"Never Say Never"...except when it's true.

Hey All,
I'm starting to think that my leg may never fully heal. I know, never say never. I know that optimism may help me heal. I also know that my leg has hurt me for nearly two months now. As much as I am trying to find the silver lining in all of this and to keep my head up, it's truly very challenging. Every time that I think my leg is healed, I have some kind of a setback. This time, I'm not even sure what it was, but, if I had to guess, it would probably be the awesome dancing that I did on Friday night when I was out with my friends. Totally worth it! In any case, I've reached the end of my ability to just sit back and ignore this problem or let it heal itself, and I've decided that student health isn't worth my time. Instead, I'm going to head home on Thursday so I can see my cousin, an orthopedic surgeon, on Friday morning. I really hope that he can pinpoint the problem and provide some kind of a solution, even if it will take a while to implement/resolve things. Mostly, I'm just so tired of not knowing if/when I'll be able to walk normally and maybe even run some day.

Sorry for the relatively sad post...hopefully, the next one will be more uplifting.

Beso,
A

You Make Me Feel Good...Or Not.

Once again, I've fallen behind on my updates. My apologies. Between working at the courthouse, school, and taking care of my turtle (I mentioned, I now own a turtle, right?), I've been rather busy. I didn't expect 3L year to be this busy, but I guess this is typical of my life. Unless I'm actually on vacation, I seem to always be busy doing something. Of course, that doesn't seem to include going to the gym these days. On Sunday, I went and set out to walk for a while. However, the inner runner in me got frustrated. Though I may like strolling around the Botanic Gardens when I'm home or walking along the beach, powerwalking in the gym doesn't seem to do the same thing for me. After walking 0.75 miles, I sprinted the remaining 0.25. I don't know what it is, but I just have this feeling inside that makes me really want to run. I finished up my workout with my sit up and arm routines, but I felt a bit defeated. My legs told me that I'm still not fully recovered, which made me lack the confidence to do anything else and made me question the wisdom of returning this week. As such, I've concluded that I need to start swimming. That seems to be the number one thing that runners do when they are injured, and, as a novice runner, I will follow them.

Nevertheless, the week has been alright. I had the willpower to resist the mound of candy on the table during a group project, and I have still been eating healthy. I'm down 23.2lbs, which is still 4.8lbs above where I was at the beginning of the summer. Still, I have confidence that I can get back to where I started, especially given this new swimming idea. On that note, I leave you with a video and a pics of my cute and crazy turtle Karoline.



Karoline doing the usual and swimming into the glass.



This shows you all how small she is.



This is her home. :)


Besito,
Alyse and Karoline

Almost back where I started...

As of this morning, I've lost 22.8lbs. Some of you will remember that I had lost 28lbs before starting my summer associateship and that I gained back 8lbs over the summer (net 20lbs down), from a terrific and terrible combination of not exercising, and wining and dining with the firm. In truth, I wouldn't have traded my summer experience for anything, but I was left to face the "fun" of re-losing those 8lbs and losing an additional 15lbs. Of course, this hasn't been made any easier by all of my leg issues, but, on the bright side, I have already lost 2.8lbs since two weeks ago. Not all is lost. Sure, I still have another 20.2lbs to lose this year, but I feel confident that I can do it. It seems to all be a matter of perspective and patience. From my viewpoint, I have lost 35% of the weight I gained this summer and am over 10% toward my goal. Not bad for two week's work. Here's hoping that the next two weeks bring me even closer to where I started at the beginning of the summer.

Besito,
A

Patience...a virtue I sometimes lack.

Hey All,
I have once again been very busy and failed to keep up on my posting. I had wanted to wait until I received some pictures of my weekend in California for Dan's deployment, but those will have to wait for another day. Amazingly enough, the trip didn't have any impact on my weightloss, despite all of the eating we did. In the days since then, however, I have managed to gain a little. :( It probably doesn't help that I went tailgating yesterday and haven't been very active, given the difficulties I have encountered with my leg. Although I am back to eating healthy again, I still am feeling very anxious about returning to the gym. My legs keep showing signs that they too want to go for a run, but I have to restrain myself. On a day like today, I would like nothing more than to even be able to go for a walk, but I'm following my better wisdom and giving it another week of feeling good before I do anything more strenuous than my daily activities. I have contemplated some arms and abs routines, but I'm still not sure if that would pacify me. As you can probably tell from this post, patience with regard to losing weight is not my forte. Ugh...

Neverthless, I'm going to keep my head in the game and try to remember that there's always next week.

Besito,
Alyse