Nose Surgery

I know this has nothing to do with food or being healthy, but I wanted to capture this somewhere so I'd remember it.

I had surgery on my nose just almost 5 weeks ago. I broke my nose in the 8th grade, and after 2 surgeries the septum was still dramatically deviated (barely a mm of clearance in my left nostril). I finally saw the wonderful Dr. Downs about finally getting it fixed.

I went in the Monday after Fourth of July. I remember making myself almost literally sick over the idea of the IV (for those of you who are not familiar with my fear of needles, it's huge). Ryan was trying to calm me down by talking about random things that I don't remember now. They brought me back to the prep room where I changed into my gown and hopped into the bed. Panic was truly starting to set in as I realized the nurse was bringing in the needle stuff. She turned to me and said, "Now, your husband told me about your fear of needles and don't you worry! I know a few tricks to get you past it." I felt so grateful for Ryan in that moment -- to even think about telling the nurse of my fear -- I could have hugged him to death. I don't remember a lot of her trick now, but she had very logical reasons for all of them and how they worked with anatomy in general. I do remember having to take deep breathes. And then the IV was in and it was over. She started pumping drugs right away. That's when I got chatty :)

After another period of time (who knows about time when you're drugged!), they wheeled me into the operation room. Right after I transferred onto the op bed, a nurse had me remove my ring and run it out to Ryan. The anesthesiologist put a mask on my face and the doctor said "now we're only giving you oxygen right now." That was total crap. I've had plenty of oxygen AND drug-filled vapors put on my face over the years, and this was no pure-oxygen mixture. Seconds later, the anesthesiologist said "we're giving you the anesthesia now" and I thought that seems about right and then I was out. Like a log.

Now, for every other surgery I've had in my life (two nose surgeries, foot surgery), I have ALWAYS woken up crying. The pain, being by myself, hearing the beeping and other noises around me -- it all added up to me just balling my way out of sleep. This time, however, as I was waking up I felt someone stroking my hand. It was so comforting that it totally distracted me from everything else. I managed to open my eyes enough to see that it was Ryan. If I was capable of smiling, I would have. For some reason, they had let him back there with me before I had woken up, which has never happened to me before. I felt so warm and fuzzy seeing him there (feeling him there) first thing after waking up, it greatly upped my mood. I'll never forget how endearing it was to have him there.

I also remember suddenly realizing that I could breath through both nostrils. Fully. That hasn't happened in over 13 years. Even through a tube, I could feel the difference. I told Ryan "the air through my left nostril feels so cold!" I think he thought I was still doped out. Which I was, but hey.

The rest is pretty typical of nose surgery. I was sent home with pain killers, which made me nauseous so I had to get nausea pills ordered. By the third or fourth day, the tubes in my nose had plugged up with gunk (you can imagine what "gunk" is). It was not pleasant. I cried a few times because I was unable to sleep at night without mouth-breathing, which was awful. Ryan even took me to Walmart at 3 in the morning to try and find nasal solution. He really is a wonderful man :) Did I mention he took a whole week off from work to take care of me too? Truly amazing man.

A week later, the doctor took out the tubes. CRAZIEST thing ever! They were WAY larger than I thought! HUGE!! They were also like two slimy worms coming out. I don't see how Ryan sees me as sexy after that experience. But the relief was awesome. I could BREATH through BOTH NOSTRILS!! I can't say that enough. Over the next 1.5 weeks until my final appt I was paranoid that the septum would collapse -- it was SO squishy feeling. But it eventually firmed up to the lovely septum that I have today :)

Discouraged

So, Ryan and I have been doing this new workout routine for about two weeks now. We've been on our new diet for almost 3 weeks. There was a time where even cutting out soda for a week would make me drop 5 pounds automatically. 

I have officially lost no weight in the past 2-3 weeks. 

I can feel my body changing, for example my pants are fitting lovely today with almost nothing hanging over the top, even though I've been up for 4 hours already AND have eaten something. I think I'm even beginning to look thinner from the side, and a friend even said to me that I'm looking better. 

But that number on the scale bothers me. I know it shouldn't. I've always been one to say "the number doesn't matter -- it's how you FEEL that counts!" But for some reason, it's bothering me. I keep stepping on the scale to see some wonderful dropping happening, but it always lands within the 3-pound window that I just can't seem to escape from. 

Ryan says, Come on, it's only been two weeks! And on the inside I'm thinking, It's already been two weeks! What the flip!

Anyway, there's where I'm at. Overall. I'm feeling good though (or rather my body is feeling good). We did an intense 1-hour weight lifting session last night on our backs. It feels awesome :) 

First Week summary

We've completed the first week.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still exhausted to get up in the morning, but I find that it's not so much of a fight anymore. I'm usually grumpy all the way to the gym, but once I'm done there and on my way to work, I feel much better. It's been good.

I don't see much results in myself. My weight fluctuates by about 2 lbs on any given day normally, so to see it bounce between 149 and 151 really doesn't tell me much. But according to my scale at home, I've lost an itty-bitty bit of fat and gained an itty-bitty bit of muscle. That's something :) I also don't feel like my stomach hangs out as much. Perhaps the abs are holding things in??

I can tell Ryan is looking better though, jerk. His stomach is flatter and his weight is more stable. He's lost about 4 lbs.

Coming soon: Potato Chili Bowl recipe!!

Workout Day 4 -- oh the pain!!

