Collarbone Recovery Time

It has been just over 3 weeks since I broke my collarbone and I have to say I finally feel like I am getting better. I asked around when I broke it to see what other people’s experiences were with recovery. Many people said they broke it when they were young so they don’t remember and one person could give me input due to a recent break. I thought it would be helpful to keep track of my experience if anyone asks me in the future. To remind you here was the result of my inability to stop a kids Razor Scooter…

I actually heard  the bone crack but luckily I didn’t realize I at the time! Here is how my recovery has gone so far.

• Day 1 – Total shock and couldn’t move arm at all. I was prescribed Norco for the pain and I gladly took it.
• Day 2-3 – Laid in bed or sat on couch. Used Norco with Advil. Still had very limited movement but I was able to take a shower and get dressed (with some help, thank you Stuart). Wore a sling to immobilize as much as possible.
• Day 4-5 – Feeling antsy and wanting to get out so I tried to walk around my neighborhood. Only made it half a block. The bones were still popping and shifting.
• Day 6-8 – Finally able to get out and walk a bit further. Popping and shift bones was getting better. Trying to manage with just Advil during the day and Norco at night, but some days I had to take the Norco in the evening.
• Week 2 – Finally driving very little. Worked from home all week and still had to take one more sick day. Managing with Norco at night and Advil during the day. Walked on teh treadmill a couple times. Pain migrated to the top of my shoulder and the shoulder blade.
• Week 3 – Made it into the office two days (my commute is 2.5-3 hours round trip). Weened self off Norco at night by end of third week and felt instantly much better! Walking on the treadmill for 45-min to 1 hour. Sat on my road bike (on a trainer) for the first time and could reach the shifters and shift the bike.

If you break your collarbone, just plan on doing NOTHING for the first two weeks. The more you can rest and stay still, the better you feel. I will update as time goes on…

** I am not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV. This is just my experience so far.

The Whole 30 Effect

It has been about 4 weeks since I ended my Whole 30 challenge. I have managed to continue to eat fairly true to the guidelines of the program. I do allow myself to stray from the program on the weekends but for the most part I am sticking with it. The graph below will show you why.

I never thought I could easily maintain a weight under 130 lbs! What is even more amazing is I am hardly exercising right now. I broke my collarbone 3 weeks ago and have only managed a couple of walks on the treadmill since my injury. There are a few effects from doing Whole 30 that I think are helping me maintain this style of eating.

• I read EVERY label on my food. I am very conscious of what I am eating.
• I found many good Whole 30 meals that I love (eggs with avocado for breakfast, tuna salad and veggies for lunch, and meat and roasted potatoes for dinner).
• Skinny feels better than cereal tastes!
• Coffee with full fat coconut cream is awesome! I don’t miss the sweetness.
• I found some Whole 30 treats that keep me from feeling deprived (milkshake made from coconut milk, cream and frozen bananas, apples or bananas with almond butter, dried apricots, good prosciutto, and coconut date bars).
• Massive support at home. This way of eating is working for Stuart as well so he understands when I am picky about what we eat.
• I have a highly decreased interest in drinking beer.

There are a few things I miss that are not easily substituted, but I allow myself these items in small quantities on the weekend.

• Cheese
• Yogurt and granola
• Chips
• Ice cream
• Pizza

Once this collarbone is healed I will begin training for Oceanside 70.3 in April. That will increase my need for food while training so it will be interesting to see what works best for me at that time. But for now, if I can keep this style up, I think I can keep my weight down which should be really helpful while racing.

The Price We Pay For Triathlon

I got a spot in the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon for 2016! It is a bucket list kind of race for me. I knew it would be an expensive race but when I saw the price at $750 I almost spat out my coffee. Really? $750 for a race roughly the same distance as an Olympic Triathlon?!?!

I have not decided 100% if I am doing the race yet. If I do, I will not sign up for Vineman 70.3 and I can use the money I was planing on spend in room and board for that race on the entry fee for Alcatraz. But I am finding the  race fee almost insulting and I feel a bit stupid for being willing to pay that much for a race!

