Another update

Just a quick update...I'm still not back to exercising. Physio seems to be working a little bit, but not much. I see my doctor soon to discuss what I should do.

On a good note, I still seem to be losing weight! It's probably all muscle, but hey, I'll take what I can get!! This morning I weighed myself at 151.6 lbs! I'm not really going to count it yet until I see it a few more days in a row.

Basically since I stopped exercising to rest my back, I've been trying really hard not to eat too much. I've found a really great application for my iPhone that tracks calories and it has a huge database of foods so I don't have to go find the nutritional info myself. The application came up with a plan for me, based on my stats and in order to lose a lb per week, I'm to eat just over 1500 calories per day. So far it seems to be working (as long as I stay on track of course!). I also recently started taking these pills called Green - Lean. Or maybe it's Greenies...can't remember! Anyway, they are supposed to boost your metabolism and so far it seems to be working.

MRI results

I had an MRI of my back today and I guess I have a good reason for all my whining! (Not that anyone was accusing me of being a whiner, I just felt like I was complaining a lot!) I have a large disc herniation between L5 and S1 that is protruding posteriorly and slightly to the left and it's pressing on my nerve root. Your disc should be flush with your vertebrae, but this one is stuck out more than a cm past the vertebrae and it's more than a cm wide too.

I work with an MRI tech and she went over the images with me. When she first saw them, she used words like: "Jesus", "Oh my God Heather" and "that's really nasty". So I guess it's pretty serious!

I spoke with my doctor and she wants me to go to physio, take anti-inflammatories, ice and rest, and I'll see her in a month. I'm hoping that I can get this fixed enough so that I can stop limping and start playing soccer again. I have my doubts that I'll be playing this season though. But there may also be the possibility that I'll need surgery down the road. My mother had the same problem at my age and needed a spinal fusion. Yikes!

So I guess P90X is out of the question for a while at least. I do hope to get back into it sometime down the road, but for now I guess I'll just take it easy. I'll keep you posted.

Taking a break

I'm very disappointed to say that my body is in need of a break for at least a couple of weeks. I went to see a physiotherapist yesterday (and I've also been seeing a chiropractor) and they have both insinuated that maybe I should rest my back for a little while. It kills me to have to stop exercising for a bit...especially that I have to take a break from soccer. But soccer is what bothers my back the most because there is a lot of pounding involved.

My instructions are to ice my back a lot, rest it as much as possible...and lie on my back as much as possible. Yikes! That's a hard one! Apparently even stretching my back and leg is doing me more harm than good. So I think my best bet is to totally stop exercising for 2 weeks and see if there are any improvements. Hopefully I won't have to take off any longer than that, but I realize it may be necessary. It just sucks that the soccer season is so short.

Also, I'm so close to being done P90X and I'm nowhere near where I wanted to be, weight-wise. I wanted to be in a bikini by this time, and although it is physically possible for me to wear one, I wouldn't be caught dead in it right now! Don't get me wrong...I have accomplished a lot since starting P90X and I have lost a lot of fat, but I'm not where I want to be yet. So fingers crossed that my little break doesn't last too long.

Checking in again

Hi all. Yes, I'm still here. This month has been terrible for working out for me and I feel so guilty! I'm still having major problems with sciatic nerve pain and it's making my life difficult. I limp around most of the time and it's hard to play soccer and to do a lot of different activities. I'm so close to being done P90X, but since I've been away from it for so long, I feel like I might need to repeat a couple of my last weeks before I finish. I'm losing a lot of the muscle tone that I've worked so hard to build up and I know that my fitness test at the end won't be accurate because I haven't exercised in so long. Argh! This is really frustrating!! I want to be more active but my body just won't let me!

I have an appt with a physiotherapist today and I've been seeing my chiropractor as well. I've also made an appt with my family doctor to see if I can get an MRI done to see if my problem is in fact a disc issue. It may end up that I need to take of the summer off from soccer, or just plain take it easy from exercising and rest. I really hope it doesn't come to that because I've been working hard to get into better shape. If I can't exercise, I'll really need to work on my diet alone in order to lose lbs.

