Setback Update

Good news, things seem to be slowly moving forward with healing from all three injuries. It certainly has shown me how to have patients. I still am eager to hit the gym again but have just decided to take a week and walk outside since we have been having some drier weather. I do have to wait until it is cooler in the day because of the MS. Nothing like stepping out in the heat and feel like you are going to just melt into a puddle, so keeping cool is important.

Besides walking I have also started to wear my pedometer and am just aiming for 5,000 steps and if I can do more that is great. I want to get my knee and leg muscles built up enough before going back to the gym. I am also doing more chair exercises but have gotten down on the floor a few times yet being on the knee still is uncomfortable. I have also gone back to doing a journal of what I am eating but I haven't seen to much of a change from what I was doing before. I have lost eight pounds of some of the weight I put back on after not moving much for the past month which is a relief. I do know that some of that was from fluid retention as I did have swelling in my legs but that is all gone now.

With warm weather being here I am back to eating toss salads. I like to make my salads interesting and dressing them up. I like to add roasted or raw pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds, black olives, red bell peppers, shredded carrots and cucumbers. I also like to add tuna fish, egg salad, baked fish or chicken, or a deli meat for protein. I do my best to keep this to two ounces no more that three ounces at the most. I also like to add fresh or dried fruit like mandarin oranges, grapes or cranberries. I try not to use salad dressing but if I do, I use only one tablespoon not two or I will use some dried spices. Penzeys has a really nice salad spice topping that I like to sprinkle on. It has a little zip to it and is a very nice change from using salad dressings. I have found I need to be creative when it comes to making my salads as a meal in order to feel satisfied and keep eating salads as it can be hard to do at times.

For this week the goal is to get in those 5,000 steps a day, exercise for 20 -30 minutes for chair and light weights and continue to journal food intake.

Until next time stay positive and have a great week!