It has been a fabulous week for my weight loss efforts.......not so much. It has been a fabulous week for working out.......not so much. It has been one of my all time favorite weeks this year......not so much!
This week started out perfectly dandy. I saw the trainer on Sunday and had a great workout. My arm was feeling pretty good and I was set to slay the week! While I was with the trainer I did mention that my right knee was really bothering me, more so than normal and at the back of the knee not the normal arthritis location. We talked a bit about zumba and how that could be part of the stress and I did advise that I do tone it down quite a bit and I reminded him that zumba (and running) is my heart....it's the exercises that I find myself happiest.....and that this strength training stuff was only a necessary evil. We left the session with the comment that in my next session we were going to focus on legs so that he could see what was happening. Perfect!
Monday my eating was healthy and I headed to the gym in the evening for my next solo strength session to be followed up with my hour of zumba. My knee was feeling icky. Icky enough that I took a knee brace to the gym with me to utilize for support during zumba. See, I was prepared. I powered through my strength session (which was a leg workout) and was honestly pretty happy with how my knee felt. It was no worse than when I had walked into the gym. Yay! On to zumba! I actually did talk to the instructor before the class and told her that I wasn't sure how it was going to go down because my knee was crankin'! I put my knee brace on and started the class. The class was fun.....not so much! Yeah, within 15 minutes I was in PAIN. I thought about leaving. After-all, I had let the instructor know that it may happen. But I didn't want to give up. I stayed. Another 15 minutes went by and it was bad. I was still pondering leaving, but well.....I was in the front and didn't want to make a spectacle of myself. I stayed. I was barely doing the movements...there was no pep in the step and even my arm movements were surely lackluster and not at all energetic. I made it through that complete workout! I even made it out to my car without my knee buckling causing me to fall flat on my face. I dropped into my car because no, there was no graceful slipping into the car. I drove home. And when I went to get out of the car I KNEW I was in trouble.
It was bad. Bad enough that I immediately started to cry, you know the kind, just silent tears of pain that streak down your face while you do what you need to do. (I think the last time was when I went over the handlebars of the bike landing on my face and then rode my bike a few miles back to the car.) I took advil and crossed my finger for a healing night of sleep! Yeah, that plan....not so much!
Tuesday morning was torture. So bad that I was one of the first people seen at the urgent care center. If you know me, you know that if I willingly go to have a medical professional look at me, that it's bad.
So apparently I have a bakers cyst. The best way to describe a bakers cyst is that I have a leaky knee. Ok, thats' the fun way to describe it. The more serious way is that when there is an injury to the knee (or an arthritis flare up) the body produces a fluid to help cushion and repair....but sometimes it 'leaks' and creates a cyst. And that is my problem. The cyst can be up against pushing on those muscles and lots of other things. Ohh and painful. Lucky me.....not so much!
Tuesday was pure torture with walking. I could barely do it. Each step was like an ice pick straight into my knee. Wednesday was slightly better.....and each day has improved a bit. But back to normal....not so much. It supposedly takes a while to rectify itself. Most of the times the bakers cyst will rectify itself and the fluid will eventually be reabsorbed into my body. If it doesn't get better, there are surgical options (yeah, I don't want that!) It's been a painful week.
So no exercise......unless you count hobbling around as little as possible exercise.
Neither did I feel at all even remotely inclined to cook. So we ate some processed foods and some other less than healthy options.
I go back to the trainer tomorrow. (I need to sign the paperwork to cancel...as my two months are almost up and I have not seen the amazing results that he said I would have......although the computer body scan thingy showed that while I haven't lost weight....I was actually up a pound or two that I gained about 5 pounds of muscle....but do we trust a computer scan?) I know that a lot of the exercises on my leg day routine I can actually not do at the moment. Deep knee squats......not so much. That booty machine.....yeah not so much either. And I honestly don't even think the big step up thingy (is it 12 inches...or 18 inches??) is even possible as I struggle to take a short normal step or even a curb at the moment. So he has his work cut out for him to come up with alternatives that I CAN do!
As for zumba. That is on hold right now. But I do plan on going back as soon as possible, I just like it! I WILL be modifying it further. I WILL be in the back row instead of the front so that I can dip out without making a spectacle of myself should it turn out to be a no go. I will also be investing in some dance shoes. When I was doing zumba regularly way back when, for much of the time I actually used a more 'dance' style shoe. What in the world am I talking about? It's all about the traction. A normal tennis shoe is made for walking/running and the tread is made to help that forward motion. But dancing there are pivots and turns. But if your shoe has traction that is working to keep your foot moving forward, that means it is gripping and fighting you while you 'turn'. SO basically I need a shoe that has good support but limited traction. I have fleetingly thought about those shoes since I started zumba, but it was always a passing thought. Well it's not passing anymore. I will be buying a new pair and utilizing them.....and maybe for a while just marching out the pivots instead of doing them. But that is all to come. In the meantime, I'm taking the medications, rubbing the medicated stuff on my knee and resting as much as possible.
And this coming week, no excuses. I need to double down and get this weight off. That is honestly the only hope I have of bringing this arthritis under control!