Sorry for the absence!

I know it's been a really long time since I last posted and I apologize. I am still working away at P90X, but I've had to take a couple of breaks.

After my last post, I believe I did about 3-4 more days of P90X, with a few soccer games thrown into the mix. With about 2 weeks left before the end of the program, I decided that I needed to take a three day break. I'm still having major sciatic nerve problems and the pain is pretty much constant...it even hurts when I cough. I thought that maybe it would get a little bit better if I took a few days off. At about day 2 of my mini break, I got sick with a cold and ended up taking almost 3 days off work because of it. So for about a week, I did no exercise whatsoever.

After taking the week off, I started back into P90X (this was last Monday) and had a soccer game early last week as well. Then on Thursday, we left for a trip to Ontario for four days. I did a bunch of walking during the trip, but no other exercise. And I ate pretty crappy too! I got back from my trip late last night.

So that brings us up to date. I've got soccer tonight and Wednesday and I'll be continuing on in week 12 of P90X. My sciatic nerve issue is no better after about a month of pain and the week off didn't do me any good at all. I have a physio appt. next week so I'm hoping she can perfom miracles! It's kind of painful to run during soccer, but I'm making sure I put heat on it before my games and stretch it really well. Plus I take 2 extra strength ibuprofen before each game. Most of the moves in P90X don't bother me, but there are a couple that I usually end up skipping over.

So that's where I've been. I know I've been really slack lately, but I'm going to try and be better about posting for my last 2 weeks. I'm anxious to finish, but it will take a little longer than 2 weeks since I play soccer about twice a week. I haven't taken any measurements in quite a while, so I'm hoping I see some more change since day 60! I'll post again soon!

Days 69, 70, 71 - Kenpo, Stretch, and Chest, Back & Abs Ripper

This will be another quick post because I've gotten myself really behind again. My sciatic nerve is still bothering me, so exercising has been a bit difficult. But I managed to do the last 3 workouts pretty well, plus I played soccer on Friday night. I took a day off on Saturday too (unintentionally) because I had to work, then we were with friends for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I really hope this nerve problem goes away soon. I'm finding it difficult to put my shoes and socks on and I limp for a bit every time I get up off a chair. Also, oddly enough, when I laugh, cough, sneeze, etc, it hurts my ass! (see previous post if you aren't sure what I'm talking about).

My massage therapist and fellow soccer player assessed me on Friday before my game and she can't figure out what's going on. She did a few tests on me to see where the pain originates, but they didn't really tell her anything. But she thinks the problem either originates from a tightness in my piriformis muscle in my bum, or from a known disc problem in my back...or both. So I'm not really sure what to do about it, aside from stretching the muscle. I'm going to try icing my back tonight instead of my bum and see if that helps. If it does, that will answer my question at least.

I shouldn't be having this many problems!!...back issues, sciatic nerve issues. The whole point of getting into shape was to get rid of these problems! I'm only 33! I can't imagine what I'll be like at 50 at this rate!

Day 68 - Core Synergistics

I have a really sore bum! As I discussed in my last post, I went to see my massage therapist yesterday to work on my piriformis muscle, which is causing some sciatic nerve pain. She worked REALLY hard on it and as a result, I have a big bruise on my left bum cheek!! I'm quite sore as well and still have nerve pain, so I have some stretches and exercises to work on.

I was a little wary to try core synergistics today because there are some exercises which work your gluts, but it wasn't so bad. The only part I had problems with was the 3 minutes of lunges with the barbells, where you do the kick-backs and overhead presses. But I was able to do the whole exercise, without too much pain!

I'm almost done week 10, which means that I've only got three weeks left!!! I'm excited to be finished this round, even though I plan to keep going and do the classic version throughout the summer. Because I play soccer, the last three weeks will probably take much longer than that. Once the season starts, I'll be playing 2-3 times a week, so I won't do P90X on those days. I'm really hoping I can finish the round by the end of June, so fingers crossed!