RUNNER's BEWARE!!

So now that my wedding is over, you would think that I would have some time to be relaxed and settle down. WRONG!

The Monday after my wedding, getting back into the swing of things was harder then I thought it would be fitness wise. My first two workouts were HORRIBLE...stiff joints and my sinus infection was slowly creeping back into me. Wednesday I went back to the doctor and he prescribed me with some stronger antibiotics. If I could take back this day, I would. I explained to him that I am just getting back into the working out again after a two week layoff due to the flu, he said that I should be fine with working out, as long as I don't have a fever. He put me on a 5 day does of Levaquin. I asked about the side effects and he said that I would have nothing to worry about, and that the only major side effect are tendon issues, but since I was not 60 years old or older, I should have nothing to worry about. So I popped the pill thinking nothing.

On Thursday, I started my second dose and by Friday (my third dose) I felt as if my body had been hit by a train. I started to notice extreme pain in my Achilles...a complete flare up again, as if I had been running on it for days, but in reality I had had no physical activity to make it flare up. My calf muscles throbbed, I had trouble laying still. I figured I would google search the side effects and oh my gosh, I started freaking out!! The tendon issues were not just common in the elderly, but any age. Now, I know the Internet can say some crazy things...but usually such side effects are not noted in the Runner World's Forum. How did I not know this!! I threw the meds out and Friday was my last pill (three doses). Friday night and Saturday night, I woke up with extreme calf pain and a throbbing toe (weird.) By Sunday, I was able to hit the pool and all of the pain in my muscles had subsided except for my Achilles. Today is Tuesday, and I am still icing it. The heel lifts hurt it more so I am avoiding those until it is stronger.

Well now, here is the crazier thing I discovered last night. After thinking about the last time I took antibiotics...it was right after my Costa Rica trip in the summer. I contacted Traveler's Diarrhea. Well three days after taking those antibiotics, I hopped on the Treadmill and strained my Achilles and it has never been the same since. I have never, ever had joint problems in my life before this. I have worked out my entire life and the only injury I had ever had was a minor issue with plantar. So I called my Doctor's office and requested the name of antibiotics that they put me on....Ciproflaxin (from the same family of Levaquin)! I could not believe it!! This summer the doctor told me nothing of any sort to be careful when running, or any side effects of a tendon rupturing.

Ciproflaxin is an antibiotic used to treat many serious infections or even moderate sinus infections. The FDA has put a black box warning on these medications (the family of fluoroquniolone) because of the tendon ruptures. Evidence has shown that the possibility of pulling a tendon is 1 in 100,000 but new studies are popping up right and left. There are law suits all over the country regarding these antibiotics. The problem is that know one really knows how long these side effects can last, it can be up to 6 months!

I am beside myself right now. I can't believe that doctors throw this medicine out with out really laying out the side effects, epically when they are made very clear that their patient is highly active.

As I ice my Achilles at the moment, I have made the sound decision that from now on, unless I am deathy ill I am staying away from antibiotics. Has anyone else heard of these antibiotics and their side effects?

I am MARRIED!!

So I have been MIA for the past week or two...but I have some good excuses. I got married!! These last two weeks have been the craziest weeks of my life. Not only did I get hit with the flu and had been recovering, well that turned into a bad sinus infection so while finishing up planning for the wedding, I dealt with rounds of antibiotics. On top of that, it was parent-teacher conferences last week so I worked three fourteen hour days. By Thursday I was a little unsure how if I would actually make it to my wedding weekend. I pulled it together, took loads of vitamin C and rested when I could, and by Saturday I was 100%.

I have never been happier and Craig and I can't stop smiling. We actually can't take our hands off of each other. It was stressful getting there, but we would have never done it any other way. I have so much to look forward to with our life together.

The honeymoon will wait till the summer, and I have today and tomorrow off of work. We are working on getting my name changed and applying four our first home loan so we can purchase our first house.

Here are some wedding pictures to enjoy, and of course there will be more professional pictures to come later down the road. Enjoy and I am so happy for life to be back to normal (I had my first workout this morning after two weeks, it kicked my butt...but I finally feel healthy again!)

