What I’ve Learned From Crutches

(This was written and supposed to be posted on Tuesday, so let’s just pretend shall we?)

1. One must get creative when trasferring hot beverages and food.

From the coffee counter…

To the next counter…

Across the sink to the other side…

To the next counter…

Up to the bar…

And down to the couch…

I did the same thing with my breakfast, except it took a detour on the barstool before making its way to the coffee table.

Mmmmm waffles topped with some Justin’s maple almond butter (my love for this stuff has not wavered!!).

2. One’s room becomes a mess

Collection of drink containers that becomes very difficult to bring downstairs to recycling while on crutches.

Piles of stuff that becomes difficult to put away while on crutches.

3. Ones hands become bruised from the weight put on them.

Ouchie…

4. One’s dog is confused and gets in your way quite often

5. One must make sure once they go up/downstairs, they don’t need to go back for a long while after.

Stairs suck.

6. One must take advantage of pocketed sweatshirts

Front pocket stuffed to the brim for transferring purposes.

7. One should not drink as much as normal in order to avoid having to get up to use the restroom every 30 minutes.

It’s annoying.

7. One cannot wait to be off these in just a few days!

Classic Joke Tuesday!! (Since we are all pretending it’s Tuesday right? Just for the time being…then you can go back to hump day 🙂 )

Q: Why is Peter Pan always in flight??

A: He Neverlands.

 

 

Body Test

I took off early yesterday morning to make it across the bay for a work-related appointment. The normal commute is about 60-90 minutes depending on time of day/traffic.

Because of yesterday’s rain storm, it took me 2 1/2 hours!! Yikes. No, Luke Bryan, sometimes rain is NOT a good thing.

The appointment I was trying to make was a fitness assessment which is part of my company’s “Be Well” incentive program. A couple weeks ago I got a free blood test (glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI, etc). The fitness test was measuring

• Blood pressure
• Body fat %
• Resting heartrate
• Aerobic fitness
• Back flexibility
• Bicep strength

Now, with my ankle, I have obviously fallen out of the cardio/aerobic fitness area of my life. I’ve also become more and more lazy with strength workouts. I wasn’t worried about the test, but I knew I wouldn’t be at my best

Needless to say I was pretty proud of my scores!

Not surprised my heartrate was a little high considering I was stressed about parking and then walked quickly since I was late 😉

She also mentioned that even though my back flexibility score was low, it was good in proportion to most people’s usual scores. She also mentioned tight hamstrings (which I have!!) tend to throw that score off a little.

It was a cool and interesting little test!…That I drove 2 1/2 hours for! 😉

I was late getting on the road so stopped for some drugs

And had this for breakfast. Yes seriously.

After the appointment, I stopped by my grandma’s to visit, say hi, and pick something up. Unfortunately, we lost my grandpa back in July, so we always try to visit my grandma when we can 😀

She fed me some chicken noodle tomato soup

And a salad (which I didn’t eat once I noticed it had bacon in it).

The other day, a little twitter converstion I had got me craving some Sprinkles cupcakes. I stopped by the nearest Sprinkles (since this is the only closest Sprinkles location I know of), and picked me up some delicious treats.

I also stopped by one of my favorite frozen yogurt locations and got chocolate pumpkin and peanut butter flavors for a little driving snack.

Now I’m very partial to Bali’s frozen yogurt in San Luis Obispo, but Yumi Yogurt is definitely my 2nd favorite yogurt shop!

Came home, and went to nannying where I took their dog for my last walk for a little while…(you’ll see why).

Boo.

That night, after a little Baja Fresh action

I broke into the cupcakes.

Triple cinnamon and Strawberry.

Tasted exactly like a SNICKERDOODLE CUPCAKE!!!!

I’ve had the Strawberry one before too and it is SO GOOD. YUM.

Then I crashed uber early for a weekend because my cold turned all sinusy pretty much in the blink of an eye, and my entire left side of my face felt like it had been punched.

Never had sinus problems before….so this was new.

B-T-Dubs….the thing I had to pick up at my grandmas was….crutches.

At my doctors appointment for my ankle on Thursday, we went over all the symptoms I’m still having, she checked out my MRI again, she inspected this weird bone that’s sticking out on my foot, took more X-rays…and in the end recommended me to go back into the cam walking boot for 2 weeks. This time WITH crutches (I didn’t even have crutces when I originally sprained my ankle…which would’ve made it much easier to walk!)

