Ok ladies, I had given into the fact that I just can't be one of those girls that rock a cute headband during their workouts (or really anytime for that matter) because this strange shaped melon that rests on top of my neck is large and funny shaped so it just wasn't meant to  be.  Well, I had been reading a lot about Chickbands and how much people liked them and I talked to Kara, the momma behind Chickbands and she sent me over one to review.  I have to admit, I thought it would just pop right off my head like every other headband I have ever tried out, so I was nervous to even try in front of my class and guess what.....that sucker stayed put.  Through tons of burpees and moving all around that sparkly strand of goodness was glued to this strange shaped melon.  Could it be that my head is not so odd after all and maybe I have just been using the wrong head bands.  Oh me, oh my :)

This is the sparkly one I tried out and I thought it was very cute

Kara is being so kind and offering up a giveaway a band to 3 of my lucky readers.  All you have to do to enter is:
- Like Designed To Be Fit on FB if you haven't already and tell me you did or that you already do AND
- Like Chickbands on FB and tell me you did
For an extra entry (one extra entry for each that you do):
- Check out Chickbands on Etsy and tell me which one you would be excited to try
- Share this post on your blog and/or FB page and tell me you did
- Follow my blog and tell me you did or do already
Winners will be chosen next week Tuesday April 3rd.

Congrat's to Brandy Roy, you are the winner of a case of Skinny Water!  Please email me at ademeyer@comcast.net  with your mailing address.

Everyone has their own set of obstacles that make life a little more challenging.  I always ask my clients about their health history so I am going to talk about my own health history and the personal obstacles I have and what I do to try to work through them.

My hope in all of this is that I would like you to do the same; get a piece of paper and write out whatever health issues you have (see examples below) or other obstacles you have and what your plan is to surpass them.

For me:
1) I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) - which among other things personally causes issues with:
    -  Fertility problems (but I have 4 wonderful boys thanks to God and fertility treatments)
   -  harder to lose weight and those with PCOS (myself included) hold on to weight in mid section - I was told by a specialist that I (and others with PCOS) have to work out twice as hard/long - awesome news right.
  -  Acne - another awesome side effect
  -  risk of diabetes
I was diagnosed with PCOS when we were having trouble getting pregnant.  If you suffer from this and are trying to get pregnant, I know this can be a very emotional and stressful time but do not give up hope!  There is a chance!  We were worried we would never have kids but we are so blessed to have 4 beautiful, sweet boys.
If you have PCOS and want to talk about it you can contact me.

2) Hypothyroidism, the biggest symptoms i feel with this is that it slows down metabolism and makes me tired.  What can I do about it?  Take my prescription and try to get rest, eat healthy and stay consistent with my workouts.

3) Long list of food allergies with the biggest problem stemming with gluten.  My food allergy list includes: wheat, barley, oats, soy, peanuts, tomatoes and garlic and I am also sensitive to dairy.  Food allergies really make you pay attention to food labels.  it is not as easy as you think to follow.  There are many gluten free things these days but that does not mean they are free of wheat, oats or soy, etc.  Those with food allergies really need to do their homework and carefully examine every label.  Do you have food allergies?  I would love to hear from you.

4) Sjogrens Syndrome:  the biggest symptoms of this that affect me are:
   -  extremely dry mouth and eyes 
   -  difficulty concentrating
   -  fatigue
    -  Arthritis
  -  cavities because of dry mouth
  - risk of blindness with anyone that has Sjogrens.  That is scary.  For some reason I am really bad at remembering to take my meds.  My son has to have certain meds every day like clockwork and I have no problem remembering but for myself for some reason I struggle. At my last Dr's appt she said "do you want to go blind and never see your beautiful children"  kinda scared me into remembering!
So what can I do about Sjogrens?   Well not much except take my meds!  They don't do much for symptoms but can help reduce the risk of going blind as I mentioned.   I drink a TON of water.  I always have a very dry mouth and am extremely thirsty.  I actually drink so much that I am suppose to up my sodium level.   Fatigue can affect you all throughout the day; i know it affects me all day long.   Those who have this need to try to get as much rest as possible.  Although nothing ever feels like enough with this.  Do you suffer from Sjogrens?  I would love to hear from you.

