Happy Thanksgiving!

The autoimmune protocol diet went off the rails a little this week.  I tried eggs over the weekend and felt horrible, so I know those are a potential issue.   I wanted to try a few other things, but instead of doing it one at a time like you are supposed to, it sort of went like this:

Um, yeah.

Needless to say, I don't feel so hot.  And the ache in my hip is way worse this week than it has been in a while - this is really interesting to me, because it was the reason why I really wanted to try this elimination diet in the first place.    I was just thinking the other day how I no longer was getting any groin pain or achy feeling... and then it reappeared, the same week my diet went off the rails.  Coincidence? Related?  Hmmm.

Because I was a dumb-dumb and failed to do the reintroduction right, I'm not really sure what might be making me feel like crap, but needless to say, it could be the fact that I ate everything.

In other news, I met with my trainer and we tweaked and adjusted a few things on my list of exercises.  Here is my current list.  I call it my Glutes of Steel plan.

Bridges - 3 variations: double leg, single leg, and single leg with rotation
Clam Shells
Cable Exercises
Side planks or leg raises (I was getting too much TFL activation with the side plank variation so we're backing down to side leg raises)
Monster walks side-to-side and back at a 45 degree angle

Single leg squats
Side lunges
Bird dip with band pull
Walking lunges with medicine ball rotation:

Hop to Balance - side to side and rotation (this is basically what it sounds like - hop side to side or with a 90 degree rotation and balance on the one-legged landing)
Single leg static hip rotation
Static lunges with weight
Squats

And....then waddle out of the gym to go sit on the couch and lament how your legs no longer function properly.

In other news, this happened.  Based on my Garmin data, I estimate I walked about 1-1.5miles, and ran the rest.  WHOO!

Week two of the AIP and Continuing Rehab

The second full week of the Autoimmune Protocol Diet is behind me!  This week, I made similar breakfasts/snacks/lunches as I did last week, but I did try a few new recipes, including:  Homemade Gummies, carob brownies and sweet potato/leek soup.  All were great!  For dinners, I made chicken piccata (minus the flour), grilled chicken, and burgers.  I also navigated going out to eat twice successfully!  Grilled salmon and steamed veggies for one and a burger and sweet potato fries for the other.

I am definitely feeling more energetic and my tummy hasn't had that "ugh, I ate something that disagreed with me" yucky feeling.  However, I really miss eggs as a quick and easy meal.  And spices!  Like cumin and pepper.  Oh, and chocolate.

My surgeon cleared me for all activities at my six month check-in.  He thinks my hip flexors are my main issue, and that time will help.  Because I am not patient and don't want to just "wait", I hired a trainer to work with me.  He specializes in injury prevention and rehabbing post-injury (perfect, right!).   We met and discussed my situation and he made some observations on my remaining weaknesses and compensations.  He gave me a two week plan to follow and then we'll meet again and assess my progress.

Here is the list of exercises, to be done three times/week:

PT-type exercises

Bridges (3 versions- regular, alt leg raises, leg raise with rotation)

Clam shells

Cable exercises

Side planks

Seated hip rotation with band/chair

Monster walks to the side and back at a 45 degree angle

Strength exercises

Single leg static hip rotation; 2 sets of 10-12 each leg

Hops to balance- side to side and rotation; 2 sets of 12-15 hops each way on each leg

Side lunge- 2 sets of 12-15 each way

Bird dip with band pull; 2 sets of 15 reps with max glute squeeze

Walking lunges forward; 1 set weightless of 12-15 reps on each leg

Static lunges forward with weight; 1-2 sets of 4-8 to build muscle or 12-15 to build endurance

Squats- 2 sets of at least 10 reps

I'm looking forward to seeing if a) I can get through all of these exercises three times a week and b) if it helps!

First real week of the AIP and 6 months post-op

So, OK, this first week of the Autoimmune Diet isn't exactly over, but I'm giving you a report on this week anyway. :)

Overall, I'm still not finding sticking to the diet to be very difficult.  Though trying to do this diet through the Halloween Candy Season was tough, in the end, I was able to avoid all candy and not die of deprivation (someone brought in SNICKERS to work!).   Planning enough food so you are never starving and making hungry choices is really important.

Breakfast
I had the sweet potato, apple and pancetta hash for breakfast this week.  Better than the smoothies in terms of staying full, but not by a ton.  It's really tasty though!

Lunch
Lunch was a mix of turkey deli meat rolled up with bacon, a big ass salad or fried bananas and ham.  Yep, fried bananas with ham!  It's something my dad used to make for us when we were little and is a great combination of salty and sweet.  He used to dip the bananas in egg and breadcrumbs before frying, but in my case, I just let them fry up nekkid.  Even if you don't like the ham part, fried bananas are super yum.