She believes it is a tendon problem right now, and that it can’t fully 100% heal unless I’m off it. (Notice my ghetto padding – the crutches seemed to be missing their padding, so I’m sporting washcloths!).

I feel stupid walking around in crutches and a boot when I am completely and fully capable of walking without really much pain at all. But I guess what needs to be done needs to be done.

Sinus problems, crutches and a boot coming through!! Hot mess right here!!

Hope you’re all having a good weekend!!

Old vs. New

OLD hospital job was quite a bit more active, what with running around for 5-8 hours getting people’s food orders, delivering food, restocking food etc.

NEW Stanford job consists of sitting on my butt, making phone call after phone call.

(Haggard me)

With my new work phone…yes a flip phone! It completely does not matter what phone I have to make calls, however it definitely took a lot of “getting reaquainted with.”

I’m currently working as a research assistant on a study that requires me to get all of the dietary data. I call all the particiants for multiple days to get multiple dietary recalls (a recall of what they ate the day before).

It’s definitely a change, and definitely has its pros and cons! (PS I work from home so it’s nice I do not have to commute the 1 hour+ to Palo Alto everyday).

OLD nannying job taking care of little ones…I miss them!!

I freaking LOVE that picture. HAHA.

While nannying little ones can get tough, I took care of this little baby 5 days a week from 3-18 months. Adorbs.

And toddlers are hilarious!!

NEW nannying job is for school-aged kids. Which is great as well! With older kids, you have more of a connection and “hang-out” with them, have conversations….plus they do more work for you 😉

OLD hairstyle…last time you saw me I had long hair!

Fear the Beard circa August 2011.

NEW hairstyle…Earlier in 2012 I got it cut. And since my hair takes so long to grow….it’s still pretty short.

(This was the day after, when the ends flipped up a lot…but shows the length!)

It’s slowly getting longer…

OLD scenery:

(I miss the beach!!)

NEW scenery:

okay okay…not exactly my backyard. But at least I’m close and able to go to more Giants games now! 😉

Including Game 7 of the NLCS!!!!

Soaked and lovin’ life 😀

OLD social activities…being with friends and roommate!

Going out dancing on the weekends

(sweeeeet dance moves)

And just hanging around my peers in general

NEW social activities…

Hanging around the crazy fam

Trips to SLO, Sacramento, San Fran, etc. to see old friends…

And my nightly friend, TV

Source Source

Source Source

Trust me, I’ve been watcing a lot of TV. Which I like and don’t like. I like the shows!! But I miss being social. It’s very hard when with job you work from home, and with your other job you nanny. I do have a couple friends around the area and try to see them occasionally, but it’s definitely not the same!

 

What’s new for YOU since I was last blogging? Catch me up! 🙂

 

PS: Will update you on the ankle appointment I had today tomorrow!!

Sprained

Day 2 back in action 😀

 

First, I thought I’d start off my catching you up on what injury I’m dealing with right now. Well, I should say ONE of the injuries I’m dealing with right now (*rolls eyes*). Remember that ankle/shin pain I was dealing with?

(You can refresh on it here and here and here )

Yup, I was still seeing doctors about that when this happened.

Beginning of August, I rolled out of bed early in the morning to make it to my 6:45 am gym class (yay! Go me!). However afterwards, I wish I hadn’t. Called “Athlete’s Blast,” it’s an interval, cross-fit type of class. We were jumping/running over mini hurdles (about a foot high), when I landed on the base of one by accident, rolled my ankle, and fell.

Source

“Ouch, that’s a little painful.” I thought as I hobbled over to the side to let that twinge die down. Then I looked down and saw a protruding softball sized lump coming out over my sock. Oh.

I iced it until I could hobble to my car and soon after went straight to the doctor. After x-rays confirmed no broken bones, and just a bad sprain, she sent me home with instructions to wear this beauty:

Luckily I had one from the last time I was instructed to wear a boot 😉 Well, I mean…not luckily, but….you know. (Also refer to that link for my endless list of injuries, oy!)

Interestingly enough, the Dr. didn’t recommend crutches or anything. I was slighly surprised, and was up and walking on the injured foot from day 1.

3 days post:

Ice Ice Baby

I wore the boot for about 1 1/2 weeks, then another week on/off. Switched to a lace-up brace, and then started PT 3 weeks post-injury.