5) Foot injury - Monday will mark 4 weeks in this walking cast/boot on.  Man am I sick of this thing.  Anyone with an injury knows that it affects your ability to exercise  but in most cases, guess what...you can still exercise.  For me with this I can still ride the spin bike and I can still lift weights.  I also still do my bootcamp classes but have to adjust what I do.  I do a lot of jumping on one leg, but if you have a similar injury, be careful, you don't want to hurt your other leg by overcompensating too much and getting an overuse injury on your good leg.  That would set you back even more.  Believe me, I understand it is hard to be patient.  I have a very hard time with this too and yes you will not be able to do everything you are use to.  I miss running and I miss jumping with both legs :) and can't wait to get back to it, but you need to find ways to keep moving.   I can still pretty much do my full weights routine minus lunges and heel raises.  Keeping up with the weights is important, make sure to work your injury free muscles.  If you have a wrist or hand injury for example you will want to avoid weight baring exercises such as push ups or planks but you can do ab work lying on your back or do a plank on your elbows instead of your hands.  So you may need to search for alternate exercises if you can't safely do the ones you are use to but in most cases you can find something.   You will heal eventually so hang in there.     Even with this injury though and my decreased ability to get my sweat on I feel my stress level up.  Please Lord if not for myself, then for the sake of my children, let me get out of this stinkin boot so my kids can have a happy mommy :)

6)  4 young children  - can I hear you ladies - being a mommy can be exhausting and stressful! I love my sweet kiddos more then anything but those little rascals can take it out of me. I know many mommies feel the same way. Pulled in so many directions and finding it hard to make time for ourselves. Whether you are busy just being a mommy or if you need to fit a job in too it can be hard to fit in "me time". Well, we need to find a way. It will help us be good mommies. For me, I get up early 6 mornings a week and workout before my kids get up. I know if I do not do it then, the odds are that I will not fit it in. If you say "I am not a morning person" then try to fit it in when your kids go to bed at night or if they take a nap fit something in then. or if all else fails pack your kids up in a stroller or put them on their bikes and go for a walk or bike ride. The fresh air will do you some good. Not only will you burn calories but you will increase your energy level and decrease your stress level and we can all use help with both of those. I know many of us mommies struggle with guilt when finding "me time", that is another reason I do my workouts early in the morning; because it doesn't affect my children, other then giving them a happier mommy and that is a good thing :)

7) Child with very serious health issue.  My 4 year old has a very serious illness called Menkes Disease.   Unfortunately there is nothing we can do heal him (except pray for a miracle which we do every day), there is no cure but we can take care of him to the best of our abilities and guess what!  he is the sweetest, happiest angel in the world and we are blessed beyond our wildest dreams to have him!!  Of course, those of us who have a child or loved one with a very serious illness know that it can take its toll on us.  This can put a lot of extra stress on our bodies which can lead to many things including weight gain, headaches and lack of sleep.  So when we struggle with this we have to find an outlet whether it be exercise, massage, meeting with a friend for coffee, you need to find things that help you unwind.  If we do not then stress can really eat at us and damage our bodies.  For the sake of our loved ones that are struggling with the illness we need to keep ourselves healthy so we can take care of them!  I have Proverbs 3:5 tattooed on my wrist - Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  We may not understand why hard things happen in our lives but all we can do is trust in our heavenly father to take care of them.

8) Anxiety issues.  Many of us struggle with anxiety and I am no exception.  I am the biggest worry wart in the world and I wish I could fix that but I just have not found a way.  Every day I feel worry about my children but all I can do is put it in God's hands and pray about it.   Right now I have HUGE anxiety issues with my ENORMOUS fear of flying as I have  a flight coming up very soon and cannot help but fear that I will die on the airplane.  Yes, I know, I know, more people die in car crashes, blah blah blah, I don't care, it doesn't help.  Give me my meds, knock me out, wake me when we get there.  Oh I am going to puke just thinking about it.  What a wimp am I, goodness!!!  Oh and please don't tell me it is a sin to worry about these things because I know this and then I feel guilty about not fully putting my trust in God to get their safely and you know Christians die all the time....ok STOP :)

