I realize I haven't posted anything about my month of living on smoothies. I had oral surgery on November 7th. I had two implants and a lot of bone grafting on the right side of my mouth. Well, what was supposed to be 3-5 days of drinking smoothies, turned into over a month of smoothies. My whole jaw hurt so my oral surgeon was afraid I had a fracture and put me on a liquid diet. I didn't even get to enjoy Thanksgiving. I'm just now able to eat soft foods again. Do you know how bad I want a freaking steak!?
Well, I didn't tell my oral surgeon this but a little over a week after my surgery, I did a practice 5K for Girls on the Run. (I'm addicted I tell you!) I think that's sorta where things went downhill for me in the healing process. I didn't realize running would be so jarring on my jaw. I had to go home that night and take the good painkillers. But, what's done is done. I haven't been on a run since. If I jog even a little bit, my jaw throbs. I'm taking things super easy because I have to start training for our half marathon in just a couple weeks.
In other news… My husband's broken thumb is 95% better (I can't believe how fast he has healed after his surgery! If only I had that luck!) So he's been getting on the trainer to ride his bike down in the basement almost every night. I went down to ride with him over the weekend and as soon as I get on my bike, my middle right toes go numb. Ugh I thought I fixed this. I'm sure I've said before but I have a ruptured disc in my low back (L4-L5). It's been that way since 1999. I regularly go to the chiropractor, do yoga, get massages, acupuncture, etc. I've been told in the past that I needed surgery. My chiropractor told me not to do the STP last year because I could give myself permanent nerve damage. I did it anyway. Some days I have no problems at all, and some days I'm numb my whole ride. At the 50 mile mark on the STP, a friend said to try unclipping from my right pedal once in a while and that seemed to help and got me through the next 150 miles that day. But now I'm worried about continuing to ride. I really need to get this problem fixed but after the jaw saga, I can't even imagine how long it would take me to recover from back surgery. I'm too busy for that, and I can't afford the time off work. It's been really on my mind lately though.
And just so I can end on a good note… I won the weight loss competition with my dad and sister! I lost 20 lbs on my smoothie diet. This means I'm 5 lbs less than I was when I rode the STP this summer. I hope to get down another 10 lbs for running season. The less weight I have to carry with me, the better! OH! And you know what I realized the other day? I am 100 lbs less than I was when I was 9 months pregnant with my son. I was 268 back then. I know that's cheating a little but come on… how much of that weight was baby? He was only 7 lbs 15 oz when he was born. I was HUGE! :)
