Todd’s dad and niece supporting Tebow and the Broncos. Hoping for a little more Mile High magic today!

Who’s idea was it to schedule a product release on Friday the 13th? Well, wish us luck…

The craziest thing happened yesterday. I received a message from a couple asking for pointers on how to be successful in the Body For Life challenge. Here is the kicker: They found me on the Body For Life website! Uh… what? I’m on their website? Sheesh! A year later and nobody ever told me!

Well, back when I finished the challenge I promised that if I was a finalist that I would post my official before and after photo. But they didn’t announce finalists last year for some reason. Only the grand prize winners. So I never knew! I tried to get up the courage to post them anyway but I never did. The most I could handle was posting a photo from the waist up in a sports bra.

Well, now that I know the photos have been publicly available over a year now I guess it wouldn’t hurt any worse to share them here. Hopefully I can use it as motivation to stick to my diet while I can’t work out!

So… here they are: http://bodyforlife.com/success-stories/karen-ramirez

The doctor I saw Monday seems good but red flags keep going up.

First of all, they had me arrive early to fill out paperwork but the doctor was running an hour late. Crammed into that tiny waiting room with a dozen other people for nearly an hour and a half, I eventually realized this was not out of the ordinary for this office. The look of exasperation on everyone’s faces spoke volumes. The receptionist on the phone saying ‘he’s just a tad bit behind’ said the rest.

That was the only moment I saw the receptionist sitting at her desk helping someone. The rest of the time she paced around holding files and folders like she was trying to figure out what to do with them. People standing at the desk in front of her were totally ignored until they demanded her attention. For the first 5 minutes I thought the real receptionist was in the bathroom or something.

In reality, a long wait time and a bad receptionist is a dream come true compared to what most people in the world have access to. So, I decided, no big deal. On the way out the doctor’s assistant gave me the phone number to make an MRI appointment and said if I called by 6:00pm I could make it right away.

That set off the 3rd of my three pet peeves about a doctor’s office: having to become the liaison between the doctors office and other offices. I called the imaging place. They told me to call the doctor and have them request the appointment. I asked if that girl would just take care of it but in her response I knew I wouldn’t hear from her again so I called myself.

To make a boring story shorter, I have made 6 phone calls trying to coordinate between those two offices. Both have different versions of the process and apparently believe I am the person responsible for sorting out their differences. Two days later I have neither an appointment nor has anyone returned any of my calls.

I realize calling once more to curse them both is impractical and probably immoral so although I am tempted, I’ll refrain. But speaking practically, if there happens to be an office nearby that has time to take care of me I would rather go there. So I have an appointment elsewhere on Monday at 10:00am.

I finally saw and orthopedic doctor. Let’s start with the knee.

Apparently, I was born with “femoral anteversion”. The thigh bone sits crooked in the hip joint. I was pretty badly pigeon toed as a baby and had to wear shoes that pointed my feet outward while I slept. This straightened the legs but not the twisted hip.

My body compensated by developing a strong gluteus maximus and exterior leg muscles. But the flip side is a relatively underdeveloped gluteus medius, minimus and interior leg muscles plus a tight and nearly inflexible IT band. The end result is unnatural torque on my knee. The knee cap is pulled to the right.

The strength difference between the gluteus maximus versus the medius and minimus is pretty funny. If I lay on my side with my leg in the air (like the photo) and the doctor pushes down on the leg while I resist he can’t get it to budge. He could practically sit on it. The therapist thought I was holding on to the table for leverage – hehe.

But when I twist the top hip slightly towards the floor and do the same test a toddler could push my leg down with one hand. My ‘big’ butt is overpowering my ‘little’ butts. Ha ha ha.