We all have our list of challenges or excuses that get in the way of a healthy lifestyle.  Well, my challenge to you is to figure out what you are going to do about it.  We are not going to get anywhere if we just look our issues as "problems" and let them stop us from accomplishing what we want out of our lives.  No ones life is perfect, you are not alone.  I bet you can make a long list too.  Well, make the list too and write what you can do to overcome  or at least manage the problem.  My list are all things I will have as challenges forever.  I can't just get depressed and think I am going to let myself get fat because I have a couple health issues that really make that happen easily, instead I am going to work out twice as hard as a "healthy" person needs to.  I am going to fight fatigue every single day but I am going to try to get proper rest every night to at least set myself up as best I can.  I am going to be very careful of what I eat and try to avoid my allergy list.  I am going to enjoy my children and hopefully take stress relieving breaks when possible :)

Take a deep breath, find things you enjoy, get some fresh air, say a prayer and thank God that he has blessed us with LIFE.  Every day is a gift.  We need to live it to the fullest and give all the glory to God. 

I love to hear from you so feel free to comment.

Anisha, over at Skinny Water, recently sent me over a variety of Skinny Waters to try out and review. 

I hear Fergie is a fan and for some reason she refuses to share Josh Duhamel with me so perhaps I can bask in her glory and share a beverage choice with her :)

Skinny Water contains a variety of different nutrients and contains zero calories, zero sugar, zero carb’s, no preservatives and no sodium.  Sounds pretty good right!  Those stats had me intrigued and anxious to try them out and learn more.

Some thing I love about Skinny Water is that they contain vitamins, electrolytes and antioxidants.

The flavors in my order of preference are: 
-Acai grape blueberry - Energy – loved it, great flavor. 

-Goji black cherry – Shape - very good, tastes like fruit punch to me.
-Pink berry citrus – Power – it tasted so yummy and I am not a citrus fan, so was not expecting to like it much.  After I drank it I went out and bench pressed my Suburban….haha kidding of course J
-Raspberry pomegranate - Crave control – tasted divine.  I love raspberry.  I was dreaming of a sweet treat at the time of consumption and this did hold me over.
-Blue raspberry – Fit - good, but really not as much flavor as I was hoping.
-Orange cranberry – wake-up - this was my least favorite flavor.  This was the only flavor I noticed a bit of a different after taste.  With that said, my kids still enjoyed it.  This one did seem to put a little pep in my step.

Due to Kiwi Lime and Passion Fruit being in the process of reformulatation I was unable to try them out although I would be very anxious to because both of those flavors sound fantabulous!  They will be back on the shelves soon, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

My kids shared these all with me and they also liked every flavor (their ages range from 3-6).

You can read more about each flavor here. 

Of course you can’t look to these alone to “get skinny” but I would look for these to give you a good flavor option with some good nutrients behind it to boot.  It can really hit the spot when you are craving something sweet, which I find myself doing all too often.   Also, since all flavors contain electrolytes they are great after a workout since you will be sweating them out during your exercise session. 

Just like anytime you are trying to get healthier or lose weight you need to combine proper diet with exercise.  No matter how much we want it to exist there is not a magic pill for anything but I do not think there is a person out there that thinks if they drink this beverage and change nothing else they will lose weight and that is not what they are promising you but I still wanted to make that clear.  With that said, whether you are trying to lose weight or just looking for a good flavorful drink I think this is a good option.  Definitely a better option then sugar and calorie-laden beverages such as juice (which usually has a ton of sugar in it) and pop (which come on, we all know isn’t good for us).  I drink a TON of good ol’ fashion plane water and pretty much nothing else but once in awhile I do want to turn to something that has a little flavor in it and for those times I would be happy to turn to Skinny Water.

Want to get some hands on your own?  Find out here where to purchase here and check out their FB page for more info.  

Cheers Fergie, tell Josh I say hello and give him a big squeeze for me J  I will let you choose where to squeeze him.  For your viewing pleasure you may want to click on his name...let's take a moment of silence for one of my old favorites Las Vegas.  At least I have all of the Transformers movies on DVD "for my kids".