If I don’t do it there are many others that will happily take my spot. At what price will this sport just become too expensive? I guess it never will for some people.

*****Update******* 10/26/2015

I have decided that the cost was way to steep for the race and I will not be taking my spot. I just felt like it was too much money for a race that distance. I am not willing to pay for it.

And then this happened…

Last Saturday turned out to be a very eventful day. Stuart was riding a local century so I was home with the kids. I planned some cookie making and a trip to the park to keep us all busy for the day. I didn’t feel like unlocking my bike to ride to the park so I took one of the kids scooters. I had never ridden a scooter for more than a couple of meters before this but it was just a means to get to the park instead of walking. While at the park I decided to do one loop around on the scooter. The top of the loop is at the top of a small hill. As I was coming back down I was gathering a lot of speed and I wasn’t sure the best way to stop so I decided to roll into the grass to slow down. Bad idea! The front wheel stopped immediately and I was thrown over right into the ground on my right shoulder. I heard a crack. I thought it was my helmet. In hindsight, I know it wasn’t.

The break didn’t require surgery so I just wave to wait for it to heal. It could take 3-4 weeks before the bones stop shifting. It is turning out to be a much rougher recovery than I expected. My marathon in November is totally out. The next big race I am signed up for is Oceanside 70.3 in early April. I should have enough time to train for that. Worst thing is Stuart will be postponing his Everesting ride. I will not be able to SAG him October 25.

I have to admit, I am not handling this setback very well. I am going stir crazy being stuck in the house so much and being so helpless. I don’t feel like me right now. I am really hoping that after one more week I will feel a bit better and be a bit more independent.

I am trying to keep up my Whole 30 clean eating as best as possible. I would hate to gain the weight back that I lost and also it gives me something to focus on. I admit I haven’t been perfect (I have had a cookie or two over the week) but I have done pretty good otherwise.

I will keep you posted on my progress and recovery but right now I am just trying to end my pity party 🙂

Whole 30 Success… and Failure

I did the Whole 30 challenge and it was both a success and a failure. It was a failure because I didn’t make it all 30 days. It wasn’t because I couldn’t have made it all 30 days. Stuart and I ended up going on an impromptu vacation and I really wanted to enjoy it. So all in all I made it 28 days. Except for one mistake where I took a sip of the wrong cup of coffee, I was 100% true to the program.

My goal of the program did not have to do with identifying any food allergies, but instead I wanted to reduce and cut out the unnecessary  sugar in my diet. For that, it was a total success! After abut 2 weeks on the program I no longer wanted sugary processed carbs anymore. And continuing on I don’t plan on bringing them back into my diet.

Weight-wise I dropped around 6 pounds over the 4 weeks. My husband Stuart managed to lose a bit of weight as well. We both got ourselves down to numbers we never thought we could maintain easily. That wasn’t one of the reasons we did Whole 30 but being able to maintain those lower weights was really nice. For doing the long distance events that Stuart and I do, it is really helpful not to carry around 5 extra pounds over the miles.

So now what you may ask. I plan on eating Whole 30 around 90% of the time. I plan to keep excluding bread, pasta, rice, and added sugar as much as possible. I do plan on drinking beer again. That was the one thing I really missed. I picked up the habit of drinking my coffee with coconut cream so I don’t think I will allow much dairy back in my diet. The exception to this will be the occasional cheese and sausage dinner with Stuart.

The challenge takes a lot of planing ahead and you will spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But it is totally worth it! Getting off the sugar and processed carbs is going to serve me well in the long term. Skinny has felt so much better than cereal tasted!

If you are going to do Whole 30 I highly recommend buying the book. It has a lot of good recipes. I found myself cooking from it 4-8 times per week. I also recommend doing Whole 30 just because it forces you to look at what you are eating and what you are most likely feeding your family. You will be SHOCKED to see how much crap is in our food.