Escape Artist

I'm beginning to wonder if I have really, really pissed someone off.

Last Thursday, while on vacation, I sprained my back. Plus, I have developed a doozy of a sinus infection.

Add those maladys to my twisted knee (it's mostly better, now, thanks), and you have a potential recipe for disaster. From a weight loss perspective, that is.

I can't do much of anything right now, except kinda hobble around. I'm at my best (vertically speaking) when doped up on Robaxin. I can stand pretty much upright then, and can walk around, albeit somewhat gingerly. I can't lift anything heavier than a book, though, unless I want to make things worse. And when the drug wears off, I look as if I've been clocked by a stiff tailwind.

Nor can I sleep very well, because of the sinus infection. (Antibiotics are on the way, though, hallelujah!)

Oh, well. Sometimes it rains like hell. When that happens, the best thing you can do is bail, bail, bail, and wait for the skies to clear.

The upside of all this, though (if there is such a thing), is that I apparently escaped both Christmas and vacation without gaining any weight. My weight was up slightly this morning over my pre-vacation weight (we got home late yesterday afternoon), but not enough to matter. (The Chinese dinner I had last night may have been a contributing factor, as well as all the fluids I guzzled overnight.)

Dear hubby is a Northwestern alum, so our vacation was spent going to the Sun Bowl, in El Paso. We then drove to Albuquerque and Santa Fe for a couple of extra days of R&R, plus a little New Mex-Mex cuisine. We had some wonderful meals, including lunches at Maria's New Mexican Kitchen (Santa Fe) and Los Cuates (Aubuquerque). We also ate dinner at La Casa Sena (Santa Fe) and State Line Barbeque (El Paso). Some mighty fine eatin', for sure.

Here's what I did to hold the line:

• I watched portion size. I've noted, in previous entries, that I do my best to eyeball my portions, and record everything as accurately as I can, in my journal. I know I won't get it exactly right, but the mere act of keeping track keeps me from going overboard. I may eat more than I planned, but not TOO much more.
• I dialed back my daily calorie allotment, given the fact that the exercise clothing I had brought with me pretty much went unused.
• I usually left food on my plate. At Maria's, for example, I ordered chicken tostadas. I ate one (there were two), and left the other one behind.
• I was very careful with the ubiquitous tortilla chip-and-salsa baskets. I counted my chips as I ate them, counting about 10 calories per chip. (Accurate enough, for my purposes.)
• I tried to eat relatively light breakfasts, knowing that I'd be eating heavier meals later in the day.

Now that I'm back home, I've cut my daily calorie count to about 1700/day, plus however many Halls mentholyptus cough drops I consume. (I didn't get fat on Halls, so I'm not going to worry about them.) I am doing some back exercises I learned last year, post-surgery. I hope to be back on my spinning bike next week. Weight training will have to "weight" for a while, I think. I'm not sure how I sprained my back (though I have a couple of theories), but going back to weight training too soon would be a terrible idea, don't you think?

Looks like I'll have to be content with bailing, for the time being.

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Comments

[Mermaid]

Rainbow, sorry you are having such a tough time. Get better, K?

[Debbie]

Working on it, thanks. :-) You know it's a sinus infection when you're significantly better 12 hours after your first antibiotic pill. I actually slept last night, hooray!

[Kristin]

Hi there - I've been reading for a few weeks, but this is my first comment. I really enjoy your writing.

I have back problems myself and they tend to get in the way of my weight loss efforts too. Every time it happens I feel like I did something wrong to the universe and it has aligned against me. (It usually happens directly after a renewed commitment to weight loss, for some reason. Psychosomatic?)

Weight-lifting == bad. But core-strengthening == good.

Hope you feel better soon.

[Debbie]

Thanks! That used to happen to me, too . . . sort of a Catch-22. I didn't really break it until I started biking. Walking, with a large belly, just pulled my spine out of line and caused back pain. I didn't want to walk more than a couple of blocks. And every time (so it seemed) I systematically tried to increase my walking, I got hurt.

Biking, though, is something I could do without fear of back pain. It's not for everyone, but for my particular back issue, biking doesn't bother me.

I haven't tried getting on my spinner yet, but I probably will next week, after the acute pain phase is gone.