**Good news, here is your chance try out Skinny Water too.  They are gracious enough to do a giveaway for one of my lucky readers.  Entering is easy just: 

1)     like Designed To Be Fit on FB and tell me you did

2)     like Skinny Water on FB and tell me you did

You can get an extra entry for each of these steps:

3)    Follow my blog and tell me you did

     4)     Share a link to this giveaway on your FB page or blog and tell me you did

 Good luck everyone, a winner will be chosen on Monday the 26^th about 11:00am (pacific time zone).

  

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the thought of starting a new exercise routine?  What are you suppose to do?  What the world is a burpee?  Am I suppose to do that right away?  How do I do a squat right?  What am I suppose to do for cardio, there are so many crazy machines and classes, what is the right for me?

Do you find yourself asking these questions to yourself?  If so, you are not alone!  The good thing about fitness is that there are so many options, which is good for boredom and for challening your body.  If you are just starting out and feel clueless as to what to do, start with walking.  You don't need any equipment, just your God given legs and the great outdoors (or a treadmill if you have it and the weather is horrible).  Grab your dog, grab a buddy or enjoy some peaceful alone time and get your butt in gear.  All you need to do is put one foot in front of the other.  You can start small, just go a block and back if you are completely new to working out.  Gradually increase a  block at a time OR go for a time goal.  Walk 5 minutes one way and 5 minutes back or 10 minutes or 20 minutes, see what you can handle.  You will soon be looking forward to your walks.  You will feel more awake, more alert, more alive!  How great is that! 

If your dog is a stop and smell every flower kinda dog he is not a good workout walk companion. So maybe you walk him for his exercise and then bring him back home and talk off without him. Sorry fluffy, momma needs to get her sweat on, don't worry he will forgive you. Put some pep in your step. Challenge yourself to really bust a move. You can start out with a nice leisurly walk but lets be honest here if you really want to get your heart rate pumping and burn some calories you need to push yourself and walk faster.

Get proper shoes.  You should not go for a walk in your keds (do they still make those??) or some flimsy shoes.  You need shoes that are meant for workouts, good cushion and lateral support.  Walking on pavement can be hard on your body and no need setting yourself up for shin splits or another injury.  Dress comfi.  You do not need to look cute when you workout, Lord knows I do not!  You do need to be comfortable though.  Wear breathable clothes.  Yoga pants, shorts, you choose.  If you are in jeans for your walk though you will most likely not be huffing it.

Alright, so what are you sitting there for :)   Let's get going.

As always, remember I am always here for you.  If you want help developing an exercise program please contact me ademeyer@comcast.net or 815-9367

Best of luck

Amazing Grass sent me a box full of awesome samples to try out and write a review on. Among other things their products are said to aid in digestion, stress, and energy. Most people I know need help with at least a few if not all of those things. I know I do. So I was anxious to try them out. Most importantly on was anxious to see how they tasted. I have never tried wheat grass before and my history with drinking “green” drinks hasn’t been the best because I just can’t choke down something I find terribly yucky.


As they say on their website, Amazing Grass, which is grown and harvested in Kansas, is certified organic and they don’t use herbicides or pesticides. Amazing Grass includes organic (red hard winter) wheat grass, organic barley grass, organic alfalfa, organic oat grass and organic rye grass. All grasses grow longer and cost more to produce, but the quality, superior nutrition and resulting health benefits are definitely worth it.

So now let’s get down to business and let me tell you what I think about the actual products I tried:

First off was the Berry whole food energy bar – it was actually very yummy – 210 cals 8 g fat, 5 g protein, and 26 g sugar The grams of sugar in the bar really scared me off but there is no sugar added and it is soy, dairy and gluten free, vegan. I had 3 of my kiddos try each bar and they weren’t falling for it. Perhaps because when you would bite inside it was green. Think that scared them off a bit :) I did like the taste of this one though.

Next was the Chocolate Peanut butter protein – thought it would be my favorite because chocolate and PB are 2 of my favorite things on earth and put them together and it is even better. Well this one was actually my least favorite. 270 cal’s, 14 g of fat and 19 g of sugar. Gluten free and has whey protein in it. So basically it is green super food with a chocolate covered covering on it. Let me just take this sad moment to say that my days of peanut butter and chocolate are over. Moment of silence please. Thank you :( Since I did this review peanuts were on the long list of things I found out I am allergic too. Thank goodness not in the swell your throat shut kind of way but more in the stomach problems kind of way. Oh heavens be. At least I am not sad to have this particular bar removed from my diet but peanuts and peanut butter, I will greatly miss you as I am sure you will miss me as I was a faithful friend.