Longest 5 Days

It has been the LONGEST five days of my life, hence the reason why I have signed off from the blogging world for the past week. I have been hit by the FLU! Last week starting on Monday I noticed that I was just overly exhausted. I was taking extra rest days, but my muscles were not recovering (staying sore for days) and I was barely making it through my day without feeling like I was going to fall over with exhaustion. Friday, I had plans on taking an extra rest day because I was so zonked out and I woke up not feeling right...dizzy and a little shaky. I made it to school and ate my oatmeal thinking that it might help, it did not at all. As soon as the kids walked into the classroom for the morning, I knew I was not going to be able to make it through the day. I called the Secretary and got a sub for the day. A good call it was, the moment I arrived home my head was in the toilet about every hour. Between sleeping all day and throwing up, I tried eating whatever I could but it would come right back up. My whole body ached from head to toe, I felt like death. Craig came home and bought me lots of Pedalyte for me to drink and some soup. By later in the evening I was able to choke down some food.

Saturday and Sunday were spent eating, drinking fluids, popping vitamins and sleeping all day and all night. By Monday, I was a feeling a little better but man was I weak. Today was the first day I woke up and felt about 100%, besides the small lingering headache I have not been able to kick.

I did well and waited this flu out before returning to exercise. Today, after school I figured I would give it a shot and did a light workout on the spin bike for thirty minutes followed by 15 minutes of light stretching and hand weights. It felt so good to get my legs moving again. I have plans on taking tomorrow as another rest day and Friday return to my normal workouts before school.

All I can say is that THANK GOD this came this past weekend and not next weekend. Now that I have been sick, all I can think about is staying healthy for next weekend when I get married. I tend to over analyze everything, so of course I want to be 100% on this day. I am scared to death that this flu is going to render itself back into me days before my wedding...I am really stressing. I have been popping Vitamin C, drinking vitamin water, eating tons of citrus fruits, consuming so much water, eating all my calories, popping other vitamins and taking Airborn like candy just to ward off whatever might be in me. I don't know about you guys, but I hate it when I have a big event coming up, I just can't relax. I just can't allow myself to go through my normal motions of life without thinking that this or that might happen that will effect that big day. So yes I am so excited to be married, but I will be so glad when this is over with!!

Ever had the flu?? How long did it take you to recover?

How are you with big social events?

Productive!

Nothing better then hitting up Costco for all my important needs. I am amazed how I always walk out of there and manage to spend so much...but I love all their selections.

Luckily for the Muscle Milk Light, I had a six dollar off coupon so a whole 24 pack was only twenty bucks. Pretty cheap if you ask me...and these shakes are perfect post workout.

2 new items I ran across today was a huge bag of flax meal and Mary's Flax Seed Crackers. I bought these a while back at Whole Foods and loved them, now I can buy them in bulk..woot woot! I know, pathetic how I get excited over food.

After Costco I ran to Target to return a gift I received for my bachelorette that did not fit. So instead I purchased The Real Housewives of Orange County and some new black running pants..sweet. I then came home and tried mixing together peanut flour and cereal for some peanut butter crispy treats..honestly though they were not that tasty.

Craig comes home tonight and I am soooo excited. We both agreed, he is no longer allowed to leave for more than two days, it is just too hard to stay away from each other. Even with having my Mom around and going to lunch with friends, I still found myself down and out because he was not around.

So yes, I have been very productive this weekend cleaning, getting caught up on wedding essentials for the big day, but the one thing I managed to put off until tonight is grading papers. Blah...I really should know better not to leave papers to grade until Sunday night.

What was productive about your Sunday?

Hump Day

So I successfuly made it through my bachelorette party and it was ONE long night. The picture above is me being sung to by several guys at the piano bar. They sang my all time favorite "You've Lost that Loving Feeling." It was pretty amazing. I had a great night, but lets just say for as many shots and I was given, I won't be doing that night over anytime soon!!