I hurt so bad. But it's a good kind of hurt (I need to keep telling myself that :). My legs (particularly my calfs) are feeling the most pain, followed closely by my back. I can feel my abs beginning to feel the pain as well, but since we only just worked them out yesterday, I don't expect to feel real pain from them until tomorrow.

It was the worst ever getting up this morning. We had to get up an hour earlier than usual (4am) so we can leave work early today, which just added to the horror. My whole body was stiff and the lack of sleep made me a very, VERY grumpy person. I can truly say it was worst this whole week. Fortunately, Ryan is stronger than I and forced us out of bed. Stretching at the gym was awful. It felt like all my muscles were tearing apart. But the one thing I couldn't ignore -- despite my grumpiness -- was that after stretching I did feel much more mobile.

We did the StairMaster, as if this morning wasn't already bad enough.

After all the horribleness and pain, once I had showered and was in the car on the way to work, when Ryan asked how I was feeling, I could honestly say that I felt good. I felt awake (though sleepy), stretched out, and generally good about my workout. I was thinking "well, that wasn't soooo bad."

All of this is to say that when you feel at your worst, like you just can't do it anymore and you just want to fall back asleep, do it anyway. You'll feel better in the end.

Workout day 3

We're on day three of this double-cardio workout. It's killer. I pass out so quickly as soon as I lay in bed. My muscles are killing me, particularly my legs right now. But it hurts so good!! Here's the run-down of what we've done:

Day 1: StairMaster in the AM. Running then legs (weights) in the PM. 

Day 2: Bike in the AM. Back and shoulders in the PM (we ran out of time for cardio before Ryan's class)

Day 3 (today): Elliptical this morning. This afternoon will be abs and an undetermined form of cardio. 

Results thus far:

> Ryan has dropped about 3 lbs. I have dropped 1. But I'm very proud of that 1 lb. In 2.5 days?? Heck yes! :) :)

Food: We're still doing the Happy Herbivore meal plan set-up. I just bought this week's meal plan. I'm going to customize it a bit though with meals from last week.

Workout

I'm trying out this new style of working out, inspired by this girl. She talks about the different ways she trains for a competition, and I thought I would give some of it a try, as well as trying out some of her tricks for controlling food binges. There are two stages to her prep for competitions: a cardio-intensive workout season and an "improvement season". The cardio-focused workout involves her doing double cardio sessions a day in addition to her weight lifting, which consists of several lower-weight reps/sets one right after another to keep the heart rate up during lifting. This is the time to lose fat. During her improvement season, she focuses less on cardio (although still does it once a day) but shifts her focus on lifting more weight. This is the time to build muscle and sculpt.

I have already been lifting weights with Ryan at the gym, but I know that I need more cardio in my life. Since Ryan has mentioned that he'd like to focus more on losing fat right now than bulking up, I thought this routine might work. So, I convinced Ryan to give it a try. He seemed a little hesitant because he had been told that this kind of weight lifting results in those skinny but slightly toned guys in the gym, which is not necessarily his goal. But I reminded him that he wanted to focus on the fat first anyway, so why not give this a try for a few weeks, just until we lose enough fat for him to start wanting to focus on bulking up? He eventually agreed.

So here's our routine:

> 5am: Wake up, have breakfast, and go to the gym for cardio (this morning we did the stairmaster for 20 min -- ah!!! I was dripping with sweat).
> 7am-4pm: Work (Lunch).
> 4pm-6pm: Back at the gym for cardio focused weight-lifting and another cardio session. We will be doing legs today, so we'll pick lower weights and do twice as many reps as usual, while switching between other exercises immediately to keep the heart rate up. I haven't decided what cardio I'll do. Perhaps the bike since I might not be able to stand after leg lifts... (Ideally, we'd have protein shakes after, but I think we forgot to pack them this morning.)
>6pm-9pm: Ryan is in class, and I'll be making lunch and dinner for the next day. I need to get better about prepping meals ahead of time.
>9:30pm: Dinner. It's not ideal to be eating so late, but it'll be a smaller meal, and we'll likely stay up for a couple hours anyway.
>11pm: Bed. Again, ideally we'd be going to bed earlier, but you work with what you've got, and we've got little time.

I'll let you know how this goes!! I've heard the first week is the hardest and we are only on day one...

As a side note, I  love how the girl mentioned above emphasizes that food is not the enemy. It is necessary for a healthy and beautiful body. But she also talks about how it has to be clean, which seems to work well with our goals for food as well :) check it out!

Vegetarian Tofu Lasagna

Now don't let the fact that tofu is in this scare you. It's delicious :

Serves 4:

> about 4 oz of lasagna noodles
> 8 oz tofu, broken up/crumbled
> 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
> about 1 cup of chopped spinach (or more if you desire)
> about half of a 25 oz jar of marinara sauce or whatever spaghetti sauce you have in the pantry
> 1 tbsp italian seasoning

Cook the noodles normally in a pot of water. In the meantime, combine the tofu, cheese, spinach, most of the sauce, and the italian seasoning. Heat in the microwave. Lay a thin spread of sauce in the bottom of a 8x8 ish pyrex dish (or something similar). Spread a layer of the mixture. Top with a layer of noodles. Spread another layer of mix and top with another layer of noodles. Continue until all mixture has been used. Top with a final layer of noodles and sprinkle entire top with some cheese. Heat if necessary.

In the future, I will probably add sliced/diced zucchini or eggplant for extra veggie-ness. Also, if you wanna make it look interesting, try spreading the mixture in each noodle, roll the noodle, and place in the dish. Top noodle rolls with sauce and cheese.