I then tried the whole food energy bar; this was my favorite one people. Tasted so good! - gluten, soy and dairy free – vegan. It has 210 cal’s, 8 g of fat and 25 g of sugar. Sometimes we cannot let the sugar grams consume us. This bars primary sweetener was the organic dates which was the first ingredient listed.

Chocolate whole food energy bar – loved this one too. Gluten and dairy free, vegan. 230 cal’s, 9 g of fat and 27 g sugar.

All the bars are filled with 2/3 of a serving of the Amazing Grass Green SuperFood drink powder. They combine fruits and vegetables with our organic Green SuperFood drink powder. With the high calories you may be thinking you might as well have a candy bar but believe me these are MUCH, MUCH healthier options then a candy bar and do not have any of the “white devil” aka sugar that will leave you feeling drained.

Next thing I tried out was the Amazing Meal, the 100% whole food nutrition mix. Each serving has 10 grams of complete protein and 6 grams of fiber.

Amazing meal vanilla chai infusion – HOLY COW, can we all join together and say YUMMERS! Feel like I am doing something good for my body when I am drinking it, which I love. Such a smooth taste. 90 cal’s, 10 g protein , sugar is less then 1 g, which I adore. I would totally purchase this product!

Amazing meal pomegranate mango infusion was next – I was expecting it to taste fruity and I didn’t think it did at all. It was still good, not great but good. I like the vanilla chai over this one. 110 cal’s, 10 g protein, 6 g of fiber, 6 g of sugar, 1 g of fat.

Amazing meal chocolate infusion was my least favorite 1g of fat 110 cal’s, 10 g of protein, 6 g of fiber, 6 g of sugar.

Then I tried The Amazing Trio Barley Grass, Wheat Grass and Alfalfa – honestly I didn’t even know I took it. I put it in my protein shake with some blueberries and I didn’t even taste anything different. I was kind of going for that though. Wanted the nutrients but was a little nervous about just putting it in some water. The directions recommend mixing it with juice or a smoothie so I went with the latter. Just added 35 calories but lots of nutrients.

Green superfood orange dreamsicle drink powder – I mixed this up, it was green and I was not too optimistic that it would taste like an orange dreamsicle, but it did! It really did, I adored it, and I wish I didn’t drink it so fast so I could have enjoyed it longer. 30 cal’s and 1 gram of fat. 2g of protein and 0 g of sugar. It says it boosts energy and your immune system and those are 2 huge pluses in my eyes for sure. I would love to drink this again!

Antioxidant and greens powder GreenSuper Food – I wanted to see how this would taste just mixed in water…I was nervous…and I was right to be. It was gross; I could not drink it with just water. I didn’t want all those awesome antioxidants to go to waste so I poured them in my protein smoothie and I couldn’t taste it. So that is what I would do again in the future.

The green super food packets were next on my pile to try- Every serving is full of all of the necessary vitamins and minerals you and your family need. They were quite tasty (I preferred the berry flavor over the lemon lime and chocolate but that is very common for my taste preference) but the lemon lime gave more of an energy boost so if you are after that choose that one.

From the mixing it with water incident I decided to try the wheat grass drink powder in my protein/fruit smoothies and it tasted fine. I love the plethora of nutrients and goodness it socks into our bodies. Finding an easy way to sneak this into our diets is great in my eyes. Most of us can really use some help in that department so for that reason I recommend the Amazing Grass line. After everything was tried my 2 fav’s were the orange dreamsicle and the vanilla chai. I was very much in love with both of these.

My boys were excited that there were a couple things in the box that they could try. First off was the Kidz superfood wild berry – my kids LOVED it and it has 32 fruits and veggie’s you can’t get from a multivitamin in it. Each package provides the nutritional power of 3 servings of fruits and veggies – you gotta love that. You do have to be cautious to really stir and shake it up well because it can get a bit clumpy and my kiddos didn’t care for that too much.