(Finger is point to my highest point of pain up my shin – a pain my Dr. still isn’t quite sure what it’s from).

I was officially diagnosed with a Syndesmosis injury (high ankle sprain), which is a sprain of the ligaments connecting your fibia and tibia, slightly above your ankle. Painful, and longer to recover from. Great.

My left leg lost a crazy amount of muscle, which PT tried to restore, as well as balance and range of motion (which I lost a lot of. I couldn’t even move my ankle in any direction for a good coule weeks).

Little tootsies still showing signs of bruising about a month later!

At 8 weeks post, it was still uber stiff, and I was having pinching pain when I walked. The doc recommended a cortisone shot to help relieve the scar tissue build-up causing the impingement. I also had nerve tingling in multiple places, so she prescribed me a heavy dose of vitamin B-6 to help with the swelling (news to me that B-6 helps with that!!)

Ouchie shot.

It definitely brought down the swelling and pain. Bones and ligaments and veins started popping up!

And then about 2 weeks after that, I was stretching the ankle and some shooting pain sent me hurdling towards the nearest seat on my first step. I don’t if I re-sprained something, or what happened, but it caused immense pain for weeks. So then the doc sent me for an MRI (my second MRI on the same ankle in 4 months – oy, but I’ll get to that!).

It came back negative for any tears or tendon tears (yay). Officially:

• Tendonitis in multiple locations
• Os trigonum inflammation
• Scar tissue build up in multiple location
• Synovitis (fluid build-up/inflammation)
• Bone bruising of the talus

Basically nothing they could really fix at the moment. Bittersweet I suppose.

Anyways, the doctor gave me the go ahead to exercise as pain permits. So I’ve done a little bit of elliptical, walking, and lower body exercises (such as my PT work and squats). It’s been feeling way better (but nowhere near 100%) until this week and I’ve had a big flare-up again.

I have another follow-up appointment with the orthopedic tomorrow, so that’s why I was posting this today!

She was previously talking about possibly another cortisone injection if it was still causing pain, however I’m wary…it worries me getting them into my joints (based on what I’ve heard/read).

Needless to say, I wish I had been lazy and slept in that morning instead of making it to the gym! 😉

 

What’s the worse injury you’ve experienced or ever had?

This was my first acute injury that I could pinpoint and give a time, date and place. Every other injury has been more gradual from running, etc.

Forgive Me

HI!

 

Okay okay. I don’t even know where to begin in the fact that I ditched you all. Not only that, but I missed blog-world! (I honestly doubt anyone is reading this since I was most likely deleted from multiple google readers long ago…).

 

I guess the only excuse I can come up with, is I got SO BUSY with my jobs and life last summer (aka summer of 2011). Then I moved. Then I moved again. And then I got so un-busy, that I didn’t have anything to write about! Then I started a new job. Then another new job. Then I injured myself (surprise surprise!) and wanted to blog about it, but realized I hadn’t blogged in forever, I couldn’t just randomly post! So then I kept wanting to come back to blog-world, and then all of a sudden it’s almost December 2012! Phew!

 

Well, I’ll just have to go back and explain it all to you huh? 😉 I think it will take multiple posts to catch you all up.

AUGUST 2011: My lease ended with my current roommates. Original plan was to move home and work/save money, however I decided to stay in San Luis Obispo and continue to work down there for a couple more months. Who’s ever ready to leave SLO or their college town?! I subleased a room in a house with 4 random guys. Yes. Shake your heads now. Let’s just say I was READY to get out of their come December.

 

DECEMBER 2011: Moved home. Really depressed about this one. However, the plan was to get a better paying, resume boosting job to help get me into the dietetic internship program. I was in talks with someone from Stanford Prevention & Research department about a potential job, but it was taking forever to get started.

 

Feb-March 2012: Finallyyyyyy started working after a long 2 months of sleeping in and watching TONS of TV. I started working at Stanford research center part-time, and nannying part-time. Yay money! 😉

 

March-December 2012: Working! I’m not going to lie, it WAS NOT easy to move home. For a 24/25 year-old to move back home is difficult when you’re so used to constantly being around friends, peers, and living your own life. But I knew it was the right step for the time being. It would give me a chance to save up money for the internship/grad-school program.