Yummmmmm

Dinner
I made grilled salmon with roasted veggies,  thai basil stir fry, and a roast chicken and vegetables.  A few were enough to have leftovers, too, which is always nice... but doesn't happen very often when you live with a marathoner.

Snacks
My snacks are mostly fruit and sometimes leftover vegetables.  Not terribly exciting.  I made plantain and apple fritters once and devoured the entire thing...yum.  And I splurged and bought a box of Jackson's Honest Sweet Potato chips (fried in coconut oil!).  They are way too good and probably should not have bought 6 bags all at once.

Six month Hipaversary
Next week is my 6-month check in with the surgeon.  He'll also be taking a look at the other hip as well.  I imagine he'll finally send me for an MRA on that hip and while I want answers as to what's going on there, part of me wants to just pretend that it's nothing and ignore it entirely.

I am not exactly where I thought I would be 6 months out, but I am not entirely disappointed either.  My hip is 100% better than it was before surgery and I am about 80% of where I was before I was injured at all (oh so long ago!).

Here's what I did this week:
Sunday: Run/walk (3:1) 30 minutes, spin bike 30 minutes
Monday: Squats/lunges followed up with aqua power aerobics class
Tuesday: Upper body lifting and core work
Wednesday: Run/walk (3:1) 30 minutes
Thursday: Pilates

Tomorrow will be a rest day, Saturday another run/walk and then Sunday either a spin bike workout or maybe a hike if the weather is nice!

Trial week: Autoimmune Diet

I used this week to test out some new foods for the Autoimmune Protocol diet and not worry about being strictly compliant.  Overall, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, likely because I am already gluten and dairy-free.

Breakfast
Breakfast is the hardest piece to figure out, with no eggs and no grains.  Ugh, what to eat??   This week I tried a smoothie:  coconut milk, berries or a banana, collagen protein powder, and glutamine.   Most days I was hungry within the hour.  :(  I tried to supplement with some roasted veggies and that was ok but I do think I need something different for breakfast that's more substantial.   Next week, I will be trying this recipe:  Sweet potato, apple and pancetta hash.

Snacks
The easiest thing was to have fruits and veggies on hand to eat.  Carrots, apples, bananas, roasted veggies, and so on.  A few times I was craving something salty/crunchy and so I had plantain chips on hand and some seaweed snacks.   Sweet was a little harder and I tried to keep my mind off of the chocolate bar I wanted to devour by having some peppermint or ginger tea.

Lunch
I had a salad with grilled chicken for lunch with balsamic vinegar/olive oil dressing and cucumbers, avocado, beets, bacon.  (because, bacon!)

Dinner
On Sunday I made pot roast and we had leftovers for a few nights.   We grilled salmon another night with roasted broccoli and acorn quash.  Last night was pork tenderloins with cherry sauce.

Oops
My husband might have bought me a cupcake for no reason and I might have eaten it.  I'm not proud.  But it was tasty.

Overall
This week really wasn't too bad.  The biggest successful strategy was to plan.  If I didn't know what I was going to eat at a certain time, I was stuck pretty much trying to convince myself to not run to the vending machine... which was way hard to ignore.  When I'm hungry, I want food, like four minutes ago.   As long as I had something reasonable ready to go, I was fine.    Weekends will be the biggest hurdle as we always go out for brunch at least one of the days.  It's our weekend "thing" and I'll need to avoid the temptation to fall into our usual habits. :)

The Autoimmune Diet

A few weeks ago, I started doing some reading on inflammation and diet, to see if I could better control my joint pain via some food modifications.  One of the biggest changes I noticed after removing gluten from my diet was that my knees were a lot less painful.  Going down stairs became easier and I could run without any knee pain.   It was pretty amazing.

During my research, I came across the autoimmune diet.  There are a few versions out there, but Sarah Ballentyne's is the most strict.  She's a scientist and her book describes all the research and studies she used to formulate what should and shouldn't be included in a diet for folks with autoimmune issues.  Even for me, it was a dense read (and my PhD thesis likely had fewer scientific references!).

In the end, it made a lot of sense.  I have two suspected autoimmune issues - gluten intolerance (though I've never been tested for Celiac's) and thyroiditis.    My hypothyroidism is on this recent downward slope - every 6-8 weeks, my meds need to be upped.  I'm tired and cranky, and sometimes I just don't feel great for no real reason.   So, starting November 1, I'm going whole hog into it.  This week is my "trial" week, to test a few things out as replacements to my usual favorites.

The diet is not intended to be permanent (thankfully!). Sarah recommends eliminating everything for some period of time, and then slowly reintroduce foods one a time to find out what may be the underlying culprit.  If my thyroid stabilizes, then great.  If my thyroid stabilizes and my joint pain decreases, then hallelujah!  And if nothing happens, well, it was something to try.