Then came the Kidz Chocolate milk – I have 2 kiddos that like chocolate milk and unfortunately they did not feel the same about this one. I was hoping they would because it has 31 fruits and veggies in it. First of all the smell threw them off, it wasn’t horrible but to them it through them off and it just didn’t taste like the typical chocolate milk. So one sip was pretty much as far as they would go. My hubby agreed. The verdict is it tasted more like cocoa powder vs chocolate but to a kid who has never had chocolate milk before they may not be such a harsh critic.

You can check out their site for more info or to purchase products at  http://www.amazinggrass.com/

As always all opinions are my own and I was not paid to express them

Congrat's to Beth Levien and Dar Huntley - you ladies won 2 bags each of Jovan's Whole Food Crackers.  I will be in touch with each of you today.

I was so excited to receive my package of Jovan’s Whole Food Artisan Crackers to review. Jovan is an old friend of mine and I am so proud of her for creating such a healthy, tasty product for everyone to enjoy.


Jovan came up with these healthy snacks after battling colon cancer at the age of 31. Understanding that the body responds to the fuel (food) we give to it she started experimenting with creating these crackers during her recovery. She knows our bodies benefit from pure and natural foods and I am so grateful she created these and has them available to share with everyone.

I am always looking for new finds that offer good ways to fuel our bodies and I am happy to say these are great option. They come in four flavors: Garden Pesto, Spicy El Paso, Zesty Tomato, and Taste of Tuscany. They are packed with vegetables, fiber, flax, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds and even natural antioxidants! They are dairy, egg, gluten, soy, nut, additive, preservative, sugar and filler free! Which makes me personally very happy because I recently found out I have allergy issues with wheat, oats, barley and others so I am trying to adapt to gluten free eating. It is not too often you find food free of these that are still tasty.

Now for the individual flavors listed in order of my preference:

Taste of Tuscany – Oh my taste buds are rejoicing! YUMMY. I am in love. Could eat these every day for sure! These were so tasty I loved the Mediterranean flare and the basil taste.

Zesty tomato – Delicious! I wish I could think of more words that mean yummers b/c I love these suckers!

Spicy El Paso – a little bit of a kick and very delightful

Garden pesto – this was really good too. This is my 4th one on the list but it does not mean I didn’t care for them. I would still eat them any day if I could :)

I give 2 big thumbs up to all 4 of the crackers and highly recommend them to each and every one of you. The crackers are available at both Bellingham CoOps, All Haggen & Top Food Stores, The Lakeway Market and Terra Organica.  Of course you can also share the link to our online shop at www.jovanspurenutrition.com/shop as well!

Now it is giveaway time. I Love Giveaways!  As much as I would love to just keep for myself all the wonderful crackers Desirea sent over I think this is the perfect chance for 2 of you lucky readers to try them out. Entering is very simple. All you need to do is:

- Like my Designed To Be Fit page on FB : https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Designed-To-Be-Fit-Personal-Training-Studio/161279450561846

- Like Jovan’s Pure Nutrition on FB: https://www.facebook.com/#!/jovanspurenutrition

- **Leave me a comment on my blog or FB page telling me you did

** - For one extra entry each you may do the following (you get one extra entry per item listed)

- Follow my blog and tell me you did
- Share this post on FB and tell me you did
- Share a link to this blog entry on your blog and tell me you did

Two lucky winners will receive 2 bags each of Jovan’s Whole Food Artisan Crackers. I will do the drawing on Monday early afternoon. Good luck everyone!

All the opinions stated here are my own; they did not pay me to express anything.

I am sure all of us have suffered from some sort of injury at one point or another.  Well, when you are a fitness devotee, addicted to exercise, die hard...whatever you want to call it, an injury can feel like an ENORMOUS punishment, the time waiting to heal can feel like an eternity.