Anyway, the pain is caused by the knee cap moving back and forth outside of its track. The fixes are:

1. to loosen up the IT Band by stretching and rolling it out
2. to strengthen my ‘little’ butts and interior leg muscles
3. to massage and ice the outside of the knee

With a lot of boring tedious therapy (and some patience) I could be running, jumping, and mountain biking pain-free in 2-4 months. Sigh. But that’s just the knee. There is also my shoulder to contend with. I have to schedule an MRI to determine whether I have a labral tear.

Since the layout is a little strange we are going to design the bedroom the same way you would design a kitchen. Todd drew the layout. We’ll add measurements, take it to Lowe’s, and order what we need that will fit.

The goal is to have the bedroom looking like a bedroom again by February 28th. That’s Todd’s birthday.

Updates in local news:
1. Very exciting Bronco game yesterday! Can’t believe Tebow pulled it off at the last minute AGAIN and in the very first play of overtime! Woo hoo!

2. Just found out a couple was attacked with a bomb right by our neighborhood this weekend. Best wishes to both of them and their families. The poor woman had just recovered from having her lips bitten off by a dog at an animal hospital. We hope they recover quickly and wish her and her husband and their families the best. http://www.9news.com/dontmiss/240721/630/-2-injured-in-Lafayette-package-bomb-explosion-

Wow. I had no idea our bedroom furniture would sell so fast. It looks like we got robbed.

After physical therapy yesterday, my knee started to hurt worse than it ever has. I could barely stand up while trying to make dinner last night. Sigh. This sucks. I wanted to go to spin class to finally get some cardio today.

The other day I came across this old workout calendar I had on the wall in 2010. (Funny. I still use stickers. Hahaha. But, hey, it helped me lose 20 pounds that year). Each volleyball is at least 2 hours (up to 16 hours a week). The dark squares were at least an hour of CrossFit. The runners were 5ks. In February I added hiking before work.

On one hand I loved that. Playing ball with my buddies. Getting outside and being active every chance I could. Having physical goals and chasing after them. If I could do that and more without consequences I still would. But this is also a reminder of how I got myself into this situation in the first place and how long I have been ignoring it. The red Xs are the days I couldn’t do anything because my shoulder and knee were hurting.

Two years ago when I started this blog I weighed 157 and went on a mission to hit 130 by the end of March. After reaching that goal I stabilized at 135 for most of 2010. Towards the end of the year I crept back up to 143 and stayed at that weight for most of 2011. After two months of inactivity and poor eating habits I am now 146.

Strangely, I don’t have the same level of emotional turmoil I usually do about weight. This morning I went to Bikram Yoga, my first workout of any kind in 7 weeks. I found out that staring at yourself in a mirror with few clothes on for 90 minutes is the perfect motivation for a better diet. But at the same time I feel at peace about where I am now – more so than in years (even though it isn’t ideal that most of my pants are too tight – heh heh).

My thoughts this morning were more practical. I was looking at my body the same way I look at my hair when it needs a haircut. I don’t stress out. I just get it cut. My body is looking just a little rough around the edges and it is time for a trim. No need to go militant. Just need to clean it up, be consistent, and I should have no trouble reaching my weight goal of 137. Just 8 pounds.

Piece of cake – so to speak.

Notice there has been no mention of fitness. By this time I usually have plans to compete in one ridiculous event or another and have already been active 6-8 hours. But I have not done anything since November 18th – almost 7 weeks.

That was the day I decided I was done pushing through the pain in my shoulder and knee. Training on these injuries this past year has done no earthly good. It has caused me to stop playing volleyball, stop running, stop mountain biking, and give up on the idea of doing a triathlon. The ability to do CrossFit workouts started slipping away as well. So I called it.

Timing could not be worse. The CrossFit Open starts in less than two months. In the fall, I was completely charged up for it. Team MBS is on track to get to the Games in California this year and I would love to have trained my butt off to try to gain a spot on it again. But it is not meant to be for me this year. [Sad face].

So the theme, for this month at least, is to do whatever it takes to heal. I have an appointment at Boulder Orthopedics on Monday. So we’ll see what they say.