Sooooo that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing for the past year. Nothing TOO exciting. I’ll be applying for the next round of Dietetic Internships come this February and here’s to hoping luck is on my side this time!! I also see a lot of Flashback Fridays posts in my future to catch you all up 😉

See ya soon!!

xoxo

Teaser

Friends (who are still out there)!  This is a quick post just to let you know I am alive and well!
I am soooo sorry to have left you all, but this is a teaser to let you know I’m coming back 😉

 

More soon….

 

xoxo Tay

Campbells to the Rescue!

I’ve never been a HUGE soup person.  It’s delicious, but I find it fills you up for the time being, but leaves me hungry soon after.  That said, I don’t think I’ve ever consumed as much soup as I have recently. 

My diet as of late:

Notice a theme?

I have been feeling completely nauseous for days and chicken based soups have never hit the spot so well. And it just so happens that I was sent coupons to try out Campbell’s line of healthy soups a while back.

First day I had the Chicken Tuscany, which I’ve had before and knew I liked!

Different than chicken noodle, it has white beans, and more of a “cream of chicken soup” taste to it.  Delish!!

While babysitting one night, I brought along the can of Chicken with Whole Grain Noodles – easy and portable dinner!  I like how they have whole grain noodles

And when I was starting to feel a bit better, I had a soup with a bit more zest to it

Topped with some chips and cheese of course.

I’ve always enjoyed Campbells soups in the past. I love how the “light” versions are light enough to be enjoyed as a side dish, snack or appetizer, but still with delicious flavor! 

Of course, who only eats half the soup can, am I right?

They’re low in fat, packed with protein, and a decent amount of fiber (well some of them).  And all 11 Select Harvest Light varieties are 100% Natural.  AKA they contain no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives. Real ingredients people! 

Sure, the sodium is high, but honestly I really don’t pay attention to that at this point in my life (even though I should).  Meh!

Thank you Campbells for providing me with some delicious soup during my sick days!!  (Please note I was given coupons for the above soups to try and review).

I’m actually excited to try out some different flavors I’ve never had now.

Besides soup, I’ve also had quite a bit of bland toast.

And I went through a whole lot of Diet Sierra Mist.  It’s really weird how such foods/drinks really do help you feel better.

I’m feeling better now thank goodness, but it was the weirdest thing.  The way I knew I really truly was not feeling well was because I had ZERO appetite.  Bites and thoughts of food constantly had me feeling sick to my stomach.  I could only tolerate certain things at certain times (such as soup and toast!).  That never happens to me.  Even when I’m sick I can always still eat.

I could also sometimes stomach cereal such as this delicious granola I got cheap at Ralphs:

Yummmmm.

 

What’s you choice of food when you’re feeling sick/run down?

Things

Yo!!!  Missed me?  I hope so

A few things I’ve noticed as of late.

1. Family Time > Blog Time

We traveled to Washington last weekend for my sister Paige’s graduation!

It was the first time my family has been together since January!

 

 

2. There’s a reason I don’t live in Washington

3. Fruit makes champagne that much better.

 

4. Mimosa brunches with friends are that much better with a beautiful view.

It seriously makes you feel like you’re on vacation.

 

5. Guys really like bacon.

 

6. Don’t go down to the beach with “under-the-influence” guys and expect to stay dry.  No matter your protests, they will pick you up and dump in in the ocean.

Even in brand new jeans and shirt, and with straightened hair.  They just don’t understand.

 

7. My 10 year old sister might just be the funniest person I know.  We had a fun photo shoot with her 2 life-size stuffed animals.

   

 

8. I love this one.  Love

 

 

9. It’s a smart thing to put your food pictures on your computer before you take your camera to events such as graduations or mimosa brunches.  Because when you run out of camera space, the food pics are the first to go And then you end up with no food pics from the past 2 weeks.  Seriously.

 

10. I MISSED YOU!!!

 

Tell me the highlight from your past 2 weeks.  Anything exciting!

New Obsession

I’m obsessed. 

Frozen blueberries.  Topped with peanut sauce (mixture of peanut flour, almond milk, dash of salt, and a bit of cream cheese.  I’ve also mixed in honey apple butter for a bit of sweetness before).

It. Is. SO. Good.  The peanut sauce hardens a bit due to the frozen blueberries.  And as you eat, the blueberries slightly defrost making them a little mushy/easier to eat.  It seriously tastes like peanutty blueberry-ish ice cream.  I’m not joking. 

