if the back is feeling up to it.

Day 549 - Walk & X2 Yoga

I woke up this morning with less pain in my back.  I think the extra foam rolling yesterday and the stretching at night really helped, so I'm doing the same today.  I got in a 4 mile walk this morning and then did X2 Yoga this afternoon and was able to get through it with less pain today.  I stopped at a couple of points to do some foam rolling to work the tightness out of my back muscles. Now I plan to ice my back and will foam roll again later tonight after our picnic.  I've been eating well so far today, but also know that the picnic with hamburgers and hotdogs is going to do a number on my calorie count for the day.  Oh well, do your best and forget the rest.

Update: Yep, the picnic blew my calories out of the water today.  I got up close to 4000 today.  It's been a long time since I've been past 2500, so this is pretty high for one day.  Tomorrow it's back on track and eating right.

Day 548 - X2 Recovery & Mobiility

I got a foam roller with my new Tai Cheng program, so I decided to take my old one to work so that I can foam roll my back throughout the day.  It seemed to help some, but it also made the tight muscle pretty soar tonight.  I tried to do X2 Yoga, but had to stop after a short time because it was hurting too much, so I decided to focus on some foam rolling and stretching.  I go for my MRI on Monday to find out how things look.  Here's hoping it's nothing too serious.  I think the doctor is right that most of my issue is a muscle closer to the neck.  I really feel the tightness then trying to tilt my head to the left.  Tomorrow I'm planning to go for a walk since I have the day off for Independence Day.

Day 547 - Rest Day

My back muscle was very sore today, so I just did some foam rolling.  Tomorrow I plan to do Ab Ripper and Tai Cheng again.  Dinner tonight was hamburger patties and fried potatoes, so not exactly a healthy night for dinner :-0

Day 546 - Tai Cheng Day 3 & Ab Ripper

I did day 3 of Tai Cheng and Ab ripper tonight.  Not a huge workout, but at least I'm able to do something while in recovery.