Before my party I spent most of the day on the couch icing my achilles. I was able to hobble around in my flats Saturday night, and Sunday was spent nursing my hangover as well as more icing. Monday and Tuesday, my achilles felt GREAT! I was almost ready to head back to the spin bike, until I woke up this morning with pain again. GRRRRR!! I have been stretching like crazy and doing my eccentric heel drops along with icing. Also, I have only been swimming for the past four days. The only thing I know that hinders my recovery is the fact that I am on my feet all day long, yes I have supports put in my feet but I am still wearing dress shoes so I am not sure how much support they really give me. So tomorrow it is back in the pool and no spin bke :(

I have still managed to do all the upper body lifting workouts on Jaime Eason's week five plan...just have to nix the leg workouts and replace them with the hip aductor machines.

Enough about my ongoing injury...today Craig left for his bachelor party for 5 days in Aspen :( I am bummed. A part of me is a little excited to have some me time around the apartment for the next couple of days, but at the same time I love having Craig to come home to and talk with and vent. He is my best friend, so I get pretty lonely when he is gone. So to keep myself busy afterschool today I made some more easy no bake Protein Bars.

Ingrediants: 8 Tablespoons of PB2

4 Scoops of Protein powder

2 cups raw oats

1/3 cup water more or less depending on consistency

Just mix all the ingrediants together, put in an 8x8 pan and freeze

I sliced mine into 9 slices which came out to be around 134 calories per bar

These literally took me like 10 minutes to make and will save me about 10 minutes every morning when I sit and pack my lunch and try to decide what I want for a snack. After making these bars, it was time for dinner and nothing seemed more pleasing then EGGS!!

A runny egg always hits the spot :)

How do you feel when your signifigant other is not around?

Really...of all weekends!

So today is my bachelorette and this is what I am dealing with! I am pretty upset. This week I accomplished an awesome leg workout of squats and lunges on Tuesday. My achilles felt a little sore on Tuesday night, nothing major. It continued to hurt during the day on Wednesday and by Thursday after my workout it was THROBBING. Bring out the ice packs and the calf raises along with the resistance band stretching. Yesterday it felt worse and has been extremely stiff. The pain is not overbearing when I walk, just more annoying than anything else. I am pretty much a baby when it comes to this right now, considering my wedding is THREE WEEKS AWAY and I want to be able to walk!

So I hightailed it back to the pool this morning, and this is where I will be spending all of my workouts until my wedding date, February 18th. I will not risk walking down the aisle with a limp. It did feel really good to get back into the pool this morning, and my 40 minute workout kicked my butt...at the same time I have mixed feelings. I was doing so great on Jamie Eason's plan, I am a little sad about not being able to continue the leg portion of it :( I will continue with the upper body workouts, I will just need to lighten them up due to the fact that I will be swimming too.

I hate to say this, but in reality I really don't think I will ever be able to go back to running or hard leg compound movements ever again. It seems that the moment I get back into the game, it acts up all over again. It is really discouraging not to mention annoying have to ice my foot all night and hobble around trying to get stuff done. I am really sick of this injury, I think I am going to have to permanently turn into a fish ha ha.

My friends had an exciting night planned out tonight starting with pole dancing lessons..well luckily I have been complaining to my friends about my foot issues and they had to cancel the lessons. Instead we are getting a limo to take us around downtown all night. I am super excited..bummed I won't be doing any dancing. I am just going to be really cautious with my foot. I had to change my plans to wear my cute black heels to flats with insoles :( Of all weekends this dang thing had to flare up again! I can look at it as a good thing, if this flare up did not happen, I could have really pushed myself before my wedding and had a worse injury. Thinking of the positive here. Wish me luck tonight!!

WIAW

Lunch consisted of more Turkey Pumpkin Loaf alongside a whole wheat pita and tons of veggies

My afternoon snack, flax seed with protein powder and greek yogurt all mixed together..very very filling! Dinner below was a HUGE salad with stir fried veggies, lean ground hambuger and shredded lettuce with some more pita bread topped with greek yogurt.

My snacks today consisted of these babies made below..Jamie Eason's Carrot Cake protein bars, yum!!

The week sure does fly by when you have Monday off, I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday. That means two more days until my big bachelorette!! Today was a rest day from the gym, well needed after my tough leg workout and tomorrow is back and biceps. I HATE biceps. I don't know what it is about them, I just can't stand to work them out. I would have to say my all time fav muscles to workout would be my chest and shoulders. I love chest presses and shoulder presses. Squats, hecks no!

So it is hump day, what has been the best part of your week so far??