Often, because of our impatience and strong desire to get back to exercise we try to come back too soon and set ourselves back even further.  I hurt myself again (shocker....due to the long line of clumsiness in my genetic lineup and which I am so sad to say I have passed on to at least one of my children...poor thing, I blame my mother and father and sister and...haha) and was thinking I should write a reminder to all on rest and recovery.   I have hurt myself many times, usually in embarrassing ways that have nothing to do with exercising or being physical but more like stepping off a curb wrong (resulting in a broken foot while pregers with twins) or breaking toes stubbing them or falling or breaking a finger while punching a wall...ok maybe I didn't punch a wall but I have broken fingers in silly ways too and my latest debacle was an injury to my foot from....drumroll please...falling down a couple stairs.  I blame my kids because there was a snow boot there and I tripped over it (well I am thinking I must have, that sounds better to me then tripping over my own feet although that could very well be the case)  and landed on my foot in an externally rotated position.  Anyway, it was late in the afternoon and I waited until the next morning for xrays thinking I could tough it out or "man up" and it would get better.  Meanwhile I swore it was broken due to the amount of pain and inability to move my toes or foot BUT praise be to the Lord (could it be he heard my tear stained pleas to him to not let it be broken..."I don't have time for an injury" and I don't want to have to have a break from my workouts) it is not broken, it is just traumatic tendinitis and this will heal much faster then a break and it is already doing a bit better.  I have a walking cast but won't have to have it long.  Anyhoo I was/am so upset b/c after over a year of struggling with plantar fasciitis in both stinkin feet I had just started back at running and was even able to run 3 miles (i know big whoop right...but it is when you use to not be able to walk without pain) a few times and then BAM my clumsy butt has to fall down some stairs.  Are you kidding me.  NO, not more rest time.  Well, my point is REST with an injury is so important.  Part of the reason I took so long to recover (and still have slight issues) with plantar fasciitis is due to my lack of rest time.  Yes, I am a trainer, I know what to do but but do as say and not as I do is applicable in this case (as is a few other areas of my life).   I teach 6-9 classes a week and it is very hard to teach and not participate.  I am jonesen to jump, to run, to drip with sweat....OH GOODNESS BE I love it, I need it.  I am a crabby patty without it and this week has reminded me of that.  Even though I prefer cardio over weights I still need to get my cardio on.  I have had to teach my classes recently without participating myself and it makes me so mad.  Sure I can lift weights but I can't do all the cardio components oh and my poor innocent little children (but lets be honest they don't act so innocent all the time) were suffering the brunt of having a mommy that did NOT GET HER SWEAT ON.   Sorry babes :) 

Exercise is my stress relief.  Is it yours?   Could our troubles wash away with our sweat?  Ok, maybe not completely, but it sure helps.

So... I am getting off track...my point is when you feel even a hint of an injury coming on be careful.  Sure, we are not in control of every injury (like falling down stairs) but you can feel plantar fasciitis coming on (mine started with the feeling of getting nice little stabs in my heals while running), you can usually feel a hint of a shin splint or you can tell when your knees are bugging you.  This is your body talking to you.  HEY LADY....I AM HURTING, TAKE A BREAK and if you don't listen it will break down and you will be sorry.  BELIEVE ME!!  

So what should you do?  RICE = Rest (the hardest part), ICE (a cold pack, ice or frozen peas) for no longer then 20 minutes at a time, Compression (helps reduce swelling) and Elevation (take a load off and put your foot up girl).  If you are running and you feel shin splints or plantar fasciitis or knee pain coming on, well switch it up. As much as you may be searching for that runners high...GIVE IT A BREAK.  Swim, go for a bike ride, lift weights, something without a lot of impact.   If your knees are hurting you when you are doing squats and lunges then limit your range of motion or stop doing them.  What?  Stop?  Yes!  There is a difference between the pain of a weak muscle working through an exercise or the pain of an injury happening.  Do the leg extension machine.  Do dead lifts.  Lay on the ground with a band around your ankles and work your legs another way.  There is always another way.

Listen to your body.  We know our body.  We know when something is off.  It is up to us to listen before we do more damage.

As I am sitting here with an awesome boot on that could be used as a weapon I think about the mountain climbers I had to half ass do with one leg this morning and I am mourning a bit inside and yes I am quite unhappy that I will have to adjust my diet even more to make up for my decrease in calorie burning that is going on but as everyone  always says that is trying to get you through a time when things are the best - THIS TOO SHALL PASS.  You will heal, you will get over your broken bone or the flu bug or whatever it may be.

Soon, you will be busting your butt again :)