I’ve had it every night this week.  And maybe twice

Can’t. Get. Over. It.

 

Today I was feeling a bit off (thank you Cinco de Mayo celebrating last night).

I had a waffle at some point this morning.

And then leftover cream of broccoli soup before work this afternoon.

I snacked a bunch of this crack at work:

I’m quite serious when I say crack.  I’m not sure how Trader Joe’s finds it legal to sell this stuff.

And some iced coffee thank bajesus. 

After having a bowl of Blueberry-Peanut-Butter-Delight (what I shall call my new love), my body told me it was craving something fatty and Chinesey (I shall thank my roommate who had me looking at Thai food menus online).

Panda Express to the rescue!  Dude, that lady OVERLOADED my tray with almost twice as much food as normal.  And I ate it all.

String bean chicken.

Mushroom chicken.

And I had a free entrée coupon (check the back of your receipts people!!) so I tried the Mandarin Chicken.

Yuck.  Slimy, greasy, chewy, yucky taste.  I did not like. 

 

Is it bad luck if you (accidentally) rip your fortune in half?

Whoops.

 

Did you do anything to celebrate the 5th of May?

First off – happy birthday to my sister!!  (well it was yesterday)  But besides that I just went to a Mexican restaurant/bar with friends.  It was fun!  But an interesting night…I wish I could have partaken in margarita happy hour!

Back in Action

Dayumnnn weather – you be lookin’ GOR-geous today!!  Keep it up

Today started out with some gym time.  I usually go do weights for about 30-40 minutes, but I felt pretty awful when I woke up, and decided to head in later at like 7:00 instead of 6:30. So I got in:

• 15 minutes easy weights (including pull-up machine…working on that!)
• 25 minutes abs class

Let me tell ya’ – doing ab work is dang hard with a boot on my leg.  I don’t know how much it weighs, but it ads to the intensity!  Of course I have to modify planks and such though.

Breakfast wasn’t eaten until 9:15 at work:

Voskos Greek yogurt (topped with a bit of granola)

…mixed with some Trader Joe’s honey apple butter.  It’s definitely yummy, but just reminds me of extra sweet applesauce.  It’s good, but I’d rather have jam (or pumpkin butter!!). 

While at work at snacked on watermelon which I was asked to cut up:

And a mini baby ice cream cone!  Cute.

Lunch (prepared in my wok – love love this thing) – stir-fryed broccoli slaw with ground turkey and enchilada sauce.  Sounds weird, but it was tasty!

 

Topped off with some Jalapeno greek yogurt dip (found at Costco) instead of sour cream.

I also snacked on 2 small random pieces of chicken while this was cooking.

And a couple carrot cake cookies for dessert.

I got this container 75% off at Cost Plus the other day, and have been plowing through.  Love you after-holiday sales!

 

I failed yet again at taking a picture of dinner at work.  It rarely rarely happens since I don’t carry my camera/phone around with me in my pocket (obviously), and we go straight on break into the cafeteria. Unfortunately, I just have to describe it to you

• Creamed spinach (so so good!)
• Steamed broccoli
• Vegetable soup (Au Bon Pan)

There are always 2 entrees, 2 vegetables (not always healthy steamed vegetables ), and 2 starches as options in the cafeteria.  Plus a salad bar, prepackaged wraps/sandwiches, and a soup.  The entrees are often foods I don’t eat (red meat, over-dried meat, meat with skin, etc), so I often go for the salad bar, veggie sides, and soups. 

Once home, I self massaged my tibial tendon (where I’m having lots of pain – right above my inner ankle), and snack on my new favorite dessert – frozen blueberries topped with a peanut flour sauce (will take a picture next time, promise!!). 

Plus hot chocolate! I needed to warm up someway after icing

 

By the way – yes I am counting calories (as part of my weight loss/fit back in my pants plan).  And today’s calorie count totaled out around 1500.  Probably a little more since I estimated on my peanut flour sauce and snacked on a few unmentionable carrot cake cookies I don’t necessarily like to talk calories on the blog (since I know many people do not like that, and I don’t want it to become all calorie talk since I don’t like that either), but I will occasionally talk about it.  Just the facts!

 

PS – yayyyy we made it through Monday!! (even though today is technically my Tuesday at the hospital, it is still my Monday at babysitting).