Chronic pain

Chronic pain isn't one of those things you think you will ever have to deal with. You think, oh something has hurt for a while, I'll go to the doctor, they'll fix it, or give medication, and ta da! All fixed. I wish it was that easy.

Since I was about 18, I've had this weird knee jerk. It was at different times, not every day, but randomly as I'm going to sleep. Over the years, it has gotten progressively worse and there are various triggers that make it worse. Doctors have mostly scoffed at me, made me feel like I was insane because the symptoms I was presenting didn't align with what they knew.

Starting in September of last year, I have visited 4 different specialists, as well as my normal doctor and an acupuncturist (that will be it's own post). A sleep medicine center, an orthopedic center, a cardiologist focusing on veins, and a neurologist. They all seem dumbfounded and completely confused as to what is going on with my knee. It starts to ache at night when I lie down, then jerks violently like it's being electrified. I have a video and every time I show one of my doctors, they sort of jump. That's not comforting. My neurologist as of now is classifying it as a myoclonic jerk. The prescription medication count is to about 22 (not at once) as they try to find various medications that will work longer than a night or a few weeks. So far, no luck. (As evidenced by the fact that this has been edited several times and it seems to only be at 4 am...)

This issue is most of the reason that the blog has been so quiet. It's caused me to do quite a bit of soul searching, as well as research trying to decide what in the world is wrong with me. Most of the medications they have tried are not alleviating the symptoms AND I can't sleep. Talk about a lose/lose situation for me.

So for now, blogging will be intermittent, but I do have some stuff in the works for this blog.

Foodie Friday

My diet is usually my weakest point, but thanks to my boyfriend helping keep my butt in gear, it has gotten MUCH better. So with this post, I will give you some examples of meals I typically eat when I'm at work!

Inside my 6 Pack Bag-Camille tote! There will be another post on that. But I typically put all of my food for the day in here. The little orange container had a kale salad. Edamame below that.

My breakfasts have to be simple, as I usually eat as soon as I get to work (after getting my coffee and water). These oats are great and cook easily first thing in the morning. I keep a glass Pyrex bowl at work specifically for my oats. On the right, is Greek yogurt with strawberries, sometimes I slice up peaches instead. 

 Lunch one day. Spinach with lemon juice, topped with onions and fresh pineapples. Next to it, leftover steak with rice and black beans. 

My own trail mix. Raw almonds, smoked almonds, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and dried cherries. I keep this in my desk at work for mid-morning/afternoon snacks. 

This is my Define Bottle that I purchased a while back. The kid that invented this was on Shark Tank a while back (apparently) and I really love this bottle. Keeps the fruit separated by the center filter piece, washes easily, and I can have non-boring water at work. 

Vega Sport Protein Review

So through Fit Approach, I got to test out the Vega Sport Performance Protein powder in Vanilla. Stand alone protein powder, I am not a big fan of vanilla, but for mixing with fruits (and occasionally veggies), vanilla is my favorite.

I was actually a little hesitant to try this. I'm not a huge fan of plant based protein but I was also looking for a cleaner supplement to try and have had heard NOTHING but excellent things about Vega, and the Vega Sport Performance line sounded amazing.

Step 1: My ingredients! Strawberries, frozen mango, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, ground flax seed, and Vega Sport Vanilla protein powder

This is what the protein powder looks like out of the bag. It was a slightly brown color, but consistency was normal compared to most protein powder. 

After blending it all up!

The texture of the smoothie was a bit different from what I'm used to. It was thicker, but wasn't drastically different. The taste was different for me; it definitely wasn't as sweet as I'm used to protein powder being, but considering the usual one I've been using might as well be cake batter... It mixed well, it has a ton of protein for such a small amount of product! I also am a huge fan of no artificial sweeteners that so many others have. 

This one is definitely good for you! The nutrition facts are fantastic. The taste isn't any worse than a normal, lightly flavored protein powder. I would definitely keep using this for my fruit smoothies for added protein and I'd feel comfortable giving this supplement to my 11 year old. If you eat clean, this is definitely something to add to your supplement arsenal. 

Excuses

After being on the Google Hangout with some of the other Sweat Pink moms a couple of weeks ago, it actually gave me a lot to think about. Such as, one Mom gets up at 4:30 just to fit her run/workout in because that's the only time that works for her and her family. Interesting. My first thought was, that's insane! But after some thinking, maybe it's not so crazy. Honestly, I wake up tired no matter how much sleep I get. At night, even fitting in the hour for the Hangout was hard. I was tired, hungry, and just wanted to curl up with my Kindle to read, and go to sleep.

But when I'm working out and eating right, I have a ton more energy and I know this! I just suck at putting it into practice when I get overwhelmed. The next few weeks I'm going to meal plan, and get a new planner and write in stuff I have to do. And eating right and working out in whatever form I can will be on there!

So what are my excuses? I started a full time job (~2 months ago). I'm adjusting to living with my boyfriend (again, 2 months ago). We got a dog (1 month ago).  My wrist hurts like crazy. Gyms are expensive (my company will reimburse some of the cost). Just a lot going through my mind. So I've started looking at Groupons and into gyms and places that I pass on my way to work. Excuses excuses.

These are things that go through my head daily.

The images below I need to print out and put it around my desk/apartment and remind myself to get up!