ENTRY FIVE: January 3rd, 2014

The timing of week two of my recovery came at an interesting time. Last week was New Year’s and we’ve been rolling out our “resolution” content like crazy. And when you read all the other stories out there, you’ll come across all different types of workout programs and diets. I could only imagine how overwhelming its been for people. Well, I happened to be perusing through my Twitter feed and came across something interesting. Researchers at the Lisbon University Institute conducted a study on over 200 subjects for a three week period. Each of the subjects were questioned how important they felt it was for your health to follow daily recommendations for food intake, how they might achieve the daily intake, if they intended on achieving it, and their behaviors. Participants then were to log their food intake for each week. The study found that those who believed in the importance of healthy foods, and had confidence in their ability to follow recommended intake was key to an individuals good intentions, however, consumption turned out to be optimized when the subject had actual strategies in place to combat situations that could undermine their healthy habits. So at the end of the day, planning and strategy beats out having the willpower to succeed. Funny how this directly related to my current situation.

I’ve always been someone with strong will power, and always planned every single thing out. But, I knew that this injury would put me out for a while, and I knew that I need to have a calendar, set specific milestones, and document my journey. I know what I have to do, and what I’ve been having to do, but it’s certainly been optimized by keeping track of everything.

Now back to the injury, I’m continuing to see steady progress. A few small milestones have been keeping me energized and excited. Overall, I haven’t been experiencing as much pain as the days and weeks go by. More and more I’m beginning to naturally use my arm, but still being careful not to lift or pick anything up. A few times I catch myself moving into a position where I stretch and I can feel the tightness and it reminds me. But one really great thing has been sleeping. I’ve finally able to comfortably lay on my bed, type on the computer and fall asleep. The first week I was still waking up at 4AM or some with pain. A few other positive things have been that it’s getting a bit easier to shower, dry off, brush my teeth, and even when I need to lean across my bed to reach my phone or alarm clock, I don’t need to get up now, I can carefully reach across my body. I can even raise my arm up with a water bottle to drink, and sitting at my desk to work and type isn’t as uncomfortable anymore either.

The only thing that’s been sort of messing with me has been my inability to really do any kind of working out. I still can’t run because of the “arm swinging motion”, and even though there’s some research that if you have an injury on one side, you can train the other and it will help reduce atrophy. Seems interesting how the body wants to naturally balance itself out, but I rather not look like Quagmire after his marathon reclusiveness after he discovered the “dirt” you could find on the internet. But overall, I’m feeling good, diet is still super clean, I’ve been loading up on veggies, keeping the carbs and fats down while maintaining my protein intake. Body seems to be losing a bit of muscle and holding a bit more fat, but that’s expected. I’m hopeful that by the end of the month I’ll be able to get three-four good runs and jogs in.

In the meantime, staying positive…

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