The diet is strictly no:
Grains (rice, wheat, corn, bulgur, etc)
Legumes
Nuts/seeds (and no spices or oils from nuts/seeds)
Nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, sweet and hot peppers)
Eggs
Dairy, including whey protein supplements
Coffee/alcohol
Added sugars

Piece of cake, right?

I am pretty sure that I am ok with much on the list, but I'll follow the experiment as recommended.

Breakfast is going to be a challenge, as I eat a lot of eggs.  Today I tried a smoothie - coconut milk, berries and collagen protein powder.  While super yummy, I was hungry again by 9:30.  Drat.

I spent yesterday cooking up a bunch of vegetables to have on hand as snacks.  Garlic baby portobella mushrooms, roasted brussels sprouts, and some baked sweet potatoes.  For dinner tonight, I came up with a pot roast idea that does not include my standard white potatoes:  garlic and Italian seasonings on a beef roast, onions, and butternut squash.   It'll be in the Crockpot for most of the day:

I'll keep this blog updated on progress and if it helps at all with the hip stuff.  Even though I love all food,  I feel it's worth trying something different and seeing if it helps.

Anyone else ever try the autoimmune diet?

My last few runs

Two weeks ago, I ran for a few minutes on the treadmill.  Not sure why since I was pretty sure it was going to suck... but I guess runners can be stubborn.

And it was OK.  Not great, not bad.  Tolerable.  

Over the next ten days, that was followed up with:

20 minutes run/walk (2 min/1 min)

20 minutes run/walk (2 min/30 seconds)

20 minutes run/walk (3 min/1 min)

and then

26 minutes run/walk (3 min/1 min for 20 min, 1 min/30 sec for 6).   This totaled about 2.4 miles at about an 11min/mile pace average for the run/walk.

Huh?

Now, none of the runs I would classify as "pain free".  Achy, some sharper pains, but nothing that made me think I needed to stop.  And my surgery hip feels fine, it's really all in the other hip.

After today's 2.4 miles, I went out for 6 miles on the ElliptiGO.  That felt great.  Wheeeee.

After the running fail three weeks ago, I upped the hip flexor stretching.  I figured that it couldn't hurt and maybe it would help some.  I stretch 2-3 times a day most days.  I had noticed that my hip had started to snap, loudly.  And often.  Now that's almost totally gone.

This one I do at work:

These two are also in the rotation:

You can also have someone push down on your hanging leg for an extra stretch.

I still get enough of an achy pain in my other hip that I'm sure the hip flexor tightness is not the only issue.  There's something functionally wrong, but maybe I am keeping things at bay with some added flexibility.  Or maybe pilates has been the key to keeping things OK.  Or this is some sort of fluke and my next run will suck again.   Who knows!  The running gods are fickle and cruel.

The ElliptiGO Review - pros and cons

I love my ElliptiGO and I'm so glad I made the investment. Even my husband has been making good use of it during marathon training.  I figured after three months, I'd breakdown the good and bad.

The workout
Pros:  It is a much tougher workout than I had imagined.  Especially on the hills around here!  I huff and puff all the way up....and my husband (who is in much better shape than I am) confirms this is the case for him too.   It makes what I do on the elliptical at the gym feel like a leisurely stroll.  My core and legs burn!  It's tougher than cycling but not as tough as running only because you do get to coast quite a bit (what goes up must come down!)... I'd say it feels a lot like track intervals.

Cons:  The only con here is that I don't feel as comfortable as I do on a bike.  It takes a lot of balance and while I can drink and signal on the bike, I almost crashed trying to wipe my nose on the 'GO other day.  So this means that I tend to do loops around the neighborhood and avoid any of the major roads.  This may get better with more experience.

Shifting
Pros:  It shifts soooo smoothly.  Because it's an internal gearing, you can shift on the fly and with tension, unlike a regular bike where you don't really want to shift when under a load like climbing a hill.

Cons:  It shifts opposite how I would expect (opposite my bike, basically).  So I have - on more than one occasion - ended up in a lower gear when I needed to be in a higher and so forth.

Maintenance
Pros:  I haven't had any issues.  I just inflate the tires and go.

Cons:  If I do ever have an issue, I haven't a CLUE how to work on it.  I have at least a working knowledge of my bike.  I'll have to hope the bike shop can bail me out. :)

Uniqueness
Pros: Cars give me SO MUCH CLEARANCE.  I don't get this but I'm sure it's partly a "what the heck is that?" phenomenon.  On the same roads, when I am on my bike, I might get a few feet of clearance.   Today, I saw someone go fully on the other side of a double yellow line to avoid me.  Hey, whatever works.

Cons: Unlike bikes, where there are shops and group rides and clubs, the ElliptiGO has very little of the social aspect.  Which is ok, I don't go to the gym to hang out with people either, but it would be nice to have a group ride as an option.

Anyone else own an ElliptiGO?